3 ms·

Amazes me they don't just sell it like that everywhere because it sounds a lot like a product improvement... > The revised products will be available on a roll

by benoau 3mo ago

Amazes me they don't just sell it like that everywhere because it sounds a lot like a product improvement... > The revised products will be available on a rolling basis in territories where Nintendo of Europe conducts business, either directly or through a distributor, namely: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

thih9 3mo ago
Quite a few of these aren't EU members, some aren't even in Europe; do we know why they were added? e.g.: Switzerland or United Kingdom; but also Oman or United Arab Emirates.
- suddenlybananas 3mo ago
  It's everywhere Nintendo of Europe (the subsidiary in the EU) operates.
  - thih9 3mo ago
    This makes sense - thanks!
- yokoprime 3mo ago
  Norway is in the ECC together with Iceland, but for some reason Iceland is not on the list where these SKUs will be available.
  - rickdeckard 3mo ago
    That's probably because Iceland is not an official Sales-territory of Nintendo, it's handled by Bergsala AB, a swedish distributor which serves the market there.
- Ylpertnodi 3mo ago
  Storage, and distribution costs.
- rtkwe 3mo ago
  It's easier for Nintendo of Europe to switch over everyone than to stock and supply 2 versions of every product. Also I'd bet most of their sales come from the EU countries where the replaceable battery requirement is forcing this new SKU deployment anyways.
- weberer 3mo ago
  For logistics reasons, a lot of companies operate a EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) division. That probably applies to one of their suppliers.
Grombobulous 3mo ago
It’s infuriating that it’s not just the default, especially for a game console where the majority of profit is coming from software sales. Every Switch that becomes unplayable where fixing it costs more than a $20 battery replacement is a console that is not buying games from the Nintendo eShop.
- khurs 3mo ago
  Or a new switch being bought by the parent for the distressed child
- brookst 3mo ago
  Shorter battery life is just fine
  - Grombobulous 3mo ago
    For sure, and I don’t find carting a spare external battery around horrendous…it just seems like a non-water resistant device like the switch should have an easy battery replacement. For one thing, Nintendo loves selling overpriced accessories.
mcphage 3mo ago
> Amazes me they don't just sell it like that everywhere because it sounds a lot like a product improvement... I'm not so sure. The first laptop I bought, a Titanium Powerbook, had replaceable batteries. And even better than that: you could hot-swap them while the laptop was running on battery power, and the laptop wouldn't even shut off. It felt leagues ahead of even modern replaceable battery functionality, and honestly? After owning that laptop for years, I felt like I just wasted my money with that additional battery. Part of it, I'm sure, was that I didn't have an external charger to charge the battery not currently in the laptop. But on the whole, it just didn't feel like it was actually worthwhile, and when Apple stopped shipping replaceable batteries, I've never missed it. (Hot swapping the batteries really was awesome, though)
- toyg 3mo ago
  Compulsory Apple-defending post is compulsory. Non-replaceable batteries are worse for consumers and worse for the environment. The fact that you "do not miss" a better world, does not mean it is not better.
  - mcphage 3mo ago
    > The fact that you "do not miss" a better world, does not mean it is not better. In the abstract, yeah, it's better. But the extra battery cost me a lot of money, and I did not feel it was money well spent.
  - endemic 3mo ago
    > Non-replaceable batteries Most batteries are replaceable. The difference is the level of effort involved.
    - bluescrn 3mo ago
      Replacing a Switch 1 battery really annoyed me. No problem with tiny screws and fiddly disassembly. Big problem with the truly excessive amount and strength of adhesive holding the old one in place, and having a real struggle to remove it (even after trying with IPA and dental floss)
rickdeckard 3mo ago
According to their latest fiscal report [0], Europe sales-volume of Switch2 is ~24% of the total global sales volume. The change surely eats into their margin per device, so they prefer to keep the higher margin for the rest of the world and recalculate their margin for europe. However interesting: "The Americas" sells 34% of all Switch2 in the world [0]. I wouldn't expect the US to mandate the same changes, but if e.g. Canada or Brazil also demand replaceable batteries, it could push the needle to making it a default HW-feature of Switch2... [0] https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2026/260203_2e.pdf https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2026/260203_2e.pdf
- square_usual 3mo ago
  The higher margin is mostly coming from assembly costs, right? I can't imagine it comes from the actual cost of the battery being so much higher. I hope that once they start pushing these out and retool factories for them they can sell them more broadly.
  - rickdeckard 3mo ago
    The lower margin for the new variant you mean? From my experience, it comes from costs generated by: 1. Additional R&D-work and QA for the modification 2. New supply-chain deals for lower-volume components Current sales-volume of Europe is only a quarter of the global volume, so price-negotiation is based on a much lower total volume-forecast. Even if not, Battery prices today are ~15% higher than in 2024 (I expect Nintendo signed the supply-deal in late 2024), it'll be hard for Nintendo to cancel their existing supply-contract before fulfilling it (!), move to a different component AND get the same/lower price. --> Better to sell other regions as-is, fulfill the contract and hope for a better climate in a year. 3. Tooling/Assembly (Ramp-Up costs, different processes, QA,...) 4. Re-certification of HW for relevant bodies in that region (Europe is quite lean on this, CE-certification is simple compared to US FTC/FCC) I can almost hear the conversation with Nintendo of America CEO about covering 1/3 of the cost to get the same SKU and him simply responding "No, we just raised the prices because of component-cost increase, we wait for the HW-refresh in 2H/2027" I wouldn't be surprised if they plan to unify the SKU again with a premium "Switch 2 OLED", offsetting the additional costs, preserving the margin and having an additional selling-point...
orloffm 3mo ago
I would prefer the current versions without anything replaceable. I have the Switch bought on day 1 and a Pro Controller which is 9 years old. Yes, the Switch was mostly used docked, but the battery is last thing failing there, it rather has issues with the fan, the screen scratches etc. The controller works perfectly and I charge it once a month. The replaceable battery would only make it less solid. The biggest Switch issue by far is joystick drift on joycons. I've replaced 3 on my Switch 2 already and we have the same issue on the new Switch 2 in the office.
- benoau 3mo ago
  EU also forced Nintendo to provide lifetime free repairs on drifty joycons since Nintendo chooses not to address the issue. https://www.euroconsumers.org/game-over-for-faulty-nintendo-controllers-as-joy-con-owners-get-lifetime-warranty-and-free-repair/ https://www.euroconsumers.org/game-over-for-faulty-nintendo-...
- bluescrn 3mo ago
  My day 1 Switch battery was definitely significantly degraded when I did a DIY battery swap a couple of years back. Battery longevity varies based on usage patterns and likely other factors (temperature?), but it's normal to notice a significant reduction in capacity within 4-5 years. And the amount of adhesive holding the old battery in made replacing it an unnecessarily hard and actually dangerous (risk of battery fire due to physical damage) process.

by benoau 3mo ago

thih9 3mo ago

Quite a few of these aren't EU members, some aren't even in Europe; do we know why they were added? e.g.: Switzerland or United Kingdom; but also Oman or United Arab Emirates.

suddenlybananas 3mo ago
It's everywhere Nintendo of Europe (the subsidiary in the EU) operates.
- thih9 3mo ago
  This makes sense - thanks!
yokoprime 3mo ago
Norway is in the ECC together with Iceland, but for some reason Iceland is not on the list where these SKUs will be available.
- rickdeckard 3mo ago
  That's probably because Iceland is not an official Sales-territory of Nintendo, it's handled by Bergsala AB, a swedish distributor which serves the market there.
Ylpertnodi 3mo ago
Storage, and distribution costs.
rtkwe 3mo ago
It's easier for Nintendo of Europe to switch over everyone than to stock and supply 2 versions of every product. Also I'd bet most of their sales come from the EU countries where the replaceable battery requirement is forcing this new SKU deployment anyways.
weberer 3mo ago
For logistics reasons, a lot of companies operate a EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) division. That probably applies to one of their suppliers.

Grombobulous 3mo ago

It’s infuriating that it’s not just the default, especially for a game console where the majority of profit is coming from software sales. Every Switch that becomes unplayable where fixing it costs more than a $20 battery replacement is a console that is not buying games from the Nintendo eShop.

khurs 3mo ago
Or a new switch being bought by the parent for the distressed child
brookst 3mo ago
Shorter battery life is just fine
- Grombobulous 3mo ago
  For sure, and I don’t find carting a spare external battery around horrendous…it just seems like a non-water resistant device like the switch should have an easy battery replacement. For one thing, Nintendo loves selling overpriced accessories.

mcphage 3mo ago

> Amazes me they don't just sell it like that everywhere because it sounds a lot like a product improvement... I'm not so sure. The first laptop I bought, a Titanium Powerbook, had replaceable batteries. And even better than that: you could hot-swap them while the laptop was running on battery power, and the laptop wouldn't even shut off. It felt leagues ahead of even modern replaceable battery functionality, and honestly? After owning that laptop for years, I felt like I just wasted my money with that additional battery. Part of it, I'm sure, was that I didn't have an external charger to charge the battery not currently in the laptop. But on the whole, it just didn't feel like it was actually worthwhile, and when Apple stopped shipping replaceable batteries, I've never missed it. (Hot swapping the batteries really was awesome, though)

toyg 3mo ago
Compulsory Apple-defending post is compulsory. Non-replaceable batteries are worse for consumers and worse for the environment. The fact that you "do not miss" a better world, does not mean it is not better.
- mcphage 3mo ago
  > The fact that you "do not miss" a better world, does not mean it is not better. In the abstract, yeah, it's better. But the extra battery cost me a lot of money, and I did not feel it was money well spent.
- endemic 3mo ago
  > Non-replaceable batteries Most batteries are replaceable. The difference is the level of effort involved.
  - bluescrn 3mo ago
    Replacing a Switch 1 battery really annoyed me. No problem with tiny screws and fiddly disassembly. Big problem with the truly excessive amount and strength of adhesive holding the old one in place, and having a real struggle to remove it (even after trying with IPA and dental floss)

rickdeckard 3mo ago

According to their latest fiscal report [0], Europe sales-volume of Switch2 is ~24% of the total global sales volume. The change surely eats into their margin per device, so they prefer to keep the higher margin for the rest of the world and recalculate their margin for europe. However interesting: "The Americas" sells 34% of all Switch2 in the world [0]. I wouldn't expect the US to mandate the same changes, but if e.g. Canada or Brazil also demand replaceable batteries, it could push the needle to making it a default HW-feature of Switch2... [0] https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2026/260203_2e.pdf https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2026/260203_2e.pdf

square_usual 3mo ago
The higher margin is mostly coming from assembly costs, right? I can't imagine it comes from the actual cost of the battery being so much higher. I hope that once they start pushing these out and retool factories for them they can sell them more broadly.
- rickdeckard 3mo ago
  The lower margin for the new variant you mean? From my experience, it comes from costs generated by: 1. Additional R&D-work and QA for the modification 2. New supply-chain deals for lower-volume components Current sales-volume of Europe is only a quarter of the global volume, so price-negotiation is based on a much lower total volume-forecast. Even if not, Battery prices today are ~15% higher than in 2024 (I expect Nintendo signed the supply-deal in late 2024), it'll be hard for Nintendo to cancel their existing supply-contract before fulfilling it (!), move to a different component AND get the same/lower price. --> Better to sell other regions as-is, fulfill the contract and hope for a better climate in a year. 3. Tooling/Assembly (Ramp-Up costs, different processes, QA,...) 4. Re-certification of HW for relevant bodies in that region (Europe is quite lean on this, CE-certification is simple compared to US FTC/FCC) I can almost hear the conversation with Nintendo of America CEO about covering 1/3 of the cost to get the same SKU and him simply responding "No, we just raised the prices because of component-cost increase, we wait for the HW-refresh in 2H/2027" I wouldn't be surprised if they plan to unify the SKU again with a premium "Switch 2 OLED", offsetting the additional costs, preserving the margin and having an additional selling-point...

orloffm 3mo ago

I would prefer the current versions without anything replaceable. I have the Switch bought on day 1 and a Pro Controller which is 9 years old. Yes, the Switch was mostly used docked, but the battery is last thing failing there, it rather has issues with the fan, the screen scratches etc. The controller works perfectly and I charge it once a month. The replaceable battery would only make it less solid. The biggest Switch issue by far is joystick drift on joycons. I've replaced 3 on my Switch 2 already and we have the same issue on the new Switch 2 in the office.

benoau 3mo ago
EU also forced Nintendo to provide lifetime free repairs on drifty joycons since Nintendo chooses not to address the issue. https://www.euroconsumers.org/game-over-for-faulty-nintendo-controllers-as-joy-con-owners-get-lifetime-warranty-and-free-repair/ https://www.euroconsumers.org/game-over-for-faulty-nintendo-...
bluescrn 3mo ago
My day 1 Switch battery was definitely significantly degraded when I did a DIY battery swap a couple of years back. Battery longevity varies based on usage patterns and likely other factors (temperature?), but it's normal to notice a significant reduction in capacity within 4-5 years. And the amount of adhesive holding the old battery in made replacing it an unnecessarily hard and actually dangerous (risk of battery fire due to physical damage) process.