I don’t think I’ve ever felt as truly ambivalent about something as I do about the Switch 2. These days, the word gets used to mean “no strong feelings one way or another” or something similar that implies a certain amount of neutrality. The definition of the world does involve a degree of neutrality, which is where the confluence of meanings began, but it’s pretty specifically about a net neutrality as your mix of feelings about something essetially cancel each other out. All of which is a bit of a hair to split even for me, but I have never felt quite so strongly and truly ambivalent about something before in my life so it felt like the specificity was worth the pedantry. I mean, better that than to continue endlessly spinning my wheels about the unanswerable question of whether or not I want to get a Switch 2 any time soon. It’s a bit of a moot point as of writing this (not quite) a week ahead of time, given that all of the preorders have been consumed and, even faster than the original switch, everywhere has sold out, so it’s not like I need an answer right now. My current policy of “get one if it’s easy to acquire without going out of my way” will work just fine for this situation, so there’s really no need to religitate it all over again. But then again, I wouldn’t be me if I wasn’t always relitigating things in my head and then writing about them on my blog, would I?

It ultimately comes down to the fact that most of the drive to get a Switch 2 derives mostly from the “ooh, new tech!” side of me, which I’ve been working to suppress for the better part of a decade since that’s not a useful or productive personality trait for anyone but tech writers (and even then it often leads to danger for them, like how all the absolutely untrue stuff about LLMs and “AI” gets endlessly parroted by tech writers uncritically regurgitating LLM company press releases) rather than out of a genuine sense of excitement for the console or any of its games. I mean, I’m definitely interested in the new 3D Donkey Kong game since playing the original Donkey Kong 64 is a treasured memory from my childhood (apparently the game wasn’t much liked by people, leading to a derth of Donkey Kong Video games in the years after it’s release??? A sentiment that has grown in the years since???), but not so much that I want to dive into it. Between 2023’s lackluster Legend of Zelda game and a bit of console game burnout (mostly due to isolation and the “joy” of singleplayer games not really hiting as much as it used to when I had a larger social circle), I just can’t really see myself getting excited about a console-only release, even if the console has a certain amount of social contact built into it. I mean, a chat application built into my consoles wasn’t exactly something I’d have thought I’d need, even if it doesn’t require a bunch of peripherals that the other consoles need, but it looks neat I guess. It’s fine.

All of which adds up to a few positive and interesting draws, but the negatives perfectly balance them out. Sure, I can afford to buy myself one and whatever peripherals I want, but I also don’t really want to spend some six hundred or so dollars (Switch 2 plus Pro Controller plus at least one game and/or a few existing game upgrades) given that I bought both a brand new gaming computer AND a new mattress last year. I could go without any major expenses for a while yet and be perfectly satisfied, even if I could still afford them. Plus, the economy is headed into the dirt given all the teriff bullshit, so having a little extra money laying around (or a little less debt as it usually goes in my case) would be very reassuring. Throw in how much of a pain it will be to get one by waiting “in line” sporadically whenever digital storefronts get a new drop of consoles, by selling my soul and personal data to Nintendo in exchange for a chance to buy one directly from their website, or by waiting in line for a dozen or so hours outside a big box retailer like I did for the first Switch console and it really doesn’t make sense to get one. Which is why my qualifier to get one is if it would be easy to do. At that point, the draw of the console would probably be enough to get me to spend the money.

It feels strange to write all this. I’ve been a Nintendo consoler buyer my entire life and have owned (or “faimly owned” for most of my childhood) every single Nintendo console and handheld since the Super Nintendo (save for the Virtual Boy, but that wasn’t for a lack of trying) including aditional limited and special editions of some consoles (I’ve technically owned three Nintendo Switch consoles, for example: the original, the OLED upgrade, and then a Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom OLED edition). Ever since I’ve had the ability to do so, I’ve gotten every console upon its release. Or within a week of its release, in the case of the Wii U. And now I just don’t think it’s worth the bother to get this one. Sure, some amount of that is that none of the new game releases are specifically targetted to me or my interests (I’d be singing a different tune entirely if there was another main-line Kirby game coming out for the console as it released), but I don’t know. I just don’t feel like there’s a gap in my life that needs to be filled by this game.

I’ve got plenty of console games to play whenever I want, I’ve got plenty of handheld games that I’ve barely touched, and I’ve got a long line of computer games to play as soon as I burn out on Final Fantasy 14 (which hasn’t happened in four full months now, so it might never happen given that I’ve never once in my life played anything the way I’ve played this game). I have no need for something new, much less for subjecting myself to extra stress for something new that has no strong appeal to me beyond being new. Sure, a bigger screen would be nice, as would be better specs and playing a higher framerate version of Breath of the Wild sounds like a genuine treat. I just… I don’t need it and nothing Nintendo has released about the console due to drop in just over a month has even suggested they want to try to convince me otherwise. I don’t know how long it’ll be before I eventually get one, but it might be a different calendar year entirely before I do. I dunno. It’s not something that I feel the need to figure out now that I’ve figured out that I don’t really want one that badly.