Nintendo Switch 2 Is Getting a Replaceable Battery in Europe (theverge.com) 23
Nintendo will stop selling the original Switch in Europe in mid-February 2027, nearly 10 years after the console's launch. In its place, the company will release updated versions of the Switch 2 and several controllers with user-replaceable batteries to comply with new EU regulations. The Verge reports: The news comes as Nintendo is making a bunch of changes to the rest of its lineup due to EU regulations requiring user-replaceable batteries. Starting this summer, the company says it will start introducing updated versions of various devices on "a rolling basis," ahead of the regulations coming into effect on February 18th, 2027. "There is no difference in functionality between current products and revised products containing user-replaceable batteries," Nintendo says.
The Switch 2 is the most notable product being updated -- the new version is expected to start rolling out in the fall -- but there will also be versions of the Joy-Con controllers, Joy-Con 2, Switch 2 Pro Controller, and N64 and GameCube Switch controllers with user-replaceable batteries. "Due to a variety of factors, revised products may not become available in all European countries simultaneously," Nintendo notes.
The Switch 2 is the most notable product being updated -- the new version is expected to start rolling out in the fall -- but there will also be versions of the Joy-Con controllers, Joy-Con 2, Switch 2 Pro Controller, and N64 and GameCube Switch controllers with user-replaceable batteries. "Due to a variety of factors, revised products may not become available in all European countries simultaneously," Nintendo notes.
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Consumer protection laws would upset our corporate masters.
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Let me guess it will not come to America (Score:2)
Let me guess it will not come to America. Region locked and even accessories will be region locked to not work here. Cant have freedom unless you force it.
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Several threads ago people were complaining how the EU is always fining these poor US based mega corps.
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Nintendo is US-based?
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When you have a mindless America-centric view of the world, _everything_ is US based!
Re:Let me guess it will not come to America (Score:4, Insightful)
I would expect it will eventually come to the US as well, because manufacturing two versions is just more expensive. Kind of like RoHS came to the US effectively. But it may take a few years.
Should be worldwide (Score:1)
This should be the case worldwide with anything that has a battery inside it, otherwise the device can become a hazard, and eventually Nintendo will no longer repair it.
One of the advantages of the EU (Score:2)
EU technical regulations are not just there to replace power bricks with confusing and utterly incompatible USB-C variants, they can make sensible decisions, too. The obvious next step would be to promote a fixed number of standard battery sizes.
Re:One of the advantages of the EU (Score:4, Interesting)
EU technical regulations are not just there to replace power bricks with confusing and utterly incompatible USB-C variants, they can make sensible decisions, too.
At no point did the EU technical regulation ever propose anything confusing or incompatible. Quite the opposite, they stipulated that compliant products must all negotiate using the same USB-PD mechanism.
Your actual complaint is shitty products not following the regulations. Just how are regulations supposed to fix that?
The obvious next step would be to promote a fixed number of standard battery sizes.
No that would be truly dumb. Custom battery sizes are credited as a major factor in scale down of electronics. There's a reason even the EU stopped short of requiring *all* batteries to be replaceable and only stipulated the requirement for certain devices with a certain degree of replaceability.
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Your actual complaint is shitty products not following the regulations. Just how are regulations supposed to fix that?
Well, aren't regulations supposed to come with consequences for not following them? Whoever is supposed to be enforcing the regulations needs to hit the companies making these products with fines, or block them from importing the items to the EU.
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And they do. Which is why if you buy a reputable product from a company that operates in the EU you are basically guaranteed to have USB-PD working. Not a single brand name product I have ever seen or heard of has failed to charge from any brand name charger you plug it into. This stuff just works, and the EU does actively fine companies who operate in the EU and produce non-compliant products.
On the flip side, how is a EU regulator supposed to go after Wang Ling Zhang form Chongqing, shipping their dodgy f
We all know what will really happen (Score:2)
I'm not proposing a way around that, just saying that's what's going to happen.
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No, even worse. The data link between the battery pack and the product will be encrypted. No genuine battery, no useful gadget.
"John deerification" is coming for everything with replaceable parts unless suitable legislation is passed to stop this nonsense.
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That will last all of 5 minutes before a workaround is found.
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Ah, yes, the "people installing Chinese counterfeit napalm garbage from Amazon in their switches act"
I'm not proposing a way around that, just saying that's what's going to happen.
The EU is not America. There's a reason we for example have several orders of magnitude more e-bikes while at the same time having significantly lower rates of lithium battery fires. For the most part every idiot doesn't just throw random Chinesium chemistry batteries into their devices. The first party battery market is huge in Europe.
It must be quite a redesign (Score:5, Informative)
Changing this to make for an easy user replacement will be a substantial redesign. And this is all to the good.
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There's a lot of "make work" backed in during product design to discourage repairs by the consumer and to drive up the cost of servicing. This involves the use of special tools, and methods of attachment which easily break unless you are properly trained. Just take a look at doing an oil change in the latest cars for a good example.
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This involves the use of special tools,
A JIS 00 screwdriver (Japanese Industrial Standard) is far more of an open standard than the Phillips screwdriver.
Sure the phillips patents are expired now, but JIS was never patented, it was published for all of the world to reproduce as they wish. You know, like an open standard.
(I don't particularly care how "standard" a flat-head screwdriver is compared to either, flat head is a technology that should be banished to the depths of tool hell.)
Compliance version (Score:2)