Let Me Unplug

Last year, the Nintendo Switch reigned supreme once again in units sold. The runner-up Playstation 5 took top revenue honors, in thanks to its current-gen hardware asking consumers for more cash per unit. Still, it’s rather crazy to think Nintendo still finds themselves anywhere near the top of the sales charts on an annual basis with five-year old hardware.

For all of their faults, Nintendo drew a very correct conclusion on how to capture a consistent market share. They owned the handheld market every generation and wanted to continue doing so. The stroke of genius Nintendo had came in the form of the Switch dock, making their handheld console double as their at-home gaming console.

One of the reasons driving this, in my opinion, is that Nintendo realized the gaming market contains kids, who have grown up on easily portable tablets and phones as calming/distraction devices, and adults who used those same tablets and phones on plane rides, train commutes, breaks at work, or even couch time while watching sports or Netflix. 4K resolution with top-of-the-line hardware doesn’t matter in those situations.

Portability, convenience, and accessibility drive these purchasing decisions. When I finally got a Switch, I wondered why I waited so long. As a big PC gamer, I jumped on the same logic as an early adopter of the Steam Deck, which I love. That system is still niche in comparison (as it will only reach 3 million sold this year), but that has become an incredible device giving me portable access to games that would normally require my butt remain firmly in my office where my gaming PC lives.

Don’t think this is lost on Sony, who is looking to once again try the handheld waters, despite their past failures, with the Playstation Portal. Logitech and ASUS have entered their own portable PC gaming consoles. Microsoft took a different direction and focused on cloud gaming with their Game Pass platform, which is great—if you have an internet connection.

It’s that last part that drives me insane. While I can understand the decision if you want a cloud platform, I simply can’t understand it for software, especially those games that are largely single-player. Unfortunately, AAA studios love tacking on an always-online requirement with their games.

I’m looking right at you, Diablo IV.

But that’s just the most recent example. I was very confused when the newest SimCity required a constant online connection as well. I haven’t been interested in Halo’s multiplayer since college, so seeing that Halo Infinite required a constant connection killed my interest as well. The list goes on.

Some of the games on that link are MMORPGs or a mutliplayer-only game like Fall Guys. Sure, totally get that. But I need to have an internet connection to run a couple dungeons or sidequests in Diablo IV?!

This is usually done in the name of anti-piracy. Let’s pretend for a moment this actually works (it doesn’t). Since the consumer finds themselves forced to an always-online connection, studios spin this decision as a way to share a community or open up multiplayer in games that never had them.

Translation: shoe-horned the hell in.

SimCity might just be a perfect example. Never once have I thought “wow, this game really needs the ability to connect my city with someone else’s” and yet that’s what was shipped. I’m sorry, but I’m here to either try and build a great city or terrorize it like a wrathful god.

I completely ignored the community features…when, you know the game actually worked, which it most certainly did not on release. But the damage was done. Maxis had to constantly scramble to fix their EA overlord’s messes and the game just wasn’t what I hoped it would be.

I had never played a Diablo game until Diablo IV and was rather surprised it was always online (not realizing they already faceplanted like this on Diablo III). Seeing that there was a multiplayer aspect out of the box, including social tools for clans, I naively figured their multiplayer would be a bit robust or, at the very least, have content within the game that would require you to team up.

Maybe that content exists, but I haven’t found it. I completed the main story and the first “capstone” endgame dungeon solo. I see no point in trying to find it either.

It’s a shame because I have this game working on my Steam Deck and would have loved to play a bit on my flight this past weekend. The same goes for Starfield, but that’s gated behind my PC Game Pass which only worked on my Deck through cloud.

Instead, I slept…because my I left my Switch for my youngest to play Pokémon.

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