Reviewing a new video game console is usually an isolating experience. You get a device in the mail, hook it up to your television, and then play a bunch of games on your own or, occasionally, with the small handful of other people who have one in for review. You have to quickly test everything you can think of, then race to get an article ready to publish ahead of launch to help readers understand what they\u2019re getting into.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how things went when Tom Warren and I covered the PlayStation 5<\/a> and Xbox Series X<\/a> in 2020. But with the Nintendo Switch 2, things aren\u2019t quite so simple \u2014 and it\u2019s going to take a lot more people.<\/p>\n Well, things will be a little bit backward. Normally, we publish one big review and then follow it up with lots of other stories that dig into specific elements of a device \u2014 new controllers, unique software features, specific games. It\u2019s a way to explore every facet of a new console and get a wide variety of perspectives.<\/p>\n This time, we\u2019re going to start with those deeper dives. A whole bunch of The Verge\u2019s staff has put in preorders and is now staring at tracking numbers or getting ready to line up to snag their unit tonight. That crew will then go to work writing up every facet of the hardware and delving into the gritty details we haven\u2019t been able to see in our previous hands-on previews<\/a>, like the interface, menus, various game updates, and how the cartridges taste. They\u2019ll be able to offer all kinds of interesting perspectives and ideas that help round out our coverage of the console<\/p>\n Our full review of the Switch 2 will come next. Right now, I\u2019m sitting at the dining room table in my house, in full view of the front window, waiting for my console to show up. As soon as it arrives, I\u2019m going to ignore all my incoming Slack pings and Zoom meetings, and dive right into testing every aspect of the device for our comprehensive review. I\u2019ll also be reviewing Mario Kart World<\/a>, which is the showcase release for the Switch 2. If I wanna do this right I need some time. This means that my review of both the console and its flagship game will be \u201clate\u201d \u2014 which is to say, they won\u2019t publish right on launch day (and you should be a little suspicious of any that do).<\/p>\n This may sound complicated, and like our reviews and other coverage will be rushed. But it\u2019s actually a good thing in many respects. What I lose in being timely \u2014 though I will be as fast as I can \u2014 I gain in getting more real-world experience. I\u2019ll be able to test the Switch 2 alongside real people in a real-world environment, without the specter of the launch day looming over our heads.<\/p>\n This is especially important for Nintendo\u2019s new console given that the multiplayer-centric GameChat service is one of its defining features. That\u2019s not something I could accurately test in the lonely confines of a prelaunch period. Instead, I\u2019ll be able to get a much more accurate experience of what it\u2019s like to video chat with my friends while absolutely destroying them at Mario Kart.<\/p>\n So that\u2019s it. The Switch 2 is a big deal, the first major console launch in half a decade, and so I\u2019d love to be as timely as possible. But more important is getting an accurate feel for what the device is like in the real world \u2014 and for that, we\u2019ll just have to wait a little bit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reviewing a new video game console is usually an isolating experience. You get a device in the mail,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[77,1583,128,53,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-158033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-gaming","10":"tag-nintendo","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114626243109489200","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}