Just be very careful in the third party realm of the store. There have been a lot more "free to play" games released recently on Switch.

Nintendo also went full cassino with their mobile games. Pokémon Go, Mario Kart Tour... Huge cash grabs.

Nintendo’s mobile games aren’t developed in-house[1]. Not that it excuses it[2], but it does create a clear line for your parent commenter: as long as the focus is on playing Nintendo games on Nintendo platforms, the plan makes sense[3].

[1]: Niantic for Pokémon Go, DeNA for Mario Kart Tour.

[2]: Nintendo is bound to have the final say.

[3]: For now?

They tried a more traditional payment model with Super Mario Run and it didn't do well. Sadly I doubt they'll try again soon.

Considering they began as a playing card company perhaps it's not so surprising.

Not just any playing cards, but hanafuda cards, which fascinatingly evolved alongside government gambling crackdowns specifically to be resistant to gambling: "Though they can still be used for gambling, its structure and design is less convenient than other decks such as Kabufuda." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanafuda#History

Yes, its unfortunate. But at least its just constrained to their mobile phone games for now.

I have a Switch (got it when I had a surgery to ease the long recovery). The Nintendo IP is almost completely bullshit free. The success of Switch is nice too.

FromSoftware is another bastion of hope. The popularity of Elden Ring is no coincidence.

Honestly, I shamelessly took a switch into hospital and it was an absolute god-send. I couldn't manage it while on a fentanyl infusion, but combined with the drugs it was perfect – episodic gameplay, pick up and put down, and a wonderful form of escapism. The Witcher and Skyrim come highly recommended, after BOTW.

Why did you feel the need to justify your Switch purchase? Do people judge others over that sort of thing?

this is gaming we’re talking about: yes, of course.

Haha no, I wanted to emphasize how they are even doing the hardware different. The mobile form factor did fit my needs. Just fell short on the explanation.

BTW gamer community is fucked up and people will judge each other on every single detail so you are not far off.

100%, I’d do the same if I had children and honestly try to do the same for myself. It’s the only console that keeps gaming simple and fun - no achievements, less cosmetic driven games, etc…

Amazon Kids+ is also a really good option for younger kids. Got a large number of games for a few pounds a month.

All the games are ad free and IAP free.

Yeah, we tried going to iPad for our kids but it’s so full of free to play junk.

Even with Amazon Kids, though, the games are still their free to play selves without purchases, so I still see these games where dopamine hits (get coins!) are a main mechanic :(

Apple Arcade has a bunch of good games without any of this junk (there are some “+” versions of some of the f2p games like Jetpack Joyride but lots of other good stuff).

Another really great service is XBox Gamepass - you pay a monthly fee and just get the games. There's occasionally DLC for something but not the voracious grubbiness of the free to play and mobile space.

All you said is true, but they have gotten lazy and complacent these days. Not sure I would support them. They have become the Disney of video games. Family friendly, but at what cost?