I'm ready for the Nintendo Switch to join my DS Lite and PS2 in retro retirement

July 8, 2026 - 04:36

I am ready to retire my Nintendo Switch. Not because it is a bad console, but because it is a good one that has outlived its purpose. I want to put it on a shelf next to my DS Lite and my PS2, where it can rest as a relic of a time when buying a game meant owning it forever.

The Switch has been a fantastic machine. It gave me "Breath of the Wild" and "Hades" on a bus. But the current landscape of gaming has soured the experience. Every new release feels like a subscription pitch. You buy the cartridge, and then you are asked to pay for online play, for cloud saves, for a battle pass. The storefront is full of games that will vanish when the servers go down. I look at my dusty DS Lite, and I remember slotting in a "Pokemon" cart and just playing it. No updates. No account required. No fear of losing my library.

That is the new meaning of retro for me. It is not about pixel art or nostalgia for the 90s. It is about ownership. The PS2 and the DS represent a time when a physical copy was a fortress. You could trade it, sell it, or lend it to a friend. The Switch, despite its cartridges, is tethered to an online ecosystem that feels increasingly hostile to that idea.

So I am ready to let the Switch go. I will keep it for the few games I truly love, but I will not buy new ones for it. I am moving backward, into a past where my games are mine. That feels like progress.