They are a personal device like a gameboy.
There is a TV version for party games.
The games may or may not be shareable, even with the physical games.
Assume the ideal usage is during screen time on a weekend.

I have been avoiding buying one as I don't understand them. Thinking of getting them soon.

I assume one OLED for the family and then a portable per person, then one copy of each game per device.

How is this affordable?

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[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Back in my day I had to share a single console with my siblings. We had to take turns playing single-player games. This can be fine, and can even be a bonding activity. I'm not sure if it's "ideal", but nothing is. Most likely your kids will outgrow the Switch soon anyway, or they could not even like it to start with, so don't go overboard buying them each a console. You can decide in the future to buy more if you want, but the new Nintendo device is also on the way, so that's something to think about.

[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

That makes sense! I was picturing a scenario where each kid was begging for a Switch.

If there are two kids who each want to play their own games independently (or niche cases like they really want to trade Pokemon together or play games online together that can't be played with couch co-op), then having multiple devices would be important. Of course, it depends on where the budget is, lol

Buying two SNES consoles would be crazy. Buying two Game Boys probably happened in some households.

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 days ago

Yeah, good point. The Switch isn't just a console. I guess that's probably why it's portable; to sell one for each child. We did each have our own Game Boy in my household, mostly I think to make road trips less hell.