Nintendo announces new product revisions in Europe with replaceable batteries

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aakyuu about 2 hours ago 64 commentsRead Article on nintendo.com

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Discussion (64 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

mdrzn•about 1 hour ago

"There is no difference in functionality between current products and revised products containing user-replaceable batteries."

So there was nothing "limiting" them from making it already with user-replaceable batteries, they just didn't care enough until EU forced them (like all the smartphone brands). Love EU.

Zambyte•33 minutes ago

It's not that they didn't care, it's that they did care in the wrong way. A non-replacable battery means people will be more likely to buy a whole new device if (when) the battery fails.

Waterluvian•4 minutes ago

I think the more likely explanation is that there was not sufficient market motiviation to include the additional requirement of a user-swappable battery. ie. people care, but they don't care enough or in enough volume for Nintendo to add another design requirement.

I celebrate user-swappable batteries and I think I like the battery regulations. I just don't think the Ghost of Iwata is under your bed twirling a Wario moustache while thinking about how to screw you over. The current Switch battery situation is simply a result of user-swappable not being a requirement, among countless other requirements.

SpicyLemonZest•18 minutes ago

I don't understand why battery failure is a "when". The only batteries I've ever had fail in rechargeable electronic devices were replaceable packs where water got into the compartment. Perhaps I've just gotten lucky?

jamesnorden•11 minutes ago

All li-ion batteries degrade over time, they may not fail completely, but the capacity will be diminished for sure.

sigmar•12 minutes ago

How many years do you use them?

zootboy•11 minutes ago

Battery failure is a "when" because batteries have a limited number of charge-discharge cycles. Modern lithium-ion batteries have a life expectancy in the range of 300-600 cycles. So if you've never had such a failure, it probably just means you're not a heavy user of your devices.

I try to keep my cell phones as long as I feasibly can. Every single one I've used for more than 3 years has had its battery fail (as expected for a device that sees such heavy cycling). My current phone is on its 3rd replacement battery.

endemic•26 minutes ago

My take is they didn't optimize for something that a small percentage of users would have problems with.

square_usual•17 minutes ago

It's not really a small percentage of users. All users will have trouble with the battery - eventually. My DS4s ran out of battery life in about three years of usage; I still have one of them that I use wired with my PC, but I absolutely cannot use it wireless. Likewise with my DS5s - one of them barely held a charge 2-3 years in. I'm sure with good battery management you can extend the lifespan to be closer to 5-6 years, like my M1 MBP from 2021 that still has a 9+h battery life (though down from 12 as I remember), but that only keeps them going for a little longer. It's just a fact of how Li-ion batteries work that they will lose their capacity eventually.

E: DS4 = DualShock 4, DS5 = DualSense; these are the standard PlayStation controllers for the PS4 and the PS5 respectively.

jamesnorden•12 minutes ago

Props for using the Apple wording, I guess.

juancn•26 minutes ago

Battery life is shorter, and some are a tad heavier.

parineum•17 minutes ago

> So there was nothing "limiting" them from making it already with user-replaceable batteries, they just didn't care enough until EU forced them (like all the smartphone brands). Love EU.

At the very least, the design will be more complicated to accommodate replaceable batteries. That costs money. There's a lot more to "limiting" than functionality.

vrganj•13 minutes ago

They could've just designed it that way to begin with.

Thanks to this regulation, they will the next time around.

xd1936•42 minutes ago

Except for an up-to-16% reduction in capacity, and slightly increased weight, depending on the product.

GuB-42•17 minutes ago

You mean an up-to-5% increase in capacity, and slightly decreased weight, depending on the product?

The truth is that the product with the 16% reduced capacity (Switch 2 Pro controller) is 7g lighter and the one with the 5% increased capacity (Gamecube controller) is 5g heavier.

Besides those two, the general idea is that the capacity is the same with 2-3% extra weight.

vrganj•36 minutes ago

The 16% is for the Pro Controller though, to be fair.

The Switch 2 itself loses 1% of battery capacity, most other products none at all.

Your framing seems a bit selective to the point of being misleading.

dcrazy•27 minutes ago

16% less battery life in a controller is pretty significant!

mmunj•34 minutes ago

seeing as the product itself already advertises that it's best to not charge it to 100% feel like nothing's being lost here no matter how one tries to spin it

xnx•23 minutes ago

You still lose capacity with a smaller battery, even if you don't charge it to 100%.

brookst•37 minutes ago

Important to understand non-functional requirements (NFR). They’re saying the core features are the same. They are not saying they’re identical in weight, repair cost, water/dust resistance, battery lifetime, or cost.

benoau•about 2 hours ago

Amazes me they don't just sell it like that everywhere because it sounds a lot like a product improvement...

> The revised products will be available on a rolling basis in territories where Nintendo of Europe conducts business, either directly or through a distributor, namely: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

rickdeckard•about 1 hour ago

According to their latest fiscal report [0], Europe sales-volume of Switch2 is ~24% of the total global sales volume.

The change surely eats into their margin per device, so they prefer to keep the higher margin for the rest of the world and recalculate their margin for europe.

However interesting: "The Americas" sells 34% of all Switch2 in the world [0]. I wouldn't expect the US to mandate the same changes, but if e.g. Canada or Brazil also demand replaceable batteries, it could push the needle to making it a default HW-feature of Switch2...

[0] https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2026/260203_2e.pdf

square_usual•14 minutes ago

The higher margin is mostly coming from assembly costs, right? I can't imagine it comes from the actual cost of the battery being so much higher. I hope that once they start pushing these out and retool factories for them they can sell them more broadly.

thih9•about 2 hours ago

Quite a few of these aren't EU members, some aren't even in Europe; do we know why they were added? e.g.: Switzerland or United Kingdom; but also Oman or United Arab Emirates.

rtkwe•13 minutes ago

It's easier for Nintendo of Europe to switch over everyone than to stock and supply 2 versions of every product. Also I'd bet most of their sales come from the EU countries where the replaceable battery requirement is forcing this new SKU deployment anyways.

yokoprime•about 1 hour ago

Norway is in the ECC together with Iceland, but for some reason Iceland is not on the list where these SKUs will be available.

rickdeckard•about 1 hour ago

That's probably because Iceland is not an official Sales-territory of Nintendo, it's handled by Bergsala AB, a swedish distributor which serves the market there.

Ylpertnodi•about 1 hour ago

Storage, and distribution costs.

suddenlybananas•about 2 hours ago

It's everywhere Nintendo of Europe (the subsidiary in the EU) operates.

thih9•about 2 hours ago

This makes sense - thanks!

Grombobulous•about 1 hour ago

It’s infuriating that it’s not just the default, especially for a game console where the majority of profit is coming from software sales.

Every Switch that becomes unplayable where fixing it costs more than a $20 battery replacement is a console that is not buying games from the Nintendo eShop.

khurs•about 1 hour ago

Or a new switch being bought by the parent for the distressed child

brookst•36 minutes ago

Shorter battery life is just fine

mcphage•about 1 hour ago

> Amazes me they don't just sell it like that everywhere because it sounds a lot like a product improvement...

I'm not so sure. The first laptop I bought, a Titanium Powerbook, had replaceable batteries. And even better than that: you could hot-swap them while the laptop was running on battery power, and the laptop wouldn't even shut off. It felt leagues ahead of even modern replaceable battery functionality, and honestly? After owning that laptop for years, I felt like I just wasted my money with that additional battery.

Part of it, I'm sure, was that I didn't have an external charger to charge the battery not currently in the laptop. But on the whole, it just didn't feel like it was actually worthwhile, and when Apple stopped shipping replaceable batteries, I've never missed it.

(Hot swapping the batteries really was awesome, though)

InsideOutSanta•12 minutes ago

I had an Apple laptop that had two bays, one on the left and one on the right. Usually, you'd have the battery on the left and the CD drive on the right. But for lots of people, battery life was more important than a CD drive on a laptop, so you could double your battery life by putting in a battery on both sides.

Tech used to be fricken cool :-)

NDlurker•32 minutes ago

Phones used to work like that too. I think all my feature phones and first Android phone worked if it was plugged in with the battery removed.

toyg•34 minutes ago

Compulsory Apple-defending post is compulsory.

Non-replaceable batteries are worse for consumers and worse for the environment. The fact that you "do not miss" a better world, does not mean it is not better.

endemic•21 minutes ago

> Non-replaceable batteries

Most batteries are replaceable. The difference is the level of effort involved.

mcphage•28 minutes ago

> The fact that you "do not miss" a better world, does not mean it is not better.

In the abstract, yeah, it's better. But the extra battery cost me a lot of money, and I did not feel it was money well spent.

delta_p_delta_x•39 minutes ago

Brussels effect, please do your magic; thanks.

kuerbel•about 1 hour ago

>Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Lite, and Nintendo Switch – OLED Model will all continue to be manufactured in 2026, and should be widely available in Europe all year.

>From mid-February 2027, almost ten years after Nintendo Switch launched in March 2017, Nintendo will no longer sell to retailers hardware in the Nintendo Switch family of systems – specifically Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Lite and Nintendo Switch – OLED Model. Sales of Nintendo Switch hardware on Nintendo Store will also end in mid-February 2027.

Understandable, but maybe that shouldn't be buried in the FAQ...

rickdeckard•about 1 hour ago

More complete:

The below products will not be replaced by versions that contain user-replaceable batteries in Europe:

- Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) Controller for Nintendo Switch

- Pokémon™ GO Plus +

- Nintendo Switch

- Nintendo Switch Lite

- Nintendo Switch – OLED Model

- Nintendo Switch Pro Controller

- SEGA Mega Drive Control Pad for Nintendo Switch

- Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) Controller for Nintendo Switch

Nintendo will no longer offer the above-named products on Nintendo Store after mid-February 2027.

HelloUsername•about 1 hour ago

Related page posted on 04-jun-2026: "Compliance with EU Directives and Regulations" https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Corporate/Consumer-Informatio... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48402926)

rickdeckard•about 1 hour ago

Interesting, in the fineprint they actually confirm that they set the "Switch 1" End-Of-Life by Feb.2027 and stop selling it.

This means they will lose the revenue of that product-line (currently ~15% of their total hardware unit sales according to their fiscal report [0]), which may help accelerate the need for a "lite" version of the Switch2 to recover this market-segment...

...or not, because console sales is generally dropping and there's actually no competition to Nintendo in the handheld console segment...

Bleak times ahead for the gaming industry, and for the gamers...

[0] https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2026/260203_2e.pdf

rock_artist•31 minutes ago

Not sure what they'll do (Maybe they'll release Switch2 Lite or Switch 2 OLED in Q2/Q3 2027). but I guess like Apple stopped with Lightning until they finished their transition to USB-C they'll just let the transition work.

ChocolateGod•about 2 hours ago

Are the batteries in the Nintendo switch locked in anyway? Wonder if its viable that third party batteries could have an increased capacity.

Grombobulous•about 1 hour ago

There are definitely third party batteries, but the replacement process is not trivial for a typical person. Lots of adhesives are involved.

bigfishrunning•35 minutes ago

Also, third party batteries vary wildly in quality -- I've replaced the battery in my Nintendo switch twice, both times using brands I've heard of, and neither battery is as good as the original OEM battery was when i first got it.

annagio_•about 2 hours ago

So now the rest of the world will try to put a hand on these models. Lets see how this goes.

WhyNotHugo•about 1 hour ago

It's kinda crazy that they're releasing an improved version only in places where it's mandatory by law. You'd think it's cheaper (and definitely better PR) to just release the new version everywhere.

annagio_•37 minutes ago

I will agree with you! Just release it for all. Also now they have to make 2 devices, which it should probably be more hassle.

smashini•about 2 hours ago

Honestly, amazing stuff. For all the flak that the EU gets this is absolutely an essential regulation

patall•about 1 hour ago

One might argue that this is one of the reason why the EU is getting flak: because it sets up regulations that lower some companies profit.

drstewart•16 minutes ago

This. The top problems facing the world are gaming consoles' charging sources. Everything else is thankfully solved.

xandrius•about 1 hour ago

They will still get all the flak, facts never mattered.

bryanlarsen•about 1 hour ago

And just like everything moving to USB-C, they won't get credit for the Switch 3 et al having replaceable batteries world-wide.

bigfishrunning•34 minutes ago

I don't know about that, i think it's pretty common knowledge that the EU caused the iPhone port change, and it's generally regarded as a good thing

hbn•24 minutes ago

I'm preparing to release my first app to the App Store and they're currently requiring me to dox myself if I want to sell in the EU. Which facts am I missing that makes this not very inconvenient for me?

oulipo2•about 1 hour ago

Shameless plug: we're building an e-bike battery (compatible with Bosch controllers) that's also repairable, if some people like that idea!

https://infinite-battery.com :)