This is bad. Because,
a. Switch 2 can get bricked when Nintendo wants you to upgrade to the “Switch Tree.”
b. If you discover a purely unused switch 2 decades later it will be useless. It’s bricked unless you get that Switch 2 update.
c. It all ties to that Nintendo bricking terms of service terms.
All consoles have similar clauses for years, Nintendo has come to the party much later. Not that this makes any of it right.
As for the requiring the day-1 update, I can understand them not wanting anyone playing it before actual release date, but I am not sure that is worth the annoyance everyone will feel who doesn’t have proper internet access. The number of people with the issue is probably not that high, specially in US and most parts of Europe, but still could be an issue for some.
As for bricking the system to upgrade to next console, I don’t think that makes much sense. They will just stop supporting the previous console and it will eventually phase out. At most, they will kill the access to eshop and online servers (from their side, without requiring any bricking on consoles), but I doubt even that will happen until before Switch 4 or 5.
Idk which “all consoles” you’re talking about, but fwiw I worked as a dev at Sony during the PS5 launch, and for the disk version, it was a heavy priority that the barebones “put in a disk and play a game” use-case should work from day 1 offline forever.
I should’ve been clear, that was about point c, the clause to brick the console. It has been present since PS3 / PS4 era and is still present for PS5, same with Xbox.
As for the ability to use console without connecting to internet, I don’t support that move by Nintendo, so didn’t give any examples for that, but Xbox One had that, so at least half of other consoles have this precedence, but it was a stupid move by Xbox then, and it’s a stupid move by Nintendo now.
I wonder if the Switch 2 actually work with Hotel or similar networks that require sign-in. I’ve always had trouble getting the Switch online while travelling abroad because of this.
I’ve bought games and consoles during work trips and it would suck hard not being able to play them until I got home.