I loveAstro Bot. He’s been around for going on 12 years now and has more recently become PlayStation’s new official mascot while winning Game of the Year in 2024.
Back in 2020, however, thePS5launched withAstro’s Playroom- a pack-in, pre-installed game that let you play an intuitive platformer while learning about the internals of the PlayStation 5 system, showing off everything the console and its fancy new DualSense controller could do. It was fantastic. It was impressive. It was a glorified tech demo.
I Think I Might Skip The Tour For The Main Attraction
At theNintendo Switch 2 Direct, we got a look into what we can expect from the new console’s launch this June, from 4K 120fps capabilities toa brand new Mario Kart title, as well as plenty (and I mean plenty) of ports of games you probably already own.
Included in the launch lineup, however, is theNintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour- an isometric game where you’re able to run around as a tiny person on an enlarged Switch 2 console, learning about the console’s form, functions, and maybe some special secrets. There’s even a little quiz desk where, presumably, you can test your knowledge of Nintendo Switch 2 trivia.
The catch? Well, this isn’t pre-installed. It doesn’t even come with the console at all. This ‘Welcome Tour’ is only welcoming you if you pay extra.
At the time of writing, there’s no word on how much this will cost. But to be honest, it could be $1, and I’d still feel weird about it.
Please Show Off The Console, But I’ll Have Already Bought It
I’m all for consoles coming with little, creative tech demos. It’s a fun way to keep up the novelty of a new toy, to bring wonder to the excitement of getting something new that you know you’ll be using a lot over the next several years. But that’s just it: if you’re going to make a cute little thing to celebrate a console’s launch, it should be included with the console’s launch. Remember those little cardboard-sleeved Wii Sports discs that came with your Nintendo Wii in 2006? Yeah, that’s almost a unanimous core memory at this point, and one that we received in celebration, no strings attached.
I don’t think this is an entitled thing to say - the developers will have already been paid, and it’s not like Nintendo is going to be short of cash once this machine finally drops, so I’m not worried about that. And let’s be completely honest: it’s easy to tell that Astro’s Playroom is on a whole other level compared to the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, so there’s not even a justifiable concern about the levels of quality of technical advancement.
Seriously, like… is this actually just a pamphlet-led tour of the hardware they just explained to us all in the Direct?
I’m not a developer, I’m not a publisher, and I’m not someone in charge of the marketing and finances of this console and its launch. I’m a consumer that gets to voice my words out here on the internet, so I’ll never pretend I know better than that. I really love these sorts of console launch celebrations,especially when it feels harder and harder to justify new hardware without the means to support it, but when we’re greeted with open arms and a small-print badge that says X amount of dollars for this hug, then the joy feels shallow.
