Update: Nintendo Switch Dock Removed From Online Store

Steven Bogos

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Jan 17, 2013
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Update: Nintendo Switch Dock Removed From Online Store

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Could Nintendo already be preparing a re-design of the Nintendo Switch dock?

Update: Nintendo claims that the dock is simply "out of stock". "As previously announced, the Nintendo Switch dock set (which includes the dock, a HDMI cable, and an AC adapter) will be released Spring 2017," a representative told Gizmodo [http://gizmodo.com/nintendo-denies-pulling-the-switchs-dock-from-its-onlin-1793053187].

Original Story: If you wanted to pick yourself up a second dock for your Nintendo Switch, so you could say, use it with a second TV in your house without having to move the thing around, you're out of luck, as the company has redditor [https://store.nintendo.com/ng3/us/po/browse/productDetailColorSizePicker.jsp?productId=prod840594], who notes that the dock is not listed as "sold out" or "unavalaible" but has been flat-out de-listed from the website.

What does this mean? Well, it could be a lot of things. It could simply be that Nintendo wasn't expecting to sell so many additional docks and has run out of stock. However, a lot of people are noticing issues with the docks, such as screen damage, and teardowns [http://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2825-nintendo-switch-dock-joycon-teardown] of the dock have revealed it is a laughably simple, cheap build. So, some people in the gaming community think that Nintendo may already be prepping a re-design for the dock, which will ship with future Switches.

If you're already bought a Switch, you may still be in luck, however. With the Wii, Nintendo provided free replacements [http://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-intros-free-wii-remote-jackets/1100-6180213/] for the protective jackets and wrist straps to early adopters who missed out on the new, better designed versions.

We've reached out to Nintendo for comment on the story.

Source: reddit [https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/5xz9u0/nintendo_switch_dock_has_been_pulled_from/]

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Lufia Erim

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This is weird. Thats a major flaw. Im pretty sure they would have tested that before anything else.
 

JUMBO PALACE

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Ezekiel posted this link in a thread on the most fragile consoles. Pretty applicable here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb-srOfRqNc

Seem to be a lot of scratched and damaged screens, stuck parts, equipment failures, etc.
 

Saltyk

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Lufia Erim said:
This is weird. Thats a major flaw. Im pretty sure they would have tested that before anything else.
Xbox 360 would like to have a word with you.
And the iPhone 7(?) which could bend.
Even the PS4 controllers have issues with the rubber on the sticks breaking apart fairly quickly.

This isn't too surprising, but that doesn't make it good.
 

TheMysteriousGX

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I feel it's important to remember that the Internet has a tendency to inflate woes of hardware failiures.

I mean, if there's a million of the suckers out there, and a tenth of a percent fail, that's still 1000 devices that fail and are going to be talked about in dozens of articles and angry YouTube videos.

So yeah. Was the console rushed? Sure. Will parts of the console fail? Absolutely. Welcome to the wonderful world of early adoption.
 

hentropy

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altnameJag said:
I feel it's important to remember that the Internet has a tendency to inflate woes of hardware failiures.

I mean, if there's a million of the suckers out there, and a tenth of a percent fail, that's still 1000 devices that fail and are going to be talked about in dozens of articles and angry YouTube videos.

So yeah. Was the console rushed? Sure. Will parts of the console fail? Absolutely. Welcome to the wonderful world of early adoption.
That's a fair point, you can't really be perfect with things like LCD screens or JoyCon assembly. However, there's a difference between defective electronics, which is inevitable, and bad overall hardware design. The dock easily scratches the screen from normal usage of the Switch, you have the treat it like a delicate baby bird's egg. The JoyCon shoulder button thingies are apparently also difficult to take off, sometimes necessitating tools to take them off safely. Keep in mind this is supposed to be good for children to play, Nintendo used to be known for ultra-sturdy hardware that would just work no matter what. My NES, SNES, N64, and Gameboys from childhood still work last I checked. Even one of my old gameboy cartidges (Advance Wars) survived a trip through the washer and dryer, perfectly playable. My Xbox needed a new optical drive just two years after I got it, and was bricked later on.

The Nintendo of 2017, however, apparently doesn't consider dead pixels and pixel splotching as a defect. [https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Support/Nintendo-Switch/Troubleshooting/There-are-black-or-bright-dots-on-the-Nintendo-Switch-screen-that-do-not-go-away-or-there-are-dark-or-light-patches-on-the-screen-/There-are-black-or-bright-dots-on-the-Nintendo-Switch-screen-that-do-not-go-away-or-there-are-dark-or-light-patches-on-the-screen--1201195.html]

If they took the dock off the website because they're going to release a new one soon, then they knew about this problem of scratching the screen before launch and did it anyway. I don't mind the dock being 95% black plastic, but it shouldn't cost $90. If they're going to put it back up they should charge 40 bucks max for it and replace Switches are that scratched from normal use.
 

TheMysteriousGX

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hentropy said:
altnameJag said:
I feel it's important to remember that the Internet has a tendency to inflate woes of hardware failiures.

I mean, if there's a million of the suckers out there, and a tenth of a percent fail, that's still 1000 devices that fail and are going to be talked about in dozens of articles and angry YouTube videos.

So yeah. Was the console rushed? Sure. Will parts of the console fail? Absolutely. Welcome to the wonderful world of early adoption.

The Nintendo of 2017, however, apparently doesn't consider dead pixels and pixel splotching as a defect. [https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Support/Nintendo-Switch/Troubleshooting/There-are-black-or-bright-dots-on-the-Nintendo-Switch-screen-that-do-not-go-away-or-there-are-dark-or-light-patches-on-the-screen-/There-are-black-or-bright-dots-on-the-Nintendo-Switch-screen-that-do-not-go-away-or-there-are-dark-or-light-patches-on-the-screen--1201195.html]
Most places don't consider a dead pixel or three a defect.
If they took the dock off the website because they're going to release a new one soon, then they knew about this problem of scratching the screen before launch and did it anyway. I don't mind the dock being 95% black plastic, but it shouldn't cost $90. If they're going to put it back up they should charge 40 bucks max for it and replace Switches are that scratched from normal use.
I agree it shouldn't cost $90, but the rest is speculation.
 

Casual Shinji

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hentropy said:
The JoyCon shoulder button thingies are apparently also difficult to take off, sometimes necessitating tools to take them off safely.
With that it appears to happen when you slide them on upside down. Which begs the question why they allowed the design to do that. From videos I've seen if you make the mistake of sliding the straps on the wrong way they might as well be cemented on.
 

hentropy

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altnameJag said:
Most places don't consider a dead pixel or three a defect.
That might be true of various cheap Chinese TV companies, but at least at one time Nintendo considered itself above that pack. It's not like they're brand new at making handheld LCD screens.

Casual Shinji said:
With that it appears to happen when you slide them on upside down. Which begs the question why they allowed the design to do that. From videos I've seen if you make the mistake of sliding the straps on the wrong way they might as well be cemented on.
Yeah in many ways it just screams that it was rushed out, proper product testing is one of the first things to get cut out in rushed scenarios like this.
 

fix-the-spade

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Lufia Erim said:
This is weird. Thats a major flaw. Im pretty sure they would have tested that before anything else.
Samsung Galaxy Grenade says testing is North Korean Propaganda.
Xbox says high quality power bricks are overrated.
Xbox 360 says thermal certification is for noobs.

Big companies love to do things on the cheap, why sell a reliable product when you can save five cents per unit?
 

Chewster

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fix-the-spade said:
Samsung Galaxy Grenade says testing is North Korean Propaganda.
Xbox says high quality power bricks are overrated.
Xbox 360 says thermal certification is for noobs.

Big companies love to do things on the cheap, why sell a reliable product when you can save five cents per unit?
Yeah but Nintendo has always been an exception to this, no? I mean, sure it happens but it seems like they had their shit together with their hardware until now.

Anyway, just another reason why you wait a couple months for the bugs to be ironed out IMHO. Especially with a system like this, that seems rather complicated.
 
Oct 15, 2015
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Thread is inaccurate. Nintendo didn't remove their (crappy) dock from the store. It's out of stock and changed the URL. https://store.nintendo.com/ng3/us/po/browse/productDetailColorSizePicker.jsp?categoryNav=true&navAction=jump&navCount=0&atg.multisite.remap=false&productId=prod880075&categoryId=cat831382
 

Saltyk

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Well, with the update, I guess it's just Nintendo being Nintendo. They obviously only had three docks to sell in the first place.
 

loa

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fix-the-spade said:
Lufia Erim said:
This is weird. Thats a major flaw. Im pretty sure they would have tested that before anything else.
Samsung Galaxy Grenade says testing is North Korean Propaganda.
Xbox says high quality power bricks are overrated.
Xbox 360 says thermal certification is for noobs.

Big companies love to do things on the cheap, why sell a reliable product when you can save five cents per unit?
This is nintendo we are talking about here and they are usually super neurotic about making their stuff not only durable but kid-proof.
 

Guffe

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hentropy said:
That might be true of various cheap Chinese TV companies, but at least at one time Nintendo considered itself above that pack. It's not like they're brand new at making handheld LCD screens.
Dell, Sony and LG are also all in the list of companies who consider average 1-5 dead pixels not being a flaw but a normality in screens these days.
The difference being, that on 42" and above sized screens 1-5 dead pixels are not necessarily visible unless in a really bad spot, while on the Switch small 6" screen, it might be seen.

On Topic:
I have yet to scratc mine "knocks wood" and it ha been going in and out from the dock quite a lot. I just handle it carefully like all my previous consoles and that should be enough.
 

KaraFang

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Don't worry, Nintendo fans!

Screen scratching in our cheap Mrk1 dock can be removed by simply.... Spending MORE MONEY!! (yay....??)

Buy the Mark2 dock, once we've worked out how to do the bare minimum to prevent scratches, for 150 quid!

Or!!! If you want to keep the Mk1 dock.

Buy the Nintendo Mario themed screen protector. A snip at 60 quid. (warning, may spontaneously combust, but what do you care... we're Nintendo!)

Honestly, I haven't seen such price gouging and nickel and dimeing of customers for AGES! Why the hell are people buying this thing? I barely game outside my home (unless I use my nexus 7 V2 I suppose which I bought for 70 quid in a sale. :D )... I suppose I'm not one of the people this is aimed at. But god, the COST of this thing... vs what it CAN do. Ouch.
 

gsilver

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Don't use the word "scratched". Use "battle hardened" to properly describe the distinctive cosmetic visual features.
 

Gatlank

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You would think someone during the design of the dock would take precautions against scratches.
I'm surprised if the issue didn't come up during testing (if there was any test at all).
 

Czann

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They are either lying because the dock sucks or they are really incompetent at stock management.

Whatever the truth is it paints them in a bad light.
 

ToastyMozart

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Lufia Erim said:
This is weird. Thats a major flaw. Im pretty sure they would have tested that before anything else.
That seems to be a recurring theme with the Switch launch.

Docks scratching screens, connectivity problems due to poor antenna placement in the left controller, heating issues, it makes you wonder what issues they did find during QA testing.