Starting summer 2026, in preparation for upcoming changes in European battery regulations coming into effect in mid-February 2027, selected Nintendo products in Europe will begin to be replaced on a rolling basis by revisions that contain a user-r
I design battery-operated things with custom batteries specified and partly-designed by me, and it takes like 10x the design effort, 20% more parts cost, and compromises on capacity, size, weight, and/or watertightness, as you mentioned. The design effort in particular is just killer - so many more interfaces to deal with, when a non-removable pack can just be shrink-wrapped and dropped into a pocket.
It’s worth it, I’m not saying it isn’t. But I do sympathize a bit.
Of course, I’m working at a company with i employees, not tens of thousands. Probably easier for Nintendo to throw manpower at it.
I design battery-operated things with custom batteries specified and partly-designed by me, and it takes like 10x the design effort, 20% more parts cost, and compromises on capacity, size, weight, and/or watertightness, as you mentioned. The design effort in particular is just killer - so many more interfaces to deal with, when a non-removable pack can just be shrink-wrapped and dropped into a pocket.
It’s worth it, I’m not saying it isn’t. But I do sympathize a bit.
Of course, I’m working at a company with i employees, not tens of thousands. Probably easier for Nintendo to throw manpower at it.