From the teardown the only “corporate shenanigans” seem to be the usual soft security measures of hiding screws, having glue in a couple of places and using their security screws in the outer shell. I guess until we start seeing experimentation with swapping parts around we won’t know if any pieces are signed to the board (something both Sony and Microsoft have been doing with optical media readers for ages, for example), but I’d be surprised. I assume iFixit have either tried or will try soon.
I think the difficulty matters, particularly for stick replacements. The Switch sticks weren’t super easy to change but it was doable. I’d say this one is… harder. I’m hoping the sticks are more reliable, but I would seriously consider buying an aftermarket joycon before trying to replace a stick myself on this one. That’s perhaps the one significant escalation I see here, and I will give it at least a bit of a pass in terms of difficulty because man, are the joycon insanely packed with stuff.
From the teardown the only “corporate shenanigans” seem to be the usual soft security measures of hiding screws, having glue in a couple of places and using their security screws in the outer shell. I guess until we start seeing experimentation with swapping parts around we won’t know if any pieces are signed to the board (something both Sony and Microsoft have been doing with optical media readers for ages, for example), but I’d be surprised. I assume iFixit have either tried or will try soon.
I think the difficulty matters, particularly for stick replacements. The Switch sticks weren’t super easy to change but it was doable. I’d say this one is… harder. I’m hoping the sticks are more reliable, but I would seriously consider buying an aftermarket joycon before trying to replace a stick myself on this one. That’s perhaps the one significant escalation I see here, and I will give it at least a bit of a pass in terms of difficulty because man, are the joycon insanely packed with stuff.