For as long as I can remember, I have always had a Playstation console. Even as a child, we had a Playstation 1 console, then a Playstation 2, Playstation 3 and more recently a Playstation 4.
When you are young, you have all the time in the world to game. You have very little responsibility, no wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend or social commitments that you really needed to honour.
So, about 3 months ago, I did something I never expected I would do: I sold my Playstation 4 and bought a Nintendo Switch.
This isn't my first foray into Nintendo consoles, growing up we had a SNES and I have fond memories of flattening numerous packets of batteries playing Kirby on my Gameboy and catching Pokemon.
I think almost every gamer has a soft spot for Nintendo inside of them, especially if you grew up in the nineties when they dominated gaming.
Why did I switch?
As a married man, with a mortgage, full-time job and a son - my time is incredibly limited these days.
That's not even the sole reason. My PS4 had been collecting dust for a few months because every time I had a spare 30 minutes and wanted to steal some cars in GTA V online, there was always a damn update.
I would spend sometimes the entirety of that 30 minutes waiting for large game patches to download, even for games like Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty, those patches if you don't update often can be upwards of 15gb (sometimes in the twenties if there was DLC).
The Playstation 4 and Xbox One are not consoles that allow you to turn them on and game. Even without the patches, the games can take forever to load (especially GTA V).
The appealing aspect of the Nintendo Switch is, I can just turn it on (it's almost instant) and I can be into a game of Rocket League in about 1 minute flat.
If the TV isn't free, I can sit down on the couch and play it. If I am feeling restless before bed, I can have a quick play of Zelda BOTW in handheld mode.
The handheld mode on the Switch is a game changer for me. I can even play this thing sitting on the toilet, which is what my phone's sole purpose used to be mostly.
The Nintendo Switch has made me a gamer again.