Taking the step from Minecraft to Switch

[cornbreadfed614]

I've got two, 9 (B) & 7 (G).

They currently only play Minecraft, for about the last two years.

It's worked out great because they can be in each other's spaces in a mostly non-competive environment. We get very few fights and a lot of cooperation.

But their friends have Switches or Xboxes. They play them on playdates, sometimes their friends will bring it over.

I'm going to get the Switch but it will bring a lot of change and I'm not sure for the better.

Currently, they each play Minecraft on separate laptops. There's no fighting over turns. They can play in the same Minecraft world but not have to interact too closely.

I think it will make them happy to have it but I see it driving discord.

Any advice? I've heard Switch has some cooperative games, any recommendations? Should I hold off on the Switch, why mess up a good thing? Am I being overly concerned? Should we be "those parents" and buy them each their own?

Help me Obi Wan, you're my only hope!

 

[peaceplease]

@cornbreadfed614 Two players can play Minecraft on the Switch if you have two controllers. It goes into split screen mode with one player on each side. But you need a decent size TV to be able to see things. So the Switch Lite would be out for that.

 

[internetimm547]

@cornbreadfed614 You said their friends bring them over on play dates; how do they share then? There are decent amount of co-op games on switch including Minecraft.

Parents with actual experience in this age group will give actual advice but at that age I had to share with my sister when playing single player games and in the long run was probably good to develop that.

 

[cornbreadfed614]

@internetimm547 You make a good point about sharing.

 

[texasdriller]

@cornbreadfed614 Untitled Goose Game is a lot of fun, my 5 year old and myself beat it a few months back. Cat Quest 2 is another fun one. There's also all the classic Nintendo/Sega games via Nintendo Online.

If you have anything like Alexa, Google, etc, I've found using that to set timers to be pretty fair when people are playing solo.

In the other side of it, I grew up in a family of 7 kids and we had 1 console for the family and it worked out alright, we all got better at negotiating play time.