Fun Club Remember when the default color for joycons was gray?

[Branduil]

Blue and red has been the set used in advertisements for so many years, it's easy to forget that the Switch was introduced like this:

And in the reveal trailer, not a single colored joycon to be seen, all of them are gray:


The blue-and-red combo wasn't revealed until the full presentation in 2017. I can only assume Nintendo went with gray as the original ad color because they wanted the Switch to be viewed as a "mature" console and were afraid the blue-and-red would be viewed as childish. But they obviously took note of the massive popularity of the now-ubiquitous colors given how quickly they shifted to almost exclusively using those colors in ads ever since.

I personally thought the gray looked pretty boring at the time, and now even moreso. The Switch is pretty minimalistic already, dual-colored joycons give a much-needed punch to its design.

I'm curious how they will design the Switch 2 aesthetically, because I doubt it will be as simple as the OG, they're well aware of the dangers of the systems looking too similar.

 

[MissingNo.]

The funny thing is that in spite of that, the red-blue must have been immediately the more popular choice among consumers, because I was only able to get in a preorder for a gray one, while red-blue was just... gone.

 

[xtoc]

I prefer the grey one back then and i'm still happy with it.
But i do understand why most prefer the redblue one.

 

[meatbag]

I personally thought the gray looked pretty boring at the time, and now even moreso. The Switch is pretty minimalistic already, dual-colored joycons give a much-needed punch to its design.

Have to agree, the bright red and blue were immediately eye-catching, and elegant embellishments to the Switch's otherwise minimalistic design.

I also wonder why they went with gray Joycons first. My initial idea was that they were going to try and sell the "prettier" Joycons as separate peripherals to try and earn more bucks. I was pleasantly surprised when you could buy the unit with the R+B joycons packed in.

 

[Branduil]

The funny thing is that in spite of that, the red-blue must have been immediately the more popular choice among consumers, because I was only able to get in a preorder for a gray one, while red-blue was just... gone.

I'm pretty sure that was widely reported, the gray SKU was more available because everyone wanted blue-red. Hence the quick shift in how they advertised the Switch.

 

[Me]

If the Switch was originally grey then it complements the color schemes of the Wii (white) and Wii U (black) and also its Xbox and Playstation competition. Aside from probably being cheaper to produce, greyscale colors tend to simulate having a "mini TV" feeling and also blend well with the giant TVs they connect to.

They're definitely not going to try greyscale colors again for marketing but I wonder if they'd be bold enough to do a tricolor console.

 

[Aether]

Don't know, both where the default colour, I have seen just as many blue/red ones in advertisement and presentations back then

Then again, default Wii U was white, I mostly have seen black ones.

 

[Razgriz]

I miss the grey joycons tbh. The colour ones are way too tacky for my liking. For some reason the colour schemes are just an eyesore for me and it's basically impossible to just get the same colour twice, which doesn't feel right to use when in handheld mode.

Right now I'm using the skyward sword limited/special joycons, which were the closest I could find to non-tacky joycons with matching colours.

 

[JorgenRaft]

I've stuck with grey all 7+ years and never looked back.

 

[Fuffelpups]

NoA is boring. They hate beautiful colors.

Nintendo's American Branch Didn't Like The Idea Of GameCube Being Purple

"we pushed for black and silver"

www.nintendolife.com

 

[toutoune134]

I still have my day-one Switch with gray joycons. To me it has always been the default color.

 

[juuso]

I had a preorder since the initial reveal, at which point they only had the gray one listed. Switched to the red/blue immediately when it was added. On the release day there was someone in the line behind me who didn't even have a preorder and was still able to get a gray one, but not the red/blue one they first asked for.

 

[Reinhard Schneider]

I have the habit of always getting the reveal color. I hated that there wasn't a silver with blue/orange buttons GBA (recently we've known that they hastily threw these colors together because they had no idea about what colors they'd use yet lol) or a black Wii at launch. For me, being able to pick the boring grey joycons was a joy lol.

Now, white joycons were too much, i hate while electronics, they get dirty easily and will yellow with time.

 

[Jahranimo]

Grey was cool back then, I didn't get any different colors until the Super Mario Party bundle with the green and yellow pair.

So I guess my grey ones were my default for less than two years? Huh go figure.

 

[BlackthornOrion]

In my head, the neon red/blue have always been the "canonical" colors

I always saw gray as the compromise option for folks in that "too old for 'kiddie' colors, but too young to just embrace color and whimsy" zone

 

[BlackthornOrion]

e: Website acted up, accidental double-post

 

[Suswave]

i'm pretty sure at some point I literally got grey Joy-Con and returned them for more interesting colors, which like... I NEVER do...

I really deeply wonder what the color scenario will be for the upcoming successor

 

[fguzramm]

Yeah I got the grey model because to me it looked like the standard one. Like the other one seemed just a color variation. Ended up hating those grey joycons....so when my OG model was stolen it was my chance to get the colored joycons (and red box model)

 

[Jahranimo]

ignore

 

[Suswave]

I was so obsessed with colors that way back in the day I made a chart of like every possible color combo if they released in both sides

or maybe i made colors up idk

 

[Mekanos]

I got gray JoyCons because it was pretty much all they had; a few months after Switch launched I got a notification that GameStop restocked their Switch units and it was first come first serve. Then after like a year and a half they started drifting and I did replace them with colored ones.

Since I got my Lite though I've basically never touched my original Switch/JoyCons.

 

[Síriocaz]

I do and I am mad that they don't sell them anymore, let alone sell more matching dark colors.

 

[Suswave]

ope, no, it was real. doesn't include limited edition shit but...

if there's a combo you want to see up close, let me know — I have full-res for each

here are some favorites:

 

[Serif]

Still wish they sold devkit black at some point.