> But when Gamers in ESA surveys report that the quality of the graphics being the #2 factor in deciding when to purchase a game

Somehow I doubt this survey is representative of the typical Mario Kart player. And to those for whom it is a concern, I don't think SDR is high on the list relative to framerate, pop-in, and general "see where I'm going and need to go next" usability.

Nintendo has never competed on graphics. They compete on having the most fun, accessible, entertaining games as possible. And say what you will about their business practices, they’ve probably done a better job of that than any other gaming company in history. As more devs bundle ever higher quality graphics with ever higher in-app purchases and pay to win schemes, Mario remains…Mario.

I seriously doubt many Switch users would bail on the system because of “fake” HDR. They probably don’t care about HDR at all. As long as Mario remains Mario, they’re happy.

I’m glad to see this getting attention in the last day or two. HDRVTest did a video too.

I’m having a blast with MarioKart but the track usually looks washed out. Some of the UI and other things have great color on them but most of the picture just looks like the saturation was turned down a bit.

Very disappointing as a Mario game and its colorful aesthetic is the kind of thing that should be able to look great in HDR.

Interesting how the images pop on that site, everything else has like lower opacity/faded, worked great, maybe more noticable on retina monitors

Literally only makes a difference to the clouds. Nintendo know what they're doing and made the right call

There's someone that did the job to actually figuring out how to make the HDR of the switch work, but it needs your display to support certain features to be correct https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X84e14oe6gs

The most unpleasant effect from cut-rate HDR is when graphics with bright backgrounds get lazy-mapped to HDR.

Perhaps the worst offender I've ever seen was the Mafia remake by Hangar 17, which loads every time with a sequence of studio logos with white backgrounds that cut from black. The RGB(255,255,255) backgrounds get stretched to maximum HDR nits, and the jump from RGB(0,0,0) (especially on an OLED) is absolutely eye-searing.

I literally had to close my eyes whenever I'd load the game.

I believe the article is based on a wrong assumption. The author argues that everything could look more realistic and that VFX could pop more with stronger HDR, but in my opinion it makes a lot of sense to keep a stylized cartoon game also stylized in its brightness choices.

When you drive towards the sun, what is more fun? A realistic HDR brightness that blinds you, or a „wrong“ brightness level that helps the background stay in the background without interrupting your flow? Similarly, should eye candy like little sparks grab your attention by being the brightest object on screen? I’d say no.

The hardware can handle full HDR and more brightness, but one could argue that the game is more fun with incorrect brightness scaling…