Handheld Gaming Consoles Said to Be Required to Have Replaceable Batteries by 2027 Under New EU Regulation

Handheld gaming consoles may very well be required to have replaceable batteries by 2027, underneath a brand new European Union regulation. At present accessible units just like the Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, and Asus Rog Ally will not be affected, however any upcoming iterations of the identical can be pressured to be redesigned in a means that may enable customers to take away and exchange transportable batteries utilizing commercially accessible instruments. First reported by Eurogamer, the Council of the European Union adopted a brand new regulation that goals to control all the life cycle of batteries, going from manufacturing to reuse to recycling, so it stays ‘protected, sustainable, and aggressive.’

The regulation ties again to the right-to-repair energy for end-users, the place as a substitute of getting to take a faulty battery to a service centre, one might simply exchange it at house with out having to depend on specialised instruments — except they’re included with the product, freed from cost. Whereas it is true that firms might push again towards the regulation, the four-year-long interval provides them ample time to adapt and redesign their merchandise’ internals to allow them to home a detachable battery. Producers would even be required to incorporate an in depth handbook and security directions to assist customers with simple elimination. Keep in mind, this solely applies to units offered throughout the EU and paves the best way for zero-emission modes of transportation since ‘batteries are key to the decarbonisation course of.’

Whereas the doc by no means explicitly talked about handheld gaming units, in a press release to Overkill, an EU supply revealed that will probably be lined underneath the identical regulation. The proposal may nonetheless face heavy opposition from firms who would favor gatekeeping their providers to allow them to earn more money.

For now, it is unclear when Nintendo shall be releasing a successor to the Swap, and in that case, whether or not these proposed guidelines would have an effect on them. A report in Might recommended that the Japanese gaming large will not be releasing a brand new console not less than till April 2024. Rumours of a Swap Professional have been floating round for some time, although that appears to have died down. Regardless, the necessity for a brand new Nintendo gaming system hasn’t been extra obvious since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s launch, the place the Swap has been struggling to supply clean framerates.

In the meantime, the Steam Deck and the Rog Ally are pretty new, with Valve nowhere near contemplating a brand new iteration for the previous. Different firms getting into the hand-held market embrace Sony PlayStation, which revealed Project Q, a tool that lets your stream games from the PS5 console through Distant Play or Wi-Fi. It comes with an 8-inch 1080p LCD display screen within the centre, supported on both aspect by buttons and analogue sticks harking back to a DualSense controller.