Unlock the Thrill of Severance with Nintendo Switch 2’s Return

The Verge No. 67: Your Guide to the Best and Weirdest Stuff in the World

Hey, friends! Welcome to The Verge No. 67, your guide to the best and weirdest stuff in the world. If you’re new here, welcome! You can read all the old editions at the The Verge homepage.

This week, I’ve been watching Black Doves and The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, reading about Lorne Michaels and rodeos, restarting Twin Peaks in honor of David Lynch, wading nervously into Lemon8 and RedNote, catching up on old episodes of Working It Out, and watching way too many Balatro strategy videos.

I also have my most anticipated gadget of the year, the new season of Severance, an incredibly cool tech design exhibit to explore, a nifty new AI productivity tool, and much more. This week has been wild, with the potential TikTok ban and the upcoming US inauguration, and it seems like there are 40,000 other things happening – but we’ve got some great ways to decompress. Let’s dive in.

The Drop

  • Nintendo Switch 2: Nintendo is launching this thing in a typically odd, typically Nintendo-y way – so all we’ve really seen is a two-minute video with some details and vibes. But I’ve seen enough. This is the Switch successor I was hoping for.
  • Severance season 2: I just rewatched the first season and loved it even more the second time around. One of my favorite shows in years, and by all accounts, the second season is worth the wait. I’d put the first season up against any season of anything, so that’s high praise.
  • The Nokia Design Archive: A bunch of researchers spent several years putting together a massive, interconnected history of Nokia’s design work – from its wacky phone concepts to its biggest ideas about the future.

Your Turn

  • "I just discovered Mochi and I have a profound feeling it will change my life forever. Okay, at least the way I consume media. With all the price hikes and many services not available in the Netherlands, this seems like a great alternative." – Hannes
  • "I started reading One Piece from the beginning last year after watching the Netflix show – it’s very fun, it’s lighthearted, the art’s great, and the characters are all lovable and easy to latch on to." – Luis
  • "Got back into Apple Arcade just to play Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!. A solitaire horse racing game developed by Game Freak (the Pokémon people), originally for 3DS, even though it looks SO mobile. It is amazingly fun and I cannot stop playing." – Uli

Signing Off

The Australian Open is happening right now, which means it’s the part of the tennis calendar where I wake up in the morning and it’s 6AM and somehow half the matches are already over and something really exciting is inevitably happening. It’s delightful. The tennis has been great, but the real story of this year’s tournament is the YouTube channel. For complicated rights reasons, the organization behind the Open is streaming the matches on YouTube, but not like you’d think: everything is live-animated and everyone looks like Wii Sports characters. It’s deeply bizarre and extremely hokey, but against all odds, it totally works? The Guardian has a good story on how it works and why it’s necessary. I always thought these "alternative broadcasts" were just silliness, but I think there might be something here. Next year: real tennis, but make it Mario Tennis. I’ll be there.

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