Remember when you had to have a drawer filled to the brim with AA batteries because you were changing them out of your gaming gear quicker than a cowboy and his sawn-off shottie?
Well, the European Council has just adopted a new battery law, in the hopes of keeping battery waste down, which requires anything that uses a battery to make sure that battery is replaceable at any time by the end-user.
While the law more than likely focuses on the influx of Electric Vehicles and the shift towards solar energies and battery-powered buildings, the law does cover handheld devices, such as the Nintendo Switch and the Steam Deck.
By 2027 devices that are released in the EU market will be required to have replaceable batteries, and while it is only the EU market that currently has this law in place, it doesn’t seem likely that companies will create two separate devices for the two different markets, but, none of the handheld manufacturers have yet to comment on the new law.
I’m pretty sure that we won’t be going back to AA batteries, or I at least hope so, but the idea of being able to replace my battery at any point does give me confidence knowing that if I take good care of my devices, I can keep them going for years longer now.