Nintendo Switch Main Thread

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by jimidini

Donkey Kong Country has mass appeal. That's the thing.
It's not an obscure series, like Metroid or F-Zero.

Define "mass appeal." DK Tropical Freeze sold 2 million on the Wii U, around 4 million on the Switch. Metroid Dread sold around 3 million copies, Metroid Prime Remastered a little over 1 million - decent, but hardly jaw-dropping. Funny thing is people seem to think Metroid Prime is a FAR more successful series than it actually is. No game from that series has cracked 3 million sold. Metroid Prime 3 was on one of Nintendo's best selling consoles, yet sold <1.5 million. MP4 is probably a $200+ million cost (maybe far more, given how long it's taken) to develop game, so it probably has to sell like 5 million copies minimum just to break even, which seems highly unlikely.

F-Zero sold 3 million, F-Zero X and GX sold around 1-1.5 million each, but were on two of Nintendo's worst selling consoles. I suspect an F-Zero game on the Switch would have sold in the neighborhood of ~3-4 million units, if I had to guess.

Which is kinda the thing with Nintendo. There's a massive gap between the top-tier of their franchises (Super Mario, Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Zelda, Mario Party, Pokemon) and everything else. Those franchises can move 15+ million copies easily on a highly successful console like the Switch, but everything else (Metroid, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Mario Sports games, Pikmin, F-Zero, Paper Mario, Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, Toad, etc.) are stuck in that class of good, but not amazing ~2-7 million range. And I suspect this is why we're lucky to get a new, big budget Donkey Kong or Metroid Prime game more than once per decade or so. Nintendo knows they can pump out a Mario Party game costing far less in time and money to develop, which will sell 5-10x what a new Donkey Kong, Metroid Prime, or F-Zero type game does.

[logboy]

this would be assuming their intentions are to do nothing but (or primarily) shift huge numbers. i think they want everything to tick over, and the major sellers are those franchises that had one game in their history change what they then went onto frequently sell. doesn't mean they always sold well, does it? the IPs that have sold low aren't always abandoned, but might go dormant, and they're amongst their options when creating the mix on the latest or next machine. i would expect that switch 2 will be a iteration, and chances are franchises without a new showing on the first will reappear. at least, that feels more likely. the remastering of under-sold wii u games for switch gave chance for wider variety and working ahead on other franchises for future years. also expecting much is put by despite ready, or worked in an abandoned if not proving good enough, too.

[dyne]

They just released a joycon charger in Japan. Pretty late in the lifecycle for new hardware even if it's just a charger. I don't see them spinning up R&D and tooling for something that won't work on the new system so hopefully this is more for the fully back compat with hardware and software proof pile.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by dyne

They just released a joycon charger in Japan. Pretty late in the lifecycle for new hardware even if it's just a charger. I don't see them spinning up R&D and tooling for something that won't work on the new system so hopefully this is more for the fully back compat with hardware and software proof pile.

It would be nice if the next system at least has an official first-party option for a d-pad though.

[ChadFL]

I appreciate that Nintendo is going to at least try to put out sufficient numbers of Switch 2's at launch, but I think they're underestimating the ability of scalpers. They can buy up some massive numbers of any video game product, artificially inflating demand.

[logboy]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

I appreciate that Nintendo is going to at least try to put out sufficient numbers of Switch 2's at launch, but I think they're underestimating the ability of scalpers. They can buy up some massive numbers of any video game product, artificially inflating demand.

scalpers aren't just organised, they're also using software to buy online are t they? i expected ps5 to be sold in a way that constrained it to one per customer ... sony asked people to sign up for emails, so i took this as the initiation of that. i would imagine its a very hard thing to combat, and they're unlikely to manage it with switch 2.

[heyadol]

I wonder if Nintendo could do what Steam did for the first round of Steam Deck sales, where every purchase had to come from a Steam account of a minimum age (I think the requirement was only a week old) and at least one purchase through their store. Doesn't have to be that exact direct sales model, but implement some kind of controls and let other retailers sell it the traditional way.

[jimidini]

Originally Posted by heyadol

I wonder if Nintendo could do what Steam did for the first round of Steam Deck sales, where every purchase had to come from a Steam account of a minimum age (I think the requirement was only a week old) and at least one purchase through their store. Doesn't have to be that exact direct sales model, but implement some kind of controls and let other retailers sell it the traditional way.

They already do something like that for exclusives in their own store.
That's limited to 1 per customer, they also check creditcard + Paypal usage + addresses. So if you create 10 accounts, but try to ship it all to your home, it's likely that you won't get them.

They did so for their Xenoblade 3 Collector's Edition, and just recently with their World Championship Collector's Edition.
I think it's kinda nice, except of course that there was no limit in Japan for the Xenoblade 3 CE, and Xenoblade 3 was even their first trial run with this, and they kinda ****ed it up in various ways. For example I failed the credit card payment and was then blocked to order it "again", despite never having actually ordered it in the first place.

Of course in case of Xenoblade 3 scalpers scalped anyway and the prices were batshit insane. I'm happy that I got 3 CEs from Japan for quite cheap, and in the end 2 western CEs too. But at least people that want one got one on average.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/20...l-game-support

Capcom Currently Has No Plans To End Physical Game Support

During Capcom's 45th General Shareholders meeting, the firm confirmed that it currently has no plans to end support for physical media.

The firm stated that due to a "significant number of end users" currently demanding physical games, it does not expect to "eliminate physical products". This will no doubt come as good news to many at a time when digital media is growing exponentially every year.



Well Crapcom, I actually want real physical releases, not 2 out of 3 games as a download aka Resident Evil Collection, or 1 out of 2 games as a download aka Resident Evil REmake+0 Collection.

[jimidini]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

Define "mass appeal." DK Tropical Freeze sold 2 million on the Wii U, around 4 million on the Switch.

Wii U had a customer base of only 13 million people/consoles. A game selling to around 20% of the customer base is actually a great selling game.
The Wii on the other hand, it sold 6.5 million on there.
So yeah.

You also have to consider the budgets. A Donkey Kong Country Returns/Tropical Freeze is surely not extremely expensive development-wise.
Prime 1 can't have been cheap, because it took quite some time to nail everything, and they nailed it. Prime 4 I don't even want to know. I don't expect that one being a good game, it may probably a game made for mass appeal, caused by the very high production costs (development was restarted). I wouldn't be surprised if it was a Metroid Prime Forever.

Funny thing is people seem to think Metroid Prime is a FAR more successful series than it actually is.

Yeah. Nintendo tried their best, but it never worked out.
And in fact originally they created 2 superb GBA games, which not many people bought. Then they went Prime, first one sold sort of fine, second one sold worse. And the third despite a great game sold horrible considering that it was on the Wii with 100 million potential customers. It sold on the level of Gamecube.

Then they changed focus, tried it with Other M, which is a very flawed game, but has high production values. That flopped.

So now they tried it with Metroid Prime Federation Force, which was actually a great coop game, but the so called "fans" were upset that it wasn't single player for some reason. And that one flopped as well, despite being very good. I played it for months.

Followed by Samus Returns, which I think didn't sell that well.

Which is kinda the thing with Nintendo. There's a massive gap between the top-tier of their franchises (Super Mario, Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Zelda, Mario Party, Pokemon) and everything else.

Well, I personally also do not understand why GTA games of now sell that well, I really don't. I loved GTA on the PS2, but the current "modern" GTA, well those have no appeal to me.
Or a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, where it's all set dressing, basically a Hollywood set, with nothing behind it. Fully scripted and tacked down, I even have a problem calling it a game. Sure, the graphics are nice, but that's about it.

Just compare these modern games with Breath of the Wild. One lets you be creative (similar to GTA3+Vice City, where not everything was scripted and fixed down), the other one is basically a playable movie, and not even well designed for that.

It's also weird to me that 2D Mario sells a ton, but 3D Mario always sells way less.

[dyne]

Tweet by Wario64

Monolith Soft is recruiting for a new RPG directed by Tetsuya Takahashi.

"The new RPG is taking on many new challenges compared to previous Monolith Soft titles."

https://www.monolithsoft.co.jp/recru...ction/rpg.html

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by jimidini

It's also weird to me that 2D Mario sells a ton, but 3D Mario always sells way less.

My suspicion? 2D Mario games are simply more approachable for a much broader audience of potential gamers. One demographic is older games, such as my mom. She's now in her 60's and when I was a kid in the 80's-90's she could wreck me and all my fiends are the original Super Mario Bros., often speedrunning the game without dying. She continues playing the new 2D Mario games to this day and loved Mario Wonder. But 3D Mario? Yikes, I've tried to teach her 3D Mario games many times over the years, especially Mario Galaxy and Odyssey and she just ends up confused and frustrated, having no idea what to do in more open world types of games, quitting those within a few hours.

Similar case with younger gamers, like my 10 year old niece. Younger gamers have similar troubles understanding 3D Mario games, even with the dumbed down difficulty in Galaxy and Odyssey compared to past games like Mario 64 and Sunshine. On the other hand, virtually anyone can pickup and play a more linear 2D Mario game.

[dyne]

In need of a new controller for the Switch. Would prefer to get third party since the d-pad on the first gen Pro Controller I had never agreed with me. That being said the d-pad is VERY important to me as is button response. I've been eyeballing the 8Bitdo Ultimate 2C wireless (as it has hall effect sensors) but am open to suggestions.

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by dyne

In need of a new controller for the Switch. Would prefer to get third party since the d-pad on the first gen Pro Controller I had never agreed with me. That being said the d-pad is VERY important to me as is button response. I've been eyeballing the 8Bitdo Ultimate 2C wireless (as it has hall effect sensors) but am open to suggestions.

I've not really used anything except the Nitro Deck since that controller launched. Easily my favorite Switch controller. Though I rarely ever play not in handheld mode. It works fine on playing in dock mode, but feels less solid.

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by dyne

In need of a new controller for the Switch. Would prefer to get third party since the d-pad on the first gen Pro Controller I had never agreed with me. That being said the d-pad is VERY important to me as is button response. I've been eyeballing the 8Bitdo Ultimate 2C wireless (as it has hall effect sensors) but am open to suggestions.

I don't think the 2C Wireless is compatible with Switch. The Ultimate C Bluetooth is.

The one that tends to be recommended is the Ultimate Bluetooth. It's the one I myself am looking at.

[jimidini]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

My suspicion? 2D Mario games are simply more approachable for a much broader audience of potential gamers.

That's probably it, but I still don't understand it. Of course I'm used to 3D games, especially 3D Mario games.

especially Mario Galaxy and Odyssey and she just ends up confused and frustrated, having no idea what to do in more open world types of games, quitting those within a few hours.

Very weird, Galaxy has literally perfect and quite simple controls thanks to the Wiimote.

And yeah I realy don't like the moon overload in Odyssey. It's ridiculous. Cut 3/4th of the moons out of the game, and it would improve the game.
What's even more getting on my nerves is that silly jingle every time you get one, wasting tons of your time. In Mario 64 it made sense, because you beat a level, but in Odyssey it's not a special collectable, because it's everywhere.

It's similar to my dislike of modern Doom, also wasting your time when you do these brutal QTE kills, also wasting your time, showing you some silly animation, but also interrupting game play.

Odyssey would even get improved by not pausing the game when you get a regular moon. For the big ones, that's fine, but for the regular ones it's really just bad game design and I have no clue why they did it.

btw. anyone owning Doom 1 or Doom 2 on Switch just got Doom1+2 collection for free, which includes achievements and online multiplayer INCLUDING COOP, which is even cross platform.

[ChadFL]

Just have to say, Nintendo doesn't make a ton of acquisitions, but when they do, they tend to workout exceptionally well. Better than Sony (who does typically make good development studio acquisitions) and VASTLY better than Microsoft (who doesn't).

Case in point - Monolith Soft. Easily one of the most productive development studies in video games. In an age where games now take obscene amounts of time and money to complete, Monolith is an exception. The Xenoblade Chronicles games are some of the longest video games being made - usually clocking in at 60-70 hours for the base game, well over 100 with side quests/extras. Yet, somehow they continue pumping out either a new game or massive expansion about every 2 years. And their games are not only massive, they also tend to look great given the hardware they're making the games for. Now they're apparently working on an entirely new game and if I had to guess, they're probably also working on another Xenoblade Chronicles (there have been rumors of Xenoblade X remaster) release. Oh, and that's not even getting into the fact that they also perform dev support for a bunch of other Nintendo franchises, like Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing, and Splatoon. They really are the gold standard for developers.

[Hatter]

Originally Posted by jimidini

T
Very weird, Galaxy has literally perfect and quite simple controls thanks to the Wiimote.

To most yes but for me, as much as I try, I struggle mightily using the wiimote and nunchuck. Trying to play Galaxy and Metroid Prime with it often ends in disaster.

[Diesel]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

Just have to say, Nintendo doesn't make a ton of acquisitions, but when they do, they tend to workout exceptionally well. Better than Sony (who does typically make good development studio acquisitions) and VASTLY better than Microsoft (who doesn't).

Case in point - Monolith Soft. Easily one of the most productive development studies in video games. In an age where games now take obscene amounts of time and money to complete, Monolith is an exception. The Xenoblade Chronicles games are some of the longest video games being made - usually clocking in at 60-70 hours for the base game, well over 100 with side quests/extras. Yet, somehow they continue pumping out either a new game or massive expansion about every 2 years. And their games are not only massive, they also tend to look great given the hardware they're making the games for. Now they're apparently working on an entirely new game and if I had to guess, they're probably also working on another Xenoblade Chronicles (there have been rumors of Xenoblade X remaster) release. Oh, and that's not even getting into the fact that they also perform dev support for a bunch of other Nintendo franchises, like Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing, and Splatoon. They really are the gold standard for developers.

Monolith is to Nintendo what Insomniac has been to Playstation this generation. Strong and consistent output and they wring every bit of performance out of the hardware as possible.

I’m beyond excited to see what they can cook up with the new hardware. Personally I hope we get a Xenoblade trilogy remaster/upgrade patch. The games have internal caps at 30 FPS and 720p, so straight backward compatibility will let them reach those max performance targets, but I would love an internally rendered 1080p60 version of all three.

[dyne]

Anybody up for an Ocarina of Time remake at the new console launch? Been a while since I’ve played it through and a remake would hit just right.

[heyadol]

I'd play an OoT remake. Still hoping for an Adventures of Link remake, that probably wouldn't make a good launch title though.