Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

The Switch has already surpassed the total lifetime sales of the WiiU in Japan, apparently! (Link: Nintendo Enthusiast) ..not bad - not bad at all!

@Proust It's likely there'll be a Nintendo Direct in January.

If Nintendo reveals a load of upcoming 2018 games in January, I'll expect this to become a pattern.

Partially show your hand in January. Completely show your hand at E3. Save smaller announcements and third party stuff for Nintendo Directs.

I see 15 mil shipped as incredibly likely. They definitely won't sell 15 mil by the end of the year, but as @JaxonH said, it might mean they want to sell 15 mil by the end of the fiscal year.

Yeah, when you also consider that Nintendo have apparently 'doubled down' on production in recent months - and that certain countries/regions (eg. South Korea - huge market) have only just got the Switch - it's perfectly plausible that worldwide sales could surpass 15mil by 1st April (if current sales estimates are anything to go by)

@Proust Let them milk their catalogue over Christmas lol. Not like there aren't going to be any more games hahah

Gotta remember guys. The best selling platform right now is PS4 and has built its library in a way to bolster thay and facilitate sales.

How did that library develop? Well announcing games years in advance of course! We all know Spiderman will be at its third E3 and TLOU2 is god knows when.

Gamers want to know something is coming, even if its going to spend 10 years in dev hell and have a name change, or be promised for one system but show up on another exclusively because it took that long.

Gamers these days want the hype and certainty their purchase wasnt wasted.

Which is ironic if anyone got a PS3 for The Last Guardian actually.

@Proust What, are you not completely satisfied with the new more-of-the-same Kirby and Yoshi games? Surely, you jest!

I mean, I've never been less hyped owning a console at this point. People talk big about the Switch, but there isn't much behind that talk.

To be honest, even though the Kirby feels like "more of the same", I feel like Kirby is just- it's already perfect (?) Like the basis is already so good I don't think there's much to add for it.

I have played through triple deluxe and robobot and while I didn't have the desire to 100% or replay it, I remember the experience fondly, and actually quite excited for Star Allies.

@YummyHappyPills I think that was the in part why Nintendo announced Metroid Prime 4, Pokemon and Bayonetta 3 for the Switch. Hype people up encourage people there's a reason to buy a Switch beyond the next 12 months.

@FragRed Yeah, all 3 are likely 2019 games (first 2 I think will be fall/holiday 2019).

@Grumblevolcano Depending on when development started, 2020 is possible as well (Metroid Prime and Bayonetta 3).

@Grumblevolcano @Octane Metroid Prime 4 and Bayonetta 3 I think are definitely 2020 releases with Pokemon being 2019. I assumed Bayonetta 3 started once Microsoft cancelled Scalebound while Metroid didn't even have a trailer, just the name.

We also said Xenoblade wouldn't be 2017. Look how wrong we have been.

With what GameFreak is saying I expect Pokemon to be 2019 latest.

One thing all of us agree on is Pokemon being a holiday release.

I don't think I ever see mainline pokemon released outside of the october/november time? Then again I wasn't checking so just tell me if this is wrong hueh

@darkfenrir Holiday releases are a recent thing.

At least in the EU anyway. We kept getting games early in the year like around April.

@FragRed Sounds about right. Kamiya reportedly took a long break too. Reggie said about Prime 4 that is was one of those things they just wanted to get out there, to let everyone know they're working on it. 2019 or 2020 I think. Pokemon may release next year, but I'm not sure if that's beneficial for the game's quality. Unless they've been working on it for longer than we know, but that's assuming they have more than one main dev team.

@Tsurii Yeah, but two years is still a short amount of time. I meant developing the Switch game alongside Sun and Moon.

@Octane GameFreak has multiple teams, they have said as much.

And to apply context for how long they work on a game, XY was in Planning in 2010, BEFORE Black and White came out. ORAS was being worked on before BW2 came out. SM before XY came out.

Theyll have been working on this for years.