Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@AlohaPizzaJack
Oh ya, for $40 entry I wholeheartedly feel it’s worth the buy in for anyone who hasn’t tried VR before.

And that issue with “is it out of focus?” is not unique to LABO VR. I constantly experienced that with PSVR. The perpetual feeling that the lens just isn’t focused right, when in reality it’s just the resolution and that’s as good as it gets.

Your first experience in VR is always pretty magical. That’s all worn off for me, but I imagine for someone who’s never tried it this would still be really impressive, even as limited as it is. With the high dollar sets you are completely immersed in the world, and the head strap visor means that just naturally looking around feels real, and the positional tracking means you can lean forward to see things up close, Plus the games are more in depth with realistic graphics, then using earbuds on top of it to really seal the deal.... it’s actually pretty amazing.

I've had VR experiences, but I've never had an actual set of my own. Both times were great immersive experiences - even if one was a low quality video of a rollercoaster as part of a motion simulator and the other time at DisneyQuest in 2008 where the headset kept coming loose.

I've seen a few VR experiences I might enjoy, but nothing has really excited me as much as what was revealed yesterday at Star Wars Celebration with Vader Immortal.

The first FFX Switch review has hit YT

Has some pure docked and handheld gameplay also

@Ralizah in my opinion the switch was released early because of the failure of the wii u, the switch released is an incomplete console. the switch pro is the real switch.

@DannyBoi Where are you getting the idea that Nintendo will add things like an internet browser or Netflix with the Switch Pro?

Yes, the Switch needs stuff that my phone and my gaming PC can already do with flying colors and better than the Switch.

How about this:

nah.

It has the games. That's all you need from a console.

A nice vid breaking down God Eater 3 for any Monster Hunter fans curious about the release

Also, hearing P5S may actually not be the Switch release, so Idk what to think anymore. I’d write it off at this point if not for the BestBuy listing. But I guess it really makes no difference. Whatever happens happens. Maybe it is coming but it’s only recently begun development and won’t be announced for some time. I’ll just tell myself it’s a no-go and if it comes at some point, awesome.

@subpopz
It’s only split in half one direction, so it’s still 720p. It just has half as many horizontal pixels. So 640x720 instead of 1280x720.

And ya, it looks low res, but... so does PSVR, and yet the games still manage to be fun because it’s still a virtual world. I think the blaster game is still going to be worth it’s salt. The cartoony design of the games really helps mitigate the low res. But ya. It’s budget VR. You get what you pay for.

I've not really been that impressed with VR but I'm kind of interested in Labo VR. While I don't own a VR device myself, I've had plenty of chances to try VR and I've even developed some small VR games since I studied programming. Some of the games I've played include: Batman: Arkham VR, The Playroom VR, Tiltbrush and Robo Recall. I guess my main gripe with VR is that the headsets are annoying, especially since I wear glasses. I don't like wearing them. And the games are usually quite limited in scope because of the limitations of VR.

All that said, I'm willing to give Labo a try. I want to see how it looks and feels but I'm afraid I won't have an opportunity to try it out if I don't buy it myself. The starter kit is quite cheap so I don't think I'll regret buying it even if I don't end up liking it. VR Garage looks much better than on Variety Kit so that should keep me occupied for a while. I had big plans for Garage games but once it the first kit released, I noticed it lacked really important components and some of my game ideas had to be scrapped. I think I'll wait to see if the whole Labo VR is forgotten after couple of weeks like previous Labo kits or if it has staying power. I also hope that Nintendo has plans to add VR support to other games.

EDIT: Now that I think about it. I've rarely been alone when I've played VR games so that might have affected my enjoyment. I could never be fully immersed because there were always multiple pairs of eyes watching me.

Can someone explain why there are two charge indicators on my Nintendo switch?

@Late I have all the kits, and the garage mode in this is much improved. There’s more evaluation nodes ( > < = are added) as well as state change nodes. Add to that that anything designed can also be played with non-VR. You can now save 64 projects instead of five. Interestingly enough, you can even use the garage interface in VR. That can even be fun.

@AlohaPizzaJack Sounds great. Is there an option for randomization this time around? The lack of any kind of random number generator was probably the most disappointing thing about Variety Kit's Garage.

We'll see if this from a month ago has any meaning in a few days.

Should talk about the surprising success of certain 3rd party games and what effect that’s going to have on Switch support.

For example, Tales of Vesperia. We know that in the UK, Switch’s worst market and Playstations strongest market, Tales Switch accounted for 49% of sales, with PS4 at 43% and X1 at 8%. In Japan the PS4 did about 20k more in total, which aligns with the fact many 3rd party games sell best on PS in Japan for some reason. We can also surmise the disparity was significantly larger in other regions like NA, where Switch has a much stronger presence and where the game tracked noticeably higher than PS4 on Amazon. Overall, I’m quite confident Tales sold best on Switch globally, which is actually really amazing when you consider the powerhouse of PS4 pushing at 100 million sold with record breaking software sales across the board for 3rd parties.

I think it speaks volumes that God Eater 3 is coming to Switch, and even moreso that it’s going to have exclusive Tales of Vesperia outfits for those who preorder. It’s like Bandai Namco said, “oh crap, games on Switch are seeing sales that rival or even exceed that of the juggernaut PS4... quick, start evaluating what we can port over!” and in an effort to sell franchises that have never appeared on a Nintendo console, are leveraging the success of whatever they’ve brought so far to entice gamers. Tales happened to exceed expectations relative to other platforms, so they said “screw it, make Yuri and Estelle costumes for preorders!”

And we’re starting to see a trend here. Capcom bringing franchises that have never appeared on a Nintendo platform (Dragon’s Dogma). Bandai Namco bringing franchises that have never appeared on a Nintendo platform (God Eater, Dark Souls). Square Enix at least bringing games that have never appeared on a Nintendo platform (Final Fantasy X and XII). Ubisoft bringing franchises that have never appeared on a Nintendo platform (Trials Rising, South Park, the return of Assassins Creed). And 2K (LA Noire, and even though Civ has appeared on DS, Civilization VI is the first mainline entry in the series to land on console of any kind). Bethesda with the obvious return of DOOM and Wolfenstein. Activision Blizzard (Crash, Diablo) and Warner Bros with the long awaited return of Mortal Kombat (which btw, is tracking remarkably well against other versions on Amazon). And let’s not forget Sega (Valkyria Chronicles), or THQ (Saints Row). Heck even Microsoft lol (Cuphead, Senua’s Sacrifice, more to come???)

What does that tell us? I think it tells us software is selling, and these companies realize it. They want to bring more software over and we can expect to see more and more games that have never appeared on a Nintendo platform. I think there are still reluctant developers and publishers who either A don’t keep their finger on the pulse of the ever-changing market (EA) or B are so blinded by relative success on one platform they fail to adapt to the emergent marketplace (Atlus). But it’s a numbers game, and as long as we get buy-in from the majority of developers and publishers, it’s going to be a fun ride, especially as those developers and publishers devote more and more resources to Switch as a platform, and as more and more developers and publishers recognize the success everyone else is having, that they could also be having.

It's still interesting to me that in supposedly home console-obsessed America, Switch versions of third party games are outselling their PS4 counterparts, despite the install base being vastly smaller.

Who knew that the ResetEras and Reddits of the Internet didn't account for everyone in the world??? 🤔

Seriously **** ResetEra and Reddit at times. They're all in a bubble half of the time.

@JaxonH The most interesting thing on the 3rd party sales front will be how much dodgy physical Switch versions (e.g. Wolfenstein Youngblood "physical" being a download code in a box, Mortal Kombat 11 physical having a 15.9GB update) will affect Switch sales.

@Late yes! There is a randomizer with a slider for value range. One input to trigger the value creation, one input to reset, and one output to send the value selected on creation. I haven’t tinkered enough to see if the randomizer can be used to change sizes of objects yet.
Given the questions you’ve had, and your interest in wanting more from the garage, I think you’ll be quite keen on the improvements.
I may see about making a Garage thread later.

@Grumblevolcano
I think it has an insignificant impact.

The group of people who care about physical versions so much they will actually skip a game over a download or digital version, is the same group importing Final Fantasy X/X-2 from Asia/Japan. And that’s not a very large group of people, on top of which a great many people importing that game are doing it due to preference, not because they refuse to buy anything digital (me, for example).

I think if those sorts of things had a major affect we would’ve seen it by now because we’ve had a good number of games release digitally and do well. For example, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is already at #21 in the NA eShop, and it’s over 18gb and digital only. Mortal Kombat XI is already at #57 in the NA eShop and it’s still 2 weeks out, and has a deluxe version SKU pulling away sales and a physical version pulling away sales. And the physical version is only 30 spots behind the PS4 version on Amazon, and ahead of the X1 version by twice that amount.

That’s not to say it has zero impact. I just don’t think it’s statistically significant. Not unless it’s an extremely niche game which targets that specific physical-loving demographic. I think Youngblood will do just as well as Wolfenstein 2, if not better (not that that’s necessarily saying much). But I could be wrong. I guess we’ll find out.

@Ralizah
I find that pretty inexplicable myself. Likewise, I find 3rd party sales in Japan not dwarfing those of PS4 (as a general rule), despite having an install base just as large, equally inexplicable. Vita 3rd party games routinely outsold the PS4 version, yet on Switch they don’t seem to match that of the PS4. It’s almost as if the fan base who bought Vita refuses to buy in to Switch, despite it being a considerably better platform with bigger games and more of them (on top of Nintendo’s top shelf 1st party support).

Great Target sale active tomorrow!!!

Xenoblade 2 is literally $20!!!! Get that game ASAP!

@EvilLucario holy smokes, only 20 for xc2?! I've been on the fence forever with the game as I'm not sure id be into it. But at $20 it might be worth me giving it a shot