I look forward to the long awaited XCX2. Next year might be too soon, but maybe 2027. Here's hoping.

I'm always down for more Dragon Quest. Hopefully we'll hear more about 12, or an 2DHD remaster of Dragon Quest IV. Although I would also love to see the first 2 Dragon Quest Monsters getting remade with a localized release

It is important for Nintendo to have exclusives because exclusive games allow Nintendo to have creative hardware. A good amount of people say that if Nintendo games were released elsewhere, they probably would just play elsewhere, thus resulting in the eventual extinction of the Nintendo console brand. The problem with this: Nintendo has, since the Wii, been the driver of console innovation with their unique consoles. The Wii introduced the world to motion controls, the Wii U experimented with dual screen gaming on the TV, and the Switch, with its hybrid form, kickstarted a new handheld renaissance. While Switch 2 isn't the most experimental console, it introduces mouse controls included on console and continues the Switch's legacy as the ubiquitous hybrid console experience (something you cannot get from PS or Xbox).

"And of course the other thing with multiplatform, that I’m sure most people realize, is that when you do code across multiple platforms you do have to code to the lowest common denominator. But if you do exclusives you can push every lever to 11 in that platform."

How true, from my personal experience (most) exclusives are where the quality at and multiplatform is just multiplatform.

The thing is, if you want to sell your own console, you have to give customers a reason to buy it. That is where exclusives come in handy. By not having exclusives, you give customers less of a reason to buy your system over that of your competition.

This is why I think it is a colossal mistake for Microsoft to port Halo, their signature video game franchise, to the PlayStation. It only gives less of a reason for people to buy an Xbox. But at the same time, it only reinforces my belief that they are exiting the console market (despite their claims to the contrary), and becoming a third-party publishing powerhouse.

In regard to Sony, while the PlayStation is doing quite well by many standards, they are also making bone-headed decisions to port their exclusives to other platforms, such as PC (such as with Stellar Blade) and Nintendo (as we are going to very soon see with Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade). Just like with Xbox, it will give people less of a reason to buy a PlayStation.

Let's just hope that Nintendo still has enough magic left up their sleeve to resist this trend and remain successful for quite some time. Of course, I do not necessarily want them to suddenly have a monopoly on the video game console market, but barring something catastrophic, they might be in the best position to remain the sole console manufacturer when all of their competition has pulled out, given their wealth of exclusives.

@Jonnybaz Those weren't developed and one not even published by Nintendo. So no, there are no Nintendo games on other platforms. Only a handful of Nintendo licensed games.

@UltimateOtaku91 absolutely wrong. Sony has been extremely agressive regarding third party exclusives since the very first ps1. Sega was the first victime of this policy and the N64 suffered a lot of this too.

Anyone who seriously wants all games on all consoles is pro-gaming homogenization and kind of my enemy. Nintendo is the only company to have avoided most of the pitfalls of the new era, while Sony and Microsoft hopped on all of those "fresh" new trends lately and alienated their market when they didn't pan out. Xbox is essentially a dead brand being merged with the PC to salvage it, at the ultimate cost: the obliteration of any and all unique identity.

@IronMan30 You can quite easily say that the XBOX as a console is dead. XBOX has become a "gaming platform" which will be on PC, handheld or other devices in the future. Microsoft really doesn't have Nintendo or even Sony as competition in this space. Only, maybe, Valve. Rumors of the XBOX running Windows in XBOX Experience mode have been surfacing more and more. And basically Windows is going to be the home of XBOX gaming. Either on custom hardware or on a special "XBOX" pc.

I just hope Atlus starts prioritizing Nintendo systems, they always wait years later to port Persona to Nintendo systems. Persona 4 Remake and 6 hopefully get released on Switch 2.

I got into Dragon Quest late but I hope we see more HD 2D remakes of 4 to 6. The one thing I like about the series that it stays true to its roots.

I know the opinion is unpopular on Xbox sites, but exclusives sell consoles. Without them, they become a lot less interesting.

@jojobar it's why Xbox is slowly disappearing, even Playstation games are coming to Switch and even been ported to PC.

Wow, what a milestone. And such a landmark game. Hamster is doing the preservation god's work. I'll likely pick it up at some point. Now... how about more (and more frequent) sales for your Arcade Archive series, hm?

@Don

This is Japan only, so it’s not entirely surprising. Prime caters more towards Western markets.

Cyberpunk (western RPG) is also missing, I think we’d see Prime 4 and Cyberpunk in the top 20 on a global or NA list.

@weisske “ Some games like pokemon might actually end up being in a playable state.”

Pokémon would probably be in significant worse playable state on PlayStation

I already got classic Space Invaders with the collection that was released on Switch a while back along with most other versions of the game. Not the best choice, I usually go for ACA games for stuff that hasn't been released elsewhere.

I mean Sony did kill pretty much all their exclusivity efforts and their work to build brand recognition via exclusive games a while ago by selling or closing all their studios that were working on interesting stuff, haven't they?

That was extremely sad to see the gravity rush guys go and the Ico and the Flowers and whatnot. It's just not that era of Sony anymore and the only thing that even remotely came close since was God of War and Astrobot. So it's a little strange to see this comment but we'll see what happens. Maybe they intend to go back to this kind of brand defining exclusives.

These are what he needs for Switch 2 for now as these adapters could allow you to use your Switch 1 bluetooth joycon things such as the Moba Pads to work for Switch 2 but only the bluetooth battery back-up ones. Non bluetooth battery back-up joycons like Hori D-Pad and the Split Pad Pro won't work using them.

Either that or wait for CRKD Nitro Deck 2 so to get that Steam Deck experience on Switch 2.

@MontyCircus I managed to nail The Last Blade 2 when it was half-off a few weeks back, but the original remains resolutely at full whack. That was the first time either of those two had been discounted as far as I’m aware.

Definitely not going for this though. £6.29 for one iteration? Nuh-uh. I didn’t really feel Space Invaders until the ‘91 game, getting silly later with the ‘95 one - and then the Extremes happened on the DS. Hamster has wildly overestimated things here; even for nostalgia, it’s not worth the asking price.

Bet they don’t put a NS2 version of this out there.

At the very least, I'll take an update regarding Dragon Quest XII's time in the oven. I'd love to see HD-2D remakes of the Zenithian Trilogy in the meantime. I own IV and V on DS, but VI was rare from almost the beginning.

And Capcom has Capcom Arcade Stadium where individual titles are $2 and they have bundled options too.

Hamster deserves to get paid, so I don’t expect to see games for $2. However, $8 is a premium price for a single title.

I don't think I was ever excited for anything Square Enix is planning since the Wii era. Final Fantasy isn't even that great anymore. I still look forward to Dragon Quest but I had a feeling DQ is on its way to a downward spiral as well once the remake trend ends.

Discounts are good, but are controlled by the IP owners. Most of the Arcade Archive titles have not gone on sale (or have gone on sale only once).

Taito games, though, do go on sale. So there is hope for this one.

The only issue I have with price is the recent few games that have been $16.99 U.S. Maybe it's because I grew up with these games. And then through much of the rest of my gaming life, I played these games on home consoles wishing they could duplicate the full arcade experience. To finally get that is worth $7.99 for me.

I do wonder what they'd do if push came to shove and the only way to remain profitable was to shut down hardware and go third party. They love money, same as any company, but they're also fiercely protective of their IPs and maintain a strong, some might say insane, degree of integrity. So would they sooner go out of business than start making games for other consoles? Or would they bite the bullet and do whatever is necessary to stay afloat, pay their employees, and keep their investors happy?

I long for the day I won't see Cloud's face everywhere I scroll.

Aah, the perfect time for Dragon Quest 4-5-6 remastered.
I'm sure Xenogears & Xenosaga also have some kind of anniversary soon...

I love my Switch 2, but I must say that even Nintendo has gone away from the path of exclusives. I remind you Mario Run which I have installed on my smartphone and another one that I don't have; Pokémon GO.

Bro had to sand down his controller to get a dpad. This is insane Lmaop

@Wexter
Totally agree, let’s see if publishing works for them.
They will need to make amazing games to go up against the best third party games and of course Nintendo’s and Sonys best games.

Else they will just get low games sales and fail as a publisher.

LOL
It's already happened Mario games on PS2 in my country Indonesia.
It's literally a fake bootleg game on PS2.
This is the stuff.

@nhSnork from what I hear that's wht LV5 did. They trained their AI model under their own database of work.

A port of the first Nier would be nice. Reading this article I've come to realize how little I care about Final Fantasy anymore. I'm not terribly excited for the 7 remakes and haven't even considered playing 16 at this point.

Switch 2 has gotten great support from Capcom and SE so let's hope they give us some new games and upgrades of NS1 games in addition to the remakes.

To those who think $8/7 € is a bit steep, I can see where you're coming from. But do some research on YouTube and the likes to see if a game's graphics at least appeals to you (even better: you have some old favorites you didn't really get to play that much back in the day, because it cost around an € adjusted for inflation for just one round/game and now you can play them endlessly).

Exclusives is all nintendo has going for it. If anything, the games would look and run better on superior ps5 hardware. Some games like pokemon might actually end up being in a playable state.

I do think we’re not ready for AI and that it will do much more bad than good. This technology could potentially revolutionise health care and fix many of our problems. The issue is that we’re also still monkeys with nuclear weapons, bashing each other’s heads in every day because we can’t all have everything.

I can understand why some people are critical of the $8 per game pricing — I’ve purchased 39 Ake-Aka titles to date, but the majority of them were on sale. My count would be much higher if the base price was a little less!

But it’s truly miraculous what Hamster Corp is producing - publishing a meticulously emulated arcade game (sourced directly from original PCBs) on multiple platforms (including NSW, S2, PS4, PS5, XB) every Thursday without fail since March 3, 2017. And live-streaming for 2+ hours every Thursday night (JST) about their game of the week. It’s a mind-blowing accomplishment, and I can’t begrudge their asking price. I love supporting this company!

Like @MontyCircus recommended, it’s good to take advantage of Hamster’s sales that they offer on select titles a few times each year.
Also, the physical collections of Ake-Aka games (Taito Milestones Vols 1-4, ACA NEOGEO Selection vols 1-10) usually are more economical if you can find them.

@Anti-Matter Super Mario Bros Wonder and all other Mario platformers on Switch already run at smooth 60fps. More voice acted dialogue and UE5 won't help them in any way.

I think this is a great choice for 500! It doesn't get more significant than this! I've never actually played Space Invaders either, so that's neat.

I really vibe with the ACA project. Tuning into the streams you can see the joy they get from playing a new title and the care that goes into these reproductions. Here's to 500 more!

@electrolite77 I am inclined to agree (you can’t play the other consoles on the loo without a series of mirrors!) but PS5 sales would disagree to a certain extent. However, I’m guessing a lot of people have both systems, again for Nintendo exclusives.

Goddammit I love reading these comments genAI is such a grift. I don't drink but I'll have a whiskey the day the AI bubble pops for sure!

Never give away your artistic integrity to AI!

Love the series, but these games are more expensive than they should be. Most the Arcade Archives I bought on sale.

@ShadLink If it's a question of which company I'd want to be the only --eugh-- game in town, I'd choose Nintendo every time.

@ShadLink
Actually, PS5 is my best machine to play 3rd KIDS GAMES.
You hear that, 3rd party KIDS GAMES.
Not games for adult, but for KIDS and I am an adult man, 41 years old who only like to play KIDS games.
I played BLUEY, BARBIE, PAW PATROL, etc on PS5.
PS5 still have tons of 3rd party KIDS GAMES I can pick and play.
Maybe PS5 is not for you for less appealing games to you, but PS5 is more appealing for me for the 3rd party KIDS GAMES.
My PS5 games collection just only consist 99.99% 3rd party kids games with only one 1st party kids games from PS5 & PS4 I played (Ratchet & Clank games).

AI is inherently anti-art and anti-creativity, that's the beginning and end of its purpose and the discussion
Hideous that these rich business freaks keep being like "hey guys go easy on ai, it means I can work less"