Topic: Am i wrong for thinking that Nintendo is in one of its best eras right now?

@Lazz There are definitely deals from other publishers, which makes Nintendo's decision not to discount their games all the more puzzling.

You have to take the good with the bad though, I'm still happy with what they're doing overall.

@bixente It just went from one of the best values in gaming to something that’s going to be extremely niche. At least existing members appear to be grandfathered into their original cost, my upcoming bill for Ultimate still says $19.99. I'll probably cancel if it changes.

The reviews mostly reflect the state of the game at release. They wanted to rush it out for the 20th anniversary of the release of the original GTA III and it was severely undercooked as a result.

They spent the better part of three years patching it though, and it's a much more respectable effort now. File alongside No Man's Sky and Cyberpunk, I suppose.

@bixente yes, games are always going on sale, but it’s not like the Switch doesn’t have some great deals if you look. I’m not concerned about a game being a few dollars less on steam, because I want to game on Switch. Nintendo games rarely go on sale, and this is by design. They do not devalue their games , and the strategy seems to be working.

@Lazz Nintendo's sale strategy certainly works for money but it also means not many people really buy some of their smaller franchise games which is a pity — there are lots of games people would try on a $15 sale but wouldn't pay $50 dollars for. Some of their games (Mario Kart) are permanently evergreen and others are permanently ever-grey after the initial bump.

Yeah, their pricing policy isn't doing much to improve my opinion of 1-2 Switch, even though I can see why they might never want to give much of a discount to the latest Mario Kart or Animal Crossing.

Hard to say that it works without having access to the data. There are a handful of Nintendo games that are dead online, but shouldn't be. I can't help but wonder if discounting those specific games would help extend their life. If a MP-focused game is dead after just 3 years, it's probably time to cut its price.

A perfect example of Nintendo's pricing issue being stupid is that I found a copy of Warioware Get it Together for 20 bucks today and decided to buy it on a whim, because its Warioware. If Nintendo had put that out at even 30 bucks in any way by now, I might've given them 30 bucks but now they see none of that money ever, its a used copy.

I'm not as crazy as some people about buying games on sale, but I've done quite a bit of it on the eShop and guess what? None of them ever Nintendo games. Not a single time. I dunno if I'm ever gonna get around to playing Valkyria Chronicles but it was on sale, so I bought it. I wasn't planning on buying the old Doom games but I got 4 of them for like 20 bucks, 3 of 4 of which I have played and generally enjoyed. This is not hard Nintendo!

While I would love to see some of their games priced lower, I believe that Nintendo is holding prices in order to not “devalue“ their games. Healthy Nintendo means game prices do not drop and we don’t see Nintendo Selects making a comeback. I have skipped many 1st party games because I have little interest and the games are more than I’m willing to pay. I would probably have purchased quite a few games if they had a significant sale…but I don’t think they need to do it. So they don’t. But I am only speculating here.

Yea, there is that element of making sure their games aren’t perceived as jokes.

Everyone knows an Ubisoft or Activision game will go on sale for at least 25% off a couple months after launch. And you can’t tell me that doesn’t affect how people think about those companies and the quality of their games.

And it’s one of those things where if you do it just a couple times, people will expect you to do it all the time.

@OmnitronVariant Doesn't Sony do the same thing with their 'upgraded' versions of PS4 games on the PS5? I heard they charge 10 bucks for the upgrade. So I figure Nintendo just said "If Sony can do it then so can we."

Sadly I think the era of "value Nintendo" died with Iwata. He and Reggie were all about keeping prices fair. I can only hope now that Doug Bowser is leaving Reggie will return LOL.

I must admit even on Steam I sometimes question whether its worth buying the games cheaply as sometimes they appear as free games on the Epic store a few weeks or months later. The recent sale I bought Doom Eternal and Duke Nukem 3D 20th Anniversary World Tour plus the Lossless scaling utility. I always prefer having games on Steam rather than Epic but still I'd rather not pay for a game I can get free elsewhere. Some of the free games on the Epic store are also chargeable games on the Switch. Recently Monument Valley 1 and 2 were given away free on Epic and a quick google shows its 9 pounds each on Switch. Both games score highly on metacritic.

I do wonder with Nintendo, Microsoft and perhaps Sony to a lesser extent pushing up gaming prices for hardware, software and services whether more people will abandon the classic consoles and go fully to PC. I'm really only interested in Switch 2 for its exclusive games and that library is growing but I'm not seeing exclusive games on Playstation or Xbox at all really. Their seems to be pc ports of everything. I definitely feel like my main platform is PC now and see no reason to even consider a Xbox or PS5 to be honest. I'll keep my older consoles but I'm just not interested in their new consoles. Really its only the Switch 2 I'm interested in buying sometime in the future because of the exclusive games to the format but I'm not interested in re-visiting my Switch games or buying ports of multi-platform games. So current pricing of Switch 2 hardware and software means I will probably play the waiting game a bit.

Why were those comments removed? I read the first two and there wasn't anything wrong with them.

I can speak only for myself, but the current Switch 2 physical editions direction is terrible. From ALL of the games released up until now I have 2-3 that I can buy and it is still not enough to make me purchase the console in the first place.

Maybe if there are more proper physical releases (of games that I want) I will order the damn console, otherwise I might as well play the same games on my Steam Deck if they are not getting physical releases or on PS5.

Currently the highest point is Cyberpunk 2077.

@ShieldHero Yes, topic title is a question, I merely answered it. I don't think Nintendo, PlayStation or Xbox are covering themselves with glory currently. It's a valid opinion, that others are free to disagree with. I don't see how that's unconstructive, but if I need to elucidate, I certainly expand on my reasons why;
Hardware that lacks innovation, that costs 50% more, with a screen that is by some metrics, inferior. Backwards compatibility, that requires an update per game, with some games not functioning correctly to the degree that they are unplayable. Physical games that won't run without a day one patch, empty carts masquerading as physical titles. Ports from previous generations that cost more than they ever have previously, with paper thin dlc additions used to justify it. First-party titles that launch at $70, only to have a $20 dlc barely two months later, making it look for all the world as if Nintendo cut content from the base game just to inflate the price to $90. A Pokémon game incoming, for $70, that has a $30 dlc announced before it has even released, and also requires an online subscription for the evolutions. Patent trolling gameplay mechanics in order to stifle creativity within the wider industry. Patenting mechanics that existed before Nintendo even used them.
Under their current leadership, Nintendo are a shadow of their former selves. This is a matter of opinion, of course. Those that feel positively will have a different perspective, but I'm airing my view, as adirect response to the question posed in the title, and these are the main reasons why I would disagree that this is one of Nintendo's best eras. I don't think so.

On patent issue I really recommend people giving this video from moon channel a watch, it helps to explain what happened with the patent:

@WhiteUmbrella
You’ve made your opinion very well-known in the myriad threads dedicated to dumping on the Switch 2. So… thanks for doing it again in a thread that was actually trying to be positive, I suppose?

My viewpoint is that Nintendo is not at its best now, but pretty close to it.

Being an 80s-90s kid, I was right in the boom of the NES, SNES, and Gameboy. The rivalry with Sega. Nintendo Power. The first Mario movie (lol). Those days will never be replicated.

But I fell off during the Wii and DS era because I’m not into motion controls and I perceived the DS as “less gamer-y” than my old Gameboy. Most of the games seemed dumb to me and way too gimmicky. I remember my little brother playing Donkey Konga and I was like… dang, this is how low Nintendo has fallen?

So to someone like me, the Switch and Switch 2 are back to being pretty straightforward gaming machines with the cool hybrid twist. The money stuff doesn’t bother me so much if I just budget a bit and be sensible in other areas of my life from time to time.

We would all benefit tremendously from that, but unfortunately, I don’t think it will ever happen. Even though a PC is cheaper to own long-term, the initial cost of building a decent one is enough to keep a lot of people away. On top of that, there are people who love the tradition of playing certain games on console. I know someone who refuses to buy fighting games on PC even though they’re exactly the same and support cross-platform MP. Somehow, to them, it still feels better to play fighters on console.