Topic: Is The Switch 2 Worth It???

Each year Nintendo tends to have a couple huge tentpole releases, a few more major releases, and a mixture of medium and minor releases and DLC (by minor lets say less than a million lifetime sales).

Since it's a fairly famous and renowned series, lets say 'expected better sales than xenoblade' counts as a major release. On Switch this also approximately equals 'top 50 games' and 'in top half of million+ sellers.'

Games which sold better than every Xenoblade game on Switch include Mario Tennis, Pokemon Snap, and Yoshi. Mario Tennis, Pokepia, and Yoshi certainly aren't guaranteed to do well on Switch 2, but they all have the potential to be major several million sellers given history.

As for other 2026 releases:

• There is more DLC and Switch 1 games.
• There is Splatoon Raiders which Nintendo probably has an idea of how well will do but I don't; it could be a medium or a major game but given that it is a spinoff I am assuming it won't be a tentpole game like a mainline Splatoon would be. Also we don't technically know if it is 2026 yet.
• Fire Emblem had one very good seller but normally sits firmly in the medium category.

So I would argue we know of 3 ish major 2026 games which is a reasonable amount before we have had any 2026 directs. Because of anniversaries we are anticipating:

• zelda something, maybe port (major release but may or may not be Switch 2 exclusive)
• Pokemon Gen 10 (Switch 2 tentpole game)

I am sure the next direct (probably in February) will also have at least one major game we have no clue about right now.

@FishyS Major releases aren’t about sales they’re about scope and ambition IMO. Let’s not forget not all Zelda games sell a lot proportional to install base. Nothing listed so far is ambitious. I concede MKW was ambitious for the series; I don’t enjoy it but I can’t argue it isn’t pushing the envelope for the series, it really is. But all we have to look forward to are far from ambitious at this point in time.

Tell that to Nintendo and to people who buy games. You can have all the ambition you want but if it makes no money and people don't play it, it is a footnote at best.

For what it's worth, the new Nintendo Tennis seems to have a pretty big scope and I think Nintendo intends Yoshi to be a relatively major game. And Pokopia... unless it is utter trash, Pokemon is just a major game by default.

@FishyS
Pokopia actually can be my huge attention considering Koei Tecmo was behind the development, the same developer of Dragon Quest Builders games.
But Nintendo decided to screw up by giving game key card option for Koei Tecmo so I really pissed off.
1st party game got game key card treatment, so disgusting.

I said once again.
Switch 2 doesn't look very appeal machine to buy and play unless Nintendo addressed the game key card issue and giving more game card release for 3rd party kids games since I'm the big supporter of 3rd party kids games.
I might changed my mind about getting Switch 2, but right now I don't see the need to get Switch 2 at the moment.
Read this carefully, I have no intention to talk trash about Switch 2.
I'm being critical and have some common sense to see what is right and wrong.
If you suddenly see me talking positively about Switch 2, that means I already found something that changed my mind.

@FishyS They keep allowing Monolith Soft to make the hugely ambitious Xenoblade Chronicles games despite not hitting very high sales. But it's enough. As a person who enjoys games I don't give a ***** whether the game sold 100m or 10m or 1m. I care about the game. Nintendo used to as well. They weren't afraid to risk not hitting mainstream if they could deliver a vision and not lose money on it. I don't know if this Nintendo is still alive anymore, but that's what I care about. That's why I've played so many of their games over the last 30+ years.

This topic isn't the "defend Nintendo's decisions to shareholders" topic. It's a subjective one. Can we please discuss it like people?

@skywake Except for the most part those ports didn't really matter or had other reasons they were successful. MK8D again, that seems to say more about Mario Kart than Wii U ports, we didn't get a new Mario Kart entry to compare it to. BotW was cross gen, not a port, and more people were interested in the shiny new hybrid than the failed console.

Meanwhile if you look at other Wii U ports, they didn't do so hot. 3D World + Bowser's Fury only sold half of Odyssey's numbers. Pikmin 4 outsold Pikmin 3 Deluxe. TF only sold 4.62 million, and while this isn't a direct comparison, Bananza seems poised to overtake it in one year as opposed to the 7 years or TF had for its Switch version. Captain Toad and Pokken Tournament DX didn't do much either. The only real success story in terms of Wii U ports outselling new entries has been NSMBU Deluxe, and that may not hold because of Wonder's S2E.

You keep talking about BC but don't have any concrete evidence that it's actually mattering. Meanwhile the sales figures for these games is saying old games tend not to matter. It's a nice bonus that people can come back to these games on the new consoles if they want, but the data is very clearly showing that, at least for Nintendo (I am not familiar with sales on other consoles so I can't speak to that, there may be a different in audience there), they're coming for the new games first and foremost.

@skywake
I get what you're saying, I really do, I just don't think it's more complicated than: you need games.

@OmnitronVariant
We're getting a Direct the first week of February. Save the hyperbole until after we see what they have to say.

I would argue Nintendo allows it because they sell enough. 2 million sales is nothing to scoff at for a game. And rank 51 of the Switch best sellers is not actually that low. If the games sold 200k instead of 2 million? They would be on the chopping block.

But I actually agree with you that a new xenoblade would count as a major game. It's just, from Nintendo's point of view, it's quite possible they put it in the same bucket as Yoshi - a relatively but not hugely popular fan favorite series which sells decently but not enormously. Xenoblade tends to review better but Yoshi (the character) has more name recognition so they also both are decent but not at the top as console advertisements.

It might end up being a great game, we just don't have a ton of information about it yet. But yeah, it's a shame they did the game key card thing even though it is a first/second party game.

@FishyS
Yea - I mean, on one hand, Pokopia seems like the type of game that will get tons of updates throughout its run, updates with lots of new items and areas - things that people who love those creation sim games will want to download. Sort of like Dreamlight Valley and stuff like that. So I can see why a full physical release doesn't make much sense because that initial game version is quickly going to be antiquated for the folks keeping up with the dlc.

But on the other hand, there are plenty of people like me who would have been content just playing the shipped version to experience the game and not necessarily keep up with the dlc in the future. It looks like a fun game, but I don't really keep up with games that receive constant updates like that. Would've been fun to play the original version, though, but I won't if it's just a game key card.

And to tack on... I mean, I'm sure prices for the cartridges are cheaper for their own games. They've gotta have some sort of deal worked out that even their closest third-party partners might not get. Just a shame, like you said.

I get it's a Switch 1 only game but I think the biggest 1st party release of the 1st half of 2026 is Tomodachi Life. The 3DS game was huge and there's also the nostalgia factor for Nintendo's blue ocean strategy.

@Grumblevolcano I really think we're going to see a Switch 2 edition of it at the coming direct when they tell us the release date

I think we forget that all the games that sell Megabucks subsidize the games that don't, allowing for more niche games that wouldn't otherwise exist, broadening the library to attract more players.

The switch 2 might be the best selling system of all time because I think it's going to last a decade.

@Bolt_Strike
Your statement was that the Switch wasn't backwards compatible so didn't have the Wii U library to hold it up. But it very obviously did, because they had a fairly aggressive strategy to port those games. And now you're trying to make a different argument saying that I'm talking about backwards compatibility and that BotW doesn't count and Mario Kart 8 was the only Wii U game on Switch that "mattered". But that is clearly not the case but more importantly wasn't what I was replying to....

..... you pull this crap all the time. Stick to an argument, defend it. Don't keep shifting the argument each post and trying to frame my points as if I'm saying something else

In terms of what "evidence" I have for this. Well anecdotally everyone I know who has or is planning to get the Switch 2, many of who already had a Switch, in part are doing it for the existing library of Switch games. Either to revisit them with improved performance/features or to dive into them for the first time. These games are clearly part of the equation. And more impirically you only need to look at the eShop charts. Those upgrade packs always seem to top the charts. The Animal Crossing upgrade is third on the Australian charts ATM, under some new Cult of Lamb DLC and MKW. The Switch 2 edition upgrades for TotK/BotW are still pretty high in the Switch 2 charts also

People buy consoles to play games. They don't care about these labels

I feel like this thread has a habit of going in circles.

[Just so I'm somewhat on-topic: it's been worth it for me, even though the only real exclusive I've got so far was DK Bananza.]

@BrazillianCara
That's cause it's a pointless thread. It necessarily will result in going in circles.

People who are actually curious if the system is worth it will decide not based on some forum thread with people going back and forth, but rather on the exclusives, upgrades, improved performance of BC titles, 3rd party releases, improvements to the Joycon and added features like Mouse Mode, Gameshare, Gamechat, etc, higher res and refresh rate screen with VRR, and so on.

Either they will decide that it is... or that it isn't. And then go on with life.

@Bolt_Strike Nintendo's already stated that while physical Switch 2 editions count as Switch 2 software sales, digital Switch 2 editions count as Switch 1 software sales. So talking about the top 10 all time sellers list is meaningless as the data will always be incomplete.