Topic: Nintendo Switch 2

Yea, again, it's probably a combination of things (shocker).

Game key cards maybe a little bit, but the biggest thing is the price. I dropped like 600 bucks on this console launch like most people by just getting the console, MK, and maybe one accessory. Could I have bought a couple more games for like 800ish almost? Yea, but that would have been a bit more painful, so I'm just staggering my purchases for a bit.

Cyberpunk 2077 outsold launch weekend sales of Witcher 3 on an install base of 3.5 million vs 50 million. Heck, let's even say 4 million vs 40 million. That still means the game outsold Witcher 3 launch weekend sales with just 10% of the install base.

That's really impressive.

I do think out of the 160m Switch gamers the majority will not care about key cards, but ehthusiast early adopters will overly represented as stated above. And I do think this is one contributing factor to its success. Same for Rune Factory which seems to be doing quite well. Then again look at Fantasy Life i which is charting higher. Granted the upgrade price was just $2.49

I think there were a lot of very high quality, highly rated and well regarded games releasing at launch all at the same time. Combine that with a more expensive system ($500 for the bundle vs $360 for Switch 1 + Zelda), most people picking up a pro controller, camera or charge grip, a $60-200 microSD Express card, and then whatever funds remained after all of that were allotted to 3rd party.

And there's only so many games people can buy on one day. With Switch people bought Zelda and Fast RMX. And that was really all they could afford. With Switch 2, people bought Mario Kart and Cyberpunk 2077, and a bunch of people also bought Rune Factory, Fantasy Life i, Street Fighter 6, Fast Fusion, Split Fiction, Zelda BotW and TotK upgrades, that free Fortnite version for sure ate up a piece of the demographic, and various smaller slices of other games like Yakuza 0 and Hogwarts Legacy (a steal at $17.99 + $10 upgrade) lapped up the crumbs.

You can't have a dozen extremely high quality games. All released on the exact same day, people are spending eight hundred dollars on a console with accessories and expect all of them to sell extremely well. the system may be breaking records but let's keep in mind it's not at 150m yet. It's probably pushing to break 5m by month's end. So I'd say it's doing incredibly well all things considered.

But for the first two years, I'd do expect third party games, they're using key cards to see underwhelming sales. Once the console cracks 50m you're going to start seeing less and less of an effect. Well, by that point, many publishers may have changed their policy to capture as many sales as possible.

And of course the disappointing sale of key cards early on will tell publishers that customers are not interested in physical media.

I'm sure they're over-represented amongst early adopters but with literally millions of early adopters I still have doubts it's a dominant stance. Maybe it plays out into something more substantial but I have serious doubts. And there's little clear evidence of it being a thing yet

It's kinda like that last outrage about Pokemon Scarlet/Violet releasing in the state it did. Or any of the other times something similar had happened with game releases or supposed "anti-consumer" moves. These things make columns in the gaming media, people in places such as this make a noise. Probably it makes SOME difference. But more often than not it's just forum inches spent complaining about things that just end up being a rounding error for overall sales

I'm reminded of a thing that I think Reggie said years ago when talking about upcoming releases. Something along the lines of gamers being insatiable, fickle, unpredictable. I think he was more talking about how the gaming media and forum dwellers are only ever interested in the next thing. How it was impossible to satisfy people because as soon as an announcement is made or a game is released it's old news. I think the same applies to negative stories. People outrage about stuff but.... they very quickly move on

Ranking the 1st party games revealed so far by how well I think they'll sell:

1. Mario Kart World - I feel like this is pretty obvious
2. Donkey Kong Bananza - 3D platformer a month after launch, remember that DK Country 1 is the 3rd best selling game on SNES (only beaten by the Super Mario 2D games). I think this will end up being top 10 best sellers for Switch 2's lifetime.
3. Kirby Air Riders - Likely the big holiday title this year
4. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment - Zelda game, Link isn't in marketing yet and it doesn't have The LoZ in the title but still should beat the other games
5. Splatoon Raiders - Splatoon game, although being a spin-off it may not sell as well since this is presumably a single player game which isn't what majority of people play Splatoon for.
6. Drag X Drive - Not an established IP, game seemingly requires a full pair of Joy-Con 2 for each player, price will likely not draw many people in
7. Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour - Only so many people will buy a $10 manual

Now I'll rank Switch 2 Editions:

1. Pokemon Legends: Z-A - People will buy anything with Pokemon in title, this will be cross-gen so should get more sales than the rereleases
2. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond - Not the most popular IP but will be cross-gen so should still sell more than the rereleases.
3. Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Star-Crossed World - Added substantial new content (seemingly 11 GB of it?!), seems like a 3D World + Bowser's Fury type rerelease
4. Breath of the Wild - Didn't really add any new content, doesn't come with DLC and is still $70, overshadowed by MK World, most people already have this game, but some fans will still get it
5. Tears of the Kingdom - $80 and no substantial new content, most people who would get the game already did (or would buy BOTW instead)
6. Mario Party Jamboree + Jamboree TV - need $50 accessory to play most content, $80 Mario Party likely won't land for casual players, overshadowed by DK Bananza

As a random tangent, I kinda forget how early this all is and how much of an early adopter I am. It seems like I know the Switch 2 fairly well already having been talking about it for probably years now. So I kinda get taken back a bit when I bring up the Switch 2 and people ask how it is or whether it's worth it

I've kinda noticed how I respond to these comments, you know general non-Nintendo obsessives discussing it. Because that's certainly a new interaction I'm not as used to. Interesting discovering how that interaction plays out. It seems the main concerns more normies have right now are the same ones that always exist at console launches, price and games

What I've found myself telling people is that the Switch 2 is not worth the upgrade right now if you're playing in handheld mode. If you're in that position wait for more Switch 2 games because right now the OLED or Lite are overall better handheld devices. Which generally true of any new console, never buy a console at launch. But if you're playing on the TV and especially if you have a back catalogue of Switch games? The equation bends a bit and actually makes sense. The improved load times and enhanced output of some titles is comfortably worth it even now

Honestly, for me this is the first Nintendo console I've got at or near launch in a while where I could honestly recommend to people. A very slightly limited recommend, but a recommend. I would say the last console I could say that with would've been.... well maybe Switch, probably also Wii. But still

My point was less that "game key cards are definitively the main issue with Switch 2" and more "Cyberpunk being the best selling 3rd party game on Nintendo at any point ever is such an anomaly for 3rd party games on Nintendo that you have to note specific, unique aspects of its release, and actually being on cartridge is the first thing that comes to mind." I would struggle to name a second time that an M rated western 3rd party game was the stand out success at any moment in time on Nintendo. I know because I have Doom, one of the defining Switch ports, which did so well that Bethesda couldn't bother to release Eternal physically. (granted Doom might've done super well and Bethesda are just stupid, I could believe that, they're Bethesda)

Now obviously if Marvelous' games end up being notable hits, that would be a far bigger sign since those games are generally fairly niche in general, but I think either way, people will notice when they buy 4 3rd party games at a store and suddenly run out of space on the system.

@kkslider5552000
Two things I'd say to that. Firstly while it's hard to point out successful third party western M rated titles that have been outright launch successes on Nintendo hardware it's also just generally not something Nintendo hardware has got near launch. The Wii U had some, sure, but the Wii U is just generally an exception overall in every regard

Secondly, I think you're maybe a bit too stuck on the idea of what a Nintendo platform is. As are some publishers although it seems that's turning a bit. The audience for Switch (2) is not the same as the audience for Wii, Wii U, 3DS, DS etc. It contains that audience sure, but it extends beyond it. It's that PLUS some portion of the PSP/Vita/NGage/Steam Deck type users. It's them PLUS some of "higher fidelity" crowd now coming back as the diminishing curve hits. The Switch (2) audience is this weird coalition of users congealing around one platform

I don't think it should surprise at all that a broadly more popular game sells better on Switch 2 just as it has on every other platform. Because I don't think the Switch 2 audience is frankly that different at all from every other platform

I don't entirely disagree, but you look at the actual best selling Switch games, you still don't see M rated western 3rd party games. The best selling M rated games are Nintendo published/heavily pushed by Nintendo or ports of 10+ year old Resident Evil games, some of which still only sold around 1 million.

@kkslider5552000
Maybe, but I suspect now that we have a mainstream platform that cuts I to the "PS4 era" spec and even some ways into "PS5 era" with DLSS assistance the division to the extent that it exists will only get smaller. Especially as the "Nintendo platform audience" has evolved over the life of the Switch

These kinds of games were generally curiosities on Switch, they're a bit more just part of the experience on Switch 2

I've just watched the Digital Foundry video about their views on the Switch 2 and overall very positive but the screen was noted as being very poor and like you they just said something that will be sorted out with the next revision. It sort of feels like those who have a OLED original Switch perhaps modded so it can run faster have perhaps the best experience with Switch 1 games outside of emulation. Digital Foundry stated that HDR simply can't work on the panel due to its low brightness/contrast and no ability for local dimming etc its just an across the screen backlit. Also they stated the variable frame rate feature was not working properly either on most games but I guess that isn't directly the panel's fault. Overall the panel was stated as being inferior in many ways even to the panel originally shipped on the first revision of the Switch in some ways. I was not expecting that.

I don't really trust Digital Foundry and think they shouldn't be taken seriously after the many claims they made about Tears of the Kingdom being on the Switch Pro due to the clouds.. when the game wasn't even in their hands and they were judging that based off of a trailer.

Something worth sharing. Had a remote games-night last night with a couple of friends just to test GameChat out a bit more. Mostly Mario Kart, also Clubhouse Games which is now a staple. Good stuff all round but figured I'd venture a bit deeper and more experimental this time

Slightly disappointing but it seems you can't share your screen while playing Jackbox games. Which seems to me a HUGE miss for the feature. I'm not entirely sure why this would be the case but still. Disappointing

Hopefully whatever the issue is can be resolved with an update either to the game or the feature

I dunno about the other Marvelous game released at launch, but the Switch 2 physical edition of Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma requires a 12 GB download (which is something like two thirds of the size of the full game), so they certainly didn't keep their promise of having the full game on cartridge.

The Samsung 8Nm process is actually a mainly 10Nm process and I believe its why Intel called their 10Nm process 'Intel 7' because their process had greater transistor density and power efficiency yet Samsung were calling their mainly 10Nm process '8Nm'. In that Geekerwan video you can clearly see its more 10Nm than 8Nm. Digital Foundry are quite impressed with the efficiency of the Switch 2 but really we don't know what the clock rates are actually running at. Geekerwan gave the maximum figures for portable mode but of course it could be well below that in reality as the general speed of the console. They claimed I think about 1.3 Teraflops in portable mode but it could easily be less than 1 Teraflop maybe 800 Gflops in reality with DLSS delivering amazing AI upscaling. Lets not forget the Switch 2 is rendering as low as 640x360p before upscaling. An incredibly low resolution which surely would allow the Switch 2 to punch above its weight. Some Switch 2 games render at lower resolutions than Switch 1 games. I personally think the Switch 2 has to operate at below 1 Teraflop in portable mode to deliver the battery runtime it is providing on a mainly 10Nm process. However lets say 800 Gflops is still a huge figure for 640x360p. The original Switch was rendering at between 360-720p in portable mode but I guess the average was about 540p and that was with gflops around 90-140 in reality although the peak figure I think was maybe around 170 Gflops. If you applied that to Switch 2 it would be I guess around 600-1300Gflops. We don't know the real speed of the Switch 2 in portable mode we have only been given the theoretical peak figures by Geekerwan.

I always try to have multiple sources for information both positive and negative to get a full picture. Some youtube channels are incredibly positive almost acting like marketing for Nintendo where as other channels try to be realistic and then you have the downright haters of any system that isn't their personal favourite console. I feel Digital Foundry are one of the better youtube channels for fairness but that doesn't mean they get everything right. Of course the audience varies as well. Some people just want to hear good news about what they have purchased and others are interested in all news. I'm not a defender of any console brand I just want to know the reality of what is going on with different hardware. I don't want fake bad news or fake good news if you know what I mean. I think they are being fair about the display quality as I've seen that stated from many sources now that its disappointing overall but then I'm a bit confused whether all Switch 2s have the same display panel or its just some people are more forgiving than others. I thought I'd read there were 2 known display panels currently for Switch 2 of which one is definitely very poor quality.

@Polvasti
Are you KIDDING ME? They were hyping this Switch 2 version of Guardians of Azuma like nothing else before and they were not able to put full game on cartridge? If you need to update to play then its simply a key-cart not game-cart.

@BonzoBanana

I watched that video too, and even though I can sorta understand the technical explanations why they feel the Switch 2 screen is worse than the screen on the Switch 1 OLED, as a layperson I just can't agree with it. For the last two years I've played a lot in handheld mode on the OLED, and the Switch 2 screen certainly feels better than it: the larger size and resolution are a huge improvement, the colour palette looks wider and less "in your face", and while the blacks obviously can't be as dark as on OLED screen, they're dark enough that it doesn't really bother me.

As for the "ghosting" issue they mention as the biggest flaw of the Switch 2 screen, I haven't really noticed it at all, not even in side-scrolling 2D games like Dead Cells and Vampire Survivors. I don't doubt ghosting is a thing that exists with the Switch 2, but since the Digital Foundry folks' literal job is to pay close attention to issues like this, I feel they're simply way more sensitive to them and thus more likely to be affected by them than someone like me.

With Digital Foundry its hard to say how much is nitpicking.

In their SV coverage they noted DLSS artifacting on NPCs, but it was only distant NPCs and you had to zoom in and slow down to see it. So on one hand it's cool they noticed and on the other you're not gonna notice.

As for the screen, if they feel it's inferior they can always pay extra for that mythical VRR 120Hz 1080p OLED HDR10 panel.