Topic: Nintendo Switch 2

While it's very bad for a new console to end up with a big 1st party game drought, having experienced the massive 1st party Switch game drought of 2025 (the gap between XCX on March 20th and Galaxy 2 on October 2nd) without having a Switch 2, I think if I had bought Wii U at launch instead of 10 months after launch I still would've had a lot of fun with it despite the infamous drought between launch and Summer 2013.

3rd party games and backlog really carried that Switch 1st party drought and it was still a very fun experience so I reckon if I had a Wii U at launch I would've delved more into Wii stuff I hadn't played before at that point in time (e.g. Super Paper Mario, Wario Land Shake Dimension, Pikmin 1 and 2), bought a bunch of 3rd party games on Wii U (e.g. Sonic Transformed, Arkham City) instead of 360 and still had a lot of fun.

We'll get precise answers in the next quarterly report from Nintendo in February, so there's still room for another month of intense speculation.

In the meantime, I can appeal that we don't leap to conclusions based on fragmentary evidence, but I don't really expect that to stop people.

It certainly won't stop the youtubers.

It will be interesting to get the full picture in a month

The most amusing thing about this "sales tank" bit is that November sales for Switch 2, while not amazing, were still higher than every month outside of launch. And by "the PS5 outsold it" they mean "for the first time since launch in NA in the month PS typically performs best"

It also ignores that:
1. The Switch 2 is still outpacing the Switch
2. Console sales across the board are soft ATM and one of the main reasons PS is still doing ok is because XBox effectively no longer exists

But even more amusingly, as I keep saying, is the idea that people think that sales even matter. I'm just here because the hardware is neat. I buy gaming hardware to play games, it seems that some people buy them for other reasons

They're just butthurt their favored console is getting outshined, like the boy that gets jealous their new baby brother is getting all the attention from mommy.

That's honestly what it is. Hate to be so blunt, but there's no other motivation which explains such a radical obsession and exaggeration over something that doesn't even affect any of us anyways. Like, why do you care so much to go out of your way to randomly start preaching doom, getting all emotional about it? What does it matter to you? Oh, right. It's about trying to stroke that damaged ego. Done walking on eggshells with these people. Calling a spade a spade.

If Switch 2 goes 12 full months and struggles to sell more than 5-10m globally in that time span, Nintendo drops price and it still sees no increase, and we start getting statements from 3rd parties about dropping support, by all means sound the alarm. Until then, sit back, relax, and just enjoy some freaking video games!

I had a thought about GameShare. So right now it's a pretty niche feature with few use cases, mostly serving just as a party trick as of now, but I could see it becoming pretty popular when the Switch 2 Lite model inevitably releases.

When the feature was first revealed in the NS2 Direct, it was presented as an alternative to playing games in traditional couch co-op. The problem: couch co-op is just better, so GameShare wouldn't see much use for more people. That said, with a Switch 2 Lite that cannot play in couch co-op, GameShare suddenly becomes the best way for Lite owners to play multiplayer games with friends at social gatherings or online.

@UpsideDownRowlet
The difference is, GameShare allows playing local wireless with only one copy of the game. Even a NS2 Lite would be able to do local wireless, but it would still require 2 copies of the game.

GameShare also works online. So you can play with someone anywhere in the world using only one copy of the game.

There's also the fact you don't even need another NS2 to play local wireless via GameShare. You can use any NS1, be it a standard model, OLED or a Switch Lite.

I don't foresee every game using it, since it does likely cut into sales, but if enough utilize the feature it can still be compelling. Right now Split Fiction offers GameShare, which is critical given the game requires 2 players. And games like WWE 2K25, Super Mario 3D World, Marvel Cosmic Invasion and Fast Fusion allow competitive/cooperative multi-player via GameShare as well.

But ya, I would like to see as many games implement the feature as possible, and agree it could be a legit gamechanger.

I just think of it as a backdoor for some of the Wii U ideas no longer possible. Obviously something along the lines of Nintendo Land if that happened. But also stuff like making levels in Super Mario Maker with the GamePad and having a second player test them out

Some of the single player Wii U stuff obviously would be clunky and maybe a bit much. You can't expect a single user to have two consoles. And I'm not putting my Switch OLED on the ground to play Switch Sports Golf. But for the asymmetric multiplayer stuff? Why not?

@FishyS

I meant independent. As for the articles you mentioned, I haven't seen them. But I believe you, I might have missed them.

Another example of this site being not independent: When they knew Mariokart world was a bit dissapointing they came VERY late with their review, and gave it a 8 (they probably wouldn't dare scoring it lower). Probably direct orders from Nintendo, many other outlets already had their reviews of the game out before Nintendolife did.

@JaxonH

Admittedly that doesn't sound all that bad and Nintendo might still be on track with their sales overall. I just pointed out that I find it curious that I never saw articles about "weaker" sales on this site, while I get bombarded with it on Youtube.

@skywake Mario Chase Ultimate Deluxe - the Switch 2 GameShare killer app. GoTY 2026.

@Henmii
Well keep in mind, many Youtubers grift by exaggerating and sensationalizing (much like mainstream media) for views. Controversy benefits them. So you really have to guard yourself against being propagandized.

And I don't mean that in an insulting way. We are ALL susceptible to it. But once you realize 80% of information sources aren't providing an unbiased, balanced perspective, it's hard not to see it clear as day afterward.

It's not that they're "lying". They'll provide facts, but they'll omit crucial context in order to steer the viewer's conclusions. Why? Because if they added that context it wouldn't be newsworthy. It wouldn't be controversial. It wouldnt generate clicks.

The age of the internet is one of the best things to happen as it enables all of us to access information previously doled out by gatekeepers. On the other hand, it's one of the worst things to happen as it's rife with misinformation, exaggeration, propaganda, sensationalism and greed-driven agendas.

That's why, if you hear news about sales, for example, the first thing to do afterward is say OK, what context am I missing? They say sales are down in the US its first November. But how well did Switch 1 perform its first November? That information seems kinda relevant. How well did it do vs prior months? That seems kinda relevant. Is the drop statistically significant? That seems kinda relevant. Are the sales still in line with their Mar 31st projections? That seems kinda relevant. How well did Switch historically perform in the holiday months- was November its peak month or was it December? That seems kinda relevant.

These are the questions demanding answers to come to a proper understanding of the situation. And you won't get those answers from the vast majority of Youtubers, websites or news outlets. You have to put in the work. The answers are out there, but you have to pursue them.

And then, consider the worst case scenario. Let's pretend Switch 1 actually sold double that of Switch 2 its first November, and the performance was a clear-cut shortfall of up to 2 million units globally. They just underperformed, without question. OK.

What are the implications of such an outcome? Switch 2 sells 17 million in its first 10 months instead of 19 million? Ok... and this matters in the big scheme of things how, exactly? It's all manufactured. The hysteria, that is.

I've been on this site for years, and they intentionally waited to post their review after properly playing the game - the review is simply another person's opinion, and I wouldn't discredit how Alana feels about the game she reviewed. NintendoLife gave the game a 9, while it sits at 8.6 on Metacritic. There's also plenty of sections in the review with second opinions by various staff members...did you read it? It's not all roses and rainbows. Ultimately, I come here for reviews because my opinions line up pretty closely with those on staff here. They score a little higher than most, but that's how I would generally score Nintendo games as well. After reading your comments, what are you getting at? Do you want a discussion on the Switch 2, or a discussion on how NintendoLife leans positive on... Nintendo?

And being bombarded by negativity on youtube...that tracks, it's kind of what it is designed to do.... drama/negativity drives clicks. There's enough negativity in the world, this place is refreshingly nice, usually, as people here like to focus on the positives. It's not clickbait, but it's meaningful to those of us who regularly come here.

Many outlets also had reviews slightly later than Nintendo Life. NL was somewhere in the middle. Fundamentally, Nintendo didn't hand out super early review copies like they normally do since it was new hardware. So pretty much every venue took a few days or a week post-release to review. Nintendo Life took 6 days... Nintendo is their main topic so they decided to do a more detailed review rather than skim the game like some of the other sites did.

Ironically, with early review copies Nintendo does tell them what day they can release their reviews on, so this was the rare case where Nintendo wasn't setting their timeline.

For what it's worth, Nintendo Life gave MKW a 9/10, not a 8/10. I know you will just use that as further evidence of the scenario in your head but I believe it was an honest review by the reviewer. Metacritic gave the game 86/100 so Nintendo Life is in the normal range. More generally, metacritic rated 20 Nintendo games in 2025 and Nintendo Life gave a score anove the average 12 times and below the average 8 times. So it's not like NL is always scoring high even with a staff filled with people who likely enjoy Nintendo games.

Also, note that Nintendo Life has ethics and publication rules including ones against conflicts of interest. One of the main rules is 'The editorial team at Nintendo Life operates independently from the commercial team, and its reporting is never influenced by our commercial interests.'

As much as I distrust aggregates, there are some mathematical truths to point out.

If Mario Kart World has an average of 86 (I know it's weighted but, I don't imagine the arithmetic mean is too far off- not like it's gonna be a 72 or something), that means roughly 50% of review outlets rated it higher. And since the vast majority of review sites don't extend scores into the decimal range, that means about half of all reviews scored Mario Kart World a 9 or 10... just as high if not higher than Nintendo Life.

On that basis alone, their review is not even remotely out of the norm.

You could also calculate standard deviation and inner-quartile-range of the scores to determine the thresholds of outlier reviews, and I guarantee NintendoLife falls within expected norms. I don't have the time or patience to calculate it myself but, if you wanted to provide evidence their score is biased, you'd have to show their score lies outside 3 standard deviations from the mean, or outside 1.5x the Inner-Quartile-Range from the median.

I'd bet any amount of money neither is true.

edit
Eh, screw it. Here's the box-plot with a median score of 86.5, meaning NintendoLife actually scored it dead on within the expected inner-quartile-range. There's absolutely no grounds for an accusation of bias. None. On the contrary, all evidence suggests the opposite.

And here's the histogram, with an arithmetic mean of 86.2.

Bias? Greed? Self preservation?

Welcome to being human.

I also don't buy this brewing narrative that Mario Kart World is this horrible game. It does some things different that rubs some people who just wanted 8 again the wrong way. Sure. But it's certainly not a "bad" game or a "bad" Mario Kart

Even with all the whine, as someone who has played all three of the decently good arcadey style racing games on Switch 2? (Kart, Fast Fusion, Kirby) As someone who is a huge fan of that genre? (see my avatar choice) I would say Mario Kart World is the best of the three. Pretty comfortably

Mario Kart World is like what happens when a band gets a huge commercially and critically acclaimed album. And then follows it up with something a bit different. Doesn't matter how good Kid A is, the normies wanted OK Computer 2.0

opencritic doesn't use weights and they gave it an 87.

I think the only arguably out-there score Nintendo Life gave recently was Welcome Tour with 8/10. The metacritic score was 54 and Nintendo Life was the very highest rating. Although the distribution of those scores is very wide so that 8/10 is within your 2 standard deviations. It would in fact be impossible to be 3 sigmas above the mean because that would be more than 10/10 😆 Interestingly, 2 sigmas above the mean for Mario Kart World is 99.3. So 3 sigmas is impossible again but above 2 sigmas just barely is.

It would be kind of interesting to look at years of games combined to get more meaningful statistics but I am too lazy.

After the various player review bombing I had actually forgotten that there were essentially no negative official reviews and almost all of them were extremely positive (only 6 reviews below 8/10).

I feel like people whine if a Nintendo game isn't an amazing near-perfect 10/10 best in generation game. Nintendo's own success has caused insane expectations.

@skywake you have now peaked my interest in what you think about both fast fusion and air riders.

I wasn't the one asked, but I have some... opinions, of racing games.

I think Mario Kart World is the 3rd best racer I've ever played, behind only Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Cruis'n Blast. It's a phenomenal game. When I hear someone imply it's not, I just scratch my head. As with Metroid Prime 4, I see it as people judging a game for what it's not as opposed to what it is.

Fast Fusion is excellent in its own right. Especially for the price. Best futuristic racer that's not F-Zero I've ever played.

Kirby Air Riders... wasn't a fan. Except for Top Ride mode. Thought I'd like it but, I just didn't.

I expect Mario Kart World to eventually match Mario Kart 8 Deluxe after it receives all its updates and DLC expansions. It's way better than Mario Kart 8 was when it initially launched on Wii U. But Cruis'n Blast, that's the game I feel is most underrated. And a shout out to Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed.