Topic: Anybody else feel like the switch is in a slump?

@Zeldafan79 It's very melodramatic to say the Switch is on it's last legs. There's 2 Pokemon games and Splatoon 3 with a vague release window to comfirm continued support and Ninty never really goes over the top with what's coming long term anyway.

Not especially, although the first year may have set somewhat unrealistic expectations by Nintendo having some major new release (or Wii U port) lined up at least once a month. I certainly play my Switch a bit less than before (outside my daily AC & RFA schedule) but that's more that I'm playing catch-up with a ton of stuff on PS4, 3DS & PC I never found time for, than the Switch feeling like its particularly lacking new stuff.

@Zeldafan79

The Switch is on it's last legs? We're only just into year five here.

You do realize the average lifespan for a console platform is seven years, right?

@Zeldafan79
I'm not even waiting for AAA games.
I will not missing something.
I don't play Zelda games, i don't play Metroid games, i don't like AAA games by mostly, i'm different kind of gamer.
I only pick any games that caught my attention, must have physical, doesn't matter if they are shovelwares or obscure games.
Recently, my attention is on hunting the obscure games that i have never played before or old games that whether i have ever knew before or i have ever played before long time ago.

@Raylax Stupid question, what game is RFA?

@jump Ring Fit Adventure

@Raylax Ah, gotcha. I keep intending to look into getting it for myself but it seems abit too high of a price for a game I may get bored with quickly and the stock shortages puts me off.

There you have it. The "problem" (I didn't want to use this word...) is you. Recently I got Bravely Default II and Monster Hunter Rise. They are not first party games and probably won't stay exclusive (for MHRise PC launch is confirmed), but they are available on Switch. Maybe they are not to your personal liking, but it does not mean the platform is lacking good games. Plus we already have some major releases confirmed, albeit some without any estimated date.

Nothing will top the year 1 momentum of the Switch, it was so new and mysterious that it made everyone feel childlike joy. I remember being so excited for every new game coming out, it was amazing.

Yeah, if you can get yourself into a habit with it there's certainly plenty of content and worth the money - with 20-30 minutes daily exercise time (which is about an hour in real time) it can be up towards a full year to 100% the thing (I've been playing daily since the end of December and I'm yet to finish the first run of Adventure Mode), but its not the deepest thing. I bought it when it first launched and dropped off after a few weeks, and then later basically guilted myself into picking it up again lol

I have been playing my Switch less though part of that is about post-launch support of games. I don't want Nintendo to go the Games as a Service route but the early Switch era is a good example of Nintendo supporting their games post-launch well. Splatoon 2 with the free content updates and Octo Expansion, XC2 with the expansion pass, Smash Ultimate with the Fighter Passes, etc.

Meanwhile looking at post-launch support recently. Smash Ultimate seems to be coming to an end (2 fighters left), Animal Crossing updates seem to have stopped (there was always a tease when the next update would be but nothing in the Sanrio update trailer), Mario Maker 2 Ninji Speedruns are over now in addition to the final content update having been in April 2020, Sword/Shield expansion pass finished in October 2020, etc.

The upcoming game lineup is fine but I feel what made the early Switch era so special was you had strong lineup supported by strong post-launch content like in December 2017 you had:

• XC2 (new game release)
• FE Warriors DLC
• Splatoon 2 major update (the one that added Clam Blitz among more maps, weapons and gear)
• ARMS update (the one that added Dr. Coyle and some other stuff)
• BotW Champions Ballad DLC

There may have been more that month but that's what I remember.

First party-wise, they've not really been firing on all cylinders since launch, but I've mostly enjoyed what we've gotten.

Third party support is strong, though. Probably stronger than it has ever been for a Nintendo console since the release of the N64. We're getting interesting new exclusives all year long in addition to multiplats and the usual indie stuff, so my plate will remain full for the foreseeable future.

It's a different dynamic, but not one I necessarily mind, since I'm not one of those people who only buys Nintendo consoles for Nintendo games.

@Grumblevolcano You are right. I don't get why Nintendo stopped with post launch support of their games. Early on the Switch life basically all their new games got some kind of post launch support. ARMS, Splatoon 2, Zelda BoTW, Fire Emblem Warriors and Xenoblade 2 all got some kind of update.

True, Mario Odyssey didn't get much and ARMS only got free DLC characters but still. Now we have games like Super Mario Party, a game that sold (and it still selling) really well, in fact it will problably be the best selling Mario Party game (if it isn't already)... And they did nothing with it. Not even some free DLC bonuses like Mario Maker 2 got. That game is probably the best example of this issue.

With Animal Crossing they had more momentum with updates than Mario Maker 2 for a while but since the Festivale one everything slowed down.
Mario Maker 2 tho I would defend. I believe the free updates it got were actually quite substantial. I think mainly that, due to not having the novelty factor and being a game that focus more on the creation of levels (something a lot of people can't get into), it was more difficult to get momentum. Also it's just weird how they left free spaces for added game styles and did nothing in the end.

@Ralizah

FTFY

The strongest since N64? The N64 had what...a little over 400 games?

The Switch has over 5,000 to pick from.

(Granted a healthy chunk of those are mobile shovelware trash, but still.)

@Magician No, my initial statement was correct.

I specified "the release of the N64" because, IMO, the N64 was where Nintendo's third party support dropped off like a rock. Actually, that gen was probably Ninty's worst on the third party front. PS1 ate the N64 alive.

Anyway, more games are being made now, so the Switch is getting more games, but it's not getting the same quality of third party support as the NES and SNES. Nintendo was at the forefront of the industry back then, so most of the biggest games on the market went to their console. That's just not true right now, with the Switch missing out on the vast, vast majority of AAA releases that hit other consoles.

So, no, I don't accept the premise that Nintendo's third party support is better than it has ever been.

@Ralizah Honestly? Thinking about it I could say we are in a "slump" in terms of first party Nintendo games.
The first year they went all out due to them wanting to get momentum right of the gate. After that we usually get one or two games early on the year and a couple of big ones in the holiday season.
2018 had Let's Go and Smash, 2019 had Luigi's Mansion 3 and SWSH and 2020 had... Hyrule Warriors and not much more.
Besides now we still don't know the holiday 2021 game aside from the Pokemon gen 4 remakes (which are big, don't get me wrong, but that's all we have dated for this holiday to my knowledge).
We know they are working on games. BoTW2 is a thing, Prime 3 maybe will get announced some year, Pikmin 4 is "almost done", the 3D Mario team is also working on something and (even if it's not Nintendo) Bayonetta 3 is appearntly going well... But we still don't know much about those games or when they will came out.
But, to be honest? I'm just fine in terms of Switch games. In fact, I have an ever increasing backlog of indie games and some old ports that I still have to play. But it's odd still. Wonder if the pandemic is caching up to Nintendo at this point since probably a lot of last year games were developed pre COVID.

Fair enough. Although it always makes me wonder what today's gaming landscape would look like if Nintendo continued their partnership with Sony and shipped the CD add-on for the SNES. Nintendo might have continued their dominance of the console market to this day. Then again, they might've turned into a defunct platform holder like Sega, dead too soon.

@Magician The comparason of number of games is unfair considering how much more difficult it was to publish games in general back then. A big part of those Switch games are indie games and digital games in general. And back in the N64 days you needed a publisher that could put copies to a sizable number of retailers to get meaningful sales since the eShop and online shopping wasn't a thing.

I don't know the numbers but I wouldn't be surprised if the PS2 (the best selling home console of all time right now) didn't have that many games sold compared to recent consoles that still don't have PS2 numbers in hardware sold. Although (again) it's an unfair comparason.

@jowe_gw

I don't believe it was that much harder to publish games in the N64 days. It had more to do with Nintendo no longer being the market leading platform holder in the mid '90s as they were in the NES days. Since Sony with the PS1 was the market leader they got the bulk of the third party support. Never mind the cartridge format was much more expensive than the disc format, which didn't help entice publishers to put their games on N64.

@Magician It's impossible to know. People like to pretend it would have been a total success seeing what happened with Playstation but maybe if Nintendo was added into the mix it would't have had the same success.
And it's also easy to say that Nintendo was wrong in hindsight but back then Sony was not a player in the videogame console market and there were plenty of cases of outside companies entering the market and failing spectacularly too. And there is an alternate dimension out there were the Playstation failed and Philips got market dominance in the videogame industry.

Besides this direction Nintendo has nowadays came because the N64 and the GameCube were more traditional consoles that were closer to the power of it's competitors but got worse sales. The GameCube is honesltly sad when you look back at it's numbers. So Nintendo thought making a less powerful and cheaper hardware using gimmicks and new control methods could be a better direction, then the Wii happened. A console that broke Nintendo's lower sales trend in their home consoles.