Topic: Anyone expect another "Wii 2008" moment with the Switch?

E3 2008 was an infamous moment for Nintendo fans. At that event the company showed nothing but casual games, and almost nothing in their classic established franchises, with the biggest train-wreck being the showcase of Wii Music. For a brief period, many were concerned that Nintendo was out to destroy hardcore gaming, and abandon their supposed "true fans" with the Wii and pander only to the stereotyped granny and soccer-mom crowd, of course Nintendo put those fears to rest a year later, but you couldn't blame them for being worried.

I'm all for Nintendo standing up for casual gamers, and appealing to people outside the stereotypical "gamer" demographic, but they went WAAAAAYY overboard with E3 2008, and it remains one of the darkest marks on their reputation.

With the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo looks to be taking a lot more risks with their games, and has refined their approach to casual gaming. From giving Mario and Zelda a much needed overhaul, to making traditionally competitive and demanding genres more accessible to newcomers like Splatoon and ARMS, to truly original ideas like 1-2 Switch and Snipperclips. Nintendo has certainly become a bolder, louder, and more experimental developer than they were back in 2012. But I wonder if the success of some of these games will eventually go to their head. And in turn, cause the company to take even more risks with their games. With their games becoming even weirder, more unconventional, more experimental as the Switch's life progresses.

For me, that wouldn't be a bad thing, as I loved Dreamcast-era Sega, so another mainstream developer with that same level of ballsy creativity wouldn't be a bad thing in my book. But I fear some hardcore fans of Nintendo might lash out against something like that. I feel many would complain Nintendo's games have become too weird and gimmicky, and that the company isn't making enough core focused traditional games to offset. Do you feel there would be a backlash if Nintendo started to become too experimental for their own good?

BOTW seems to be the best Zelda (game?) ever. With Odissey they're returning to a 64/Sunshine type of Mario. Xenoblade 2 is all but casual. FE is coming to Switch. Skyrim is coming to Switch. Disgaea 5 is coming to Switch. SMT is coming to Switch.

Doesn't seem too much casual to me

No. I expect Nintendo to learn from their mistakes, like any good company that wants to continue to make money.

This would require Nintendo to have an E3 conference

Part of what made E3 2008 bad was that most of the big games for Nintendo in 2008 came out in the first half of the year. It was an issue of pacing more than anything else. In the few months before that disaster of a conference we got Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Wii Fit, Advance Wars and Professor Layton. The rest of that year? It was Animal Crossing, Wario Land and Wii Music.

I think if there's one thing that's clear about the Switch it's that Nintendo are spreading their releases out. They have one big first party game coming out every month. Or at least it looks like they're doing that. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Splatoon 2 and Arms could all be launch games based on how polished they look. But they're not because if they released them all on day 1 there'd be no new games for April, May and June.

I think it would depend on if 1-2-Switch takes off like Wii Sports did. Which it almost certainly won't.

Barring 1,2 Switch (It just seems like they're "milking it"), the casual games Nintendo showcased for the Switch show much more promise and depth than Wii Music ever did. SnipperClippers and ARMS are "casual games" I wouldn't mind having. I wouldn't mind a "Switch Sports" or a new Warioware either.
One can make a game that is easy to pick up and play and still be very challenging and fun for the seasoned gamer. Nintendo knows how to make such games. Case in point, Mario Kart.

@Samurai_Goroh I'm not sold on Arms. It doesn't seem to be a game that translates well through gameplay footage/trailers. It just looks basic. I know people who played it generally say it's got a lot more to it, and is actually quite complex... but that doesn't show in the footage I've seen.

Not usually too smart to judge gameplay based on footage. I thought Dark Souls 3 wouldn't be very hard, since I had seen some footage of people playing and I figured I could handle it pretty easily since I play Monster Hunter which is also pretty difficult and has a similar style of combat, but I was very mistaken. The combat in that game has a lot more going on than I originally thought, so I wouldn't be surprised if it were the same case with Arms, albeit to a much lesser degree than games like Dark Souls.

I said the same thing about Splatoon and Hyrule Warriors, and I clocked several hundred hours between them.

I highly doubt it - but I also don't think this is necessarily a bad thing.

Let's not forget that the Wii essentially turned the industry on its head, because it re-wrote the rules of what it meant to be a video games console. Nintendo captured an audience that previously would never have even considered video games to be a sensible or worthy pass time, and they did it through a combination of lifestyle branding, ease of use and competitive pricing. Before this watershed moment, all video games consoles were essentially glorified toys for different kinds of people, each company - Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony - rubbing off of one-another to find their audience's level of maturity and experience.

In the time following Wii and up to Switch, the video games industry has changed dramatically. Technologies innovated from other industries have blurred the boundaries of what it means to design and own a video games console and, truth be told, Nintendo are the first of the 'big three' to seize this potential with Switch.

I believe Switch will be extremely popular within the climate of the current industry (i.e that the industry as a whole is entirely different to what it was 10 years ago), but to suggest that it will ship as many units as Wii is cloud thinking. The Wii was simply a more revolutionary product that captured peoples imaginations.

Just to reiterate; I think Switch is (looking like) an exceptional product, and I can't wait to get mine.

2008 was a bad year for the Wii (although Mario Kart Wii was one of my top 5 favorite games that year and is still one of my favorite entries in the series) but 2007, 2009 and 2010 all saw plenty of great games for the 'core' as well as the 'casual' gamer. If this year is the Switch's 2008, who cares? It's the launch year anyway, nobody expects tremendous game after tremendous game, just a few here and there. If this is going to be the worst things get for Switch, like 2008 was the worst it got for Wii in the prime of its run, then I'd say the system is going to be in very good shape.

Nintendo is super core adult now. Why else would that soccer mom in the switch promo be playing that jerking off game?