Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@Ryu_Niiyama haha, have fun! I've been in mobile splatoon mode on any chance I've had to game, so the poor hrap is waiting patiently. In it's big red and gray box.

Fyi the box says not analog compatible. Not sure if that's standard for hyabusa stick units or not but i figured that might be if interest to you.

Did I completely miss this announcement?

So it's like Action 52 except good?

No, that's "Action 52 Owns".

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/Action52Owns

@Octane It's been mentioned on the main site -
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/08/ufo_50_brings_a_team... - but it's only announced for PC so far. Specific console formats yet to be announced.

They have more costs than the individual components though. After manufacturing, packaging, transportation, marketing and retailers cut, I would be surprised if there is any profit at all.

@Therad There was a summarisation of the profitability of the Switch on Forbes around the launch period, and the Switch is virtually breaking even at this moment in time, which is why the success of Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Arms and Splatoon 2 are important (in terms of revenue/profit) at this early stage.

What Nintendo has done well is being able to secure those Tegra X1 chips for a hefty reduced rate, given that Nvidia produced one too many for tablets (such as Google Nexus) and the SHIELD tablet and TV device.

In the long run, the SoC cost will be consistently low, and the actual manufacting process will gradually become less dearer too. I reckon the Switch will see genuine profitability in a years time, and with the paid Nintendo online bobbins being introduced early next year, Nintendo are likely to add a new swimming pool inside their HQ.

Since when was the N64 a 'failure'..? ..because of the cartridges they used to clamp down on piracy??

Strange post... :/

Lumo's getting a physical release according to the Koch Media website...

https://shop.kochmedia.com/shop/de_DE/productdetail.html?medi...

@NaviAndMii Although I wouldn’t personally call the N64 a failure, it did sell considerably less than the SNES beforehand (47% fewer overall sales, in fact). Also, a certain other debutant console, the PSone, went on to sell >103 million around the world. That’s a shy over two thirds more than the N64, which sold a little under than 33 million when all was said and done.

Still, there were nearly two and a half times as many N64 consoles in people’s homes compared to the Wii U so, if the follow up to the Wii is heralded a ‘failure’ then the N64 looks like a moderate success story!

Hopefully the Switch is able to pass the N64 (33 million) and get as close to the SNES (62 milllion) as possible in the coming years.

@Peek-a-boo Oh sure, I appreciate that...all of my friends at school had PlayStation's - and I was the lone N64 kid! ..had its advantages - my house was the place to be for 4-player GoldenEye etc - but I imagine that that trend wasn't unique to my friendship group (#N64KidsOfTheWorldUnite!)

I just found it a little bit over the top to call it a 'failure' (and then to blame it solely on the cartridges!) :/ ..the Dreamcast was a failure (for reasons I've never fully understood!), the WiiU was a failure, the Ouya was a failure - the N64 surely shouldn't be considered in the same bracket?

The N64 wasn't a failure though one of its biggest problems was the use of the cartridges over discs, one of the factors that led to the beginning of the "Nintendo is anti-3rd party" era.

'No loading times' is not a problem in my gamer's rule book. Nothing to do with storage, CDs won because they were cheap as air to produce.

Calling the N64 a failure because it sold less than the PS1 isn't relevant. Sony was a huge megacorp before entering the console market and they bought a large part of the industry by getting exclusivities with the trendsetters of that time: Square, Namco, the Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Wipeout sequels, which is totally normal. When you're stronger than competitors you use that advantage. A tiny company like Nintendo or any other companies on the consoles market at that time couldn't compete with that. And it went really bad for Sega. When Sony sell more than Nintendo it's normal. When Nintendo sell more than Sony something is going weird. Nintendo can't compete with Sony on the budget field so they have to play the wise guy.
The N64 sold less than the Snes but they sold much more Nintendo games on it. I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo considered the N64 as a biggest success than the Snes. With the N64 they took a step above being a publisher, they became a universe. And the symbol of that is probably the Smash Bros series that started on this console.
That and being able to make playable 3D games for that time when cameras in videogames were a huge plague, saved them from the megacorps like Sony and Microsoft. Not sure how long it will last.

The N64 was still successful for Nintendo's bottom line, but it did "lose" pretty handily to the Playstation. But I'm like many of you guys: I owned an N64 and loved it, so I understand people getting prickly when it is called a "failure."

However, if you can step back and try to look at things objectively, the N64 was the beginning of Nintendo's downward swing in terms of proliferation AND perception. This is about the time that the "kiddie" moniker was applied to Nintendo, and with the success of the PS1 and its grittier games like Metal Gear as well as its close relationship with Square that brought classics like FF7, Chrono Cross, Vagrant Story, etc., Nintendo was being pushed more and more into a corner and wasn't getting the games people were used to with the NES and SNES (GameBoy/handheld brand would always be strong, as we're still seeing).

But yea, the N64 heralded a swing in the industry. Part of it was Nintendo's fault, but really it was due to Sony's pretty genius marketing and developer relationships with the first Playstation. Losing the mainline Final Fantasy entries alone was a big blow, and I still can't believe Nintendo let that happen (Square says it was due 100% to technical limitations of the cartridges on N64). And then we all know what happened with Gamecube, and then Wii ("success" on paper, but no change in messaging for future growth), and then rock bottom with the Wii U.

Fanboy judgments are always funny. A console is only a "failure" if it ultimately lost money and eroded player trust for the company who manufactured it. Only Nintendo consoles I can think of that could possibly qualify are the Virtual Boy (which they cut loose pretty quickly) and the Wii U. And I say this as someone who dislikes the N64 and considers the PS1 to be the best home console ever made.

I would expect the Switch to sell at least as well as the SNES, if not better, thanks to the fact that it's also going to also be Nintendo's handheld console this gen. Nintendo portables, even the least appealing ones, still tend to sell better than their home consoles. Pokemon is going to bring in millions of new users on its own once it releases.

Personally I think the Switch will sell between 30 and 40 million in its lifetime. Yes that's low but after the disaster that was the Wii U, that's also impressive.

The Switch is selling well this year because of the hype that surrounds it but as a lot of people have stated across the internet, what of 2018? That's the big question? Can Nintendo keep this momentum going? Nintendo haven't even announced what's actually coming next year outside of 2 short previews and a name (Kirby, Yoshi and Fire Emblem) and if you want people to buy into a system, they need to know what the future holds.

@bitleman I don't think they bought any exclusive rights back in the day. That didn't start with Microsoft last generation; the entire concept of paying a publisher for exclusive rights.

The N64 cartridges were expensive to produce, up to $20 a piece in some cases. The result was that N64 games were up to $30 more expensive than most PS1 games. I think that was the biggest reason why people preferred the PS1 over the N64 at the time, gaming on a PS1 was just a lot cheaper.

@Octane Here in the UK it was partly due to how easy the PS1 was to hack. I think most people over here hacked the console and illegally copied games. In fact I just bought one for £40 on eBay able to play copied games from any region.

We need to accept that Nintendo will always have the smallest market share now. Now that can be many 10s of millions but they will always be a distant 5th behind Microsoft, Sony, PC and Mobile.