Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

We're debating the nature of the Switch? I thought it was self-evident.

The thing's clearly a toaster. Look at the dock! The Switch itself is the toast.

Kidding, but it makes as much sense as Nintendo forcing the portable market on us.

@Grumblevolcano That would be surprising. I can only assume that the contract was put together before Nintendo had revealed the Switch to be what it was, and certainly before anyone would have known how successful it was to be in the first year, that somehow gave Nintendo the chance to promote it. Is the advert mainly showing it off in handheld mode? That would be the only way around the exclusivity surely.

@skywake I'm not worried about anything

I think it's portable because it is in every sense of the word:

portable
/ˈpɔːtəb(ə)l/
adjective
1. able to be easily carried or moved, especially because being of a lighter and smaller version than usual.

I can carry it around, that's what matters. And if I choose to play it in docked mode 95% of the time, that doesn't change the device. It's still the same. That doesn't make it any less portable, I can always pick it up and take it somewhere else.

Re FIFA:
News at eleven: EA are cheapskates and tries to unload marketing on to the console holders. More after today's top story, does bears poop in the woods?

From a pure technical standpoint it is a portable gaming device. In the same vein as a laptop with a dock isn't an hybrid computer. The rest is marketing.

@Therad It's the fact that the Switch is a handheld, or has the ability to be a handheld, that has me intrigued over the way FIFA 18 is being allowed to be advertised on TV by Nintendo when Sony has exclusive rights to show the game on its own as pointed out by @BLP_Software. So does that mean Sony's contract doesn't extend to portably devices? If so was that an oversight or something Nintendo managed to snag themselves?

@Octane
I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm just saying that the way all of these terms are being rigidly applied is a bit stupid. Sure if people want to call it a hybrid then that's a cool word to use for it. But tech has always had this habit of blurring/outgrowing our neat little categories. At some point we'll get something that's somewhere between a hybrid console and a PC or something and we again won't have a neat box for it.

And if we really wanted to be super pedantic about terms then why not go all out? The Switch is definitely a portable machine. As you said it can be carried. It's also definitely a machine designed to be played at home as opposed to at an arcade. But in the broadest sense the PS4, SNES Mini and GBA are also both of those things.

How do you know Sony have exclusive marketing rights?

@UmniKnight sorry, then I misunderstood you. I got the impression you were really worried. And I don't think we have to worry until we hear what their next hardware is going to be.

@Therad I tend to lose myself in arguments, tis true. I simply value a good big screen experience and a nice pro-controller, and it'd be sad to see this option disappear from Nintendo's platforms and games, no matter the factor that would cause it. The Switch is probably the best, albeit for now only, compromise between handheld and home-console, even if the compromises mean the machine itself loses in strength and storage via cartridges and limited space. I understand that Nintendo has a hard time supporting 2 platforms with their games, and that this is one of the few ways they can still have a piece of the home-console market, while leveraging their handheld supremacy. I can only hope they will retain their interest in the home-console market, and that there are enough that use the Switch as I do to maintain it's lucrativeness to Nintendo.

@Therad http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2017/06/fifa_18_partners_with_...

@BLP_Software It's amazing how we can go for months without knowing something like this. I wish I read japanese.

@BLP_Software I don't see anything about exclusive marketing. And we can safely say they don't if they can show switch commercials.

I seen Switch commercials at the movies last night. Advertising Pokken, Splatoon2 and a 5 minute feature on Super Mario Odyssey.

Heh, so what I take from this, 1,2, Switch has almost completely disappeared from advertisement?

Is evolving your product a bad thing?

Where would we be if Nintendo hadn't abandoned its Hanafuda card heritage?

I remembered another Direct possibility, a season pass announcement for Fire Emblem Warriors with pre-Awakening teases. It's the only way to stop the Awakening + Fates + Marth discussions.

I haven't seen a single Switch ad on TV at all and that's the God honest truth. I seen Wii U ads back at its launch though they quickly disappeared, the last one I seen was for MK8. I see PS4 ads on TV all the time.

On Youtube I've been seeing an increasing number of Samus Returns ads. I think that's their main advertising focus at the moment.

You know, I just checked Metacritic - of the 58 Switch games that have received 7 or more review scores, 1-2-Switch ranks as the 7th worst! :/ ..probably not much of a system seller! _{(..or maybe it's just ahead of its time? )}

(EDIT) I have seen quite a few ads for the Switch since its been out though - there was one for 1-2-Switch at one point (with kids playing it at a barbecue) but I can't say that I've seen that in a while - I seem to see more ads giving a general overview of the console at the moment, rather than targeting specific games...

I've seen lots of ads for the Switch recently, including ads for 1-2 Switch. It was definitely advertised to kids for the school Summer Hols and BBQ parties etc. I've seen a few Splatoon2 ones too, and MK8 still.