Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@Spoony_Tech Apparently trolls were down-rating it early, so other people started giving it 10's to counter the troll ratings. Which tells you all you need to know about the usefulness of the user score on Metacritic.

Ya, user scores on MC don't really say much of anything.

It's all determined by how many 10's were rated to offset the 0's

Amazon user reviews I trust more. At least there you have to be a verified purchaser to write a review, and you have to actually write a review.

Digital Only Future

This is a good video and brings up some valid points for those who feel as if partial downloads is a deal breaker...

Is the only way to completely turn the switch if by undocking it and doing it that way? You can't do it through controller?

@Davey1988 Press and hold down the home button on the joycon or pro.

Doesn't that just put in in sleep mode? Also is it wise to tutn the dock of at night? As doesn't it continueasly charge it?

@Davey1988 It gives you the option to put it into sleep mode and other power options.

You should should leave it on and charging all the time. When it gets to 100% it will go into a low energy mode where it won't over charge the battery. If you unplug it you will not have a full charge when playing handheld mode.

I agree with this in general but I don't really agree with it for the Switch. Almost entirely because of the storage limitations but also because it's a cartridge based system where the saves aren't on the cartridge. I'm more happy to share a cartridge than I am a disk, especially on a system where sharing is part of its identity. And when you only have 32GB of internal storage and the only expansion is via SD Cards? As understandable as that is on a portable system it is a bit harder to agree to a large download than it is on a system that has 1TB+.

And in any case, the video you linked to had the main argument as the inconvinience of physical copies. Which is fair enough. But for the Switch my carrying case holds 14 games. That's probably a good 100GB of extra storage I get for free if I think about it that way. Additionally 14 games is quite a lot of games to carry around with you. Personally I'd probably be fine with 4 or 5 TBH and I'll probably have downloaded at least one of those.

Of course it is inevitable and when there are no other compromises it'll be the way to go. But currently a 64GB microSD card costs about the same as a 1TB 2.5" HDD. Or to put it another way, microSD's $/GB is about the same as it was for HDDs when the 360 launched with a similar amount of storage included. So it's not there yet for the Switch.

I may carry around 48 cards worth of space (I don't have 48 games though... yet), which considering the size of a lot of these games... I could probably carry around over 400 GB like that pretty easily in a few years time.

@link3710
I think you missed my point. Sure you can carry around more games if you go all digital and if you buy the larger microSD cards. But with the cost of flash storage? With 14 spaces for cartridges in my carrying case I have a good $50AU worth of "free" storage just sitting there. Minimal inconvenience had given they're always there wherever I take my Switch.

Sure I could go out and buy a 400GB microSD card for almost as much as I brought the Switch for. I could get a 200GB microSD card for the cost of an extra set of JoyCons and a couple of games. But even if I did, there's still a good 100GB of what is effectively free storage I could be using. So I've mostly brought physical copies of games on the Switch. By the time I'm upto 14 games microSD cards will be cheaper anyway. I will also probably be happy to put long since beaten single player games on my shelf.

@skywake Actually I was agreeing with you

There might not be any more big retail titles coming this year but man, next week's update is a cracker. Between the UK and US Eshop there are over 20 games and I jsut spotted a new addition. Gunbird. Finally Zerodiv are back with the Psikyo classics. I absolutely love playing Strikers 1945 in vertical mode and from what I've read Gunbird is right up there. Hopefully that means Zero Gunner 2 is right around the corner too as well as a consistent release schedule of Psikyo classics. We already know R-type is coming this year as well. Knowing I'll be playing at least those 2 shoot-em-ups those as well as Double Dragon arcade by the end of the month makes me one very happy chappy.

As for the rest of the update, I'll definitely be picking up Slain Back from Hell, The Sexy Brutale, Embers of Mirrim, Riptide Renegade GP and Top Hunter. I'll wait for reviews on Dimension Drive but that's looking promising. Nine Parchment is another possibility, I've got the demo but haven't played it yet. Caveman Warriors looks like it could be a lot of fun, if it is and plays as well in single player, I will be adding that too. ACORN Tactics is another with potential. There are a few more as well that will appeal to some, like Teslagrad and Human Fall Flat.

That's one outstanding albeit very expensive weekly update.

Oh, ok. I wasn't sure. Still, my original Gameboy carrying case was significantly more bulky than the Switch case and held my Gameboy and 5 games. My DS Lite case held two games in addition to the one in the system. My 3DS XL case holds 8 games. Digital distribution may be more convenient but physical distribution has also improved.

For PC gamers the digital distribution is already here and has been for years. But on an handheld storage is a problem. Physical is a better model here.

The devs could probably be better at optimizing though, but I think it is the publishers not giving them enough time. I mean 5 GB for a save file, wtf? That is the size of a DVD, a medium we used for full length movies not long ago.

Walmart email I got says WWE 2K18 ships December 6th (Wednesday). Just got the email this morning. Usually don't order from WM but they had the game for $21 off.

@skywake
Cost is the one prohibiting factor, for sure.

But one point he raises, that I agree with, is that even "complete" games aren't complete. If you don't have the day one patch, the update patch #2, the update patch #3... The DLC, etc. You're physical game won't be worth much anyways. You pretty much need to access the servers regardless. And that's a point I think alot of people are reluctant to accept.

And goodness knows I'm a HUGE physical gamer and collector. But even I'm coming around. At least with digital I can copy my SD onto my PC as a backup. Or keep a spare SD with games as backup (just got my 2nd 400gb micro SD yesterday, so my spare 256gb with digital retail games got backed up on PC and stashed in the closet).

Idk. I'm actually not that against a digital future anymore. I like my carts and I do hope they stick around a while, but there's so many drawbacks and digital is so convenient. I love not switching carts on a portable system now.

Nihon Falcom are doing an EA, it seems, in that they are applying a wait-and-see approach when it comes to releasing games on the Switch.

In an interview with MCV, Nihon Falcom president Toshihiro Kondo and NIS America president & CEO Takuro Yamashita discuss their efforts to save the traditional JRPG and bringing them to a western audience and localisation into the main European languages. Focus soon switched to Nintendo's system.

While NIS America's efforts with the Switch have been duly noted, with Yamashita-san reaffirming the company's focus on it alongside the PS4 and Steam, Kondo-san has been more reticent...

"Traditionally, Nihon Falcom's always been a PC developer that doesn't really create games for the casual market, but for the really hardcore games. Where is that market today? The answer to that is PS4.

The Switch is very successful right now, but there's still no positive guarantee that the fan base that would play Falcom games are on the Switch yet.

Our strategy is to go forward on PS4, then wait and see if fans want a handheld version."

You can read the full interview here, starting from page 31 - https://issuu.com/newbayeurope/docs/mcv929_2010th_20november

He's a fool, and it almost seems like stubbornness.

NIS and Bandai Namco have proven Japanese games have a place on Switch.

They just can't seem to get past the "we're hardcore, and only hardcore gamers buy our games, and Switch owners are not hardcore" mentality.

Yes, there is a more casual audience on Switch. Without question. But there is also a very core audience. And I hope to goodness these other developers rake in money hand over fist, so that these stubborn high horse companies can look on with envy as they realize how much money they left on the table.

I know it's common for fans to say "well they must hate money" and alot of times I don't think that's the appropriate response. But we're talking Nihon Falcomm games. How many copies are you guys really pushing? Can't be that many. Pretty sure there's enough demand on Switch to make plenty of money on these lower budget games.

@antster1983 I guess that answers my question about whether or not we'll get any Kiseki games on the Switch any time soon. Oh well.

What's rich is that, until recently, their games were releasing on the PS Vita as well.

I'll just avoid buying or playing any of their games until this mindset changes, then. No reason to waste time or money on a developer like this.

@JaxonH Is that true though? I'd argue that there's a bigger casual audience on PS4. It's not like JRPGs sell millions of copies on the PS4 either, it's just that the PS4 has the numbers to make up for that. Only a small percentage bought Persona 5, but enough to consider it a success. It's just that right now, even if there's a bigger attach rate for their games on the Switch, the Switch can't match the numbers a game would sell on the PS4. And apparently they've never heard of multiplat games, so it seems like it's either the PS4 or the Switch, and not both. Give it some time, they'll turn around I think.

Resident Evil R2 finally charted at 15 last night and has since moved up to 14 this morning in NA.

@Spoony_Tech
Good. It deserves it.

Saw they were at like 17 and 18 on that top 20 list released. So I knew they were close.

Too bad we didn't get a Jill amiibo, eh? Capcom said they were making amiibo for the game but bowed out for unknown reasons. Wasn't Jill anyways though. Still...