Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

I think one of the big problems with the NX not having a lot of "Big 3rd Party support" is there is less of a gateway for Players to transfer to Nintendo. I know a lot of people say, "if you want X game buy Y console," but if you look at that from outside the Nintendo fandom, you run into a situation of I want to play X game, but also wouldn't mind checking out Nintendo games, if Nintendo games doesn't have X games then they don't have a gateway.

We will see what happens but the list of "on board" publishers for NX sounds the same as Wii U at launch, all we are missing is an "impressive" collaboration between Nintendo and EA

@DefHalan I think you're right. Currently it's the Wii U games vs virtually every other PS4 and XOne game. Whereas if the NX got all the multiplat games, it only would be Nintendo's exclusives vs PS4's exclusives or XOne's exclusives. I have friends that bought a PS4 or XOne just to play FIFA, or COD and Battlefield for example. But they also love Nintendo games, once in a while we still hook up an N64 or GameCube just to play Mario Kart or Smash for example. If those games were on a Nintendo system, I know they would've picked one up instead of a PS or Xbox, just so they could also play Mario Kart, Smash or maybe even a regular Mario game.

@DefHalan Thing is, that gateway for the big blockbuster western AAA games doesn't exist on Nintendo's platforms anyways - those people already own a PlayStation or an Xbox to play those games on or will buy the system their friends are on. Therefore it's not an incentive to pick up Nintendo's system.

Bottom line is, the NX was never going to get the big western AAA 3rd party games, even if it was a PS4 clone. Period. Nobody cares about buying a Nintendo system for those games. That's the market reality, and has been for the past two decades. They were always only going to get the Japanese third party support, indies, and minor western third party support.

Those are the types of games an alternative platform gets. Nintendo is an alternative whether they like it or not. Therefore they need to make a platform that is appealing as an alternative. A PS4 clone is NOT an appealing alternative platform.

@IceClimbers The thing is that Nintendo once was in the position Sony is now in, before Sony entered the market actually. There's no reason why Nintendo can't be the go-to system anymore. It takes a lot of effort, marketing and offering better deals than the competition. And it isn't going to happen overnight, but it's certainly possible. People say that Nintendo cannot compete with Sony and Microsoft, but let's be honest, when was the last time they made a serious effort to compete with those systems? Maybe the N64? But even that system was held back by expensive cartridges. Nintendo has never had the easy-to-develop-for platform and that has been one of the big reasons why third party support and their relations with third parties have dwindled over the years.

That is the problem. they don't have that gateway. There are people buying game systems everyday and the less options Nintendo has, the less likely those people will buy a Nintendo system. If Nintendo had those games then Nintendo could become an option. Without those gateway games, how are people supposed to discover Nintendo? Nintendo has seen they are missing gateway software, and this is why they are targeting Mobile platforms. Having 3rd Party would give them another gateway.

If the NX had the power for easier ports, as easy as from PS4 to XB1, then why wouldn't NX get those ports? The cost of ports would be very low and companies would be able to recover that cost, and make profit on those ports, a lot easier. Wii didn't have the power and Wii U was late to the game, then was quickly over looked because of a lack of power. We can't say for certain if Nintendo had a system with PS4 power (or higher) if they would or wouldn't get 3rd Party support. Without this power, without these ports, Nintendo won't have a gateway.

Wii U should have been a good choice for an alternative platform. It got different games than the other two and mostly backed by strong 1st party titles. However, we all know how the Wii U panned out. People would rather own a PS4 and XB1 instead of a PS4 and Wii U, or XB1 and Wii U. If Nintendo was getting these gateway games, people could be tempted to get a Nintendo system as their second system. "Well, I hear good things about this game (multiplatform) and I am interested in this series (1st party) maybe I will get a new system to play both these games." I have heard a lot of people talk like this. You look at facebook comments on popular games, like Rocket League, and people talk about owning the same game on multiple systems. There are people that own it on PS4/XB1/PC and why is Nintendo not on that list? Because Nintendo doesn't have the game.

_{The lack of Rocket League on a Nintendo system probably has to do more with install base, but if porting was easier, then maybe they would have taken that risk. A easy port or large install base leads to more 3rd Party, but even with the Wii's large install base it didn't get the big 3rd Party games...}

@DefHalan I think Rocket League is more a case of the fact Nintendo had explicitly given the Wii U its grave before the game could've even been released on that platform.

@Grumblevolcano We may never know the exact reasons why particular games don't come to a system, but why would a company want to give developers reasons not to support their hardware? Nintendo seems to go out of its way to push developers away as far as possible.

@DefHalan Nintendo wants all the glory if it exists. If NX succeeded with very poor 3rd party support then that really shows the sheer importance of Nintendo's IPs. If however NX succeeded with very good 3rd party support then that kind of diminishes the importance of Nintendo's IPs.

So basically the mindset they had back in the 80s where there was a forced restriction on the number of 3rd party games created by each developer. The downside of this logic is namely what happens if the console doesn't succeed.

@Grumblevolcano I think they already proved how well a console with barely any third party support does on the market..

@Grumblevolcano Even if a console succeeds without 3rd Party support (look at Wii. it didn't have most of 3rd party support) it doesn't mean much for Nintendo IPs. If the NX succeeds with 3rd Party support but 1st party software was still the best selling software on the system, then doesn't that still show the importance of Nintendo IPs? It just doesn't make much sense to release something that pushes developers away anymore. With the Wii they tried something new and it worked, with the Wii U they tried something new and failed. Both times they pushed away support and hurt themselves in the long run.

@Octane @DefHalan I know but that doesn't stop Nintendo trying again. If you look at comments made by Nintendo about why Wii U didn't do well they always talk stuff like it not being advertised well or the 1st party lineup was weak. They want the 1st party games and console gimmicks to be the reasons people buy Nintendo consoles.

@Grumblevolcano and that is fine, but I don't think that has to go against giving 3rd party an easier time supporting your system too.

There's rumours suggesting Nintendo will start NX production in early Q4 2016 which would be January 2017 I think?

Early Q4 2016 would be October, which would make sense if they want plenty of units on store shelves by March. I don't know how production schedules for hardware works like this, but I think January would be too late.

@Grumblevolcano Q4 is October, November and December, unless it's the financial quarter, then it's January till March. Depends on the context then, source?

@Octane The source was Digitimes, I saw a Neogaf thread in my twitter feed. Turns out Neogaf are saying it's not trustworthy.

@Grumblevolcano tbh I take this hybrid thing as them basically giving up on third party support altogether :/

Can they survive on their own? The Wii U wasn't able to. The 3DS continues to get good 3rd party support but they aren't getting big AAA games.

I wouldn't worry too much about 3rd party support for this NX. Going with other rumors, I expect the NX to be a family of products with a full-powered (possibly x86) home console NX to arrive some time after this portable. That later NX should be the one to attract the 3rd party home console games. For now, the portable NX would get 1st party games and support from those 3rd party developers who would normally support the 3DS.

@cwong15 What would be the point of having a home console mode in the portable NX if a Home Console was being made?