Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@iceclimbers

I agree with you. Whilst on paper a situation where xbox v ps4 v nx is only differentiated by first party exclusives would seem like it might favour Nintendo, i really don't think it can be as simple as that.

People feel affection towards their brands, and feel loyalty towards them. Not only that but Nintendo hardly have a history of that would speak to audience to trust them when it came to third party software , whereas Sony/ms might feel like safer options. And people want to play on platforms their friends play on. So Nintendo isn't just convincing one person to move, it has to convince groups of friends to move.

And I just think people are overestimating the general pull of a few first party games that Nintendo has. I wouldn't say it's unfathomable to think that certain buyers think first party exclusives on the other platforms are as good if not better than Nintendos.

I think convincing people to switch from the other platforms is a hard sell. It'll convince some sure, but I think most will just stick to what they know. But a platform that can convince people either as a) a handheld or b) a second console to the xbox/ps4 which has the added benefit of uniting first party software? Well, marketed correctly and priced appropriately, that seems like a sound bet. I reckon a sub $250 price could get them 80m+ install base

Im sorry that makes no sense. Why would people pick up a second system because it can now play third party titles that they can already play on their first system?

If Nintendo want to convince gamers to go "only Nintendo" then the only option is to get in the game and compete with the big two. If they want to be a second system then the smart option is to consider how THEY (not third parties available on other platforms) can support the system effectively (which the Wii U wasn't)

I don't think the general public has as much brand loyalty as gamers think they do. A lot of people upgraded from Xbox 360 to PS4. Lots of Wii owners didn't upgrade to Wii U. How many customers will upgrade from PS4 to Neo? How many will upgrade from XB1 to Scorpio? If Nintendo could offer people the same 3rd Party games they have come to expect they could use those titles as a gateway to their platform and try to make more Nintendo fans.

Currently, if you like PS4 and want to branch out a little, do you jump to the platform that doesn't have any of the games you know and love (Wii U) or do you go for the platform that has lots of the games you love but with differences? (Xbox One) It seems the market is currently favoring the second option. Nintendo going against that, pushing the current strategy that isn't working, doesn't fill me with confidence. Nintendo had issues with their latest platforms but the rumors about the NX don't seem to address any of them.

These conversations keep me wondering, is the NX more Iwata or more Kimishima? I am thinking more Iwata, but he isn't here to drive the ship... we will see what happens.

It may not make much sense to us, but I think it is about risks. People aren't wanting to spend $250-$200 on a system they view as a risk. Lets say this "gamer" has only ever had a PS3 and now a PS4 but wants to branch out. Will this gamer choose a system that doesn't have any games he has played? Or will he choose a system that has the games he plays plus Xbox Exclusives? If he buys a Wii U and doesn't like the games, he is out of luck. If he buys a Xbox One and doesn't like the exclusives, he can still use the system to play the games he enjoys.

Nintendo needs to sell their system and if they can't get the gamer audience to take the system seriously, then it won't last long. (example: Wii) If they don't get enough software releasing fast enough, Nintendo will lose people's attention. (example: Wii U)

@DefHalan Why a home console? To address the shortcomings that people perceive with the rumored NX portable. After all, a console has to make trade-offs to be portable. Less power, heavier controller ... for various reasons I don't consider this rumored NX portable to be the ultimate NX console. Conventional reasons to release a home console:

• PS4/XB1 power parity to get home console ports from the usual 3rd party publishers
• More comfortable, cost effective for those who don't want a portable

I don't think a pure NX home console is viable now against current competition. But if the NX platform becomes well established, and if it complements the NX portable, it'd have a chance. It could interact with the NX portable in interesting ways too. For example, it could provide extra processing power (remember that supplemental computing device patent?). It could allow 2 players to interact when one is at home and the other on the go. Or you could sync up your on-the-go game progress when you get home. I don't expect the NX portable's dock to be more than a power/HDMI passthrough for cost reasons, but a home console could offer more sophisticated docking interaction with the portable.

Or hey, it could be that microconsole you always wanted ... except that when docked with the portable the combined device could achieve parity with regular home consoles.

@cwong15 Sure Nintendo could release hardware with more power, but then what is the point of the NX Portable having a Home Console mode? Why would Nintendo want to compete against itself? The NX is rumored to be a portable with a Home Console mode, so why would they then release a Home Console to make that mode pointless?

I don't see how a Nintendo Home Console isn't viable now against current competition. This is one of the better times for Nintendo to strike in my opinion. Microsoft and Sony are telling their customers it is time to upgrade in 2017, Nintendo could have swooped in and been another option when it comes to upgrading.

Why sell a home console to allow two player when they could just sell them another NX. Just because a console is a portable doesn't mean you can't play it at home.

I don't understand why people seem to want their portable to "dock" into a home console? I wouldn't want my 3DS to have to dock with my Wii U to play it.

Everyone keeps bringing up my microconsole idea and I think skywake was the only one to actually read my posts about it. My microconsole idea was to support their two console lines (home and portable) and offer more features. It was not to just have a low powered console instead of a high powered console.

So what are some of the positives of Nintendo not having 3rd Party support?

Well he has a point. Nintendo has very little competitive advantage if they just play third party games. Everyone already has a PS4 or Xbox One for that.

Can Nintendo compete with only their 1st Party? Wii U says "No"

@BiasedSonyFan I have considered it and I have had discussions about it, right in this thread even. If lack of software is the message Nintendo wants with their hardware then they should just continue down this path. Nintendo wants to view themselves as a place of more quality and less quanity? Then why do they let just about anyone register as a Wii U developer, even I am registered. All businesses need to make money. Nintendo's "business mission" is one that involves making money and because of this they try to make their hardware profitable, which has been damaging the Wii U and even damaged the 3DS in the beginning. Nintendo has their own set of logic and it doesn't always work out for them. I am just wondering, what do you see as the benefits to Nintendo not having 3rd Party software?

@BiasedSonyFan then why don't you tell me the benefits of Nintendo not having 3rd Party, since I am not seeing it?

At this point, it really makes no sense to have two devices anymore. It divides resources for no reason and requires a bigger cost for a full experience. Nintendo is floundering in the console market and Sony has abandoned the handheld. No one is benefitting from a console/handheld anymore

@Lzeon I think Nintendo could be successful at both but they keep getting in their own way. They have certain ideas about consoles that seem backwards compared to how things are done. If they want to give up on the Home Console market, then they should give up on it and just focus on handhelds, don't give us this machine that is a handheld but can be a home console but has detachable controllers, etc. If they are really done with Home Consoles then they need to listen to Ron Swanson, "don't half ass two things, whole ass one thing."

Having two systems is backwards. No company is benefitting from that anymore. Making a hybrid home console won't deter the handheld that much. Matter of fact, I'd argue that having two systems would half-ass both.

Like I said, development could focus on one system instead of two. Do you really think the Wii U would have had a drought if it was combined with the 3DS?

@DefHalan It's not about the benefits of not having those 3rd party games. You're missing the point completely. The point is that it makes zero sense to go after those games because it's ultimately a losing battle they'll never win.

People ALREADY have a platform for those games. They're not going to switch to Nintendo for those games. Makes zero sense to do that. If they release a system designed for those games, what are they left with when those 3rd parties inevitably jump ship because their games are selling like ****?

They're left with an overpriced console with games meant for an alternative secondary console. That has no appeal whatsoever.

In order to get those big western 3rd parties to not jump ship, Nintendo would have to pay up. Oh, this game didn't sell well? Guess what, the next port just went up in price. Nintendo would be hemorrhaging millions just to get garbage selling ports in order to compete. It would take years for Nintendo to reverse their situation. Nintendo may have a huge warchest, but it's nowhere near enough to keep up with Sony and Microsoft. It's a battle they can't win.

@Lzeon But the NX, with it being a portable console and having a console mode, is Nintendo half assing both. I would rather they have one machine for portable and one machine for home.

@IceClimbers Nintendo wouldn't have to pay for pirts if their machine was as easy to port to as PS4 to XB1. With Nintendo not having their machine easy to support (compared to the other two) they would have to pay for the ports they want. Nintendo trying to develop enough software for a broad audience while not having major 3rd party content is going to be difficult.

The NX is rumored to be above Wii U power which means more resources for 1 system, if we are lucky that will lead to twice as much 1st party content than the Wii U had, but will that be enough fo a Nintendo only machine? It wasn't for Wii U. Nintendo is betting everything on this one system, if they can't succeed then what is going to happen? Nintendo is playing a dangerous game, and we have seen what happens when they expect people to buy their systems just for Nintendo software.

Hell of a lot of assumptions going on around here. It sits uncomfortable with me that people appear to be assuming nx failure as it won't have enough content before we even know what the thing is.

And there's also a prevalent assumption that Nintendo first party games >>>> other first party games. Remember this is a Nintendo forum and whilst that may be the view we hold, it may not necessarily be the view everyone holds.

On another note, i think it's being made out as too simple of how to secure third party titles and subsequent install bases. Nintendo would first need to convince developers to come back, presumably before the gamers have (because they won't come back without these games apparently). That is likely going to require Nintendo offering very good deals to developers meaning they derive less earnings from the third party games. And then that's not even a guarantee to bring fresh installers anyway. Thus it doesn't appear to be a highly profitable strategy in the short term.

Of course if people on here are 'right' and there's loads of closet Nintendo fans waiting in the wings then they'll want the system for the Nintendo games, not the third party games (that they already can play). As such if first party titles are so important to convincing gamers, it's makes more sense to figure out a way to provide more fp content to your system. The nx appears to be that solution.

@Lzeon It kinda does actually. Let's say the NX is too expensive as a concept. Handheld gamers won't buy it because of its price and console users aren't too fond of the streaming as a replacement for a home console idea. What if the NX sells Wii U numbers? That's a pretty big risk. I'd argue that it'd be far more beneficial to support two systems. In case one fails, there's always another one to fall back on. That way you can also appeal to both groups and develop a device that suits the market. The NX seems to want to be both things, and I'm not sure if it's going to be as good as either one could've been if they were separate systems. Sony doesn't need the handheld market, because they sell other devices as well; Nintendo doesn't.

@IceClimbers Gamers on the internet may be very loyal to a certain company, but many people don't really care as long as they can play the games they want to play. Last gen the X360 and PS3 sold more than 160 million units combined. Currently we're somewhere in between 60 and 70 million people that own a PS4 or XOne. Even if we ignore the Wii's userbase, that's still around 100 million potential gamers that have not upgraded yet (or haven't bought a second system in case of overlap).

When games like GTA V sell around 40 million copies, or when FIFA still sells more than 10 million copies each year, easily, then it's never a bad thing to have those games appear on your console. When you say that people are loyal to a brand, you forget that there's plenty of people that freely move between Sony and Microsoft each gen; there's no reason why Nintendo can't be a part of that too. Problem is that Nintendo never even has tried to compete with Sony or Microsoft. Ever since the competition started, Nintendo opted for some backwards thing that would make it more difficult for other developers to sell their games on Nintendo's systems. That's the big problem here; and it doesn't look like the NX is going to adress any of that.

As opposed to two separate systems? Okay, look at the Wii U. You get my point now?

@Octane: Or an option would be to sell the handheld as the "base", make the console add-on separate, and have a discounted option where the whole package is included. Japan would probably eat up the handheld part while America would want the whole package. Now Nintendo has to be willing to sell at a loss though to appeal to both markets.

If anything what has been rumoured is a VERY impressive portable. And it's not like the rumoured specs would be that underwhelming as a home console. It won't be a PS4 clone but it's not going to be that far behind. If the rumoured specs are even partially correct? This will be the first portable where playing current-gen games is entirely possible.