Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@Ralizah @NEStalgia
Wolfenstein 2 sales didn't do well, that's true, but a lot of the reasons for that shouldn't apply to the Switch version. It launched same day as Assassin's Creed Origins and Super Mario Odyssey, not to mention all the other holiday games that released around that time.

Not to mention, Switch doesn't have a whole vault full of top tier FPS games like other platforms do. And it's the first ever portable version and version offering motion controls, which most Nintendo gamers have come to embrace as making games exponentially more enjoyable.

I've personally played the game and it's excellent. One of the best FPS I've ever played- reviews be ******. I don't know what kind of crazy standards they must hold but, if that's considered a mediocre game, then I wouldn't trust those reviewers even if my life depended on it.

@Spoony_Tech
South Park didn't even enter the eShop best sellers list, not even at the bottom. Even Resident Evil Revelations did that, and that game sold about 250k (which was more than PS4/X1 combined, mind you, but they were older releases).

Not only that, but even on its launch day, South Park only reached #40 on the Amazon Best Sellers List, right next to Mario Rabbids at #39, a game that has been out for nearly a year. The day after launch it dropped to #56, and the day after #75, and so on. For comparison, DKC Tropical Freeze is currently at #7 and it's not even out yet. And it's a port, and not the biggest profile game.

It severely tanked. Enough to worry me about future Ubisoft support.

@NEStalgia
Also, it's only realistic a staggered launch decreases sales on Switch. Releasing day and date would certainly increase sales, but I suspect it would do so at the expense of PS4/X1 sales. So, yes, more sales on Switch, but less elsewhere. Since gamers would simply be buying this version instead of the other one.

Which means, staggered releases truly show how many additional sales they are achieving via a Switch version. By not telling anyone it was coming to Switch when it launched on other systems, everyone who was going to buy it for other systems did so. Well and truly leaving only additional sales for Switch version. And if the additional sales for making this version is only 50-100k, I don't really see them deeming that as worthwhile.

And that's a serious problem. I don't think that's the case for all games because I do think a lot of games will generate enough additional sales to be worthwhile but, it seems like we're starting to see a trend of decreased interest for 3rd party games. And that could indeed be a very serious problem. Ubisoft makes Mario Rabbids and it sells millions. Ubisoft releases Rayman Legends and South Park, and struggles to reach 100-200k. That's very reminiscent of Wii U sales of Ubisoft titles. And people no longer have all the excuses they had back then like "well it didn't have all the DLC" or "it had framerate issues". South Park runs great and looks great, and launched with the complete season pass available for purchase on the eShop day one. Even had the Gold version available. Wolfenstein 2, that's getting all the DLC, heck it even has motion controls. And every game or at least gets an exclusive HD handheld version you cannot obtain anywhere else. There's so much quality and value packed in to these releases, it really troubles me to see them struggle or fail to generate hype.

I would very much like to see a new market emerge on Switch for a majority of 3rd party titles released. I would very much like to live in a world where I can buy 4 out of 5 3rd party games on Switch and play them portably, on the TV, with motion, with split Joycon, etc. But if 3rd party games start struggling to sell on the system, fail to generate enough additional sales to justify porting to a unique, less powerful platform... then that dream will never be realized. And I'll be stuck playing these games on stationary home consoles the rest of my life

The last Wolfenstein I played was 3d...

If Xbox one did have emulation, you would pop in the 360 disc and it would work with every single game.
But instead people need to download the game.

There is really only one good reason for this, they are recompiling the games on their end. My guess is they also add a compatibility layer as well in the download. A little bit of code that translates some old APIs to newer ones. With a bit of goodwill you can call this emulation.

Cpu architecture has almost no impact when it comes to consoles. With few exceptions, all games are made in c++ which is agnostic against the CPU. The difference between the different platforms are the APIs for platform specific features such as voice chat, achievements and such. The only time CPU architecture really matters is if you want true backwards compatibility.

Tools and game engines have been relatively stable for years. Just look at how many games have had dual releases this gen and the last. Despite the games being bigger and more complex than ever before, they still manage to port them at an high rate. This didn't really happen before, every gen was very much a self contained entity.

@JaxonH True, but there's so much that goes into it. Most sales for multiplats are in the first 3 week's preorders. If it bombed then, most people either weren't interested or already moved on. And true, Switch doesn't have a vault of FPS's, but most people that are strong fans of FPSs probably play on other systems that are built soup to nuts for FPSs, either instead of or in addition to Switch. It's a conundrum. An FPS on Switch is always going to be more niche a title for the platform. Combine a game that people weren't that interested in on other platforms with a platform that inherently has less people interested in the genre (on that platform).....and interest will be quite low. BUT that doesn't mean it's not a worthwhile venture to squeeze out some extra life from the game. I doubt bethesda has huge sales goals for the title, so they may still meet them.

Good to hear you're so high on it. I was honestly kind of "meh" on it since E3 from appearances, but then once I heard it was coming to Switch decided I'd give it a go since it can be a "side" game for me as something interesting (and frankly after Splatoon and a decade of PC, if a game is an FPS and doesn't have mouse or motion control I probably won't enjoy it much anyway, so Switch is the only viable platform for it for me!)

South Park: One thing about the comparison to RE: I saw a lot of mention of RE everywhere when it came out. It was being hyped. South Park just kind of quietly dropped. I had mine pre-ordered for months and didn't even know it was releasing until it showed up in the NL front page for the "what are you buying this month" article. I was like "oh, cool, forgot that was releasing." Low awareness might be at play to a degree, even compared to RE. If I was waiting for it and didn't even know it was releasing now, I imagine tons of people have no clue.

But I still come back to: DKC is hyped and is a "port" most people never had the hardware to play the original before of a big nostalgia series. So it's a "new" game, or better "an envied game for years!" to many Switch owners. Southpark is a $60 version of a game that's been $30 or less on "my other console" for months. And given that it's Ubisoft, again, we KNOW the price will plummet. We should revisit after the price drop to see how sales are then. Anyone that has more self control than myself wouldn't pay $60 for it now.....it's throwing money away.

@NEStalgia
That's fair. We do know Ubisoft games drop in price quickly. I guess the question is, how many people are going to buy it once the price drops to $40 or $30. If people still aren't buying the game then, we really do have a problem.

And you're right- there was hardly any hype for it or awareness, but that in itself is a result of people's lack of interest, which is the problem in question. We heard a lot of people complaining that game should be on Switch- why isn't South Park coming to Switch? That game would be a perfect fit for Switch... What is Ubisoft thinking not putting that on Switch? Where are those people now?

@JaxonH By and large the third party games are designed for PC like consoles, so the only reason to buy on Switch is for portability if you own both. Unfortunately that does feel like maybe people aren't that interested in portable major console games (in the West), and Japan isn't all that interested in Western games (in general.)

Not switch related but F4F announced another Okami statue. Time to increase the amount of jobs im applying for....

@link3710 I avoided DOOM initially because I always associated that franchise as horror rather than shooter (horror is an automatic no for me, closest I get is Luigi's Mansion) but the Switch reveal of DOOM 2016 made it seem more like just a FPS so I tried it and liked it. Upon looking closer, it seemed only the last gen DOOM was a horror game so if DOOM 2 is announced I won't dismiss it straight away.

For the record, South Park is only 1 spot behind Darkest Dungeon on the US eShop, so it's basically #16 right now (I'm not counting the free stuff like the pinball games obviously). Naruto Trilogy is only a few spots lower than that.

My biggest hope for next month regarding Switch is cloud saves being announced for the paid online service (would prefer XB1's approach of cloud saves being free for everyone but part of the subscription is better than not all).

I also do not play horror games.

Although Resident Evil is an exception. Or at least, it was until RE7 released. Refused to keep playing that one, though playing in VR may have had something to do with that lol... still it was an evil creepy game and I don't like that. Revelations series is fine. Games like Evil Within... heck no.

And DOOM was so good, just classic arcade gameplay. I had also written it off for a long time. But I did eventually buy it for Xbox One, and realized it wasn't anything like a horror game, or super scary or any of that. Even the gore was cheesy arcade type stuff. Or maybe I just got used to it a little, perhaps a combination of both.

But Wolfenstein is so story driven, and without all the demons and stuff. You're just fighting against Nazis in a future where they won and have advanced technology. I'd say on the gameplay basis, DOOM is more fun, but as a whole, accounting for the story and the narrative and the characters and just the whole package... Wolfenstein is just as good. And the gameplay isn't that far behind either. It's just a little bit slower and more like a traditional FPS. But the dual wielding and all that crazy stuff is just straight up awesome. And the gameplay, for a more traditional story driven FPS campaign, is basically flawless. It feels like a Nintendo game in that respect. Just flawless FPS gameplay. With a crazy number of difficulty modes, from super easy to super difficult. So anyone regardless of skill level can enjoy the game.

Touché

Ooh, this is it! This seals the deal! Time trial runs are IN for Funky Mode in DKC Tropical Freeze! I was worried they wouldn't let you do a time trial runs because the character has such a powerful moveset, but you can! There's even separate leaderboards and video replay uploads for Funky Kong time trial runs!

The hype is real

Doom actually did have that slight horror element to the early games before Doom 3, but it was overshadowed by the action. Doom 2016 definitely said "nope, **** that" and just made everything so kinetic, fast, and visceral though.

@JaxonH Well, that's fair: as we've seen recently with Gal*Gun 2, reviews aren't always trustworthy. I trust you'll post your impressions of Wolfenstein 2 when it launches.

I'm surprised South Park bombed. I guess being a staggered release, full price, and not including Stick of Truth was a bridge too far for most people. I fully plan on picking it up at some point, but I'm currently saving my money for the hundred games I want that release later in the year.

@Ralizah
Ya, I expected lower sales being a staggered release and no Stick of Truth, but it still amuses me people are so finnicky with price for a game that is barely half a year old. Games routinely launch on PC 6-12 months after console, at full price, and people still buy them up.

I guess I expected it to have lower sales but I didn't expect it to be like... Splinter Cell Blacklist or Watch Dogs Wii U level of tanking. Especially given the game looks good and runs well and has all the DLC, and is the only portable version on the market.

But I suppose as more and more games release on Switch, people will start holding out for a Switch release in greater proportion. When the game released late last year, I don't think anyone expected it to come. But now we're seeing a lot of these games are actually coming. So maybe people will think twice about spending $60 on a game for other consoles, and instead just stashing that money in the drawer until the Switch version releases.

As for Wolf 2, I'll give it a fair assessment. I already know the game itself is excellent, so I guess it's just a question of whether it runs well. Realistically, I think if it can match DOOM, we'll be good.

@subpopz
Mario Rabbids is exclusive, but again it's been on the market since August. It was only used as reference for context. South Park, on its highest selling day at launch, couldn't even outperform a game that's been out for 9 months, not even for one single day. DKC obviously has a lot more appeal, but again, I used as reference because it's not even out yet. It's still weeks away from launch and even so, is still considerably outselling SP on launch day just from preorders.

South Park is #16 on the US eShop, with Naruto now at #17.

I don't see a reason to buy a Ubisoft game for full price when they drop their prices in couple of months. I'm sure there are some other people who think the same way. You can get Mario + Rabbids, Rayman Legends and Just Dance 2018 for 20€. South Park will soon join that group. I'll wait and buy it then.

I think the Switch versions of Dark Souls Remastered and Wolfenstein 2 would've had the best chance of being successful if they released before E3. Smash hype will kill their potential unless somehow Solaire is a playable fighter for example.

I think Dark Souls has a better chance of breaking through, just because it looks so good and runs well on Switch. And I've seen a lot of excitement for that game on a portable system. And people can pick it up for $31.99 with GCU, which is basically half-price. And it's getting an amiibo to help push it.

Honestly though, I kinda feel like Doom Guy and BJ Blazkowicz from Wolfenstein are better suited to be in Smash, just because they hearken back to the SNES/N64 era, and Switch has been a revival of these IP for Nintendo fans. I really do feel like they are worthy of admission. Despite Dark Souls being really hype and all, i'm not sure if it's worthy of being admitted into Smash.

Btw, this is one of my favorite things about Wolfenstein: choosing your difficulty. I shamelessly admit to embracing the nook. I was never that good at FPS, but I do enjoy em with motion and a difficulty more on line with my skill level