Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

There's going to be a lot of salt if a 3DS successor actually happens especially judging by the recent Nintendo Life article.

Games that are very stylized and stick around 600p are okay for me. Mario + Rabbids is never native res in handheld mode, but it still looks really good. I think Xenoblade would be OK if it utilized the extra power draw of games like SMO and BotW to at least stay around that target. It would have been a nice option to have. I'm kind of hoping we'll get a boosted Switch in a few years that'll allow for the worst performers in handheld mode to improve their overall performance.

@NEStalgia Yeah, low framerates are a killer for me. Thankfully, all of my Switch games have been OK so far in that regard. Xenoblade 2's framerate dips a bit at times, but never to the point where it makes combat hard to manage, and only for a second or two.

Nights of Azure 2, though... just yikes. I was looking forward to it, too.

Ys VIII is a ton of fun so far. It's no Xenoblade 2, but I think it's a good time.

I actually think that Xenoblade 2 looks pretty dang good in handheld mode, but the low resolution does hinder it. Then again, I take every opportunity to shill for it so take that with a slight grain of salt. Ys VIII definitely looks sharper in handheld, though the details are missing. Ultimately though, most people would say that Ys looks better. Xenoblade also has some framerate drops whenever you do a ton of Specials at once or when you're hitting a bajillion enemies with Specials. Fortunately Xenoblade is much more slower-paced than Ys, which actually doesn't drop much frames so that's good.

Speaking of, though, Ys is so much fun. I've pushed aside a lot of the Bayonetta comparisons I initially did to accept it as its own thing and it's been pretty addicting. I needed another great RPG after Xenoblade, and this is hitting the spot pretty well.

@Ralizah yeah, but Odyssey and botw EAT battery, which probably isn't what you want in a game that it takes 5 minutes just to walk from one end of one map to the other and features endless grinding for random gear

Speaking of which navigation in xc2 remains kind of annoying like all xc games. The map kind of sucks and waypoints on the radar are confusing more often than not. The side quest volume demanding finding x number of random drops is annoying too....i feel like skipping most side quests again

Hmm to plug on with xc2 it give ys a spin... Hard call

I would like to see that quote. I am quite sure they only used corporate words like "flexibility" and "synergy" when they merged.

And yes, the next handheld would be basically the same as switch internally. But don't expect the same chipset, they have lots of alternatives thanks to the mobile market.

Also, the ds approach has been successful, so I wouldn't be surprised if they continue that. Especially since it would be more distinct from their home console.

Is Nintendo really going to go there and split their attention between two systems again? Especially when a new Pokemon, a franchise that has never had core generations split across different platforms, is coming both this year and next year?

Both Sony and Nintendo proved that upkeeping two devices in modern times is a difficult task. When Sony went all-in with the PS4, it was a big success.

Same for Nintendo. And people forget that Nintendo is trying to diversify themselves too, what with that Mario movie, theme parks, and such. Times are changing and what we expect with a new dedicated handheld is not always going to happen.

@EvilLucario Let's be honest, the only reason the PS4 is a successful console was Don Mattrick's approach to XB1. Now we're seeing the Sony equivalent of the Don Mattrick XB1 situation (the Fortnite and crossplay controversies), PS5 will likely be the new PS3.

@Grumblevolcano Certainly a big reason, but the PS4 was also getting some games that swayed a lot of people, starting with Bloodborne to God of War.

Due to how those games needed big budgets to really wow people, having a downgraded version on the Vita didn't appeal to much people, feeling a bit unneeded. That's something else that would have hurt the Vita honestly, battling perceptions of what's expected and delivering.

So well over a year after it came out?

@Knuckles-Fajita I mean, this generation took a LONG time to really get rolling. Honestly the Wii U was a far better system than the Xbox One and PS4 until 2015 when PC plays all of the third-party games at 60fps.

@EvilLucario it was a run away success before those games. Sony managed to make the PS3 a success despite their awful launch and people are (generally speaking) loyal to companies. Especially when the competition isn't that different. The devil you know...

There is a reason they are all trying to differentiate themselves from the competitors with must have functions, VR, portability, cloud, Kinect etc.

@Grumblevolcano That's like saying that the only reason the Switch is successful is because it's the only handheld device on the market. Sure it plays a role, but you're ignoring a lot of other factors.

@Grumblevolcano PS3 was selling poorly due to a combination of factors. Primarily that really terrible price for the system at launch. I know that's why I jumped ship to the 360.

I get that a loud bunch of gamers online are very upset about the cross-play thing, but I really doubt it's going to impact PS5 sales too much if Sony does everything else right.

@Ralizah If you've been on a certain other site lately, you'll realise Sony could kill your kids, break your legs, lose your credit card information, raise the price of PS+, drop half of their systems like a hot rock after 6 months and as long as they still had Naughty Dog people would be on their knees doing a special kind of worship.

What's sad is half of the things in that list actually happened yet here we are.

@Knuckles-Fajita What amazes me are the people who say something to the effect of "Oh, I wouldn't want to play with those dirty Xbox One/Switch owners anyway!"

And people say Nintendo fans are fanatical!

@Ralizah I see the crossplay and Fortnite situation potentially ending up more like the Nintendo situation with 3rd parties in the N64 era.

@Grumblevolcano Nah. Third parties don't care as long as it's cheap and easy to release games on the PS5 and they continue to sell well. If anything, the Switch would be having an N64-esque problem with third parties regarding the prices of their cartridges if they didn't have digital distribution to fall back on. It's why so many games are either digital-only or force you to download half of the game.

Besides, Sony could always relent on their cross-play policy if it ends up hurting them next gen. Market it as a pro-consumer, "for the players!" move to pander to the easily manipulated core gaming audience.

@Ralizah This is the company that lost peoples financial details, didn't mention it for a week, didn't fix it for god knows how long, and then people said yeah I'll pay MORE for this service.

This is the company that said work two jobs to buy our box and people were like "Okay daddy".

This is the company that has actually got people saying "Handheld gaming is dead because the Vita didn't work therefore it cant work".

To be clear, I dont like fanboys of any company. They are a business. You are a number. I am a number to every business. You may have friends who WORK for these companies, but the executives, when it comes to getting you involved, only see numbers.

But these guys? So long as they keep getting lip service and being told what they like, they'll keep on giving lip service right back and being dismissive of anything otherwise, just because the position Sony has built up ever since 2013 isn't, "For The Players", it's not what's best for the gamers.

It's "We Are Superior".

Hell just look at the language Jim Ryan uses. "Europe if Fortress PlayStation. We have 90% market share in some regions. We wont let anyone take that away".

Like hello, when are we going to get some intervention for monopolistic practices? 90%?

Hell across Europe and the UK they even, slyly, cut the price of the PS4 specifically when Switch launched.

Why would the retailers do this? Well take GAME in the UK, they are our only high street gaming retailer now, at least one that sells games first and foremost. Numerous times they have been on the edge of going under now, and with figures showing PlayStation has 50% hardware and software market share in the UK, when that company says "Cut the price or we go" (Because Sony can live digitally quite happily it seems), GAME will do it. They are barely functioning as is, so the threat of half of the business that is barely keeping them up vanishing is enough for Sony to force hands into actions.

The fact they were allowed to get this big is infuriating, because nothing good will come of it. We already see it across the industry, just the past week or so I and others cant find certain Switch games at retailers. But the PS4 versions are all there. We have to go online now.

When one company forms a monopoly, the fanboys love it, but they dont realise that it's very likely another PS3 is around the corner. Sony has shown they are nothing but smug, arrogant prats who will take the first chance to leap on someone and say "Look how much better we are" but have no response when someone does it back. And their fans act exactly the same. Look at any comment section, any site, its there, always, without fail.

The only time I can think that a company didn't drop the ball going from a successful system to its successor is the NES to SNES, and PS1 to PS2. Every other time, hubris has caught them. It will happen again.

Sure, every company has those diehards, but when the company is being left unchecked and running rampant ripping the industry apart and actively stifling its competition, I have a problem with the fanboys loving it up.

If what various sources are saying about PS5 using Navi exclusively from AMD, then this wont be the case.

Sony loves proprietary hardware and it keeps biting them in the ass. See the Emotion Engine and CELL for that, as well as memory cards.

The fact Sony seems likely to not only spend a fortune on making proprietary graphics technology for itself and no one else tells me not only will the PS5 be quite pricy to cover that R&D, but games will be harder to make.

Here's the thing. What makes the PS4/Xbox One so easy? Its basically PC tech just scaled down. PS5 wouldn't be. Sure it would be based on it, because AMD, but heavy customisation leads to more work being done.

And if Sony locks Xbox away from Navi, then they will need to go for a cheaper, off the shelf, already known, already in PCs equivalent.

Which would make the next Xbox not only cheaper by comparison due to not using proprietary tech, but easier and cheaper to develop at least in part due to the overlap with existing PC tech.

@Knuckles-Fajita If the PS5 is using proprietary architecture, then that spells bad news for backwards compatibility, something Microsoft has been building up to for quite some time now. Imagine if the Xbox Two (or as I'll call it the NextBox) has full backwards compatibility with Xbox One games, you can still play some NextBox games on your Xbox One X, and Game Pass is built up even more. Honestly, with all that in mind, the PS5 might be worse-off than the NextBox.

Microsoft is seemingly done with this generation, but next "generation" is going to be really interesting.