Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@Grumblevolcano Investors will certainly care because 2 other mobile games were delayed until next year, so unfortunately for Nintendo if the NX is delayed then that would be 3 strikes. Also aren't they giving away NX as prizes for Splatoon tournament in Europe to the winners in 6 months time? Unless they get an empty box with a piece of paper saying "IOU 1x NX"

@FragRed The press release for the Splatoon tournament says the final is in 2017, no specific month.

@Grumblevolcano Doesn't the tournament start this year? I believe the tournament lasts for six months.

There's an investor's meeting in the Fall right? I think that's coming relatively soon, like a month or two, and we should know what the situation with NX is during that briefing at the latest. I'll really only consider a delay as a possibility if we don't hear anything before then.

I don't expect a delay, they're just eerily silent on the matter..

To be fair Mario is Mario. In terms of valuable IP associated with Nintendo Mario is up there with Pokemon. Nothing else they have is as big as those two IP. Even Zelda is huge but compared to those two it's a distant third. Animal Crossing being delayed? Well sure, that'll sting a bit. But Fire Emblem?..... Who cares, they have Mario!

So Sony anounces 2 consoles, one coming out this month and one in three months. Tell me why it's going to hurt Nintendo to wait a bit.

I must've missed the bit where Sony's new consoles seem like game changers. One is the same thing again but smaller. Basically nothing new at all there. And the other one is a performance boost targeted at "4K" despite lacking entirely the ability to play the one media where you can actually get proper 4K ATM. I don't think it changes anything at all.

Now the Apple stuff announced is interesting for Nintendo. I think them wanting to announce Mario Run at the Apple event probably did have an impact on when they talk about the NX. Because right now Nintendo has the world's attention. They're the biggest positive story out of Apple's event. News will cover it, it will get eyes looking at Nintendo. So why wouldn't they delay the NX reveal until after that?

1. Sony has a stronger fanbase than Nintendo. They'll require less persuasion and/or need to spend less time convincing other consumers to purchase this product.
2. Nintendo's console (like all other gens recently) seems to run against the conventional grain of what console gaming is. There's more needed to convey about what the NX is than what the new PS4 is. Sony can simply say "it's what you know, but more powerful and supports 4k" and people will get it.
3. Nintendo seem to aiming for a blue ocean- or at least- casual gamers as well as core gamers. In that sense, it'll take longer to both a) reach the appropriate target audience and b) convince that audience that they should get this product.

I'm not saying 3 months is impossible btw, but it seems much safer to give yourself more time to explain your product to consumers.

Edit: just to add that remember playstation VR- something which is different to traditional console gaming- was announced much further in advance to the release date. So it would seem that even Sony understands the basic idea of giving yourself enough time to explain a product.

But how much info has we gotten on PSVR really? And did it translate to a big hype?

I don't think it's necessarily about either of those things. The point is that a good amount of time gives it plenty of time for people to hear about it; find more information about it; listen to professional opinions about it; as well as for people to convince themselves that this is something they want.

In basic terms it's the mere exposure effect- the more exposure to a certain concept the more you begin to like it. And that doesn't mean necessarily that Sony have to do all that talking about it. In fact, it's more about getting other mediums to talk about it and continuing to have a steady discussion around a variety of mediums that will link to a broader consumer base to find out about the product.

Case in point- I was speaking to a friend this weekend and I mentioned Nintendo's new coming system is due to be announced soon. He had heard nothing of it. Zilch. Not the codename, not the hybridity, nothing. In contrast, he was fully aware of the PSVR.

@skywake Pretty much. If there ever was a perfect moment for a reveal, it's now. The sooner, the better.

Speaking of golden opportunities, I find it amazing how flat the reveal of PS4's revisions fell. It seems people (myself absolutely included) were expecting something more. The lukewarm reception might reflect how reticent the market is to this new model of console cycles Sony's pushing forward, but we'll see about that in the future.

What's clear is that Nintendo can easily one-up the buzz now and get people talking about their hardware. If they could achieve it with a Mario runner for iOS, of all things, they can do it with the NX.

@MarcelRguez Hyping up a Mario runner is much easier than hyping up a new console because of just how many people own iOS devices. Compared to iOS, Nintendo's consoles are a tiny dot on a radar.

@Grumblevolcano True that, but keep in mind I'm talking about not getting overshadowed by Sony's announcements, not about dwarfing the Mario Run reveal with the NX. Sure, console revisions don't overshadow new hardware but, with things being as shakey on the Nintendo front after the Wii U, you never know.

Nintendo really could clear up after the PS conference. No chance of the PS4 Pro stealing light from the NX now, just up to the NX to impress.

One week to let the dust settle on the Mario Run news and the Pro reveal and then on the 15th "join us on the 29th September as we get set to unveil our new console".

The PlayStation conference last night did not seem to go down too well overall and being it is essentially a slim line of an existing console and a second slight upgrade, as far as the media are concerned I think Nintendo revealing a brand new system will be the more appealing of the two. And with October being the launch of the PlayStation VR which is likely to sell very very well judging by pre-orders, I think Nintendo needs to get their reveal out the door well before the end of the month or risk losing the limelight as Sony really starts upping the marketing of their PSVR.

When in October is that coming out?

@Grandpa_Pixel In the UK it's 13th October - so early in the month.

Spot on imo.

Ideally Nintendo announce a reveal date next week which happens before the end of September. This would mean they can get info about the NX out before Sony goes for one last VR push.

But I think Nintendo might wait for after VR drops to announce the system.

@dtjive It seems like Nintendo keeps waiting for something to happen or be released by every other company out there before they reveal the NX. They'll probably wait for themselves to release the NX before the reveal just in case it steals their ideas