Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@TheFrenchiestFry
Switch will be breaking 100 million sold around the end of next year. Third-party support may drop but it will never get close to Wii U levels. 3DS, a system with a far larger gulf in power, is proof enough of that. In fact, as long as software continues to sell (which I suspect it will), we may actually see a bump in support the last few years given the fact it becomes incredibly hard to ignore a platform with triple digit install base that’s active. And investments into the platform, such as engines ported over, pay more dividends with the more games released. Such as RE Engine and Monster Hunter Rise. Any future titles will be that much easier with an already working engine.

Ultimately there’s going to be several forces pulling support in different directions, on the one hand support decreasing due to gulf in power and too many other platforms to support, but on other other hand, support increasing from insanely high install base and lower cost of development given ported engines. It may balance itself out, give or take a bit.

@KryptoniteKrunch Is PS5 really THAT Western influenced? Like yeah there's stuff from first party that definitely steers in that direction like Demon's Souls, Spider-Man, God of War and Horizon, but there were a crap ton of games from Japanese developers and publishers in both PS5 showcases at least compared to the Xbox showcases. I feel like Sony is actually doing a pretty good job striking a balance.

@TheFrenchiestFry I'd argue the button situation says it all. For 26 years (25 years for the rest of the world), control scheme has been:

Japan - PS "X" = Nintendo "B", PS "O" = Nintendo "A"
Rest of the world - PS "X" = Nintendo "A", PS "O" = Nintendo "B"

Yet Sony decides to change the Japan setup for PS5 to match the rest of the world.

@Grumblevolcano I wouldn't call that being "Western-centric", just kind of unifying the control scheme and interface options for everyone. It's not really a thing that speaks to me as them steering PlayStation's direction towards Western appeal. If it was it would've actually showed in more than just the surface level stuff like something as minimal as a UI change

Plus I'm pretty sure Nintendo's button setup and the commands they issue have had no differences between regions for the years they've used it, which is different from how Sony's handled things.

Based on the number of ports (over 40 I believe?), you could argue that Bamco is the Switch's strongest third party supporter. Nevermind the hand they've had with co-developing a number of first party Switch games. Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Arms, etc.

https://www.bandainamcostudios.com/en/works/products

Personally I'm still hoping for Switch ports of Tekken 7, Soulcalibur 6, and Code Vein. Unfortunately I feel the Switch has zero chance for getting ports of Tales of Arise or Elden Ring. But yeah, anything else BN published before 2021 needs a Switch port, no excuses.

It’s the repeated censoring of Japanese games despite allowing full nude sex scenes in their own games that gives the impression their focus is now more on the west than Japan.

@Magician Still genuinely wondering why they haven't brought any more Dark Souls games over. I've only played Souls on PC but it kinda sucks that Switch owners only have DS1 while all other platforms have all three games + Sekiro and Elden Ring, and Sony in particular has Bloodborne and Demon's Souls as exclusives

At least bring DS2 Scholars of the First Sin Edition and DS3 over if the other ones aren't feasible

The Playstation brand has been aggressively westernized in pretty much every way. A lot of Japanese third parties are still loyal to Sony, though, and others know they have nowhere to go: Japanese Nintendo fans don't seem to buy a lot of third party games on their hardware, and, despite Microsoft's outreach during the seventh generation, people there have zero interest in supporting the Xbox brand.

check out all the Fish/Bugs and Sea Creatures you need to find/catch before novembre arrives.

@Magician what?!Bandai Namco helped in the development of ARMS?, i only trough they helped with Smash and now New Pokémon Snap.

Japanese Nintendo gamers really do conform to the “Nintendo fans only care about 1st party games” stereotype. It’s getting a little better, but only a little. In fact, it seems like Switch is actually doing worse in that regard than 3DS. At least in Japan.

Truth be told, there was a time that was true for basically all regions (and people tend to have a lot of explanations as to why, but be that as it may, it is what it is), but Switch has changed that. A lot of Nintendo gamers who used to only play Nintendo exclusives have started to become more open minded toward 3rd party games.

I only hope Monster Hunter Rise sees the interest it deserves. Feels like non-Switch gamers are salty it’s Switch exclusive and are opting for the ostrich approach, while many Switch gamers seem to have been more interested in having an exclusive MH for bragging rights than to actually play it (articles about World not coming to Switch garnered a much larger response than the announcement for MH Rise coming to Switch). Can’t help but wonder how the reveal trailer on YT is still only at 800k views, despite MH World trailer at 12x that and even MH4U hitting 4x that. That trailer should be at 3-4 million views right now. Even Pikmin 3 Deluxe is at 1.5 mil.

@JaxonH Regarding the trailer... Even I haven't watched that yet, and I usually watch every trailer. But afaik, it's the same trailer that was in the direct, at TGS, they showed on Twitch, and also (I think) was duplicated between Capcom and Nintendo's channels. While that's still low, I suspect it's not quite as unexposed as it sounds.

@link3710
The Nintendo one only has like 300k. And it was in the Direct which is 1.1 mil, but I imagine there’s quite a bit of overlap from excited fans. Maybe 2 mil tops if nearly every combined view is independent.

But ya, it’s concerning how low it is. I have seen a lot of non-Switch gamers saying they’re buying a Switch for it, but the problem is, it’s not enough. Usually comments in videos with 20k views. So many non-switch gamers are ignoring it, that the word isn’t getting out. Even on the MH reddit, the daily active members plummeted from roughly 3500 to 2500, as soon as it was announced as a Switch exclusive. As if people just said, “Nope, not touching Switch, don’t care how much I love Monster Hunter”. Elitism is very real.

Seems PS and Xbox gamers are much less open minded about playing on Switch than vise versa. Not that there weren’t some MH fans on the Nintendo side who did the same with World, but I think the vast majority of veteran fans clearly did play World, even if it meant buying a console to do so. Because we, as true fans, have always gone wherever the series goes.

@JaxonH Timing, don't forget the September Partner Showcase was the day after the PS5 event. Perhaps got buried under the backlash about PS5 games coming to PS4 and preorders being a gigantic mess.

@Grumblevolcano
If that were the case, one would expect the viewcount to simply have a lag. But it’s slowed to 2-3k per day on average. Which I guess is better than stagnating entirely but, at that rate it’s only looking at 300-500k additional impressions before launch.

I think part of the issue is Nintendo sites and content creators not treating it with the respect it deserves. Pretty much all the big Nintendo Youtubers gave it a casual mention when it was released, and then moved on. When more news broke at TGS, nobody cared. All we got was half a dozen Hyrule Warriors vids back to back. Nintendo fans are grossly under valuing the game.

Capcom were running ads on YT after release like they did for World, but unlike World where it caught everyone’s attention, it did little to nothing to boost Rise’s visibility.

@JaxonH All I'll say is that it's supremely telling that NIS feels confident in pushing away Sony for Disgaea 6's Western release, but, for the Japanese release, they developed a PS4 version. D5 Complete saw amazing Western sales, but I'm willing to bet the PS4 release probably sold better in Japan.

Regarding MH Rise, I think the "Wow!" factor of its production values and ambition contributed to World's meteoric popularity. The Iceborne expansion hasn't made nearly as much of a splash, and I'm willing to bet a full on World sequel would follow suit. With that said, there's no way the game doesn't rip apart the charts in Japan on release, and it'll likely sell well to Western Switch owners. Even Generations Ultimate sold decently, and that was a port of a 3DS game.

@Ralizah
True. I expect a lot of buzz for MH Rise near and at release. It’s all any of us will be talking about come late March (aside from Nintendo financials the following week). It’s also true the initial wow factor of finally seeing a big budget Monster Hunter has subsided, and the next console entry, while hype, won’t generate the same kind of buzz (which as you mentioned, is already evident with Iceborn, which fell back in line with normal statistical trends of series sales for the most part, in fact, arguably less since it barely sold 1m more than Freedom Unite and Generations despite 3 separate platforms as a AAA release sold as DLC).

Disgaea 6 is case in point for the JP/western split within the Switch fanbase. Idk what it is about our Japanese Switch brethren, but they take a rather hardline stance with 3rd parties.

@JaxonH I don't know, I could see MH Rise buried by lots of discussions about the limited time releases being gone in a few days and perhaps Zelda 35th anniversary celebrations. How well the rumoured new hardware runs already existing games too if it does indeed launch alongside MH Rise.

is Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild considered a Soft reboot/reboot of the franchise?considering it timeline placement and how drastic the game is considered to previous Zelda games?

@Giancarlothomaz It is considered far enough in Hyrule’s future that the time line happened but has no impact on the current world beyond Ganon refusing to stay dead. The link between the triforce bearers is well known enough that the Princess of Destiny (Zelda) is prepared/protected/trained each generation in case she is the unlucky one to get stuck with Ganon’s revival. This actually makes up part of the character arc conflict between Zelda, Link and King Rhoam (with some impact on others as well). The past legend is also known well enough that Ganon will consistently plague the world enough for the Sheikah to have developed tech to fight him, for that tech to fall into ruin and for the modern Sheikah to try to bring it back (and we know how that worked). Aonuma-san says it is a secret (something Miyamoto-dono has done before if I am not mistaken).

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.eurogamer.net/amp/2018-11-22...

BotW was heavily inspired by the first LoZ game (and shows a symbolic passing of the torch in some of the official artwork) and even takes a similar narrative approach of being much later in the timeline to allow the game to be influenced by the Zelda mythos but not bound by it.

Basically all the games are still valid but are very ancient myths by the time the 100 years before BoTW war (the actual start of BoTW and focus of the new warriors game) happens.

I think soft reboot isn’t the best way to think of it as in some ways it is a return to its roots. However a 30+ year history and fandom expectations can weigh a franchise down. So I think Aonuma-san just wanted to make a great Zelda game without worrying as much as to where it fits into a timeline that was conceived later in the series’ lifetime.

I personally feel the first game is still at the end of the timeline as Ganon is finally defeated but I mean the dude has been resurrected as a mindless zombie a few times, plus in BoTW Demise/Ganon just said “bump it” and came back as a cosmic horror rather than trying to wear the skin of a human. I do hope they eventually put him in a Hylian body so the Gerudo don’t have to shoulder the stigma of birthing him (I feel like if this was a real story, they’d start killing any son born to the tribe just so the world stays at peace) and to shake up the story.