Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@link3710
Several factors, I think.

The first is that the media drives attention in a way that is more favorable to them. Nothing showed that more than Death Stranding and TLOU pt 2. Media holds a lot of sway, and they hype up their releases more than Xbox. I suspect that’s because they were so dominant in the PS2 era- most mainstream journalists are first and foremost Sony fans, and no matter how hard you try, that’s going to have its effect.

Secondly, I believe it’s the fact Sony has a much better track record of releasing great games. Now, I do think some of them get a little too much praise simply due to budget and graphics, but compared to Xbox, they’ve had much more consistency of quality.

I’m not sure if Bethesda alone will be enough- I think they need a JP studio with established and believed IP alongside them. But as it stands, I do think it’s possible it’s enough. Make no mistake- Bethesda has its issues, but every single Doom they drop is a masterpiece. Wolfenstein? That’s also one of the finest single player FPS ever created. Youngblood’s was meh, but the full releases are legit. Fallout, technical bugs aside, are at least as good as anything Sony puts out. And I think with more powerful hardware and fewer platforms to worry about, and support from Microsoft, they’ll do fine. Elder Scrolls? We already know that’s gonna be a banger. Starfield? Who can say. But even if it is just Elder Scrolls: Space Edition, that’s going to have a lot of appeal to a lot of people. And let’s not forget Bethesda makes a lot of other less popular games that are still of high quality, enough to rival many of Sony’s first party releases.

Couple that with the fact MS does still have a massive new Halo releasing, they’ve got a new Forza on the way, we’ll likely see a new Gears soon enough, and they’re actually branching out with spin-offs that are highly rated and very well received, such as Gears Tactics which frankly, I think is every bit as good as XCOM 2. That is to say, it’s one of the finest games ever made in its genre. If they can keep that up- hit us with that Hellblade 2, hit us with some new Ori, hit us with one or two new Obsidian RPGs, such as The Outer Worlds 2 (a perfect example of a great game well received that is now being built upon to establish itself as a premier Xbox exclusive) and maybe get a talented team to start bringing back their Rare IP one at a time… I think they could actually start seeing the same exact response as Sony.

And, as a PC gamer, now that Xbox is releasing day and date on PC, I can actually get excited for their announcements, as can everyone else who plays games on PC (which is a ton). Their reach will grow exponentially just through PC. One of their biggest problems has been not bringing in new players. PC should allow them to do just that. Which means more people excited when they hear announcements, which will ultimately lead to more media coverage, which can complete the cycle as it influences gamers.

@JaxonH I'll take your word on it. The only Wolfenstein I've played is Youngblood which... was okay? Not that impressive. Nothing like Doom definitely.

I'm less sure on Elder Scrolls being a banger tbh? Maybe I'm just burned, but after both Oblivion and Skyrim failing to live up to Morrowind IMO, I'm worried even VI can't meet that standard. Skyrim was better than Oblivion but... I'm not sure why it's as big as it is.

@link3710
I can’t answer that question. Just like I don’t understand the appeal of Psychonauts, you may not understand the appeal of Skyrim. All I know is my coworker, who hasn’t touched a Nintendo system in 20 years, bought a Switch day one because the advertisement showed Skyrim, and it’s his favorite game of all time, and the notion of having a hybrid version was enough to sell him on an entire console. Mind you, this person literally bought a console for a game he had already played several times over. Such is the appeal of Skyrim.

My brother isn’t that big a fan, but he’s still a pretty big Skyrim fan. I like the game myself. Only reason I quit playing is I’m a compulsive collector and hoarder and was constantly bogged down by my weight stat. I stole her house and dumped all my stuff in the basement but even that wasn’t enough to counter the fact I was constantly weighed down, and every time I’d clean out my inventory, an hour later I was stacked to the gills again.

If I ever get back into it I’ve got to stop picking up everything I see.

But ya, Elder Scrolls VI will be a massive hit. And while Wolfenstein never seemed to catch on like Doom, both New Order and Wolf 2 are among my favorite FPS of all time (under DOOM Eternal, though I’d put New Order above the original Doom). I highly recommend New Order. That game is… as close to perfection as I’ve ever seen for a story driven FPS. Steam Controller with gyro advised. Or at least a Dualshock with gyro.

It still amazes me that Microsoft has owned the Banjo-Kazooie IP for more than a decade and, other than a collection of old Rare games, has done absolutely nothing with it.

Anyway, I think interest in Microsoft will increase if and when a lot of these big promised (console) exclusives actually start releasing and proving their worth. The Bethesda stuff will be notable, obviously, but it also remains to be seen if they can properly evolve a number of the series they're reviving, like Fable, Perfect Dark, etc.

A big issue I have with Microsoft is that, unlike with Sony, they don't seem to do an amazing job of managing projects and teams they're working with. Love or loathe Sony, the output of both their first-party teams and many of the third parties they're working with is consistently excellent. Whereas, when I think of Microsoft, I think of the disappointment around Crackdown 3, the way Scalebound imploded, the fact that their newest Halo game was so underwhelming its release was delayed by a year (and it's still not particularly impressive looking), the fact that whatever the hell Everwild was supposed to be was apparently bad enough that the game has effectively been rebooted and had its release date pushed back indefinitely, etc.

It's telling that Sony already seems to be warming up its production line and has published a few well-regarded exclusives since the launch of the PS5 while Xbox has released... what? I appreciate the value proposition that GamePass represents, but it's going to take more than a roided-out subscription service to convince me to buy Microsoft's next-gen hardware.

Right now, I feel like the best direction for Xbox to go into is:

A. Go back to those 2000s roots and be the mature PC gamer...console. That's what Bethesda is for, that's why they bothered to market Age of Empires 4, Flight Simulator etc.
B. If Sony's questionable decisions with their Japanese studios are as bad as they seem they could be, take advantage of that. Make deals with B-tier Japanese studios, or any Japanese developer whose left Sony in recent years and fill that niche.
C. Push more indie games like Twelve Minutes and the new Plague Tale. Try to push them as the video game equivalent to like important dramatic, award winning stories that tv series and movies have done, but in video game form (Twelve Minutes even has notable Hollywood names, so this is not a huge stretch).
D. Just make a 2nd studio for Rare. Why do you have one of the most notable developers in gaming history, and in the past decade they've put out...one new game? And their next game might not be out any time soon? They had a couple of revivals from other studios, but...just have another Rare studio.

Beyond what they bought, I'm looking into what Microsoft has and what they could do that others are not, and this is what I came up with.

@IceClimbers Not quite:

• July - Flight Sim (console, PC release was in August 2020)
• August - Psychonauts 2
• September - Nothing
• October - Age of Empires 4 (PC only)
• November - Forza Horizon 5
• TBA 2021 - Halo Infinite (probably December)

There not being parity between PC and console releases (some games are PC only, some games come to console several months after the PC release) makes the Xbox console front for 1st party releases feel like a more rough version of the Wii U era.

@kkslider5552000 One thing that has passively benefitted Microsoft is the explosion in Japanese multiplatform game development, and especially the almost universal support for PC gaming at this point. It's pretty wild to think about how many properties that were previously Sony-exclusive are now either on PC or PC/Xbox.

I think the dramatic unpopularity of Xbox in Japan will keep developers from signing any major exclusivity deals, but it also means that one of Sony's biggest advantages historically has evaporated.

I'll never buy an Xbox. For reasons that don't apply to most (all games on PC anyways, where there's gyro). But the majority of gamers don't care about that and don't have PC.

If they come with The Outer Worlds 2, Hellblade 2, Elder Scrolls VI, Doom Xbox, Wolfenstein Xbox, Starfield Xbox, Halo Infinite, new Forza Horizon, new Gears, new Gears Tactics, new Ori and one or two surprises, and I were one of those normal gamers... I'd probably buy an Xbox. Not even probably. I would.

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2021/06/it_looks_like_a_seque...

Looks like we might be getting an AI: The Somnium Files 2. Hard to believe it won't come to Switch.

The Xbox situation is the perfect illustration of the axiom that "exclusives sell consoles." For me, there's just nothing exclusive to the Xbox that makes me want to buy it. Absolutely nothing. And because I have a fast PC it's even worse; there's going to be almost no reason for me to ever buy another piece of Xbox hardware if practically everything keeps coming to GamePass for PC.

PS5 I do want to get whenever stock becomes more widely available because I really like their exclusive stuff like Ratchet and Clank and God of War.

But I don't think MS wants to stay in the console hardware business much longer, so it's not like they're losing a fight they actually want to win or anything. I think they've found their revenue gold mine with GamePass. If they can get millions and millions of gamers reliably and directly giving them 10 bucks a month, they'll probably outpace what they'd get from traditional software sales. And then we have the augmented reality/VR stuff on the horizon, as well.

Sooo...anyone else grabbing zombies ate my neighbors +ghoul patrol? Coming out today and I'm pretty stoked for it. Having never played ghoul patrol and copies are pretty pricey from what I understand, this seems like a pretty sweet deal. $15 for these two classic games seems like a steal. I don't think there's on-line coop which would've been great to have though. Looking forward to getting home later and showing my kids what these games are.

The thing about Microsoft is that they don't care anymore about selling Xbox systems. They only need to keep increasing the number of game pass subscriptions (either on Xbox, PC or mobile and so far in the last year those numbers are growing fast

@NintendoByNature

Yeah, I threw money down on a physical copy. I look forward to playing it in six months.

@JaxonH You are going to get Micriosoft's version of Netflix and Bethesda's version of netflix Originals and like it. And if Phil Spencer can get that on Switch, he will.

@Magician nice! I really wanted to go physical myself. But with June and July being so busy on switch, I needed to make cut backs where I could.

@GrailUK
I've never been one for subscription gaming, but my brother loves it, and it seems to be quite popular. This generation doesn't care about collecting, they just wanna play a game once and move on. As long as it's not impacting my ability to buy, I'm all for it.

@JaxonH Yeah, I find it depressing myself. And this same generation in 12 years time will be slouched in a sofa complaining about having so many games and nothing to play.

@JaxonH That's honestly my biggest concern with Game Pass. On a base level Game Pass is a really cool idea, not my thing but it gives people more options. Looking longer term, it feels like the service has the potential to kill off the ability to actually buy games which really bothers me much like how NSO killed off VC.

@Grumblevolcano although it may be true in the future so far the numbers say games are selling well regardless of release on game pass (even getting boosts when released on it)

@Grumblevolcano
I don't think that'll happen due to the fact they're never going to refuse someone who wants to pay $60 to own a single game. And the dual release nature on PC also works against that.

VC is re-releases for games that have been sold a dozen times before to the point people complained about rebuying them over and over each generation. That's not really applicable for new releases.