Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@dtjive
The 2.0m figure is a shipment forecast that is likely to change, as we come closer to the actual launch. Nintendo is being a little more conservative this time, because they were overly ambitious with their projections in the past.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/earnings/yearindex.html
Their forecast for the Wii (2 fiscal quarters) was 6.0m, but they ended up shipping 5.84m.
Their forecast for the 3DS (1 fiscal quarter) was 4.0m, but they ended up shipping 3.61m.
Their forecast for the Wii U (2 fiscal quarters) was 5.5m, but they ended up shipping 3.45m.

A single quarter isn't going to make or break a system. As long as the demand is still there, the Switch will go on to outperform the likes of the Wii U.

@dtjive
In addition to what @Octane said it's also shipments by the end of March. A typically slow period for game sales and the month the thing launches. But we also don't know if it's launching early in March or in the last few days of March.

And anyways, 2mill units for the first month? I think that's reasonable. Remember that the Wii U only sold ~5mill units from launch until the end of 2013. So 2mill on shelves during the month the Switch launches isn't pessimistic. If that's how many units it sells through in that first month? They're doing very well.

@MumboJumbo: Interesting read. I'd like to point out that I think I was right when I said that the first trailer focused on a certain age group only because Nintendo thought the timing was right for them, and that we'll see more family-oriented marketing later on.

Our core philosophy is that we want to increase the number of gamers at all ages, and there's no change to that. So we have no intention to lean just towards core gamers. But to communicate our new idea, when you think about who will understand it first, naturally it will be people who really understand games. To communicate that as quickly as possible, we focused on those folks who really understand games.

A lot of people need to realise 2 milion in March could be 2 million in a week, since we have no set date and the fiscal year ends in March.

@BLP_Software It could technically be an even smaller time period, a day as March 31st is a Friday.

Monster Hunter XX is launching in Japan on March 18. Any chance that's a Switch launch title as well? Assuming it's a standalone game (or is it just DLC?).

@BLP_Software
I'd argue that 2mill shipped before the end of March is leaning on the "we don't want to be supply constrained" side of things. In terms of previous console launches 2mill in the first full month is about middle of the road. So if this thing launches in the second half of the month? 2mill shipped before the end of the month is playing it safe. It's less "we don't expect it to sell" and more "we don't want to be sold out"

That phrase from the interview, "[...] We also haven't shown all of our first party software[...]", certainly picks my attention. It sounds like they shown some - Zelda, Mario, Splatoon - but they have something surprising in the works.
That January presentation is going to be interesting... Wonder if they are working on new, or unexpected, IPs?

Sorry for the double post, but just finished reading the interview and wanted to post my impressions on it. There are two points that caught my attention:

First, when he speaks about smartphone games. He talks about how he expects them, the theme park AND movie business to surrround the main pillar, video game business. We have proof that a mobile release impacts positively on software sales - it isn't coincidence that Pokemon Sun & Moon has become the game with more preorders in Nintendo's history after the launch of Pokemon Go.
If they can do smartphone business right and not dedicate themselves only to it, it could be a wonderful way to attract new customers and reposition IPs - and boost Nintendo's biggest strengh, their first party lineup.

And regarding that he doesn't imagine why the shareholders had that responde.... The guy's a banker, with a solid career behind him. He knows, but is not going to go on the record saying that investors only want short term profit with extensive focus on the smartphone area instead of the videogame business.

That January presentation is going to be very interesting by the way he teases it.

I can speak to the smartphone effect. I hadn't touched pokemon since the original Ruby and sapphire, and recently I bought both to play. And now I'm going to get sun and moon. I imagine there were many like me.

I hope the launch lineup has at least two brand new games, because enhanced ports won't excite me too much considering I'm a wii u owner.

I think Nintendo should focus on games that are just as fun to play on the go, as they are at home. Stuff that's simple and filling enough to be played in short bursts at an airport, but also compelling and engaging enough that you also want to play it on a TV for hours on end. It's a very delicate balance to strike.

Has anyone mentioned possible 3G/4G compatibility?
I guess that could be following the Psv a little bit but I missed all that so I can't comment on how it would go.

@12cloudenvy34 I brought that up when it was still the NX. Most people thought it was a terrible idea at the time. Part of the argument was they would partner up with AT&T which doesn't have great service and can be expensive.

Can't see 4G / 3G compatibility, would push the price up, and imagine you could tether your mobile phone as a hot spot for 4G if needed

@DefHalan But AT&T would only be for the American side of things. However, reflecting upon the suggestion, unless we were lucky enough for contracts that were based around unlimited data, you wouldn't want to be out and about with data on.

Ideally it'd be great to pay a base price for unlimited 4G. I mean that's very unrealistic, but it'd be great. Imagine also having pokemon go as compatible. But yeah, phone hot spot is enough for on the go WiFi gaming

@12cloudenvy34 T-mobile has unlimited data, which is why I use them, even though their coverage isn't as good as Verizon.

@DefHalan In england, I'm pretty sure most providers have unlimited.
I think I'm going to have to.leave all this speculation though before I start taking it seriously.
Perhaps it will come with 4G compatibility but is completely optional. (Speculation I know)

i hope switch gets external hdd support eventually. i get that it interferes with the main idea but not everyone will play on the go and it is a basic feature. it should be our, the custumers, decisions to make.

There's a rumour going around saying that the "standard" game card will be 16GB. The front page of this site and others have reported it as "games rumoured to be limited to 16GB". But here's the thing. The most common DS game card was 64MB but cards could be 8-512MB. The most common 3DS game card is 2GB but games can be 128MB-8GB.

So if 16GB is the standard in the same sense as that? We could still have game cards being in something like a range of 1-64GB. Which would make a lot more sense. The wording here matters, cartridge capacity limits don't work like optical media capacity limits do.