Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika @WoomyNNYes
I think the real reason is that Ubisoft has spent the last 5 years destroying price integrity with fire sale prices mere weeks after their games launch.

Macroeconomics courses even teach about the subject of price integrity and why it's crucial to maintain. You can't spent half a decade actively sabotaging your own price integrity, then act surprised when consumers stop buying your games day 1.

There are consequences for obliterating price integrity. One game getting a quick discount, maybe that won't have much effect. But year after year after year of seeing games drop half price 3 weeks post-launch, $20 in just 2 months... what did they think was going to happen?

I bought day one because it's a killer game and I want to support amazing exclusives like it. But consumer behavior at large will respond to price integrity, or the lack thereof.

I guarantee that is the number one reason the game hasn't done as well as they'd hoped. Combine that with launching just a few weeks away from Persona 5 Royal, Nier Automata, No Man's Sky, Bayonetta 3 and Pokémon... stiff competition from games whose publishers don't destroy price integrity. So when it comes to choosing, are people going to pay full price for the game that takes 2 weeks to drop to half price, or the game that takes 6 months?

In the end, the game didn't drop in price like people thought. But it's too late. That 5 years of historical precedent is what drives consumer decisions.

I do think it'll have long legs though and continue to sell for years to come.

I'm regretting not getting the Alm/Celica amiibos when I had a chance. The prices on those things now are eye-watering, lol.

@JaxonH It kind of did drop in price like people thought, it just took a bit longer than usual. Was already £30 in December.

I wouldn't pay too much for the quality of these amiibos. The faces these two have are goofy looking.

@MsJubilee

They look fine to me, although I'd never pay more than MSRP for an Amiibo.

@Ralizah
I think they look fine too.

In fact I'm rather impressed with the quality of amiibo. Most of these figures released for $12.99, yet have better detail than figures that sell for 3x that price. And don't have easily breakable parts, or parts which need to assemble, etc.

I recently bought the Fire Emblem Holy War figures from 2002 that released in Japan, and just shipping from Japan to me in a well cushioned box, several parts broke on 2 figures (I glued them back together). And the facial detail is poor. Really makes one appreciate amiibo.

@JaxonH "Price integrity" - Yeah, that too. Everyone knows Ubi games will be sold at massive discounted prices regularly.

@NeonPizza I've had my eyes on that for a bit. I'm kinda tied up gaming wise at the moment, but it looks amazing, and I'll be grabbing it soon enough.

check out the 20 best looking Nintendo Switch games.

The crazy Switch lineup resumes in 7 days with Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 Portable with Fire Emblem Engage the following day.

@Grumblevolcano I'm still not over Oct's yet! I've completed Nier but I'm still nowhere near finishing Persona 5 and I started both Mario + Rabbis 2 and Bayonetta 3 but not really dug that far into them yet. In hindsight I wished I didn't get Pokemon so I could have spent that time with my other games and not support the usual half-assery with the poke-games.

I'm really looking forward to Persona 3. I've been wanting to play that for years even before Persona blew up in popularity after I heard the characters shoot themselves in the head before a battle starts. I've got my Nirvana playmix all ready for it!

Performance in Disgaea 7 looks waaaaaay better on Switch than the last one did.

@JaxonH For the price, they're remarkable little collectibles. Pity they seem to be backing off of them to some extent.

@JaxonH True, And they have been churning out new entries rather regularly so now might be a great time after Engage to lean on remakes to both give the team a break and make some easier money. I'm just hoping GBA hits NSO eventually. Granted, I have the games on WiiU and I have a gba player, so it isn't that bad (As the point for me was to play on tv), but switch has a large enough screen that I can play these handheld again with the right resolution.

@Ralizah They look very nice in person, my issue is the same with all sword amiibo...bendy swords. Especially since mine were in a box in storage for 4 years.

@Ralizah I feel the release lineup hasn't really been able to showcase whether amiibo is going away. The main indicator so far that it is would be the absence of Fire Emblem amiibo along with Three Houses and Engage but then again, a new Fire Emblem existing pretty much confirms a character from that game will come to Smash. We ended up with a Byleth amiibo and I wouldn't be surprised if the next Smash content whether Fighters Pass 3 or Smash 6 will have Alear as a fighter.

TotK, next mainline Mario and Prime 4 would be the biggest indicators to me whether it's going away.

@Ryu_Niiyama
Right, and it helps them alternate back and forth between the more "Awakening" style (Fates, Engage) and the more "classic" style (Shadows of Valentia, Three Houses).

Three Houses (classic)
Engage (Awakening)
Remake (classic)
Next Mainline Entry (new direction)
etc.

They really do need to add GBA so we can at least get Fire Emblem Blazing Blade and Fire Emblem Sacred Stones. They should localize Binding Blade also and complete the trio. Or better yet, localize Holy War and Thracia 776 also, so that we have access to all the retro classics that matter in English. There's already fan translations. Surely the sales would justify translating a few old SNES titles and GBA game.

@Ralizah
Ikr? Why no Three Houses amiibo? Why no Engage amiibo? Why no Xenoblade 3 amiibo? At least we got Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak and Splatoon 3 amiibo though. I'll take whatever win we can get.

Seriously though, they could've made a gold mine releasing an Alear male/female dual pack and a special Engage edition amiibo for each of the 12 emblem heroes. Imagine a Sigurd, Micaiah and Lyn amiibo!

@JaxonH Nintendo did that limited time FE1 localization back in 2020 so there's at least some interest at Nintendo for it. Oddly enough, Japan NSO doesn't even have Thracia 776 yet and base NSO additions have pretty much slowed to a standstill so it seems it'll always be missing. Gaiden is also missing though I'd guess that's because of the 3DS remake.

@Grumblevolcano
That's one thing a modded 3DS is good for-

I have FE1 (NES) and FE2 (NES) with English fan translation, FE3 (SNES), FE4 (SNES) and FE5 (SNES) with English fan translation, FE6 (GBA) with English fan translation, and FE12 (DS) with English fan translation. Not to mention it also has the localized versions of FE7 (GBA) and FE8 (GBA), FE11 (DS), and FE13 (3DS), FE14 (3DS) and FE15 (3DS).

Only missing Path of Radiance (GC) and Radiant Dawn (Wii), and the Switch entries.

@JaxonH I'm genuinely a bit salty about the lack of Xenoblade 3 amiibo. I'd buy the whole bunch. Absolutely loved that cast of characters.

@Grumblevolcano Nintendo has largely not released amiibo for most of their big releases in the last few years. If TotK launches without a raft of new amiibo, you can bet your biscuits they're phasing that product line out completely.

@JaxonH do you believe is possible Nintendo/Inteligent System could do a remake of Fire Emblem 4/5? or they will continue releasing new mainline Fire Emblem games on future Nintendo hardware?

@Ralizah I was looking at what was supported in the 3DS/Wii U era and looking at the Switch comparisons:

• Smash line - Still happening but only has 2/3 amiibo left after today (Pyra, Mythra and maybe Sora). Sora isn't certain given the rest of Fighters Pass 2 had an amiibo announced by the end of the Sora stream but not Sora.
• Mario line - New Mario platformers have been rather absent in the Switch generation so it's hard to judge whether amiibo is going away or not from the Mario line. You had Odyssey which did get amiibo and Mario Maker 2 which didn't
• Zelda line - Each mainline game in the Switch era got amiibo (even the remasters/remakes) so we'll see what happens with TotK
• Splatoon line - Splatoon 2 and 3 got multiple amiibo and it's a safe guess that they'll create amiibo for each member of Deep Cut, maybe also a separate batch of amiibo based on whatever the DLC expansion is about
• Metroid line - Metroid Dread did get amiibo so we'll see what happens with Prime 4
• Fire Emblem line - The first Fire Emblem Warriors got some amiibo but nothing since. That said, Smash is well known for adding lots of Fire Emblem characters so there's overlap like the Smash line got Byleth. They may have toned things back to take into account characters like Alear coming to Smash.
• Kirby line - Nothing though the big 4 characters were in the initial 3DS/Wii U era Kirby line batch
• Yoshi line - Nothing though the Yoshi line always seemed like a special one-off line taking advantage of the yarn nature of Woolly World back with 3DS/Wii U
• Animal Crossing line - Series 5 of amiibo cards did release coinciding with the big 2.0 update for New Horizons
• Monster Hunter line - Rise, Sunbreak and Stories 2 got amiibo

Both 3DS/Wii U era and Switch era had a bunch of one-off amiibo like 3DS/Wii U had Shovel Knight and Detective Pikachu meanwhile Switch had Dark Souls and Diablo.

That's why I think we don't have enough info yet as to the future of amiibo, the new games that didn't get amiibo more recently are mostly in franchises that didn't get amiibo in the 3DS/Wii U era. There's also the topic of what is Smash's future given that was always the biggest source of amiibo. Will it be more DLC for Ultimate, Smash 6 or the franchise indefinitely going on hiatus?