Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@JaxonH can Nintendo Switch really outsold PS2/DS? the sale of the console are in decline, i dont doubt the possibilty of Switch outselling PS2/DS, but the console sales declining i think this become more hard to archive.

@Giancarlothomaz
Yes. Saying sales are "in decline" tells us nothing. You could be selling 50 million units a year and "decline" to 45 million. Just because something is "in decline" doesn't really tell us anything of value.

What matters is this:

1) What are the current sales totals
2) How fast are sales decreasing
3) What is the delta between current total and record total

Accounting for all 3 pieces of data, I'd ascribe a 90% chance of breaking the record if Nintendo Switch 2 doesn't release until holiday 2024. See my original post which walks through the logic.

edit
I've modified my estimated probability using Bayes Theorem:

• 60% chance Switch breaks the record
• If Switch 2 doesn't release next spring, the probability increases to 80%
• If Switch 2 does release next spring, the probability drops to 20%

I tried to take an unbiased approach- even though I think spring 24 is 50%, I simply ascribed a 1/3 chance for spring '24, a 1/3 chance for holiday '24, and a 1/3 chance for spring '25.

@JaxonH
Thanks for the response.
Upgrade we shall. As you said, even if the "Switch 2" is announced and the release date confirmed, the new OLED we still be worth playing games for the foreseeable future.
If the "Switch 2" is not fully backward compatible, keeping the Switch will be inevitable.

@ERGgamin
Ya, I've got a feeling Switch 2 won't be OLED, and by keeping Switch OLED it frees up a ton of space that would be sucked up via BC games. Like, I have a 1.5 TB micro SD in my Switch. And it's full. There would be no room for Switch 2 games.

Granted I could just swap SD out. But that requires powering off, and it's just easier to grab Switch OLED for Switch games, grab Switch 2 for Switch 2 games. Exception would be any games that get much needed performance or resolution increases. Stuff like Pikmin 4, Super Mario Bros Wonder, Mario RPG... who cares. But stuff like Xenoblade Chronicles trilogy, Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, Pokemon Scarlet... those will be good candidates for downloading on Switch 2. Provided they get performance updates, of course.

@JaxonH
Good points. Some games will not benefit from the performance boost, so keep them on the Switch.
We just bought a one tb sd card, our 128 gb card filled up quickly, and then there was a lot of swapping out of games. With the number of games announced during the June Direct alone and those we are still playing, an sd upgrade was needed. Just need to transfer data and start playing.
Thanks again for the replies.

Is half life available on switch ?

Nope. NintendoLife makes a page for all switch games, so if you search for something here and don't get a hit, that generally means it's not on Switch.

Good news about their network. Maybe we will be getting BC afterall. But, won’t be excited until they officially announce it.

@Ninfan
No, but Portal and Portal 2 are on Switch (though I suspect you already knew this, and that's why you were asking about HL).

But on the off chance you didn't know, Portal and Portal 2 are on Switch, and they're glorious! Look and play identically to SteamDeck, complete with gyro aiming and everything.

A note to those waiting for the Pikmin 4 demo, the UK Direct says June 29th so the demo will likely go live in around 12 hours from now (which is at a time where it's June 28th in the US and June 29th in the UK).

And Trails Into Reverie drops next week too? This is getting downright absurd.

So... I still haven't finished Zelda Tears of the Kingdom but already started a new save file in Pikmin HD and Pikmin 2 HD. Started playing Sonic Origins Plus for Triple Trouble on GameGear and checking out the improved spin dash in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, fired up Mario Rabbids Sparks of Hope to check out the 2nd expansion DLC campaign, meanwhile Ghost Trick is dropping tomorrow with killer reviews, AEW Fight Forever drops tomorrow and is actually a playable version on Switch (finally a good wrestling game!), Lara Croft Collection drops tomorrow with both Guardians of Light and Temple of Osiris, Rain Code drops Friday which will hopefully be even better than Danganronpa or AI Somnium Files, we've got a Pikmin 4 demo releasing sometime today which, God help me I will be playing within literal minutes of it going live, and Trails Into Reverie drops next week.

Even if I was unemployed and spent all day loafing around eating pizza and playing games, I would still not have the time for even half this stuff. How... with a full time job... I can't even...

But I will try. Of that you can be certain.

edit
Even Walmart Canada knows what time it is

acording to Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotic in the FTC Microsoft trial, Nintendo Switch sucessor techinal/graphical power will be close to gen 8 consoles(Xbox One e PS4)

The prospect of Switch 2 being comparable to a PS4/Xbox One in terms of power is unironically making me extremely excited. Nintendo themselves have done an exceptional job at pushing what is (essentially) a portable PS3/Xbox 360 to it's absolute limits and to have something akin to the next systems up with Nintendo's trademark console ingenuity? It may just be my first Day 1 buying of a console in my entire life

I wonder what all this says about how far out the next console is? Because to know these details suggests third party developers must have either final or near final dev kits.

@Fizza
You can do a LOT with PS4/X1 power. And to have that in a hybrid handheld? That's a potent mix (sound like General Quarrich here).

When the Xbox 360 and PS3 hit the scene, there was a massive shift to HD development, and an immense leap forward in console graphics. But this bold new world demanded a lot from the hardware. Many games in the PS3/360 era just barely managed to pull off 720p, oftentimes 540p. Or, they just couldn't quite run with a stable framerate. The hardware was like, 80% of the what it needed to be to fulfill developer's visions. Skyrim, Resident Evil 5, Dark Souls, the list of games whose framerates dipped into the low 20's were numerous.

Switch, in many ways, is a mirror of that generation, except this time on the portable side. It's a bit more powerful than the PS3/360, even in handheld mode, but it's still not quite where it needs to be. If PS3/360 were 80%, then Switch is at 90%

When the PS4/X1 released, performance and visuals improved drastically across the board. The graphics didn't see nearly as big of an improvement, but it had it where it counts- gapping that final 20% for games to run smoothly at an HD resolution. Obviously there's always exceptions, but generally speaking, if you look at games on PS4/X1 vs PS3/360, you'll find the number of titles struggling with low 20 fps drops notably decreased. In addition to better visuals and 1080p resolution.

PS3/360 was the HD teething pains generation. And we're experiencing that on the handheld side now for Switch. It's not quite as rough as PS3/360 had it because again, it is a bit more powerful so it gaps that deficit a bit more, but the next generation Switch will be akin to the PS4/X1 generation on the handheld side. The generation where performance and visuals largely iron out across the board, the generation that can still, to this day, run almost any current title if a version is developed for it in mind.

And that's exciting to think about. Cause if Switch is already this good in the HD handheld teething generation, just imagine what it'll be like once that's behind us.

Just wait for that lower-res and laggy but impressive port of FF16 to arrive on Switch 2 in 3 years.

Also, same about day 1 buy; usually I am kind of slow to get new consoles and sometimes skip them. I might actually join the pre-order hardware gang without waiting for reviews for the first time in my life.

They said it would stop being exclusive and go to pc in 2024 or 2025; no reason we can't snatch an impossible port in 2026. Maybe it will go to Nintendo but not Xbox just to spite Microsoft.

@Professor_Plumber @FishyS Whether FFVII Remake is a launch window title for the Switch's successor will basically fully reveal whether Sony's exclusivity deals for FF are permanent console exclusivity or just Xbox exclusion.

I'm not losing sleep over FFXVI.

It's a bad joke as far as I'm concerned. Sex scenes, wild cursing, realism, ditches any semblance of strategic turn based party gameplay for solo real time combat, yet doesn't even fully commit and ends up being a DMC-lite. There's not even a heavy attack for goodness sakes.

Idk what ppl see in that game. Its a complete leap-frog of genres, abandoning its identity to become yet another story driven linear action game. If it were a spinoff like Crisis Core I could set all that aside and evaluate on its own merits, though even then it seems to have a fair number of issues- lacking depth, worst sidequests ever, just repeat same shallow combat and watch hours of cutscenes, "the game". But as a mainline entry, it's like if Nintendo released the next mainline 3D Mario game and it wasnt even a platformer anymore and you couldnt even jump. I suppose if you're into the whole forced slow walking and "maturity" thing like all of Sony's 1st party titles it's a money shot, which tells me they released it on the right platform, cause I sure as heck wouldn't play it on Switch 2 (in case you couldn't tell, yes I'm a bit salty they ruined one of my favorite JRPG series of all time, and from the sound of things Dragon Quest is the next beloved JRPG staple to be flushed down the toilet in service of "adult content"... fantastic). Sorry to anyone who likes the game- don't let me sour it for you. I'm just genuinely baffled at what they did.

Now. FFVII Remake. That's another story entirely. That's FF done RIGHT (aside from the forced slow walking and constantly stealing control away from the player with in game cut scenes that don't telegraph control is being taken away or given back, so it's just a constant game of "wtf isn't my character responding"). Even that game couldn't escape the Sony effect. They sure know their new audience I guess.

That said, FFXVI could easily run on Switch 2. The FFVII Remake PS5 port runs on Steam Deck and they're really no different. And that's just run of the mill PC downscaling. Design it and optimize it FOR a system and it'll run without breaking a sweat.

No game exists that can't run on SteamDeck (assuming its compatible). No game exists that can't run on PS4 if they gave it equal attention (yes there's examples like Cyberpunk launch but there's always examples of poorly optimized games for the lesser platforms when they're releasing half a dozen versions).

@Grumblevolcano
We know Sony pays for full exclusivity (not allowed to release on Switch, or Xbox, or PC). We also know they pay for platform exclusions, such as no Xbox specifically. They probably never bothered to pay to keep a game off Switch because most of the games they chase depend on graphics to sell, and those games couldn't run on Switch anyways.

But once Switch 2 is out and can run those games, contrary to their "Switch isn't a competitor, Switch is for children, blah blah blah" rhetoric, watch for them to start paying to exclude Switch 2, specifically. They won't care for the games that don't sell as well to the Nintendo audience- for those they'll just want to keep off Xbox. But more and more franchises and series are seeing higher sales on Switch than PS. And you better believe they will perceive that as a threat. Stuff like Persona- who cares if it goes to Xbox? Nobody's gonna play it there anyways. It's not taking any sales from them. But Nintendo? Oh ho ho, that's a different story. This entire generation they've watched Switch siphon off their sales as more people opt for a hybrid handheld format, even despite lower specs/performance. What will people do when Switch 2 is out and the difference is virtually imperceptible? They know. Best believe they know.