Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

In the wake of all these dreadful layoffs that have been occurring across the gaming industry at a depressingly high pace, it's nice to see some positive news for once and today is one of those days: Toys for Bob (best known for their work on Skylanders and the revivals of both Crash Bandicoot and Spyro) are officially splitting from Activision and becoming an independent studio!

@Fizza
So, Toys for Bob can make new Skylanders / Spyro / Crash Bandicoot games for multi consoles without Activision label?

@Anti-Matter It's unclear at the moment but they did say in the announcement post that they're going to be working very closely with Microsoft so it's definitely possible (I'd personally love to see them do a remake of Banjo-Kazooie myself!).

Nintendo need to scoop up TFB and have them make an amiibo toys-to-life game.

when is the right time to launch the Nintendo Switch sucessor?

Octopath Traveler has been delisted from the eshop.

@Grumblevolcano Publisher change (from Nintendo to Squeenix). It will likely come back soon.

@Ryu_Niiyama Square-Enix is the publisher though. Nothing changed there.

Edit: Hmm, apparently Nintendo were the publisher of the Switch version, even though S-E is on the box art?

Edit: Nintendo on the spine.

NVM

@Magician I added a bit to my comment so that it is clearer. I didn’t think that not everyone would remember Nintendo publisher the Switch version.

@Fizza That does sound like awesome news, I've enjoyed Spyro Reignited Trilogy and it'd be cool to see what they'll make next as an indie developer. And yeah, there have been way too many layoffs in the gaming industry recently... I feel sorry for everyone who lost their jobs.

So Octopath Traveler was just delisted (probably coming back soon) on the eShop, so you can't buy it there at the moment. But if you already had it from the eShop, can you still redownload it, or is that also unavailable until it becomes listed again?

@Giancarlothomaz I'm not going to watch the video because the answer is obviously when Nintendo is ready to hit the ground running with it. I said before all this 'delay' talk that Nintendo need to make sure they have a string of games ready for the launch year. From all the talk it sounds like the hardware is done and dusted. So if the first batch of games gets more optimisation etc then it's a win and if the first year has game after game, then it's in the bank. 16G of ram doesn't sell Nintendo consoles...games do.

@rallydefault You should still be able to redownload it. I've redownloaded a different delisted Switch game before. Who knows what will happen in 10 or 20 years, but so far Nintendo always makes any game you buy available for redownload. Since the issue with Octopath is a publisher change it's possible that if you redownload it multiple times the publisher information in the game will eventually change, but otherwise nothing should happen since Nintendo is in charge of any copy already sold.

Note that Nintendo said you can even redownload owned games after the 3DS eShop closes although I assume that will go away after a few years.

Does Nintendo still sell Switch Docks only? I have been to several stores but haven't seen just the dock. Also I have the OLED model do I have to buy an OLED dock? Is there a difference?

@Tasuki

I was just on their website the other day, and they do sell docks. I don’t think I saw any OLED docks, though, and they are different.

Hmm ok that's good to know, guess maybe I will just move the Switch to the front room since they don't seem to just sell OLED docks.

I wonder when we'll get our next NSO drop. I know we just had the big Rare/Mother 3 bombshell at the recent Partner Showcase but it's been a fair bit since any service other than GBA has gotten some love outside of those drops. Game Boy in particular is a very interesting case as it both hasn't had ANYTHING since October of last year and still has a game from it's initial announcement that still hasn't been added yet....in Japan anyway (being The Frog For Whom The Bell Tolls) so there has to be SOMETHING for that side of NSO soon enough, right???

If we are to get some more GB titles, I'm kind of hoping for either Wario Land 1/2 (why they put the 3rd in the launch lineup when we haven't had any of the other games yet is beyond me), DK94 (not gonna happen due to the Mario VS Donkey Kong remake but a man can dream XD) and/or Mole Mania (surprised that one hasn't come over sooner given Miyamoto's involvement with it).

Unfortunately I'm not surprised. Handheld gaming is rarely given the same love as console gaming, sometimes to a bizarre degree. Like Game Boy sold better than every console between the NES and Wii, but those console games are still treated by most as a bigger deal.

I was gonna say Wario Land is forgotten while (insert SNES platformer) is beloved, but I'd mostly be describing some of the most deservedly beloved games of all time which would in fact make Wario Land, a mostly great series, look lesser by comparison. Bad comparison.

But I dunno how anyone is still enthused by the 80 billionth reminder of the same handful of first party NES games, only half of which are worth going back to. Gameboy and especially GBA at least feel a lot less milked dry than that.

@Fizza I think March will clear up the remaining February 2023 Direct NSO announcements. 1 week having F-Zero Maximum Velocity and a different week having a NES/SNES/GB wave featuring the Japan exclusive. Maybe also have Mario Land 1 and SMB Deluxe as part of the NES/SNES/GB wave as unlike the past 2 years, there isn't currently something Mario for NSO close to Mario Day (2022 had MK8 Deluxe DLC wave 1 on March 18th and 2023 had MK8 Deluxe DLC wave 4 on March 9th).

@Tasuki I found a white OLED dock on Nintendo's own website right here.

@Grumblevolcano About F-Zero: Maximum Velocity... I just remembered something about the game. While you're racing, the course map on the bottom left corner of the screen is always flickering... I wonder if Nintendo will change that for the NSO version? I'm bringing this up because flickering objects might not be too good for the Switch's handheld screen. I've had another game cause temporary burn-in on my V1 Switch's screen a couple years ago because of that.