Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

The 3DS was written off as a failure within the first few months but Nintendo turned it around. A similar thing happened to the DS and PS3. I'd argue it was a similar story with Gamecube in reverse and to some extent the Wii U. It looked like things would pick up eventually with interesting software on the horizon but it didn't.

On the other side of things there have been systems where it was clear from the start. The Wii and PS4 both launched with runs on the board. It was pretty hard to argue that it was just "launch hype" when the momentum didn't slow. But for consoles we knew would fail from day 1 it's a bit harder. I think even the Vita looked like it could challenge the 3DS for a bit there. The only pieces of recent console hardware I can think of that failed from the start are the PSP Go and Vita TV

I mean, how short are our memories? Or how much are we trying, quite willfully, to forget? The Wii U was a failure from the start, man. We were all there. It only took about two weeks to a month for it to start becoming apparent that the things weren't selling like hotcakes.

I remember just walking into one of the most popular Gamestops in my area after the Wii U was only out for... uhm....like a week and a half, and they just had a stack of the things behind the counter. I thought for sure they must have been reserved or something, but when I asked the clerk if they actually had any, he laughed and said they couldn't get rid of the things.

https://www.google.com/search?q=cross+network+play&oq=cro...

NX should definitely support this.

@rallydefault: @NewAdvent:
I think you guys are reading into what I was saying a bit too much. All I was saying is that it's hard to tell how well a console will do in the long term in the first few months. Remember that we're all sitting here with 20:20 hindsight. The Wii U didn't come out of the gate running, there weren't high expectations. I never said there were. All I said was that for quite a while people thought Nintendo could turn the ship around when the software started to come out.

And speaking of forgetting history. The way I remember it the 3DS was far less impressive early on than the Wii U. Nobody cared about the 3DS at all for a good 6 months or so. Then Sony came out saying that the Vita would be the same price. That's why the price cut and Ambassador program existed. It was a disaster.... but they recovered. The Wii U never picked up but compared to the 3DS its launch wasn't that bad. It was no Wii or PS4 but it wasn't 3DS bad either.

@skywake: I can't comment on any of that, really. I didn't read anything about the Wii U or 3DS in terms of anticipation and all that. I only started visiting this forum after I bought the Wii U, played it, liked it, and wanted to talk to similar-minded people. I was a hardcore PS2/360 guy for the last two generations: I paid zero attention to Nintendo news.

All I can say is that it was quickly apparent the Wii U was gonna be a flop. It barely took a month for the major news outlets to start running the "uh oh - Nintendo messed up" stories. I don't know what happened with the 3DS nor do I really care.

In fact, I even forget what we're talking about here. The Wii U being a failure from the start? It was. Can it "come back" and make a respectable run of it before its time is over? Of course, no argument there. But short of jumping tens of millions of units before its run is over, it will still be remembered as a failed console by players and industry alike.

An idea for VR and/or AR:

-NX is both a clamshell portable and a (sold separately) headset.
-The handheld is roughly on par with the Wii U.
-the top portion, which is the screen, can detach from the bottom half and dock onto the front of the headset.
-the headset also has an attached cable to connect to the assigned port on the bottom portion, which for power and to use as a controller.

Battery Life... 15 minutes lol jk

@DefHalan: eh, Wii u is very efficient, even more so if they go with an ARM equivalent.

Though the handheld would be expensive, given it'd probably have to have a minimum 5.2" HD oled screen...

@WebHead: The Wii U GamePad only have 3 hours of battery life, on a good day. Same with the 3DS. I really hope the Next devices batteries are way better.

@DefHalan: yeah Nintendo cheaper out on battery. I think their batteries are the same as dsi. If they were to do this though the definitely cannot cheap out on the screen.

I still think my idea is good...just not practical yet.

I don't think your idea was bad, just Nintendo isn't the best with batteries. lol

I was disagreeing with the argument that we'll know whether the NX will be a hit or a failure within the first month or so. I was arguing that it's very rare that we know the fate of a console that early. The media obviously tends to lean towards "doom" and they'll say everything is doomed. At one point early on I remember even reading some articles about how the Wii was a fad that was going to burn out. With the Wii U the popular narrative never changed but that doesn't mean we knew its fate "from the start"

And again, people said the PS3 was doomed. To the point where Sony's E3 2006 press conference literally became a meme. The same was true of the 3DS, it was said to be dead from all corners. Mobile was going to kill it, the Vita was the same price, there was no software, sales were bad. It was looking much worse for the 3DS early on then it ever did for the Wii U. The media are always very quick to say something is doomed.

The power consumption of Wii u is 35 watts. An iphone 6 draws 12 watts. A typical laptop draws 50 watts.

I will venture a guess and say iphone has much worse graphical prestanda than Wii u.

I just realized something. If Nintendo makes their next system significantly more powerful than the PS4, it could actually turn into a problem.

The best comparison is the Sega Dreamcast, which launched a year and a half prior to the PS2, and 2 and a half years prior to the Gamecube. As a result, the hardware was significantly weaker than all of the successive consoles, contributing greatly to the loss of interest and the system's demise.

If Nintendo's system launches over a year prior to the competition, they could easily run into a similar issue by getting completely overshadowed by new competitors.

@iKhan: Basically what happened to Wii U?

The Wii U struggled out of the gate and wasn't much more powerful than the PS360. The Dreamcast was pretty revolutionary when it launched, but it got completely overshadowed by the PS2.

I thought the Dreamcast had a good number of 3rd party exclusives. But I never played one myself. Was it really that bad?

@skywake: Oh, well. Hrm... I don't know. I think the whole "dead from the start" thing just comes from this increasingly connected culture we have now. Even with the PS3/360 generation, people weren't AS connected as they are now.

Maybe the truth, as always, is something in between. Perhaps it is moreso people THINK they will know if the NX is successful in the first month or not, and will then proceed to scream said thoughts to the entire world through forums/Twitter/etc., allowing for the idiots of the world to latch on and propagate whatever nonsense, good or bad, they came up with.

Sucks that we proabbly won't get the final answer of this question until E3 :/

@rallydefault: I found with the XB360/PS3 they were quite expensive at launch which deterred people at the start when as the XBONE/PS4 where pretty reasonably price when they first came out