UK Charts: Animal Crossing: New Horizons Is Still Leading The Way For Nintendo

The hype is finally getting to me... I never thought AC would be a game that would interest me. Never really been into the SIMs which as a total outsider it reminds me off. My main games I've played on Switch are Odyseey and All stars, Breath of the wild as well as smash, mario kart and a few platformers like Hollow Knight and Super Meatboy. Would this hold my interest?

Another great week for Switch. Not much else to say.

Bad week for Immortals

Poor Immortals at #11, hopefully its digital sales will be stronger.

@Dringo

Game is a certified flop (not saying it's bad, tho).

Man, it looks like Nintendo knew what they were doing with Steve in Smash.

Minecraft Switch had been on the charts ever since.

Amazed Just Dance is doing so well.

@Jedge396,

Don't do it, save yourself from hundreds and hundreds of hours of addictive game play.

I am 800 hours in and still do not know where the time has gone.

Have a copy of Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the Mrs as a Hanukkah gift his week

She mentioned how people at work were playing it, so another attempt to get her into gaming 😅 not using my Switch anyway.

Immortals on Switch got outsold by the PS5 install base version. Never had a chance at $60. It will sell better once the price drops.

Regardless if you playing either - Amazon Prime has free sets

https://gaming.amazon.com/loot/acv

https://gaming.amazon.com/loot/ifr?ingress=amzn&ref_=SM_IFR01_P1_CRWN

@AndyC_MK84

I think we will see a Nintendo running on all cylinders from next year.

Well I hope we will!

@AndyC_MK84,

I have missed movies too, can't wait for the new Bond movie, have had to use my own little cinema more.

https://www.blu-ray.com/community/gallery.php?member=jonmoz&folderid=905

@johnvboy Holy smoke, what a setup!

@AndyC_MK84,

Thank you.

I have missed the cinema the most with all this going on, so many movies delayed, just hope we still have cinemas to go back to when all this is over.

Well done on you movie collection, I always have around 600 movies at a time, whatever fits into my cabinet basically.

@Mr_Humpf,

Thanks, all D.I.Y, well I did not build the room obviously.

@AndyC_MK84

Yep, the last film I saw in the cinema was Rise of Skywalker, that rubbish cannot be the last film I see in a cinema!

@johnvboy

I have never been so jealous!

@TheFullAndy,

I am going to annoy you now, I liked the last Star Wars movie, even more when I got it on Blu-ray and watched it for a second time.

@johnvboy Have you played Alien Isolation on that setup? I bet it would be AMAZING! The Switch versions is good too, really good.

@johnvboy

I have no problem with people liking movies I didn't like, if we all liked the same stuff life would be boring!

@Mr_Humpf,

I bought a second Switch for my daughter, so I have put that dock in the room, so far i have played Animal Crossing on it which looks awesome, I loaned my copy of Mario Kart deluxe to my sister, need to get it back and give that a go.

But yes the Alien game would be awesome too.

@TheFullAndy,

Without a doubt, I pretty much like all the Star Wars movies, just grew up watching them, and the original movie was the first time I had visited a cinema.

Immortals is really good game but not surprised if did not do well
All the dlc it has is off putting and its got in app perchance as well
I would recommend the game when the price comes down.

@johnvboy

I enjoy Star Wars but not a megafan but the new trilogy to me was a case of serious diminishing returns.

Main thing is Jaws is my favourite movie of all time and seeing the poster of it alongside other classics like Back to the Future on your wall was cool. Great set up you have there!

@AndyC_MK84

The prequels were not great either but Palpatine's rise to power (with Ian McDairmid killing it as Palapatine) made them worth it somewhat. The new trilogy was all over the place, but we all like what we like!

Jaws is the perfect film for me. Masterpiece.

@Dethmunk The standard Nintendo Direct structure for the Switch era was generally 3 big Nintendo Directs (1 in January - March, 1 in June, 1 in September) with Nintendo Direct Minis and game/franchise specific Directs scattered around the year.

This year we got a few game/franchise specific Directs scattered around the year, a Nintendo Direct Mini in March and the introduction of a new type of Direct (Partner Showcase) about 3rd parties.

In terms of 1st party lineup, 2020 has been extremely rough (and 2021 is looking very rough too) though Nintendo hasn't felt it at all in terms of sales because Animal Crossing is a worldwide phenomenon.

I want to pick up both Immortals and Doom Eternal for the Switch, but with Hades and Ori 2 occupying my time, I'm in no hurry to do so.

@johnvboy
It's amazing how star was has made a impact from the 1 movie to now a with the mandalorian such a amazing series and they coming out with the new game in spring 2021

@Grumblevolcano Honestly, I think 2020 represents Nintendo's current ideal. Release one smash hit per year and sit on your hands while people have no other first party content to buy so you maximize sales, then release the next one. Never compete with yourself. Off one thing that FOMO and trending culture necessitate almost everyone buys.

In a way, I think Sony's trying to start emulating that to a degree, except they're trying the quick burn approach of maximizing price for the first month or two whales, then drop it to get everyone else in.

I expect Nintendo to artificially attempt continuing that trend forever until it fails. I wouldn't be surprised if half the "exclusives" end up on the next platform because they simply have more exclusives than years in the Switch, and there's one big game per year. (SMTV doesn't count, that's not a smash hit...even if for us it is.)

@johnvboy Ok, that's just freaking astounding. That's got to be, by far, the most elaborate HT setup I've ever seen short of the McMansions with the basement theaters lined with Roman columns and the like. That's a work of beauty. Right down to stainless wall plates....

Suddenly I understand how you can spend 800 hours finding things to create in ACNH. If I had that setup, I wouldn't want to got to an actual theater ever, what with the horrid dine-in smells these days, and the obnoxious people everywhere.

Also, RIP Oppo....

@NEStalgia,

Thanks, yes the demise of OPPO players is indeed sad, just hoping this one lasts me a while yet.

@AndyC_MK84,

Don't mention it, I am getting old.

@TheFullAndy,

Jaws is an all time classic, as a lot of the Universal oldies are, I watch it at least a couple of times a year.

@AndyC_MK84 I think Sony's strategy is to market/promote their games like blockbuster films, so the hype is so high that FOMO sets in and everyone gets the game and no one talks bad about the game because you don't want to be the one to go against the grain. In a way it makes sense, as Sony makes movies as well as video games, and video games are one of the highest revenue generating forms of media at the present time.

@NEStalgia Sony's strategy for the early PS5 era looks to be more like Switch 2017, flood the market with lots of 1st party games given 1st party games is the massive advantage PS has over Xbox.

@NEStalgia I think you have nailed it, and why we have seen and heard precious little from Nintendo. Why release anything new with hardware and software sales like this? It probably encourages third party support too, at least sales.

I really hope we see a better showing in 2021. This is the weakest year since 2016 by far.

@Grumblevolcano
Nintendo is the company that will announce games two months before release.

Don't make any predictions about the quality or quantity of their entire 2021 lineup.

I am still convinced that there are 2 laws in the UK, one that mandates the purchase of at least one FIFA game ever 2 years by all gamers,

And one that does not allow discussion of said FIFA law.

@rockodoodle Yep!

@Grumblevolcano Assuming they aren't delaying too much. GoW2 2021 seems like a stretch to me still. But I wonder if their strategy in other years will look like Switch 2018 or 2020 Heck, if Miles already counts as big first party releases, they're already following Nintendo. It's half a game if I'm optimistic. I love what it has, but it sure ain't $50 worth.

@kingbk Yep. I mean their even comparing game pricing to movie ticket pricing directly. They really see it as a blockbuster experience. Which is weirdly self defeating in some ways - their games end up having full value for a few weeks at best.

@AndyC_MK84 Technically Sony's games aren't that amazing sellers next to multiplat games, and against Nintendo, it's not a 1:1 comparison: Every copy Nintendo sells is at full price, or very close. Sony does their big sales in week 1, and then most of the rest of the make-up sales are at bargain basement prices. They're the masters of PR and spinning the numbers. But like Nintendo, their big money just comes from third party licensing.

TLoU2 did sell amazing - combination of hype and early in the lockdowns getting a boost. But sales also tanked off a cliff in month 2 - down over 80%. It's their highest grossing/selling game of all time I believe, but I don't know if that translates to standard sales without lockdowns, and unlike Nintendo's games the sales basically just end there in week 3.

They move a lot of hardware, but so does Nintendo. MS not so much, but they're selling a multiplatform ecosystem including PC and cloud rather than a single console.

Raw numbers as a metric doesn't tell the economic story at all. Not to say they aren't extremely successful, but the internet narrative of units sold obscures the rate of return realities between the companies, as well as regional numbers.

Their games generate buzz....but if we ignore the anomaly that is TLoU2 as a sales outlier during a global crisis, they sell a modest amount of full price copies usually compared to the latest FIFACreedofDuty. Or even compared to Nintendo hits at all full price. That install based and third party attract is still their bread & butter.

As for cinemas, have they converted all the cinemas over there to dine-ins, or is that an American thing? Why get dinner and a movie when you can do both at the same time! It's efficient! Yuck. Popcorn and candy at a film, sure...smelling people's varied dinners? I stopped going to the theaters when they converted them all...plus all the eateries near them all closed because all the business dropped off when the theaters became their own restaurants.

@johnvboy I still have mine as well, but I'm really regretting not having updated to the newer full featured ones when I had the chance.

@AndyC_MK84 Ahh, yeah, I miss that. Here they've converted most or all of them to dine-ins. A bar out front, and two "classes" of theater. The general one that serves fast casual meals (burgers and fries (chips) etc. And a more expensive one with leather recliners, alcohol served at seats, and more gourmet meals.

It's kind of obnoxious....people eating, smelling of various entrees, mixing, the sounds of utensils ,wait staff pacing to and fro....some people love it, but to me, "going to a movie" died years ago, sadly.

And yeah, I certainly appreciate the type of game, Sony does put together. I just lament that critics can't seem to see through the cinematic polish to analyze the games themselves, and not only place accolades upon a game that may be undeserving compared to others purely due to it's surface sheen, and worse, judge other, sometimes better - as a game - games negatively due to a lack of cinematic window dressing in comparison. It's more a complaint about the critics (and audiences to a degree) than to the production itself.

Good to see this gaming holding some interest but it's nothing i will ever bother with.

@AndyC_MK84 it would be a sad day for all gamers if Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft stopped making video game consoles.

It would be devastating to us all.

@NEStalgia,

I got the 4K player because my older BDP-93 started to have some issues playing certain newer discs, by that time the firmware updates had stopped, plus I was looking to future proof if I ever decided to go for a JVC 4K projector but not sure I want to drop £6000 on one though.

@AndyC_MK84,

I still do go to the cinema, but even some of the more modern multiplex screens picture quality varies as does the sound, plus it's tough to find the perfect seating position and distance from the screen like you can on your own set up.

Screen size is relative to the area or room you sit in, my screen fills my whole wall and seems every bit as immersive as watching at the cinema, and with a good projector the picture will be better too.

For me the cinema is reserved for special movies. like a new Bond or Star Wars epic, other than that I will wait until a movie comes out on Blu-ray.

@johnvboy Haha, yeah, I have the BDP-93 still...the worst part is I bought it after the 4k player was out just to save like $50 or so....I figured it's just discs, who cares? They seemed to come out with a new one every other year so I figured I'd be onto a new one by then. Who knew they'd vanish after that.

Not sure what will replace it after that. Most of the players out there are middling at best. There's the exotics are ridiculously overpriced videophile tripe. Less elegant but the consoles may once again be the best video players in a post-Oppo world. PITA to automate though.

@NEStalgia,

https://shop.panasonic.com/audio-and-video/blu-ray-and-dvd-players/blu-ray-disc-players/DP-UB9000.html#start=1&cgid=blu-ray-and-dvd-players

This is the replacement I feel, this looks an awesome player with a good build quality, plus the Panasonics are always pretty good, but agree with you on the OPPO players, awesome quality for a great price.

@johnvboy OOF, that price!!

And it looks like a straight up clone of the Oppos, to boot! And....that price!

I think consoles as players (assuming the consoles are ever in stock anywhere after lauch (yes, I have PS5 and XSX already, for gaming ), or streaming will be where it's at for me when the 93 fails, unfortunately. I'm a fan of automation, but at a 100% price difference, I'm not too proud.

@NEStalgia,

I have had quite a few decent players in my set-up, the worst being the top of the like Pioneer elite player, it bricked after a firmware update, for a short term player replacement I bought a budget Sony player, did not expect it to be as good as it was on my screen, but it was awesome.

The Oppo 93 was an awesome machine and was my first Oppo player, it really blew my mind build quality wise.

@johnvboy Haha, I remember those Elites. The whole line was kind of a mess. I lost a lot of respect for Pioneer after that. I had a decent Sony for a while that I used more for SACD than for BD, but then the disc drive broke. For a while I'd just used a PS3 Slim with an IR to BT repeater to automate it. It actually worked surprisingly well, and while it wasn't the perfect BD player, it was fairly decent. Until the disc drive broke. Replaced it with another....and that disc drive broke..... Lesson learned: Never trust Sony disc drives. I finally broke down and bought the 93 after that, and it was bliss.

IDK, I can't love streaming in terms of pure IQ, but, yet, given the fact that Oppo shut down precisely because disc use dropped....and considering their market was mostly the videophile market by nature, and that indicates even the videophiles have switched..... part of me wonders if disc playback is really worth these high priced machines anymore.

@NEStalgia,

I notice a difference in the audio with the better machines, but unless you are connecting it to a decent receiver there would not be that much difference, I just like the build quality.

@johnvboy Yeah, I'm actually more an audiophile than videophile. I admit to having headphones that cost more than that Panny...

I think that's the one big thing with some of the exotic players, if you're using the analogue stage, yeah, that's absolutely warranted. If you're using it as a digital out to an external prepro....it shouldn't be hard to not screw that up, but yeah, they do, all too often! And HDMI is a total mess in general.

@NEStalgia,

The HDMI audio output is great for the newer lossless audio formats from Dolby and DTS, and those Dolby Atmos tracks are very good indeed.

I have some Klipsch X20i IEM's that I use with my Sony NW-ZX2 player, decent headphones do cost a bit.

@johnvboy I have a few fancy headphones, but the wow factor ones are one of those older generation planars that eat energy like candy. The infamous ones - I plug those headphones into the speaker terminals of a Marantz power amp, and control volume on the pre. It's really a combined pair of 200W monoblocks in one chassis meant for HTs. And gain on the pre is usually 55-60%. It's insane. But they sound so good. Not technically flawless, but very speaker-like. They weigh a ton though, so it's not good for long sessions.

@NEStalgia,

Looks like a pretty serious bit of audio kit you have there, and on a different level to most peoples music systems, I sometimes put my Onkyo into pure audio mode and listen to music, but not that often to be honest.

@johnvboy Haha, yeah, but your custom theater is 5x over the top that on the videophile front

@NEStalgia,

I must admit I do like my movies.

@NEStalgia,

I think the Sony UBP-X1100ES is pretty awesome for the price, $499 sounds pretty sweet to me, the build quality on this player is top notch too.

@johnvboy Thanks! I'll have to keep that one on my radar (if they're still making it when the BDP-93 fails, anyway!)

My Sony disc drive failure curse gives me pause, but, hey, two of them cost the same as that Panny that looks suspiciously Oppo-like, so what's the worst that can happen?

Reminds me of that time one of the super-exotic AV companies was selling a $3,000+ BD player that was just a rebadged $500 Oppo.

@NEStalgia,

I remember the Oppo players with Darbee processing, they were a pretty price.

@johnvboy Those were fantastic. I regret not getting one, but I do have a Darbee Darblet after my 93. It really does work great.

They don't seem to sell them anymore, which is sad. I love the result I get out of it. They had a newer version, but they seem long-gone. Not sure if it's just kind of dead or if it's pandemic supply issues.

@NEStalgia,

Yes you used to be able to buy those Darbee units to connect to any display, I opted for a professional calibration of my projector, which costed peanuts compared to what I paid for it.

The results from the box are good, but with a proper calibrated greyscale and colour management, the results are very good.

@johnvboy Oh, definitely color calibration is ideal (I've never done it, beyond my own test image calibration - nothing in the more detailed service UI though). The Darbee stuff is nice though because it does some image enhancement beyond just color and levels adjustments. It does microcontrast adjustments and edge enhancements and things. It was a really cleaver little processor that did some things for relatively cheap that some more esoteric video processors do. But the company has always been kind of weird. They're mostly interested in licensing the tech to exotic components mfrs than their retail unit, and they've always been sort of now it's available, now it isn't in terms of having their available units. I'd kind of hoped that sort of thing would go mainstream with a bigger vendor. mCable does kind of the things they do, but not to the same quality or degree.

@NEStalgia,

You certainly need some form of calibration, as most modern T.V's have so much processing turned on by default, simply turning most of these things off will give you better results.

On most higher end projectors most of this stuff is not enabled anyway so the picture is pretty pure, but I have been looking for a Darbee unit on e-bay just to see the difference, as I am not a big fan of overly processed images, but from the look of the Darbee it does not do that, and the results are quite subtle.

Yeah - my idea of "modern" TV is from 2007...... They weren't as big on processing back then. I calibrated it around when the PS3 came out DLP RP, plus a DLP FP I also use, though I haven't fired it up in some time. Gaming is on montiors. RP went out of style when wall hangers went vogue, but they sure have great pictures! My problem with the FP setup is the room layout isn't great for placing a screen so it ends up being a set up/knock down affair.

Yeah, the Darbee is very very tiny micro-enhancement stuff. Like the old Anchor processors but more subtle, microcontrast along edges and the like. I keep checking to see if they ever come back, but they're always unavailable when I check. It'll be sad when mine goes. I think mCable is the closest replacement we'll get. But it's not as good.

@NEStalgia,

Projectors are best suited to dedicated light controlled rooms, and you are always better with a fixed screen, no issue though as T.V's are getting such good value for the larger sizes.

Yes you will be gutted if your Darbee does go on the blink, so fingers crossed it's going to be working for a while yet.