Japanese Charts: Nintendo Switch Sports Dominates As Kirby Holds Strong

Switch Sports will sell like crazy this year! I know, I already have it, and it's a great game! Good fun, and online works great!

I think NVCs predictions will be correct. We will see a Switch & Switch Sports holiday bundle this year.

Crazy that Xbox’s digital console is outselling Playstation’s digital offering 3 to 1 in Japan. Maybe Sony might end up regretting abandoning home turf

Ring Fit staying strong as usual. I want to get a copy of that game eventually.

@ItsOKToBeOK Considering that the regular PS5 is outselling every mode of the Xbox Series combined, I doubt Sony is worried in the slightest.

I was thinking about getting it...

I'm not a fan of incomplete games like Switch Sports selling like hotcakes and sending Nintendo the message that it's okay to keep doing that.

Honestly, I can't wait for the next generation where Nintendo hardware struggles to fail so they'll have to actually deliver full game experiences again even for their quote on quote 'lesser' games that aren't triple A. Nintendo is usually at their best when they're struggling. We need to get Nintendo struggling again so that they'll come back down to earth a little bit.

I haven’t tried online yet. I think it makes a better party game than a solo experience. Golf should help with the solo play.

@Yosher
The game as it is, is polished and ready to play. I’d rather have the game now in its current state and play golf when they release it later. Just because they decide to release golf later doesn’t exactly make it incomplete and doesn’t justify your negativity.

The Xbox series X beating the 2DS again, wow

@AndyC_MK111 Animal Crossing new horizons had a pitiful amount of content at launch, even though I love it

I think Switch Sports content was fair in relation to price. It was never put out there as a full price title.

@iLikeUrAttitude Yeah when the regular Xbox Series is selling under 4000 units while the regular PS5 is hitting 46,000 I don't think they're going to be that alarmed. Xbox doesn't have much of a physical presence in Japan anyway so I see it more likely the S is going to be doing more sales than the X

@Hero-of-WiiU It's not just the lack of sports. It's also the lack of variety within each sport, both online and offline. In Wii Sports you had a variety of side-games with each sport, which is entirely absent here. Then there's the lack of options within the games, like how many sets you wanna play in Tennis. Things that, if you ask me, should be basic implementations in games like these.

@AndyC_MK111 I respectfully disagree that most if not all games had enough content at launch. Aside from Splatoon 2 and sort-of Mario Maker 2, I quit playing all of the games that had this kind of approach within the first week; often even just after a day or two, and even when new content dropped, I never felt compelled to go back in because the initial play session left such a bad impression on me that I just didn't want to bother with them anymore.

You can call my take bad all you want, but I'm really getting tired of these games launching as essentially lite versions only to be finished later on. Just because it works for Splatoon doesn't mean it should be applied to everything.

The test of time will be if people continue to return to play some of the sports.

Nintendo Land had some dud games, but we frequently went back to some of the mini games as party games. Where as with 1-2 Switch, we really didn’t go back to it.

Bowling and Badminton may have staying power.

@AndyC_MK111
It’s six but I respect your opinion

@Yosher Perhaps you have a point. I thought some of the games had other options when playing locally. I could be wrong on that as I’ve only been playing online. I guess the game should have some more options like you mentioned I agree with that.

@Hero-of-WiiU I think a rating of 6/10 is fair considering it is pretty basic. For reference, NL also gave 1-2 Switch a 6/10.

Edit: I thought you were referring to the score. I see now you were referring to the number of sports included. 😂

@AndyC_MK111 Mario Maker probably is more because I'm about as creative as a doorknob and I generally don't get as much enjoyment out of fan created levels, so I probably shouldn't even use that one as an example. Though it still felt slightly lacking in content to me.

Mario Tennis Aces single player campaign was boring as heck, I truly don't know how anyone can say that was fun, admittedly. But glad you enjoyed it regardless. Mario Golf Super Rush did a good deal better on that department in my opinion but that's honestly not saying much as that one was boring all the same.

And these kinds of things, including Switch Sports, is why I want Nintendo to fail next generation. I'm a big Nintendo fan at heart, but I've seen plenty of times in the past where Nintendo is just at their best when they're struggling. Heck, that's why we even got the Switch in the first place, they really needed to replace the Wii U.

Best case scenario, Nintendo won't need to fail to make great and complete games again out of all their games, not just their triple A titles, but they've just gotten too comfortable with the approach right now, so in my eyes they need a wake up call to stop this kind of development cycle.

@Yosher But when Nintendo failed (Wii U), they made a Mario Tennis way more barebones than Aces, a Mario Kart without Battle Courses, Pikmin 3 without Piklopedia, Pokken Tournament with only 16 playable Pokemon, Game & Wario that was even smaller than Get it Togheter... and none of these was "fixed" (only Mario Kart was updated but not the Battle Mode that was it's main problem).

@AndyC_MK111 Regarding Mario Srikers, that's honestly what I'm afraid of too but I hope that's not correct because I'm really thrilled for that game. If it is the case, however, then I think that will pretty much confirm that it's Nintendo pushing this approach onto their development studios rather than these studios choosing this approach for themselves (since Golf and Tennis are made by Camelot and Strikers by Next Level Games).

And regarding the physical aspect- it also hurts long-term states of these games. Once the servers to download the rest of these games go down and you lose all the data for these games, you won't be very likely to recover all that data and you'll be left with that very unfinished game you had at launch.

Meanwhile, if you boot up Mario Power Tennis, Mario Golf Toadstool Tour, or Super Mario Strikers this day, they will all be complete, since they launched complete.

@Yosher I think they probably learnt their lesson with over short generations. I wouldn’t be surprised if the switch lasted as long as the Wii and Wii U combined. To make sure people are actually ready for new hardware and so that hardware has a substantial increase in performance.

I'm so done with motion controls, so Nintendo Sports will be a no from me. Happy for those who got it and are having fun.

Good to see Kirby holding strong! At this rate, it could become a 1million+ seller in Japan alone! Glad to see overall sales and stock return for Golden Week too for Switch OLED and PS5!

In just two weeks, Switch Sports has outsold the lifetime sales of Metroid Dread in Japan. That's.... not right :/

157,000 Switch units in two weeks...and this site is wondering how long Nintendo can delay the Switch 2 as sales slow?? But there is discussion to be had. I mean, when would you release a successor. If they say the Switch has 5 years left, ot can't be at the end of that. It can't be as Switch sales flatline. If the new console is a flop, Nintendo's revenue will plummet and you can see why Mr Furukawa wants a smooth transition. So there has to be a couple of yearsworth of cross gen. If it's a true successor, then it's gravy. If it's a new concept, then it's going to have to have backwards compatability to make the transition smoother. And if it is a new way to play, then it will be slow to gather appreciation as everyone has already convinced themselves the easiest way to make money is to release a more powerful Switch lol. Anyhoo I'm sure that's a wall of text lol. Sorry.

@Tandy255 Ok haha! I was thinking like what is this dude talking about 😆

@iLikeUrAttitude Target had it on sale for 50 yesterday. Ring fit.

At this point in the PS5's life cycle - If I were a Sony executive I'd be upset.

Switch Sports didn't deserve for 1st place due to lack of sports variety and basic rules & options for each sports.
I will support other games with more contents.

@Yosher I honestly don't know what you mean. The game has 10x the meat of the original Wii Sports (which I played and loved to death - shaking Reggie's hand right after playing it at E3).

The online of Switch sports is fantastic! It is the main game mode, the predominate menu item and so full of goodness. I remain mystified by the comments of people not liking Switch Sports and it always seems to come to people playing offline and wanting the game to be just like the old games were - offline party affairs and not being interested in what the new game is - and online power-house (imo).

Your mileage may vary, but I personally couldn't disagree more with the narrative that it's an incomplete game. It's far more beefy than the original Wii Sports and far more beefy than the Wii Sports remake on WiiU.
It does lack single-player practice exercises like those games - but the online is so rich in difficulty and thoughtful modes and unlocks - I absolutely love it! (if I only played offline I'd just go back to the old games - but then I've been there, done that anyway...)

4 free games more. That's all Switch Sports needs to buy me, and so many more people.

Golf, Basketball, dodgeball, and... Boxing? Maybe!

@AndyC_MK111 I think they did not phone it in, they just didn’t allocate enough resources to develop it. It probably had less than a two year development period. I think it kinda sucks cause Sports started out as an incredibly innovative series and this one is extremely uninnovative.

I imagine they also weren’t sure about the series since it sold so poorly on the WiiU. So they decided to test whether to continue with it by putting out a budget title.

@Yosher

Honestly, I can't wait for the next generation where Nintendo hardware struggles to fail so they'll have to actually deliver full game experiences again even for their quote on quote 'lesser' games that aren't triple A.

The only response this comment deserves is this: Stay mad, bro 🤣

@Yosher It's something that you have to adjust to if you want to be a gamer in this era. Not saying I agree with the business model but the industry as a whole has widely adapted it.

The truth is Nintendo was actually a little behind the times with the "release now, add in content later" approach. This became common practice during the X1/PS4 generation, mostly used by the big AAA companies but also being adapted by various indie or AA developers. It's gotten to the point now that more people are liable to be mad if a game DOESN'T receive post-launch updates.

No joke, I see more people upset over quality games brimming with content on day 1 not getting updates, than games with shallow content at launch slowly added in over time. So long as it's "supported" all is well in their eyes.

Switch Sports is Nintendo’s version of a live service game. Most multiplayer/online games by Nintendo are designed this way, to feed minor content over time and to keep interest in the game for a longer period. For better or for worst, this seems to be the road they’re taking with these games.

Their single player games are usually a complete experience on day one with an occasional beefy expansion/dlc down the line.

@tkdboy1889 The problem is though, that games feel unfinished at launch, not whether or not they receive updates post launch. At least on Nintendo's side of things, I dunno how that is for the competition. I don't think that matter of adjusting, but I really don't think I can unless I start buying games way beyond their release when every piece of content for it has dropped, which is hard to do when it's a game you've been excited for.

Either way I'll keep hoping that they will fix this whole thing.