Dringo

It'll depend on what Nintendo can do to maintain momentum. It will need to keep a steady stream of content coming. It'll want to deliver some more ports to satisfy the gaps between the big releases.

I suspect we'll soon hear what the Mario Kart and Mario teams have been building over the last three years.

@Otoemetry It's owned by Sony. So nah

Just waiting for Aspyr to do some ports to Switch

Luigi's Mansion 3 looks like Luigi's Mansion... if you don't like the look of Luigi's Mansion, well, a bit contrary, but nobody is forcing you.

The first Luigi's Mansion wasn't darkly lit. I mean, the first bit was, for like 20 minutes.

UK Switch sales are at 1.9 million so far

F4F is actually one of the cheaper resin makers. Especially compared to the comic ones.

But this is PVC. So will be in-line with those Zelda PVC ones. Probably sub-£100

The thing with the term 'fastest selling' is that it can be a bit misleading.

A game like Zelda appeals to a hardcore crowd. The sort-of people (like most folk on this website) who want to play a new Zelda straight away. That's why it gets a fancy special edition, because we're an audience who will pay extra for it.

Core games tend to sell really well at first, and then fade away quicker than a more mainstream game.

Mario is a more mainstream game. It's why Mario Kart is still in the Top Ten.

It is not surprising Zelda sold so quickly. I expect Luigi's Mansion 3 and Pokemon will also sell quickly, because they're games with hardcore fans who have to get it day one.

Mario Maker, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing... these are more longer term games. They tend to sell well at first, and then they just keep selling and selling and selling.

So a Zelda remake selling faster than a Mario Maker game isn't surprising. I will be surprised if that pace is maintained over the course of these titles' lives.

@AndyRogan Nintendo has re-released Donkey Kong Country 1, 2 and 3 several times. Including on 3DS and SNES Mini.

@westman98 "We have no plans to further expand our exclusive first party games to other consoles."

The game seems to be shaping up nicely. I'll be playing this loads over Christmas

@Moroboshi876 Well, the new studios means there will definitely be some more!

@Moroboshi876 But they’re not trying to sell systems. That’s my point.

Or at least, not in the traditional sense.

@Moroboshi876 That's old fashioned thinking. Microsoft's 'platform' is not physical. Or at least, it's more than physical.

@nintendolie An audience of 35 million gamers

Yes. Yes. Yep. This is a cracking game

@backup368 They are now more about securing players into Xbox Live/Game Pass than they are about selling hardware. So yes. It’s quite possible

@ShadJV That game was still made by the BK team. The same senior creators worked on that project. It was different because that team likes to make different things.

I would refuse to buy this game because of the perceived tone of a tweet made by a frustrated indie dev years ago... but then I realise that I want it and I actually have more important things to get worked up about

Yes, yes. I'd play Mario World again. And Super Metroid. And A Link To The Past. I've played them a dozen times across all consoles. They're still amazing. I'll play them again.

Now... as for N64 and GameCube.

Staff at development companies leave all the time. There’s such a demand for them that they get poached left, right, centre. Retro has made consistently good games, so it bodes well.

What I want to know is whether that other game they’ve been working on for years has been canned, or if it still has a small team finishing it up.

Mark Hoppus from Blink 182 is a huge Zelda fan. And Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance loves the game, too.

What is it with this icons of 'cool' and a fantasy epic?

The Xbox One version of Turok 2 doesn’t have local multiplayer

Nintendo games are selling well in the UK right now, with stronger launches and long-tail performance.

It is worth noting that chart positions today vs previous generations are not really worth the comparison. Nintendo Switch games (and I’m talking AAA here) are not as strong digitally as PS4/Xbox One. This is partially due to the Nintendo audience, the lack of console hard-drive space and the general cost of goods.

In other words, it’s a little easier for Nintendo to score No.1s these days than in previous years.

The important stat is how well the game is performing vs previous titles in the same series. And as you can see, there’s been some decent growth.

@Chibi_Manny It’s not a Nintendo game

Such cruelty. They’re a handheld games team. They are half the size of these studios you’re comparing them to. There is no way they can pull off the things you’re asking without becoming a much bigger company, which I suspect they’d rather not become.

But of course, your ignorance on these matters is besides the point. Let’s bully a load of creators to do things they don’t want to and make them become a company they don’t want to become. Call them lazy, despite the crunch conditions... just horrible humans all over the Internet.

It’s why I should avoid Nintendo forums. If you’re not into the game, don’t buy it. Don’t be a dick.

I think this looks great.

I also love 3DS games. So even if it is like the last one. Awesome. Because that was a great game.

But by the looks of it, they’ve tried a number of new things. So it should be fun.

The creators should make what they want to create and not be beholden to anyone but their own vision. It looks good.

When a creator says ‘it needs something unique’, he doesn’t only mean because that’s what will help it to sell. He’s saying ‘why should us creatives make another thing like we already have?’ What is it that is going to make them want to commit years to making it? What is going to excite them, and not just the fans?

These people only get to make so many games in their lives. So why should that be another Snap?

Oh and those ‘blaming’ The Pokemon Company ought to note that Game Freak part-own it. The developer is the parent company, TPC simply manages the brand. If GF don’t want to do something, they don’t.

A group of people who makes games has decided that having every single Pokemon character in the game is too unwieldy and impacts the enjoyment of the core product.

Pokemon fans call this ‘disgusting’ and describe these human beings as a ‘disgrace’.

And they wonder why people think gamers are ridiculous. Why not show this sort of anger against racism or climate change?

Kids.

I played this. I am embargoed up. But... you'll be pleased.

Much better than the first game. Which wasn't that bad, but obviously suffered from being a Kickstarter project that was also part of a company starting up

@Wexter A Halo/Banjo Smash level is doing just what you said... giving Nintendo fans a taste of Microsoft IP. But... it’s really Nintendo’s call that. Not Xbox. And I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s Minecraft.

I have heard there’s definitely something Microsoft coming to Smash.

@Wexter Yes. To me. To everyone that has asked them that question in the last 18 months. My piece with Phil in December was more vague, but my piece with the head of xCloud was more explicit.

This is the thing a lot of consumers are struggling to grasp. To Microsoft the ‘platform’ isn’t the box under the screen. It is Xbox Live. It is Game Pass. It will be xCloud. Those are its platforms. That’s why every single first party Xbox game is coming to PC now (including Steam). It’s why their Game Stack services are open platform. To them, it’s about reaching all gamers with its services. The box under the TV is just one method. It’s not about unit sales, it’s about a global player base. Remember - Microsoft isn’t built as a hardware business.

Now, Switch doesn’t have the capabilities to run Gears 5 and so on - except via xCloud - so we won’t be seeing all Xbox games on Switch. But there will be more like Cuphead. Xbox Live is already coming to Switch. I suspect xCloud will be. We may even hear a bit about it next week.

Nintendo is no longer a direct rival to Microsoft. But an avenue for them to reach more gamers. The question is whether Nintendo will allow them to use Switch in such a way. I suspect they will

@Wexter Xbox explicitly told me they want to reach gamers across all platforms, PC, Console and mobile. And when I specified if that included PS4 and Switch, they repeated the answer.

@Wexter Actually, it's not competition anymore. Xbox is all about getting gamers on its digital network. It's why Xbox games are on PC. It's why Minecraft and Cuphead are on Switch.

More Microsoft games will be coming to Switch.

Nuts and Bolts was great. It just wasn't what people were asking for. And Rare rarely do what people ask for. They make what they want.

It's worth noting that Rare is launching its own merchandise store. So there will be a lot of random merch coming with no games attached.

Nintendo will focus on its upcoming 2019 line-up. They always focus on the year ahead. And when you consider that already includes Mario Maker 2, Pokemon, Animal Crossing, Zelda, Luigi’s Mansion and Fire Emblem, I’m really not expecting too much more. Sure, some of those won’t get much focus (especially the first two), but that’s still a lot to talk about.

A little surprise would be nice. I hope for another Ubisoft collaboration and I hope that Retro game hasn’t been cancelled. But anything for 2020, I expect that to appear in a later Direct.

A Microsoft tie-up would be fantastic.

Although it has been nearly 2 years for the Mario team and more than 2 years for the Zelda team. So they’ll have something at some point

I have the other three Rare figurines. So obviously I’ll get this. But it doesn’t look great

Erm, Switch is almost certainly going to perform better in year 3.

First year: 2.74 million units
Second year: 15.05 million
Third year: 14.5 million with 3 months left to go

These statues are actually quite cheap compared to the costs in the film and comic industries - these statues go for $1000s in other industries. They're hand painted and resin materials are expensive.

It's worth noting, too, that broadly these don't really devalue. They only make them to order, and although they don't all rise in price, they rarely drop in price. Look at the price of the Majora's Mask statues now they're sold out via F4F.

These are ultimately bits of art.

I’ll be excited about Pokemon if there’s some genuine revolution to the experiende. Gyms, capturing, trading, battling... all of that could still be familiar in an open world setting

I got these on Xbox One. They're great. But they removed split-screen multiplayer

@dequesi Microsoft will still be a platform-holder... it's just their platform is a digital one. You still need to subscribe to their service to play these games.

@Coxula Look at it like a third-party publisher. It's just more games for Switch. More content for its audience.

The games industry has been speculating that this would happen for about 6 months now.

It makes perfect sense. Microsoft is moving away from being hardware-centric to becoming services-centric.

That means it wants people to sign-up to Game Pass.

They want people to be able to access Xbox games on every single platform going. Including Switch.

This is not some take-over or merger. This is just Xbox turning into the 'Netflix of games' and putting its service onto as many hardware options as it possibly can. I asked Phil Spencer last year if he would put Game Pass on PS4/Switch and his answer was:

"When we think about the growth and potential for gaming at Microsoft, we always start with the player. There are more than two billion people on the planet playing video games — some on our console, others on PC, a lot of people on mobile. We'll continue to put those players at the centre of every decision we make — giving them access to the games they want to play, with the people and community they want to play with, on the device they choose."

In other words... watch this space

PS4 and Xbox One are not losing out.

Well, Xbox has been for a while. But that segment is doing very well.

@PALversusNTSC Five years now.

@misterMike Yes. That's been the case forever. If you look at the Top Ten best-selling games on every single Nintendo console ever released, you have to go back to the SNES with Street Fighter II to find a third-party game in there.

Nintendo consoles appeal to a specific sort. If you're into shooters or online games, you're unlikely to place a Nintendo machine high on your purchasing list. Likewise, if you like more family-orientated, colourful stuff... platformers, adventure games, etc... then you're best off going for a Nintendo machine over the others.

Of course, there's a big healthy cross-over of both.

But this isn't about 'Nintendo games', but Nintendo-like games.

It's worth noting the sheer number of indie developers (who are, for the record, third-party developers), who are seeing more sales on Switch than any of the other platforms. Part of that is due to the quantity of content on the other devices, but it's also because indie games, quite often, are similar to Nintendo's own games. Titles like Yooka-Laylee and Shovel Knight and Stardew Valley. Very, very Nintendo-like content.

If third-party developers created content that specifically targeted Nintendo's audience, then you'll find they will sell very well. Just like EA found with MySims and their Active games. Just like Activision has found with Crash Bandicoot. Just like Warner Bros has found with LEGO.

But most of their money goes into their big shooters and sports games. And that's not the typical 'Nintendo audience'. So they just don't do as well.

I don’t think Switch is cannibalising PS4 and I don’t think PS4 is cannibalising Switch. Obviously people only have so much time and money. But in that sense, iPad and Netflix is as much competition as any console.

The impressive thing with Switch is that Nintendo is selling far more games than they were expecting. The engagement is seriously outpacing previous machines. And software sales is the real indicator of a platform’s success.

It is lighthearted, but also supremely tragic at times. It’s the 2D equivalent of Majora’s Mask in that sense.

I’ve been properly craving some Zelda. I’d have been happy with a Wind Waker or Twilight Princess HD re-release (I still would). This is even better

@Tantani There will come a point where the Zelda, Mario teams etc... are ready with their next projects. But content acquisition is always something Nintendo seems to be working on