Haruki_NLI

@Fiergala Hang on.

You just said any game that offloads all of its data to the console is worse than any partial download requirement.

But don't all Blu-Ray based games have to install their data to the console to bypass the slow read speeds of a disc?

So again, what are we arguing for here? Taking up space with a mandatory install from a disc or taking up the same space with a mandatory download because the game isn't on the cart?

On one hand, really helpful article. On the other, nightmare to read through.

No Switch 2 seperation, just one long alphabetical list over multiple pages with review excerpts mandatory instead of viewable at a click in a pane.

@Medic_alert But then, if they kept the slower carts and required mandatory installs, are we in any different of a position?

Publishers already werent paying for the smaller slower carts on Switch 1, and forcing partial downloads, which people hated because the game wasn't playable off the cart.

So what's the actual solution? You can't stop them being cheap and forcing downloads as you said and as I said in the initial post, so smaller carts aren't the answer because it's then not all on the cart.

You can't then say slower cheaper carts are the solution, because not only will they still cheap out and force partial downloads as we have seen, but then you need to install, which in practice, the only difference between that and a Game Key-Card is the amount of data on the card.

@topsekret So, I can understand that, but much like with everyone moaning about NSO not being Virtual Console, this is Nintendo reacting to the complaints of developers and fans in the only way it really can.

People hated, and I mean hated, code in a box releases, or games that only came partly on the cart, and the such on Switch 1.

Part of it was because some games simply wouldn't fit on maximum capacity, which is fair enough at that stage. Others were simply developers being lazy - the amount of games that were less than 16GB, and thus could have used a 16GB card, but shipped on 4GB was insane. All because it was cheaper. That's it.

Nintendo could offer smaller than 64GB cards for Switch 2, absolutely, but that runs into two problems:

1: You know damn well that means developers are just going to do partial downloads again, and people complain.

2: It means the larger 64GB cards never come down in price due to being the only option, and thus cheaper to make over time as more games are released.

So what do we end up with? Partial downloads on loads of 16GB cards, or smaller, because publishers are cheap. Hell, they are already starting this on Blu-Rays that can hold their entire games, and those things costs pennies.

Game Key-Cards are unfortunately, the middleground. It gives a tradeable retail present copy, that's cheap enough for third parties to use, that still gives people a physical item.

However, let's hit the real problem here: It's not Nintendo that needs taught a lesson, because they are offering third parties an out, and some of them aren't even taking that. We're still getting code in a box releases and partial downloads regardless.

So what do we do? Do you have a solution? Publishers arent even fully utilising Blu-Ray discs anymore, so offering smaller cartridges will just be the same problem as Switch 1 that no one liked, and offering bigger ones will be too expensive until economies of scale kicks in.

@topsekret I forgot those games even existed.

But I'd be cautious about wishing third party games to fail. If companies see that and stop bothering, it spreads like wildfire, and they can make that decision very fast, just look at the Wii U.

@WhiteUmbrella The 1.27 million is Nintendo's concrete figures as of June 30th 2025.

1.5m and up will be including the weeks in July that we get from the Famitsu sales charts.

It's not "massaging the numbers", it's the discrepancy in time between reports and how the numbers are reported.

How's that for some basic mathematics?

@topsekret They confirmed 8.67 million units of software by the end of June.

Mario Kart World accounts for 5.63 million of it.

That means third party games and Switch Welcome Tour account for 3.07 million units.

The only thing in that entire show that caught my eye. Can't wait for 30fps Switch 2 gameplay just like the original.

@Fiergala I wouldn't have no, because while they all released over 7 years, they were across two different hardware generations, with changes to how they looked as each progressed.

As for why people in the West didnt get the games, I dunno. We here in the UK didn't get Final Fantasy until 7, so work that one out.

EA got this upgraded, despite being probably not worth the investment, before Microsoft got god damn Minecraft on here.

What a world.

I know I don't like Unreal Engine at the best of times but jesus christ Square Enix, it CAN do other things.

Hi Elliot, nice to meet you. Shame your game looks the same as Octopath, Octopath the Second, Octopath the First but not the first one, Octopath but from the SNES, Dragon Quest 3, Dragon Qeest 1 and 2 coming out after 3.....

Did I forget any?

No one will ever be happy. Ah well. Doors not locked.

Games broken, 0/10.

I think we all failed to read that a lot of these games were being downloaded pre-release.

Based on footage it looks like maybe a second or two of dropping less than 10 frames while the geometry of the world literally morphs around you.

Or maybe Nintendo should have optimized for every eventual voxel possibility at every camera angle and draw distance because it's just one piece of hardware and they know it best and there's no excuse why there are performance dips.

If its not 60fps locked at all times it's not fun nor playable. I'll just get it on my Steam deck via other means instead. /S

@xcape1587

1: If you dropped all 400+ games at once you'd have an absolutely huge download on your hands, for mostly games no one would play. Plus working out licensing and paying for various games would be a nightmare as well as ensuring each one works well. The app would likely never come out. Plus, you'd end up with people either not playing most of it, or moaning that "that was it?"

2: Widescreen is in certain games but only if they originally supported it. Yes most emulators add it in, but to make sure it works properly you'd either need to modify the game code or just artificially stretch the screen like the PS2 used to.

3: Yeah you could add the option to increase resolution. It's already 900p because that scales really well from what the GameCube displayed at for most games, but sure, why not go up to 1080p in handheld and have an odd aspect ratio, or 4K in docked to get those sweet sweet jaggies that people then complain aren't cleaned up. The GameCube still looks good. Good being the operative word. But sure, they could give the option.

4: Never gonna happen. No one liked the VC because there were never games people wanted to buy and they all just bought the same stuff. No trying new things, no getting rarer or third party games on board as much because they'd need to see sales, and nowadays just prefer to release them themselves. Plus games like Goldeneye would never be rereleased due to MGM demanding it be subscription only for some reason.

But yeah, perfectly valid points, even if there are good back end reasons as to why it likely won't happen.

Ah yes. Ancient Tusks.

And Mega Butterfree.

Wild to reveal new Pokemon like this.

@karatekid1612 Good news, Romero Games is independant, they were just signed on with Microsoft funding and publishing this project.

They decided it wasn't worth it and cut the supply of money off, so now they have no funds to pay their staff despite the game progressing well by all accounts.

I wouldn't be shocked if the same thing happens to Toys For Bob: they went through layoffs after Xbox bought them, went independant, and then immediately got a publishing deal with Microsoft that is probably going to get culled at some point.

I'm surprised there is a complaint that Pokemon don't persist. That would mean all spawns become static with randomized traits, like the wild Tera Pokemon are.

And that's completely against Pokemon's ethos. What a weird complaint

@MrCarlos46 Doubt it. Xbox seems intent on leaving physical behind as a whole despite having trillions in the bank. If they won't pay for BluRay they won't for a cart.

@MrCarlos46 Yep. This was always the way. Switch 1 had download codes in boxes, partial downloads for games that were 16GB but on a 4GB card, and more. It made sense if it was something like the Borderlands Collection where each game was 20GB so only one was on the cart, but something like LA Noire shipped on 4GB with a big download, and this was prevelant throughout.

Then again, we see on PS5 where discs are literally pennies that this is becoming more and more of an issue. Heck, CoD has been megabytes on a disc for years with 100GB downloads, and even LA Noire shipped with a few GB on the disc despite the minimum size being 50GB for pennies.

@MrCarlos46 That's easy to explain.

Basically for Switch there was 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32GB cards.

Most developers opted for the cheaper options and forced downloads for the rest of the content.

This meant no one bought the more expensive 16GB and 32GB cards relatively speaking, which meant production never went into high enough capacity to start bringing costs down.

By forcing 64GB cards as the only option, they are guaranteed to be made at scale and gradually become cheaper faster.

Obviously though Nintendo would have lost support by only having one relatively expensive to start option, so Key Cards have been offered to satiate third parties.

It's a catch 22: either they supply physical media but costs keep it rarely used and they force partial downloads because publishers are cheap, or they offer one option to lower costs but publishers are cheap anyway

I'll take things that didn't happen for $500 please Alex.

So....how do they know the internal rendering resolution that DLSS is using given they admitted they dont usually cover DLSS using low resolutions and thus didnt know it was being used in most footage?

I don't think people quite understand how much more expensive an OLED panel for this thing would have been.

Due to how OLED works, implementing VRR alone is hard, because it's a technology that largely works best with LCD.

But even beyond that, a 120Hz, VRR capable, HDR10 1080p panel....doesn't really exist.

It could, but it'd have to be bespoke.

@PikminMarioKirby It's such a rushed product its had the longer than usual development time of 4 years.

A Fox mirror match on a stage that isnt just a perfectly flat surface from Home Depot?

Christ, a little variety from Melee players. Soon they'll have hit 2004!

@michellelynn0976 Because Yakuza 0 doesnt have a PS5 release.

This is something I also noticed with Street Fighter 6, where in footage the game looked somehow cleaner and crisper than a comparable version at the same resolution.

Weird.

Does he have the same retractable teeth as DK?

@sixrings I didn't say it was cool. I'm saying 3GBs of allocated RAM is standard.

Personally, I'm gonna do what I do on every system: just use Discord on a seperate device and that allocated RAM can sit there not doing anything.

To all the people freaking out about 3GB of RAM reserved for OS level stuff like GameChat, remember, people spent years moaning that there wasn't any system level social features.

Funnily enough, because they are system level and thus always active, that takes up RAM.

You know your fancy PS5? That uses 2.5 to 3GB of its RAM for OS stuff like all the social features that are always on, Activity Cards, the help function, having the store run fast at all times even with a game loaded, lots of things you know you don't use but would moan if they weren't there.

@nhSnork Because that wouldn't be full capacity of the battery and I imagine some regulator somewhere would take umbridge with it.

This is the problem with generative AI: you are finding it harder to tell. So now, it becomes accusatory.

@Vyacheslav333 They still take 30% of the sale. Every sale. Full games, micro-transactions, DLC, you name it.

You buy it for the Nintendo system, Nintendo is getting 30% of whatever you paid.

@ScottyG It's because a reputable insider said they were in fact coming. Much like how Hi-Fi Rush was coming to Switch.

Much like that, they were, in fact, not coming.

Sony has been doing this with collectors editions for years now. £200 for all this stuff, an art book, a steel book....digital download code....

So the smaller publishers are willing to eat the cost but the megacorps won't.

Seems about right.

@stuie1234 Their solution has been thrown in the bin when the orange baboon decided to place a tax on his entire country buying things made elsewhere.

The harsh reality, as we are seeing with PS5 across the world, is that it's cheapest at launch nowadays, and only gets more expensive. When Nintendo was making the system, that largely wouldn't have been something they had to factor, and they already took precautions of moving production to countries where price increases wouldnt have as much, if any impact.

But that was in 2019 when they started that process to set up facilities elsewhere. It's 2025 and their new launch now.

The best laid plans lay in ruins.

@Kyloctopus The new owners only bought what was called Niantic Games. The AR stuff is still with Niantic and their core teams which sold off the games stuff to Scopely.

So what's actually happened is Niantic sold off the games business, kept the name along with the AR and AI stuff, and then laid off some of the staff they kept.

The gaming staff, seemingly, are fine, given they no longer work under Hanke.

@Poco_Lypso The PS4 Pro could output 120fps? Didn't know that.

Anyway, we've yet to actually see this 120fps mode and while it would make sense to have a game like this target 1440p 60fps (because higher than that honestly just isn't worth it, ask most PC players), then 1080p 120fps could be doable.

Maybe it's done via G-Sync in handheld mode? Who knows until we see it.

Both games on the eShop are like.... £3 each. So £30 for a cart? And I'm fairly sure that isn't the first release on cart either.

Lolno. If £70 is too much for an upgraded Zelda that came out two years ago, then £30 is way way too much for a game that's older than I am.

@Yoshi3 Astro Bot came out in September. I want my extra $60 back.

@Yoshi3 I don't know where this thing about Nintendo never selling at a loss came from. I remember the Wii U and 3DS.

Technically, games like Bayonetta 3 probably didn't even make a profit, yet they keep making niche games like that that other companies wouldn't touch, because where a game like Animal Crossing or Mario Kart makes so much money, instead of having such ballooned budgets that the revenue from one game, if it even makes a profit at all as we do often hear, goes directly into the next sequel, the profits can go into funding games that otherwise wouldn't have been made and given them bigger marketing runs.

Games like the Advance Wars remakes, Metroid, Astral Chain, Kirby Air Riders, wouldn't exist if budgets were so high that sales could only be used to fund the next thing.

It's like having live service revenue to fund games like Sony plans to, because the sales just aren't covering costs now, only somehow marginally less predatory.

@Lone_Beagle Fascinating, Revolutionary, Extraordinary, Incredible news. Life changing in fact.

This is like gaming's version of announcing you're a vegan.

I love how it's been so long it's originally exclusivity period lapsed, and now seemingly it's Game Pass Day One money also lapsed since it's been two years.

All they need now is PS+ day one money, let that window lapse, and ride off into the sunset, having scammed all three platform holders out of likely millions.

Regigigas would be great.

However we all know too well it'll be Pikachu, Eevee, Squirtle, Bulbasaur and Charizard.

@NinChocolate Ironically when Team Sonic Racing came out, Switch was considered the second best option since it ran at 900p (same as Xbox One) but was locked to 30fps and stayed there, whereas PS4 was 1080p and couldn't hit 60fps, Xbox One was 900p and couldn't hit 60fps with a similar feature set to Switch, and Xbox One X was the exact same as Xbox One just at a higher resolution with the same performance and visuals.

Only PS4 Pro managed to get close to 60fps.

So there's some irony for you.

Granted this new title is running on Unreal Engine 5 and er...that doesn't run well on ANY hardware

So, real talk for a moment: who actually uses built in console chat features instead of...I dunno....Discord?

I only ask because the other systems lock their wireless chat behind expensive headsets for wireless, without generic Bluetooth support, or wired options only. You need a specific Sony headset for PS5 wireless chat for instance.

I dunno. It just feels like one of those things that I hear people moan about but never use, a bit like Bluetooth headphones on Switch.

Yeah at launch you couldn't connect a Bluetooth headset, but now you can: any headset.