JamesR

It gives me so much pleasure to see Splatoon 2 outselling CoD despite being launched over 3 months earlier on a system with half the install base.

Now if only the UK would be as enlightened.

So Animal Crossing beats Battlefront II and 1-2-Switch beats Assassin's Creed.

Boy I love Japan

Doomed!

I hate how UK retailers have been pushing Black Friday as thing over the past few years.

Doesn't look finished.

After having played NBA 2K18, the commentary here really sucks.

Wow, Xbox 1 X must have terrible supply issues.

I'm still hoping for the DLC announcement during the Game Awards (naturally just as BotW is named Game of the Year).

And, of course, it will be available "shortly after this presentation"

Is that too much to ask?

Well, I'm digital only so it doesn't matter.

But I think Capcom Europe don't think this will sell well.

Oh yeah! I always knew I was cooler than my wife (who rocks an iPhone X)

Really nice to see Star Wars Battlefront II not getting the top spot (and it's hugely down on the first game). Hopefully EA (and others) will learn lessons from this.

Too many games.

I simply cannot start Skyrim while Odyssey is still there (602 moons!)

I've slightly cooled on this. It seems very glitchy on other platforms. If it lands in a good (or comparable) state I'll probably still buy.

I must say that 2017 has been my favourite gaming year as a long term Nintendo fan (since the NES days). I was always going to get a Switch but I have truly been impressed by the hardware and the games lineup. I have around 50 games on my home screen and always chuckle when people claim it has no games.

In my close circle of family, friends and colleagues at work I used to be alone owning a Wii U. I know of eleven other Switch owners in the same group.

Personally I see the mid-30s, professionals as a huge market for the Switch. Many of us want to play games but life, work, kids etc... make it too difficult to stay in front of the TV for hours. I say this as someone currently on a commute train with a copy of Doom as I head home; less enlighten commuters appear to be playing CandyCrush. Oh well..

@GC-161 Capcom's refusal to put the Mega Man or Disney ollections on Switch is absolute nonsense.

Doomed! Dead on arrival!

(OK, I will stop doing this after the 1st anniversary results. So glad to see Nintendo cutting through after all the negativity last January)

Holey-Moley that discount on NBA 2K18.

I won't be an early adaptor next year!!!
(the game is good)

Never played this but pre loaded this earlier. Can't wait.

I was not aware of this game. Looks and sounds great.

Well, it wouldn't hurt putting the Switch in the window (replacing rows of second hand iPhones)

@Spoony_Tech wow. That was fast!

I'm gonna call it... the Switch is going to do fine in Japan.

In all seriousness, these are very good numbers. I'm mainly impressed by the long tail of Nintendo IPs (Splatoon 2 and Mario Kart 8 in the top 5 half a year in). Also, Zelda and Pokken still in the top 20. I suppose those 80k new Switch owners need something to play alongside Mario.

@elkrebso well I think this comes down to what the "content" is. The musical instrument isn't the content, nor is the TV nor games console nor controller. It would argue that the content here is the game itself. I don't see much in the act of the person playing the game which transforms the game content into something he/she should have copyright on. This is different to someone picking up a guitar and composing new music. (Hell, a musical can't even release a song that's deemed too close to another song either musically or lyrically).

Of course some YouTube videos do transform the content (for example: reviews, educational videos eSports, channels like GameTheory...) and I don't have any problem with them keeping all their ad revenue.

But there are many legal minds who, no doubt, are better versed in these matters.

A Welsh town?!? Just preordered the deluxe version.

@KryptoKrunch there's also huge downside for Nintendo. Imagine if a certain YouTuber started spouting racist terms while playing Mario Kart or Splatoon during a livestream - and Nintendo were making money off it (via ad revenue).

Personally I think Nintendo's approach is about right.

@elkrebso isn't that a bit like me saying that a musician's work is done once they record their music and if I want to make a YouTube video of me listening to their music in a dark room I should keep the ad revenue?

@MrGawain yes that's right. The system will know you own the games and will redownload after you attempt to launch the software.

@BornInNorway81 really? Personally I find the OS to be the best I've used.

@SteveF well, there is a "watch list" which I use as my wish list. Does that count?

Odd that Pokemon Sun/Moon were not nominated either this year or last for best handheld game.

I get the impression that they fell between the cracks.

@westman98 no contest indeed

The best family game category is a clean sweep for Switch.

But Doomed! It has no games... Dead on arrival...

@IceClimbers many of the voting press don't cover PC games (at least as much). I expect Zelda to win it.

I honestly believe that Super Mario Odyssey is the best game of the year but I think Zelda will win. It's a more "worthy" game.

@nab1 could be. I fear this gives the developers too much credit.

On a positive side, when we have a game really struggling it makes the games that run well all the more impressive.

@Folkloner yes indeed. I had forgotten them. Fast RMX is outstanding.

As a professional software developer, the game is clearly bloated and not well optimised. I'm sure they tried their best but it doesn't take a genius to noticed that others have managed to get much more out of the system (Doom, Splatoon 2, Zelda, Mario Odyssey, etc...). And this isn't just a Switch issue - RiME has performance issues across the board.

As an aside, does Unreal have problems on the Switch? This (at 7.5GB) and Snake Pass (I think close to 5GB) seem very bloated.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE well, at least you guys don't have GAME

Day 1 purchase

Such a shame. Oh well... November goes from 6 must-own games to just 5.

@ThumperUK true. Look at the long tail of many Nintendo games. I think Doom will hang around for a long time to come.

In order to know whether the Doom sales beat expectations, surely we need to know (a) the sales and (b) the expectations. To me, it seems we have neither.

@XenoShaun yes, all DLC included.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE @SBandy I did the maths with Nintendo's latest results. They seem to be between 10-15% of figures for retail games.

I'm sure there's variation. For example, I believe Splatoon 2 has a higher percentage of downloads.

I suspect Doom did better than others on download based on: the position on the eShop, the pre-loaded feature, the fact that the cart would need a download for multilayer and the 18 certificate rules the game being bough for children.

Incredible that Mario Kart 7, NSMB2 and SM3DL are still in the top 40.

@Blister people like myself have gone all digital so that I can have all my games with me at all times.

First Brexit, then this: Sonic Forces ahead of Super Mario Odyssey.

We (gamers in the UK) should hang our collective heads in shame.

@Ziggy93 I live in the UK and I think it's been decades since the yearly Fifa or CoD incarnation didn't take the top selling position on the year-end charts (with GTA interrupting on a few occasions). It's hard to argue that innovation isn't dead already.

Having said this, the success of the Switch has given me a little hope (misplaced, I'm sure)

@Ziggy93 I hate microtransactions because I think there's a chance that they may destroy the gaming industry. An industry that, in my opinion, is as diverse and culturally important as music or film.

There are problems on many fronts. There's no upper bound on what people can spend, rarely a clear indication as what they buying and they are often required to properly experience the game in a 'fair' way. And this is before we get into gambling addiction. The industry has also been unwilling to introduce any kind of self-regulation on this front (especially on maximum spends).

I think it's only a matter of time before either gamers boycott or government regulators step in. Unfortunately, I think the latter is more likely as we can't seem to stop buying loot boxes. At this point, developers will have become too reliant on the revenue and the re-adjustment will be very painful for the industry.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE I'm not sure that I agree. I think the size and scope of Xenoblade 2 is much more aligned to what was able to be done to hit a December launch. I also think this applies to Zelda (which didn't go gold until very close to its release date).

Your point about the cost of DLC is a valid one but easy to explain. A game will sell, say, x millions copies. By definition, the DLC will always sell fewer copies. If they wish to make the same return on investment (which all companies do) they will need to charge more per unit of their work for the DLC.

I think a reality that the industry is dodging is that "AAA" games cannot be sold at $60/£50/€60 and make an adequate profit. They need additional revenue streams. Personally I would rather pay twice the upfront cost of the game than have the industry fall into a reliance on loot crates. But that's just me.

@ThanosReXXX pretty sure it's illegal