@ATaco Not sure what that has to do with the "PC Master Race".
Even if emulators were somehow essential for PC gaming, it's not even like the emulator is gone or anything. Valve does not represent pc gaming either.
@Ryu_Niiyama You mean you want basically a shadow like a hologram in the air? That would solve the issue if you can't see the ground, true. But does that actually help? It sounds to me like this could make it harder instead, even for me.
@Ryu_Niiyama Ultra Hand actually has the highlighted shadow you are asking for though. There is a kind of green shadow on the ground beneath an object you are controling. I use it to precisely allign things all the time.
About the buttons and UI: I think it would be an ok solution to have this system wide. If the UI doesn't work perfectly with what you are setting then that is a minor problem in comparison.
That is something you can do in Steam, for example. You can use Steam to switch controller buttons on a per game basis and the game devs could not prevent you from doing that even if they wanted. If the game implements Steam properly, even the ingame icons will change accordingly. The UI might still have some issues here and there, but for people who are using this kind of feature, that is usually a trade they are willing to make. I think this is a good solution over all, with the game devs barely having to think about it.
@Snatcher I am not talking about "why not?" though.
I just find it strange why people care so much. You yourself are saying that it's just changing a few words. But that is exactly the part that I don't really get. How can something like that make anyone happy? It's just words applied to a fictional person.
@Jprhino84 @Snatcher Sure, more choice is usually a good thing. This is without a doubt true in this case as well. Because of that, I don't really question why someone would want one more option. I can understand @CharlieGirl completely in that regard.
But for years now, I can see people asking not simply for more options, but for very specific options even when those don't do much for the game. It's not "I want more gender options", it is "I want my gender option", even when it doesn't do anything anyway, apart from changing a few words.
Maybe I am wrong about this, but it seems to me like very few people care about that between just male and female. You could remove one option entirely, if nothing else changes because of it. When it comes to a third gender, whichever one, the right pronouns for a game character suddenly become important, even if there is nothing else that changes.
It is different from having more romance choices between all genders. That actually changes some things and I can see how someone really wants that.
I find the whole gender debate here kind of interesting.
If I were a developer, I would maybe include a third "other" option, as mentioned, but ignore everything else. It's just impossible to please everyone.
What confuses me though, why so many non binary people (apparently it is a lot, judging by what you read online, not just here) have problems imagining themselves as another gender.
I mean, I am male and I have no problem playing as the opposite gender. A lot of people do play as the opposite gender if they have choice.
If Stardew Valley didn't have the option to play as a man, then that just wouldn't concern me... I also doubt it would be that much of a topic.
Why this is even a topic of discussion, when it comes to non binary people is interesting to think about to me.
My main ideas are, that either quite a few men and women actually think this is important, while the target audience widely doesn't actually care.
Or wanting to be included (even just as an option in a game) is becoming more and more psychologically connected to being accepted.
And before anyone misunderstands me: I am mainly talking about games here.
This mixes having dialog and having voice acting. Those are two different discussions.
Ganondorf, for example, wasn't fully voiced before, but he did have dialog in previous games. It makes sense for him to now be voice acted. Link on the other hand does not talk, not even in text form. The situation is completely different.
Very confused why so many here think that this is typical for specifically Nintendo.
It's a breach of contract, of course you get into trouble for that. If that wasn't the case, then what is even the point of an NDA? Anyone could just leak everything. There is also a reason, why known leakers usually don't directly work for the companies involved.
I feel sorry for the guy too, but this is normal procedure.
@pennylessz Doesn't look like anyone here is "actively against these people being credited", it's more about wether it matters or not.
I can understand the logic behind that. No one who plays the game pays enough attention to the credits for it to matter. Objectively you can therefore say that credits like that are more a nice tradition than anything else. They usually don't even exist outside of creative work.
I am mostly confused as to how this situation even came about. It's at least bad taste not to credit the original developers and I don't see a reason behind doing that. Just credit them and avoid the entire debate.
@Braneman The controls are different from usual but they work very well for the game. Most of the conventions we are used to weren't even much of a thing when Gothic 1 was released. The only question is, whether someone is willing to try something different from usual or not.
Though in that regard, I am curious how it will work on Switch, considering the game originally didn't even have controller support.
@GrailUK Not sure how true the gold thing really is in praxis. After all, every country can do whatever it wants with it's money. If one doesn't want to use gold as counter value, well then they won't.
Also not sure what NFT has to do with that though, since NFT isn't necessarily currency. And NFT currency like Bitcoin don't really need anything like that, since there is, technically, a finite amount of Bitcoin that can be owned (can't simply print more Bitcoin, like with normal currency). There is also no easy way of actually stopping Bitcoin and co. being a thing even if there is an issue with that.
@HeadPirate Agreed, looking at job openings are a very bad way of trying to predict what a company wants to do in the future. Problem always being that we don't know why they want that skillset.
Heck, in theory, even if they actually want to do something with NFT, it could just be a fancy way of booting out cheaters who try to generate Pokemon using third party software...
Anyway, to early for outrage. Should wait for actual announcements.
Being a software dev myself I can imagine what the main problem might be.
You see, judging how long it will take to complete a piece of software can be incredibly hard. Usually you will underestimate how much time you will need and it is ultimately down to experience to judge how much time you should add to your first guess.
The problem being that you have no idea how much will go wrong during development, and things will go wrong! If you at first think something will take a month, then don't plan for a month, maybe even make it two or more. Again, experience is key here, but also luck to a degree.
This is probably the core problem in many cases when something needs to get delayed or releases unfinished. Now a company also needs to plan future projects, so it might not be so easy as to just let the devs continue until they are done. To a degree they will already be scheduled to do something else...
From here on we can start guessing what kind of decision will be made. I could see remasters as being relatively low priority. They might get the short stick all things considered. I could also imagine dev time for remasters being even harder to judge then new games, simply because devs might not have worked on the original code and don't really know what they will get into.
Tldr: I think they might genuinly underestimate the amount of time and budget needed to complete the project and have a hard time adjusting the schedule because of priorities.
@Rascal0302 The only thing that confuses me a bit on your take, just like everyone elses writing something similar, is why this is tied so much on the hardware power. This made a little sense in the pre HD time, where big graphical upgrades almost always meant one hell of a lot more work. Now this isn't the case as much anymore, as textures, for example, and such are usually made in very high resolutions anyway and then just scaled down to whatever Hardware is necessary. There are also way better tools making it easier and easier to make a game look better and better. At this point, a 70$ PS5 game isn't necessarily much more expensive to make than a Switch game, it can be, but doesn't have to. Especially a game like Zelda BotW is probably not that cheap to make because stuff like the physics are not easy to make, we can also just look at how long it takes to develop to get a very rough idea.
The elephant in the room, to me, seems to be the industry is highly profitable, even without price increases. This is true on any platform though.
For me personally, I have a pretty hard limit at the 70€ we are talking about. It is a price I am willing to pay only for rare exceptions, which this is. If other Nintendo games also get more expensive, then I will not buy those without a discount. This is already my stance on 70€ games, regardless of the platform.
@johnvboy Sure, I just mean that I can understand people being annoyed by this as well. None of us likes the price increase right? It is just a difference of whether you question if the price increase is warranted or not. I would argue, that price increases should always be questioned at least.
This isn't much of an issue yet in game pricing, but in other fields it already is. Looking at graphics cards for PCs for example. Prices there have exploded in the new generation, to the point of which these prices are frankly completely irrational and will hurt everyone. People who still buy, waste a lot of money, which shouldn't be necessary. People who don't buy anymore will have no access to new hardware (It is no solution to buy cheaper hardware, as that is still ridiculously expensive when seen relative to what it can do.). And the software industry has the problem of the entire market likely declining in the future because of the second mentioned group. It is at a point where frankly no one should continue buying these things and enforce a price drop that way, because they literally hurt everyone including themselves by buying.
Situations like this are possible if people always just say that price increases are just fine for no reason, so I would argue that discussions like this are completely fair. Even if in this case you still have more then enough options to avoid high costs. Getting our voices out can also send a message out, if nothing else.
@dew12333 I just don't think that prices in general going up is much of a reason to accept it. Other cases are just as debatable with some industries having solid reasons for the price increase, while others don't. So it is debatable from case to case.
The fact that it just happens, in itself, shouldn't be a reason for acceptance though. It is just based on whataboutism.
It is usually not an issue though, as long as you can just not buy something that you find too expensive without running into problems.
@dew12333 I can't agree with that reasoning. Sure prices have not gone up for a while now, but overall profits still have. There was some real market grow for the last decade and during the pandemic especially, gaming companies made a fortune. That in an industry where production cost isn't much of a factor.
So be careful with that, as far as I can see this is very simply what the industry wants you to believe.
All that being said, I personally always sinply evaluate whether the game is worth the price to me. 70€ games like this are almost never worth it to me, however this would be one of the few exceptions.
@BLD Three Houses was quite unfinished in multiple ways, I wouldn't say the story was one of them. I found the story to be quite decent, actually. Considering Fire Emblem in general tends to have pretty bad stories, at least in recent history, Three Houses stood out a bit. Even if it wasn't really anything ground breaking.
Haven't played Engage yet, so I can't judge that one.
@greengecko007 Funny, how I barely ever got anything better in Skyrim after over 50 hours of playtime. 95% of things that I did in this game ended up being entirely pointless making the game a complete waste of time. Why did I keep playing the game for so long? Because I really really wanted to like the game and for a long time I hoped I was just unlucky or I did less rewarding things. And I don't mean just loot, the game in general didn't feel rewarding at any point whatsoever, aside from the first few hours. So you don't need to tell me about potential drops in Skyrim. It is literally the worst rpg I have ever played in that aspect, judging from my own playthrough.
BotW, most of the time, makes you come worse out of a situation if you use way too powerful tools for simple situations. In a lot of cases you barely even need to use your weapons if you are clever. And as you said, there is actually a potential of finding something useful here too, just that even a weaker weapon can be very useful, making it way more likely. What is funny in your description is, that you talk about the case where you already have a bunch of strong weapons. If you have so many great weapons, that would mean that them breaking all the time wasn't much of an issue, otherwise you couldn't have collected all of that. If you are actually in a situation where you lost just a decent weapon to a worse weapon, while having all kinds of better other weapons still in your inventory, then that is hardly much of a loss.
Also again, stop arrogantly assuming that anyone who disagrees with you is fooling himself. This kind of thinking in general is very questionable, regardless of the topic.
@greengecko007 It's completely the other way around for me, the potential of finding a great weapon that will help me with more difficult situations was one of the main reasons why I explored so much at all. On the contrary I utterly hated the game Skyrim because I essentially found good stuff once and after that everything I ever found was pointless. It completely destroyed any reason for exploration because I only got useless junk out of it anyway. In BotW, even weaker weapons could still be useful and in places where you will only get weak stuff, you usually didn't need to use up any great weapon, so that one is mostly on you.
And no, I am not fooling myself. With so many people saying they either don't mind or even like the system, you can't just handwave it away by assuming they are all just fooling yourself. Especially of the only thing you are basing this on is your opinion. The BotW system may not be perfect, but it does work for many people.
@Pikki My question would be if Valve possibly dropping support is even relevant. I mean, even if they do, the system will just continue to work as it does now. Since it just runs most pc games, there is also no chance of it not getting any more games.
Also, I would personally be surprised if they did. Steam Deck seems too successfull to drop. Most dropped Valve hardware was basically dead in the market already at that point.
Can't see the future, so no guarantees of course, but I am not too worried about this one.
@Phlaike You can never be more sure about there being no one without seeing it, so whether you talk about not seeing anyone or about there not being anyone makes no difference in your example. Not that it matters. The law was written because it protects people from danger, the intent behind the rule is the same regardless of individual circumstances. Also, again, public law. It works differently.
Playing a game I own on another system is not breaking any law, that is my point. If I cause damage to the company in some way, the laws are there to protect the company in that case. Through history all kinds of laws were made to make sure people can't cause these kind of damages without repercussions. You on the other hand seem to think there is a law that essentially makes companies able to do whatever they want with products that they already sold. In which case I will state again what I stated at the beginning. I don't know how things work in your country, but in mine it doesen't work that way. Things like the ToS are not the law, if the company writes nonsense in them, then I don't have to care about that.
@nhSnork If you had that many issues with your PC in 2018 then there was clearly something wrong with it, as that is clearly nothing normal.
I do agree on the mobile part, there was nothing comparable to the Switch for PC gaming when it launched. It is one of the great pros of the Switch. Now with Steam Deck, that did change a bit, though it is more expensive to buy (though can be arguably cheaper in the long run, depnding on how you use the devices).
It is a good thing to get more settings on consoles, I agree. This is one of the positive developments of modern consoles. Though there isn't as much as on PC yet, of course.
What I do not completely agree with is the point with the background tasks. Whether it is a "dedicated gaming device" is not very relevant. If you have a background task, a piece of code so to say, running in background, then it doesn't matter whether the device is primarily made for gaming or not. That code will still eat ressources. Priority management exists on PC as well, Windows knows when something like a game is running and allocates ressources accordingly, not too different from what you would expect from a console. Though again, for todays standards, the ressources being used here are so little that I don't know why we are talking about it. You would have to have something major running in background for it to make a difference, at which point it shouldn't be something you are not aware of. I agree though, that the Switch is quite lightweight all things considered. Even with little going on behind the scenes, it can hardly keep up with other consoles or a half decent PC though. This isn't where it's strengths are, after all. Also the Switch is lacking features because of it, which is not something everyone is fond of.
I am with you with generally disliking Windows. The thing about Steam Deck, or Steam OS specifically, I personally like the most is, that this could be the point that raises Linux to become a more mainstream plattform, with all the support it needs. I would love to use Linux, just the fact that not everything runs on it is holding me back. On that note, if I were to buy a Steam Deck, just about the last thing I would be doing is installing Windows.
@Phlaike Driving over a red light is breaking public law, which is a completely different beast. In that case you are going to court with the state. If that were the case here, then Nintendo wouldn't even need to participate in the case, which is obviously not what is going on.
Also, what you are doing would be very dangerous and could easily cause said damages. Me playing a game copy that I own not on the correct device I also own, but on a different device is literally irrelevant to everyone. Me doing this would not change anything for anyone aside from myself getting a possibily better experience. No damage, no danger, nothing.
@progx Also, I never "converted" to PC gaming as I started with that. Which really isn't even unusual around here. I am also not trying to convince someone. If you prefer playing on consoles do it by all means.
I just don't like it when people say things that are blatantly untrue like that. Also, this discussion started simply by me pointing out that there isn't much of a difference between a pc and a console at this point. Thats all. I never intended to start a "pc vs. console" war, which is also why I refused to go through all of his points and just pointed out that they are untrue.
@progx We have to make an important distinction here. PC gaming in general and the Steam Deck specifically. Not all games running on Steam Deck is commonly known, though most do, as you said. It is the disadvantage of the Steam Deck compared to a normal PC.
A regular PC with Windows does not have this problem. You also don't have to tinker with settings in 99% of cases. Steam Deck has its advantage by being portable and being more console like in how it controls, which some people might prefer.
Though installing Windows on Steam Deck or SteamOS on a regular PC can also mix around the advantages again...
Also, I never said that there is no reason to buy a console. I am playing on consoles myself after all. It's just that there are legit reasons and nonsense reasons to do so. And some people obviously don't know what they are talking about and then use the nonsense reasons.
@nhSnork "Less functionality" means that there are less things you can do with it. Thats it. What is needed is a bit subjective. For some people, the ability to turn down graphic settings for better performance is important. One of many things that can serve as an example here.
Saying that there is so much running in the background on pc is beyond ridiculous at this point, as not only does this basically have no impact on performance anymore, but it is also the same on modern consoles. When you get a notification on your Switch that a friend came online just now, you think there is no software involved in the background? Ever downloaded a game while playing another? Modern consoles have tons of stuff they do in the background, the times where this was a pc thing are long over. Difference is that on PC I have actually some control over it.
And yes, the things you are saying are demonstrably untrue. If some of those things are actually from your experience, then you are either lying or your experinence is from a very long time ago, where issues were a bit more common and additional you were extremely unlucky, well or you did horrible things to your pc like installing a massive amount of bloatware that causes issues.
I have been playing on both PC and console for 25 years now. Mainly on PC. I know how easy it is to play a game. At this point I have more problems on consoles because of poor optimization.
@nhSnork Oh wow, first you essentially just say what I said, that a console is essentially a PC with less functionality.
Then you go completely console fanboy listing untrue things about PC, like console fanboys do all the time trying to justify the consoles existence, even though they don't have to. I don't know if I want to disect all this nonsense again, considering all the debunks are already out there.
@Preposterous Pirated games, as in people getting the game without paying, cause damage to the company selling the product because they lose sales. Just emulating a game you bought while owning the console does not cause any damage. Important difference.
If legality isn't the issue, then what is? Morality? Because I do something that literally doesn't cause any damage to anyone? Certainly not.
@Preposterous I don't know how things work where you live, but if they were going against me in court for not using their software that I bought the way they want me to, they would be laughed out of the room.
Doesn't matter how the licensing works or what the ToS says. I literally didn't even cause any damage to the company that they could tell me to pay off. And I am saying this as someone who isn't even doing it.
@sanderev Hard disagree on quality issues falling solely on GameFreek. Nintendo is the company which decides which games are allowed to be released on their system. They could and should just not allow a game like this to be released. And I am talking any game here, even if Nintendo has no involvement at all, it's still their plattform.
I do agree that it is mostly GameFreaks fault, but not solely. We also don't know if GameFreak is somewhat pressured to release games early, but that is just speculation.
@sanderev GameFreak being the one making Pokemon games seems irrelevant to the topic at hand. In any way Nintendo still makes money with those games, it is Nintendos hardware and Nintendos own games also had issues in the past.
@nhSnork What is truly the difference between a so called "console" and a Steam Deck? At the end of day consoles in general are just PCs with restricted capabilities, so the definition is kind of just what people commonly think.
The funny thing is that Nintendo is basically tempting people to do it and is then angry if it happens. Just look at Pokemon now. People pay full price for a game that runs very badly on a Switch. Imagine you bought the game for a lot of money, and the game is great just the performance destroys it (a stance quite a few people seem to have). But then you look over to your PC and realize that you can easily solve the issue and play the game you paid for without many of the issues.
@Big_Fudge Don't fall for the "everything got more expensive" excuse. The gaming market also grows and production costs are lower then in the past, especially now with digital games. They are making record profits, even if they don't raise prices.
Also most pc games aren't even more expensive compared to what was normal 10 years ago. Also a lot of smaller companies, with very little decelopment costs compared to the big ones, produce some awesome games, proving that spending this much money for games is unnecessary.
I more or less agree with you on the f2p front (depends on the individual game), but don't let them fool you into thinking they need to raise prices, when they clearly don't.
I am not too interested in the game, but having to pay or grind for cosmetics really wouldn't be an issue for me. I simply don't buy them and don't specifically grind either. I don't even know why I should...
I mean, let's pretend the game didn't have those cosmetics: Would the game then be bad? If yes, then why are you playing a bad game? If no, then why do you need them, if it's fun even without them?
I like skins in a way too, but I don't understand how they could ever be so important.
I don't know about his Twitter comment. I am a software dev myself and mistakes happen. He is essentially publicly making fun of the one who did the mistake, even anonymously that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I mean imagine you are making a mistake at work and one of your colleagues twitters " haha, someone at our company did X stupid thing ".
Would I want someone fired for that? No. But it is an eyebrow raiser.
@Fonsettboy I agree completely. Especially what you say about unions. Looking from the outside in, it seems like in the US workers trying to unionize is seen almost as some kind of attack against the company. Even people who would profit from being in a union ask questions like "why do they need to unionize?". When in reality, unions are simply there to protect you. They should just be standard practice, no matter the circumstance. And in fact, they are normal in a lot of places.
@Leonhart Maybe some people here are just coping about the games not coming to Switch. I mean, it's not a AAA series, but still way too popular to just dismiss like that. Heck, just quickly looking at the reviews on Steam for example... Yakuza 0 has 95% positive reviews. That is amazing, only few games achieve that.
@Ade117 It's the opposite for me. It finally looks like it has some budget behind it. That was one of my biggest problems with TH, everything seemed cheap, as if they didn't trust it to be a success. This looks much better, at least in the trailer.
The nostalgia part is what makes me worried, first of we already had plenty of that in the past, also this can easily hurt the story if not implemented well.
@johnvboy As this is pretty much its own topic. About your following point: "Also you seem to suggest the service costs Nintendo very little to implement without actually knowing their costs etc, pretty sure this will be far more than you imagine."
First of all, I wasn't talking about Nintendos current services, but the ones that people want. The stuff that Sony and Microsoft have and Nintendo doesn't. The stuff they want to pay a premium for, for some reason.
Doesn't matter though, let me adress that anyway:
Price for playing online: There are enough games out there, were you can rent your own personal servers to run them. We know that it is cheap. Also consider that prices for renting such servers are way higher than if you set up your own server, since the company behind that is trying to make a profit. Also consider that for a big company this is much much cheaper still, as they can buy and set up servers in huge quantities, making them cheaper through scaling. To further show how cheap it is, cosndier as well how many old games, some very old games, are out there with still active servers. For free. Then there is also the fact that games may not even use Nintendo servers for online play... Nintendo will still charge for that. Conslusion: We know very well that this costs bascially nothing for Nintendo. Same for Sony and Microsoft.
Cloud saves: I can literally set up my own cloud system easily. Let me homebrew my Switch and I could even write a small script that saves away my saves in my cloud automatically. Servers also don't need to be massive for this, even for Nintendos scale, since they don't need to constantly communicate with the clients, also savegames are generally very small. Conslusion: We know very well that this costs bascially nothing for Nintendo. Same for Sony and Microsoft.
Voice Chat: You know how cheap even a discord premium account is? and that is much much much more than what Nintendo woud have to pay per user, even if they were to directly partner with said discord. Server prices are also known, but from what I have already written, you should know where this is going. Conslusion: We know very well that this costs bascially nothing for Nintendo. Same for Sony and Microsoft.
The only hard to predict variable here are the "free" games. Be it Nintendos retro games or what Xbox and Sony are doing. But I would be 100% fine if they charge money for that. But why do I need to pay for that, if I don't care for it?
And that is the thing all in all. We actually DO know that the needed infrastructure isn't that expensive. Though again, the Nintendo service is so cheap, that I am still fine with that. This is mostly a hit towards what Sony and Microsoft are doing (and some Nintendo fans want to have, for some reason.)
Comments 877
Re: Soapbox: Modern Zelda Bosses Are Getting Harder, But They're Nothing Compared To The Oldies
@xmkbest
If you are skipping as many fights as possible, than how would you ever properly learn the games mechanics?
Sounds to me like you made the game more difficult for yourself in an attempt to avoid difficulty.
Re: Valve Confirms It Contacted Nintendo About Dolphin Emulator Coming To Steam
@ATaco
Not sure what that has to do with the "PC Master Race".
Even if emulators were somehow essential for PC gaming, it's not even like the emulator is gone or anything. Valve does not represent pc gaming either.
Re: Star Wars: KOTOR II 'Sith Lords' DLC Cancelled For Nintendo Switch
The real lesson should be to not pre order stuff that easily.
You gain nothing but take all the risk.
Re: Soapbox: Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Straight Up Fails In Just One Respect: Accessibility
@Ryu_Niiyama
You mean you want basically a shadow like a hologram in the air? That would solve the issue if you can't see the ground, true. But does that actually help?
It sounds to me like this could make it harder instead, even for me.
Re: Soapbox: Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Straight Up Fails In Just One Respect: Accessibility
@Ryu_Niiyama
Ultra Hand actually has the highlighted shadow you are asking for though.
There is a kind of green shadow on the ground beneath an object you are controling.
I use it to precisely allign things all the time.
About the buttons and UI:
I think it would be an ok solution to have this system wide. If the UI doesn't work perfectly with what you are setting then that is a minor problem in comparison.
That is something you can do in Steam, for example.
You can use Steam to switch controller buttons on a per game basis and the game devs could not prevent you from doing that even if they wanted.
If the game implements Steam properly, even the ingame icons will change accordingly. The UI might still have some issues here and there, but for people who are using this kind of feature, that is usually a trade they are willing to make.
I think this is a good solution over all, with the game devs barely having to think about it.
Re: Random: Oops! Nintendo's Doug Bowser Makes Amusing Zelda Typo On Twitter
@mariomaster96
That was my first thought too.
This is a way bigger mistake than a typo. Doesn't make it less amusing though
Re: Stardew Valley Creator Shares Another Update About Version 1.6 Release
@Snatcher
I am not talking about "why not?" though.
I just find it strange why people care so much.
You yourself are saying that it's just changing a few words.
But that is exactly the part that I don't really get. How can something like that make anyone happy?
It's just words applied to a fictional person.
My question is more on a psychological level.
Re: Stardew Valley Creator Shares Another Update About Version 1.6 Release
@Jprhino84 @Snatcher
Sure, more choice is usually a good thing. This is without a doubt true in this case as well. Because of that, I don't really question why someone would want one more option. I can understand @CharlieGirl completely in that regard.
But for years now, I can see people asking not simply for more options, but for very specific options even when those don't do much for the game. It's not "I want more gender options", it is "I want my gender option", even when it doesn't do anything anyway, apart from changing a few words.
Maybe I am wrong about this, but it seems to me like very few people care about that between just male and female. You could remove one option entirely, if nothing else changes because of it.
When it comes to a third gender, whichever one, the right pronouns for a game character suddenly become important, even if there is nothing else that changes.
It is different from having more romance choices between all genders. That actually changes some things and I can see how someone really wants that.
Re: Stardew Valley Creator Shares Another Update About Version 1.6 Release
I find the whole gender debate here kind of interesting.
If I were a developer, I would maybe include a third "other" option, as mentioned, but ignore everything else. It's just impossible to please everyone.
What confuses me though, why so many non binary people (apparently it is a lot, judging by what you read online, not just here) have problems imagining themselves as another gender.
I mean, I am male and I have no problem playing as the opposite gender. A lot of people do play as the opposite gender if they have choice.
If Stardew Valley didn't have the option to play as a man, then that just wouldn't concern me... I also doubt it would be that much of a topic.
Why this is even a topic of discussion, when it comes to non binary people is interesting to think about to me.
My main ideas are, that either quite a few men and women actually think this is important, while the target audience widely doesn't actually care.
Or wanting to be included (even just as an option in a game) is becoming more and more psychologically connected to being accepted.
And before anyone misunderstands me: I am mainly talking about games here.
Re: Talking Point: Should Link Have Voice Acting In The Next Zelda Game?
This mixes having dialog and having voice acting.
Those are two different discussions.
Ganondorf, for example, wasn't fully voiced before, but he did have dialog in previous games. It makes sense for him to now be voice acted.
Link on the other hand does not talk, not even in text form.
The situation is completely different.
Re: GameStop Fires Employee For Leaking Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Switch
Very confused why so many here think that this is typical for specifically Nintendo.
It's a breach of contract, of course you get into trouble for that.
If that wasn't the case, then what is even the point of an NDA? Anyone could just leak everything.
There is also a reason, why known leakers usually don't directly work for the companies involved.
I feel sorry for the guy too, but this is normal procedure.
Re: Metroid Prime Engineer Calls Out Nintendo, Says Not Crediting OG Devs In Remaster Is "Petty And Ridiculous"
@pennylessz
Doesn't look like anyone here is "actively against these people being credited", it's more about wether it matters or not.
I can understand the logic behind that. No one who plays the game pays enough attention to the credits for it to matter.
Objectively you can therefore say that credits like that are more a nice tradition than anything else.
They usually don't even exist outside of creative work.
I am mostly confused as to how this situation even came about. It's at least bad taste not to credit the original developers and I don't see a reason behind doing that.
Just credit them and avoid the entire debate.
Re: Another Classic Fantasy ARPG Appears To Have Been Teased For Switch
@Braneman
The controls are different from usual but they work very well for the game.
Most of the conventions we are used to weren't even much of a thing when Gothic 1 was released. The only question is, whether someone is willing to try something different from usual or not.
Though in that regard, I am curious how it will work on Switch, considering the game originally didn't even have controller support.
Re: The Pokémon Company Is Looking To Hire Someone With NFT Knowledge
@GrailUK
Not sure how true the gold thing really is in praxis. After all, every country can do whatever it wants with it's money. If one doesn't want to use gold as counter value, well then they won't.
Also not sure what NFT has to do with that though, since NFT isn't necessarily currency. And NFT currency like Bitcoin don't really need anything like that, since there is, technically, a finite amount of Bitcoin that can be owned (can't simply print more Bitcoin, like with normal currency).
There is also no easy way of actually stopping Bitcoin and co. being a thing even if there is an issue with that.
Re: The Pokémon Company Is Looking To Hire Someone With NFT Knowledge
@HeadPirate
Agreed, looking at job openings are a very bad way of trying to predict what a company wants to do in the future.
Problem always being that we don't know why they want that skillset.
Heck, in theory, even if they actually want to do something with NFT, it could just be a fancy way of booting out cheaters who try to generate Pokemon using third party software...
Anyway, to early for outrage. Should wait for actual announcements.
Re: Talking Point: Why Are So Many Remasters Sub-Par At Launch?
Being a software dev myself I can imagine what the main problem might be.
You see, judging how long it will take to complete a piece of software can be incredibly hard. Usually you will underestimate how much time you will need and it is ultimately down to experience to judge how much time you should add to your first guess.
The problem being that you have no idea how much will go wrong during development, and things will go wrong!
If you at first think something will take a month, then don't plan for a month, maybe even make it two or more.
Again, experience is key here, but also luck to a degree.
This is probably the core problem in many cases when something needs to get delayed or releases unfinished. Now a company also needs to plan future projects, so it might not be so easy as to just let the devs continue until they are done. To a degree they will already be scheduled to do something else...
From here on we can start guessing what kind of decision will be made.
I could see remasters as being relatively low priority. They might get the short stick all things considered.
I could also imagine dev time for remasters being even harder to judge then new games, simply because devs might not have worked on the original code and don't really know what they will get into.
Tldr: I think they might genuinly underestimate the amount of time and budget needed to complete the project and have a hard time adjusting the schedule because of priorities.
Re: Poll: Would You Pay $70 For The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom?
@Rascal0302
The only thing that confuses me a bit on your take, just like everyone elses writing something similar, is why this is tied so much on the hardware power.
This made a little sense in the pre HD time, where big graphical upgrades almost always meant one hell of a lot more work. Now this isn't the case as much anymore, as textures, for example, and such are usually made in very high resolutions anyway and then just scaled down to whatever Hardware is necessary. There are also way better tools making it easier and easier to make a game look better and better.
At this point, a 70$ PS5 game isn't necessarily much more expensive to make than a Switch game, it can be, but doesn't have to. Especially a game like Zelda BotW is probably not that cheap to make because stuff like the physics are not easy to make, we can also just look at how long it takes to develop to get a very rough idea.
The elephant in the room, to me, seems to be the industry is highly profitable, even without price increases. This is true on any platform though.
For me personally, I have a pretty hard limit at the 70€ we are talking about. It is a price I am willing to pay only for rare exceptions, which this is.
If other Nintendo games also get more expensive, then I will not buy those without a discount. This is already my stance on 70€ games, regardless of the platform.
Re: Poll: Would You Pay $70 For The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom?
@johnvboy
Sure, I just mean that I can understand people being annoyed by this as well.
None of us likes the price increase right?
It is just a difference of whether you question if the price increase is warranted or not. I would argue, that price increases should always be questioned at least.
This isn't much of an issue yet in game pricing, but in other fields it already is.
Looking at graphics cards for PCs for example. Prices there have exploded in the new generation, to the point of which these prices are frankly completely irrational and will hurt everyone.
People who still buy, waste a lot of money, which shouldn't be necessary.
People who don't buy anymore will have no access to new hardware (It is no solution to buy cheaper hardware, as that is still ridiculously expensive when seen relative to what it can do.).
And the software industry has the problem of the entire market likely declining in the future because of the second mentioned group.
It is at a point where frankly no one should continue buying these things and enforce a price drop that way, because they literally hurt everyone including themselves by buying.
Situations like this are possible if people always just say that price increases are just fine for no reason, so I would argue that discussions like this are completely fair.
Even if in this case you still have more then enough options to avoid high costs. Getting our voices out can also send a message out, if nothing else.
Re: Poll: Would You Pay $70 For The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom?
@dew12333
I just don't think that prices in general going up is much of a reason to accept it.
Other cases are just as debatable with some industries having solid reasons for the price increase, while others don't. So it is debatable from case to case.
The fact that it just happens, in itself, shouldn't be a reason for acceptance though. It is just based on whataboutism.
It is usually not an issue though, as long as you can just not buy something that you find too expensive without running into problems.
Re: Poll: Would You Pay $70 For The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom?
@dew12333
I can't agree with that reasoning.
Sure prices have not gone up for a while now, but overall profits still have.
There was some real market grow for the last decade and during the pandemic especially, gaming companies made a fortune.
That in an industry where production cost isn't much of a factor.
So be careful with that, as far as I can see this is very simply what the industry wants you to believe.
All that being said, I personally always sinply evaluate whether the game is worth the price to me. 70€ games like this are almost never worth it to me, however this would be one of the few exceptions.
Re: UK Charts: Fire Emblem Out Of Top Ten While SpongeBob Sells Well On Switch
@BLD
Three Houses was quite unfinished in multiple ways, I wouldn't say the story was one of them.
I found the story to be quite decent, actually. Considering Fire Emblem in general tends to have pretty bad stories, at least in recent history, Three Houses stood out a bit. Even if it wasn't really anything ground breaking.
Haven't played Engage yet, so I can't judge that one.
Re: Poll: Do You Want Weapon Degradation To Return In Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom?
@greengecko007
Funny, how I barely ever got anything better in Skyrim after over 50 hours of playtime. 95% of things that I did in this game ended up being entirely pointless making the game a complete waste of time. Why did I keep playing the game for so long? Because I really really wanted to like the game and for a long time I hoped I was just unlucky or I did less rewarding things.
And I don't mean just loot, the game in general didn't feel rewarding at any point whatsoever, aside from the first few hours.
So you don't need to tell me about potential drops in Skyrim. It is literally the worst rpg I have ever played in that aspect, judging from my own playthrough.
BotW, most of the time, makes you come worse out of a situation if you use way too powerful tools for simple situations. In a lot of cases you barely even need to use your weapons if you are clever. And as you said, there is actually a potential of finding something useful here too, just that even a weaker weapon can be very useful, making it way more likely.
What is funny in your description is, that you talk about the case where you already have a bunch of strong weapons. If you have so many great weapons, that would mean that them breaking all the time wasn't much of an issue, otherwise you couldn't have collected all of that. If you are actually in a situation where you lost just a decent weapon to a worse weapon, while having all kinds of better other weapons still in your inventory, then that is hardly much of a loss.
Also again, stop arrogantly assuming that anyone who disagrees with you is fooling himself. This kind of thinking in general is very questionable, regardless of the topic.
Re: Poll: Do You Want Weapon Degradation To Return In Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom?
@greengecko007
It's completely the other way around for me, the potential of finding a great weapon that will help me with more difficult situations was one of the main reasons why I explored so much at all.
On the contrary I utterly hated the game Skyrim because I essentially found good stuff once and after that everything I ever found was pointless. It completely destroyed any reason for exploration because I only got useless junk out of it anyway.
In BotW, even weaker weapons could still be useful and in places where you will only get weak stuff, you usually didn't need to use up any great weapon, so that one is mostly on you.
And no, I am not fooling myself. With so many people saying they either don't mind or even like the system, you can't just handwave it away by assuming they are all just fooling yourself. Especially of the only thing you are basing this on is your opinion.
The BotW system may not be perfect, but it does work for many people.
Re: Soapbox: The Steam Deck And The Switch Aren't Rivals, They're Siblings
@Pikki
My question would be if Valve possibly dropping support is even relevant.
I mean, even if they do, the system will just continue to work as it does now. Since it just runs most pc games, there is also no chance of it not getting any more games.
Also, I would personally be surprised if they did. Steam Deck seems too successfull to drop. Most dropped Valve hardware was basically dead in the market already at that point.
Can't see the future, so no guarantees of course, but I am not too worried about this one.
Re: New Game From Breath Of The Wild Dev Looks Like A Stunning Mix Of Disney, Anime And Zelda
@Judal27 I am also surprised by that take.
It's a former BotW developer, sure, but the game doesn't look comparable at all.
Re: Nintendo Isn't Happy About Switch Game Images On Steam
@Phlaike
You can never be more sure about there being no one without seeing it, so whether you talk about not seeing anyone or about there not being anyone makes no difference in your example.
Not that it matters. The law was written because it protects people from danger, the intent behind the rule is the same regardless of individual circumstances.
Also, again, public law. It works differently.
Playing a game I own on another system is not breaking any law, that is my point. If I cause damage to the company in some way, the laws are there to protect the company in that case. Through history all kinds of laws were made to make sure people can't cause these kind of damages without repercussions.
You on the other hand seem to think there is a law that essentially makes companies able to do whatever they want with products that they already sold. In which case I will state again what I stated at the beginning. I don't know how things work in your country, but in mine it doesen't work that way. Things like the ToS are not the law, if the company writes nonsense in them, then I don't have to care about that.
Re: Nintendo Isn't Happy About Switch Game Images On Steam
@Phlaike
Sure you have to, but the two types of law that countries usually have should be acknowledged as such.
Good thing we are not breaking any law by playing a game on a different system though.
Note that ToS are not law.
Re: Nintendo Isn't Happy About Switch Game Images On Steam
@nhSnork
If you had that many issues with your PC in 2018 then there was clearly something wrong with it, as that is clearly nothing normal.
I do agree on the mobile part, there was nothing comparable to the Switch for PC gaming when it launched. It is one of the great pros of the Switch. Now with Steam Deck, that did change a bit, though it is more expensive to buy (though can be arguably cheaper in the long run, depnding on how you use the devices).
It is a good thing to get more settings on consoles, I agree. This is one of the positive developments of modern consoles. Though there isn't as much as on PC yet, of course.
What I do not completely agree with is the point with the background tasks. Whether it is a "dedicated gaming device" is not very relevant. If you have a background task, a piece of code so to say, running in background, then it doesn't matter whether the device is primarily made for gaming or not. That code will still eat ressources. Priority management exists on PC as well, Windows knows when something like a game is running and allocates ressources accordingly, not too different from what you would expect from a console.
Though again, for todays standards, the ressources being used here are so little that I don't know why we are talking about it. You would have to have something major running in background for it to make a difference, at which point it shouldn't be something you are not aware of.
I agree though, that the Switch is quite lightweight all things considered. Even with little going on behind the scenes, it can hardly keep up with other consoles or a half decent PC though. This isn't where it's strengths are, after all. Also the Switch is lacking features because of it, which is not something everyone is fond of.
I am with you with generally disliking Windows. The thing about Steam Deck, or Steam OS specifically, I personally like the most is, that this could be the point that raises Linux to become a more mainstream plattform, with all the support it needs.
I would love to use Linux, just the fact that not everything runs on it is holding me back.
On that note, if I were to buy a Steam Deck, just about the last thing I would be doing is installing Windows.
Re: Nintendo Isn't Happy About Switch Game Images On Steam
@Phlaike
Driving over a red light is breaking public law, which is a completely different beast.
In that case you are going to court with the state.
If that were the case here, then Nintendo wouldn't even need to participate in the case, which is obviously not what is going on.
Also, what you are doing would be very dangerous and could easily cause said damages.
Me playing a game copy that I own not on the correct device I also own, but on a different device is literally irrelevant to everyone. Me doing this would not change anything for anyone aside from myself getting a possibily better experience.
No damage, no danger, nothing.
Re: Nintendo Isn't Happy About Switch Game Images On Steam
@progx
Also, I never "converted" to PC gaming as I started with that. Which really isn't even unusual around here.
I am also not trying to convince someone. If you prefer playing on consoles do it by all means.
I just don't like it when people say things that are blatantly untrue like that.
Also, this discussion started simply by me pointing out that there isn't much of a difference between a pc and a console at this point. Thats all.
I never intended to start a "pc vs. console" war, which is also why I refused to go through all of his points and just pointed out that they are untrue.
Re: Nintendo Isn't Happy About Switch Game Images On Steam
@progx
We have to make an important distinction here.
PC gaming in general and the Steam Deck specifically.
Not all games running on Steam Deck is commonly known, though most do, as you said. It is the disadvantage of the Steam Deck compared to a normal PC.
A regular PC with Windows does not have this problem. You also don't have to tinker with settings in 99% of cases.
Steam Deck has its advantage by being portable and being more console like in how it controls, which some people might prefer.
Though installing Windows on Steam Deck or SteamOS on a regular PC can also mix around the advantages again...
Also, I never said that there is no reason to buy a console. I am playing on consoles myself after all.
It's just that there are legit reasons and nonsense reasons to do so. And some people obviously don't know what they are talking about and then use the nonsense reasons.
Re: Nintendo Isn't Happy About Switch Game Images On Steam
@nhSnork
"Less functionality" means that there are less things you can do with it. Thats it.
What is needed is a bit subjective. For some people, the ability to turn down graphic settings for better performance is important. One of many things that can serve as an example here.
Saying that there is so much running in the background on pc is beyond ridiculous at this point, as not only does this basically have no impact on performance anymore, but it is also the same on modern consoles. When you get a notification on your Switch that a friend came online just now, you think there is no software involved in the background? Ever downloaded a game while playing another?
Modern consoles have tons of stuff they do in the background, the times where this was a pc thing are long over.
Difference is that on PC I have actually some control over it.
And yes, the things you are saying are demonstrably untrue.
If some of those things are actually from your experience, then you are either lying or your experinence is from a very long time ago, where issues were a bit more common and additional you were extremely unlucky, well or you did horrible things to your pc like installing a massive amount of bloatware that causes issues.
I have been playing on both PC and console for 25 years now. Mainly on PC.
I know how easy it is to play a game. At this point I have more problems on consoles because of poor optimization.
Re: Nintendo Isn't Happy About Switch Game Images On Steam
@nhSnork
Oh wow, first you essentially just say what I said, that a console is essentially a PC with less functionality.
Then you go completely console fanboy listing untrue things about PC, like console fanboys do all the time trying to justify the consoles existence, even though they don't have to.
I don't know if I want to disect all this nonsense again, considering all the debunks are already out there.
Re: Nintendo Isn't Happy About Switch Game Images On Steam
@Preposterous
Pirated games, as in people getting the game without paying, cause damage to the company selling the product because they lose sales.
Just emulating a game you bought while owning the console does not cause any damage.
Important difference.
If legality isn't the issue, then what is?
Morality? Because I do something that literally doesn't cause any damage to anyone? Certainly not.
Re: Nintendo Isn't Happy About Switch Game Images On Steam
@sanderev
Yes and I am saying they shouldn't.
Re: Nintendo Isn't Happy About Switch Game Images On Steam
@Preposterous
I don't know how things work where you live, but if they were going against me in court for not using their software that I bought the way they want me to, they would be laughed out of the room.
Doesn't matter how the licensing works or what the ToS says. I literally didn't even cause any damage to the company that they could tell me to pay off.
And I am saying this as someone who isn't even doing it.
Re: Nintendo Isn't Happy About Switch Game Images On Steam
@sanderev
Hard disagree on quality issues falling solely on GameFreek. Nintendo is the company which decides which games are allowed to be released on their system. They could and should just not allow a game like this to be released.
And I am talking any game here, even if Nintendo has no involvement at all, it's still their plattform.
I do agree that it is mostly GameFreaks fault, but not solely. We also don't know if GameFreak is somewhat pressured to release games early, but that is just speculation.
Re: Nintendo Isn't Happy About Switch Game Images On Steam
@sanderev
GameFreak being the one making Pokemon games seems irrelevant to the topic at hand.
In any way Nintendo still makes money with those games, it is Nintendos hardware and Nintendos own games also had issues in the past.
Re: Nintendo Isn't Happy About Switch Game Images On Steam
@nhSnork
What is truly the difference between a so called "console" and a Steam Deck?
At the end of day consoles in general are just PCs with restricted capabilities, so the definition is kind of just what people commonly think.
Re: Nintendo Isn't Happy About Switch Game Images On Steam
The funny thing is that Nintendo is basically tempting people to do it and is then angry if it happens.
Just look at Pokemon now. People pay full price for a game that runs very badly on a Switch. Imagine you bought the game for a lot of money, and the game is great just the performance destroys it (a stance quite a few people seem to have).
But then you look over to your PC and realize that you can easily solve the issue and play the game you paid for without many of the issues.
Re: Former Playtester To Receive Settlement Payment From Nintendo Hiring Agency
@Jiggies
That is not for Nintendo to decide.
Re: Former Playtester To Receive Settlement Payment From Nintendo Hiring Agency
@PoorGeno Even if you had only problems with unions yourself.
It doesn't change anything, since you should still have the right to be part in one.
Re: Overwatch 2 Player Calculates '5 Year' F2P Grind To Unlock New Hero's Cosmetics
@Big_Fudge
Don't fall for the "everything got more expensive" excuse.
The gaming market also grows and production costs are lower then in the past, especially now with digital games.
They are making record profits, even if they don't raise prices.
Also most pc games aren't even more expensive compared to what was normal 10 years ago.
Also a lot of smaller companies, with very little decelopment costs compared to the big ones, produce some awesome games, proving that spending this much money for games is unnecessary.
I more or less agree with you on the f2p front (depends on the individual game), but don't let them fool you into thinking they need to raise prices, when they clearly don't.
Re: Overwatch 2 Player Calculates '5 Year' F2P Grind To Unlock New Hero's Cosmetics
I am not too interested in the game, but having to pay or grind for cosmetics really wouldn't be an issue for me.
I simply don't buy them and don't specifically grind either. I don't even know why I should...
I mean, let's pretend the game didn't have those cosmetics: Would the game then be bad?
If yes, then why are you playing a bad game?
If no, then why do you need them, if it's fun even without them?
I like skins in a way too, but I don't understand how they could ever be so important.
Re: Fired Nintendo Worker Comes Forward With An Account Of Their Dismissal
I don't know about his Twitter comment.
I am a software dev myself and mistakes happen. He is essentially publicly making fun of the one who did the mistake, even anonymously that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I mean imagine you are making a mistake at work and one of your colleagues twitters " haha, someone at our company did X stupid thing ".
Would I want someone fired for that? No.
But it is an eyebrow raiser.
Re: Fired Nintendo Worker Comes Forward With An Account Of Their Dismissal
@Fonsettboy I agree completely.
Especially what you say about unions.
Looking from the outside in, it seems like in the US workers trying to unionize is seen almost as some kind of attack against the company.
Even people who would profit from being in a union ask questions like "why do they need to unionize?".
When in reality, unions are simply there to protect you. They should just be standard practice, no matter the circumstance. And in fact, they are normal in a lot of places.
Re: Yakuza Dev Still Doesn't Think Switch Is The Right Platform For The Series
@Leonhart
Maybe some people here are just coping about the games not coming to Switch. I mean, it's not a AAA series, but still way too popular to just dismiss like that.
Heck, just quickly looking at the reviews on Steam for example... Yakuza 0 has 95% positive reviews. That is amazing, only few games achieve that.
Re: Fire Emblem Engage Unites New And Returning Characters, Out Next January
@Ade117
It's the opposite for me.
It finally looks like it has some budget behind it. That was one of my biggest problems with TH, everything seemed cheap, as if they didn't trust it to be a success. This looks much better, at least in the trailer.
The nostalgia part is what makes me worried, first of we already had plenty of that in the past, also this can easily hurt the story if not implemented well.
Re: Nintendo Switch Online Missions And Rewards: September 2022 - Animal Crossing, NES, Splatoon
@AlexanderDaniels
Thank you, but it's fine.
As mentioned, I am not really bothered by what Nintendo is currently doing.
My problem lies mostly just with fans who want to increase the price for everyone, just because they think they benefit from it.
Re: Nintendo Switch Online Missions And Rewards: September 2022 - Animal Crossing, NES, Kirby
@johnvboy
As this is pretty much its own topic.
About your following point:
"Also you seem to suggest the service costs Nintendo very little to implement without actually knowing their costs etc, pretty sure this will be far more than you imagine."
First of all, I wasn't talking about Nintendos current services, but the ones that people want. The stuff that Sony and Microsoft have and Nintendo doesn't. The stuff they want to pay a premium for, for some reason.
Doesn't matter though, let me adress that anyway:
Price for playing online:
There are enough games out there, were you can rent your own personal servers to run them. We know that it is cheap.
Also consider that prices for renting such servers are way higher than if you set up your own server, since the company behind that is trying to make a profit.
Also consider that for a big company this is much much cheaper still, as they can buy and set up servers in huge quantities, making them cheaper through scaling.
To further show how cheap it is, cosndier as well how many old games, some very old games, are out there with still active servers. For free.
Then there is also the fact that games may not even use Nintendo servers for online play... Nintendo will still charge for that.
Conslusion: We know very well that this costs bascially nothing for Nintendo. Same for Sony and Microsoft.
Cloud saves:
I can literally set up my own cloud system easily.
Let me homebrew my Switch and I could even write a small script that saves away my saves in my cloud automatically.
Servers also don't need to be massive for this, even for Nintendos scale, since they don't need to constantly communicate with the clients, also savegames are generally very small.
Conslusion: We know very well that this costs bascially nothing for Nintendo. Same for Sony and Microsoft.
Voice Chat:
You know how cheap even a discord premium account is? and that is much much much more than what Nintendo woud have to pay per user, even if they were to directly partner with said discord. Server prices are also known, but from what I have already written, you should know where this is going.
Conslusion: We know very well that this costs bascially nothing for Nintendo. Same for Sony and Microsoft.
The only hard to predict variable here are the "free" games. Be it Nintendos retro games or what Xbox and Sony are doing.
But I would be 100% fine if they charge money for that.
But why do I need to pay for that, if I don't care for it?
And that is the thing all in all.
We actually DO know that the needed infrastructure isn't that expensive.
Though again, the Nintendo service is so cheap, that I am still fine with that.
This is mostly a hit towards what Sony and Microsoft are doing (and some Nintendo fans want to have, for some reason.)