LastFootnote

@N00BiSH This isn’t simply inflation. I’m guessing this is the 145% US tariff on Chinese goods at work.

Yes, Nintendo is so greedy. This certainly has nothing to do with the 145% tariffs the US has placed on goods from China, where amiibo are almost certainly manufactured.

For $30? No. For $20 maybe.

@Saints I agree the prices are insane, but at least the Switch 2 dock actually seems to do something beyond being a glorified HDMI output.

@jfp That's a good point I hadn't considered. With US tariffs on China currently at a ridiculous 145% and climbing, it's a wonder we didn't get even higher prices.

@87th I think it's actually 72 hours. But uh the problem is that they're not planning on telling us whether we've been selected until early May. So if I want to try to ensure I get a Switch 2, I have to try to secure a retailer pre-order as a backup. It's a bad system.

@GrailUK Definitely not aimed solely at gaming. It's just sort of top-of-mind right now, you know? Trust me, I spend more time than I ought to reading general news and wishing my country had had more sense back in November.

@Willo567 I do blame him. But Nintendo also had a choice. They're in the middle of a storm of bad press right now, just one thing after another. It may have been wiser for them to take the hit on their (likely high) margins in order to try to maintain customer loyalty.

During the Switch generation Nintendo generated a ton of goodwill from me. I've gone from enjoying Nintendo products to becoming a fiercely loyal fan of theirs. But this constant barrage of bad news is steadily chipping away at that. I wish they'd take steps to stop the bleeding, even if they are dealing with economic circumstances beyond their control.

@Clark2k I wish I had your optimism. But from what we've seen of this launch so far, they seem to be strongly prioritizing their bottom line over customer loyalty this generation.

@Clark2k Yeah, but the announcement pretty clearly says they WON'T necessarily remain $70-$80.

I really don't want to be a downer, but somehow this really depresses me. In addition to nickel-and-diming us on accessories EVEN MORE than they already were, they're effectively saying that future games will be more expensive on average. I don't know if we'll see any $90 games, but I think it's likely that games previously planned for $70 are going to be $80. Add that to Game-Key Cards and needing to buy MicroSD EXPRESS cards, and I think my excitement for this system is finally reaching a tipping point. It's starting to just fill me with dread.

Hmm, I can’t remember what this game’s music is like. Should be worth a listen though.

I’m really hoping for either the Thousand-Year Door or Origami King soundtrack sometime soon. This year would be awesome.

"Battle Mode is back and more hectic than ever!"

But I don't want it to be more hectic than ever. Mario Kart 64 had the best battle mode in the series, precisely because you could be careful and strategic.

@Grumblevolcano I think they're more likely to release it for Switch 2. Galaxy 2 requires a lot more pointer controls than Galaxy 1 (aiming Yoshi's tongue, etc.), and we've learned from lots of Wii-to-Switch ports that gyro is not up to that task. It drifts horribly. Long story short, Galaxy 2 would be a nightmare to play on Switch.

With mouse controls, though...

Although hmm, you'd also have to use the right Joy-Con's face buttons a lot. Maybe that wouldn't be comfortable.

@mikegamer I'm gonna guess that most or all of the Mario baddie playable characters need to be found and recruited. Go to the desert to find and unlock a Pokey. Go out into the ocean to recruit a dolphin, etc.

@Rosona You are correct. Code-in-a-box is at least on the same order of bad as Game Key Card, if not worse. In my mind I was instead comparing a Game Key Card to a digital download, which was my mistake. Yes, a Code-in-a-box is a stupid waste of plastic and I've never bought one.

I strongly disagree that the advantages of Game Key Cards compared to digital downloads outweigh the disadvantages, but that's a reasonable difference of opinion based on how we use games.

@Rosona For folks like me who don’t sell their games, Game Key Cards are just worse. You need to install the entire game on your SD card (which is much more expensive on Switch 2 by requiring MicroSD EXPRESS), and you still need to use the game card, which destroys the convenience of digital games. It is literally the worst of both worlds, just so publishers can save money on game cards but still have their product in stores.

I’m looking forward to it. I just hope the fact that it’s $10 cheaper than Mario Kart World doesn’t mean it’s somehow a budget title with a smaller scale. I know that sounds crazy for $70, but Nintendo has trained us to think that all of their games should be the same price.

@ryan_nil I'm of an age with you, for what it's worth. And no, I won't be buying any Game Key cards. Don't see why I wouldn't buy a Switch 2 though.

And let me state the obvious: if these Game Key Card releases don't sell well, they'll stop happening. Personally if there are any such games that I want to buy, I'll wait for a steep discount and buy them digitally instead.

@8bit4Life Actually you can lend out digital games starting late this month, with the Virtual Game Card functionality Nintendo described in the March Direct.

@ryan_nil "That's the world we live in now" is exactly the wrong attitude. If everybody rolls over like you are, then it will be the world we live in. But it's not like it's some cosmic inevitability.

I don't sell games, and Nintendo has already provided a solution for lending digital games, which they showed off in March Direct. So yeah, this is just purely bad news for me. They've simply pushed the monetary (data storage) and time costs off to the consumer so that they could save a few bucks on the cartridge. And let's not forget: the Switch 2 only allows MicroSD EXPRESS cards, which are more expensive and have a smaller capacity. I haven't seen one with more than 256 GB of space.

It's extremely disheartening to see so many third-party games jumping on this bandwagon so quickly. I won't be picking up any Game Key cards, and I hope they fall out of style ASAP.

Well when you put it that way, they all kind of suck.

I voted Switch due to Breath of the Wild, Shovel Knight (which wasn't new, but Specter of Torment was new and a Switch-exclusive for a time), and Snipperclips.

Wii, GBA, and NES were also very strong. Switch 2 would probably win in terms of "Which of these sets of games would I choose if they were the only games I could play for the rest of my life", but it's got too many ports and remasters to be really exciting the way some other systems were.

Well, third parties sure seem eager to take advantage of this option. I’m guessing actual Switch 2 cards are expensive to produce, and I’ve heard rumors that the smallest size card Nintendo offers is 32 GB.

It’ll certainly push me to buy more games digitally. I mean I already buy plenty that way, but I sure would prefer a real physical copy of e.g. Bravely Default.

Look, I hate to be that guy, but I will be (pleasantly) shocked if Silksong comes out this year. We’ve already had one showcase claiming it would release within a year, and that was a few years ago. Fool me twice, shame on me.

@HammerKirby That would explain it. Damn, Nintendo is on a roll with unforced errors concerning the Switch 2. I guess maybe they didn’t want to have two successful consoles in a row.

Maybe this is just a me thing, but the fact that Mario Kart World is $10 more than Donkey Kong Bananza actually makes me worry that DKB will be a very small game. Nintendo has trained me to think that only budget games (like WarioWare) should be cheaper than the full-price experience.

@Jack_Goetz Probably not. I believe they’re basically synonyms also had lots of other games cancelled as well.

Retro just can’t seem to catch a break.

Please stop linking to X. There must be alternatives.

Interesting that Crown City is in both the Mushroom Cup and Shell Cup. I’m guessing it’ll be different depending on which cup you’re racing.

BOOOOOOOO!

But for $40, I’m fine buying it digitally.

Seems reasonable. Here’s hoping the dollar estimates are correct.

@liveswired “Forced to go third party”! Ha ha ha! That won’t happen, at least not in the next 20 years.

If sales are really low, we might get price cuts. But Nintendo has enormous cash reserves. They won’t be leaving the hardware game any time soon.

@Anakin In the US, they do. Physical game discounts here are very rare.

@ArcadianLegend99 I'm happy to cut them slack with how long it's taking. I'm not willing to cut them slack when it comes to the total lack of communication and repeatedly showing the game in presentations like this, only to miss those announced release windows.

That's a quirky little sound it makes. I like it.

@Friendly Could you please expound on the Switch’s 3-phase release? Because it seems like Nintendo put out about one first-party game per month of 2017 from the March release onward.

I don’t buy into this whole “3 phases” rumor that the headline references. I can believe that lots of devs don’t have dev kits yet, but I don’t believe that the launch lineup will only be first-party software.

If it does end up being true, Nintendo better release three games at launch, MINIMUM, and that’s not including tech demos like 1-2-Switch.

All they need to do for FF9 is speed up the load times and battle intros. Presto, perfect “remake”.

Somehow the end of the description made me think, “So it’ll be like National Treasure?”

Now I want to see Nicholas Cage as Link.

@Olliemar28 The release date has been announced via the new Nintendo Today app: March 26, 2027.

@X68000 Pretty sure they weren’t “binned off”. They opted out when Nintendo of America moved offices.

@mjhopkins81 I don't think this is how it works, though? I can play digital games on my non-primary Switch using my account, and somebody else can play my digital games (even the one I'm playing, I believe) at the same time on my primary Switch, using their accounts. There just can't be two Switches using the same account to play digital games simultaneously.

I mean the whole system still really sucks for a lot of reasons, but I don't think it's quite as draconian as you're making it out to me.

So many games we knew about shown again STILL with no release dates. Maddening.

They haven’t actually confirmed that the Switch 2 Direct will showcase any software. I mean they’d be crazy not to, but somehow I’m still a bit worried. I feel like in the past they’ve separated their hardware and software presentations.

@johnedwin In a row? Didn’t he predict a Direct in February that didn’t happen?

@abbyhitter For one thing, the rumors were that it would happen today, not tomorrow. For another thing, this was heavily rumored to happen back in February and didn’t. And for a third thing, the timing for this Direct is very weird! One week before another Direct! So I think it’s natural to be surprised.

Well, color me surprised! I was 99% certain this wouldn't happen.

No third-party games at release? That seems super unlikely. Nintendo will want to spread their releases out like they always do. They’ll have 2—maaaaaaybe 3—first-party games at launch, and a handful or two of third-party games.

I’ve been a big apologist for the rate these soundtracks have been releasing. My stance since before we even knew the release cadence has been that one soundtrack per week is the minimum they could release to feel like we’d someday have all the music available. This partial soundtrack sets a very bad precedent though.