MysticX

@Medic_alert I was already pretty picky at €60, i will be incredibly picky at €80, and if not enough games worth the price will come out, i'll skip Switch2 altogether. (Because a €450 console for two or three games makes the cost of playing those games rather a lot higher as well)

@Medic_alert That line will continue going up, until enough people can't or won't spend €80 (Or whatever it will rise to in the near future) on a video game, and the whole rotten mess comes crashing down.

"Yeah, but everything is getting more expensive!", i hear people decry, true, but that's exactly why a pure luxury like video games is at greater risk of pricing itself out of the market.

@sanderev Pre-orders selling out doesn’t mean all that much in the long run, pre-orders go to people who’d always buy it anyway, the enthusiastic fans.

That’s why i’m curious about the longer term, leaving value for money aside (That’s subjective, anyway), Switch 2 and (especially) the games may just become too pricy for many people to afford, the price hike (1/3 to 1/2 the price per game, depending on country) is far from insignificant, especially with the uncertain economic times we live in…

@-wc- Yeah, "Mario kart world" is listed for €90 in a Dutch toy store folder, that's fully 1.5 times what "Mario kart 8 Deluxe" (still...) costs, that's a huge price hike, especially in these uncertain times when people's budgets for luxuries/hobbies are feeling the squeeze already.

I am genuinely curious what the longer-term (Once the diehard Nintendo fans have bought their Switch2's) effect on sales will be.

@Yoshi3 They'll just scalp those Switch2s in a few weeks then (When it's within the rules for pre-sales), so much for "Drowning in stock"...

I understand that people loathe scalpers, but to tout this sort of thing as a massive victory against scalping is rather overstating the actual longer-term effect of reporting them.

@TheBoilerman That will probably be DLC later on.

Seriously though, that was their own trailer: Conspicuously Pokemon-like creatures, with guns, what were they expecting?

Just saw the first mention of Switch 2 in a folder from a Dutch toy store (Intertoys, if anybody's curious), "Mario kart world" is listed for €89.99! (Which is fully 1.5 times as much as "Mario kart 8 Deluxe", which is also ludicrous that it's still full price by now, but i digress...)

It's going to be a good long while until i'm ready to jump to Switch 2, if ever, if those are the prices for games...

Isn’t that standard procedure since the SNES though?

Keep some support going for the old system, until the new system gains some traction (Which due to the economical situation might take a bit longer this generation), and when the new system gets some momentum, drop the old stuff.

That's a bit of a "Well, duh!" there, early adopters are hardcore Nintendo fans, while it's the "casual gamers and parents buying for their kids"-segment where the price increase may have a noticeable influence, but that won't show it's effect (If any) for a while yet.

Well, that's too much for my budget, i'm afraid...

Everything's rapidly getting more expensive across the board, and when push comes to shove, it's luxuries (Like, say, gaming) that get lost in the crunch.

I passed by the local toy store (The only place selling sealed product in my town) this morning, and there were a bunch of grown dudes waiting for the place to open, so that place was probably out of pokémon cards again 10 minutes after opening.

Even as a casual collector (A few packs here and there, some singles, small-time stuff), it's no fun anymore, there was always the "Hope something worthwhile is in the packs"-thing to consider, but now there's the "If you can find any packs in the first place!"-factor on top of that.

@RupeeClock The point isn't that emulators can also be used for non-piracy purposes, but that they have the (Let's be honest, well-deserved) stigma of being pretty much created for piracy.

Good luck convincing any judge or jury in an (Considering Nintendo's track record, inevitable) court case that this one emulator is totally legit...

@RupeeClock That still leaves the huge issue that Emulators are used in 99% of the cases for one thing: Software piracy, and that's an easier argument to convince a judge or jury of than some software detail that supposedly makes this emulator totally different from all the ones before it.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results...

@Kiyata It does have a future: Emulation.

Retro emulation is the only way (Without paying often-exorbitant prices on the second-hand market) to play many old games, and it will only become more important as stunts like this pile up...

I personally prefer iterative sequels too, when i bought a game and enjoyed it, it's comforting to know that the sequel will give me more of what i enjoyed in the first game with maybe some improvements.

Developers can always go wild with a sideline of a series, like Pokemon did with Legends: Arceus and will do with Z-A, but there's nothing wrong with sequels being iterative.

A bit for Z-A, a lot of babble about the mobile games, and that will pretty much be it...

X & Y, "Pokemon Z-A" will be "Legends: Arceus"-style, Gen 5 is overrated IMO, Sun/Moon and later are too recent.

@defective1up I'm not suggesting Nintendo will abandon America, but they'll just move shipments for other countries around the place, to avoid incurring tariffs.

Companies will find a way either around the tariffs, or when selling to the rest of the world, around America entirely, the world will keep on turning, and the purveyors of luxury goods (Like, say, video games) will be wary of making things too expensive.

The Japanese one, at least there the characters resemble the ones in the actual game...

I'd like Nintendo to do well as much as the next guy, but aren't such bold predictions just a tad premature when we don't even know what the specs and price of Switch 2 will be?

I can’t believe police officers are getting paid to investigate this kind of thing…

I mean, cheating at Pokemon? Hardly a major offense, is it?

@Dee123 True, besides, what actual violence happens in-game? The worst that happens to a character in Lego-games is that they fall apart, minifig-style.

Considering how they (mis)handled PSVita, dropping support almost immediately after release (That's what it felt like, at any rate) and all, i'll sit back and see how it develops first...

No surprises here TBH, Switch is 7 years old (Which is ancient in electronics years), everybody who wants a Switch has one, and to top it off, anybody with even a passing interest in gaming knows Switch 2 (Or whatever they'll call it) is going to be announced soon, of course sales are slowing down.

Ockham's razor: Nintendo are just really out of touch with how these things spread online, just like they're 5 laps behind in most other online-related matters.

Don't get me wrong, i don't hate Nintendo, but they're an old-fashioned company that just can't figure out this newfangled "Internet"-thing.

I played "MySims" back in the DS-era and quite enjoyed it, but i'm not sure how well it would hold up compared to "Animal crossing"...

Gameboy colour, transparent plastic makes things at least 100% cooler!

I wouldn't say i was nervous about it, but i avoid replaying most early 3D-games i have (N64/PSX era), now i'm used to how things are today (Both in visual clarity and QoL features/controls), the poor graphics and frequently janky camera controls put me off.

It's sort of a "lost generation" to me, NES/SNES still hold up really well, and there are a few PS2/GC games i come back to occasionally, but first-generation 3D games? Oof, no thanks.

I'll give the dead horse another good thrashing:

Funny how they do all sorts of stuff involving "Animal crossing", except support the actual game!

@Anti-Matter If you can still hear the horse, we haven't beaten it enough yet!

Ahem... Such stability, much wow!

@kozaru Well, Animal crossing has 400 or so villagers, so based on that we still potentially have quite a few sets coming up...

I'm hoping for a series or two of those boxed minifigs, that would be a great way to get more of the villagers made.

@Ralizah Worse than hired thugs: The legal system. (One rigged to favour big corporations)

Sure, what he did was illegal, but he'll be paying that fine off for the rest of his life, just to "Send a message"? That's stupidly harsh.

I'm glad that he's at least emotionally getting his life back together, but financially he'll be stuck for life.

The sets look pretty cool, i wonder what they'll end up costing though.

Ok, this is just stupid, can you imagine?

"What are you in for?" "I hacked and sold some pokémon..."

We can all agree that hacking in an online game is... bad form, at least, but risking jail time for it? That's just ludicrous, that lawmakers actually sat down and made a law against it is mind-boggling, were there no real issues to address?

"Windle shook his head sadly, five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind."

Terry Pratchett - "Reaper man"

It's funny that i was just reading that bit right before this article came along.

Nintendo's update philosophy: "Whatever the question, more stability is the answer!"

Third versions only made any sense in the era before DLC, the DLC for SwSh and SV each added more content to their respective "base" games than any third version ever did, and that for about half the price of the base game, too.

@popey1980 I'm hoping they'll do a series (Or two) of minifig blind-boxes in the future, with 400 or so villagers and NPCs, there's plenty of material, and i just know that people would go bananas for a shot at Lego Ankha or Raymond!

@Overzeal That's what they're trying to avoid, all the bits that supposedly directly facilitate stealing software, although that does raise the question: What else would you make an emulator of current hardware for?

I'm all for pirating stuff that's no longer available, if you can't buy it legitimately any more (The inflated secondary market aside, where Nintendo earns nothing anyway), all bets are off, but for current hardware, there can only be one reason to even make an emulator.

SMB2 was my introduction to Mario, and it has a special place in my heart, if you have the option, play "Super Mario Advance" though, the GBA remake, the GBA was my first (And thus far, only) day 1 console, and i got SMA to go with it.

I'd really like a sequel to SMB2 with the same gameplay style (The picking up and throwing enemies), there's something really fun about taking out enemies with other enemies.

@_fatto_katto_ I suck at decorating cakes, and i liked the demo, i just wonder how many levels there are in the full game, what i've seen is fun, but how much of it do we get for €60?

It's a nice write-up, but comparing a GBP12.99 set to a GBP189.99 one (Snow white's cottage) which has 2064 more pieces in it (And a higher recommended age), and then calling the cheaper set being simpler as a downside, that's a bit "Apples vs Oranges", isn't it?

3DS is old (If it was a child, it'd be high school age), Nintendo dropped the last pretense of support for the system last year, yeah, it's retro now.

In the context of the commercial, if the lead is a teenager, a 3DS is likely to be the first video game system he ever owned, so having it as fond childhood memory seems about right.

Optimization is a lost art these days, with even bugfix-patches for modern games being multiple gigabytes in size and all.

@stephenmunn True, i read some reviews, on a "Parts per dollar"-basis they're about average, and there's a lot of printed special parts in there, no faffing around with stickers, the sets seem pretty good value to me...

The same thing the PC services offer: Ability to purchase and re-download games, no matter how old they are, the biggest shadow looming over going full-digital is the spectre of e-shop closures.

Take 3DS for example, i can still buy physical games (Second-hand, but still...), but not digital ones, i can't even spend my money on them if i want to!

Also, good sales, it's more tempting to go digital when it's noticeably cheaper than physical, it should be cheaper, there's no costs for cartridge/packaging.

@TrixieSparkle Sure, but by now we're reaching the point that the Switch can't run ports of games decently (Or the games have to be stripped down too much), and then the developers might want to port their games, but won't be able to.

Besides, it already (Objectively as well as factually) is the best-selling system in the market today, at this point, what do comparisons to a system 3 generations ago matter?

@Flashlink99 I can understand the "Make sure enough consoles and games are ready for release"-argument, but i also see several people saying that Nintendo is "Waiting to let the Switch surpass PS2 lifetime sales", what's the actual practical or business benefit of that?