MysticX

@DanteSolablood You forgot the Bluesmobile!

But yeah, the comparison falls a bit flat, the 3DS is a nice console with some awesome games, but a "cadillac" would have had way better screen resolution, at the very least...

@datamonkey That's the issue though, would they all be developing for Switch if the 3DS was dead? (Or even most of them?)

So far the 3DS has a lot of users, and the Switch has potential, but not the installbase yet, with production seemingly bottlenecking its growth.

Developers are understandably going for the more certain bet, and it makes sense for Nintendo to keep supporting 3DS for a while longer, pulling the 3DS "rug" out from under developers and slower adopters too soon might make them wary of Nintendo in the future...

There's a time for ending the 3DS, but it's not now yet, first get the Switch on its feet and freely available, then let the 3DS fade away.

@MarcelRguez Well, in all fairness, anybody who wanted a new 2/3DS has one by now, and the Switch is what Nintendo is actively pushing, so thinking "It looks nice, but i'll pass" seems reasonable to me...

If i knew the new 2DS was coming last November, i would have held off on the new 3DS i have now and waited for the new 2DS instead (I have a lazy eye, i can hardly see the 3D-effect and even then only by straining...)

Soooo... the end result of the whole NES mini story is "Nobody is happy except the scalpers"?

@wiggleronacid True, i think the NES mini was sort of a "Let's get something people want on the shelves for Christmas!"-product, and Christmas is now over, so the NES mini's job is done.

@NaviAndMii True, that chart is pretty much the same way every single game holds a player's attention, but Pokémon Go is a mobile game, our mortal enemy (apparently), so we will now act as if this counts just for mobile games, and make with the pointing and mocking! :3

Well now, a Pokémon game (A game everybody knows, globally popular RPG, monster designs and game freak, what else can it be?) would seriously tempt me to buy a Switch, but still only once the first revised version of the Switch is out though (We're talking Nintendo here, there will be a revised, improved version of the Switch :3 )

I backed this book and i love it, a lot of cool screenshots and pixel artwork, but a lot of trivia, interviews with game designers and with a cover artist too, they're planning to do a kickstarter for a similar book about the Super NES, and i'll back that one too! ^_^

@Boxmonkey That's also because of Nintendo's more... checkered record with consoles, Sony consoles (The home consoles anyway) have consistently sold like hotcakes from the PSX on in, even before the console comes out, good console sales are pretty much a given.

Nintendo on the other hand... NES and SNES did great, N64 played second fiddle, Gamecube lagged behind, Wii was a smash hit (but not really with the people most publishers tend to cater to), and then WiiU was (Dare i say it?) an outright dud commercially, so getting in early with Nintendo hardware is a much less surefire thing, so publishers are understandably hesitant...

Looks like a great start to me, i'm hoping things keep going well, so that by the time the first hardware revision comes around (Experience taught me to never buy the very first version of anything by Nintendo >_< ), it will be a great console with a matching game library!

@ROBLOGNICK That surprises me too, i may be overly negative, but this is the sort of easily-prevented issue that really should have been caught by Nintendo before release, small things like this, the Joy-con issue and the dead pixel story i read here just now, while not huge each on their own, are starting to add up into a bit of a "rushed to market"-vibe, and that could be damaging in the long run...

"It's not a defect, it's an unannounced feature", right Nintendo? :3

Good thing you explained how you found this little fact out, for a minute there i wondered whether or not taste-testing a cartridge was a standard part of game reviewing...

I'll probably be branded a Nintendo-hating cynic for this, but isn't this kind of issue the sort of thing that should be caught during internal testing?

Just like that "A day 1 patch will fix it"-riff, what happened to shipping stuff that works out of the box?

@DarthNocturnal It's probably in an attempt to sneak this in under the radar, websites are loaded with articles about Switch, in a week it will be here so everybody is talking about it, and inbetween all those articles is "Oh yeah, VC won't be there yet, please understand!", Nintendo are hoping for this to get lost in all the other news...

It's understandable for Nintendo to try to hide this (Nobody wants to admit their new device doesn't do something the old one does), and it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it all comes off as a bit underhanded...

@Tempestryke For standing out on shop shelves, and to fit more back-of-box blurb on it, of course!

I think Nintendo is taking that "It's a secret to everybody"-thing with Switch a bit too far now, there is this fine line where secrecy goes from "I can't wait to find out more" into '"What are they trying to hide?", that Polygon-article posted somewhere earlier in the comments shows that Nintendo are getting perilously close to the latter, and after WiiU i doubt Nintendo want that...

It figures TBH, who in his/her right mind is going to buy a WiiU now with Switch only a month away?

If you're going to spend a few hundred bucks on a Nintendo console, spend it on the new one...

@readyletsgo I know what you mean, and i don't know what Nintendo is planning, but i'm pretty sure that putting one of their biggest IPs on a competitor (Mobile is still a competitor to other forms of gaming) isn't part of their plan...

@readyletsgo Nah, Pokémon is one of the few franchises that 100% reliably shifts whatever console it appears on, Nintendo would be stupid to go mobile with that...

@onex Ok, i just have to ask: What part of "Digital downloads cost more than a physical copy" is good news?

@brutalpanda I just think Nintendo are trying to establish the Switch as a game console that you can take with you if you want, rather than a tablet that you can connect to your TV if you want...

Either that, or they're out of touch with what their consumers want, 50/50 chance... :3

Frankly, people who realy want to stream stuff, surf the net and all that stuff already have a tablet to do that with, Nintendo is right to focus on gaming, better to try one thing and get it right than trying and half-assing a bunch of things...

@BertoFlyingFox The problem with BotW is that a bunch of people who were early with WiiU (The devoted Nintendo fanbase) are possibly quite leery of getting burnt again after how WiiU turned out, and because of that might hold off on buying a Switch until there's a bit more certainty, so having BotW on WiiU as well takes a big reason to upgrade early away...

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Exactly, remember the "Third pillar"-thing? Pillar #2 (The Gameboy advance, still my favourite Nintendo handheld console ever) was dropped pretty quickly when the DS took off...

@Kidakairis I agree, it has been proven by now that pretty much nobody gives a damn about those silly missions (I actually wonder how many people actually know about them, not everybody browses Nintendo/Pokémon websites...), on the other hand, people do care about their cherished pokémon that are still stuck in ORAS or X/Y, so get that bank-update out there already! >_<

It looks decent, but i'm holding off until the holiday season at least, i got burned by the WiiU and will need to see some more games for it before shelling out on a Switch...

@dodgethis Wow, a strawman and an insult, i can't bring anything against that one-two punch of brilliant argumentation! :3

@nhSnork So, because other similar devices also have crummy battery life it's ok for Switch too?

And that aside, there's still the small launch-lineup and high price working against Switch, sure the first batch of Switch sold out, but those are going to the hardcore Nintendo fans, if Switch wants to take off (Which i still hope it will, i just won't be buying one right away), they'll need to appeal to more than hardcore Nintendo-fans...

Well, early signs aren't brilliant, a meager launch lineup, iffy battery life for a console that sells itself as half-portable, high price (For console, controllers and games) and of course the fact that nothing can live up to the hype that got stirred up on the internet for lack of real information pre-reveal...

I'm on the fence about Switch TBH, it's pricey like all new hardware, first-party controllers are expensive, no news there, the big-name games look great, but it's the battery life that really gives me pause...

2.5 to 6 hours, with what i know of marketing speak, means that with any decent game (Not the inevitable "Sudoku classics DX"-game), it will be far closer to the 2.5 than the 6 hours, which is quite honestly abysmal for any portable device, the idea of the switch is awesome, but it's hard to push "Play games at home AND on the go!" when it's inevitably followed by a "Just hurry back home before the battery dies", and if you look at it as a portable, the games will get a price hike too (40-45 euros to 55-60, because when game price is concerned, Switch is suddenly 100% home console! :3 )

Registration for the game sync thing (which isn't even mentioned in-game) and the silly "report your work back at festival plaza"-thing make it all pretty cumbersome, and the rewards aren't really cool enough to bother with it TBH...

About the shoulder buttons, i read on engadget that this is just a prototype, and they're considering putting the shoulder buttons on the back (and presumably fixing the screen issue as well)

I'm quite interested in it myself, if they fix those things, i have a GBA SP myself, but a janky cartridge slot (GB games sometimes shift a bit, causing the game to crash) and the fact it's an AGS-001 (so sidelit instead of properly backlit screen) put me in the market for a retro boy...

@retro_player_22 I read somewhere that this is a prototype, and that they're considering moving the L/R buttons to the back instead for the final product, but i forgot where i read it, i read a lot of articles about the super retro boy. :3

@dadajo A nice sharp screen, backlighting (Only a few GBA SP editions had that) and a 10-hour duration rechargable battery are plenty of "point" for me, and i still have my old gameboy advance...

I'm in the "Cautiously optimistic"-range as far as hype goes.

I have been a Nintendo-fan for 25 or so years now, but i also realize that they have royally messed up the late Wii and entire lifespan of WiiU (Early 3DS wasn't all that hot either, but they made up for that later), losing them a lot of consumer trust in the process, so Switch will have to be something extraordinary (In the "Quality"-sense, no gimmicks for a bit) to glue that reputation back together again...

@Oscarzxn That's easy, in the glut of freemium and €2 games, hardly anybody will spend €10 or more on a game (But they'll spend a fortune on in-app purchases, strange how that works...), no matter how good it is...

I have a lazy right eye, so lazy in fact that the "connection" between my eyes is gone (i do almost all eye "work" with my left eye), so the 3D never really worked for me, if i concentrate i can see the 3D, but playing a game tends to take up most of my concentration. :3

I got a new 3DS in part to see if the face-tracking would help (holding the 3DS perfectly still was an issue too), but no joy... ~_~

So all in all i won't miss 3D much, it would be too much of a hardware-strain to do 3D and a decent screen resolution anyway, face it, 3DS screen resolution is pretty crappy, that is in part due to having to accomodate the 3D-effect of the screen, so it's a firm case of "good riddance" to me.

I don't think it will do even the tiniest bit better on Android, android-users don't pay for anything...

Frankly, if what we have now is what we can expect from Nintendo's grand plan for mobile, they should just pack it in and focus on their own systems (And pray that Switch pans out well), i don't think this half-assed stuff is making anybody happy.

@DanteSolablood Well, i think it's a given that when looking at a modern mobile phone there would always be somebody saying "You know, i think you could play games on this too!", but where dedicated portable consoles would be is the big mystery...

@nhSnork I'm sure some form of mobile games would exist by now, but all pre-mobile dedicated portable gaming systems were either by Nintendo or other companies trying to get a bit of the market, a market that wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for the Gameboy... ~_~

Unbelievable, IMO the Gameboy era (from beige brick to advance) were the golden age of portable gaming, nothing against the DS and 3DS, but i have a soft spot for the 8- and 16-bit games.

And to then read that Nintendo had to be persuaded to do anything with it, what would portable gaming be like without the gameboy?

3 hours battery life is spectacularly bad, that being said, what does "Everything at maximum" mean?

I assume maximum screen brightness and WiFi on, but what else?

@GravyThief You're right, graphics can quite easily be scaled back, how much visual detail can people really see in moving images anyway? (Especially in Switch's portable mode), but code being a huge pain to port would probably be a deal-breaker, like it has been for WiiU...

@TossedLlama It's a bit like that "Let's run DOOM on any piece of electronics we can get our hands on"-thing (I've seen videos of DOOM running on the menu-screen of a copying machine once ), it's mostly to show that it's possible...ish... :3

@Fandabidozi I guess that goes to show how meh festival plaza is, that reviewers never got around to mentioning it, i wonder how many (or rather, how few) players went there more than once...

@the8thark I'm pretty sure the other consoles' fanbases are just as toxic as the Nintendo one is, it's just that the Nintendo fanbase has a bit more to complain about with the whole WiiU-situation and all...

Saying "I love your games Nintendo, but what have you been doing the past few years?" isn't hollow or fake, if anything it's the blindly taking whatever Nintendo dishes out and going "Thank you sir, may i please have another?" that's hollow and fake...

@thehoppypoppy Well, it counts as "Trying", if little else... :3

I'm an at-home gamer in a family, so the switch looks awesome to me, play games on the TV and when somebody wants to watch TV i can keep playing on the tablet-part of it, it's the big positive point people have been lauding for the WiiU controller, except more functional.

I'm having second thoughts about its portability though, it seems a bit big to carry around to me, but i think the "gaming on the subway/train/bus" crowd is lost to phones and tablets anyway...

@YouSeemFRAZZLED 3 months from now the WiiU will be history, whereas the 3DS will still be supported with games (and a seemingly neverending deluge of "stability updates" :3 ), it also counts that the "pokémon moon"-leak was a pretty big deal, the flagship game for the holidays leaked? some "Please understand"s must have gone around Nintendo HQ that day...