@johnvboy You were right at least one of the last three times you leaked that a Direct would be arriving "someday", so that definitely makes you one of the reliable insiders!
Like many others I loved Software, etc. Babbages. EB. They all had a professional/library-like atmosphere that made it feel like you were buying pricy software from a professional store. Once GameStop (nee Barnes & Noble) bought it all out it felt like a cheap venture targeting teens. I bought all the time until, like others said, they started opening new games. I argued with them about that more than once, then just walked across the parking lot to Best Buy and bought a new copy... For less money. From a larger inventory. So much for loyalty.
They have, or have had their purpose, and the stores sometimes have been fun to wander in, but they really stopped providing a purpose for going there. The only thing I buy there now is Game Informer. The last print mag around.
There's only been 2 years without an E3. 2020 which saw a massive artificial boom in the industry due to lockdowns, and 2022 which is seeing a downturn in the industry due to recession/inflation along with reduced releases outside Switch.
I'm not sure that the irrelevance of E3 is something that the past 3 Junes could actually provide conclusions on. And I'm not sure developers preferring to release things whatever, whenever, is what the marketing and business people want. There's still the value of having large media attention during E3, versus trickle down messaging from scattered direct events that reach only the hardcore faithful. It's not about if it's "necessary" or "relevant" so much as if it has "value." There's no question that companies that do participate have a microphone that companies that don't will not have. Sony's been in a position to ignore that. But there also seems to be politics between them and ESA leadership at play as well. Hopefully the new organizers can manage it without dropping the ball. Keighley had his chance, but he didn't do much with it.
@johnvboy Yeah, I mean there's a certain pragmatism to believing they'd try to avoid a Wii situation where they waited too long to bring out a successor, and sales were already sharply downward by then. There's a fine line to cannibalizing existing sales, And lingering too long until your sales slump. But they're already not filling current demand....why replace that in an environment where it's costly and problematic to do so? It wouldn't make sense.
@johnvboy We disagree 90% of the time on all things Nintendo, but.....yeah, I'm with you on this one. Why people thing Switch 2 is coming soon when there's no chips to be had and Nintendo can't even make what they have is puzzling to say the least.
Though if any mfr WERE to try to launch a new product while it's impossible to make them, it would be Nintendo...
Can you imagine preorders given Nintendo's usual inability to make a reasonable launch quantity combined with the chip shortage? It's been 2 years and people still can't get PS5/XSX that want one. It was 2.5 years before people could reasonably get a Wii with no chip shortage. If Switch 2 launched in 2023, most people couldn't get one until 2027....and it's not even an exaggeration!
Bill Gates had it right in the 90's. "If you want to be safe on the internet, unplug the ethernet cable."
@SwitchplayerJohn Actually the financial sector relies on fax primarily due to it's relative security. Ever wonder why lending/fraud departments at a bank always wants you to fax things, and will accept nothing else? Ironically being "backward" is actually being "forward" in the security realm.
@MasterHoover That's exactly it. If it was about them making money from the CE, they would print as many as it takes to meet demand within that window. They'd take preorders and print them all so that if every single copy of the game is sold as a CE for more money if people want it so much, they can make more money selling the more expensive version. But they don't.
Selling CEs at higher margin than the base game, is therefore not the goal of the CE. And fans that want it are not the target market for it existing. It's designed to stir up the collector/resale/"scalper" crowd. It creates a big noise, an air of high demand and high scarcity in socials. It's talked about everywhere how the CE is impossible to obtain, and how fast it vanished and how expensive it is. It puts the game in front of everyone watching and tells them that it's a game that everyone else wants, and wants so badly they'll pay extreme amounts of money just to get their hands on the limited special print of it. It's an important title.
The goal isn't making a ton of money on a handful of LEs. The LE's exist to create this mess, to act as marketing. The game gains prestige, attention, cultural significance, and importance. Which drives up sales of regular and never to be unlimited full price digital copies. The idea of psychological exploitation for marketing purposes became so much worse after the rise of "social marketing" as an actual field.
The worst of it is Nintendo is really the origin of this idea. They've benefited from scarcity of their own errors on hardware in the past, then leaned into artificial scarcity to produce the same effect. And it unfortunately works. Now Sony's copying it.
@iLikeUrAttitude This. Nintendo, Sony, they know how this works. They print these FOR the scalpers. That's the target market. The goal is marketing. The scarcity and high demand commanding high prices for insanely limited versions that don't need to be limited elevates the perceived value of the games themselves in a way advertising never could. This isn't a corruption of the intent. This is the intent of these limited editions.
Even the money Jeff bezos makes is nothing compared to what is returned to investors/banks/traders. That's the weak link in our economic systems, not a handful of executives and celebrities.
I loved the first game, but the gameplay started getting stale by the end of the game and I was just trying to get through it at that point. If they can really shake it up and make it feel fresher longer, this one will be pretty special.
I'm in love with this game already from the demo. I was hyped anyway but it's, so far, everything I was hyped for Octopath being but was sadly disappointed it wasn't. So glad square gave me a demo to tide me over!
I won't think of it as a demo, I'll think of it as early access. I was between games at the moment, and ready for this one, but it's not out yet. The demo helps!
Though, based on how the game was kinda janky until X1X, I think the thing is just a mess that needs to be brute forced. Unless they've moved to a whole new engine, which is possible.
I have my doubts how well this will run on a Switch. Heck it ran kinda poorly on a non-Pro PS4, and still looked kinda dodgy on a Pro. But still kinda cool.
Anyone miss when |DIRECT| meant |DIRECTLY| to you. From Nintendo staff. Rather than a slick commercial |INDIRECTLY| from some third party ad firm that's clearly the same ad firm with the same squeaky announcer used by every other company now? I think all of this would be better with a more personal presentation. Bring back Trinen. Bring back Miyamoto. Heck, Xbox hired Reggie for their presentation last fall, why can't Nintendo?
@Slinkoy1 10 minutes MH, 15 minutes RE, 5 minutes montage including SFVI showing only Guile. That was depressing.
@IronMan30 I think it's the fact that it's a "mini direct" partner showcase, instead of just a DIRECT that includes both 3rd parties and updates. Like we'd normally get in June.
It's just a sucky format. A tiny direct for 3rd parties. A single game direct for XC. All spread out. I miss one presentation for everything, then live gameplay deep dives with Treehouse. That format worked.
I swear kids today are more prepped for a Ron Popeil infomercial than their grandparents were....
“in the past, I didn’t play many video games [...] nowadays, I actually play a lot of overseas titles. [Far Cry series, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim] [...] while playing those games, I do find some ideas, but it’s not that it connects directly to Zelda to where I would take something and use it in Zelda, but it’s more of something I keep in the back of my head while developing the game.” -Eiji Aonuma
We can definitely see the Halo influence in Metroid Prime 4, very strongly. It's been 5 years, there's no game, and there's no word of the game other than that development restarted at least once. It's as though 343i is working on it themselves!
@rockodoodle @KindofaBigDeal Someone on Push once told me that the reason GTAV sells so much has something to do with the bundled digital currency being cheaper when the game goes on sale than buying Shark Cards, so people keep buying "new" copies of the game on sale just to get the digital currency for cheaper than buying it alone.
The world is upside-down when a Musou game tops the charts. I don't hate them, but definitely see them as filler more than anything. As long as it's better than AoC though... That really was one of the worst Musou games I've played.
At least this year the Musou is just mixed between actual major releases rather than the main offering of the year like last time!
@Itachi2099 A new hero character with accompanying quests is part of the main campaign by definition. Do you expect this new hero just has an island off the main game all to themselves and never interacts with the other characters during the quest?
Speaking of reading comprehention, did I ever say anything about it being cut from the main game?
I'll spare you the time: No, I did not.
What I did say, is the game is not complete until that content is delivered since that content will be integrated into the main game. December aside, the April release leaves no question about that.
You're being very defensive and argumentative about a plainly stated detail. Bottom line is an RPG is an investment in time. If it's a series you know you like, why would you spend all that time playing the incomplete version of the game when you know the remaining content will arrive later for a more complete experience? We can speculate all we want for the next year and a half about what may or may not be coming. But that's the entire point I'm making. We now will not know what content will coming and how it does (or doesn't) slot into the main campaign for another year and a half. We can't know that answer without waiting a year and a half. And anyone that wants to experience the entire world and story as the creators envision it will have to wait that year, year and a half, to know if that December content is, or is not slotted into the main game or stands aside it.
It's kind of like announcing the Director's Cut of a movie before the original movie hits theaters. Why see the theatrical cut first when you know next year you can see the movie the director actually wanted to make?
@rjejr "Game monetization innovation" is supposed to be a trade of value for money. Like subscriptions that offer smorgasboard gaming for a fixed fee. Streaming that cuts out the up front cost. F2P that cuts out the up front cost and/or makes content more optional.
Being against "gouging for more money" isn't age dependent.
IDK, people seem to literally not get that "more content is being added to the MAIN game in april 23" means that not all of the game's main content will be available before april 23.
If the December 23 content is truly separate content, then $30 is a good value. But....why are people assuming that's what they're getting a year and a half before it's offered? Why not just, you know, wait to find out if that's true? Why do people love paying up-front money based on an assumption of what will be delivered a year and a half later rather than paying for something once they know what they're buying? Maybe that's age dependent. We assumed FF7R was an actual remake, because we were told it was an actual remake, until it actually arrived.... We assumed FFXV Complete Edition was...y'know....complete.....
@HeadPirate I get what you're describing, and I know that, I agree with it, and I love it. And that goes with the social culture. But the limited edition/gatcha mobile consumer culture has been taking over in the digital space there, and bleeding into how the companies (that, like Square target really the west more than Japan, I knkow that doesn't apply to Nintendo), use to sqeeuze blood from stones.)
Believe me, I'd swap most of our corporate culture for Japans in a heartbeat...but there's has been changing to match ours, and mix that trust with our greed at a very rapid pace. It's westernizing in all the wrong ways. Surely you've noticed that there?
@Itachi2099 The DLC list very specifically says main-game story content quests will not be in-game until April. There's no other argument outside that, even if we don't talk about the December release that you and I are BOTH making assumptions about, we know with CERTAINTY the April update gates main-campaign content. Period. Semantics of removed or not don't matter, they are quests, for the main game, that will not be in-game until next April. Source: Nintendo.
@UsurperKing Some of it may be optics. To me if a game releases, and sometime later, they say "we're adding more stuff to it" it seems superfluous and skippable unless you're hardcore into endlessly replaying that game and want new stuff.
If they announce it before launch, it tells me "not all of the planned story is included, it'll be patched in later and for more money." It's like having a "Deluxe Edition" at launch for more of the content, but on a delay.
A total extended content addon is one thing (Torna), and is definitely a plus. But we know that's not all of what this is, at least to April, even if December is exactly that.
@HeadPirate No, thus my statement about (people outside Japan) being expected to join the fun of the exploitative consumer culture Japan has recently embraced. (Specifically the consumer culture, not talking about social culture.)
@HeadPirate I love Japanese games, and Japanese social culture, but, holding up the consumer culture that celebrates mobile gatcha more than any other place as a welcome example isn't really high praise for a given business model just because Japan rewards it. As a consumer culture, Japan's market has become self-abusive and now we're told to join the fun.
@UsurperKing I'm saying XC3 is an incomplete game without it's total story content included. That's really just a fact. The game will have more of its STORY and character content, at a minimum, April 23 that it will not have if you play it in August 22.
Now Torna was a complete prequel, and the main story was not affected by it. However, with this DLC we already know for certain the April release DOES affect the main campaign story, and we do NOT know if the December story add-on affects the main story or acts as a stand-alone prequel or sequel.
When we look at JRPGs as a whole, Torna is ENTIRELY unique, and I can't think of another similar situation where a story DLC turned out to be a completely stand-alone separate game set in a different time with different characters that adds to the universe and not the campaign. When we look at DQ, FF, Persona, etc we see the DLC content is part of the actual campaign. Meaning if you play through it , without that content, you're missing part of the main game versus if you just wait to play it until it's all released.
If in the end, it turns out to be a total standalone story that does not affect the main game, then the December release may well be worth it separately without waiting for it to play. Heck, I may be thrilled with it. But the April release (new hero, new quests) is, at a minimum, essential content to have a complete playthrough experience. And we won't know about the December release until then.
What we do know is that anyone buying the game now is missing the complete experience, for sure. Anyone that buys the game after April may be getting the full experience, but also may not depending on what December offers. Anyone that buys after December '23 gets the full game experience. So why spend 40-120 hours getting an incomplete experience when you could just wait and not waste the time?
Now if they announced a sequel/prequel/side/stand-alone story campaign for 12/23 that would be great rather than just "story content." But players really still ought to wait until 04/23 to buy.
People may rightly criticize my by saying I'm making an assumption that the story content won't be stand alone like Torna, but they're also making the assumption that just because Torna exists, the next story DLC will be exactly the same scenario when there's more examples to suggest it won't.
What we all DO know with absolute certainty is you won't be able to play the full story campaign of the game until 04/23. The DLC list explicitly says so. And what we DO know is we won't know if the same is true regarding the 12/23 DLC until closer to 12/23 when they reveal details. Why pay full price to play an incomplete game when waiting, even at full price gives the complete game?
@Grumblevolcano Yes, I know that, but my point is a full priced remaster includes DLCs, normally, so having new content in a full price remaster shouldn't be considered "if it were any more we'd have to charge more!" That's just Nintendo accounting logic...
I still think it's wishful thinking to believe "Monolith said they're making more story DLC in a year if we pay them for it now, so therefore they're making a massive story based add-on single player game!" If they do it, that's great. We'll know next-next-Christmas. If it's truly a great stand alone RPG like Torna I'll gladly pay $30-40 for it in 2024. But if it's extra quests/characters/post-game content for the main game, if I pay for it now I'll play the game now and never end up seeing this "added content", or I could buy the game once all of the content exists. I have no qualms about full sized new games coming later. But I REALLY doubt modern Nintendo will give us a full-sized Torna-scale totally new RPG for a mere $30 paid in advance. And, since you're the one who keeps saying new hardware will be out by then, do you really think the remastered definitive edition won't be out by then anyway?
@Itachi2099 At this point I'm convinced you're not even reading what I'm saying.
@Grumblevolcano Future connected was pretty small. Torna was a full sized game, simply smaller than a full Xenoblade or Legend of Heroes game. I'm not sure how some are assuming that the new game's story DLC is going to be a Torna-sized full game experience, just because they did that that one time, and they said Future Connected would have to be DLC if it were longer. Moreover, that's kind of insane since FC was already part of a remaster that by definition includes prior DLCs.
If it really ends up being a huge full sized RPG experience like Torna, it's worth the money....but....we won't know that for another year and a half....which goes back to my original comment that they're basically telling us to ignore XC3 until 2024.
Edit: At which point you can probably buy the whole XC3 collection for $69.99 as a remaster on Switch 2 and anyone that buys it now gets stuck holding the bag and asked to double dip for the full experience.
@mazzel I mean, technically DQXI on PS4/3DS was a "complete game" without the Definitive Edition that added the real music and rest of the character quests, but realistically anyone that bought it before it was completed was missing out. Same for P5 before Royal, and FFXV before...well...Royal. Seems to be the new JRPG trend to sell the game, then sell the rest of the game later, though at least in this case it's just DLC and not a total re-sale of the same game.
@Itachi2099 Torna did get included in the DLC season pass, but it is, otherwise, its own game. Maybe they really do that with this expansion pass, but I think that was more of an accident where intended DLC ballooned into a full game , and spreading out the content this time suggests they don't intend to do that again.
@rjejr @UltimateOtaku91 @Silly_G Saw your posts after I posted mine. Totally agree. They basically announced that August is early access, the full game is December 2023. No wonder they released it early. It's like FFXV all over again.
My hype just dissolved entirely. Sony's gone full Nintendo, and Nintendo's gone full Square.
@Browny Torna truly is a separate game that's a full-on prequel. It's not as big as the main game, but it sold for less money than a full price game and still has enough content to be a full sized RPG. I don't mind them releasing prequel games like that, but if it's just DLC content that arrives a year and a half later....that's a different thing. Deifinitely more than add-on content, it's a total new game with new locations, characters, gameplay mechanics, etc. Just smaller than the base game. If you liked the main game and wanted to know more about the events of Adam & Mythra's past, and a combat system that's IMO improved, it's absolutely worthwhile. It's not an expansion, it really is a complete game in the XC2 universe, just not as massive (or maybe more to the point, doesn't waste as much of your time) as the main game.
If the "new story scenario" doesn't land until December 2023, are they basically telling me to just ignore XC3 until 2024?
Is this really where we are as an industry? Buy now to play part of the game, or play all of it 1.5 years later? Because if I buy it and playing it now, there's no chance I got back to it in 1.5 years and I just miss the content.
@kkslider5552000 LOL, fair enough. Though I still say AoC was just....if it wasn't Zelda skinned and was the newest Dynasty Warriors game, it would have received relentless backlash. It gets a free pass because "ZOMGZELDA!"
And FEW1 really was a superior Musou entry. Hopefully this one does follow in the path of FEW1 and not AoC....
Though I also admit I think I would have enjoyed AoC more if it didn't have insufferable pop-in and 15fps slideshows. I'm sure this game shares the pop-in, but maybe they got it above slideshows. Musou is about flow...and AoC was a choppy experience all the way.
@kkslider5552000 AoC was the opposite of awesome. As a Musou game it was just poor. Like I said, even compared to Hyrule Warriors and FE Warriors, it was a big step back. Flat, empty environments, weird forced scripted moments that seldom varied from "endure the waves", terrible performance with terrible draw distance with terrible pop-in with few enemies on screen at once (which....is the point of a Musou game), VERY awkward and clunky on-rails divine beast segments. The only thing it had going for it was they spent too much focus on move sets for the hero characters like it's a fighting game, and forgot to give them a map control game worth using them in. The whole thing felt like a rush job to have a game to sell for the holiday.
I may be burned out on Musou and Nintendo collab Musou, but of all the Musou games I've played, both Nintendo and core series, that one is easily the worst to the point that it degrades the franchise. It had cool stuff for BotW fans, but other than that it was a terrible Musou. And even for BotW fans it's an alternate timeline maybe-not-canon kind of throw-away affair.
If this game brings back strategic use of the map and map control the first one had, and, really, most Musou has rather than just ping ponging between bases to mash combos to reclaim them, it's definitely a better game. I'm just not sure after how jaded I am from AoC if I can get myself to try it. It's like reaching for the milk after having last had spoiled milk. That flavor comes back to you every time you think of having milk again.
@shgamer Oh, I was remembering the numbers being for the latest title, not the whole series. Yeah, it's kind of dire, but still definitely has a dedicated market niche.
I really dislike that Calamity sold well. The game was mediocre-to-poor, and without the BotW skin it would have been panned and made Koei a laughing stock. It reminds me of the old EA movie-licensed games that were always bare bones and bland but sold well because the movie is popular. Even if not a Musou fan, that was just substandard both for Musou, and other Nintendo collabs like the FE collabs. I think had that not existed, given the original FEW was pretty good I'd actually have had some hype for this, but I have such a bad taste in my mouth for the whole concept after that.
@dBackLash There's definitely a Musou audience. The core series, Dynasty and Samurai Warriors tend to sell 4-8 million. It's not exactly Smash, but it has a solid, if slightly niche market. The Nintendo branded ones obviously sell better..... so it's a mix of Musou fans, mixed with brand recognition. Unfortunately the one problem is Nintendo is literally the worst platform to play Musou on since the whole point of it it is an endless ocean of AI characters to slash through, so Nintendo's stalwart spinoff series is kind of the worst choice for them when it's a series where power consoles really are beneficial for gameplay/environment reasons more than just graphics.
FEW1 was actually one of the better Musou games, despite that, IMO. Age of Calamity was simply awful. I don't care how anyone deceives themselves, people bought it because they wanted the prequel anime to BotW, not because they thought it was a good Musou entry. The limited characters and draw distance made it barely Musou even for solid Musou fans, and don't get me started on the divine salamander tank mission that would have been a meme were it on PS2 let alone Switch. That game was like 8 steps back from the pretty good FE Warriors 1, or even the good-for-its-time Hyrule Warriors 1.
Pretty mixed on this. At this point if I never see another Musou again it'll be far too soon. Nintendo's rode this as a spinoff for everything for far too long, then add in Persona and it all just feels like the same game. OTOH, FEW was the best of the ones so far that felt somewhat more like it's own game universe. OTOOH I thought Calamity warriors was obnoxiously awful filler that was almost offensive and it's turned me off the whole franchise.
@IronMan30 It's not like Sony's measurably better at communication though. Actually, with what Sony tends to communicate, they might actually do better not communicating at all, like Nintendo.
I think many are kind of right in how Nintendo used to work in thinking "Switch 2" is going to be a completely different type of console rather than just a more powerful Switch. However, one factor that people aren't thinking about is that Iwata is gone. The out of left field ideas as a business approach came about because of the kind of creative mad professor Iwata was. But Furukawa is a traditional accounting-focused business executive, not a left-field visionary. He's the type more likely to just double down on what works like a traditional company and not reach for the brass ring even if it means imploding like Iwata. Iwata was high-risk, high-reward. DS, Wii, Switch were all high risk departures that were high-reward. WiiU, 3DS at first, were not. Furukawa doesn't strike me as a high-risk guy. The era of Nintendo going crazy in their designs might have ended with Iwata, and even his last console is the very traditional Switch.
In Yamauchi's day, also a conservative businessman, they just went the more power route. NES to SNES, to Nintendo Play Station, to N64, to GCN. And it was a losing, but predictable, progression.
I think a more powerful Switch 2 would be successful, but it wouldn't be that catapult to 1st place Switch 1 was. Switch 1 offered a revolution. The same thing but with more rendering power won't really spur mass adoption like Switch did. But...how can they come up with the next big thing that fills a niche nobody knew they needed? A more powerful Switch 2 is what most of us want, but a new more powerful Gameboy that also docks but is less powerful than a PS5/XSXS isn't going to capture the masses the way the portable console idea did. How can they make it interesting to capture the masses? IDK. Otherwise I'd be working for Nintendo I guess.
Comments 8,869
Re: Reggie Explains Why The Nintendo Wii U Didn't Utilise Dual GamePad Support
@Atariboy I bet he's pretty eireate about that....
Re: Devon Pritchard Becomes Nintendo Of America's Newest Executive
@johnvboy Will it announce switch pro? Or 2? Or a phone case that counts as new hardware?
Re: Devon Pritchard Becomes Nintendo Of America's Newest Executive
@johnvboy You were right at least one of the last three times you leaked that a Direct would be arriving "someday", so that definitely makes you one of the reliable insiders!
Re: Devon Pritchard Becomes Nintendo Of America's Newest Executive
Wait, Nintendo has communications?
Re: GameStop Staff Layoffs Are Announced As Chief Financial Officer Leaves
Like many others I loved Software, etc. Babbages. EB. They all had a professional/library-like atmosphere that made it feel like you were buying pricy software from a professional store. Once GameStop (nee Barnes & Noble) bought it all out it felt like a cheap venture targeting teens. I bought all the time until, like others said, they started opening new games. I argued with them about that more than once, then just walked across the parking lot to Best Buy and bought a new copy... For less money. From a larger inventory. So much for loyalty.
They have, or have had their purpose, and the stores sometimes have been fun to wander in, but they really stopped providing a purpose for going there. The only thing I buy there now is Game Informer. The last print mag around.
Re: E3 2023 Will Be "A Return To Form", Promises New Production Company
There's only been 2 years without an E3. 2020 which saw a massive artificial boom in the industry due to lockdowns, and 2022 which is seeing a downturn in the industry due to recession/inflation along with reduced releases outside Switch.
I'm not sure that the irrelevance of E3 is something that the past 3 Junes could actually provide conclusions on. And I'm not sure developers preferring to release things whatever, whenever, is what the marketing and business people want. There's still the value of having large media attention during E3, versus trickle down messaging from scattered direct events that reach only the hardcore faithful. It's not about if it's "necessary" or "relevant" so much as if it has "value." There's no question that companies that do participate have a microphone that companies that don't will not have. Sony's been in a position to ignore that. But there also seems to be politics between them and ESA leadership at play as well. Hopefully the new organizers can manage it without dropping the ball. Keighley had his chance, but he didn't do much with it.
Re: Nintendo Supply Chain Disruptions See Switch Sales Fall By 33% In Japan
@johnvboy mostly animal crossing, true...
Re: Nintendo Supply Chain Disruptions See Switch Sales Fall By 33% In Japan
@johnvboy Haha, we disagree on Nintendo matters often...but...maybe not 90% of the time
Re: Nintendo Supply Chain Disruptions See Switch Sales Fall By 33% In Japan
@johnvboy Yeah, I mean there's a certain pragmatism to believing they'd try to avoid a Wii situation where they waited too long to bring out a successor, and sales were already sharply downward by then. There's a fine line to cannibalizing existing sales, And lingering too long until your sales slump. But they're already not filling current demand....why replace that in an environment where it's costly and problematic to do so? It wouldn't make sense.
Re: Nintendo Supply Chain Disruptions See Switch Sales Fall By 33% In Japan
@johnvboy We disagree 90% of the time on all things Nintendo, but.....yeah, I'm with you on this one. Why people thing Switch 2 is coming soon when there's no chips to be had and Nintendo can't even make what they have is puzzling to say the least.
Though if any mfr WERE to try to launch a new product while it's impossible to make them, it would be Nintendo...
Can you imagine preorders given Nintendo's usual inability to make a reasonable launch quantity combined with the chip shortage? It's been 2 years and people still can't get PS5/XSX that want one. It was 2.5 years before people could reasonably get a Wii with no chip shortage. If Switch 2 launched in 2023, most people couldn't get one until 2027....and it's not even an exaggeration!
Re: Nintendo Sets Switch Trailers To Private, But It's "Most Likely Nothing"
This proves the GoW Ragnarok announcement date was delayed because of Half Life Alyx on Labo VR Pro!
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Re: Shuntaro Furukawa Reveals What Nintendo Is Doing To Combat Info Leaks & Security Threats
Bill Gates had it right in the 90's. "If you want to be safe on the internet, unplug the ethernet cable."
@SwitchplayerJohn Actually the financial sector relies on fax primarily due to it's relative security. Ever wonder why lending/fraud departments at a bank always wants you to fax things, and will accept nothing else? Ironically being "backward" is actually being "forward" in the security realm.
Re: Scalpers Set Their Sights On Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Special Edition
@Pakmo Are we talking about hardware shortages due to supply issues? No. We're talking about collectors editions of games and merchandise.
Re: Scalpers Set Their Sights On Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Special Edition
@MasterHoover That's exactly it. If it was about them making money from the CE, they would print as many as it takes to meet demand within that window. They'd take preorders and print them all so that if every single copy of the game is sold as a CE for more money if people want it so much, they can make more money selling the more expensive version. But they don't.
Selling CEs at higher margin than the base game, is therefore not the goal of the CE. And fans that want it are not the target market for it existing. It's designed to stir up the collector/resale/"scalper" crowd. It creates a big noise, an air of high demand and high scarcity in socials. It's talked about everywhere how the CE is impossible to obtain, and how fast it vanished and how expensive it is. It puts the game in front of everyone watching and tells them that it's a game that everyone else wants, and wants so badly they'll pay extreme amounts of money just to get their hands on the limited special print of it. It's an important title.
The goal isn't making a ton of money on a handful of LEs. The LE's exist to create this mess, to act as marketing. The game gains prestige, attention, cultural significance, and importance. Which drives up sales of regular and never to be unlimited full price digital copies. The idea of psychological exploitation for marketing purposes became so much worse after the rise of "social marketing" as an actual field.
The worst of it is Nintendo is really the origin of this idea. They've benefited from scarcity of their own errors on hardware in the past, then leaned into artificial scarcity to produce the same effect. And it unfortunately works. Now Sony's copying it.
Re: Scalpers Set Their Sights On Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Special Edition
@iLikeUrAttitude This. Nintendo, Sony, they know how this works. They print these FOR the scalpers. That's the target market. The goal is marketing. The scarcity and high demand commanding high prices for insanely limited versions that don't need to be limited elevates the perceived value of the games themselves in a way advertising never could. This isn't a corruption of the intent. This is the intent of these limited editions.
Re: Here's How Much Nintendo's Directors Made This Year
Even the money Jeff bezos makes is nothing compared to what is returned to investors/banks/traders. That's the weak link in our economic systems, not a handful of executives and celebrities.
Re: Undertale Creator Toby Fox Explains How EarthBound's Fans Kept The Game Alive
If all the world is a stage, then the internet must be a video game, and it's population mere characters from Mother 3.
Re: Feature: Mario + Rabbids Producer Talks Free Movement And Fusing Lumas, Rabbids, And Composers
They had me at Shimamura.
I loved the first game, but the gameplay started getting stale by the end of the game and I was just trying to get through it at that point. If they can really shake it up and make it feel fresher longer, this one will be pretty special.
Re: Live A Live Demo Arrives Today, Save Data Transferrable
I'm in love with this game already from the demo. I was hyped anyway but it's, so far, everything I was hyped for Octopath being but was sadly disappointed it wasn't. So glad square gave me a demo to tide me over!
Re: Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, And Persona 5 Royal Are Coming To Switch
@JasmineDragon Soul Hackers 2!
Re: Live A Live To Get Demo Later Today, Save Data Transferrable
I won't think of it as a demo, I'll think of it as early access. I was between games at the moment, and ready for this one, but it's not out yet. The demo helps!
Re: NieR: Automata Confirmed For Switch, Coming This October
@Ralizah LOL, that would be hilarious actually.
Though, based on how the game was kinda janky until X1X, I think the thing is just a mess that needs to be brute forced. Unless they've moved to a whole new engine, which is possible.
Re: NieR: Automata Confirmed For Switch, Coming This October
I have my doubts how well this will run on a Switch. Heck it ran kinda poorly on a non-Pro PS4, and still looked kinda dodgy on a Pro. But still kinda cool.
Re: Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, And Persona 5 Royal Are Coming To Switch
LOL, FINALLY. I was all set to get them on XB, but....these really need to be on Switch.
Wierd that Soul Hackers 2 isn't on Switch, it really ought to have been, but I'll take it. These need to be handheld.
Re: Nintendo Direct Mini To Air Tomorrow, June 28
Anyone miss when |DIRECT| meant |DIRECTLY| to you. From Nintendo staff. Rather than a slick commercial |INDIRECTLY| from some third party ad firm that's clearly the same ad firm with the same squeaky announcer used by every other company now? I think all of this would be better with a more personal presentation. Bring back Trinen. Bring back Miyamoto. Heck, Xbox hired Reggie for their presentation last fall, why can't Nintendo?
@Slinkoy1 10 minutes MH, 15 minutes RE, 5 minutes montage including SFVI showing only Guile. That was depressing.
Re: Nintendo Direct Mini To Air Tomorrow, June 28
@IronMan30 I think it's the fact that it's a "mini direct" partner showcase, instead of just a DIRECT that includes both 3rd parties and updates. Like we'd normally get in June.
It's just a sucky format. A tiny direct for 3rd parties. A single game direct for XC. All spread out. I miss one presentation for everything, then live gameplay deep dives with Treehouse. That format worked.
I swear kids today are more prepped for a Ron Popeil infomercial than their grandparents were....
Re: Nintendo Direct Mini To Air Tomorrow, June 28
Wow, so this is the infamous late June 6/27-ish Direct we heard about? A partners showcase mini?
Ouch. I used to be a Nintendo fan but then I took an arrow to the knee.
So Sony employee got the date right, but the content is lamer than anticipated.
#NintendoE3
Re: 'Worth Life' From Rune Factory Producer Hits Switch Next Month
Despite the 10fps mess of Rune Factory 5, I trust the creators of RF to know how to make a compelling game. But....this looks....rough....
How are the reviews in Japan?
Re: Random: Retro Studios Clashed With Metroid Producer On Halo Influences
LOL, Meanwhile in Kyoto:
“in the past, I didn’t play many video games [...] nowadays, I actually play a lot of overseas titles. [Far Cry series, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim] [...] while playing those games, I do find some ideas, but it’s not that it connects directly to Zelda to where I would take something and use it in Zelda, but it’s more of something I keep in the back of my head while developing the game.”
-Eiji Aonuma
We can definitely see the Halo influence in Metroid Prime 4, very strongly. It's been 5 years, there's no game, and there's no word of the game other than that development restarted at least once. It's as though 343i is working on it themselves!
Re: UK Charts: Nintendo Dominates As Fire Emblem Takes The Top Spot
@rockodoodle @KindofaBigDeal Someone on Push once told me that the reason GTAV sells so much has something to do with the bundled digital currency being cheaper when the game goes on sale than buying Shark Cards, so people keep buying "new" copies of the game on sale just to get the digital currency for cheaper than buying it alone.
Which both makes sense, and is very very sad.
Re: UK Charts: Nintendo Dominates As Fire Emblem Takes The Top Spot
The world is upside-down when a Musou game tops the charts. I don't hate them, but definitely see them as filler more than anything. As long as it's better than AoC though... That really was one of the worst Musou games I've played.
At least this year the Musou is just mixed between actual major releases rather than the main offering of the year like last time!
Re: Sega Announces A USB Cyber Stick Controller For The Mega Drive Mini 2
This thing will sell out fast. No more than 5 people will use it with the Mini. Thousands will use it with PC.
2022 and we're getting new Sega accessories. My 1995 self will be very happy to know that.
Re: Yuji Naka Is Shocked That Michael Jackson's Music Is Missing In Sonic Origins
This..... This is beautiful... I think after his dealings with Square, Naka now just wants the world to burn. He's dangerous.
And the new music is just bad. You know it. It's bad.
I think I own the older 360 ports on XB. Hopefully I still have the original tracks in there. The music was a big part of the game.
Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 To Get An Expansion Pass Including New Story Content
@Itachi2099 A new hero character with accompanying quests is part of the main campaign by definition. Do you expect this new hero just has an island off the main game all to themselves and never interacts with the other characters during the quest?
Speaking of reading comprehention, did I ever say anything about it being cut from the main game?
I'll spare you the time: No, I did not.
What I did say, is the game is not complete until that content is delivered since that content will be integrated into the main game. December aside, the April release leaves no question about that.
You're being very defensive and argumentative about a plainly stated detail. Bottom line is an RPG is an investment in time. If it's a series you know you like, why would you spend all that time playing the incomplete version of the game when you know the remaining content will arrive later for a more complete experience? We can speculate all we want for the next year and a half about what may or may not be coming. But that's the entire point I'm making. We now will not know what content will coming and how it does (or doesn't) slot into the main campaign for another year and a half. We can't know that answer without waiting a year and a half. And anyone that wants to experience the entire world and story as the creators envision it will have to wait that year, year and a half, to know if that December content is, or is not slotted into the main game or stands aside it.
It's kind of like announcing the Director's Cut of a movie before the original movie hits theaters. Why see the theatrical cut first when you know next year you can see the movie the director actually wanted to make?
@rjejr "Game monetization innovation" is supposed to be a trade of value for money. Like subscriptions that offer smorgasboard gaming for a fixed fee. Streaming that cuts out the up front cost. F2P that cuts out the up front cost and/or makes content more optional.
Being against "gouging for more money" isn't age dependent.
IDK, people seem to literally not get that "more content is being added to the MAIN game in april 23" means that not all of the game's main content will be available before april 23.
If the December 23 content is truly separate content, then $30 is a good value. But....why are people assuming that's what they're getting a year and a half before it's offered? Why not just, you know, wait to find out if that's true? Why do people love paying up-front money based on an assumption of what will be delivered a year and a half later rather than paying for something once they know what they're buying? Maybe that's age dependent. We assumed FF7R was an actual remake, because we were told it was an actual remake, until it actually arrived.... We assumed FFXV Complete Edition was...y'know....complete.....
Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 To Get An Expansion Pass Including New Story Content
@HeadPirate I get what you're describing, and I know that, I agree with it, and I love it. And that goes with the social culture. But the limited edition/gatcha mobile consumer culture has been taking over in the digital space there, and bleeding into how the companies (that, like Square target really the west more than Japan, I knkow that doesn't apply to Nintendo), use to sqeeuze blood from stones.)
Believe me, I'd swap most of our corporate culture for Japans in a heartbeat...but there's has been changing to match ours, and mix that trust with our greed at a very rapid pace. It's westernizing in all the wrong ways. Surely you've noticed that there?
@Itachi2099 The DLC list very specifically says main-game story content quests will not be in-game until April. There's no other argument outside that, even if we don't talk about the December release that you and I are BOTH making assumptions about, we know with CERTAINTY the April update gates main-campaign content. Period. Semantics of removed or not don't matter, they are quests, for the main game, that will not be in-game until next April. Source: Nintendo.
@UsurperKing Some of it may be optics. To me if a game releases, and sometime later, they say "we're adding more stuff to it" it seems superfluous and skippable unless you're hardcore into endlessly replaying that game and want new stuff.
If they announce it before launch, it tells me "not all of the planned story is included, it'll be patched in later and for more money." It's like having a "Deluxe Edition" at launch for more of the content, but on a delay.
A total extended content addon is one thing (Torna), and is definitely a plus. But we know that's not all of what this is, at least to April, even if December is exactly that.
Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 To Get An Expansion Pass Including New Story Content
@HeadPirate No, thus my statement about (people outside Japan) being expected to join the fun of the exploitative consumer culture Japan has recently embraced. (Specifically the consumer culture, not talking about social culture.)
Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 To Get An Expansion Pass Including New Story Content
@HeadPirate I love Japanese games, and Japanese social culture, but, holding up the consumer culture that celebrates mobile gatcha more than any other place as a welcome example isn't really high praise for a given business model just because Japan rewards it. As a consumer culture, Japan's market has become self-abusive and now we're told to join the fun.
@UsurperKing I'm saying XC3 is an incomplete game without it's total story content included. That's really just a fact. The game will have more of its STORY and character content, at a minimum, April 23 that it will not have if you play it in August 22.
Now Torna was a complete prequel, and the main story was not affected by it. However, with this DLC we already know for certain the April release DOES affect the main campaign story, and we do NOT know if the December story add-on affects the main story or acts as a stand-alone prequel or sequel.
When we look at JRPGs as a whole, Torna is ENTIRELY unique, and I can't think of another similar situation where a story DLC turned out to be a completely stand-alone separate game set in a different time with different characters that adds to the universe and not the campaign. When we look at DQ, FF, Persona, etc we see the DLC content is part of the actual campaign. Meaning if you play through it , without that content, you're missing part of the main game versus if you just wait to play it until it's all released.
If in the end, it turns out to be a total standalone story that does not affect the main game, then the December release may well be worth it separately without waiting for it to play. Heck, I may be thrilled with it. But the April release (new hero, new quests) is, at a minimum, essential content to have a complete playthrough experience. And we won't know about the December release until then.
What we do know is that anyone buying the game now is missing the complete experience, for sure. Anyone that buys the game after April may be getting the full experience, but also may not depending on what December offers. Anyone that buys after December '23 gets the full game experience. So why spend 40-120 hours getting an incomplete experience when you could just wait and not waste the time?
Now if they announced a sequel/prequel/side/stand-alone story campaign for 12/23 that would be great rather than just "story content." But players really still ought to wait until 04/23 to buy.
People may rightly criticize my by saying I'm making an assumption that the story content won't be stand alone like Torna, but they're also making the assumption that just because Torna exists, the next story DLC will be exactly the same scenario when there's more examples to suggest it won't.
What we all DO know with absolute certainty is you won't be able to play the full story campaign of the game until 04/23. The DLC list explicitly says so. And what we DO know is we won't know if the same is true regarding the 12/23 DLC until closer to 12/23 when they reveal details.
Why pay full price to play an incomplete game when waiting, even at full price gives the complete game?
Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 To Get An Expansion Pass Including New Story Content
@Grumblevolcano Yes, I know that, but my point is a full priced remaster includes DLCs, normally, so having new content in a full price remaster shouldn't be considered "if it were any more we'd have to charge more!" That's just Nintendo accounting logic...
I still think it's wishful thinking to believe "Monolith said they're making more story DLC in a year if we pay them for it now, so therefore they're making a massive story based add-on single player game!" If they do it, that's great. We'll know next-next-Christmas. If it's truly a great stand alone RPG like Torna I'll gladly pay $30-40 for it in 2024. But if it's extra quests/characters/post-game content for the main game, if I pay for it now I'll play the game now and never end up seeing this "added content", or I could buy the game once all of the content exists. I have no qualms about full sized new games coming later. But I REALLY doubt modern Nintendo will give us a full-sized Torna-scale totally new RPG for a mere $30 paid in advance. And, since you're the one who keeps saying new hardware will be out by then, do you really think the remastered definitive edition won't be out by then anyway?
Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 To Get An Expansion Pass Including New Story Content
@Itachi2099 At this point I'm convinced you're not even reading what I'm saying.
@Grumblevolcano Future connected was pretty small. Torna was a full sized game, simply smaller than a full Xenoblade or Legend of Heroes game. I'm not sure how some are assuming that the new game's story DLC is going to be a Torna-sized full game experience, just because they did that that one time, and they said Future Connected would have to be DLC if it were longer. Moreover, that's kind of insane since FC was already part of a remaster that by definition includes prior DLCs.
If it really ends up being a huge full sized RPG experience like Torna, it's worth the money....but....we won't know that for another year and a half....which goes back to my original comment that they're basically telling us to ignore XC3 until 2024.
Edit: At which point you can probably buy the whole XC3 collection for $69.99 as a remaster on Switch 2 and anyone that buys it now gets stuck holding the bag and asked to double dip for the full experience.
Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 To Get An Expansion Pass Including New Story Content
@mazzel I mean, technically DQXI on PS4/3DS was a "complete game" without the Definitive Edition that added the real music and rest of the character quests, but realistically anyone that bought it before it was completed was missing out. Same for P5 before Royal, and FFXV before...well...Royal. Seems to be the new JRPG trend to sell the game, then sell the rest of the game later, though at least in this case it's just DLC and not a total re-sale of the same game.
@Itachi2099 Torna did get included in the DLC season pass, but it is, otherwise, its own game. Maybe they really do that with this expansion pass, but I think that was more of an accident where intended DLC ballooned into a full game , and spreading out the content this time suggests they don't intend to do that again.
Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 To Get An Expansion Pass Including New Story Content
@rjejr @UltimateOtaku91 @Silly_G Saw your posts after I posted mine. Totally agree. They basically announced that August is early access, the full game is December 2023. No wonder they released it early. It's like FFXV all over again.
My hype just dissolved entirely. Sony's gone full Nintendo, and Nintendo's gone full Square.
@Browny Torna truly is a separate game that's a full-on prequel. It's not as big as the main game, but it sold for less money than a full price game and still has enough content to be a full sized RPG. I don't mind them releasing prequel games like that, but if it's just DLC content that arrives a year and a half later....that's a different thing. Deifinitely more than add-on content, it's a total new game with new locations, characters, gameplay mechanics, etc. Just smaller than the base game. If you liked the main game and wanted to know more about the events of Adam & Mythra's past, and a combat system that's IMO improved, it's absolutely worthwhile. It's not an expansion, it really is a complete game in the XC2 universe, just not as massive (or maybe more to the point, doesn't waste as much of your time) as the main game.
Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 To Get An Expansion Pass Including New Story Content
If the "new story scenario" doesn't land until December 2023, are they basically telling me to just ignore XC3 until 2024?
Is this really where we are as an industry? Buy now to play part of the game, or play all of it 1.5 years later? Because if I buy it and playing it now, there's no chance I got back to it in 1.5 years and I just miss the content.
Re: Review: Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes - Musou Magic That Ranks Among The Best
@kkslider5552000 LOL, fair enough. Though I still say AoC was just....if it wasn't Zelda skinned and was the newest Dynasty Warriors game, it would have received relentless backlash. It gets a free pass because "ZOMGZELDA!"
And FEW1 really was a superior Musou entry. Hopefully this one does follow in the path of FEW1 and not AoC....
Though I also admit I think I would have enjoyed AoC more if it didn't have insufferable pop-in and 15fps slideshows. I'm sure this game shares the pop-in, but maybe they got it above slideshows. Musou is about flow...and AoC was a choppy experience all the way.
Re: Review: Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes - Musou Magic That Ranks Among The Best
@kkslider5552000 AoC was the opposite of awesome. As a Musou game it was just poor. Like I said, even compared to Hyrule Warriors and FE Warriors, it was a big step back. Flat, empty environments, weird forced scripted moments that seldom varied from "endure the waves", terrible performance with terrible draw distance with terrible pop-in with few enemies on screen at once (which....is the point of a Musou game), VERY awkward and clunky on-rails divine beast segments. The only thing it had going for it was they spent too much focus on move sets for the hero characters like it's a fighting game, and forgot to give them a map control game worth using them in. The whole thing felt like a rush job to have a game to sell for the holiday.
I may be burned out on Musou and Nintendo collab Musou, but of all the Musou games I've played, both Nintendo and core series, that one is easily the worst to the point that it degrades the franchise. It had cool stuff for BotW fans, but other than that it was a terrible Musou. And even for BotW fans it's an alternate timeline maybe-not-canon kind of throw-away affair.
If this game brings back strategic use of the map and map control the first one had, and, really, most Musou has rather than just ping ponging between bases to mash combos to reclaim them, it's definitely a better game. I'm just not sure after how jaded I am from AoC if I can get myself to try it. It's like reaching for the milk after having last had spoiled milk. That flavor comes back to you every time you think of having milk again.
Re: Review: Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes - Musou Magic That Ranks Among The Best
@shgamer Oh, I was remembering the numbers being for the latest title, not the whole series. Yeah, it's kind of dire, but still definitely has a dedicated market niche.
I really dislike that Calamity sold well. The game was mediocre-to-poor, and without the BotW skin it would have been panned and made Koei a laughing stock. It reminds me of the old EA movie-licensed games that were always bare bones and bland but sold well because the movie is popular. Even if not a Musou fan, that was just substandard both for Musou, and other Nintendo collabs like the FE collabs. I think had that not existed, given the original FEW was pretty good I'd actually have had some hype for this, but I have such a bad taste in my mouth for the whole concept after that.
Re: Review: Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes - Musou Magic That Ranks Among The Best
@dBackLash There's definitely a Musou audience. The core series, Dynasty and Samurai Warriors tend to sell 4-8 million. It's not exactly Smash, but it has a solid, if slightly niche market. The Nintendo branded ones obviously sell better..... so it's a mix of Musou fans, mixed with brand recognition. Unfortunately the one problem is Nintendo is literally the worst platform to play Musou on since the whole point of it it is an endless ocean of AI characters to slash through, so Nintendo's stalwart spinoff series is kind of the worst choice for them when it's a series where power consoles really are beneficial for gameplay/environment reasons more than just graphics.
FEW1 was actually one of the better Musou games, despite that, IMO. Age of Calamity was simply awful. I don't care how anyone deceives themselves, people bought it because they wanted the prequel anime to BotW, not because they thought it was a good Musou entry. The limited characters and draw distance made it barely Musou even for solid Musou fans, and don't get me started on the divine salamander tank mission that would have been a meme were it on PS2 let alone Switch. That game was like 8 steps back from the pretty good FE Warriors 1, or even the good-for-its-time Hyrule Warriors 1.
Re: Review: Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes - Musou Magic That Ranks Among The Best
Pretty mixed on this. At this point if I never see another Musou again it'll be far too soon. Nintendo's rode this as a spinoff for everything for far too long, then add in Persona and it all just feels like the same game. OTOH, FEW was the best of the ones so far that felt somewhat more like it's own game universe. OTOOH I thought Calamity warriors was obnoxiously awful filler that was almost offensive and it's turned me off the whole franchise.
Re: A Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Direct Will Be Airing This Wednesday
#NintendoE3 lol
Re: Video: We Haven't Had A Nintendo Direct Yet, But That's Fine
@IronMan30 It's not like Sony's measurably better at communication though. Actually, with what Sony tends to communicate, they might actually do better not communicating at all, like Nintendo.
Re: Reggie: Nintendo's Transition From Switch Will Be A "Significant Challenge"
I think many are kind of right in how Nintendo used to work in thinking "Switch 2" is going to be a completely different type of console rather than just a more powerful Switch. However, one factor that people aren't thinking about is that Iwata is gone. The out of left field ideas as a business approach came about because of the kind of creative mad professor Iwata was. But Furukawa is a traditional accounting-focused business executive, not a left-field visionary. He's the type more likely to just double down on what works like a traditional company and not reach for the brass ring even if it means imploding like Iwata. Iwata was high-risk, high-reward. DS, Wii, Switch were all high risk departures that were high-reward. WiiU, 3DS at first, were not. Furukawa doesn't strike me as a high-risk guy. The era of Nintendo going crazy in their designs might have ended with Iwata, and even his last console is the very traditional Switch.
In Yamauchi's day, also a conservative businessman, they just went the more power route. NES to SNES, to Nintendo Play Station, to N64, to GCN. And it was a losing, but predictable, progression.
I think a more powerful Switch 2 would be successful, but it wouldn't be that catapult to 1st place Switch 1 was. Switch 1 offered a revolution. The same thing but with more rendering power won't really spur mass adoption like Switch did. But...how can they come up with the next big thing that fills a niche nobody knew they needed? A more powerful Switch 2 is what most of us want, but a new more powerful Gameboy that also docks but is less powerful than a PS5/XSXS isn't going to capture the masses the way the portable console idea did. How can they make it interesting to capture the masses? IDK. Otherwise I'd be working for Nintendo I guess.