That's kind of true, but leaving a lot out. For starters it takes about 6 months to a year to back port a game to the system. We've seen this a few times already and 3rd parties tend to use these games to test the waters. We know that it takes 2 to 3 years to develop a game and a few developers tend to at worst have a years head start. The system is 2 years old Reggie the first batch should be out already and the second batch ready to go. We can see best cases like Ubisoft taking advantage of this and have 4 games out already. One is an exclusive, another a port slapped on to the system last minute and it's prequel after fan outcry, and the last just came out with a starfox tie in.
If I had to guess at this point we should be seeing more. We saw a lot more support on PS4 on its second year from third parties with games like destiny, overwatch, ac unity, etc making their appearance. It was an exciting year to own a PS4 and the years that followed continued a steady trend of new and exciting 3rd party games. Switch seems vacant. Even if we don't count the failed titles like Mass effect Andromeda or watch dogs (though I understand both sold well) , we still have a huge library that kept going. There are devs like EA which refuse for the most part to do anything for switch. Believe me a port of Mass effect trilogy I could take on the go would change some of my attitudes towards the switch. I feel like third parties have ridden this short ride and gotten all they think they can get out of it. As I keep drilling home on here , devs will continue to push beyond the capability of the switch and leave it behind. Games starting development in the last year are Targeting platforms more powerful than what we are using now. Using technologies not suited for switch both in rendering and simulation. A few have this current gen in mind, but they don't want to miss the boat for next. Expect less emphasis on switch from third parties. This is why an underpowered mid generation release expected to Duke it out with consoles as a portable won't do to well. The system will certainly gain some life from the smaller studios that tend to focus on portables like way forward (love those guys), but a few of them may find it hard to reach for the Stars in the way big publishers allow. Switch is a good machine, but it's future is more of the portable market, I hope people weren't expecting this trend forever. For pubs like namco, Capcom, Sega, and other 2nd tier makers of games. Well expect a lot of back ports and remasters as they hope to double dip in the way they always hope to with portables. Still hoping for that xenosaga collection or some more tales of releases. Maybe a breath of fire anthology?
I feel like throwing Mass effect anywhere in that descriptor is a bit misleading. Original vision is so shoe horned that I can't take this description seriously. Man what a stretch. I love the game too, but throwing it out there just to remind people it exists and bait an audience to get this game. No class.
I can however say go buy starlink. It's a good game. A better starfox than starfox.
Wow that advice is a bit insulting. Hang a "no" on this one. No dev goes into the switch thinking something from a PS4 will work put of the box , no matter how portable the code, on a switch. It's the reason when a team is asked ,"will this work?" That you see a lot of heads shaking no. When a port is executed for switch, the first thing that is done is to see how corners can be cut. How do we adjust for half the memory. How do we buy back cycles beyond just changing assets and render resolution. Lastly what optimizations for x86 have to be rewritten for the switch risc architecture. All the other cert stuff is standard fair and not really not saying anything different than the last 2 generations of working with Nintendo or their competition. If you want to give advice panic button maybe you should discuss the process of doing all of this in a cost effective way that doesn't make some executive shake their head and cringe. Especially since most engines don't come with a "make for Nintendo" button.
I'd suspect every ac up to black flag to be present. Unity won't run. Syndicate might, but I can see ubisoft wanting to get everything up to kenway family in there. So rogue, 3, and black flag. Ezio trilogy is an easy sell. So all of those titles seem like a shoe in. AC Odyssey and Origin are out of the question. I'm also pretty sure black flag had a wii u port.
However for 40 pounds, I'm guessing 50 US. That seems a bit cheap. My guess is that it will be the ezio trilogy only if this the case. Still would be a nice package.
Portables as we know it are dead. The switch has redefined what a portable is. You need to look at the past 10 years through something more than a straw to understand this fact and why the switch actually rings the bell of an end of an age of how portables are done.
Which maybe why there is some confusion about "It needs PS4 games" and "It doesn't need PS4 games". This requires a bit more understanding of the last 2 years. Again you're looking at the statements through a straw, linearity and the progression of time and how things change over the course of time seems to be lost on you at this point. Re-examine: So look at what brings the switches popularity at launch. Playing games on a TV and on the Go. There is no line between these factors. It's a great gimmick executed correctly unlike the Vita. So playing something like DOOM a PS4 game or Wolfenstien another PS4 game is part of the systems appeal. There are a lot of games releasing in this way, especially indie titles.
So what's the problem, right! Switch should be able to cruise along just fine because of this. That is a correct assumption. However not the topic of conversation, which is whether or not switch will dominate or will its hardware sales start to slow. That's the problem. Part of your audience is big on Indie games coming tot he switch along with big AAA titles. Which in the last 2 years we've seen a lot of ports of 1st generation PS4 games and some remasters from last gen. While this is good, you eventually run out of games that are justifiably portable. So what happens then, you lose part of the appeal right. Suddenly you have all these games, but Bethesda throws their hands in the air and stops bringing their latest and more recent titles to the platform. They too have to remain competitive agianst other 3rd parties. Switch doesn't do that. So that leaves them with another option. Spinoff titles such as EA's Dead Space Extraction or unique versions of those titles such as those seen with The Force Unleashed on Wii or older games that were ported to GBA and DS way back when which were just reduced down titles. We saw some of that as PS3 and X360 fell from relevance. Destiny had features removed, left out, or was not brought up to date with the latest DLC (Rise of Iron I believe didn't get a 360 PS3 release). CoD got a watered down version. Assassin's Creed Rogue was released. This didn't resonate well with gamers, which is why that trend did not last very long. It provides a satisfying proof of concept that this is not acceptable. Nor should it be.
You see you can't look at all gamers as equal in their preferences. Some prefer RPG's, Some prefer shooters, RTS, platformers, and other genres. Some have favorite studios (like myself I love sony first party, Square Enix/Eidos, and Capcom). Those favorites don't always overlap with say someone who loves Nintendo First party and dreams of the next big Nintendo release. That also includes things Nintendo can't provide either due to lack understanding a specific style or not being able to provide it. Themes and aesthetics are just as important as the game play itself. It's important ot have as many gritty dark themed games as you do happy brightly colored titles. I enjoy both, but I'd find myself playing more Killzone, Tomb Raider, or Uncharted than say that Yoshi Yarn game, Mario Odyssey. I'd rather play Overwatch instead of Splatoon, I just enjoy the themes, the stories, the character designs, and the game play more. That's where the divide comes in. If games on PS4 start existing outside the realm of what is feasible on switch, then I have less reason to play on Switch. Which means those still on the fence who might say to themselves "Damn if only Destiny were on Switch, I would by one" will never do so. That's what makes next year so interesting, Metroid Prime is awesomeness, but how many Nintendo fans already own a switch? I'd imagine we're getting close to getting to the max owners of the system and we'll likely reach that entire userbase after Smash releases next week.
So this is where your confusion seems to come in. Switch will continue to get games from Nintendo. Some indies will ride out the next couple of years just like Vita until the next shiny thing comes along to distract them. However 3rd parties will dry up. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th gen PS4 games won't run on switch as those games will be running at a breaking point. I imagine we'll start to see a greater frequency of games running at 720p this year on PS4 which spells an issue for Launch Xb1 and more importantly Switch. That takes us to a space that is all to familiar to anyone who owned a GameCube or a Wii. Trust me it's not kind. You'll see some great releases from Nintendo and for Nintendo fans. However those looking for the next big AAA experience, they'll look else where. When it comes to 3rd party franchises like Assassin's Creed, maybe Mass Effect, perhaps Diablo 4, the next fallout, the next elder scrolls. Well they won't be found. You and I will still be here with our switches waiting for the next Zelda or Metroid etc. The gaming world will move on from Nintendo. People will be hopping on next gen. Nintendo will be forced to do one of two things. Launch a new switch with more power or ride out the generation with the switch replacing the 3DS fulltime.
You can say that Console gaming on the go is only a part of it, but lets be honest, thats it. We can't say its the games, because everything Nintendo has released up to this point has been Wii U titles with the exception of 3 to 4 titles. I have a suspicion about a few of them being Wii U titles converted like Breath of the Wild. Anyone who keeps a careful eye on gaming will tell you that a consoles success is built on its games. While Nintendo games can justify a purchase much like it did for the GameCube way back in the 2000's it wasn't enough to keep the console out in front and in the minds of the average gamer (not the first party fans). It's the reason the Wii for all of its success fell into obscurity last generation. No one cared. It's the reason the Wii U didn't sell like a beast. The Wii had literally nothing releasing on it in its final days. Nintendo had to pull two games out of mothballs in Europe and Japan just to release something for it. It's why the joke of the wii being senior citizens favorite dust collector is uttered today.
Now again being fair, I don't see the Switch collecting dust for the remainder of its life. I see the system hitting 60 million and then taking it easy as it tries to reach 80 million. Being the only handheld at present its very realistic to expect the 3DS to be outsold by the switch at some point. It's a better machine with better features. However we have no idea what Sony, Microsoft, or even Google at present have planned for the portable market. As I've speculated before, a PS4 Go could become a thing. With PS4 titles from the PS Store being its main source of games (as all of them are on there) and it being basically a PS4. With the promise of "Enhanced for PS5" also being a possibility that could cause some gamers to consider this hypothetical machine which docks to let them continue or cross save their game to a PS5 for 4K magic and Real Time Reflections etc. These are all things that could slow down the Switch even further in the future. However this is all way off topic.
My points are to outline the Switches falling out of hype mode as people start to realize the limits of the machine and that it's awesome hardware has its limits. That maybe those mobile chipsets aren't as caught up as these chuckle head reporters think. As I've re-iterated countless times. This is not a doom and gloom response. I'm not saying the switch will vanish from the face of the planet and Nintendo will be back in panic mode that their pride and joy isn't selling. They'll still make money, they'll still sell hardware, they'll still make games, and still have a fan base. I just feel that the hardware has now aged significantly like its competitions. It's going to start feeling that way and one of its selling points which is in part fueling its adoption rate will cease to be. It's other selling points like being the only place for Nintendo will still be there. It's selling point of still being a place to pick up the currently announced indie titles will still be viable so long as the indies don't flee the ship like they did the Vita, PS3, and Xbox One as soon as the new hotness came along.
I like my switch, but even I don't buy every indie game that comes along for it. I'm getting Bloodstained Ritual of the Night on PS4, for trophies and that sweet sweet 4K HDR. Ya I'll probably get the switch version for much the same reason as I have some games on Vita, yet again (that don't have cross play, buy, trophies, or save). It'll be purely case by case. Ya sure I'll get FF7, X|X-2, XII, etc for the Switch, but I'm an FF fan. They could put FF on my phone and I would... oh wait already have done that... that settles that. lol
Anyway I'm a little tired of this topic and I'm starting to run in circles with a lot of these responses. I just say this. Take my predictions as they are, a careful analysis as to why this analyst might be wrong. I could be wrong too. However I think this guy is throwing a hail marry as everything else I'm seeing over the past 40 years would seem to indicate this guy is completely off his nut. Fiscal year will end in march, which means next year, you won't have Pokemon and Smash to lean on. There is a lot happening next year that will influence consumer decisions on what to buy. A PS4 being 200 dollars with a game is very appealing, especially if that collection sees benefits on PS5, could work in a PS4 Go, and PS4 titles from 3rd parties just don't end up on switch. Let's just leave it at that.
@SwitchForce The PS4 will be 6 years old by time the PS5 launches. There is nothing Short sighted about a console with a 5 to 6 year life cycle. That's better than the life cycle of most cellphones and PC GPUs. It also takes about a year for a console to ramp up, in otherwords when a system slips into last gen, it tends to have a year of life or so left in it. Its the kind of thing that results in God of War 2 for PS2 to release 6 months after PS3 launched. It's the sort of thing that results to cross generational ports like we saw with Assassin's Creed Black Flag, Tomb Raider Definitive Edition, Madden 25, Battlefield 4, Injustice, Final Fantasy XIV, The Last of Us Remastered, Diablo III, Destiny, Alien Isolation, Shadow of Mordor, Little Big Planet 3, and a good number of other titles.
Basically its time for a new console generation. That posses a problem for switch. It came in late. Years late. Basically pulling the same BS sony pulled with the Vita "We can take current gen on the go, but not really, kinda".
"The Switch shows that all the GPU power and 4K isn't what sells brings gamers of all age." It also doesn't really provide a counter to this sentiment, nor does it provide any rhyme or reason why the switch is having success. I think we both can say its the games that sell a machine and its gimmick. Nintendo's success has in this century at least always been on the Gimmick. If that gimmick catches on we have DS, Wii, and Switch. When it doesn't we have virtual Boy, Wii U, and 3DS. keep in mind that the 3DS's first year was pretty awful with predictions of its demise. Nintendo had to pull out all the stops for the 3DS to save it. Inspite of the 3DS's success, it took good games to save it from obscurity. The 3D feature is largely ignored. The systme is not projected to sell as well as its predecessors. That's quite a ways to fall. Nintendo's gimmick is Portable gaming on your TV, Console gaming on the go. It's a good gimmick, its one consumers want.
This is where your argument starts to fall apart. It is GPU power that sells the switch. Good enough GPU and CPU to do what is needed to take what the bigger more capable machines can do on a smaller scale. Without that chipset in there, the switch is not capable. They could have made a 3DS for the TV without 3D, I guaranty you that it would not sell half as well as the switch. It's because the Switch can run games like DOOM, Wolfenstien, Diablo 3, and many of the popular indie games is the reason for its success. Big console experiences on the go.
Now you can kick 4K in the balls all you want. Doesn't change the fact that those machines particularly PS5 will have the muscle to do things well outside the range of the switch. You take away the thing that makes the gimmick work, you've lost part of your audience.
"PS has those one time hits but beyond that what others?" I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to say here, but I'll do my best to address it. PlayStation or SIE puts out on average 3 big AAA titles a year and tends to support many larger titles (Death Stranding, Street Fighter V for example). They library is cultivated quite well and 3rd parties support it just as much. while it is impressive to see Bethesda put some of its games on Switch, this isn't universally true. This is where the "Beyond" I guess comes in, in your question. Where is EA? Where is Ubisoft? Where is Square Enix/Eidos? Where is Take Two? Where is Activision/Blizzard?
EA: We all know EA has a stick up its butt about Nintendo, but we would be foolish to think that games like Battlefront 1&2, Battlefield, Anthem, Mass Effect Andromeda, Dragon Age (4?), and really anything they are working on would run on switch. So even if they didn't have this issue, we mostly would see Sports games from them. You wouldn't see the kind of support the Wii got with games like Dead Space Extraction and the like.
Ubisoft: Well we got a mediocre port of South Park The Fractured But Whole. We got a project specifically tailored for the Switch that had mario tied into it (which was apparently a long game for ubisoft based on interviews). Then there is Star Link (I recommend this btw) which as far as I can tell isn't selling very well based on price cuts in stores these past few weeks. Where is Assassin's Creed Odyssey? Where is The Division? Where is Rainbow Six Siege? Where is Farcry 5? For Honor? Watch Dogs 2? AC Origins? Ubisoft clearly has no faith in these games running on Nintendo's machine. Based on how well these games have sold (if VGChartz is to be believed, normally I don't so just work with me here) close to 10 million copies or more is quite a bit. These games won't run on Switch. The next generation games have less of a chance of doing so. These are the big titles. Sony provided the performance to help cultivate their libraries.
Square/Eidos This case is interesting. Square has honestly shown the best support with unique new RPG's build in a style 20 years old. Many of those games probably would have been on Vita if it hadn't been a failure and 3DS had there been no switch. We have seen Lost Sphere on PS4 so there is that. We are seeing a lot of early Final Fantasy games, remasters (which I expect) coming to the Switch. However there is no FF15 and the FF15 switch got is universally regarded with disgust. You're not going to see Shadow or Rise of the Tomb Raider on Switch either. Are you waiting for Deus Ex? That isn't coming either. The reason. Performance. These games don't run well on base PS4's, they barely touch 4K on the XB1X and PS4 Pro. A lot of these games have done well.
Take Two Assuming Gearbox is still under that label, I doubt Borderlands 3 is being crafted for switch. RDR2 will not run on Switch and it is easily going to outsell much of what the switch has to offer. GTA5? A last gen game has not come to switch yet either (which honestly surprises me). RDR2 just wont run on switch. Granted L.A Noire is on Switch, but really we haven't seen much else. Aside from them trying to fill the sports hole left by EA, I just don't see strong support from them.
Activision/Blizzard Well we are seeing older games like Diablo 3 make their way over to Switch. That's cool. However you won't see Overwatch on Switch. Overwatch players are a crazy bunch. There isn't much reason for them to care about on the go game, I think many of them would have something to say about WiFi Latency among other things. They like a solid frame rate when 12 ultimates are going off at once on screen during a critical moment in overtime. Something the PS4 and XB1 base models struggle with. Many of them have switch to the mid refresh hardware or bought a PC. I think that says something about where their priorities lie. Those fans threw a fit over 4K UI textures. BLOPS4 isn't on switch and neither is CoDWW2, I doubt either would run on it. Destiny 2? Say what you will, that game does have an audience, a loyal one at that. That community had a good chunk migrate to PC because of 60 FPS and resolutions north of 1080p. HDR I hear is a selling point as well.
"Even on some Kickstarters game developers notice they have Switch as the first of those they want to get to after the PC. So that should tell you where the developers are looking in the coming years." That honestly doesn't tell me very much. There was a time PS Vita was listed before 3DS. Guess which machine is still around and kicking. I should know I kickstarted a few of those PS Vita campaigns because I wanted to be sure my system still had life in it years after sony stopped supporting it. Bloodstained got cancelled. Time Spinner runs like garbage. To add insult to injury indie games are finding a home on Switch like they did on Vita. You'll find the youngest machine gets the most attention because those machines tend to be content starved. Let's also explore the fact that a lot of Kickstarter projects tend to be terrible. Mighty No 9 was a dumpster fire, Timespinner was a disjointed mess, Yooka-laylee was critically panned. kickstarter is nice, but not everything is Banner Saga or Hollow Knight. It's just an anecdotal argument.You're going to find once PS5 releases (or Xbox Scarlet) that many of those kickstarter projects are going to ride the hype wave for that as well. You'll start to see PS5 and/or Xbox Scarlet first, not Switch. The reason is the ecosystem will be less crowded.
Full disclosure. I am a developer. I can honestly tell you the switch is winding down. I feel like the machine will continue to do well, but expect that momentum to slip. Expect great games from Nintendo. This isn't a doom and gloom post. It was never meant to be. Just a reality check. The fantasy world gamers live in where "Graphics don't matter" hasn't been true since those words were first uttered in the 90's. The visually most impressive and the most impressive simulations have always dominated. You need hardware for that. Strong hardware. your software does not exist without it. If your machine is no longer suitable to be the lowest common denominator, it gets reduced in priority. It doesn't matter how you feel about graphics or simulation. Expect 3rd parties to be less part of the future. Expect indies to follow the cheese. Expect Nintendo to continue living in its own little bubble doing what it does best, making games sing on their hardware, keeping its fanbase happy till they are ready to move on.
@electrolite77 "You said it yourself. Handheld. Comparing a handheld directly with non-handhelds doesn’t work. Portable systems have been selling for 30 years now, regardless of what Home systems are available."
Hi, in 2018, this is nonsense. Portable gaming is dead. Long live portable gaming. Nintendo consolidated the two into a single unit. The switch is largely dependent on that well of games established on PS4 to not dry up. That Library is already getting title that can't run on Switch and has for some time. That problem is going ot get worse with the PS5. If you look at the Vita performance concerns will continue to get worse as the divide grows. Pricing will also be an issue. See Vita again. If you're getting more games that cant run on Switch and for significantly less. Well you find yourself with a portable facing the same issues the wii suffered from.
Don't get me wrong the Switch is everything the Vita should have been and it is leaps and bounds better than the Wii. However it has short comings that we're going to need to face. Overwatch, a 3 year old game that I still sink countless hours into still doesn't play on the Switch. There is a good chance that I'll be playing Overwatch on PS5 with 4K HDR at 60FPS. I'm already running the game at decent settings on my PS4. Games like RDR2 and AC Odyssey are not coming to the switch. The only reason to play Starlink on Switch is because of starfox.
Ultimately you miss the point. Just because you can take it on the go, doesn't mean you should. I feel like the Switch will still get good games, particularly from Nintendo. I'll love seeing more of the back catalog of Zelda titles come ot the system (Especially since I hate Breath of the Wild). I think Switch owners will be happy for the next 3 to 6 years with the switch well into the PS5's life. however they'll have to buy a next gen system too as the selection of titles sees a fall off of 3rd party titles. That price cut is gonna hurt.
sounds like someone forgot Sony still has 4 in the chamber before the ps5 release. Ghosts of Tsushima, Death Stranding, Days Gone, and The Last of Us part 2. That's not including big AAA releases like anthem, dmc5, and a whole lot of other games that aren't coming to switch.
Next year is a big year for PS4. The late adopters will be hopping on once the PS4 is forced permanently down to 200. I imagine we may even see 175 or 150 as Sony attempts to start making room for ps5 inventory for the dip in PS4 sales in 2020 won't require as many units to be on hand. Ps5 price tag will shy away a few early adopters. Maybe even encourage a few to late adopters that capitalize on the used games market to get a new PS4 as they wait for 2025 to come around.
So I feel like the swan songs of the ps4 will propel them to new heights with Sony moving closer to 25m units next year if not more. Sony will want to lock in that 100m sold as fast as possible so they can increase both consumer and share holder confidence. In fact I'd go as far as saying that Sony may go as far as having 100m sale on PSN and drop the system to 150 for a week and include a packin game around Septemberish.
In light of all the hoopla and switch fans being locked away playing smash, we will see most interest in the switch wane. Why by a 300 dollar handheld that plays first generation PS4 games, Indies, and Nintendo's fantastic library of titles. When the PS4 with it's massive library of titles only available on PS4 and xb1. There is also the discussion of ps5 games being impossible to Port to switch without huge compromises. So I imagine part of that audience will shift to save for the new machine and stop considering the switch. If Sony and Ms do as I expect, enhanced for ps5 might be something we see on PS4 boxes, further making the ps4 version something more interesting to consumers (I feel like scarlet will see the same treatment for xbone).
I can't say whether Nintendo will hit that Target of 17.3 million. However o do feel that there are a lot of claims being made here not taking a whole lot into account.
@JaxonH well we've seen this sort of flux before in the past 5 years. The second year of PS4 xb1 for example. Xb1 outsold PS4 on black Friday and Xbox 1. PS4 had on going sales and bundles that weren't restricted to the holiday weekend and parents just grabbing the latest gadget for their kids. For that month of November we ended up finding out that not only did PS4 out sell Xbox one, it crushed Xbox one. Ever since I've taken this data with a grain of salt as I see the month long sales eclipsing black Friday and Cyber Monday. You can see this reflected in other retailers. Amazon had it's sales for well over a week. Walmart 2 weeks. I think the only story I could find sticking hard to one day sales was GameStop.
I'm a somewhat anecdotal bit of evidence I got a second PS4 for 200 the week prior to black Friday. The spiderman game I already owned and I'm gifting it to my brother in law. I now have a PS4 at my parents home when I come visit. Makes my life easier as I've been flying out there a lot of late. I didn't wait till black Friday or Cyber Monday.
Anyway I'm simply saying these numbers are not worth getting excited over. Sales outside of black Friday and Cyber Monday tend to lure in customers and at times the days themselves aren't as big boons to the bottom line. Like with the Xbox one and PS4 a few years back. They did alright, but the majority of their sales came before and after those days were tallied.
Thanks to the fact that black Friday is seemingly a week+ long event for everything including the internet, this information is largely useless. Just means the switch didn't good deals during that time and a lot of people gave up on waiting. Which is understandable for the fledgeling console. Meanwhile anyone interested in a PS4 for 200 could snap one up before black Friday.
Give me a special edition with wiimote joycon and I won't just preorder it, I'll be happy I own a switch for the first time ever. This game deserves to be in he. If I had the ability to play with and without motion controls so I can play on a plane and continue when reach my destination. Happy camper. That's all I'll say about that. Give me all the zelda he releases. Maybe a new collection of majora and ocarina. Just turn it into a zelda machine. I want to have a reason to disconnect my Wii u finally.
@LunarFlame17 I wonder how many of those games are on every other platform and are over 2 years old. Don't get me wrong I have about 20 switch games, but I still find myself in this land of playing those games on something else. Like overcooked 2. Friend of mine raves about it and has a pool of one person to play with. Good game, but I have a large pool of people to play with who mostly got it on PS4. Then you have Doom which I did enjoy, but I already played it and looked better and was a smoother experience on the platform I played on than what was on switch. Basically that twiddles the library down to almost nothing. I'm back to buying Nintendo games only. I might make an exception for final fantasy, but I can play everything from 1 to 10 on my vita already.
Not trolling, just the state of things. The system has some interesting titles, but I still find myself going back to PS4. I also commute by train for 45 minutes into work each day. I also fly back to see my family twice a year, still pull on the vita or 3ds. I'm thinking about dq8 or trails of cold steel for my 5 hour flight next month, not botw or Xenoblade.
I can't tell if his compression artifacts are from YouTube or the stream. I feel like it's from the stream as I don't have these issues with digital foundry videos. His muddied textures are likely due to this. Comparing against my 4k footage and the PS4 pro footage since I own it for both platforms, I feel like both of these trump the streaming version. Going back down to 1080p, my PS4 still manages to make me feel like being locked to my PS4 is the better way to go. Even with super sampling features turned off.
There is also no way for me to gage the input lag present here. Honestly ac Odyssey has a lot of built in lag to begin with, which may explain why he doesn't notice. Every attack feels like it has a wined up period in order to hide the fact that your button presses are not happening in the proper timing window. I would be more impressed by his impressions if he was playing something like soul Calibur 6.
@BubbleMatrix82 I'm sorry you're doing some serious mental gymnastics for this response to the extent that I feel like you're mentally unstable. If you're going to a child about this and make basic assumptions about the cost of Party Chat, then we're done. You're not equipped for this conversation and you're wasting my time.
No I personally make 100k a year. I'm happy you're such a proficient hacker, but you're not the only one in this conversation. I ultimately have no need to buy a new phone. People with less security concerns than either of us will have less of a reason. I also don't keep half the information you think on my phone.
I think you're a bit mistaken in how the industry works and seem to think socioeconomics exists in some kind of bubble. As far as Nintendo's pricing policy goes you have some errors. Nintendo is the only company on their platform that does that. 3rd parties regularly put their games on sale. Nintendo waits 4 to 5 years before switching. To a greatest hits model of 40 dollars for older games. Nintendo is also the only 1st party with these policies. Something to consider with an all digital future. By the way botw has been on sale 3 times for less than 50 new on amazon. I would be surprised if other retail stores haven't followed suit especially with Nintendo creating a new version a year later forcing an inventory dump for space.
OK so let's play the demographic game. I call bullpoop. Let's start with disposable income. I don't have debt. Ergo I have more income then the snot nosed brat with student loans making 60k a year struggling to make ends meet who will undoubtedly rack up the debt to get this device. Your target audience has this problem if you hadn't noticed. Good ol'college age range. That range bellow 18 has not the money to buy most things on their own except that narrow 2 years with a part time job you think has disposable disposable income. My cousins in that age group are to busy using that money on dates, paying for their first car, and other big ticket items. They aren't buying 1 game per month. Maybe 1 every 4 months. It really doesn't matter what you think the target audience is, its usually someone in their 30s or older getting this machine. Parents seem to be gravitating to this machine because it gives them the freedom to play a game when they finally get a chance to breathe. Such as a few youtubers who have said as much. Statically ignoring the 25+ is suicide given numbers provided by Sony and Microsoft.
But what does any of this matter. If more than half your install base refuses to use this app Nintendo thinks innovates, then nothing either of us has said means a whole hell of a lot. Reggie seems to have this idea that I want to talk to someone through the app and seamlessly start playing when I get home. PlayStations app supports messaging I rarely use it for those functions and those conversations boil down to, "ya I'll be on in 25 minutes". If I want deeper meaningful conversations I'll wait till I can actually talk to a person with my undivided attention. Kind of the reason texting is done more on phones than actual phone calls in the last 10 years.
Sadly your last point is foolish. The minute Nintendo requires an additional device that isn't their own for the use of their own systems features, it becomes a Nintendo problem. You say its an investment problem. I'd say that it was bad investment by Nintendo to lean on a technology that requires consumers to invest or use other hardware in addition to the hardware they just bought at the same price or with a higher inconvenience factor. This isn't a poor consumer investment. Its tone deaf to say otherwise and ignorant to believe such things. That would be like making ray tracing mandatory on every game going forward this month.
As far as I'm concerned I have no issue with the app existing, I just want the option to do it the way I always have, which is way more convenient and easy to setup. Even my PlayStation Vita seems to understand that. My gaming tablet in a sort of irony understands that as well, it doesn't require my PC or ps4 to play fortnite with my discord app running.
I was also not bragging about how much I make. So no need to be a jerk about it like its a matter of pride. I was demonstrating a case that defeats your point. Which is I have no need to upgraded my phone every year, every other year, every 3 years, and I can barely justify 4 and I'm in an upper income bracket. The hassle involved, especially since i root and build my own android flavor for my phones as soon as I get them, just makes it a pain. I don't want to spend a weekend installing poop on a phone, especially since family drops one in my lap every damned year. Big family, big support. The average phone user doesn't go on an upgrade spree. While I was considering a new phone this year, I decided to wait for the next series of galaxy phones and see how it sizes up to the note 9 or look into other phones. I am due. I upgrade when I'm ready, not when Nintendo says I'm ready or anyone else for that matter.
The sooner you understand these things you might be a bit more sympathetic to the socioeconomics involved here.
@BubbleMatrix82 I'm an adult with a phone and make 100k a year. Even I don't want to use my cell phone for voice chat in my games. That battery is for my GPS, when I need to look something up, the trivial amount of power needed for music, email, work email, texting, and emergencies. This usually drains my galaxy s5 of power before I even get on the train in the evening to head home. I don't want to be using such an important device in my life for anything game related. Not only do I not have space on my phone for a Nintendo voice chat app, but I'm not even putting games on it. Sure I have my keygen for blizzard, steam, and googles version, but my work key is on it too. I barely justify discord and the psn app on my phone. I get pissed when LinkedIn wants me to install their app instead of giving me a web portal for mobile.
I'm not going to upgrade my phone just for this app. I can't justify using discord on my phone instead of my PCs discord app or psn/xbl party on the machine I'm using. I also don't want to be tethered to another device.
So it isn't just money that is the problem here. Its convenience and an established standard that needs to be added onto, not replaced with a less convenient and convoluted solution. Money is a factor. Even for the middle class. The lower middle class can afford phones, but they aren't buy galaxy s 9 and iPhone X s. They usually by the low end and keep the features on the cheap. The fact that you would even use the middle class as an example of those who could excuse this baffles me.
@ArcanaXVI Perhaps it needs my attention as well. At present I have the following questions that need answering from that study: 1) What were their control factors 2) what was the data on test subjects: Such as their state of mind before the tests How does this compare to repetitive frustrating activities. 3) What is the basis of the hypothesis they were testing and how did they go about testing it.
etc.
I find a lot of studies leave a lot of factors out and just throw a sample pool into a room without trying to understand the data they are getting back. Then retesting based on that information and observation.
Statistics are fun, but if not used correctly they can identify non issues and lead to false presumptions instead of careful analysis and determining actual correlation. With the way things have been executed these days I have to honestly put everything to scrutiny, even if said thing could be career ending, it doesn't seem to stop people from making career ending moves and declaring Vaccines are some super high risk killer of children.
I'd love to see their information on their control group. I'd also like tto see how this compares to those involved in school athletic programs. All this tells me is that such individuals are more confident in their actions and more prone to act on impulse as a result.
@Dalarrun farcry 5 might have been a closer analog, ultimately I was sight game design philosophy, not so much final implementation. AC has lost its identity and I really should have been more clear.
Anyway, the over world of Zelda is really just filler content that got a high budget. There really isnt anything redeeming about its "ah ha" moments. I've picked this game apart and the best conclusion I can come to is Nintendo wasted 150+ hours of the gamers time for what amounts to 20 hours of truly rewarding gameplay. What good is an open world if the player doesn't really enjoy traversing it and ignores fast travel. I can only think of three open world titles that do that. All 3 of which I'm sure Nintendo fans would thumb their noses at them being Sony exclusive.
I think right now gamers are still in awe of sandboxes that let them "explore". While this zelda finally takes the kid gloves off, it misses a lot of the other things gamers appreciate that the filler open world design of botw misses. Maybe the Zelda team needs to take a step back and consider what they are doing for a moment. Zelda has released it's first truly divisive title since wind waker and its the third game in the series to truly divide fans. We will see more dissatisfied players crop up.
Don't get me wrong there is fun to be found in botw. There are a lot of cool systems. There is a recipe for greatness here that if Nintendo can find it and capture the magic of older Zelda games while maintaining the finer qualities of botw, then they could have the greatest Zelda game ever made. Right now its just a game that relies to heavily on the lure of what is over the next horizon, honestly I'd rather be doing something a bit more grandiose than screwing around with field enemies and worrying about a green wheels and broken weapons with the open world equivalent to red barrels from a shooter.
At least he isn't closeted on the subject. There are a lot of developers myself included who feel the same about those two games. Though for me it isn't the huge disconnect from narrative on Zelda that is a problem. Over reliance on systemic design (a very Ubisoft philosophy BTW) to get players through the experience kind of sours things for me. Sure their are puzzles and dungeons, but they aren't the elaborate machinations and traps I loved exploring. The game is a collection of fast food joints and not a small handful of truly hearty meals. Essentially turned Zelda into a far more annoying version of assassins creed. Not saying that the game isn't fun for someone, but aside from its implementation of Zelda Ubisoft, with a touch of Nintendo, it left me wanting and missing every Zelda before it.
Mario is good and fun, an enjoyable title, but its still Mario. I was done once I finished the final boss. Solid game, but it fails to do what Mario 64 did and is just Mario 64 with body possession. Not a problem, but still just something to snack and to have if you own a switch, but not a reason to buy the switch.
@VexingInsanity I feel like the number of gamers with data plan sharing are more the minority, especially when it comes to Nintendo products, than my issues. If you don't understand why what you just said is in error kind of misses the point. I'm at the airport, I turn my data on for my laptop, suddenly a push to my switch I forgot about starts pulling down because OMG THE SWITCH FOUND AN ACCESS POINT TO USE when I powered it on. Suddenly I'm getting a notification on my screen that a download and updates have finished. In any case you're making an added annoyance for me ot have to deal with. Making an excuse for something that you yourself don't really want to deal with, but would rather just take the beating then try to do anything about it. So I do think its nintendo's fault for not providing me an option that suits my needs as a consumer. If they don't supply it, then I don't have to buy it.
as far as your "I doubt you won't be any where were there is wifi" really isn't the point I was making. Sure my hotel room has wifi, sure my parents home when I fly clear across the country has wifi, my work place, that little coffee place down the street. The whole point is I don't want to have to go through the hassle of setting up wifi for something that exists on my switch. That's assuming you can even get the wifi working because of what ever stupid thing the onsite wifi has setup. Or like in some places in the US where for some baffling reason the concept of a free wifi still eludes them. You consider it a minor issue. That's subjective. It's a hassle. One I don't have to deal with on my other hardware configurations. Often times you'll find some locations even block gaming services. Like the hotel I was in for 2 weeks when I moved to san francisco. I couldn't play Overwatch on their connection or even really download or buy games.
As far as "only one of its kind" goes. What planet are you living on where this is a reality? When you get a free PS+ Game, the expiration date is set to the end of your PS+ subscription. Clearly not the only service of its kind. Everything Switch Online offers, PSN also offers. Games With Gold and Xbox Game Pass also operate in the same way as the system established by Sony. Those systems are unlikely to be offline for the year plus you may have on your subscription, but they have more sense than 7 days.
I think you miss the point as to why I mention not wanting to play online. I don't give two shakes about whether there are people who are using switch for online. In my case I have no reason too. Putting a subscription pay wall up for the one NES game I might want to play right now is the problem. 20 dollars for one game is too much. I'm not likely to play 5 NES or 10 NES games to even make that a deal in a year. Just like me pay 3 to 6 dollars like I have been and give me access to the game as something I own. It's a rip off for me to forced into services I don't need and would not use that I find inferior to the competition which I do have already. That fact that you fail to recognize that there is a sub group working in that context just shows how out of touch you are with the community as a whole and how self centered your point of view is. It's not relevant that my issues are my own, its a state of alienating a customer, where there is one, there are usually others. Even if it is just 10% of switch owners, that is still 10% of their audience they are alienating. That's 2 million customers you've managed to cross out of 20 million system owners.
I'm just one person in one minority in a collection of minorities not happy with the Switch Online services right now. Nintendo needs to address this problem. They need find a way to reach all 20 million. This is a very negative reception and I'm not even just considering the NES games when I say this. It casts Nintendo in a negative light.
Anyway the simplest solution for me is to stay on my 3DS, wait for homebrew to get around Nintendo's foolishness and just install retro games on the system myself. Just keep gaming on PSN and PC for the foreseeable future given how short sighted Nintendo is on getting all of this working right and failing to solve problems that were worked out 12 years ago.
@VexingInsanity Quiet often. First off I don't want to configure my portable game devices to use my phone, in this era of data plans with data caps, that is the last thing I want to do. Just takes one time of me forgetting to turn off the feature on my phone to cause my switch to eat up an entire months of data from my phone when I push a game out to it.
Secondly I don't reconnect my switch to the internet every time I go somewhere. There are times where I'm out of the country for 7+ days at a time, I just want to dock the damned thing and charge it. I'm not looking to hop online to play a game.
Third, what if Nintendo has an incident similar to that of PlayStation Network where their service was down for a month because some jackhole breached their security. I haven't seen enough from Nintendo to indicate that they even understand how to protect their consumers in the online space. Why would I trust them to have their servers up for a duration like that.
Hell as I type this I'm two system software updates behind. Goes to show you how often I connect my switch to the internet. As it stands my 3DS is a better device to get my retro fix. So much for the ultimate portable, Nintendo couldn't even get that right.
Throwing out the rest of the Switches library when I want to play a very specific game is also not a counter argument. That's like coming to me and saying "here have vanilla ice cream cause we're out of cookie dough". I didn't come to their shop for vanilla, I came for the cookie dough. If you don't have something often enough, it just becomes an irritant.
Just because you can't fathom something happening too you doesn't mean it won't happen to someone else. Right now my Vita is the only portable I keep consistently updated and online, because I need to for cross saves. A feature Switch has no reason to worry about because of the great design choices they made. Just let me buy the NES, SNES, N64, GC, Wii, etc games I want to play on my switch. I feel like this was a waste of time and is trying to appease some share holder happy to see a subscription service instead of a sellable product. Subscription services are usually very consumer unfriendly, unless that service gives the consumer a means to chooses a path that is right for them. In this case Nintendo Online isn't it. I don't play games online on Switch. It's just not the space I want to play in. All the games I want to play online are not on switch and if they were I wouldn't be inclined to rebuy them.
Generous? Man you have a twisted sense of things. Generous is what you call ps+ back on ps3. Back when you could play online for free and plus was this nice optional club for gamers to get free games and huge discounts. There was no breaking up my friends from uncharted 2 or 3, killing my clan from killzone 2 and 3, there was no expectation that it was needed, just the perks spoke for themselves. This sort of online was good and still is. That was generous. Now we have ps+ and xbl as some sort of requirement with perks as a means of justifying the 60 a year. What is Nintendo bringing to the table. Nes games that terminate access after 7 days if not always on? Bunch of broken old classics that only retro enthusiasts can get excited about.
Look Nintendo's perks aren't bad, they are good first steps to some interesting ideas, but you need to look at what we lost. We can't buy our classics library's to take with us. We have to live in a space that allows online play, a feature most probably won't use ever. An app nobody likes is no excuse, especially when gamers are pointing at a pic gamers solution for fixing this problem, thank you discord.
Nintendo should have kept online free. It's cheap sure, but it's a lame way of justifying something so you feel better about it. In the age of loot boxes and battle passes, how can we even think this is remotely ok. That price tag will go up like a the cost of tickets to Disney world. We've seen how that price has remained the same on the other platforms, which it hasn't. So expecting that in 2 or 3 years we don't see this price start it's crawl to 60 I'll be amazed.
@Whalehome Well that's the sticking point isn't it? This game didn't review bad, in fact it rates a 76 on metacritic. I won't sit here and act like this is a masterpiece of gaming and worth passing up something like Octopath Traveler or Lost Sphere. Though I would say I'd like to know it exists. The area of "16-bit" rpg's is a bit limited even on switch. It isn't too much to ask to deliver on the bare necessities of releasing a game. Its a disservice to the consumer base to have some content have less presence than others if the review score has to be above an 8/10. Namely the capacity to preorder a game through the store front, see a trailer, and maybe have some kind of presence on the store landing page/blog/twitter. I won't act like sony is a saint about this, they certainly have some incomplete pages, but this game got exposure else where. They did better else where. Given the trend of how well some indies have done on Switch. nintendo has basically alienated a publisher/developer. The end result is them sticking to first parties that treat them better. This is a dangerous line to walk.
@Whalehome that's really a subjective point of view. Some people who are into RPGs would say the same of cosmic star heroine and may find a game like hallow Knight or Celeste to their liking. I own Celeste and CSH. I really do not feel like hallow knight is drop everything worthy like say iconoclasts or even God of War.
@Nintendofan83 I can't say I agree with your sentiment. Sony gave this game more attention than Nintendo had. Its the reason I even know this game exists and why I scooped it up on ps4/vita. I had no idea it was releasing on switch. It had a few mentions on PlayStation blog, I can't recall if it got a tweet. It appeared on the PlayStation store landing page. This is a pretty obscure game and Sony is pretty good on touching just about every indie on their system. I'd imagine Microsoft is about the same and I know steam showcased this game and recommended it to me on pre-release complete with trailers.
If he is being whinny , perhaps he's entitled to it. Nintendo does play favorites. You're far more likely to hear about a technical marvel, exclusive game, or of them pilfering an exclusive for themselves then you will here about a cross platform title who's only merit is that it is good and sold well.
I feel like his overview is a bit incomplete. There is a lot more to it than the GPU limitations the switch offers. Though there are plenty of games that aren't as easily scalable as the single color toned doom and wolfenstein that even if scaled back in frame rate, mesh fidelity, and resolution would bring the system to its knees even in docked mode. The CPU limitations are a factor often ignored. No offense to Bethesda as their push forward gameplay approach for the ai is quiet fun, there are games that operate on a different level. Assassin's creed for example has ai covering everything from crowds to enemy displacement. Many of those routines have to run at the same time on a much larger count of individuals or entities on screen. You start removing those characters then you ultimately change the nature of the game. On top of that you have the animation system attempting to blend everything from player movement, to the crowd, to the enemy in pursuit, and all the while a playable cutscene is happening that you can interact with and interrupt. That's far more than any Bethesda game has ever managed. Even arkane's dishonored which is absent from the Nintendo switch.
So sure with some artistic creativity and engineering muscle you can try cramming a beefier game on switch, but you have to know when to stop before you end up killing your creation to do it. In recent years we have started to see games that are impossible on last gen hardware. When they get to that point you end up hurting the game. Destiny is a fine example of this evolution when comparing the forking of the two versions after the taken king released. Certain features started to get cut from ps3 and x360 just so the game could run. When that was no longer manageable they put right left content out. This is why overwatch players aren't to happy with the idea of the game coming to switch. Not every ow player is unhappy of course, but I don't think they understand the implications this creates for user friendly quality of life ui changes like picking costumes from the character select screen or how this will impact the design of current and future characters.
Directors really should refrain from making statements on things they don't understand. Even if he could program it wouldn't make it possible for this game to run anywhere.
On point. Its not just graphics that holds the switch back here. Its memory and cpu. Latest version of anvil pushes the base consoles hard. They would have to take things put to make it work. While it is impressive that doom runs on switch, it's a novelty at best and a mess at worst. A playable mess that can be enjoyed, but ac odyssey has tougher constraints it needs to play with. AC origins was a technical marvel surpassing that of doom. I've been saying this since doom on switch was still speculation. Doable with a cost. Ac is not doable even with a cost.
I'm gonna go with no. Switch does have a large library of games covering many genres. However it only seems to be checking off a box rather than delivering on what is needed to be identified as a go to device. One such genre is fps, granted Bethesda has put 2 of its games on the system with an M rating, that selection is pretty narrow, anemic even. Even when putting aside how well received (or not) either game was by the public or the months or years between the release on competing hardware. You find yourself wanting. It won't make up for the lack of CoD, battlefield, battlefront, overwatch, prey, dishonored, and so many others that a player (not every player) could be looking for on the system. Broad appeal on a single game if forced can have consequences. For example I'm not all that much of a fan of the art style and silliness of splatoon. While at its core I feel like it is a wonderful and I admire what it has accomplished, but it's no overwatch. They are very different games that approach their world very different even though both are competitive titles at their core. I'm more likely to buy a foot and a half tall statue of mercy than of a squidling. Again nothing wrong with splatoon. I like online competitive games and I can't really find the kind that I'm into on the switch. When I do I find little reason to own them on switch beyond the novelty of playing on the go. Novelty isn't enough for me.
I can't get titles like Horizon, Destiny, the last of us, uncharted, final fantasy, and much more on switch. It doesn't just have to be shooters either. I recognize there are other ways of play, but I've already found the ways I like to play and have been exposed multiple times to Nintendo's vision. Even now I'm defaulting to old habits with the Switch, its a Nintendo machine. Its great indies are coming to it and all, but I don't spend most of my money on those titles. The ones that I do like shantae, velocity, furi, iconoclasts, etc either are not on the platform or I've already played them to death else where.
I'm looking forward to metroid prime 4, I'm enjoying toads treasure tracker this weekend which I missed on Wii U, and I'm hoping to see Zelda title I'll actually enjoy on switch announced someday. At the moment I can't find what I want, already have what I want, or what I want looks better else where and would rather play on a big TV. As usual i tend to get left out as Nintendo looks away from what I like for the nonexistent universal constant. I'm not interested in Kirby, I love Mario kart, but it isn't project cars, forza, gran turismo, onrush, or other titles. While I have been a huge fan of Zelda since 1987, for the first time ever I have a Zelda game since 2, that I can't finish and lack the desire to. I feel like an auxiliary audience, an after thought most of the time on Nintendo systems.
So sure, Nintendo has broad appeal, but little variety. Its appeal is a port box for games I've already finished and would love to play on the go like final fantasy x on vita.
@Dizzy_Boy they likely won't use the same method to get around the security. However that original vulnerability gave hackers a lot of access to the machine, including the os. One vulnerability can lead to another. Which means they will have decryption keys, lock out mechanisms, and so much more art their disposal. It might take another year, but the damage is done.
This seems rather suspect to me. I'm honestly hard pressed to find anyone actually plating this thing in docked mode more than 40 to 30 percent of the time. Granted around the holidays that sucker stays in the dock and my cousins played the ever loving life out of Mario kart and odyssey, but I wouldn't say the few hours I spend on it is 50 50. The amount of time I've left it turned on with whatever game I was playing in the background as I grab updates while docked is probably about that. I would be quiet curious to see how Nintendo is recording that metric. As 3rd parties are seeing different numbers skewed towards portable. Which is why you starting to see games that put more of a focus on portable mode than docked. When we get our metrics it is only when the game is not in standby mode.
I do not believe we'll see a reduced window. Maybe 6 months at best, but most games are going to be pushing that end of a console generation stride. Where new techniques are being tried on prep for next gen. We will see some games that can do the day one push like Madden coming to last gen sort of way, but over all we are hoping for a bit much to see anything beyond Bethesda titles getting day to date releases. For all of ubisofts posturing a good number of their games will be PS4 first, then scale it back second after all the new tech has been bolted on and some poor sap will have to back port it.
@Knuckles-Fajita its not always a case of simply trying. Not all studios are created equal and while there are many talented engineers at these studios who do try, it is not defining factor of others that have staff who don't need to come in on a weekend, evaluate the cost, time, and compromise. Then they have to make the call of whether or not the loss in fidelity is worth it. For these situations the cost is to high for any gamer.
I compliment Bethesda and their efforts, but let's be honest they haven't released anything that visually compared to the best we've seen these last 4 years. We haven't seen them do anything so taxing on a simulation that couldn't be dialed back. Doom is a great game, but it doesn't set the stage for a game like assassin's Creed origins or Odyssey. It doesn't open doors for games like final fantasy xv. No amount of if they build it they will come will turn the tables on these trends. They will only get worse as next generation techniques are explored, which happens at the end of every console generation. Which both Microsoft and Sony are already talking about and release windows speculated on in the near future. Granted we will see enhanced for ps5 titles come out of the woodwork. Leaving some wiggle room. If the choice to go ryzen becomes a thing and devs start doubling down on that tech, well you can say good bye to ports on switch. That's when the Sim, not the graphics, exceeds it's ability.
Crash is the exception, not the rule. It's a PS1 game, remade in unity, with some visual touch ups working in a space that even a PS3 could manage at 1080p30.
@GumbyX84 I'm telling you as a developer that saying it was written for another platform when the point is to port the game to another, is a completely meaningless and redundant statement. They honestly probably had no engineers on this project and hoped their scripters could do the bulk of the work through blueprints. I've seen this before.
As a result the game is then technically written for switch. The reason, epic ported the engine to switch which is why the game is on the platform to begin with. They hired someone to do multiplayer and only set it up for every platform except switch. The reason, incompetence in management. Also a common thing in the games industry and I've seen many games delay hard with a year long crunch to make 3 month windows. Windows that force teams to take short cuts and release buggy products.
So basically you're missing my point. It does not matter what platform the game was released on. Someone took a shortcut, because they justified not having a feature for the reason of: Because Switch and Mario Kart. Then said unreal doesn't support online on switch, look at everyone else.
Here's how that should have gone down. Consult with epic on when those features will be available. Integrate beta changes if they are available soon. If those changes don't fit your schedule, have an engineer port the existing ps4/Xb1/steam functionality to the switch.
Phyre engine when I did my port to xb1 had zero code written for it to run on that platform. The game in question was originally a ps3 and vita exclusive. Ps4 was pretty simple to move over. Xb1 had no code. No network, no direct x support, no configurations for wwise in place, no achievement async calls, no party support, nothing. We had to go into source and rewrite anything that wasn't platform independent. So a function call for invite friends needed to have it's functionality changed to use the xb1 functionality instead. There are minor differences, but server and peer to peer really didn't change all that much. Just the xbl and pan related stuff is where things get a little screwy.
Saying the engine doesn't support it is a cop out and placing the blame on someone other than themselves. They are game developers, in an era where parity in releases is expected and demanded. Any reason or excuse they make at this point is producer bs and they need a community manager to clean up their mess. This isn't acceptable and switch users should be angry.
@Pahvi even if that was the case. You either extend the contract or put someone on your team on it. It's a lot of work porting an engine and even more work to start cutting out features.
I think for the most part their work would deal mostly with Nintendo Network related hand shakes, the actual connection and communication protocol is pretty straightforward and easy to figure out.
They dropped the ball. Badform to blame the engine.
You mean to tell me that they hired a qualified engineer in an engine that literally supplies full source was unable to port the networking functionality that already exists in engine to the switch.
Um I'm calling BS on this. As someone has had to do similar work with engines like phyre engine to the Xbox one. This shouldn't have taken very long or a very experienced network engineer to do this. Case in point unreal engine 3 is not supported on switch, but the rocket league guys were able to port it themselves. Don't blame the engine for the incompetence or lack of experience of your team. Your team is to blame and your team needs to fix it. If my team of 10 engineers can get game of similar scope and porting graphics, online, and console specific features in 6 months back when Xbox one development was a nightmare and achievements were done through spread sheets, then this is something they can tackle.
I don't even like working with unreal and here I am defending it from this nonsense.
Not happening. The game struggles on base consoles as is. Even if you cut resolution, reduce the textures to something more manageable, etc. This game would turn into a slide show on a switch. Give the level of skill needed to play the game, the joycons in portable mode would be a nightmare. So you would be at a disadvantage to pro controller players. The communication problems the switch has does not help matters either.
Honestly just be happy for the other games your getting. This game is too hardcore for the switch audience.
@Varkster I can appreciate that you love DMC, but you're wrong. lol
Anyway I'm going to skip a lot of what you had here (I did read it though), simply say just understand the game design. I have played all of these games, all on the hardest setting. God of War Ascension proving some ground for conflicting game play systems getting in the way of each other. Conversation for another forum.
Let's get down to your real issue here. How does god of war stand up to other "Character Action Games". Pretty well honestly. You seem to fixate on the character of Kratos himself. I have to say after playing 6 games, I like the character, I like the power fantsy of him, in some ways I can even relate to him. He is a man who is fighting against fate, had his family taken from him multiple times, forced to choose between his daughter or the world (though some may say his vengeance, but its pretty muddy in COO), had his brother murdered in front of him (though thanatos is a bit justified, but who is the bigger [removed] here?), had the furries incur madness upon him and placed unrighteous judgment upon KRatos, Manipulated by Ares, I mean I could keep going. The man has every right to be an angry [removed]. You don't like him, that is fine. However ever I know many who have been playing GoW games since 2005 who would disagree with you on your whole "The Last of Us" assertion. Though honestly you should be saying "Uncharted", because that is where that form of storytelling in games was born.
Atreus doesn't make Kratos instantly likeable. That's a very shallow explanation of what is going on there. For starters most people haven't played GoW (2018) yet. They have no idea what to expect. In fact its garnered the game negative reaction in the community on initial reveal of the game. Atreus is what part of what might be what is making GoW(2018)'s story good. He's a FOIL for this man. A man who basically destroyed the greek pantheon to satisfy his revenge, rage, and bloodlust. In his last moments also had to deal with the consequences of his actions in the last of Pandora. A loss he partly blames himself for at the end of the game. Though she understood she was a pawn and her purpose to free us all from that state. The greek gods were not nice people and God of War is very clear about that. So we have a man recovering from this. Who is also haunted by other aspects of who he is. Include the line of patricide that works its way through his family line. The Rage that consumed not just Kratos, but Zeus and Cronos. These are things Atreus will have to deal with, that is how Atreus further humanizes him. not because Atreus brings something to the character that was absent before. Deimos and Calliope already supplied those factors for him. It's been a far less shallow explanation of human nature than many of the other games out there.
I won't deny that God of Wars early beginnings under Dave Jaffe were a bit on the shallow side. Tricked into killing his family and now seeking revenge, but it was a starting point. By time you got to God of War Ascension there was so much more to work with. You still have to satisfy Kratos' final goal. There is a lot more going on there than then what you'll find with Dante or Bayonetta. Those two compared to works not just outside of gaming from japan are pretty weak by comparison. Nothing wrong with that though. If every game had Kratos as the lead character I would be bored, just as much as if Dante or Bayonetta were also some sort of template to live by. We should be happy there is a rich plethora of characters out there with varying backgrounds, levels of depth, and intensity. Happy we have the Joel's, The Nathan Drake's, The Krato's, The Master Chief's, The Peach's, the Mario's, the Ratchet and Clank's, Jak's and Daxter's, etc of the gaming world. Except the Rider Twins from Mass Effect andromeda, they suck. Also silent protagonists, creepy bunch they are, set them on fire (sorry Crono).
@Varkster the appeal of God of war over something like Bayonetta or DMC as far as the character is exactly that. Those two games are quirky and very Japanese in design. Both Dante and Bayonetta are really not characters you take seriously. Both their backstorys really don't fill into a relatable or deep place. Their motives are generally shallow. They are meant to be cool, charismatic characters. I personally hate Bayonetta pretty much on every level of discussion, the character herself is boring, so I don't understand how anyone finds those games more than mediocre. DMC I've found enjoyable and I get it, but it doesn't serve the same audience that would put God of War above it. I'm one of those individuals. There is a sound explanation to kratos with a classic revenge plot to go with his absurdity that DMC lacks. I find God of war to be more rewarding than DMC gameplay wise as well, they both play very differently from each other. Especially God of War Ascension which took some serious risks in changing how it plays, making it the second most dramatic change to the game as of gow2018.
There is nothing wrong with DMC or Bayonetta, but they serve very different audiences. Honestly lack the maturity of the story development. To be fair, a lot of what those two games has for story needed to be completely developed from scratch. While gow has had all of the Greek mythology to fall back on in everyway. If you geek out over that historical stuff , then you have a recipe for success and should already have a huge audience familiar with that back story. Schools teach and cover much of that material in examination of one way or another. So entry is less of an obstacle.
Neir is an odd duck. As much as I enjoyed those games, including drakengard (dragon dragoon). I can't honestly see how it is comparable. Story wise it's interesting, combat wise the, best of any Yoko taro game, but still pretty weak at the end of the day. Based on the above you might be able to see why the story might be a problem. It's a convoluted mess and how it goes into the rest of the game takes a few YouTube videos to really understand. Even then your not guaranteed to understand everything. Unlike the former games, it's hard to find people who have truly completed the game beyond the first play through.
God Of War takes itself seriously, some people enjoy that. They enjoy the imperfect hero who is victim of not only the gods, but his own rage.
At the end of the day, I'd take any of these games over card board simulator 2018. People are going to get this, then ask themselves if it was really worth it to have cardboard widgets sitting around their home. Granted the more expanded stuff will get and audience of creatives who will do interesting things. Just expect the majority of early adopters to stick with this fad for very long.
Amateur developer says amateur things. Been involved in two switch ports so far. I can honestly say that this sucker even without storage restrictions is a bummer to put anything that takes advantage of base ps4 on the damned thing. Switch is a cool little machine, the realization of what Nvidia shield is and what vita should have been had Sony not tried the gimmick game. There is a lot that just isn't doable on switch since it already struggles and has been put through the optimizing blender a few times. You'll just be squeezing blood from a stone. The system ram is half that of a PS4, that's more than just downsizing for carts, thats downsizing for memory. CPU isn't on par either so more complicated environments than ark will struggle and need to be down sized as well to keep up frame rate. Then there is GPU fill rate and the overall floating point calculations per second it can handle. I like the tegra x1, been working with it for awhile, before switch was even on my desk. There is no way that chip belongs in the same arena with that hardware configuration as the base systems. Continue to expect what you've been getting, some games will get ported, those that are will be reduced within reason, others will be a challenge not worth the effort. Others just flat out impossible.
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Re: Tekken 7 For Switch Depends On Fan Demand According To Katsuhiro Harada
@westman98 smash isn't a traditional fighting game.
Re: Tekken 7 For Switch Depends On Fan Demand According To Katsuhiro Harada
@CharlieSmile tabled. Likely cancelled.
Re: Reggie: Third-Party Gaps In Switch Game Library Linked To Timing Of System Reveal
That's kind of true, but leaving a lot out. For starters it takes about 6 months to a year to back port a game to the system. We've seen this a few times already and 3rd parties tend to use these games to test the waters. We know that it takes 2 to 3 years to develop a game and a few developers tend to at worst have a years head start. The system is 2 years old Reggie the first batch should be out already and the second batch ready to go. We can see best cases like Ubisoft taking advantage of this and have 4 games out already. One is an exclusive, another a port slapped on to the system last minute and it's prequel after fan outcry, and the last just came out with a starfox tie in.
If I had to guess at this point we should be seeing more. We saw a lot more support on PS4 on its second year from third parties with games like destiny, overwatch, ac unity, etc making their appearance. It was an exciting year to own a PS4 and the years that followed continued a steady trend of new and exciting 3rd party games. Switch seems vacant. Even if we don't count the failed titles like Mass effect Andromeda or watch dogs (though I understand both sold well) , we still have a huge library that kept going. There are devs like EA which refuse for the most part to do anything for switch. Believe me a port of Mass effect trilogy I could take on the go would change some of my attitudes towards the switch. I feel like third parties have ridden this short ride and gotten all they think they can get out of it. As I keep drilling home on here , devs will continue to push beyond the capability of the switch and leave it behind. Games starting development in the last year are Targeting platforms more powerful than what we are using now. Using technologies not suited for switch both in rendering and simulation. A few have this current gen in mind, but they don't want to miss the boat for next. Expect less emphasis on switch from third parties. This is why an underpowered mid generation release expected to Duke it out with consoles as a portable won't do to well. The system will certainly gain some life from the smaller studios that tend to focus on portables like way forward (love those guys), but a few of them may find it hard to reach for the Stars in the way big publishers allow. Switch is a good machine, but it's future is more of the portable market, I hope people weren't expecting this trend forever. For pubs like namco, Capcom, Sega, and other 2nd tier makers of games. Well expect a lot of back ports and remasters as they hope to double dip in the way they always hope to with portables. Still hoping for that xenosaga collection or some more tales of releases. Maybe a breath of fire anthology?
Re: Deals: There's Really Never Been A Better Time To Buy Starlink On Switch
I feel like throwing Mass effect anywhere in that descriptor is a bit misleading. Original vision is so shoe horned that I can't take this description seriously. Man what a stretch. I love the game too, but throwing it out there just to remind people it exists and bait an audience to get this game. No class.
I can however say go buy starlink. It's a good game. A better starfox than starfox.
Re: Starlink And Dark Souls Porting Studio Virtuos Shares Switch Development Advice
@Zelda79 The Virtuos Games should consider not giving useless advice.
Re: Starlink And Dark Souls Porting Studio Virtuos Shares Switch Development Advice
Wow that advice is a bit insulting. Hang a "no" on this one. No dev goes into the switch thinking something from a PS4 will work put of the box , no matter how portable the code, on a switch. It's the reason when a team is asked ,"will this work?" That you see a lot of heads shaking no. When a port is executed for switch, the first thing that is done is to see how corners can be cut. How do we adjust for half the memory. How do we buy back cycles beyond just changing assets and render resolution. Lastly what optimizations for x86 have to be rewritten for the switch risc architecture. All the other cert stuff is standard fair and not really not saying anything different than the last 2 generations of working with Nintendo or their competition. If you want to give advice panic button maybe you should discuss the process of doing all of this in a cost effective way that doesn't make some executive shake their head and cringe. Especially since most engines don't come with a "make for Nintendo" button.
Re: Rumour: German Retailer Lists Assassin's Creed Compilation For Nintendo Switch
I'd suspect every ac up to black flag to be present. Unity won't run. Syndicate might, but I can see ubisoft wanting to get everything up to kenway family in there. So rogue, 3, and black flag. Ezio trilogy is an easy sell. So all of those titles seem like a shoe in. AC Odyssey and Origin are out of the question. I'm also pretty sure black flag had a wii u port.
However for 40 pounds, I'm guessing 50 US. That seems a bit cheap. My guess is that it will be the ezio trilogy only if this the case. Still would be a nice package.
Re: Watch Out Sony, A New Report Predicts The Switch Will Outsell The PS4 In 2019
@electrolite77
"Hi, in 2018, this is nonsense. Portable gaming is dead. Long live portable gaming. Nintendo consolidated the two into a single unit."
You don't understand the significance of this statement based on your response.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_king_is_dead,_long_live_the_king!
Portables as we know it are dead. The switch has redefined what a portable is. You need to look at the past 10 years through something more than a straw to understand this fact and why the switch actually rings the bell of an end of an age of how portables are done.
Which maybe why there is some confusion about "It needs PS4 games" and "It doesn't need PS4 games". This requires a bit more understanding of the last 2 years. Again you're looking at the statements through a straw, linearity and the progression of time and how things change over the course of time seems to be lost on you at this point. Re-examine: So look at what brings the switches popularity at launch. Playing games on a TV and on the Go. There is no line between these factors. It's a great gimmick executed correctly unlike the Vita. So playing something like DOOM a PS4 game or Wolfenstien another PS4 game is part of the systems appeal. There are a lot of games releasing in this way, especially indie titles.
So what's the problem, right! Switch should be able to cruise along just fine because of this. That is a correct assumption. However not the topic of conversation, which is whether or not switch will dominate or will its hardware sales start to slow. That's the problem. Part of your audience is big on Indie games coming tot he switch along with big AAA titles. Which in the last 2 years we've seen a lot of ports of 1st generation PS4 games and some remasters from last gen. While this is good, you eventually run out of games that are justifiably portable. So what happens then, you lose part of the appeal right. Suddenly you have all these games, but Bethesda throws their hands in the air and stops bringing their latest and more recent titles to the platform. They too have to remain competitive agianst other 3rd parties. Switch doesn't do that. So that leaves them with another option. Spinoff titles such as EA's Dead Space Extraction or unique versions of those titles such as those seen with The Force Unleashed on Wii or older games that were ported to GBA and DS way back when which were just reduced down titles. We saw some of that as PS3 and X360 fell from relevance. Destiny had features removed, left out, or was not brought up to date with the latest DLC (Rise of Iron I believe didn't get a 360 PS3 release). CoD got a watered down version. Assassin's Creed Rogue was released. This didn't resonate well with gamers, which is why that trend did not last very long. It provides a satisfying proof of concept that this is not acceptable. Nor should it be.
You see you can't look at all gamers as equal in their preferences. Some prefer RPG's, Some prefer shooters, RTS, platformers, and other genres. Some have favorite studios (like myself I love sony first party, Square Enix/Eidos, and Capcom). Those favorites don't always overlap with say someone who loves Nintendo First party and dreams of the next big Nintendo release. That also includes things Nintendo can't provide either due to lack understanding a specific style or not being able to provide it. Themes and aesthetics are just as important as the game play itself. It's important ot have as many gritty dark themed games as you do happy brightly colored titles. I enjoy both, but I'd find myself playing more Killzone, Tomb Raider, or Uncharted than say that Yoshi Yarn game, Mario Odyssey. I'd rather play Overwatch instead of Splatoon, I just enjoy the themes, the stories, the character designs, and the game play more. That's where the divide comes in. If games on PS4 start existing outside the realm of what is feasible on switch, then I have less reason to play on Switch. Which means those still on the fence who might say to themselves "Damn if only Destiny were on Switch, I would by one" will never do so. That's what makes next year so interesting, Metroid Prime is awesomeness, but how many Nintendo fans already own a switch? I'd imagine we're getting close to getting to the max owners of the system and we'll likely reach that entire userbase after Smash releases next week.
So this is where your confusion seems to come in. Switch will continue to get games from Nintendo. Some indies will ride out the next couple of years just like Vita until the next shiny thing comes along to distract them. However 3rd parties will dry up. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th gen PS4 games won't run on switch as those games will be running at a breaking point. I imagine we'll start to see a greater frequency of games running at 720p this year on PS4 which spells an issue for Launch Xb1 and more importantly Switch. That takes us to a space that is all to familiar to anyone who owned a GameCube or a Wii. Trust me it's not kind. You'll see some great releases from Nintendo and for Nintendo fans. However those looking for the next big AAA experience, they'll look else where. When it comes to 3rd party franchises like Assassin's Creed, maybe Mass Effect, perhaps Diablo 4, the next fallout, the next elder scrolls. Well they won't be found. You and I will still be here with our switches waiting for the next Zelda or Metroid etc. The gaming world will move on from Nintendo. People will be hopping on next gen. Nintendo will be forced to do one of two things. Launch a new switch with more power or ride out the generation with the switch replacing the 3DS fulltime.
You can say that Console gaming on the go is only a part of it, but lets be honest, thats it. We can't say its the games, because everything Nintendo has released up to this point has been Wii U titles with the exception of 3 to 4 titles. I have a suspicion about a few of them being Wii U titles converted like Breath of the Wild. Anyone who keeps a careful eye on gaming will tell you that a consoles success is built on its games. While Nintendo games can justify a purchase much like it did for the GameCube way back in the 2000's it wasn't enough to keep the console out in front and in the minds of the average gamer (not the first party fans). It's the reason the Wii for all of its success fell into obscurity last generation. No one cared. It's the reason the Wii U didn't sell like a beast. The Wii had literally nothing releasing on it in its final days. Nintendo had to pull two games out of mothballs in Europe and Japan just to release something for it. It's why the joke of the wii being senior citizens favorite dust collector is uttered today.
Now again being fair, I don't see the Switch collecting dust for the remainder of its life. I see the system hitting 60 million and then taking it easy as it tries to reach 80 million. Being the only handheld at present its very realistic to expect the 3DS to be outsold by the switch at some point. It's a better machine with better features. However we have no idea what Sony, Microsoft, or even Google at present have planned for the portable market. As I've speculated before, a PS4 Go could become a thing. With PS4 titles from the PS Store being its main source of games (as all of them are on there) and it being basically a PS4. With the promise of "Enhanced for PS5" also being a possibility that could cause some gamers to consider this hypothetical machine which docks to let them continue or cross save their game to a PS5 for 4K magic and Real Time Reflections etc. These are all things that could slow down the Switch even further in the future. However this is all way off topic.
My points are to outline the Switches falling out of hype mode as people start to realize the limits of the machine and that it's awesome hardware has its limits. That maybe those mobile chipsets aren't as caught up as these chuckle head reporters think. As I've re-iterated countless times. This is not a doom and gloom response. I'm not saying the switch will vanish from the face of the planet and Nintendo will be back in panic mode that their pride and joy isn't selling. They'll still make money, they'll still sell hardware, they'll still make games, and still have a fan base. I just feel that the hardware has now aged significantly like its competitions. It's going to start feeling that way and one of its selling points which is in part fueling its adoption rate will cease to be. It's other selling points like being the only place for Nintendo will still be there. It's selling point of still being a place to pick up the currently announced indie titles will still be viable so long as the indies don't flee the ship like they did the Vita, PS3, and Xbox One as soon as the new hotness came along.
I like my switch, but even I don't buy every indie game that comes along for it. I'm getting Bloodstained Ritual of the Night on PS4, for trophies and that sweet sweet 4K HDR. Ya I'll probably get the switch version for much the same reason as I have some games on Vita, yet again (that don't have cross play, buy, trophies, or save). It'll be purely case by case. Ya sure I'll get FF7, X|X-2, XII, etc for the Switch, but I'm an FF fan. They could put FF on my phone and I would... oh wait already have done that... that settles that. lol
Anyway I'm a little tired of this topic and I'm starting to run in circles with a lot of these responses. I just say this. Take my predictions as they are, a careful analysis as to why this analyst might be wrong. I could be wrong too. However I think this guy is throwing a hail marry as everything else I'm seeing over the past 40 years would seem to indicate this guy is completely off his nut. Fiscal year will end in march, which means next year, you won't have Pokemon and Smash to lean on. There is a lot happening next year that will influence consumer decisions on what to buy. A PS4 being 200 dollars with a game is very appealing, especially if that collection sees benefits on PS5, could work in a PS4 Go, and PS4 titles from 3rd parties just don't end up on switch. Let's just leave it at that.
Re: Watch Out Sony, A New Report Predicts The Switch Will Outsell The PS4 In 2019
@SwitchForce
The PS4 will be 6 years old by time the PS5 launches. There is nothing Short sighted about a console with a 5 to 6 year life cycle. That's better than the life cycle of most cellphones and PC GPUs. It also takes about a year for a console to ramp up, in otherwords when a system slips into last gen, it tends to have a year of life or so left in it. Its the kind of thing that results in God of War 2 for PS2 to release 6 months after PS3 launched. It's the sort of thing that results to cross generational ports like we saw with Assassin's Creed Black Flag, Tomb Raider Definitive Edition, Madden 25, Battlefield 4, Injustice, Final Fantasy XIV, The Last of Us Remastered, Diablo III, Destiny, Alien Isolation, Shadow of Mordor, Little Big Planet 3, and a good number of other titles.
Basically its time for a new console generation. That posses a problem for switch. It came in late. Years late. Basically pulling the same BS sony pulled with the Vita "We can take current gen on the go, but not really, kinda".
"The Switch shows that all the GPU power and 4K isn't what sells brings gamers of all age." It also doesn't really provide a counter to this sentiment, nor does it provide any rhyme or reason why the switch is having success. I think we both can say its the games that sell a machine and its gimmick. Nintendo's success has in this century at least always been on the Gimmick. If that gimmick catches on we have DS, Wii, and Switch. When it doesn't we have virtual Boy, Wii U, and 3DS. keep in mind that the 3DS's first year was pretty awful with predictions of its demise. Nintendo had to pull out all the stops for the 3DS to save it. Inspite of the 3DS's success, it took good games to save it from obscurity. The 3D feature is largely ignored. The systme is not projected to sell as well as its predecessors. That's quite a ways to fall. Nintendo's gimmick is Portable gaming on your TV, Console gaming on the go. It's a good gimmick, its one consumers want.
This is where your argument starts to fall apart. It is GPU power that sells the switch. Good enough GPU and CPU to do what is needed to take what the bigger more capable machines can do on a smaller scale. Without that chipset in there, the switch is not capable. They could have made a 3DS for the TV without 3D, I guaranty you that it would not sell half as well as the switch. It's because the Switch can run games like DOOM, Wolfenstien, Diablo 3, and many of the popular indie games is the reason for its success. Big console experiences on the go.
Now you can kick 4K in the balls all you want. Doesn't change the fact that those machines particularly PS5 will have the muscle to do things well outside the range of the switch. You take away the thing that makes the gimmick work, you've lost part of your audience.
"PS has those one time hits but beyond that what others?"
I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to say here, but I'll do my best to address it. PlayStation or SIE puts out on average 3 big AAA titles a year and tends to support many larger titles (Death Stranding, Street Fighter V for example). They library is cultivated quite well and 3rd parties support it just as much. while it is impressive to see Bethesda put some of its games on Switch, this isn't universally true. This is where the "Beyond" I guess comes in, in your question. Where is EA? Where is Ubisoft? Where is Square Enix/Eidos? Where is Take Two? Where is Activision/Blizzard?
EA:
We all know EA has a stick up its butt about Nintendo, but we would be foolish to think that games like Battlefront 1&2, Battlefield, Anthem, Mass Effect Andromeda, Dragon Age (4?), and really anything they are working on would run on switch. So even if they didn't have this issue, we mostly would see Sports games from them. You wouldn't see the kind of support the Wii got with games like Dead Space Extraction and the like.
Ubisoft:
Well we got a mediocre port of South Park The Fractured But Whole. We got a project specifically tailored for the Switch that had mario tied into it (which was apparently a long game for ubisoft based on interviews). Then there is Star Link (I recommend this btw) which as far as I can tell isn't selling very well based on price cuts in stores these past few weeks. Where is Assassin's Creed Odyssey? Where is The Division? Where is Rainbow Six Siege? Where is Farcry 5? For Honor? Watch Dogs 2? AC Origins? Ubisoft clearly has no faith in these games running on Nintendo's machine. Based on how well these games have sold (if VGChartz is to be believed, normally I don't so just work with me here) close to 10 million copies or more is quite a bit. These games won't run on Switch. The next generation games have less of a chance of doing so. These are the big titles. Sony provided the performance to help cultivate their libraries.
Square/Eidos
This case is interesting. Square has honestly shown the best support with unique new RPG's build in a style 20 years old. Many of those games probably would have been on Vita if it hadn't been a failure and 3DS had there been no switch. We have seen Lost Sphere on PS4 so there is that. We are seeing a lot of early Final Fantasy games, remasters (which I expect) coming to the Switch. However there is no FF15 and the FF15 switch got is universally regarded with disgust. You're not going to see Shadow or Rise of the Tomb Raider on Switch either. Are you waiting for Deus Ex? That isn't coming either. The reason. Performance. These games don't run well on base PS4's, they barely touch 4K on the XB1X and PS4 Pro. A lot of these games have done well.
Take Two
Assuming Gearbox is still under that label, I doubt Borderlands 3 is being crafted for switch. RDR2 will not run on Switch and it is easily going to outsell much of what the switch has to offer. GTA5? A last gen game has not come to switch yet either (which honestly surprises me). RDR2 just wont run on switch. Granted L.A Noire is on Switch, but really we haven't seen much else. Aside from them trying to fill the sports hole left by EA, I just don't see strong support from them.
Activision/Blizzard
Well we are seeing older games like Diablo 3 make their way over to Switch. That's cool. However you won't see Overwatch on Switch. Overwatch players are a crazy bunch. There isn't much reason for them to care about on the go game, I think many of them would have something to say about WiFi Latency among other things. They like a solid frame rate when 12 ultimates are going off at once on screen during a critical moment in overtime. Something the PS4 and XB1 base models struggle with. Many of them have switch to the mid refresh hardware or bought a PC. I think that says something about where their priorities lie. Those fans threw a fit over 4K UI textures. BLOPS4 isn't on switch and neither is CoDWW2, I doubt either would run on it. Destiny 2? Say what you will, that game does have an audience, a loyal one at that. That community had a good chunk migrate to PC because of 60 FPS and resolutions north of 1080p. HDR I hear is a selling point as well.
"Even on some Kickstarters game developers notice they have Switch as the first of those they want to get to after the PC. So that should tell you where the developers are looking in the coming years."
That honestly doesn't tell me very much. There was a time PS Vita was listed before 3DS. Guess which machine is still around and kicking. I should know I kickstarted a few of those PS Vita campaigns because I wanted to be sure my system still had life in it years after sony stopped supporting it. Bloodstained got cancelled. Time Spinner runs like garbage. To add insult to injury indie games are finding a home on Switch like they did on Vita. You'll find the youngest machine gets the most attention because those machines tend to be content starved. Let's also explore the fact that a lot of Kickstarter projects tend to be terrible. Mighty No 9 was a dumpster fire, Timespinner was a disjointed mess, Yooka-laylee was critically panned. kickstarter is nice, but not everything is Banner Saga or Hollow Knight. It's just an anecdotal argument.You're going to find once PS5 releases (or Xbox Scarlet) that many of those kickstarter projects are going to ride the hype wave for that as well. You'll start to see PS5 and/or Xbox Scarlet first, not Switch. The reason is the ecosystem will be less crowded.
Full disclosure. I am a developer. I can honestly tell you the switch is winding down. I feel like the machine will continue to do well, but expect that momentum to slip. Expect great games from Nintendo. This isn't a doom and gloom post. It was never meant to be. Just a reality check. The fantasy world gamers live in where "Graphics don't matter" hasn't been true since those words were first uttered in the 90's. The visually most impressive and the most impressive simulations have always dominated. You need hardware for that. Strong hardware. your software does not exist without it. If your machine is no longer suitable to be the lowest common denominator, it gets reduced in priority. It doesn't matter how you feel about graphics or simulation. Expect 3rd parties to be less part of the future. Expect indies to follow the cheese. Expect Nintendo to continue living in its own little bubble doing what it does best, making games sing on their hardware, keeping its fanbase happy till they are ready to move on.
Re: Watch Out Sony, A New Report Predicts The Switch Will Outsell The PS4 In 2019
@electrolite77
"You said it yourself. Handheld. Comparing a handheld directly with non-handhelds doesn’t work. Portable systems have been selling for 30 years now, regardless of what Home systems are available."
Hi, in 2018, this is nonsense. Portable gaming is dead. Long live portable gaming. Nintendo consolidated the two into a single unit. The switch is largely dependent on that well of games established on PS4 to not dry up. That Library is already getting title that can't run on Switch and has for some time. That problem is going ot get worse with the PS5. If you look at the Vita performance concerns will continue to get worse as the divide grows. Pricing will also be an issue. See Vita again. If you're getting more games that cant run on Switch and for significantly less. Well you find yourself with a portable facing the same issues the wii suffered from.
Don't get me wrong the Switch is everything the Vita should have been and it is leaps and bounds better than the Wii. However it has short comings that we're going to need to face. Overwatch, a 3 year old game that I still sink countless hours into still doesn't play on the Switch. There is a good chance that I'll be playing Overwatch on PS5 with 4K HDR at 60FPS. I'm already running the game at decent settings on my PS4. Games like RDR2 and AC Odyssey are not coming to the switch. The only reason to play Starlink on Switch is because of starfox.
Ultimately you miss the point. Just because you can take it on the go, doesn't mean you should. I feel like the Switch will still get good games, particularly from Nintendo. I'll love seeing more of the back catalog of Zelda titles come ot the system (Especially since I hate Breath of the Wild). I think Switch owners will be happy for the next 3 to 6 years with the switch well into the PS5's life. however they'll have to buy a next gen system too as the selection of titles sees a fall off of 3rd party titles. That price cut is gonna hurt.
Re: Watch Out Sony, A New Report Predicts The Switch Will Outsell The PS4 In 2019
sounds like someone forgot Sony still has 4 in the chamber before the ps5 release. Ghosts of Tsushima, Death Stranding, Days Gone, and The Last of Us part 2. That's not including big AAA releases like anthem, dmc5, and a whole lot of other games that aren't coming to switch.
Next year is a big year for PS4. The late adopters will be hopping on once the PS4 is forced permanently down to 200. I imagine we may even see 175 or 150 as Sony attempts to start making room for ps5 inventory for the dip in PS4 sales in 2020 won't require as many units to be on hand. Ps5 price tag will shy away a few early adopters. Maybe even encourage a few to late adopters that capitalize on the used games market to get a new PS4 as they wait for 2025 to come around.
So I feel like the swan songs of the ps4 will propel them to new heights with Sony moving closer to 25m units next year if not more. Sony will want to lock in that 100m sold as fast as possible so they can increase both consumer and share holder confidence. In fact I'd go as far as saying that Sony may go as far as having 100m sale on PSN and drop the system to 150 for a week and include a packin game around Septemberish.
In light of all the hoopla and switch fans being locked away playing smash, we will see most interest in the switch wane. Why by a 300 dollar handheld that plays first generation PS4 games, Indies, and Nintendo's fantastic library of titles. When the PS4 with it's massive library of titles only available on PS4 and xb1. There is also the discussion of ps5 games being impossible to Port to switch without huge compromises. So I imagine part of that audience will shift to save for the new machine and stop considering the switch. If Sony and Ms do as I expect, enhanced for ps5 might be something we see on PS4 boxes, further making the ps4 version something more interesting to consumers (I feel like scarlet will see the same treatment for xbone).
I can't say whether Nintendo will hit that Target of 17.3 million. However o do feel that there are a lot of claims being made here not taking a whole lot into account.
Re: Nintendo Switch Was The Best-Selling Console On Cyber Monday
@JaxonH well we've seen this sort of flux before in the past 5 years. The second year of PS4 xb1 for example. Xb1 outsold PS4 on black Friday and Xbox 1. PS4 had on going sales and bundles that weren't restricted to the holiday weekend and parents just grabbing the latest gadget for their kids. For that month of November we ended up finding out that not only did PS4 out sell Xbox one, it crushed Xbox one. Ever since I've taken this data with a grain of salt as I see the month long sales eclipsing black Friday and Cyber Monday. You can see this reflected in other retailers. Amazon had it's sales for well over a week. Walmart 2 weeks. I think the only story I could find sticking hard to one day sales was GameStop.
I'm a somewhat anecdotal bit of evidence I got a second PS4 for 200 the week prior to black Friday. The spiderman game I already owned and I'm gifting it to my brother in law. I now have a PS4 at my parents home when I come visit. Makes my life easier as I've been flying out there a lot of late. I didn't wait till black Friday or Cyber Monday.
Anyway I'm simply saying these numbers are not worth getting excited over. Sales outside of black Friday and Cyber Monday tend to lure in customers and at times the days themselves aren't as big boons to the bottom line. Like with the Xbox one and PS4 a few years back. They did alright, but the majority of their sales came before and after those days were tallied.
Re: Nintendo Switch Was The Best-Selling Console On Cyber Monday
Thanks to the fact that black Friday is seemingly a week+ long event for everything including the internet, this information is largely useless. Just means the switch didn't good deals during that time and a lot of people gave up on waiting. Which is understandable for the fledgeling console. Meanwhile anyone interested in a PS4 for 200 could snap one up before black Friday.
Re: Rumour: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Is Taking To The Skies On Switch
Give me a special edition with wiimote joycon and I won't just preorder it, I'll be happy I own a switch for the first time ever. This game deserves to be in he. If I had the ability to play with and without motion controls so I can play on a plane and continue when reach my destination. Happy camper. That's all I'll say about that. Give me all the zelda he releases. Maybe a new collection of majora and ocarina. Just turn it into a zelda machine. I want to have a reason to disconnect my Wii u finally.
Re: Reggie Defends Continued Support Of 3DS Line, Believes Next Gen Of Players Need To Start Somewhere
Right Reggie , 3rd pillar right should be fine. nothing to worry about
Re: Video: New Nintendo Switch Trailer Celebrates The Console's 1,000+ Games
@LunarFlame17 I wonder how many of those games are on every other platform and are over 2 years old. Don't get me wrong I have about 20 switch games, but I still find myself in this land of playing those games on something else. Like overcooked 2. Friend of mine raves about it and has a pool of one person to play with. Good game, but I have a large pool of people to play with who mostly got it on PS4. Then you have Doom which I did enjoy, but I already played it and looked better and was a smoother experience on the platform I played on than what was on switch. Basically that twiddles the library down to almost nothing. I'm back to buying Nintendo games only. I might make an exception for final fantasy, but I can play everything from 1 to 10 on my vita already.
Not trolling, just the state of things. The system has some interesting titles, but I still find myself going back to PS4. I also commute by train for 45 minutes into work each day. I also fly back to see my family twice a year, still pull on the vita or 3ds. I'm thinking about dq8 or trails of cold steel for my 5 hour flight next month, not botw or Xenoblade.
Re: Video: Cloud Gaming Is Viable In The Future Based On This Assassin's Creed Odyssey Review
I can't tell if his compression artifacts are from YouTube or the stream. I feel like it's from the stream as I don't have these issues with digital foundry videos. His muddied textures are likely due to this. Comparing against my 4k footage and the PS4 pro footage since I own it for both platforms, I feel like both of these trump the streaming version. Going back down to 1080p, my PS4 still manages to make me feel like being locked to my PS4 is the better way to go. Even with super sampling features turned off.
There is also no way for me to gage the input lag present here. Honestly ac Odyssey has a lot of built in lag to begin with, which may explain why he doesn't notice. Every attack feels like it has a wined up period in order to hide the fact that your button presses are not happening in the proper timing window. I would be more impressed by his impressions if he was playing something like soul Calibur 6.
So not convinced.
Re: Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aimé On Why The Switch Uses A Mobile App For Voice Chat
@BubbleMatrix82
I'm sorry you're doing some serious mental gymnastics for this response to the extent that I feel like you're mentally unstable. If you're going to a child about this and make basic assumptions about the cost of Party Chat, then we're done. You're not equipped for this conversation and you're wasting my time.
Re: Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aimé On Why The Switch Uses A Mobile App For Voice Chat
No I personally make 100k a year. I'm happy you're such a proficient hacker, but you're not the only one in this conversation. I ultimately have no need to buy a new phone. People with less security concerns than either of us will have less of a reason. I also don't keep half the information you think on my phone.
I think you're a bit mistaken in how the industry works and seem to think socioeconomics exists in some kind of bubble. As far as Nintendo's pricing policy goes you have some errors. Nintendo is the only company on their platform that does that. 3rd parties regularly put their games on sale. Nintendo waits 4 to 5 years before switching. To a greatest hits model of 40 dollars for older games. Nintendo is also the only 1st party with these policies. Something to consider with an all digital future. By the way botw has been on sale 3 times for less than 50 new on amazon. I would be surprised if other retail stores haven't followed suit especially with Nintendo creating a new version a year later forcing an inventory dump for space.
OK so let's play the demographic game. I call bullpoop. Let's start with disposable income. I don't have debt. Ergo I have more income then the snot nosed brat with student loans making 60k a year struggling to make ends meet who will undoubtedly rack up the debt to get this device. Your target audience has this problem if you hadn't noticed. Good ol'college age range. That range bellow 18 has not the money to buy most things on their own except that narrow 2 years with a part time job you think has disposable disposable income. My cousins in that age group are to busy using that money on dates, paying for their first car, and other big ticket items. They aren't buying 1 game per month. Maybe 1 every 4 months. It really doesn't matter what you think the target audience is, its usually someone in their 30s or older getting this machine. Parents seem to be gravitating to this machine because it gives them the freedom to play a game when they finally get a chance to breathe. Such as a few youtubers who have said as much. Statically ignoring the 25+ is suicide given numbers provided by Sony and Microsoft.
But what does any of this matter. If more than half your install base refuses to use this app Nintendo thinks innovates, then nothing either of us has said means a whole hell of a lot. Reggie seems to have this idea that I want to talk to someone through the app and seamlessly start playing when I get home. PlayStations app supports messaging I rarely use it for those functions and those conversations boil down to, "ya I'll be on in 25 minutes". If I want deeper meaningful conversations I'll wait till I can actually talk to a person with my undivided attention. Kind of the reason texting is done more on phones than actual phone calls in the last 10 years.
Sadly your last point is foolish. The minute Nintendo requires an additional device that isn't their own for the use of their own systems features, it becomes a Nintendo problem. You say its an investment problem. I'd say that it was bad investment by Nintendo to lean on a technology that requires consumers to invest or use other hardware in addition to the hardware they just bought at the same price or with a higher inconvenience factor. This isn't a poor consumer investment. Its tone deaf to say otherwise and ignorant to believe such things. That would be like making ray tracing mandatory on every game going forward this month.
As far as I'm concerned I have no issue with the app existing, I just want the option to do it the way I always have, which is way more convenient and easy to setup. Even my PlayStation Vita seems to understand that. My gaming tablet in a sort of irony understands that as well, it doesn't require my PC or ps4 to play fortnite with my discord app running.
I was also not bragging about how much I make. So no need to be a jerk about it like its a matter of pride. I was demonstrating a case that defeats your point. Which is I have no need to upgraded my phone every year, every other year, every 3 years, and I can barely justify 4 and I'm in an upper income bracket. The hassle involved, especially since i root and build my own android flavor for my phones as soon as I get them, just makes it a pain. I don't want to spend a weekend installing poop on a phone, especially since family drops one in my lap every damned year. Big family, big support. The average phone user doesn't go on an upgrade spree. While I was considering a new phone this year, I decided to wait for the next series of galaxy phones and see how it sizes up to the note 9 or look into other phones. I am due. I upgrade when I'm ready, not when Nintendo says I'm ready or anyone else for that matter.
The sooner you understand these things you might be a bit more sympathetic to the socioeconomics involved here.
Re: Feature: What Do You Want From A New Nintendo Switch?
Bluetooth headset support. Would very much like to just switch from my phone to my switch without pulling out a 3.5mm wired headphone set.
Additional hardware resources to be able to run background apps like cross game chat.
If we are going for a performance bump, adding HDR and 4k upscaling would be nice. Don't even need 4k.
Re: Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aimé On Why The Switch Uses A Mobile App For Voice Chat
@BubbleMatrix82
I'm an adult with a phone and make 100k a year. Even I don't want to use my cell phone for voice chat in my games. That battery is for my GPS, when I need to look something up, the trivial amount of power needed for music, email, work email, texting, and emergencies. This usually drains my galaxy s5 of power before I even get on the train in the evening to head home. I don't want to be using such an important device in my life for anything game related. Not only do I not have space on my phone for a Nintendo voice chat app, but I'm not even putting games on it. Sure I have my keygen for blizzard, steam, and googles version, but my work key is on it too. I barely justify discord and the psn app on my phone. I get pissed when LinkedIn wants me to install their app instead of giving me a web portal for mobile.
I'm not going to upgrade my phone just for this app. I can't justify using discord on my phone instead of my PCs discord app or psn/xbl party on the machine I'm using. I also don't want to be tethered to another device.
So it isn't just money that is the problem here. Its convenience and an established standard that needs to be added onto, not replaced with a less convenient and convoluted solution. Money is a factor. Even for the middle class. The lower middle class can afford phones, but they aren't buy galaxy s 9 and iPhone X s. They usually by the low end and keep the features on the cheap. The fact that you would even use the middle class as an example of those who could excuse this baffles me.
Re: New Study Suggests That Playing Violent Video Games Leads To Increased Physical Aggression
@ArcanaXVI
Perhaps it needs my attention as well. At present I have the following questions that need answering from that study:
1) What were their control factors
2) what was the data on test subjects:
Such as their state of mind before the tests
How does this compare to repetitive frustrating activities.
3) What is the basis of the hypothesis they were testing and how did they go about testing it.
etc.
I find a lot of studies leave a lot of factors out and just throw a sample pool into a room without trying to understand the data they are getting back. Then retesting based on that information and observation.
Statistics are fun, but if not used correctly they can identify non issues and lead to false presumptions instead of careful analysis and determining actual correlation. With the way things have been executed these days I have to honestly put everything to scrutiny, even if said thing could be career ending, it doesn't seem to stop people from making career ending moves and declaring Vaccines are some super high risk killer of children.
Re: New Study Suggests That Playing Violent Video Games Leads To Increased Physical Aggression
I'd love to see their information on their control group. I'd also like tto see how this compares to those involved in school athletic programs. All this tells me is that such individuals are more confident in their actions and more prone to act on impulse as a result.
Re: Random: Katamari Director Wasn't Impressed With Mario Or Zelda On Switch
@Dalarrun farcry 5 might have been a closer analog, ultimately I was sight game design philosophy, not so much final implementation. AC has lost its identity and I really should have been more clear.
Anyway, the over world of Zelda is really just filler content that got a high budget. There really isnt anything redeeming about its "ah ha" moments. I've picked this game apart and the best conclusion I can come to is Nintendo wasted 150+ hours of the gamers time for what amounts to 20 hours of truly rewarding gameplay. What good is an open world if the player doesn't really enjoy traversing it and ignores fast travel. I can only think of three open world titles that do that. All 3 of which I'm sure Nintendo fans would thumb their noses at them being Sony exclusive.
I think right now gamers are still in awe of sandboxes that let them "explore". While this zelda finally takes the kid gloves off, it misses a lot of the other things gamers appreciate that the filler open world design of botw misses. Maybe the Zelda team needs to take a step back and consider what they are doing for a moment. Zelda has released it's first truly divisive title since wind waker and its the third game in the series to truly divide fans. We will see more dissatisfied players crop up.
Don't get me wrong there is fun to be found in botw. There are a lot of cool systems. There is a recipe for greatness here that if Nintendo can find it and capture the magic of older Zelda games while maintaining the finer qualities of botw, then they could have the greatest Zelda game ever made. Right now its just a game that relies to heavily on the lure of what is over the next horizon, honestly I'd rather be doing something a bit more grandiose than screwing around with field enemies and worrying about a green wheels and broken weapons with the open world equivalent to red barrels from a shooter.
Re: Random: Katamari Director Wasn't Impressed With Mario Or Zelda On Switch
At least he isn't closeted on the subject. There are a lot of developers myself included who feel the same about those two games. Though for me it isn't the huge disconnect from narrative on Zelda that is a problem. Over reliance on systemic design (a very Ubisoft philosophy BTW) to get players through the experience kind of sours things for me. Sure their are puzzles and dungeons, but they aren't the elaborate machinations and traps I loved exploring. The game is a collection of fast food joints and not a small handful of truly hearty meals. Essentially turned Zelda into a far more annoying version of assassins creed. Not saying that the game isn't fun for someone, but aside from its implementation of Zelda Ubisoft, with a touch of Nintendo, it left me wanting and missing every Zelda before it.
Mario is good and fun, an enjoyable title, but its still Mario. I was done once I finished the final boss. Solid game, but it fails to do what Mario 64 did and is just Mario 64 with body possession. Not a problem, but still just something to snack and to have if you own a switch, but not a reason to buy the switch.
Re: Soapbox: We Like To Grumble, But Nintendo Switch Online Is Actually A Very Generous Offer
@VexingInsanity I feel like the number of gamers with data plan sharing are more the minority, especially when it comes to Nintendo products, than my issues. If you don't understand why what you just said is in error kind of misses the point. I'm at the airport, I turn my data on for my laptop, suddenly a push to my switch I forgot about starts pulling down because OMG THE SWITCH FOUND AN ACCESS POINT TO USE when I powered it on. Suddenly I'm getting a notification on my screen that a download and updates have finished. In any case you're making an added annoyance for me ot have to deal with. Making an excuse for something that you yourself don't really want to deal with, but would rather just take the beating then try to do anything about it. So I do think its nintendo's fault for not providing me an option that suits my needs as a consumer. If they don't supply it, then I don't have to buy it.
as far as your "I doubt you won't be any where were there is wifi" really isn't the point I was making. Sure my hotel room has wifi, sure my parents home when I fly clear across the country has wifi, my work place, that little coffee place down the street. The whole point is I don't want to have to go through the hassle of setting up wifi for something that exists on my switch. That's assuming you can even get the wifi working because of what ever stupid thing the onsite wifi has setup. Or like in some places in the US where for some baffling reason the concept of a free wifi still eludes them. You consider it a minor issue. That's subjective. It's a hassle. One I don't have to deal with on my other hardware configurations. Often times you'll find some locations even block gaming services. Like the hotel I was in for 2 weeks when I moved to san francisco. I couldn't play Overwatch on their connection or even really download or buy games.
As far as "only one of its kind" goes. What planet are you living on where this is a reality? When you get a free PS+ Game, the expiration date is set to the end of your PS+ subscription. Clearly not the only service of its kind. Everything Switch Online offers, PSN also offers. Games With Gold and Xbox Game Pass also operate in the same way as the system established by Sony. Those systems are unlikely to be offline for the year plus you may have on your subscription, but they have more sense than 7 days.
I think you miss the point as to why I mention not wanting to play online. I don't give two shakes about whether there are people who are using switch for online. In my case I have no reason too. Putting a subscription pay wall up for the one NES game I might want to play right now is the problem. 20 dollars for one game is too much. I'm not likely to play 5 NES or 10 NES games to even make that a deal in a year. Just like me pay 3 to 6 dollars like I have been and give me access to the game as something I own. It's a rip off for me to forced into services I don't need and would not use that I find inferior to the competition which I do have already. That fact that you fail to recognize that there is a sub group working in that context just shows how out of touch you are with the community as a whole and how self centered your point of view is. It's not relevant that my issues are my own, its a state of alienating a customer, where there is one, there are usually others. Even if it is just 10% of switch owners, that is still 10% of their audience they are alienating. That's 2 million customers you've managed to cross out of 20 million system owners.
I'm just one person in one minority in a collection of minorities not happy with the Switch Online services right now. Nintendo needs to address this problem. They need find a way to reach all 20 million. This is a very negative reception and I'm not even just considering the NES games when I say this. It casts Nintendo in a negative light.
Anyway the simplest solution for me is to stay on my 3DS, wait for homebrew to get around Nintendo's foolishness and just install retro games on the system myself. Just keep gaming on PSN and PC for the foreseeable future given how short sighted Nintendo is on getting all of this working right and failing to solve problems that were worked out 12 years ago.
Re: Soapbox: We Like To Grumble, But Nintendo Switch Online Is Actually A Very Generous Offer
@VexingInsanity Quiet often. First off I don't want to configure my portable game devices to use my phone, in this era of data plans with data caps, that is the last thing I want to do. Just takes one time of me forgetting to turn off the feature on my phone to cause my switch to eat up an entire months of data from my phone when I push a game out to it.
Secondly I don't reconnect my switch to the internet every time I go somewhere. There are times where I'm out of the country for 7+ days at a time, I just want to dock the damned thing and charge it. I'm not looking to hop online to play a game.
Third, what if Nintendo has an incident similar to that of PlayStation Network where their service was down for a month because some jackhole breached their security. I haven't seen enough from Nintendo to indicate that they even understand how to protect their consumers in the online space. Why would I trust them to have their servers up for a duration like that.
Hell as I type this I'm two system software updates behind. Goes to show you how often I connect my switch to the internet. As it stands my 3DS is a better device to get my retro fix. So much for the ultimate portable, Nintendo couldn't even get that right.
Throwing out the rest of the Switches library when I want to play a very specific game is also not a counter argument. That's like coming to me and saying "here have vanilla ice cream cause we're out of cookie dough". I didn't come to their shop for vanilla, I came for the cookie dough. If you don't have something often enough, it just becomes an irritant.
Just because you can't fathom something happening too you doesn't mean it won't happen to someone else. Right now my Vita is the only portable I keep consistently updated and online, because I need to for cross saves. A feature Switch has no reason to worry about because of the great design choices they made. Just let me buy the NES, SNES, N64, GC, Wii, etc games I want to play on my switch. I feel like this was a waste of time and is trying to appease some share holder happy to see a subscription service instead of a sellable product. Subscription services are usually very consumer unfriendly, unless that service gives the consumer a means to chooses a path that is right for them. In this case Nintendo Online isn't it. I don't play games online on Switch. It's just not the space I want to play in. All the games I want to play online are not on switch and if they were I wouldn't be inclined to rebuy them.
Re: Soapbox: We Like To Grumble, But Nintendo Switch Online Is Actually A Very Generous Offer
Generous? Man you have a twisted sense of things. Generous is what you call ps+ back on ps3. Back when you could play online for free and plus was this nice optional club for gamers to get free games and huge discounts. There was no breaking up my friends from uncharted 2 or 3, killing my clan from killzone 2 and 3, there was no expectation that it was needed, just the perks spoke for themselves. This sort of online was good and still is. That was generous. Now we have ps+ and xbl as some sort of requirement with perks as a means of justifying the 60 a year. What is Nintendo bringing to the table. Nes games that terminate access after 7 days if not always on? Bunch of broken old classics that only retro enthusiasts can get excited about.
Look Nintendo's perks aren't bad, they are good first steps to some interesting ideas, but you need to look at what we lost. We can't buy our classics library's to take with us. We have to live in a space that allows online play, a feature most probably won't use ever. An app nobody likes is no excuse, especially when gamers are pointing at a pic gamers solution for fixing this problem, thank you discord.
Nintendo should have kept online free. It's cheap sure, but it's a lame way of justifying something so you feel better about it. In the age of loot boxes and battle passes, how can we even think this is remotely ok. That price tag will go up like a the cost of tickets to Disney world. We've seen how that price has remained the same on the other platforms, which it hasn't. So expecting that in 2 or 3 years we don't see this price start it's crawl to 60 I'll be amazed.
Re: Cosmic Star Heroine Dev Explains Its "Frustrating" Experience Working With Nintendo
@Whalehome Well that's the sticking point isn't it? This game didn't review bad, in fact it rates a 76 on metacritic. I won't sit here and act like this is a masterpiece of gaming and worth passing up something like Octopath Traveler or Lost Sphere. Though I would say I'd like to know it exists. The area of "16-bit" rpg's is a bit limited even on switch. It isn't too much to ask to deliver on the bare necessities of releasing a game. Its a disservice to the consumer base to have some content have less presence than others if the review score has to be above an 8/10. Namely the capacity to preorder a game through the store front, see a trailer, and maybe have some kind of presence on the store landing page/blog/twitter. I won't act like sony is a saint about this, they certainly have some incomplete pages, but this game got exposure else where. They did better else where. Given the trend of how well some indies have done on Switch. nintendo has basically alienated a publisher/developer. The end result is them sticking to first parties that treat them better. This is a dangerous line to walk.
Re: Cosmic Star Heroine Dev Explains Its "Frustrating" Experience Working With Nintendo
@Whalehome that's really a subjective point of view. Some people who are into RPGs would say the same of cosmic star heroine and may find a game like hallow Knight or Celeste to their liking. I own Celeste and CSH. I really do not feel like hallow knight is drop everything worthy like say iconoclasts or even God of War.
Re: Cosmic Star Heroine Dev Explains Its "Frustrating" Experience Working With Nintendo
@Nintendofan83 I can't say I agree with your sentiment. Sony gave this game more attention than Nintendo had. Its the reason I even know this game exists and why I scooped it up on ps4/vita. I had no idea it was releasing on switch. It had a few mentions on PlayStation blog, I can't recall if it got a tweet. It appeared on the PlayStation store landing page. This is a pretty obscure game and Sony is pretty good on touching just about every indie on their system. I'd imagine Microsoft is about the same and I know steam showcased this game and recommended it to me on pre-release complete with trailers.
If he is being whinny , perhaps he's entitled to it. Nintendo does play favorites. You're far more likely to hear about a technical marvel, exclusive game, or of them pilfering an exclusive for themselves then you will here about a cross platform title who's only merit is that it is good and sold well.
Re: Head Of Abstraction Games Addresses Technical Performance Of The Switch
I feel like his overview is a bit incomplete. There is a lot more to it than the GPU limitations the switch offers. Though there are plenty of games that aren't as easily scalable as the single color toned doom and wolfenstein that even if scaled back in frame rate, mesh fidelity, and resolution would bring the system to its knees even in docked mode. The CPU limitations are a factor often ignored. No offense to Bethesda as their push forward gameplay approach for the ai is quiet fun, there are games that operate on a different level. Assassin's creed for example has ai covering everything from crowds to enemy displacement. Many of those routines have to run at the same time on a much larger count of individuals or entities on screen. You start removing those characters then you ultimately change the nature of the game. On top of that you have the animation system attempting to blend everything from player movement, to the crowd, to the enemy in pursuit, and all the while a playable cutscene is happening that you can interact with and interrupt. That's far more than any Bethesda game has ever managed. Even arkane's dishonored which is absent from the Nintendo switch.
So sure with some artistic creativity and engineering muscle you can try cramming a beefier game on switch, but you have to know when to stop before you end up killing your creation to do it. In recent years we have started to see games that are impossible on last gen hardware. When they get to that point you end up hurting the game. Destiny is a fine example of this evolution when comparing the forking of the two versions after the taken king released. Certain features started to get cut from ps3 and x360 just so the game could run. When that was no longer manageable they put right left content out. This is why overwatch players aren't to happy with the idea of the game coming to switch. Not every ow player is unhappy of course, but I don't think they understand the implications this creates for user friendly quality of life ui changes like picking costumes from the character select screen or how this will impact the design of current and future characters.
Re: Assassin's Creed Odyssey Director Says He'd Port Game To Switch If He Could Do It Himself
Directors really should refrain from making statements on things they don't understand. Even if he could program it wouldn't make it possible for this game to run anywhere.
On point. Its not just graphics that holds the switch back here. Its memory and cpu. Latest version of anvil pushes the base consoles hard. They would have to take things put to make it work. While it is impressive that doom runs on switch, it's a novelty at best and a mess at worst. A playable mess that can be enjoyed, but ac odyssey has tougher constraints it needs to play with. AC origins was a technical marvel surpassing that of doom. I've been saying this since doom on switch was still speculation. Doable with a cost. Ac is not doable even with a cost.
Re: Hori's Mario And Zelda Themed D-Pad Joy-Con Limited To Handheld Mode Arrives Locally This September
Tempting. Might deshell the hardware and put it on a proper joycon. I'd also would need a right joycon as well.
Re: A Digital Copy Of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Will Use Up Over Half Of Your Switch's Memory
Storage. Not memory. I was like "2gigs? Who cares? Why are you reporting on this."
Re: Nintendo Of America's Doug Bowser Says Switch Has "Broad Appeal" And A Diverse Library Of Games
I'm gonna go with no. Switch does have a large library of games covering many genres. However it only seems to be checking off a box rather than delivering on what is needed to be identified as a go to device. One such genre is fps, granted Bethesda has put 2 of its games on the system with an M rating, that selection is pretty narrow, anemic even. Even when putting aside how well received (or not) either game was by the public or the months or years between the release on competing hardware. You find yourself wanting. It won't make up for the lack of CoD, battlefield, battlefront, overwatch, prey, dishonored, and so many others that a player (not every player) could be looking for on the system. Broad appeal on a single game if forced can have consequences. For example I'm not all that much of a fan of the art style and silliness of splatoon. While at its core I feel like it is a wonderful and I admire what it has accomplished, but it's no overwatch. They are very different games that approach their world very different even though both are competitive titles at their core. I'm more likely to buy a foot and a half tall statue of mercy than of a squidling. Again nothing wrong with splatoon. I like online competitive games and I can't really find the kind that I'm into on the switch. When I do I find little reason to own them on switch beyond the novelty of playing on the go. Novelty isn't enough for me.
I can't get titles like Horizon, Destiny, the last of us, uncharted, final fantasy, and much more on switch. It doesn't just have to be shooters either. I recognize there are other ways of play, but I've already found the ways I like to play and have been exposed multiple times to Nintendo's vision. Even now I'm defaulting to old habits with the Switch, its a Nintendo machine. Its great indies are coming to it and all, but I don't spend most of my money on those titles. The ones that I do like shantae, velocity, furi, iconoclasts, etc either are not on the platform or I've already played them to death else where.
I'm looking forward to metroid prime 4, I'm enjoying toads treasure tracker this weekend which I missed on Wii U, and I'm hoping to see Zelda title I'll actually enjoy on switch announced someday. At the moment I can't find what I want, already have what I want, or what I want looks better else where and would rather play on a big TV. As usual i tend to get left out as Nintendo looks away from what I like for the nonexistent universal constant. I'm not interested in Kirby, I love Mario kart, but it isn't project cars, forza, gran turismo, onrush, or other titles. While I have been a huge fan of Zelda since 1987, for the first time ever I have a Zelda game since 2, that I can't finish and lack the desire to. I feel like an auxiliary audience, an after thought most of the time on Nintendo systems.
So sure, Nintendo has broad appeal, but little variety. Its appeal is a port box for games I've already finished and would love to play on the go like final fantasy x on vita.
Re: Rumour: Revised Switch Units With Homebrew Bug Fix Are Now Appearing At Retail
@Dizzy_Boy they likely won't use the same method to get around the security. However that original vulnerability gave hackers a lot of access to the machine, including the os. One vulnerability can lead to another. Which means they will have decryption keys, lock out mechanisms, and so much more art their disposal. It might take another year, but the damage is done.
Re: Nintendo Says Switch User Playtime Is Split 50-50 Between Docked And Handheld
@JasmineDragon
No. I'm thinking the data sitting in front of me at work says you're in the minority like the bots. rolls eyes
Re: Nintendo Says Switch User Playtime Is Split 50-50 Between Docked And Handheld
This seems rather suspect to me. I'm honestly hard pressed to find anyone actually plating this thing in docked mode more than 40 to 30 percent of the time. Granted around the holidays that sucker stays in the dock and my cousins played the ever loving life out of Mario kart and odyssey, but I wouldn't say the few hours I spend on it is 50 50. The amount of time I've left it turned on with whatever game I was playing in the background as I grab updates while docked is probably about that. I would be quiet curious to see how Nintendo is recording that metric. As 3rd parties are seeing different numbers skewed towards portable. Which is why you starting to see games that put more of a focus on portable mode than docked. When we get our metrics it is only when the game is not in standby mode.
Re: Release Window Between Consoles And Switch "Shrinking All The Time" Says Panic Button Boss
I do not believe we'll see a reduced window. Maybe 6 months at best, but most games are going to be pushing that end of a console generation stride. Where new techniques are being tried on prep for next gen. We will see some games that can do the day one push like Madden coming to last gen sort of way, but over all we are hoping for a bit much to see anything beyond Bethesda titles getting day to date releases. For all of ubisofts posturing a good number of their games will be PS4 first, then scale it back second after all the new tech has been bolted on and some poor sap will have to back port it.
Re: Release Window Between Consoles And Switch "Shrinking All The Time" Says Panic Button Boss
@Knuckles-Fajita its not always a case of simply trying. Not all studios are created equal and while there are many talented engineers at these studios who do try, it is not defining factor of others that have staff who don't need to come in on a weekend, evaluate the cost, time, and compromise. Then they have to make the call of whether or not the loss in fidelity is worth it. For these situations the cost is to high for any gamer.
I compliment Bethesda and their efforts, but let's be honest they haven't released anything that visually compared to the best we've seen these last 4 years. We haven't seen them do anything so taxing on a simulation that couldn't be dialed back. Doom is a great game, but it doesn't set the stage for a game like assassin's Creed origins or Odyssey. It doesn't open doors for games like final fantasy xv. No amount of if they build it they will come will turn the tables on these trends. They will only get worse as next generation techniques are explored, which happens at the end of every console generation. Which both Microsoft and Sony are already talking about and release windows speculated on in the near future. Granted we will see enhanced for ps5 titles come out of the woodwork. Leaving some wiggle room. If the choice to go ryzen becomes a thing and devs start doubling down on that tech, well you can say good bye to ports on switch. That's when the Sim, not the graphics, exceeds it's ability.
Crash is the exception, not the rule. It's a PS1 game, remade in unity, with some visual touch ups working in a space that even a PS3 could manage at 1080p30.
Re: All-Star Fruit Racing Has No Online Multiplayer On Switch And It's Unreal Engine 4's Fault
@GumbyX84 I'm telling you as a developer that saying it was written for another platform when the point is to port the game to another, is a completely meaningless and redundant statement. They honestly probably had no engineers on this project and hoped their scripters could do the bulk of the work through blueprints. I've seen this before.
As a result the game is then technically written for switch. The reason, epic ported the engine to switch which is why the game is on the platform to begin with. They hired someone to do multiplayer and only set it up for every platform except switch. The reason, incompetence in management. Also a common thing in the games industry and I've seen many games delay hard with a year long crunch to make 3 month windows. Windows that force teams to take short cuts and release buggy products.
So basically you're missing my point. It does not matter what platform the game was released on. Someone took a shortcut, because they justified not having a feature for the reason of: Because Switch and Mario Kart. Then said unreal doesn't support online on switch, look at everyone else.
Here's how that should have gone down. Consult with epic on when those features will be available. Integrate beta changes if they are available soon. If those changes don't fit your schedule, have an engineer port the existing ps4/Xb1/steam functionality to the switch.
Phyre engine when I did my port to xb1 had zero code written for it to run on that platform. The game in question was originally a ps3 and vita exclusive. Ps4 was pretty simple to move over. Xb1 had no code. No network, no direct x support, no configurations for wwise in place, no achievement async calls, no party support, nothing. We had to go into source and rewrite anything that wasn't platform independent. So a function call for invite friends needed to have it's functionality changed to use the xb1 functionality instead. There are minor differences, but server and peer to peer really didn't change all that much. Just the xbl and pan related stuff is where things get a little screwy.
Saying the engine doesn't support it is a cop out and placing the blame on someone other than themselves. They are game developers, in an era where parity in releases is expected and demanded. Any reason or excuse they make at this point is producer bs and they need a community manager to clean up their mess. This isn't acceptable and switch users should be angry.
Re: All-Star Fruit Racing Has No Online Multiplayer On Switch And It's Unreal Engine 4's Fault
@Pahvi even if that was the case. You either extend the contract or put someone on your team on it. It's a lot of work porting an engine and even more work to start cutting out features.
I think for the most part their work would deal mostly with Nintendo Network related hand shakes, the actual connection and communication protocol is pretty straightforward and easy to figure out.
They dropped the ball. Badform to blame the engine.
Re: All-Star Fruit Racing Has No Online Multiplayer On Switch And It's Unreal Engine 4's Fault
You mean to tell me that they hired a qualified engineer in an engine that literally supplies full source was unable to port the networking functionality that already exists in engine to the switch.
Um I'm calling BS on this. As someone has had to do similar work with engines like phyre engine to the Xbox one. This shouldn't have taken very long or a very experienced network engineer to do this. Case in point unreal engine 3 is not supported on switch, but the rocket league guys were able to port it themselves. Don't blame the engine for the incompetence or lack of experience of your team. Your team is to blame and your team needs to fix it. If my team of 10 engineers can get game of similar scope and porting graphics, online, and console specific features in 6 months back when Xbox one development was a nightmare and achievements were done through spread sheets, then this is something they can tackle.
I don't even like working with unreal and here I am defending it from this nonsense.
Re: Overwatch Producer Discusses The Possibility Of Bringing The Game To Switch
@Zuljaras your quick question has zero relevance.
Re: Overwatch Producer Discusses The Possibility Of Bringing The Game To Switch
Not happening. The game struggles on base consoles as is. Even if you cut resolution, reduce the textures to something more manageable, etc. This game would turn into a slide show on a switch. Give the level of skill needed to play the game, the joycons in portable mode would be a nightmare. So you would be at a disadvantage to pro controller players. The communication problems the switch has does not help matters either.
Honestly just be happy for the other games your getting. This game is too hardcore for the switch audience.
Re: Nintendo Switch Only Accounted For 7% Of Ubisoft's Yearly Revenue
@jswhitfield8 in all fairness none of the releases on switch sold even a quarter of what their other games on other systems have sold.
Re: Japan Is More Excited About Nintendo Labo Than God Of War
@Varkster I can appreciate that you love DMC, but you're wrong. lol
Anyway I'm going to skip a lot of what you had here (I did read it though), simply say just understand the game design. I have played all of these games, all on the hardest setting. God of War Ascension proving some ground for conflicting game play systems getting in the way of each other. Conversation for another forum.
Let's get down to your real issue here. How does god of war stand up to other "Character Action Games". Pretty well honestly. You seem to fixate on the character of Kratos himself. I have to say after playing 6 games, I like the character, I like the power fantsy of him, in some ways I can even relate to him. He is a man who is fighting against fate, had his family taken from him multiple times, forced to choose between his daughter or the world (though some may say his vengeance, but its pretty muddy in COO), had his brother murdered in front of him (though thanatos is a bit justified, but who is the bigger [removed] here?), had the furries incur madness upon him and placed unrighteous judgment upon KRatos, Manipulated by Ares, I mean I could keep going. The man has every right to be an angry [removed]. You don't like him, that is fine. However ever I know many who have been playing GoW games since 2005 who would disagree with you on your whole "The Last of Us" assertion. Though honestly you should be saying "Uncharted", because that is where that form of storytelling in games was born.
Atreus doesn't make Kratos instantly likeable. That's a very shallow explanation of what is going on there. For starters most people haven't played GoW (2018) yet. They have no idea what to expect. In fact its garnered the game negative reaction in the community on initial reveal of the game. Atreus is what part of what might be what is making GoW(2018)'s story good. He's a FOIL for this man. A man who basically destroyed the greek pantheon to satisfy his revenge, rage, and bloodlust. In his last moments also had to deal with the consequences of his actions in the last of Pandora. A loss he partly blames himself for at the end of the game. Though she understood she was a pawn and her purpose to free us all from that state. The greek gods were not nice people and God of War is very clear about that. So we have a man recovering from this. Who is also haunted by other aspects of who he is. Include the line of patricide that works its way through his family line. The Rage that consumed not just Kratos, but Zeus and Cronos. These are things Atreus will have to deal with, that is how Atreus further humanizes him. not because Atreus brings something to the character that was absent before. Deimos and Calliope already supplied those factors for him. It's been a far less shallow explanation of human nature than many of the other games out there.
I won't deny that God of Wars early beginnings under Dave Jaffe were a bit on the shallow side. Tricked into killing his family and now seeking revenge, but it was a starting point. By time you got to God of War Ascension there was so much more to work with. You still have to satisfy Kratos' final goal. There is a lot more going on there than then what you'll find with Dante or Bayonetta. Those two compared to works not just outside of gaming from japan are pretty weak by comparison. Nothing wrong with that though. If every game had Kratos as the lead character I would be bored, just as much as if Dante or Bayonetta were also some sort of template to live by. We should be happy there is a rich plethora of characters out there with varying backgrounds, levels of depth, and intensity. Happy we have the Joel's, The Nathan Drake's, The Krato's, The Master Chief's, The Peach's, the Mario's, the Ratchet and Clank's, Jak's and Daxter's, etc of the gaming world. Except the Rider Twins from Mass Effect andromeda, they suck. Also silent protagonists, creepy bunch they are, set them on fire (sorry Crono).
Re: Japan Is More Excited About Nintendo Labo Than God Of War
@Varkster the appeal of God of war over something like Bayonetta or DMC as far as the character is exactly that. Those two games are quirky and very Japanese in design. Both Dante and Bayonetta are really not characters you take seriously. Both their backstorys really don't fill into a relatable or deep place. Their motives are generally shallow. They are meant to be cool, charismatic characters. I personally hate Bayonetta pretty much on every level of discussion, the character herself is boring, so I don't understand how anyone finds those games more than mediocre. DMC I've found enjoyable and I get it, but it doesn't serve the same audience that would put God of War above it. I'm one of those individuals. There is a sound explanation to kratos with a classic revenge plot to go with his absurdity that DMC lacks. I find God of war to be more rewarding than DMC gameplay wise as well, they both play very differently from each other. Especially God of War Ascension which took some serious risks in changing how it plays, making it the second most dramatic change to the game as of gow2018.
There is nothing wrong with DMC or Bayonetta, but they serve very different audiences. Honestly lack the maturity of the story development. To be fair, a lot of what those two games has for story needed to be completely developed from scratch. While gow has had all of the Greek mythology to fall back on in everyway. If you geek out over that historical stuff , then you have a recipe for success and should already have a huge audience familiar with that back story. Schools teach and cover much of that material in examination of one way or another. So entry is less of an obstacle.
Neir is an odd duck. As much as I enjoyed those games, including drakengard (dragon dragoon). I can't honestly see how it is comparable. Story wise it's interesting, combat wise the, best of any Yoko taro game, but still pretty weak at the end of the day. Based on the above you might be able to see why the story might be a problem. It's a convoluted mess and how it goes into the rest of the game takes a few YouTube videos to really understand. Even then your not guaranteed to understand everything. Unlike the former games, it's hard to find people who have truly completed the game beyond the first play through.
God Of War takes itself seriously, some people enjoy that. They enjoy the imperfect hero who is victim of not only the gods, but his own rage.
At the end of the day, I'd take any of these games over card board simulator 2018. People are going to get this, then ask themselves if it was really worth it to have cardboard widgets sitting around their home. Granted the more expanded stuff will get and audience of creatives who will do interesting things. Just expect the majority of early adopters to stick with this fad for very long.
Re: Ark: Survival Evolved Dev Says The Difference Between PS4, Xbox One and Switch Isn't As Big As You Might Think
Amateur developer says amateur things. Been involved in two switch ports so far. I can honestly say that this sucker even without storage restrictions is a bummer to put anything that takes advantage of base ps4 on the damned thing. Switch is a cool little machine, the realization of what Nvidia shield is and what vita should have been had Sony not tried the gimmick game. There is a lot that just isn't doable on switch since it already struggles and has been put through the optimizing blender a few times. You'll just be squeezing blood from a stone. The system ram is half that of a PS4, that's more than just downsizing for carts, thats downsizing for memory. CPU isn't on par either so more complicated environments than ark will struggle and need to be down sized as well to keep up frame rate. Then there is GPU fill rate and the overall floating point calculations per second it can handle. I like the tegra x1, been working with it for awhile, before switch was even on my desk. There is no way that chip belongs in the same arena with that hardware configuration as the base systems. Continue to expect what you've been getting, some games will get ported, those that are will be reduced within reason, others will be a challenge not worth the effort. Others just flat out impossible.