NoxAeturnus

Next Smash should be a reboot. Small roster, tight balance.

@Dirty0814 And those gamers will age and die eventually, and the younger generations who will have grown up on digital purchases will continue to purchase games digitally and the industry will chug along just fine. The slice of the market that is digital sales grows every year.

@Zuljaras Yeah I agree...until console makers stop including a place to put the physical media. Just like PCs.

@NEStalgia Bravo, sir. This guy gets it. I can't agree with everything you said enough.

@ProfessorXyZy I think you're fighting the tide on this one.

Close 'em all. Gamestop is a leech anyway.

Edit: Most of its employees deserve better. It's a minimum wage job with maximum expectations. They continue to be profitable because they squeeze blood from a stone.

Gotta nom 'em all.

No stops near homes? Ugh. This is why we can't have nice things.

Doesn't Pokemon Go make like 4 million in an afternoon?

@JaxonH Dead on with #59. Was DOS II even announced for Switch ever? Because it was a total shocker for me, and as far as I'm concerned a real feather in the cap of Switch's library. They just dropped it so casually: "Oh btw, one of the best cRPGs of all time is on Switch TODAY, lolz."

Holy...are you all kidding me? What even makes you happy anymore? Smh.

I never ever thought they'd bring this one to Switch. Now I just need 3D World and the two Zeldas and I can get rid of my Wii-U for good. 3D World seems plausible, but I don't think they'll move WW and TP up to Switch. But I was wrong about TMS so...

Yawn. Most anemic announcements ever. Just tell us which Pokemon didn't make the cut and then release the game. The marketing is pretty pointless at this stage.

Critical opinions? I much prefer the opinion of a single random stranger on an internet forum. Which forum and which stranger are a matter of great secrecy.

@MisterMan Unfortunate. Maybe they'll give us wireless.

Couch co-op or online only?

Well, that all escalated quickly.

@DudeDuder @Ryu_Niiyama @BlueBlur101 Actually, I didn't know that, but thanks for informing me. I jumped into SMT at 3 and never knew anything about the originals. Being wrong on that point doesn't negate my other arguments, and my original point - that SMT is an example showing that Atlus doesn't always cleave to a single platform - still stands in spite of my lack of precision on franchise history.

@BlueBlur101 SMT was on playstation before Nintendo, so there is precedent for their franchises to jump platforms. The strategy you describe makes no sense, especially now that they're owned by SEGA who loves multiplat games - P5 is on PS4 because Switch didn't exist when it was developed, because Persona's audience was already on PS, because PS had what...75 million PS4s in the wild when Switch launched, and I strongly suspect because they don't want to or are unable to split internal resources to port games to other systems. It's also possible Sony has some sort of exclusivity deal behind the scenes, which certainly seems to be the case for Catherine. It's not because they're executing some strategy of pulling in gamers from other systems to buy PS4s and continue the franchise. The sales aren't THAT good. 10 million over 5 main games and spinoffs over the past 20ish years? AAA games do that in a couple months sometimes. I guarantee no one at Atlus or SEGA believes that Persona Q on 3DS or Joker in Smash is going to convince someone to buy a PS4 to play P5. P5 only did around 2 million in sales on PS4 - respectable, but not exactly a juggernaut. It wouldn't need huge numbers on Switch to be considered a success. I guarantee if it was feasible, they'd multiplat in a heartbeat because MONEY. I just wish they'd be more transparent about why it's not coming.

Edit: I've been informed that SMT 1 and 2 were Nintendo before SMT debuted on Sony's platform. Despite my original post's lack of precision on franchise history, my point still stands.

If this means what everyone thinks it means: Good work, the hype train has left the station.

If not: Come on Nintendo, you can't set 'em up like that.

Me: Ugh, tired of Pokemon Go.
Pokemon Go: Coming soon: Krookodile!
Me (dusting off digital pokeballs): I'm in.

Unsurprising news is unsurprising. Of course we'll need NSO to battle and trade Pokemon online. That'll be a major draw for an NSO subscription and Nintendo would be stupid not to require it for this game. PGL is way outdated, and Home seems like it's going to merge the main features of PGL with Bank. Why is anyone taking this as bad news?

@antdickens What is this Joys and Cons thing? Because I love it. Coming soon to all reviews or just to mini-ones? Did I miss when this became a thing?

@SepticLemon Not too bad then. Might be worth a punt.

Did I miss it in the article? What's it cost on Switch?

Director: Alright guys we need some new Galarian forms. What do you have Stevens?
Stevens: Weezing, but with a tophat and monocle.
Director: A bit on the nose don't you think?
Johnson: What about if his top hat is a smokestack?
Director: Perfect Johnson, well done!
Stevens: Ok, Weezing with a top hat smokestack and a monocle.
Director: Lose the monocle. Dapper Weezing isn't pretentious like you Stevens.

@Panopticon I'll take that bait. HEY EVERYONE, IT'S GOING TO BE SONIC!

I think they hurt themselves by calling it a demo. Demo implies that it's a taste of the finished product, I play a demo to decide if I want to purchase a game. On the other hand, I play a beta or a playtest with the full realization that I'm looking at an unfinished product and that my feedback will help refine it to a finished state.

Anyway, I'm withholding judgement until it's released, but for me this is definitely a try before I buy game.

@Heavyarms55 It is a bit overhyped, and it's not perfect by any means, but that doesn't mean it's not still very good. Side plots in TW3 are better fleshed out than some other games' main plots, and choices do have an effect. I can see why it gets 10s and tops people's favorites lists, because the plot and character details really elevate it to another level. However, even though it has a super strong narrative, that doesn't mean it's a story everyone will enjoy. As with all The Witcher games, they recycle character models just a little too often in the world, which kinda sucks. And the gameplay is serviceable but not amazing. I actually had to try to play it twice. The first time it just felt clunky and awful, and then the second time something clicked and it was fine. Geralt is kind of like steering a tank, and it's definitely not fast-paced frenetic action - slower even than Dark Souls I felt. However, it's insanely rewarding to get invested in the lore and research monsters and then prepare to properly exploit their weaknesses. The crafting is actually rewarding and the enemy variety is superb in my opinion. I ended up loving it in the end, especially since the characters totally sold it for me, even though I, like you, was skeptical of the hype at first.

@w00dm4n I'm more scared that they might require mothers for respiration.

@Fuz I don't think you're totally wrong - Switch's user base is different, and they tend to value different things (portability for example). However, I do think it's hard to compare how well things have done on Switch against other platforms. We haven't had very many 3rd party releases day and date with other versions, most are ported after they've already been in the market. There have been other issues - like incomplete games on cart and forced downloads (looking at you 2K). And it's not just EA that has released versions of their games on Switch that are missing key features other platforms enjoy, EA is just the most egregious offender. I think one major test for this will be Doom Eternal - that's a high profile release that is supposed to come day and date with no missing features. Comparative sales will be much more telling for that game.

Wow, great announcement!

I'll buy the new SKU as a second one for my household, because Pokemon. I'm not going to "upgrade" my current Switch though. And the lite is right out for me because it doesn't, you know, SWITCH. I play handheld at work and TV at home. They could also entice me into a lite if they had an easier way to access my digital games on a different device, but that's less likely to happen than the probably-will-never-exist Switch Pro so...

@Haxxor Have you read the books? No? Try picking one up sometime. They're good. The game is not the source material for this show. What the game looks like and how CDPR interpreted the characters is irrelevant.

I'll give it a go, and honestly ignoring the game is probably the right call for this. The books were good. The video game was good too as far as it went. I'm more curious than ever to see it in action now.

I'm all for a Pokemon cull. This is probably not the best way to go about it.

Time traveler confirmed.

When asked if there would ever be a follow-up to Pokemon Snap, Masuda quipped, "Obviously not, because here at Game Freak we hate two things: giving fans what they want and taking their money. I mean, we could probably just slap together a remaster, but who would want that? Any new Snap game would have to be iNnOvATiVe." Pokemon, of course, is one of the largest franchises in the world, raking in huge amounts of cash with hardly any innovation between games.

What, what?

Mind blown.

@StevenG Why? Most people don't care about this at all. Especially children, who would be the primary audience of a mini. And the base model is already too big to put in a pocket. The gains of an ultra thin bezel seem like such a small thing to worry about.

If this is real, Nintendo is pulling a 2DS - smaller, more durable, cheaper. It'll be firmly aimed at children and parents and it'll sell like crazy. If you find yourself saying, "I don't want/need a smaller switch, I wish they'd make a more powerful system," then this product is not intended for you. Sometimes it's hard to recognize when we're not the target audience, or that a business can be successful selling products to people who have different needs than our personal preferences.

As for a Pro - I don't think there's any chance. New regular size switches might use the new chips, and they might have a slight form-factor redesign, but the power increase will be minimal if any. MORE POWER just isn't how Nintendo does business, and I think they'll try to milk the current hardware for a few more years at least.

@Varkster @Kirgo Well, once complaints reach a critical mass, it becomes trendy to hate a thing, even in light of new information that largely negates the original complaints. Most people I see bashing this game are still citing the demo, but with all these changes the demo is pretty much irrelevant at this point. I'm withholding judgement until I get a chance to try it out.

They really shouldn't have called it a demo - beta test, playtest, anything that would more strongly imply unfinished.

I like Atlus. Give me all their games portable. I'd buy them.

@sword_9mm See that's your mistake is what I'm saying. Nintendo isn't Samsung or Apple. Samsung and Apple have a very effective strategy, but it's wholly different from how Nintendo operates. Could that strategy be effective for Nintendo? Maybe, but it's also hard to argue that Nintendo's current strategy isn't working out. I don't see Nintendo changing the way they fundamentally design and manage their hardware and revisions so long as their current strategy remains profitable, regardless of what other tech companies are doing.

@sword_9mm What you're describing is a sound strategy if the goal was to keep the hardware current and state of the art - as you say, PCs have been doing this for years. This runs counter to Nintendo's strategy, which has always been lateral thinking with mature technology. Nintendo is not a state of the art electronics company, they're a company that takes existing and well-known technology that can be mass produced cheaply and repurposes it for profit.

Fans: I sure hope NSO expands to SNES and maybe even N64 games!
Nintendo: Enjoy two NES games per month.
Fans: Some of these are fun, but you know what would be better? SNES games.
Nintendo: Special NES games? Like, special version of Zelda? Here ya go.
Fans: I think you misunderstood, we want SUPER NES games.
Nintendo: Lots of people like NES. The games are super good!
Fans: ...that's not...ok Nintendo, whatever.
Also Nintendo: People say NSO isn't good value and sales aren't as high as we expected, how can we add value?
Fans: What about SN-
Nintendo: We'll think about it. No promises.

@bigcalsworld I agree that I want to try this game before I buy it. Same with DxM despite the negativity for the earlier demo. Everything I've heard about DxM since then has been about how they took the feedback from the "demo" and have been working to improve the game. Might turn out to be a gem in the end (but maybe not). They really shouldn't have called it a demo, it was more of a play test meant to generate feedback to improve the development from the start. In any case, I'm withholding judgment on both until I can get them in my hands, but Astral Chain does look promising.

Can't wait to see how different Hornet plays. So excited!

NEED. MORE. HOLLOW KNIGHT.

I don't know, a 50% split of the fanbase isn't exactly a positive takeaway. I think this data might skew harder one way or the other once they release the list of pokemon that didn't make the cut.

Sounds good enough! My wife and I co-oped the entirety of BotW and that was only half a character each.

It's not like people have been waiting so long for this game that the hype train went off a cliff...only to land on some rails and rise again. Oh wait...

@sixrings What? If that was true there wouldn't be any hype around here for Doom Eternal. Which there is.