It's just as @JasmineDragon says, this is huge. Don't think for one second that this isn't. Civ V has been one of the most played PC games in recent years, and while Civ VI hasn't met that level of popularity, it definitely has the potential on the NS to greatly increase the reach and audience of the series.
There were critical issues in the early versions of Civ VI on the PC version, which have steadily been ironed out. If they are completely fixed, the UI and controls are reworked well for the NS, and release copies sell, the Civ series could become a new staple on Nintendo consoles. This is like a SimCity SNES or Starcraft N64 type of opportunity. (Too bad SimCity 64 and Starcraft:Ghost were cancelled...)
Switch titles occupy 26 of the top 50 spots, and 3DS titles occupy 6 entries as well. When was the last time that Nintendo controlled nearly 2/3 (or more) of the top 50 sales list in any country? With the failure that is the Wii U cleared out of the way, and Sony portables completely falling by the wayside, Nintendo is once again dominant in Japan. Of course, the results would be more tempered outside of Japan, but this clearly bodes well for Big Red.
Now to play devil's advocate for a moment... People here keep defending Nintendo's current financial situation by mentioning games that haven't released yet. "Switch will be fine, we just need to wait!" What about games that are out now? Octopath Traveler is great, and it's exceeding expectations, but as others here have said, it's not really a system seller. What is going to convince people to pull the trigger and buy a Switch right now, that had not yet been released to convince them back in December 2017?
...As others have said, the big draws will be later this year in the West. To their credit, Japan seems to have more options for their market right now- the top seller from the recent week is another entry in the 17-year old Taiko no Tatsujin series, followed by Octopath Traveler and Splatoon 2. Splatoon 2 in particular seems to be much more popular in Japan than outside, and the Octo Expansion did wonders for it.
So it's yet another Summer of a red light on new releases, in the red light, green light momentum of the Switch. I still think they could have kept last year's early and late momentum going if they had more big third party support (especially Western), which is steadily returning to Nintendo, to bolster them in between 1st party releases. They will still be successful either way, but their success could have been more runaway, compared to how the current situation is.
And none of this is to say anything about Nintendo still lacking a proper, fully fledged online infrastructure for Switch. It's now set to launch in September 2018 (so about a year of delays), which should present an area of growth. It's really amazing in hindsight that the Switch has gotten this far with just a patchwork infrastructure.
We'll have to see how much that online multiplayer participation is split up by the subscription fee... Paying for P2P connections is crooked, so I wouldn't pay for that. Hopefully Nintendo will change the model so that online multiplayer in P2P connections is free, while some of their network features will be what's locked behind a paywall.
I've been watching a playthrough of Octopath Traveler on a Twitch channel, since I'm still Switchless. I will be partaking in a viewer voting participation session of Persona 3 FES, and will probably also finally get the old PS2 back up and running with a new exhaust fan. I should finally get some kind of start on SMT Nocturne, which I never took the chance to play after all these years... Also continue my annual Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete run... and take a look at a recent mod of Alpha Centauri: Alien Crossfire.
Not really anything Nintendo-related today, as far as play goes. I should get around to redownloading my WiiWare and Wii VC collection before it's too late, though... Only about 5 months left before that storefront goes POOF!
Anyone who has a Switch should absolutely rent or buy Octopath Traveler. It's an incredible entry in the JRPG genre, and I hope SE returns to this format of gaming on Nintendo consoles. JRPG's weren't dead, they were just mostly dormant!
@HappyMaskedGuy Take a look at the revisions I proposed in my above comment to DABYX, and compare them to the original text. After Liam's comment to me, it makes me wonder if perhaps the article had been colored by editorial revision, with the editor's intent of reflecting an accusatory use of tone into the comments.
djfuts correctly picked up on something being wrong with the way the article was conveyed, but they didn't express it well. Alex opportunistically jumped on that weakness and redirected the criticism towards focusing on the grammar aspect, which is a complete distraction from what's really wrong with this article. I originally liked Alex's snarky comment too, until I realized what was happening there.
I wouldn't say this influence is quite at the level of being insidious, but it seems like other people in the comments are susceptible to being drawn towards exhibiting sycophantic comments and behavior, rallying behind the more defensive staff comments. Not once did someone else in the comments say that they felt sorry for the innocent Switch consoles which are victim to the bricking trap payload. They mostly spoke in righteous indignation of punishing an ostensible enemy, which certain words in the article itself subtly encouraged.
Those affected Switch consoles without NAND backups may never reenter back into the market, into someone else's hands. They may become electronic waste. Regardless of their owners' actions, that is a terrible outcome. It really is shameful that the comment section didn't focus on this, and instead focused on conducting a "witch hunt" style of behavior towards the victim consoles' owners.
RIP affected Switch consoles with no NAND backup...
@smashbrolink I don't believe that's an excuse to waste the victim person's time, money, and energy getting the Switch, and certainly not worth the destruction of the innocent Switch console itself (if there is no NAND backup for it). If anything, it comes off as spiteful and petty behavior to gang up and attack others for it, and even advocating for the destruction of their hardware, which may no longer be available for circulation in the future.
The hardware essentially becomes electronic waste if affected by this with no NAND backup. That's a horrible outcome, and it's really quite shameful behavior for people to be callously jeering on the destruction of the hardware just because of the choices of their owners.
@Liam_Doolan Well, if the language I highlighted in an above comment was not your handiwork, then I apologize to you. It does open the question in my mind, however, if many of the articles on Nintendo Life are "colored" in a certain way by those editorial revisions. I know that each article must be run through editorial review, but I did not realize that they're not necessarily released with the basic intent of the original writer intact.
@Mountain_Man It is true that forum posts cannot necessarily be verified as to their authenticity. However, would multiple widely frequented news sites have reported on the same issue affecting users in both the USA and UK, with Nintendo acknowledging the issue, if the cases were not legitimate? And surely, some of those reports were received by Nintendo's technical support line, since one of their tech support members responded to the reports.
This reporting all happened within the same timeframe, too. System Update 4.2 released on September 28, 2009. The reports started coming in within less than a week after the update hit, with most outlets covering the issue by either October 1st or 2nd. The issue specifically aligned with the release of system update 4.2.
You seem to be under the impression that such a mistake by Nintendo was highly improbable, if not impossible. You won't believe it unless you've seen it with your own eyes. That itself is an impossible standard to meet at this point, though. All that most can do is point to the wave of reports at the time, and Nintendo's own acknowledgement of them. They certainly weren't going to publish numbers on how many legit systems were bricked.
Are you suggesting that multitudes of news sites all erroneously reported on this issue at the same time? And if so, why would your limited assessment hold water over the wave of concurring reports?
(October 2, 2009)
"According to numerous reports on the Nintendo Of America support forums, users have seen their consoles freeze during the process of installing system update 4.2. A number of users have then been unable to reboot their consoles.
While some of the problems can be attributed to modified systems, a number of consumers are reporting issues with newly bought units...
These problems aren’t only occurring in America, with Nintendo UK telling us that it is “aware of a very small number of reported problems with Wii consoles after updating to the Wii System Menu 4.2”.
The company said that it too will offer free repairs to unmodified systems damaged via the update process. It said that consoles should not be returned to its customer service department without contacting the division first for advice."
"Yesterday we reported that the latest firmware update (4.2) for the Nintendo Wii addressed an issue that prevents hackers from installing and launching a special "channel" for unauthorized applications. Although the company accomplished its mission, an unintended side effect apparently "bricked" legitimate consoles. Gamers who began the process of downloading and installing the update were thus locked in a frozen state that cannot be corrected by rebooting.
Today (October 2, 2009) Nintendo has announced that it is aware of the situation, but noted that the reported symptoms usually occur with modified consoles. However, the company also acknowledged that consumers with unmodified consoles are also having the same problem. Unfortunately, it's not a simple fix, and forces Wii owners to call the support hot-line to schedule a repair.
"If you're experiencing problems with your Wii console after downloading Wii System Menu 4.2, and you believe your system has not been modified, please give us a call," the company said. "If we find that you have a normal system and the update caused your system to not work, we'll repair it at no charge." Hopefully that means for every affected Wii console, and not just the ones still under warranty."
@NEStalgia On the viability of mod/hack-related developments being a regular topic for articles... I say that as long as those articles are intelligently and carefully constructed, why not? I personally don't feel that this article is a good example of that, and indeed, it's tone leans more towards victim blaming rather than of being helpful. However, I wouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water just due to some duds. Certainly, mods/hacks apply far more to PC than consoles, but I wouldn't say they scarcely affect consoles to the point of being irrelevant.
I'm not sure if you recall, but I'm possibly the most (or close to being the most) consistent person on NL about advocating for the preservation of otherwise lost games. I have long espoused that position, even if it sometimes requires unofficial online repositories. The reason for this is due to major companies like Nintendo eventually (perhaps inevitably) closing public access to repositories linked to their storefront when no longer profitable. In particular, the impending closure of the Wii VC in just over 5 months from now is currently the most pressing matter on the subject.
And... "Machiavellian Anarchist"? Is that even a thing? I thought Machiavelli was so extremely dedicated to citizen's rights, classical republicanism, and his particular form of "virtues" that he advocated dying for them and the citizenry if that's what it took to maintain those social constructs? He even made the remark, "not everyone born in the same State as you is your fellow citizen." That sounds less like "do as you will, and so will I" and more like "fall in line, and be critical of those who do not." I prefer to align towards the former of those two.
@DABYX Rather than having a pro-piracy stance, it's more like the article has a profusely anti-piracy stance. That isn't wrong by itself, but the article unfortunately goes as far as victim blaming to make it's point. This is exemplified by the highlighted terms in these passages:
"A poster at GBATemp describes the details of the sorry situation, and how to extract yourself from it should you be silly enough to download:"
"In short, it's a bit of a mess - and a perfectly avoidable one at that."
"This acts a reminder that it’s simply not worth the risk when it comes to pirating games on the Nintendo Switch."
The highlighted terms are all examples of encouraging victim blaming, which is exactly what much of the comment section has gravitated towards. The highlighted terms could have avoided this if they had instead used, for example:
"the sorry situation" > "how the malicious payload attack works"
"silly enough" > "unfortunate enough"
"and a perfectly avoidable one at that." > "which everyone should be careful to avoid."
"This acts as a reminder" > "Hopefully, this will serve as a cautionary tale"
"simply not" > "probably not"
"pirating games on the Nintendo Switch." > "downloading cracked software of any kind from the Internet, no matter what purpose one may have for it."
Now read and compare to the article how these would sound if used instead:
"A poster at GBATemp describes the details of how the malicious payload attack works, and how to potentially extract yourself from it, should you be unfortunate enough to download it:"
"In short, it's a bit of a mess, which everyone should be careful to avoid."
"Hopefully, this will serve as a cautionary tale that it’s probably not worth the risk when it comes to downloading cracked software of any kind from the Internet, no matter what purpose one may have for it."
See how the superior and apathetic attitude has disappeared? It's important in this sort of situation to write with a helpful, rather than accusatory demeanor.
@Nincompoop The fake claims of functionality do use malicious social engineering, but I would say the payload trap is more like a Trojan attack than a prank. Unless they happened to have backup NAND files for their system, anyone hapless enough to use the cracked download software, rigged with the payload trap, will lose the functionality of their Switch.
That said, how do you know this was a coordinated attack, and not one only concocted by an individual with multiple accounts? Do you have any ideas who might be responsible? I do think it would have been more useful if Liam had investigated that a little, instead of writing the article in a way that encourages victim blaming. (Which is exactly what many of these comments have gravitated towards.)
@Coxula Technically, Team Xecuter also has a free version of their SX OS available, which allows homebrew loading while locking out the use of backup loading (which can enable piracy) behind a license paywall. I agree with you that they're really businessmen and not true hackers who follow the philosophy of "free as in freedom," yet there is a distinction to be drawn which the article does not make.
@djfuts Run the quoted sentence through an online grammar checker if you don't believe Alex. It's a valid use of grammar. I tried it on the below site, and it gave the result "no writing errors found."
You're picking the wrong hill to die on. This whole grammar thing is a distraction. It would be better to call out the misinformation in the article about the SX OS software only being described as a paid-for tool dedicated to pirating software.
The base software and associated custom firmware itself is free to download and use, although one can purchase a license for a version that includes backup loading, or the SX Pro dongle, but neither are necessary to run the custom firmware. This paid version of the software is what was cracked and rigged with the bricking payload trap.
SX OS isn't simply used for running game backups. It can also load homebrew, like other free custom firmware. What makes it stand out from the others is an auto-recovery mode feature, which obsoletes the use of physical implements employed in other recovery mode booting methods. So if anything, the free version of SX OS indicates that one is not pirating software, and only using it for homebrew.
The article's inadequate detailing is now being reflected in the comments. It's all well and good to combat piracy, but inaccurate reporting is the wrong way to go about it.
@SirAileron No, the software itself is free when downloaded from Team Xecuter SX.'s website. They do offer licenses of their software with backup loading for a fee- however, this purchase is not necessary to operate the base OS software. Liam just didn't adequately elaborate on key details of the software itself. (Meaning he didn't even do basic research on the product before reporting on it. It doesn't take more than 5 minutes to find more info on the product for oneself.) The real lesson here is just to not download cracked software.
@oji Exactly. So many people in the comments are getting up in arms about this somehow being a karmic debt paid by pirates (and the sub-headline doesn't help), when in reality, the true takeaway here is just to not download cracked software, due to security risks. The SX OS software itself is reportedly not dangerous if users follow installation and use instructions.
Actually, the SX OS software itself is completely free when downloaded from Team Xecuter SX.'s website. They do offer licenses of their software with backup loading for a fee- however, this purchase is not necessary to use the software and install custom firmware. They also sell "SX Pro" dongles, which don't offer any marked benefits over the standard microSD card method of using the software, but it does make getting started with using the software quicker and easier. Also, one can switch between custom and official firmware at boot, so the user is not locked in. I can't link to proof of these details, because of site rules, but anyone can go check it out for themselves on hackinformer and the Team Xecuter website to confirm this.
@vice350z Thanks for the update! It's even been prevented from access through screenshots of past records of the site using archive.org. Unless the site somehow returns in some other form, or the robot associated with archive.org is removed, LoveROMs is now absolutely inaccessible.
@Dayton311 There are benefits to physical over a download. Besides physical legal ownership of a copy, it can be sold later on to partially recoup the cost of purchase. Given the value of this title, it will probably remain significant for years to come. Also:
The game takes up 2.9 GB of storage. Not a huge amount, but why take up space on the microSD card if you don't have to, and can buy a physical copy for pretty much the same price as digital?
Ultimately, it doesn't matter if some people say that Octopath is "not that good," or "repetitive," or "the stories don't connect together well." Octopath has jump-started renewed interest in the golden age of RPG 2D sprites-on-3D background style gaming. And that bodes very well for the future. I hope this trend continues surging, and Nintendo facilitates it.
Besides, what game doesn't get repetitive eventually? Even the much-lauded BotW gets repetitive. I thought BotW was overrated, but that doesn't detract from it's impact... And it's story was almost nonexistent, patched together after typically very long intervals!
Every major Zelda title since Link to the Past and Link's Awakening has had a sweeping storyline which compelled players to care about the fate of their respective worlds. By contrast, BotW's storyline wasn't conveyed much more effectively than the NES Zelda titles were, and didn't give much in the way of compelling reasons for being in it's world, yet most people completely forgave BotW in spite of this major flaw. This was due to the strength of BotW's other elements. Why not forgive Octopath for having a SaGa series style of storytelling?
Edit: Octopath Traveler currently has nearly as many simultaneous viewers (around 1,400) at off-peak hours as Pokemon Ultra Sun/Moon on Twitch streaming. During peak time, Octopath goes up closer to 2,000 viewers, with Pokemon US/M going up to nearly 2,900 viewers. That's impressive, granted the context that 1st party Nintendo properties are not terribly popular on Twitch compared to several others. At peak time, the top 3 viewed Nintendo games are Breath of the Wild at nearly 12,000 viewers, followed by Ocarina of Time at nearly 4,300 viewers, then Pokemon US/M. Also during peak time, for further comparison, Super Mario Maker gets up to around 2,800 viewers, Super Mario Odyssey gets up to around 1,600 viewers, and Smash 4 Wii U only gets up to 1,000 viewers... Melee also gets up to 1,500 viewers, which surges during tournaments. Splatoon 2 gets around 500 viewers, except during the occasional tournament, and ARMS is... almost nonexistent, 40 viewers. So much for ARMS being a contender for e-sports.
Due to this, a post on LoveROMS' Facebook page has a point:
"Davin Fraser Ockerby
Virtual Console wouldn't have been possible without preserving ROMs on the internet, so Nintendo should be thankful for the ROM sites hosting ROMs, because preserving video games is important for historical purposes and for availability.Even though it is within a copyright holder's legal right to take court action, copyright holders should never really bully or request removal of games that have been available for more than 3 years, otherwise some games may end up being lost in history and never seen again.
The Wii Virtual Console will be no more after January 2019. Many of the titles available for download have made their way to the Wii U VC, yet there are many more which did not. (And the Wii U VC will eventually be no more, either.)
For example, Monster World 4 got a special localization for the VC for it's first time release outside Japan. The only way that new players will ever be able to play that localized version of the game, without having purchased it before the service is ended, will be to download it's ROM files off the internet.
Without a legal avenue of access by Nintendo, there will be no other choice. In cases such as this, it is justified to have them be available online for the sake of historical preservation. Otherwise, the localized version of Monster World 4 would eventually be lost forever to the sands of time.
Meanwhile, Nintendo STILL has given no solid indication whatsoever that they will reintroduce the VC as we know it to the Switch. Take heed- there's only a little more than 5 months left. Then the largest official digital repository of Nintendo's (and possibly also for NEC's TG-16/PC-Engine) home console backlog will no longer be widely available to the general public...
According to Wikipedia:
As of January 26, 2017, there are 398 titles for NA Wii VC, and only 267 titles for NA Wii U VC. As of December 8, 2016, there are 385 titles in EU and 384 titles in Australia and New Zealand for the Wii, and only 258 titles for the EU/AU/NZ Wii U VC. Meanwhile, there are currently 659 titles for Japanese Wii VC, and only 466 titles available for the JP Wii U VC.
Nintendo Life forgot to update this article from yesterday:
"Update July 22: LoveRETRO has been pulled offline.
“Loveretro has effectively been shut down until further notice. Thanks for your patronage to date and we hope to get this figured out.”
LoveROMS, meanwhile, has removed all Nintendo titles."
LoveROMS is still in operation, they just removed links to Nintendo ROMs and emulators to avoid further scrutiny. This is a key point: "Both sites are believed to be operated by Jacob Mathias and his Arizona company Mathias Designs LLC." If they weren't profiting off of the site used to run the ROMs, Nintendo would have a much harder time targeting them. Most ROM sites operate without any profit.
@NEStalgia Personally, I think municipal internet is going to be the way to go. Google Fiber isn't coming any time soon, and the big telecom companies are already charging more with net neutrality down, and they're further consolidating. AT&T merged with Time Warner, Comcast offering $65 billion with a b for 21st Century Fox... Government is supposed to break up companies when they get this big, won't happen regardless of who is in power... Citizens need to fight to control their own internet service. Telecoms try to make that illegal, but they can be fought if citizens want 1 gbps internet badly enough.
As for Microsoft, they made a LOT of horrible decisions early on with the Xbone. But at least they're learning... for now. Always have to vigilant of them, they want your data.
@nitroBW That makes sense. As much as people are blowing up at Nintendo Life for this article, at least they did not go as far as to immediately write that non-offending consoles could be banned in certain cases, if it's not true. It's already too late though, other media sites have started reporting that (regardless of evidence/lack thereof) and paranoia is spreading like wildfire.
This is what's being reported elsewhere, which reaches further than this NL article: "However, it appears that the ban does more than just banning the pirate’s Switch console. If the banned Game Card is used on another Nintendo Switch, the other system will be banned when it goes online, and so on."
The way this situation is being explained throughout much of the media is VERY simplified, but I think the highlighted section in the above passage is the crux of the matter at hand. Is this true? According to SciresM and the hacking/homebrew community, the answer is "potentially, yes." Is there any primary source who can disprove that? (And will actually go public about it, Nintendo is notoriously tight-lipped, after all.)
@nitroBW It is known that each Switch game card's signed certificate and encrypted information is detectable as being legitimate by Nintendo's online system, and can be distinguished as separate from illegitimate copies. I would say there's a more pertinent question. "Is it possible that someone who happens to buy and go online with a used game card, of which it's certificate and encrypted info is registered by Nintendo's online system as having been previously associated with illicit distributed copies/pirating, or used by a cheater, suffer repercussions for illicit acts they had no part of?"
"If you are playing from a game card, your certification is your game card's unique certificate. This is signed by Nintendo using RSA-2048-PCKS#1 at the time your game card is written, and contains encrypted information about your game card (this includes what game is on the game card, among other, unknown details)."
"In the game card case, Nintendo can detect whether or not the user connecting has data from a Nintendo-authorized game card for the correct title. This solves the 3ds-era issue of game card header data being shared between games. Additionally, there's a fair amount of other, unknown (encrypted) data in a certificate being uploaded — and certificates are also linked to Nintendo Accounts when gold points are redeemed. Sharing of certificates should be fairly detectable, for Nintendo."
"In the digital game case, Nintendo actually perfectly prevents online piracy here. Tickets cannot be forged, and Nintendo can verify that the device ID in the ticket matches the device ID for the client cert connecting (banning on a mismatch), as well as that the account ID for the ticket matches the Nintendo Account authorizing to log in. Users who pirate games cannot have well-signed tickets for their consoles, and thus cannot connect online without getting an immediate ban."
The good thing here is that pirated digital copies are detected very quickly, and no harm is done to users other than the offender. Nothing wrong with this, that's how it should be done in that case.
The bad thing here is if someone buys a used copy of a game card that was previously linked with an offending account where cheating/piracy was detected. The game card's certificate (and other encrypted info) are forever associated by Nintendo with having been used by an offender.
If someone else unwittingly happens upon and purchases that game card second hand, then tries to link it with their account, Nintendo will recognize that game card as having previously been used by an offender. This could potentially raise a flag and get that user punished too, even though they did nothing wrong.
Or perhaps, once hackers eventually figure out how to clone these certificates, or even crack the encrypted information, if a pirate uses a cloned certificate/ticket online at the same time as someone else uses a second hand game card with the same certificate/encrypted info, Nintendo's online systems will shut both of them down, since they're sending duplicate information. So whoever bought that used game card would be completely blind-sided by a situation they were completely unaware of.
This wouldn't have a huge immediate impact, since it would only affect a few used copies at first. Over time, however, this could have a chilling effect on buying game cards used. People will further opt to either only buy new or digital at higher prices- exactly what publishers like Nintendo want. However, this may also have the side effect of people buying less games overall, due to not having the money to afford all new copies, and being afraid of losing online access if they happen to "lose the lottery" with a used game card that has a history of having been used by an offender.
So all in all, it's not the physical game card itself, but rather it's associated certificate and encrypted data that CAN be registered by Nintendo's online system as having been associated with an offending user's wrongdoing, and COULD potentially get a second hand game card owner in trouble unwittingly. Hopefully this clarifies upon the situation behind the update in this article. It could be different on a case by case basis, not sure yet. Also need more solid proof on the matter beyond mere "warnings."
Edit: I wrote this comment in response to the ideas behind the original version of this article. It doesn't reflect the reality of the current situation. My below comments are more intelligent...
If this is happening, along with the inevitable demise of Gamestop, with their stocks just continuing to drop, it looks like the industry is steadily getting closer to what they want: killing off the second hand used market.
I can understand things like banning accounts, IP addresses, console ID's, and detecting forged tickets that are without official identifiers. Nintendo has actually stepped up and improved on that front significantly, which is good. Apparently it's far tougher (impossible at the moment) to use downloaded titles with forged tickets online for Switch titles. However, remotely tampering with the usability of actual, physical game cards to reduce their functionality, regardless of who uses them? That should be illegal.
I remember people talking about this possibility years ago. Some dismissed it outright and said a company like Nintendo wouldn't do this, others said if it were to happen, the justification behind it would be bordering on Orwellian. "Crippling a physical copy of any game card used by a cheater is good, it punishes the original owner, and discourages whoever receives it second hand from cheating." This is a heavy-handed approach. Punish the originally offending owner, sure, but putting an actual curse on a game card, punishing any who may own it thereafter, should be unacceptable.
Unfortunately, people let corporations walk all over them all the time nowadays anyways, so I wouldn't be surprised if people just accept this nonsense too. This isn't a big deal right now, since this specific measure will only affect a few used copies overall. The problem is that the acceptance of this measure opens the door for Nintendo to further do as they wish with physical copies of game cards that customers purchase. You give them an inch, they'll take a mile, etc.
If people accept this, Nintendo may one day opt to implement a system where game cards require registration to a particular console, so they can't be sold used. And people will probably end up accepting that too. What's that, you might say? Nintendo would never do that? That's what people used to say about Nintendo opting to remotely tamper with the ability to fully use actual, physical game copies. Yet here we are.
Edit: I wrote this comment in response to the ideas behind the original version of this article. It doesn't reflect the reality of the current situation. My below comments are more intelligent...
@Mamabear Part of the reason why you were "in agony" was because Nintendo maintained near total radio silence. A stark contrast from their past level of communication. Who knows why they're doing this, maybe they just don't want to show how much they're struggling with developing things on time in the digital age. BotW in particular went through many iterations before the version we know today existed, features originally planned to make use of the Wii U were scrapped, and key Monolift Soft staff had to be brought on just to get BotW finished. It wasn't solely Nintendo's product, it's practically Xenoblade Chronicles: Zelda Edition with how much Monolift Soft helped.
@Bolt_Strike The problem isn't announcing games that are 2-3 years off, but rather the recent habit of going into radio silence as a matter of course. Remember that Ocarina of Time was first shown off at Space World in 2H 1995, about 3 years and 4 months before launch. However, they were consistently providing updates on it's progress over time, to ensure people weren't in the dark about it. OoT was shown off during E3 '96, '97, and '98, frequently got previews and screenshots through Nintendo Power, and of course appeared during Tokyo Game Show and subsequent Space Worlds as well. Compared to how Breath of the Wild was handled, and the modern "communication strategy"... night and day.
Nintendo just doesn't seem willing to communicate well within the digital age, they had more consistent communication during the print age, even though most people only had once a month updates.
I figured they wouldn't have much to show for 2018. They haven't been signaling ANY signs that anything more than what was shown would be on the way. In several cases, the big reveals were expansion DLC's. E3 2019 is going to be much more significant for new games. 2018 in general is likely to be a down year after firing everything off in 2017... Very Wii U-like for this year. Not that there aren't good things coming, certainly there are. It's just shocking that there's still not THAT much 3rd party support being displayed yet. I would give it another year.
That said, Daemon X Machina looks really cool. When they lead off with it, my hype rose to 11, before nearly 30 minutes of Smash sent it spiraling down to 1. Not that Smash is bad, just... it was filling the time because there was nothing more to show. It's basically just an enhanced port of Smash 4- that shouldn't be taking up nearly 30 minutes.
@BanjoPickles Exactly, 2018 is still shockingly sparse for 3rd parties on Switch compared to the others. There isn't nothing, and there's definitely good things on the horizon, but there absolutely should be more going on by now. You'd think that with the upward momentum that they'd be scrambling to get a piece of the pie, but it seems that won't be apparent until Tokyo Game Show at the earliest, maybe not even until GDC and E3 2019.
"With Super Smash Bros. Ultimate dominating much of the Nintendo Direct at E3 2018, there wasn't much room for any other big first-party announcements..."
More like SSBU took up nearly 30 whole minutes because they didn't have a whole lot to show, period. It's not that there wasn't room for other big announcements, but rather that there were none else to be made.
The way the presentation progressed, my hype started out at 11, then it got shoved into a trash can, which then got shot into the Grand Canyon with such force that it is now a mile deeper from the weight of the disappointment. I wasn't expecting more big things until next year anyways, but even so... Damn, that'll teach me and many other people to get all hyped up...
But yeah, for Metroid Prime 4 in particular, it would have been nice to get some kind of update, like Nintendo used to do back in the 90's every year. For example, lest we forget, Ocarina of Time got updates each year at E3 from 1996-1998 after the Space World 1995 reveal. And if you count Nintendo Power screenshots, interviews, and previews, new info was even more frequently updated than that, even. A complete 180 degree difference in handling compared to today.
I'e never understood the growing desire to be kept almost completely (or even absolutely) in the dark until the last moment on big titles. Keeping people updated is a good thing. Doesn't need to be huge every time, just show some kind of progress to generate interest. Nintendo used to understand this, and they've forgotten it. It should be easier than ever to provide updates, now that we don't have to rely on print media, but instead new info seems more elusive than ever from Nintendo.
Also, on the note regarding Iwata, he did things like taking a 50% paycut instead of laying off their workers during the 2011 slump. Never forget that. Never forget that in this age of corporate executives raping and pillaging everything they can, and screwing over workers for the highest possible profits and white collar bandit getaways.
All the 1990's/very early 2000's E3's and all the Space Worlds. Definitely the most exciting time frame for reveals, from my viewpoint. Everything feels more by the book at this point, with few real game changers over the past decade. It's been a loooooooooong time since I've genuinely felt SUPER hyped about anything in console gaming. The industry is in dire need of a 1998-level renaissance. 2017 was on the right track, but not quite there yet.
@GrailUK EA was lolbad, no surprise. Hopefully Bethesda follows up on their past successes and brings more to Switch, as well as Ubisoft. Maybe a Mario + Rabbids Kingdom followup?
We all have dreams of what we want to see, but all too often, that is not necessarily reflected by reality. Nintendo has a habit of crushing those dreams. Sometimes they deliver, sometimes not. They will probably talk about what is most likely or known to be arriving within this year and early next year, tease a few things that are further out, and that will be it for the most part. Not likely to be any big surprises this year, except for maybe some oddball thing out of left field. They might also showcase something disappointing, like Amiibo Festival, Federation Force, et al.
Next year will probably be more exciting, what with bigger titles like the next real Pokemon generation being showcased. Lots of people here are mentioning Animal Crossing, but all Nintendo has indicated on the matter so far is a new AC-related trademark, which encompasses a potential variety of devices and titles, including more spin-offs. So I wouldn't expect the next full AC entry until next year. I'm on the lookout for SMT V myself, but I don't expect anything concrete until next year.
@gortsi Thank you for clarifying that, I feel better about where you're coming from now. Language is a funny thing, one's meaning can be completely different from someone else's, even when something similar is said. I think I may have misinterpreted what you meant, and I apologize for that.
@Devlind @ShadJV From what I've gathered, it appears that the confusion over whether Let's Go is mainline or not stems from the (not necessarily 1 to 1 translation) localization at around 28:40 during the press conference:
However, according to those who actually understood and could directly translate what Masuda said, in the context of how Pocket Monsters is understood in Japan, he actually meant that the co-op feature was "a first for the Pocket Monsters series."
Co-op has existed in spin-offs such as the Mystery Dungeon series. The English translators localized what Masuda said as "mainline" because in Japan, they consider the type of gameplay Let's Go has to fit into the mainline style, making it canon from the Japanese perspective, even if it's not technically a true mainline generation entry. So what Masuda really meant was more along the lines of "Pocket Monsters adventuring series." From an English perspective, this could be misinterpreted pretty easily, so it was translated in a way to attempt to avoid ambiguity. Ultimately, it's still a spin-off from a Western perspective. So take your pick which perspective to stand by.
Joe Merrick took the English localization of the conference at face value without understanding the original Japanese language intent. He's the webmaster of Serebii, so a lot of people take his word for it, but since he apparently can't understand Japanese, people really shouldn't take his word for it in this case.
@gortsi I did look through the above comments, seemed like thesilverbrick and lemonyoshi worked out their differences nicely, while you're still indifferent.
"game x doesn't look like it was made with my preferences in mind therefore it's gonna suck/whoever will be enjoying it is a simpleton who can't hold a candle to us hardcore gamers."
I'm assuming (bad idea, I know) that was in response to posts like this one (with 32 likes) by thesilverbrick on the announcement thread, correct me if I'm wrong:
"Looks like absolute trash. Keep Pokémon GO out of my RPGs."
And then the immediate comment below that one exclaiming "HOW IS THIS REAL" due to mistakenly thinking they were the rumored main series entries. Then so on and so forth.
So in a way, I can see how you came up with those responses, but there is a key difference here: they're clearly criticizing just the products, and not other people, while you assumed that they were criticizing other people and their choices by what they said. (Which they didn't.) Meanwhile, instead of your first response being something along the lines of explaining how they may be wrong, and how the product could be good (which thesilverbrick actually explained themselves above after thinking about it, despite their first response on the announcement thread being that Pokemon Go-ification is trashy), your first response hones in on targeting people instead of ideas.
I can't help but have the feeling that eventually, inevitably, you and certain others who have a habit of doing so will predictably reply in a future comment thread with similar types of posts as the first ones you made here. It would be lovely to be proven wrong on that. I've seen all too many such posts on Nintendo Life over the years, and I actually find those types of comments to be significantly more grating than the stereotypical position you're throwing darts at.
@gortsi I wasn't really looking forward to the typical, ironically self-righteous, snarky comments in which others are chastised by propping up and shooting down a stereotypical dissenting opinion, while using (tired) buzzwords such as "entitled" without having any interest in where different people are coming from, but... Here we are.
@NEStalgia Nice! That's a good flip side, you can potentially get good deals on underperforming consoles. Shame that Microsoft seemingly does everything they can to prevent people from using a different drive from stock, though, whereas Sony has a nicely laid out instruction manual for the process:
A relatively easy set of instructions to follow, too- certainly easier than many laptops. SSD's also work, and they do speed up load times by a bit, which I think would be worth the upgrade.
You have a good point that these sales metrics capture regional percentages, but not a combination of that along with each platform. XB1 is much more heavily American focused than even the X360 was, which is a shame... Although in it's original incarnation, XB1 was arguably very anti-American, not just due to the Kinect and online requirements violating the privacy of citizens, but also due to screwing over U.S. Military personnel who are overseas. There's a good writeup from a service member's account about the latter issue on Gamasutra.
With E3 coming up, and rumors of long awaited titles like Kingdom Hearts 3 finally perhaps seeing the light of day, this is probably going to be another year where Sony makes great use of the hype train. I would expect this to also be a good or great year for Nintendo.
The XB1X uses an overclocked 2.1 Ghz (up from 1.8 GHz) Jaguar CPU/APU, same as the PS4 Pro... So I'm not sure the XB1X stands out enough to matter hardware-wise, since the beefed up GPU is severely bottlenecked by the CPU. (Not to mention HDD's themselves are another bottleneck in modern gaming- SSD's and game cards are the way to go.) For gaming, it's ultimately not going to provide much, if any, benefit over the PS4 Pro at least 90% of the time, especially from a 3rd party perspective. I think the main benefit from the XB1X is if you are interested in a high end 4K Blu-ray player which doubles as a gaming console... Though I can't imagine that market is very large.
So I'm not sure what Microsoft can do to stand out at this point, other than as you said, focusing on enhancing the service aspect. Since Microsoft is going all in on their "operating system/product as a service" model engulfing their business path on PC, Xbox will likely be headed in that direction as well. Future Xbox consoles may well be the Microsoft version of Steamboxes.
@NEStalgia On the contrary, I think these metrics are moreso a single indication (potentially out of many?) that the overall Xbox presence for a single generation has greatly declined of late. The XB1 is in such poor shape compared to how the 360 performed, that PC software sales for products of a prominent multiplatform publisher are catching up.
It's worth keeping in mind that in the past, PC sales of Ubisoft titles were much, much lower than they are today. The structure of Steam/GOG/etc is still relatively new compared to the methods used by the longtime established players. It's also worth keeping in mind that PC software sales typically spike during Q4 to coincide with the holiday sales, hence breaking 20% during that time period. This trend will likely continue.
Meanwhile, the Xbox sales % was actually STAGNANT during Q4 compared to overall during 2017. From a console sales perspective, that's horrible. At 23%, it represents barely any more than PC during Q4 and holiday sales. That's quite a different story from just a year prior in 2016. To go from 27% overall boosted up to 30% during Q4, to 23% for the year overall and stagnant for Q4 even with the holiday season boost, should be considered a remarkable failure on Microsoft's part. No wonder Microsoft is so hesitant to publish sales numbers these days...
@JaxonH Going a bit off-topic, but speaking of the Amazon charts, in which MH GU is currently at the #2 Best Seller spot for the all Video Games section, it really emphasizes how much Switch owners still value physical ownership, while PSN/XB Live users seem content to purchase games primarily digitally, with the #1 spot occupied by the $50 Playstation Store gift card, the #4 spot occupied by the $10 Xbox gift card, and almost all of the physical titles in the top spots being on the Switch... I can understand the reason why, but it's still kind of bittersweet to see only one platform putting an emphasis on physical ownership at this point. From my perspective, it's just one more reason to stick with Nintendo and continue ditching Sony/Microsoft for current consoles... Though I'm still waiting for the Switch library to fill out more. Probably next year or 2020 before jumping in, the total library should be even more irresistible by then. I'm still on 3DS.
@JaxonH True, we can't know all of the reasons for the timing, only those involved directly with Capcom know. It's also not necessarily critical that Monster Hunter GU be released by now, at this date. I just chimed in myself, since according to the very info you linked, even with that up to +2 months from manufacturing, distributing, packaging, and transporting Switch game cards, adding up to about 9-10 months for the localization process tops, June should be the absolute final deadline month of release. This would be following the typical timing laid out by Nich Maragos at Atlus, that you linked as an example.
I think releasing alongside E3 hype would have been a smarter choice than holding off all the way to August. Digital releases and market conditions are different nowadays, but extra E3 hype would have only helped MH GU sales and visibility. Dedicated MH World players are already exhausting it's content and tiring of it, so between the end of May and mid June would have been a good time to strike with MH GU for the fanbase... August is certainly late. It remains to be seen how much/if this will have a negative impact otherwise, though, since the Switch and PS4/XB1 markets don't completely overlap. It should sell relatively well regardless, it's just that a release at the end of May - mid June would have only helped Capcom. But hey, it's their mistake to make, we'll see what happens...
Comments 5,813
Re: Turn-Based Strategy Game Civilization VI Is Headed To Switch This November
It's just as @JasmineDragon says, this is huge. Don't think for one second that this isn't. Civ V has been one of the most played PC games in recent years, and while Civ VI hasn't met that level of popularity, it definitely has the potential on the NS to greatly increase the reach and audience of the series.
There were critical issues in the early versions of Civ VI on the PC version, which have steadily been ironed out. If they are completely fixed, the UI and controls are reworked well for the NS, and release copies sell, the Civ series could become a new staple on Nintendo consoles. This is like a SimCity SNES or Starcraft N64 type of opportunity. (Too bad SimCity 64 and Starcraft:Ghost were cancelled...)
Re: Wall Street Analyst Warns Of Slowing Nintendo Switch Sales
Well, at least as far as Japan is concerned, I think this says it all:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/media-create-sales-week-29-2018-jul-16-jul-22.57711/
Switch titles occupy 26 of the top 50 spots, and 3DS titles occupy 6 entries as well. When was the last time that Nintendo controlled nearly 2/3 (or more) of the top 50 sales list in any country? With the failure that is the Wii U cleared out of the way, and Sony portables completely falling by the wayside, Nintendo is once again dominant in Japan. Of course, the results would be more tempered outside of Japan, but this clearly bodes well for Big Red.
Now to play devil's advocate for a moment... People here keep defending Nintendo's current financial situation by mentioning games that haven't released yet. "Switch will be fine, we just need to wait!" What about games that are out now? Octopath Traveler is great, and it's exceeding expectations, but as others here have said, it's not really a system seller. What is going to convince people to pull the trigger and buy a Switch right now, that had not yet been released to convince them back in December 2017?
...As others have said, the big draws will be later this year in the West. To their credit, Japan seems to have more options for their market right now- the top seller from the recent week is another entry in the 17-year old Taiko no Tatsujin series, followed by Octopath Traveler and Splatoon 2. Splatoon 2 in particular seems to be much more popular in Japan than outside, and the Octo Expansion did wonders for it.
So it's yet another Summer of a red light on new releases, in the red light, green light momentum of the Switch. I still think they could have kept last year's early and late momentum going if they had more big third party support (especially Western), which is steadily returning to Nintendo, to bolster them in between 1st party releases. They will still be successful either way, but their success could have been more runaway, compared to how the current situation is.
And none of this is to say anything about Nintendo still lacking a proper, fully fledged online infrastructure for Switch. It's now set to launch in September 2018 (so about a year of delays), which should present an area of growth. It's really amazing in hindsight that the Switch has gotten this far with just a patchwork infrastructure.
We'll have to see how much that online multiplayer participation is split up by the subscription fee... Paying for P2P connections is crooked, so I wouldn't pay for that. Hopefully Nintendo will change the model so that online multiplayer in P2P connections is free, while some of their network features will be what's locked behind a paywall.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (July 28th)
I've been watching a playthrough of Octopath Traveler on a Twitch channel, since I'm still Switchless. I will be partaking in a viewer voting participation session of Persona 3 FES, and will probably also finally get the old PS2 back up and running with a new exhaust fan. I should finally get some kind of start on SMT Nocturne, which I never took the chance to play after all these years... Also continue my annual Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete run... and take a look at a recent mod of Alpha Centauri: Alien Crossfire.
Not really anything Nintendo-related today, as far as play goes. I should get around to redownloading my WiiWare and Wii VC collection before it's too late, though... Only about 5 months left before that storefront goes POOF!
Anyone who has a Switch should absolutely rent or buy Octopath Traveler. It's an incredible entry in the JRPG genre, and I hope SE returns to this format of gaming on Nintendo consoles. JRPG's weren't dead, they were just mostly dormant!
Re: Fake Nintendo Switch Game Piracy Software Is Bricking Systems
@Ryu_Niiyama Are you okay?
Re: Fake Nintendo Switch Game Piracy Software Is Bricking Systems
@HappyMaskedGuy Take a look at the revisions I proposed in my above comment to DABYX, and compare them to the original text. After Liam's comment to me, it makes me wonder if perhaps the article had been colored by editorial revision, with the editor's intent of reflecting an accusatory use of tone into the comments.
djfuts correctly picked up on something being wrong with the way the article was conveyed, but they didn't express it well. Alex opportunistically jumped on that weakness and redirected the criticism towards focusing on the grammar aspect, which is a complete distraction from what's really wrong with this article. I originally liked Alex's snarky comment too, until I realized what was happening there.
I wouldn't say this influence is quite at the level of being insidious, but it seems like other people in the comments are susceptible to being drawn towards exhibiting sycophantic comments and behavior, rallying behind the more defensive staff comments. Not once did someone else in the comments say that they felt sorry for the innocent Switch consoles which are victim to the bricking trap payload. They mostly spoke in righteous indignation of punishing an ostensible enemy, which certain words in the article itself subtly encouraged.
Those affected Switch consoles without NAND backups may never reenter back into the market, into someone else's hands. They may become electronic waste. Regardless of their owners' actions, that is a terrible outcome. It really is shameful that the comment section didn't focus on this, and instead focused on conducting a "witch hunt" style of behavior towards the victim consoles' owners.
RIP affected Switch consoles with no NAND backup...
Re: Fake Nintendo Switch Game Piracy Software Is Bricking Systems
@smashbrolink I don't believe that's an excuse to waste the victim person's time, money, and energy getting the Switch, and certainly not worth the destruction of the innocent Switch console itself (if there is no NAND backup for it). If anything, it comes off as spiteful and petty behavior to gang up and attack others for it, and even advocating for the destruction of their hardware, which may no longer be available for circulation in the future.
The hardware essentially becomes electronic waste if affected by this with no NAND backup. That's a horrible outcome, and it's really quite shameful behavior for people to be callously jeering on the destruction of the hardware just because of the choices of their owners.
Re: Fake Nintendo Switch Game Piracy Software Is Bricking Systems
@Liam_Doolan Well, if the language I highlighted in an above comment was not your handiwork, then I apologize to you. It does open the question in my mind, however, if many of the articles on Nintendo Life are "colored" in a certain way by those editorial revisions. I know that each article must be run through editorial review, but I did not realize that they're not necessarily released with the basic intent of the original writer intact.
Re: Fake Nintendo Switch Game Piracy Software Is Bricking Systems
@Mountain_Man It is true that forum posts cannot necessarily be verified as to their authenticity. However, would multiple widely frequented news sites have reported on the same issue affecting users in both the USA and UK, with Nintendo acknowledging the issue, if the cases were not legitimate? And surely, some of those reports were received by Nintendo's technical support line, since one of their tech support members responded to the reports.
This reporting all happened within the same timeframe, too. System Update 4.2 released on September 28, 2009. The reports started coming in within less than a week after the update hit, with most outlets covering the issue by either October 1st or 2nd. The issue specifically aligned with the release of system update 4.2.
You seem to be under the impression that such a mistake by Nintendo was highly improbable, if not impossible. You won't believe it unless you've seen it with your own eyes. That itself is an impossible standard to meet at this point, though. All that most can do is point to the wave of reports at the time, and Nintendo's own acknowledgement of them. They certainly weren't going to publish numbers on how many legit systems were bricked.
Are you suggesting that multitudes of news sites all erroneously reported on this issue at the same time? And if so, why would your limited assessment hold water over the wave of concurring reports?
Re: Fake Nintendo Switch Game Piracy Software Is Bricking Systems
@Cyber_Akuma is correct. You remembered incorrectly, @Mountain_Man .
https://web.archive.org/web/20091005173621/http://www.edge-online.com/news/nintendo-acknowledges-wii-update-problems
(October 2, 2009)
"According to numerous reports on the Nintendo Of America support forums, users have seen their consoles freeze during the process of installing system update 4.2. A number of users have then been unable to reboot their consoles.
While some of the problems can be attributed to modified systems, a number of consumers are reporting issues with newly bought units...
These problems aren’t only occurring in America, with Nintendo UK telling us that it is “aware of a very small number of reported problems with Wii consoles after updating to the Wii System Menu 4.2”.
The company said that it too will offer free repairs to unmodified systems damaged via the update process. It said that consoles should not be returned to its customer service department without contacting the division first for advice."
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/Nintendo-Wii-Console-Bricking-Firmware,news-4779.html
"Yesterday we reported that the latest firmware update (4.2) for the Nintendo Wii addressed an issue that prevents hackers from installing and launching a special "channel" for unauthorized applications. Although the company accomplished its mission, an unintended side effect apparently "bricked" legitimate consoles. Gamers who began the process of downloading and installing the update were thus locked in a frozen state that cannot be corrected by rebooting.
Today (October 2, 2009) Nintendo has announced that it is aware of the situation, but noted that the reported symptoms usually occur with modified consoles. However, the company also acknowledged that consumers with unmodified consoles are also having the same problem. Unfortunately, it's not a simple fix, and forces Wii owners to call the support hot-line to schedule a repair.
"If you're experiencing problems with your Wii console after downloading Wii System Menu 4.2, and you believe your system has not been modified, please give us a call," the company said. "If we find that you have a normal system and the update caused your system to not work, we'll repair it at no charge." Hopefully that means for every affected Wii console, and not just the ones still under warranty."
Re: Fake Nintendo Switch Game Piracy Software Is Bricking Systems
@NEStalgia On the viability of mod/hack-related developments being a regular topic for articles... I say that as long as those articles are intelligently and carefully constructed, why not? I personally don't feel that this article is a good example of that, and indeed, it's tone leans more towards victim blaming rather than of being helpful. However, I wouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water just due to some duds. Certainly, mods/hacks apply far more to PC than consoles, but I wouldn't say they scarcely affect consoles to the point of being irrelevant.
I'm not sure if you recall, but I'm possibly the most (or close to being the most) consistent person on NL about advocating for the preservation of otherwise lost games. I have long espoused that position, even if it sometimes requires unofficial online repositories. The reason for this is due to major companies like Nintendo eventually (perhaps inevitably) closing public access to repositories linked to their storefront when no longer profitable. In particular, the impending closure of the Wii VC in just over 5 months from now is currently the most pressing matter on the subject.
And... "Machiavellian Anarchist"? Is that even a thing? I thought Machiavelli was so extremely dedicated to citizen's rights, classical republicanism, and his particular form of "virtues" that he advocated dying for them and the citizenry if that's what it took to maintain those social constructs? He even made the remark, "not everyone born in the same State as you is your fellow citizen." That sounds less like "do as you will, and so will I" and more like "fall in line, and be critical of those who do not." I prefer to align towards the former of those two.
Re: Fake Nintendo Switch Game Piracy Software Is Bricking Systems
@DABYX Rather than having a pro-piracy stance, it's more like the article has a profusely anti-piracy stance. That isn't wrong by itself, but the article unfortunately goes as far as victim blaming to make it's point. This is exemplified by the highlighted terms in these passages:
"A poster at GBATemp describes the details of the sorry situation, and how to extract yourself from it should you be silly enough to download:"
"In short, it's a bit of a mess - and a perfectly avoidable one at that."
"This acts a reminder that it’s simply not worth the risk when it comes to pirating games on the Nintendo Switch."
The highlighted terms are all examples of encouraging victim blaming, which is exactly what much of the comment section has gravitated towards. The highlighted terms could have avoided this if they had instead used, for example:
"the sorry situation" > "how the malicious payload attack works"
"silly enough" > "unfortunate enough"
"and a perfectly avoidable one at that." > "which everyone should be careful to avoid."
"This acts as a reminder" > "Hopefully, this will serve as a cautionary tale"
"simply not" > "probably not"
"pirating games on the Nintendo Switch." > "downloading cracked software of any kind from the Internet, no matter what purpose one may have for it."
Now read and compare to the article how these would sound if used instead:
"A poster at GBATemp describes the details of how the malicious payload attack works, and how to potentially extract yourself from it, should you be unfortunate enough to download it:"
"In short, it's a bit of a mess, which everyone should be careful to avoid."
"Hopefully, this will serve as a cautionary tale that it’s probably not worth the risk when it comes to downloading cracked software of any kind from the Internet, no matter what purpose one may have for it."
See how the superior and apathetic attitude has disappeared? It's important in this sort of situation to write with a helpful, rather than accusatory demeanor.
Re: Fake Nintendo Switch Game Piracy Software Is Bricking Systems
@Nincompoop The fake claims of functionality do use malicious social engineering, but I would say the payload trap is more like a Trojan attack than a prank. Unless they happened to have backup NAND files for their system, anyone hapless enough to use the cracked download software, rigged with the payload trap, will lose the functionality of their Switch.
That said, how do you know this was a coordinated attack, and not one only concocted by an individual with multiple accounts? Do you have any ideas who might be responsible? I do think it would have been more useful if Liam had investigated that a little, instead of writing the article in a way that encourages victim blaming. (Which is exactly what many of these comments have gravitated towards.)
Re: Fake Nintendo Switch Game Piracy Software Is Bricking Systems
@Coxula Technically, Team Xecuter also has a free version of their SX OS available, which allows homebrew loading while locking out the use of backup loading (which can enable piracy) behind a license paywall. I agree with you that they're really businessmen and not true hackers who follow the philosophy of "free as in freedom," yet there is a distinction to be drawn which the article does not make.
Re: Fake Nintendo Switch Game Piracy Software Is Bricking Systems
@djfuts Run the quoted sentence through an online grammar checker if you don't believe Alex. It's a valid use of grammar. I tried it on the below site, and it gave the result "no writing errors found."
https://www.grammarcheck.net/editor/
You're picking the wrong hill to die on. This whole grammar thing is a distraction. It would be better to call out the misinformation in the article about the SX OS software only being described as a paid-for tool dedicated to pirating software.
The base software and associated custom firmware itself is free to download and use, although one can purchase a license for a version that includes backup loading, or the SX Pro dongle, but neither are necessary to run the custom firmware. This paid version of the software is what was cracked and rigged with the bricking payload trap.
SX OS isn't simply used for running game backups. It can also load homebrew, like other free custom firmware. What makes it stand out from the others is an auto-recovery mode feature, which obsoletes the use of physical implements employed in other recovery mode booting methods. So if anything, the free version of SX OS indicates that one is not pirating software, and only using it for homebrew.
The article's inadequate detailing is now being reflected in the comments. It's all well and good to combat piracy, but inaccurate reporting is the wrong way to go about it.
Re: Fake Nintendo Switch Game Piracy Software Is Bricking Systems
@SirAileron No, the software itself is free when downloaded from Team Xecuter SX.'s website. They do offer licenses of their software with backup loading for a fee- however, this purchase is not necessary to operate the base OS software. Liam just didn't adequately elaborate on key details of the software itself. (Meaning he didn't even do basic research on the product before reporting on it. It doesn't take more than 5 minutes to find more info on the product for oneself.) The real lesson here is just to not download cracked software.
Re: Fake Nintendo Switch Game Piracy Software Is Bricking Systems
@oji Exactly. So many people in the comments are getting up in arms about this somehow being a karmic debt paid by pirates (and the sub-headline doesn't help), when in reality, the true takeaway here is just to not download cracked software, due to security risks. The SX OS software itself is reportedly not dangerous if users follow installation and use instructions.
Re: Fake Nintendo Switch Game Piracy Software Is Bricking Systems
"paid-for tool"
Actually, the SX OS software itself is completely free when downloaded from Team Xecuter SX.'s website. They do offer licenses of their software with backup loading for a fee- however, this purchase is not necessary to use the software and install custom firmware. They also sell "SX Pro" dongles, which don't offer any marked benefits over the standard microSD card method of using the software, but it does make getting started with using the software quicker and easier. Also, one can switch between custom and official firmware at boot, so the user is not locked in. I can't link to proof of these details, because of site rules, but anyone can go check it out for themselves on hackinformer and the Team Xecuter website to confirm this.
Re: Nintendo Takes Legal Action Against Two Notorious Arizona-Based ROM Websites
@vice350z Thanks for the update! It's even been prevented from access through screenshots of past records of the site using archive.org. Unless the site somehow returns in some other form, or the robot associated with archive.org is removed, LoveROMs is now absolutely inaccessible.
Re: Square Enix Issues A Second Apology As Octopath Traveler Restock Sells Out In Three Hours
@Dayton311 There are benefits to physical over a download. Besides physical legal ownership of a copy, it can be sold later on to partially recoup the cost of purchase. Given the value of this title, it will probably remain significant for years to come. Also:
https://nintendoeverything.com/octopath-traveler-pre-load-live-file-size/
The game takes up 2.9 GB of storage. Not a huge amount, but why take up space on the microSD card if you don't have to, and can buy a physical copy for pretty much the same price as digital?
Re: Square Enix Issues A Second Apology As Octopath Traveler Restock Sells Out In Three Hours
Ultimately, it doesn't matter if some people say that Octopath is "not that good," or "repetitive," or "the stories don't connect together well." Octopath has jump-started renewed interest in the golden age of RPG 2D sprites-on-3D background style gaming. And that bodes very well for the future. I hope this trend continues surging, and Nintendo facilitates it.
Besides, what game doesn't get repetitive eventually? Even the much-lauded BotW gets repetitive. I thought BotW was overrated, but that doesn't detract from it's impact... And it's story was almost nonexistent, patched together after typically very long intervals!
Every major Zelda title since Link to the Past and Link's Awakening has had a sweeping storyline which compelled players to care about the fate of their respective worlds. By contrast, BotW's storyline wasn't conveyed much more effectively than the NES Zelda titles were, and didn't give much in the way of compelling reasons for being in it's world, yet most people completely forgave BotW in spite of this major flaw. This was due to the strength of BotW's other elements. Why not forgive Octopath for having a SaGa series style of storytelling?
Edit: Octopath Traveler currently has nearly as many simultaneous viewers (around 1,400) at off-peak hours as Pokemon Ultra Sun/Moon on Twitch streaming. During peak time, Octopath goes up closer to 2,000 viewers, with Pokemon US/M going up to nearly 2,900 viewers. That's impressive, granted the context that 1st party Nintendo properties are not terribly popular on Twitch compared to several others. At peak time, the top 3 viewed Nintendo games are Breath of the Wild at nearly 12,000 viewers, followed by Ocarina of Time at nearly 4,300 viewers, then Pokemon US/M. Also during peak time, for further comparison, Super Mario Maker gets up to around 2,800 viewers, Super Mario Odyssey gets up to around 1,600 viewers, and Smash 4 Wii U only gets up to 1,000 viewers... Melee also gets up to 1,500 viewers, which surges during tournaments. Splatoon 2 gets around 500 viewers, except during the occasional tournament, and ARMS is... almost nonexistent, 40 viewers. So much for ARMS being a contender for e-sports.
Re: Nintendo Takes Legal Action Against Two Notorious Arizona-Based ROM Websites
Also, as much as some may hate to admit it, we have to remember this:
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-01-18-did-nintendo-download-a-mario-rom-and-sell-it-back-to-us
https://kotaku.com/virtual-console-is-not-coming-to-switch-nintendo-says-1825848253
https://www.geek.com/games/nintendo-switch-now-has-a-virtual-console-sort-of-1691743/
Due to this, a post on LoveROMS' Facebook page has a point:
"Davin Fraser Ockerby
Virtual Console wouldn't have been possible without preserving ROMs on the internet, so Nintendo should be thankful for the ROM sites hosting ROMs, because preserving video games is important for historical purposes and for availability. Even though it is within a copyright holder's legal right to take court action, copyright holders should never really bully or request removal of games that have been available for more than 3 years, otherwise some games may end up being lost in history and never seen again.
The Wii Virtual Console will be no more after January 2019. Many of the titles available for download have made their way to the Wii U VC, yet there are many more which did not. (And the Wii U VC will eventually be no more, either.)
For example, Monster World 4 got a special localization for the VC for it's first time release outside Japan. The only way that new players will ever be able to play that localized version of the game, without having purchased it before the service is ended, will be to download it's ROM files off the internet.
Without a legal avenue of access by Nintendo, there will be no other choice. In cases such as this, it is justified to have them be available online for the sake of historical preservation. Otherwise, the localized version of Monster World 4 would eventually be lost forever to the sands of time.
Meanwhile, Nintendo STILL has given no solid indication whatsoever that they will reintroduce the VC as we know it to the Switch. Take heed- there's only a little more than 5 months left. Then the largest official digital repository of Nintendo's (and possibly also for NEC's TG-16/PC-Engine) home console backlog will no longer be widely available to the general public...
According to Wikipedia:
As of January 26, 2017, there are 398 titles for NA Wii VC, and only 267 titles for NA Wii U VC. As of December 8, 2016, there are 385 titles in EU and 384 titles in Australia and New Zealand for the Wii, and only 258 titles for the EU/AU/NZ Wii U VC. Meanwhile, there are currently 659 titles for Japanese Wii VC, and only 466 titles available for the JP Wii U VC.
Re: Nintendo Takes Legal Action Against Two Notorious Arizona-Based ROM Websites
Nintendo Life forgot to update this article from yesterday:
"Update July 22: LoveRETRO has been pulled offline.
“Loveretro has effectively been shut down until further notice. Thanks for your patronage to date and we hope to get this figured out.”
LoveROMS, meanwhile, has removed all Nintendo titles."
LoveROMS is still in operation, they just removed links to Nintendo ROMs and emulators to avoid further scrutiny. This is a key point: "Both sites are believed to be operated by Jacob Mathias and his Arizona company Mathias Designs LLC." If they weren't profiting off of the site used to run the ROMs, Nintendo would have a much harder time targeting them. Most ROM sites operate without any profit.
Re: Shots Are Fired In This New Minecraft Cross-Play Trailer
@NEStalgia Personally, I think municipal internet is going to be the way to go. Google Fiber isn't coming any time soon, and the big telecom companies are already charging more with net neutrality down, and they're further consolidating. AT&T merged with Time Warner, Comcast offering $65 billion with a b for 21st Century Fox... Government is supposed to break up companies when they get this big, won't happen regardless of who is in power... Citizens need to fight to control their own internet service. Telecoms try to make that illegal, but they can be fought if citizens want 1 gbps internet badly enough.
As for Microsoft, they made a LOT of horrible decisions early on with the Xbone. But at least they're learning... for now. Always have to vigilant of them, they want your data.
Re: Rumour: Nintendo Is Banning Online Features For Suspected Pirated Game Carts
@nitroBW That makes sense. As much as people are blowing up at Nintendo Life for this article, at least they did not go as far as to immediately write that non-offending consoles could be banned in certain cases, if it's not true. It's already too late though, other media sites have started reporting that (regardless of evidence/lack thereof) and paranoia is spreading like wildfire.
Re: Rumour: Nintendo Is Banning Online Features For Suspected Pirated Game Carts
@nitroBW Also, to provide some extra context:
https://nintendosoup.com/nintendo-has-started-banning-switch-game-cards-to-block-piracy/
This is what's being reported elsewhere, which reaches further than this NL article: "However, it appears that the ban does more than just banning the pirate’s Switch console. If the banned Game Card is used on another Nintendo Switch, the other system will be banned when it goes online, and so on."
The way this situation is being explained throughout much of the media is VERY simplified, but I think the highlighted section in the above passage is the crux of the matter at hand. Is this true? According to SciresM and the hacking/homebrew community, the answer is "potentially, yes." Is there any primary source who can disprove that? (And will actually go public about it, Nintendo is notoriously tight-lipped, after all.)
Re: Rumour: Nintendo Is Banning Online Features For Suspected Pirated Game Carts
@nitroBW It is known that each Switch game card's signed certificate and encrypted information is detectable as being legitimate by Nintendo's online system, and can be distinguished as separate from illegitimate copies. I would say there's a more pertinent question. "Is it possible that someone who happens to buy and go online with a used game card, of which it's certificate and encrypted info is registered by Nintendo's online system as having been previously associated with illicit distributed copies/pirating, or used by a cheater, suffer repercussions for illicit acts they had no part of?"
Re: Rumour: Nintendo Is Banning Online Features For Suspected Pirated Game Carts
@Anti-Matter Yep, no problems!
Re: Rumour: Nintendo Is Banning Online Features For Suspected Pirated Game Carts
Let me know if this is okay to post, but there's more details on this issue here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SwitchHacks/comments/8rxg26/psa_strong_antipiracy_measures_implemented_by/
In particular, of note:
"If you are playing from a game card, your certification is your game card's unique certificate. This is signed by Nintendo using RSA-2048-PCKS#1 at the time your game card is written, and contains encrypted information about your game card (this includes what game is on the game card, among other, unknown details)."
"In the game card case, Nintendo can detect whether or not the user connecting has data from a Nintendo-authorized game card for the correct title. This solves the 3ds-era issue of game card header data being shared between games. Additionally, there's a fair amount of other, unknown (encrypted) data in a certificate being uploaded — and certificates are also linked to Nintendo Accounts when gold points are redeemed. Sharing of certificates should be fairly detectable, for Nintendo."
"In the digital game case, Nintendo actually perfectly prevents online piracy here. Tickets cannot be forged, and Nintendo can verify that the device ID in the ticket matches the device ID for the client cert connecting (banning on a mismatch), as well as that the account ID for the ticket matches the Nintendo Account authorizing to log in. Users who pirate games cannot have well-signed tickets for their consoles, and thus cannot connect online without getting an immediate ban."
The good thing here is that pirated digital copies are detected very quickly, and no harm is done to users other than the offender. Nothing wrong with this, that's how it should be done in that case.
The bad thing here is if someone buys a used copy of a game card that was previously linked with an offending account where cheating/piracy was detected. The game card's certificate (and other encrypted info) are forever associated by Nintendo with having been used by an offender.
If someone else unwittingly happens upon and purchases that game card second hand, then tries to link it with their account, Nintendo will recognize that game card as having previously been used by an offender. This could potentially raise a flag and get that user punished too, even though they did nothing wrong.
Or perhaps, once hackers eventually figure out how to clone these certificates, or even crack the encrypted information, if a pirate uses a cloned certificate/ticket online at the same time as someone else uses a second hand game card with the same certificate/encrypted info, Nintendo's online systems will shut both of them down, since they're sending duplicate information. So whoever bought that used game card would be completely blind-sided by a situation they were completely unaware of.
This wouldn't have a huge immediate impact, since it would only affect a few used copies at first. Over time, however, this could have a chilling effect on buying game cards used. People will further opt to either only buy new or digital at higher prices- exactly what publishers like Nintendo want. However, this may also have the side effect of people buying less games overall, due to not having the money to afford all new copies, and being afraid of losing online access if they happen to "lose the lottery" with a used game card that has a history of having been used by an offender.
So all in all, it's not the physical game card itself, but rather it's associated certificate and encrypted data that CAN be registered by Nintendo's online system as having been associated with an offending user's wrongdoing, and COULD potentially get a second hand game card owner in trouble unwittingly. Hopefully this clarifies upon the situation behind the update in this article. It could be different on a case by case basis, not sure yet. Also need more solid proof on the matter beyond mere "warnings."
Re: Nintendo Is Banning Switch Game Cards To Combat Piracy, Potentially Killing The Second-Hand Market
Edit: I wrote this comment in response to the ideas behind the original version of this article. It doesn't reflect the reality of the current situation. My below comments are more intelligent...
If this is happening, along with the inevitable demise of Gamestop, with their stocks just continuing to drop, it looks like the industry is steadily getting closer to what they want: killing off the second hand used market.
I can understand things like banning accounts, IP addresses, console ID's, and detecting forged tickets that are without official identifiers. Nintendo has actually stepped up and improved on that front significantly, which is good. Apparently it's far tougher (impossible at the moment) to use downloaded titles with forged tickets online for Switch titles. However, remotely tampering with the usability of actual, physical game cards to reduce their functionality, regardless of who uses them? That should be illegal.
I remember people talking about this possibility years ago. Some dismissed it outright and said a company like Nintendo wouldn't do this, others said if it were to happen, the justification behind it would be bordering on Orwellian. "Crippling a physical copy of any game card used by a cheater is good, it punishes the original owner, and discourages whoever receives it second hand from cheating." This is a heavy-handed approach. Punish the originally offending owner, sure, but putting an actual curse on a game card, punishing any who may own it thereafter, should be unacceptable.
Unfortunately, people let corporations walk all over them all the time nowadays anyways, so I wouldn't be surprised if people just accept this nonsense too. This isn't a big deal right now, since this specific measure will only affect a few used copies overall. The problem is that the acceptance of this measure opens the door for Nintendo to further do as they wish with physical copies of game cards that customers purchase. You give them an inch, they'll take a mile, etc.
If people accept this, Nintendo may one day opt to implement a system where game cards require registration to a particular console, so they can't be sold used. And people will probably end up accepting that too. What's that, you might say? Nintendo would never do that? That's what people used to say about Nintendo opting to remotely tamper with the ability to fully use actual, physical game copies. Yet here we are.
Edit: I wrote this comment in response to the ideas behind the original version of this article. It doesn't reflect the reality of the current situation. My below comments are more intelligent...
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo's E3 2018 Went Big On Smash Bros. But Left Us Wanting More
@Mamabear Fair enough, a mere announcement without actual progress being shown gets people talking, but doesn't amount to much on it's own.
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo's E3 2018 Went Big On Smash Bros. But Left Us Wanting More
@Mamabear Part of the reason why you were "in agony" was because Nintendo maintained near total radio silence. A stark contrast from their past level of communication. Who knows why they're doing this, maybe they just don't want to show how much they're struggling with developing things on time in the digital age. BotW in particular went through many iterations before the version we know today existed, features originally planned to make use of the Wii U were scrapped, and key Monolift Soft staff had to be brought on just to get BotW finished. It wasn't solely Nintendo's product, it's practically Xenoblade Chronicles: Zelda Edition with how much Monolift Soft helped.
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo's E3 2018 Went Big On Smash Bros. But Left Us Wanting More
@Bolt_Strike The problem isn't announcing games that are 2-3 years off, but rather the recent habit of going into radio silence as a matter of course. Remember that Ocarina of Time was first shown off at Space World in 2H 1995, about 3 years and 4 months before launch. However, they were consistently providing updates on it's progress over time, to ensure people weren't in the dark about it. OoT was shown off during E3 '96, '97, and '98, frequently got previews and screenshots through Nintendo Power, and of course appeared during Tokyo Game Show and subsequent Space Worlds as well. Compared to how Breath of the Wild was handled, and the modern "communication strategy"... night and day.
Nintendo just doesn't seem willing to communicate well within the digital age, they had more consistent communication during the print age, even though most people only had once a month updates.
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo's E3 2018 Went Big On Smash Bros. But Left Us Wanting More
I figured they wouldn't have much to show for 2018. They haven't been signaling ANY signs that anything more than what was shown would be on the way. In several cases, the big reveals were expansion DLC's. E3 2019 is going to be much more significant for new games. 2018 in general is likely to be a down year after firing everything off in 2017... Very Wii U-like for this year. Not that there aren't good things coming, certainly there are. It's just shocking that there's still not THAT much 3rd party support being displayed yet. I would give it another year.
That said, Daemon X Machina looks really cool. When they lead off with it, my hype rose to 11, before nearly 30 minutes of Smash sent it spiraling down to 1. Not that Smash is bad, just... it was filling the time because there was nothing more to show. It's basically just an enhanced port of Smash 4- that shouldn't be taking up nearly 30 minutes.
Re: Nintendo Confirms Metroid Prime 4 Will Skip E3 2018
@BanjoPickles Exactly, 2018 is still shockingly sparse for 3rd parties on Switch compared to the others. There isn't nothing, and there's definitely good things on the horizon, but there absolutely should be more going on by now. You'd think that with the upward momentum that they'd be scrambling to get a piece of the pie, but it seems that won't be apparent until Tokyo Game Show at the earliest, maybe not even until GDC and E3 2019.
Re: Nintendo Confirms Metroid Prime 4 Will Skip E3 2018
@johnvboy You missed it? Yoshi's Island got revealed alongside F-Zero.
Where, you might ask? It's tucked away in the nearly 30 minute long Smash Bros presentation...
Re: Nintendo Confirms Metroid Prime 4 Will Skip E3 2018
"With Super Smash Bros. Ultimate dominating much of the Nintendo Direct at E3 2018, there wasn't much room for any other big first-party announcements..."
More like SSBU took up nearly 30 whole minutes because they didn't have a whole lot to show, period. It's not that there wasn't room for other big announcements, but rather that there were none else to be made.
The way the presentation progressed, my hype started out at 11, then it got shoved into a trash can, which then got shot into the Grand Canyon with such force that it is now a mile deeper from the weight of the disappointment. I wasn't expecting more big things until next year anyways, but even so... Damn, that'll teach me and many other people to get all hyped up...
But yeah, for Metroid Prime 4 in particular, it would have been nice to get some kind of update, like Nintendo used to do back in the 90's every year. For example, lest we forget, Ocarina of Time got updates each year at E3 from 1996-1998 after the Space World 1995 reveal. And if you count Nintendo Power screenshots, interviews, and previews, new info was even more frequently updated than that, even. A complete 180 degree difference in handling compared to today.
I'e never understood the growing desire to be kept almost completely (or even absolutely) in the dark until the last moment on big titles. Keeping people updated is a good thing. Doesn't need to be huge every time, just show some kind of progress to generate interest. Nintendo used to understand this, and they've forgotten it. It should be easier than ever to provide updates, now that we don't have to rely on print media, but instead new info seems more elusive than ever from Nintendo.
Re: Video: Let's Revel in Nintendo's Best E3 Moments from History
Also, on the note regarding Iwata, he did things like taking a 50% paycut instead of laying off their workers during the 2011 slump. Never forget that. Never forget that in this age of corporate executives raping and pillaging everything they can, and screwing over workers for the highest possible profits and white collar bandit getaways.
Re: Video: Let's Revel in Nintendo's Best E3 Moments from History
All the 1990's/very early 2000's E3's and all the Space Worlds. Definitely the most exciting time frame for reveals, from my viewpoint. Everything feels more by the book at this point, with few real game changers over the past decade. It's been a loooooooooong time since I've genuinely felt SUPER hyped about anything in console gaming. The industry is in dire need of a 1998-level renaissance. 2017 was on the right track, but not quite there yet.
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Want To See From Nintendo At E3 2018?
@GrailUK EA was lolbad, no surprise. Hopefully Bethesda follows up on their past successes and brings more to Switch, as well as Ubisoft. Maybe a Mario + Rabbids Kingdom followup?
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Want To See From Nintendo At E3 2018?
We all have dreams of what we want to see, but all too often, that is not necessarily reflected by reality. Nintendo has a habit of crushing those dreams. Sometimes they deliver, sometimes not. They will probably talk about what is most likely or known to be arriving within this year and early next year, tease a few things that are further out, and that will be it for the most part. Not likely to be any big surprises this year, except for maybe some oddball thing out of left field. They might also showcase something disappointing, like Amiibo Festival, Federation Force, et al.
Next year will probably be more exciting, what with bigger titles like the next real Pokemon generation being showcased. Lots of people here are mentioning Animal Crossing, but all Nintendo has indicated on the matter so far is a new AC-related trademark, which encompasses a potential variety of devices and titles, including more spin-offs. So I wouldn't expect the next full AC entry until next year. I'm on the lookout for SMT V myself, but I don't expect anything concrete until next year.
Re: Poll: Who Would You Rather Have By Your Side In Pokémon Let's Go? Pikachu Or Eevee?
Neither, not interested in getting Pokémon Go console version.
Re: Guide: Pokémon Let's Go - Everything We Know About Let's Go Pikachu! And Let's Go Eevee! On Nintendo Switch
@gortsi Thank you for clarifying that, I feel better about where you're coming from now. Language is a funny thing, one's meaning can be completely different from someone else's, even when something similar is said. I think I may have misinterpreted what you meant, and I apologize for that.
Re: Guide: Pokémon Let's Go - Everything We Know About Let's Go Pikachu! And Let's Go Eevee! On Nintendo Switch
@Devlind @ShadJV From what I've gathered, it appears that the confusion over whether Let's Go is mainline or not stems from the (not necessarily 1 to 1 translation) localization at around 28:40 during the press conference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ_qtyOa5Dg&feature=youtu.be
However, according to those who actually understood and could directly translate what Masuda said, in the context of how Pocket Monsters is understood in Japan, he actually meant that the co-op feature was "a first for the Pocket Monsters series."
Co-op has existed in spin-offs such as the Mystery Dungeon series. The English translators localized what Masuda said as "mainline" because in Japan, they consider the type of gameplay Let's Go has to fit into the mainline style, making it canon from the Japanese perspective, even if it's not technically a true mainline generation entry. So what Masuda really meant was more along the lines of "Pocket Monsters adventuring series." From an English perspective, this could be misinterpreted pretty easily, so it was translated in a way to attempt to avoid ambiguity. Ultimately, it's still a spin-off from a Western perspective. So take your pick which perspective to stand by.
Joe Merrick took the English localization of the conference at face value without understanding the original Japanese language intent. He's the webmaster of Serebii, so a lot of people take his word for it, but since he apparently can't understand Japanese, people really shouldn't take his word for it in this case.
Re: Guide: Pokémon Let's Go - Everything We Know About Let's Go Pikachu! And Let's Go Eevee! On Nintendo Switch
@gortsi I did look through the above comments, seemed like thesilverbrick and lemonyoshi worked out their differences nicely, while you're still indifferent.
"game x doesn't look like it was made with my preferences in mind therefore it's gonna suck/whoever will be enjoying it is a simpleton who can't hold a candle to us hardcore gamers."
I'm assuming (bad idea, I know) that was in response to posts like this one (with 32 likes) by thesilverbrick on the announcement thread, correct me if I'm wrong:
"Looks like absolute trash. Keep Pokémon GO out of my RPGs."
And then the immediate comment below that one exclaiming "HOW IS THIS REAL" due to mistakenly thinking they were the rumored main series entries. Then so on and so forth.
So in a way, I can see how you came up with those responses, but there is a key difference here: they're clearly criticizing just the products, and not other people, while you assumed that they were criticizing other people and their choices by what they said. (Which they didn't.) Meanwhile, instead of your first response being something along the lines of explaining how they may be wrong, and how the product could be good (which thesilverbrick actually explained themselves above after thinking about it, despite their first response on the announcement thread being that Pokemon Go-ification is trashy), your first response hones in on targeting people instead of ideas.
I can't help but have the feeling that eventually, inevitably, you and certain others who have a habit of doing so will predictably reply in a future comment thread with similar types of posts as the first ones you made here. It would be lovely to be proven wrong on that. I've seen all too many such posts on Nintendo Life over the years, and I actually find those types of comments to be significantly more grating than the stereotypical position you're throwing darts at.
So yeah, please attack ideas, not people.
Re: Guide: Pokémon Let's Go - Everything We Know About Let's Go Pikachu! And Let's Go Eevee! On Nintendo Switch
@gortsi I wasn't really looking forward to the typical, ironically self-righteous, snarky comments in which others are chastised by propping up and shooting down a stereotypical dissenting opinion, while using (tired) buzzwords such as "entitled" without having any interest in where different people are coming from, but... Here we are.
Re: Nintendo Switch Only Accounted For 7% Of Ubisoft's Yearly Revenue
@NEStalgia Nice! That's a good flip side, you can potentially get good deals on underperforming consoles. Shame that Microsoft seemingly does everything they can to prevent people from using a different drive from stock, though, whereas Sony has a nicely laid out instruction manual for the process:
https://support.us.playstation.com/articles/en_US/KC_Article/Upgrade-PS4-HDD
A relatively easy set of instructions to follow, too- certainly easier than many laptops. SSD's also work, and they do speed up load times by a bit, which I think would be worth the upgrade.
You have a good point that these sales metrics capture regional percentages, but not a combination of that along with each platform. XB1 is much more heavily American focused than even the X360 was, which is a shame... Although in it's original incarnation, XB1 was arguably very anti-American, not just due to the Kinect and online requirements violating the privacy of citizens, but also due to screwing over U.S. Military personnel who are overseas. There's a good writeup from a service member's account about the latter issue on Gamasutra.
https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JayJohnson/20130611/194155/The_Xbox_One_from_a_service_members_perspective_Conversations_Ive_had_and_heard_on_my_last_deployment.php
With E3 coming up, and rumors of long awaited titles like Kingdom Hearts 3 finally perhaps seeing the light of day, this is probably going to be another year where Sony makes great use of the hype train. I would expect this to also be a good or great year for Nintendo.
The XB1X uses an overclocked 2.1 Ghz (up from 1.8 GHz) Jaguar CPU/APU, same as the PS4 Pro... So I'm not sure the XB1X stands out enough to matter hardware-wise, since the beefed up GPU is severely bottlenecked by the CPU. (Not to mention HDD's themselves are another bottleneck in modern gaming- SSD's and game cards are the way to go.) For gaming, it's ultimately not going to provide much, if any, benefit over the PS4 Pro at least 90% of the time, especially from a 3rd party perspective. I think the main benefit from the XB1X is if you are interested in a high end 4K Blu-ray player which doubles as a gaming console... Though I can't imagine that market is very large.
So I'm not sure what Microsoft can do to stand out at this point, other than as you said, focusing on enhancing the service aspect. Since Microsoft is going all in on their "operating system/product as a service" model engulfing their business path on PC, Xbox will likely be headed in that direction as well. Future Xbox consoles may well be the Microsoft version of Steamboxes.
Re: Nintendo Switch Only Accounted For 7% Of Ubisoft's Yearly Revenue
@NEStalgia On the contrary, I think these metrics are moreso a single indication (potentially out of many?) that the overall Xbox presence for a single generation has greatly declined of late. The XB1 is in such poor shape compared to how the 360 performed, that PC software sales for products of a prominent multiplatform publisher are catching up.
It's worth keeping in mind that in the past, PC sales of Ubisoft titles were much, much lower than they are today. The structure of Steam/GOG/etc is still relatively new compared to the methods used by the longtime established players. It's also worth keeping in mind that PC software sales typically spike during Q4 to coincide with the holiday sales, hence breaking 20% during that time period. This trend will likely continue.
Meanwhile, the Xbox sales % was actually STAGNANT during Q4 compared to overall during 2017. From a console sales perspective, that's horrible. At 23%, it represents barely any more than PC during Q4 and holiday sales. That's quite a different story from just a year prior in 2016. To go from 27% overall boosted up to 30% during Q4, to 23% for the year overall and stagnant for Q4 even with the holiday season boost, should be considered a remarkable failure on Microsoft's part. No wonder Microsoft is so hesitant to publish sales numbers these days...
Re: Nintendo Switch Only Accounted For 7% Of Ubisoft's Yearly Revenue
What almost everyone else is saying. Almost no Ubisoft representation on the Switch as of yet. This number will skew upwards as time goes on.
Re: Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate Hits Switch This August
@JaxonH Going a bit off-topic, but speaking of the Amazon charts, in which MH GU is currently at the #2 Best Seller spot for the all Video Games section, it really emphasizes how much Switch owners still value physical ownership, while PSN/XB Live users seem content to purchase games primarily digitally, with the #1 spot occupied by the $50 Playstation Store gift card, the #4 spot occupied by the $10 Xbox gift card, and almost all of the physical titles in the top spots being on the Switch... I can understand the reason why, but it's still kind of bittersweet to see only one platform putting an emphasis on physical ownership at this point. From my perspective, it's just one more reason to stick with Nintendo and continue ditching Sony/Microsoft for current consoles... Though I'm still waiting for the Switch library to fill out more. Probably next year or 2020 before jumping in, the total library should be even more irresistible by then. I'm still on 3DS.
Re: Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate Hits Switch This August
@JaxonH True, we can't know all of the reasons for the timing, only those involved directly with Capcom know. It's also not necessarily critical that Monster Hunter GU be released by now, at this date. I just chimed in myself, since according to the very info you linked, even with that up to +2 months from manufacturing, distributing, packaging, and transporting Switch game cards, adding up to about 9-10 months for the localization process tops, June should be the absolute final deadline month of release. This would be following the typical timing laid out by Nich Maragos at Atlus, that you linked as an example.
I think releasing alongside E3 hype would have been a smarter choice than holding off all the way to August. Digital releases and market conditions are different nowadays, but extra E3 hype would have only helped MH GU sales and visibility. Dedicated MH World players are already exhausting it's content and tiring of it, so between the end of May and mid June would have been a good time to strike with MH GU for the fanbase... August is certainly late. It remains to be seen how much/if this will have a negative impact otherwise, though, since the Switch and PS4/XB1 markets don't completely overlap. It should sell relatively well regardless, it's just that a release at the end of May - mid June would have only helped Capcom. But hey, it's their mistake to make, we'll see what happens...