Comments 107

Re: Opinion: NSO Subscribers Outside Key Markets Get Less, And Nintendo Should Fix That

Questionable_Duck

@Ryu_Niiyama Just gonna add this to clarify my opinions because my other comment was removed - I don't think you're a shill and I never said as such, nor did I call you any names. I just think your argument is sided way too much in Nintendo's favor, and (unless there are rules against Japanese businesses that I'm not aware of) it doesn't take into account how illogical it would be for laws, tariffs, shipping costs, political issues, etc. to negatively affect Nintendo, but not any of the other platform holders, like Steam, GoG, Xbox, PlayStation, etc.

Not to mention Nintendo is, by no means, a struggling or poor company. As @nib0 said, they definitely have the infrastructure to support more regions, at least when it comes to the e-Shop. Nintendo is just making a conscious decision not to do this.

Re: Opinion: NSO Subscribers Outside Key Markets Get Less, And Nintendo Should Fix That

Questionable_Duck

@Ryu_Niiyama Yeah, but... Again, I think the fact that Xbox - the platform holder that has by far the smallest install base in the entire industry - does this, but Nintendo does not, debunks your argument.

Yeah yeah I know, Xbox is owned by Microsoft, but up until recently, their gaming division has always been smaller than Nintendo's. Even during the 360 era, Microsoft wasn't properly funding their Xbox division. And yet, in spite of that, Xbox has always supported more regions than Nintendo ever has.

And this is Xbox we're talking about, the company who is notoriously terrible at advertising their games and consoles anywhere outside of the U.S.

There's probably, like, 3 people with an Xbox in Singapore, yet Microsoft still managed to support the region years before Nintendo do.

And yes, sorry for the long rants, but tbh, I completely disagree with everything you've said.

Re: Opinion: NSO Subscribers Outside Key Markets Get Less, And Nintendo Should Fix That

Questionable_Duck

@Ryu_Niiyama I think the writer of this article is completely justified in writing this as an opinion piece on Nintendo Life, because I feel like issues like this do not get nearly as enough coverage as they should.

You speak about journalistic integrity, but any journalist who does their due diligence and actually researches the topic they're covering would realize that there is no good reason for Nintendo to not sell their games and services in regions that Xbox and PlayStation both support, as i mentioned in my 10-paragraph essay above lol.

I don't mean to offend you with this, but it feels like your comments are just blindly defending Nintendo rather than giving them the criticism that they actually deserve.

Re: Opinion: NSO Subscribers Outside Key Markets Get Less, And Nintendo Should Fix That

Questionable_Duck

@MrCarlos46 Huh, you're right. It seems Nintendo does have plans to bring the eShop to Singapore in the future, as well as the Phillippines and Thailand. They haven't provided any exact dates as to when they'll make it available, though.

Still, it's absolutely absurd that it took Nintendo nearly two decades to start selling their games digitally in Southeast Asia, something that Xbox and PlayStation were already doing years ago.

It's worth noting that the Nintendo eShop still isn't available in many South American, Middle Eastern, and African countries, as well as some European regions like Greece. The Xbox and PlayStation storefronts are available in some of these places, so Nintendo still has a lot of catching up to do.

Re: Opinion: NSO Subscribers Outside Key Markets Get Less, And Nintendo Should Fix That

Questionable_Duck

@Ryu_Niiyama Also want to note that Nintendo NEVER translates their games to anything outside of the major European and Asian languages (e.g. English, French, Italian, German, Chinese, Korean, etc.).

Microsoft is pretty bad here too, but at least they do translate games in other less popular languages sometimes.

Sony is probably the best in this regard, since a lot of their flagship games do get localized and even dubbed in some of the non-major languages.

Re: Opinion: NSO Subscribers Outside Key Markets Get Less, And Nintendo Should Fix That

Questionable_Duck

@Ryu_Niiyama Normally, this would all make sense, but your argument falls apart when you realize that PlayStation and Xbox do a far better job at supporting countries worldwide than Nintendo does.

In Singapore, for example, both Microsoft and Sony offer PlayStation Plus/PSN and Game Pass/Xbox Live services, while Nintendo doesn't offer Nintendo Switch Online.

Sony and Microsoft also allow players to buy games on the Xbox and PlayStation Stores in Singapore, with regional pricing and everything. The Nintendo eShop, meanwhile, isn't even available in the country!

To make matters worse, not only do Sony and Microsoft sell Xbox and PlayStation controllers in Singapore directly through their respective storefronts, Microsoft even offers the Xbox Design Lab service in the country. Nintendo, on the other hand, can't even sell NSO controllers outside of the major territories.

What's funny is that Nintendo does technically have a Singaporean website, but you can't purchase anything from it, and it only redirects you to physical game retailers when you try to buy something.

Clearly, Nintendo's inability to sell its games and services in more regions has nothing to do with tariffs, manufacturing logistics, shipping fees, and whatnot. It's simply a matter of incompetence, or perhaps reluctance.

Nintendo is a very conservative company business-wise, and the fact that they treat international markets like the gaming industry did back in the 90s and early 2000s (e.g. acting as if there are no other regions in the world besides Europe, North America, and East Asia) is possibly a reflection of that. I think the reason why Nintendo refuses to do the bare minimum that PlayStation and even a third-place console manufacturer like Xbox does, is because they want to avoid regional pricing as much as possible. They don't want to sell their games for cheaper, especially not in markets like Singapore where titles usually get a lower price tag than usual.

Re: Nightdive's CEO Reiterates Desire To Remaster 'Eternal Darkness'

Questionable_Duck

@RasandeRose Sure, Nintendo should keep Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, etc. exclusive, but there's really no good reason for Eternal Darkness to remain exclusive since, as I said before, it's not a notable Nintendo franchise, and it's over 20 years old. Nintendo refusing to sell the IP or let the game come to other platforms - especially when PlayStation and Xbox are third-party publishers at this point - is just pettiness.

They could literally just do what they did with The Wonderful 101, which was also another IP that Nintendo initially owned but sold off to Platinum after they realized they want nothing to do with it.

Re: Nightdive's CEO Reiterates Desire To Remaster 'Eternal Darkness'

Questionable_Duck

@RasandeRose Why? There's literally no good reason for this to stay exclusive, other than fanboy purposes ofc. It's not even a well-known Nintendo franchise, and Nintendo has all but abandoned it.

If Nintendo has no interest to do anything with Eternal Darkness, then they don't deserve to keep it as an exclusive. Especially since it's already been stuck on the GameCube for 20 years.

Re: Nightdive's CEO Reiterates Desire To Remaster 'Eternal Darkness'

Questionable_Duck

@Smithicus I really like what Nightdive does, but I'm not a big fan of the games they choose to remaster lol. Most of the titles they bring to modern platforms are way too old for my tastes and they're often obscure games I've never heard of. I would rather they start remastering PS2- and PS3-era games soon, like the ones that @Orwellian87 mentioned.

Re: Nightdive's CEO Reiterates Desire To Remaster 'Eternal Darkness'

Questionable_Duck

If Nightdive were to remaster Eternal Darkness, they would want to put it out on all platforms, not just Nintendo consoles. But I imagine Nintendo wouldn't want that, which is why they are hesitant to work with Nightdive.

Honestly, imo, Nintendo should just sell the rights to Eternal Darkness to Nightdive and/or Atari, so that it can be released on as many platforms as possible. Nintendo is never gonna do anything with the franchise anyways.

Re: Sony Job Listing Suggests More PS5 Games Could Get A Nintendo Release

Questionable_Duck

"As our colleagues at Push Square have noted, the advertised role doesn't necessarily confirm a shift or change in Sony's current strategy, and it could simply be planning to continue what it's been doing up until now."

Nah lol, it's definitely a shift in strategy. If you look at the source, PlayStation literally has two job positions, specifically dedicated to Xbox and PC.

Senior Manager, Platform Sales – Xbox & PC

Manager, Platform Planning & Performance – PC & Xbox

Re: Prominent YouTuber Doubles Down On Belief That A Nintendo Direct Is Due This Month

Questionable_Duck

The people who are downplaying Nate are clearly not that in tune with the gaming leaks and rumors space. He definitely knows more about Nintendo Direct stuff than the average reader here. He's been right about pretty much everything lately, so if he says a Direct is happening, it's going to happen.

Also, contrary to what some people here are saying, Nate doesn't claim that a Direct is gonna happen every month. He was very adamant that he had no info about a Direct happening in June, for instance.

Re: Street Fighter 6 Reveals Special Collab Outfit Available For "One Year Only"

Questionable_Duck

@Solid_Python People unironically think that, in 20 years, they're gonna lose access to all of the digital games they bought on PS4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch, when that's most likely not going to be the case.

If you can still redownload digital Xbox 360, Wii, and PS3 games, what makes ppl think that the current games you buy digitally will be lost in such a short time frame?

Maybe in 50 years the servers for the current-gen consoles will be completely shut down, but at that point, pretty much all of the games you own right now will probably be pirated easily and preserved on the internet, if they're digital-only

Re: Drag X Drive Switch 2 eShop Price Revealed

Questionable_Duck

@Zeebor15 It's not rental, though? I know you're gonna say "you only rent digital-only games," but you are certainly not gonna lose access to your purchase of Drag x Drive anytime soon. Heck, the digital-only games on the Wii and 3DS can still be downloaded to this day if you bought them.

Re: Nintendo Confirms The Release Date For Drag X Drive On Switch 2

Questionable_Duck

It's a shame that Nintendo hasn't made a proper new AAA first-party IP in ages, since the release of ARMS. We had Astral Chain, sure, but that was made by Platinum and the series is pretty much dead.

I though Drag x Drive would be the next big new Nintendo IP, but seeing that it's a digital only $20 eShop exclusive, it's clear that' it won't be.

Splatoon is pretty much the only new IP that Nintendo has made in the last decade that has actually taken off.

Re: Forget Switch 2 Game Key-Cards - "Full On-The-Cart Physical Releases" Are What People Want, Says Publisher Lost In Cult

Questionable_Duck

@Polley001 It just isn't feasible to release modern AAA games on tiny cartridges, since they're so much more expensive than Blu-Ray discs. If people want blockbuster AAA games to come to the Switch 2 at launch (unlike what happened with the Switch 1), they have to accept that publishers are going to choose the game-key card option in most cases.

The only way Nintendo will ever get physical releases on par with PlayStation again on a high-end system like the Switch 2 is if they release more cartridge variants or if they switch to using discs again. Blu-Ray discs, of course, can't really be used on a handheld.

Re: Switch 2 Has Already Overtaken The Combined Lifetime Sales Of The Entire Xbox Series Family And PS5 Pro In Japan

Questionable_Duck

@BaldB3lper78 Why should Microsoft stop selling Xboxes in Japan when they're still making profit off of the 600k people that use it there?

It's not like MS is investing heavily to grow Xbox console's market share in Japan, nowadays they're mostly trying to grow Xbox through other means, like PC Game Pass and putting games on PlayStation/Switch.

Re: Switch 2 Has Already Overtaken The Combined Lifetime Sales Of The Entire Xbox Series Family And PS5 Pro In Japan

Questionable_Duck

@BlaizeV Xbox sales in Japan have always been low, but the Series X/S is actually the second best-selling Xbox console ever in the country.

The Xbox One sold a dismal 140,000 units in Japan over the span of six years. The original Xbox sold around 470k units in Japan.

The Xbox Series X/S, in comparison, has sold 676k units in four years. So there is some minor growth there, for some reason. My guess is Xbox has become a bit more attractive in Japan in recent years due to the fact that most Japanese games now release on the platform. The Xbox One and the original Xbox had very few JRPGs.

Of course, these sales are nothing compared to PS and Nintendo, but still.

Re: Rumour: Final Fantasy Devs Supposedly Hint At Another Nintendo Release

Questionable_Duck

@Sindayl Tbf the sales estimates for FF16 on Xbox were provided by Alinea Analytics, who admitted on Twitter that they used the number of reviews on the Xbox store in order to determine how well the game sold on Xbox. In other words, Alinea's sales estimates for FF16 on Xbox aren't very reliable.

I don't think FF16 is selling insanely well on Xbox or anything, but it is in the #11 spot on the best-selling US Xbox games right now.

But, you're right, Square Enix shouldn't expect the game to sell like hotcakes on Xbox after they kept implying it would never come to other platforms and after they released an unoptimized port

Re: Third-Party Launch Games On Switch 2 Reportedly Sold "Very Low Numbers"

Questionable_Duck

Not that surprising. Most of these are old third-party games that are being sold for full price on Nintendo consoles. And the few brand-new third-party titles are niche titles that probably shouldn't have been Switch 2 exclusive in the first place. Locking Bravely Default HD remaster to the Switch 2, for instance, was a mistake. That game could easily run on Switch 1, and other platforms.

Re: PS5 Hit 'Stellar Blade' Is Reportedly In Consideration For The Switch 2

Questionable_Duck

@Serpenterror Bruh, no offense, but this is such a silly comparison. Comparing the gap between the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S to the gap between the PS4 and the PS2 is wild. The Xbox Series X and S are very close to each other tech-wise, and they both use the same exact dev kit. It is not equivalent to developing for two completely different consoles. The Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S have the same exact architecture, as well. It's not like the PS2, which has the Emotion Engine, versus the PS4, which runs on AMD tech.

No company is going to complain about getting technically-undemanding games like Patapon or Everybody's Golf to run on the Series S. Especially not when they're porting their games to the Switch.

The same "problem" you mention is present on PlayStation, as well. All developers have to optimize for both PS5 and the PS5 Pro.

Btw if there was any truth to the claim that Bandai Namco is not putting Patapon on Xbox because of the Series S, then Bandai Namco wouldn't be porting anything (like the Tales games) to Xbox. Not just their Sony-licensed games.

The only reason why we aren't seeing these Sony-licensed games on Xbox is because Sony doesn't want them on Xbox. Simple as that.