RatKing64

Out of curiosity, are the PS3/Xbox One versions of FIFA bad or are people just feeling offended that the Switch version will not look as good as PS4 and Xbox One.

I think this game is partly intended to make money on its own (especially in Japan) and partly intended to introduce new players to the series. SRPGs can be intimidating to people that have never played them before. My son has watched me play Fire Emblem and declared that it was too complicated for him. However, if people try Heroes and decide it is actually not so hard, then perhaps they will be willing to try one of the other FE games.

I will be getting the Vita version, but its cool that Wii U owners have one more game to play through while they wait for the Switch.

I am sure it will do fine over the long haul. Family friendly games tend to have legs on 3DS.

I am not downloading anything this week, but I will pick up Poochi and Yoshi at retail.

I have very little interest in home consoles these days and the Switch is too big for me to consider it a truly portable game system so it is unlikely that I would get one in its current form. However, I am very much hoping that there will eventually be a smaller version of the Switch, ideally with a clam shell design, so that I can have Switch games on it. If they decide to create something else to replace the 3DS that will be a bummer because it will mean (once again) that Nintendo fans need to own two different machines to get access to all of the best first party games.

They obviously need to have a back-up plan in case the Switch fails to take off. If Switch bombs then they will salvage what they can from it into a dedicated handheld that they will call the true successor to the 3DS. If Switch takes off then we will eventually see a smaller variant of it that is aimed at kids but it will still run Switch games.

If they charge $30 US a year then that is very fair, especially if they use that money to invest in a good backbone for their network. It would be even better if they provide the option to sign-up for 2 years at $50 allowing them to get more money up front when they really need it.

I am going to call it now. Later this year Nintendo will announce Pokémon Stars for release holiday 2017 ... on 3DS. It will cause a complete meltdown of rage on this site from people who were expecting it to be on Switch even though it makes much more sense for it to be on the same platform as the other two versions in this gen.

However, that will be the last big (AAA) 3DS release from Nintendo. The next Pokémon gen will be on Switch (probably in 2019) and Nintendo will release a smaller and cheaper (kid friendly) version of the Switch to coincide with the release of that Pokemon game.

@Henmii
I would say exactly the opposite. Continuing to support two separate platforms would be crazy. In the HD era they simply cannot afford to have two completely different platforms that they need to supply software for. Besides, they did not merge all of their development operations and spend so much time talking about how hard it is to have multiple platforms just so that they could continue doing things the same old way. By 2019 the 3DS will be replaced, but it will be a variant of the Switch that replaces it, but a new dual screen system.

This will be a definite get for me.

@Lord
I bet the next Monster Hunter game will be announced for PS4/Switch in Japan.

This is disappointing because I was really hoping for a localization of Monster Hunter Stories. It could still happen if Nintendo push for it and are willing to help with the publishing. However, I should probably not hold my breath.

Over the next two years I think that Switch will be a great success for Nintendo. It will pass the Wii U in installed base by the end of 2018. During that same time sales of the 3DS will gradually wind down. In 2019 Nintendo will release a smaller (and cheaper) variant of the Switch that is intended to be the direct replacement for the 3DS at the lower end of the market. 3DS is not going to go for another 5 years.

I think that many of you have this situation backward. The future of the 3DS does not depend on how well the Switch sells. It depends entirely on how well the 3DS sells. Nintendo will not drop the 3DS until its sales have dropped to the point where it is no longer profitable to support it.

Every time this subject comes up people trot out the whole DS/GBA situation as proof that Nintendo lies about such things. However, the truth in that situation was that Nintendo (and everyone else) was surprised at how quickly the GBA market disappeared once the DS was out. GBA became unviable almost overnight, so they dropped it. If GBA had continued to sell well alongside the DS then they would have kept it going. No company ever abandons a product that is still making them money.

I am still waiting to find a controller at a reasonable cost (I will not pat scalpers) so demand must still be high. I doubt that people will stop caring about it simply because Christmas is over.

I'm hoping that there will be one last big first party release on 3DS this holiday season. My money would be on New Super Mario Bros 3. After that, I suspect that Nintendo will leave third parties to support the 3DS while they focus their own development talent on the Switch.

PSP game cases started out with art on the inside and then most titles dropped it after the first couple of years in order to save on printing costs. Hopefully Switch games will keep it going all the way through its life.

@BLM
I agree 100%. There is no way that Nintendo is going to create a successor to the 3DS that is a separate platform from the Switch requiring its own unique game library. They had trouble supporting both the Wii U and the 3DS with a decent library. The situation would be much worse with two separate HD platforms to support. On top of that is the fact that Nintendo praised the I/OS model many times (one software platform across multiple devices). The device that eventually replaces the 3DS will be designed to run Switch games. In fact, I would bet that they already know what that device will be and a time frame for when they want to bring it to market. My guess is that the next iteration of Pokémon will be released at the same time.

@AlexSora89
I have given up hope on getting a sequel to Super Mario 3D land. I think it far more likely that 3DS would get something like New Super Mario Bros 3.

I will be picking this up. I already have Mario Golf and Tennis on 3DS, but Soccer and Baseball are worth the price of admission here. My kids will love the horse races.

Nintendo will keep the 3DS alive until they are ready to replace it with a truly portable version of the Switch. Imagine a Switch version with the form factor of the 3DS (Clam shell). It has that wonderful screen (in a smaller size) on the top half and the joy cons attached on the lower half. When the Joy Cons are removed the bottom half can fold under to hold the screen up. Of course, there would be no option to play on a TV.

Nintendo knows that the Switch (in its current form) is too big and too expensive to be a true replacement for the 3DS, and that is why they will keep the 3DS alive until they are ready for Switch to move into that niche as well. By then they will also have lots of software ready to come down in price as well.

I hope the 3DS goes strong through this year and 2018.

@kamikazilucas
There are 60 million+ 3DS owners and only 13 million or so Wii U owners. Thus, the vast majority of people who have a 3DS do not have a Wii U. The market is there for sure. Nintendo did not market the game too aggressively, but I think it will do well over the long term.

I think Nintendo's main reason for saying that the Switch is a home console is the pricing of the games. Fans of portable game systems have become accustomed to the idea that games on portables are cheaper than games on home consoles. One of the reasons that Sony stopped producing big budget games for the Vita was that they found portable game fans are not willing to pay high prices for games and thus they could not make HD games profitable on the Vita. Nintendo does not want the Switch to get stuck in that same perception issue. They want people to see that Switch games cost the same as Wii U games did and be OK with that because they are both home consoles rather than being ticked that Switch games are 33% more expensive than 3DS games (if they are both perceived as portables).

Picked my copy up on Friday. I hope that it does well because there is still one unlocalized DQ for the 3DS (DQ XI) and I am hoping that it will come over for both 3DS and Switch so that fans of either Nintendo system can play it.

All of this concern about price underscores the point that console life cycles need to be longer. On the one hand, people like having new tech. Its exciting. On the other hand, it sucks to have to shell out lots of money every 5-6 years to get a new machine and a whole new set of controllers and then have to endure the drought of games for your shiny new toy while developers get up to speed. With mid-life updates (N3DS, PS4 Pro, Xbox Scorpion etc) platform holders should be able to give a performance boost that extends the life of the system and allows for better games without forcing consumers to do a full reboot. You have to shell out for a new system, but all of your existing software and controllers will still work with it so it is not as painful. I hope Switch will get 10 years of support from Nintendo and there will be no successor until the machine is 7-8 years old.

I have seen several commentators complaining that the lower value of the pound sterling has caused the cost of the Switch to be too high in the UK. I am sorry, but that is not Nintendo's fault. I know this is a situation that UK consumers are not used to, but it is a fact of life everywhere else outside of the US. I live in Canada and when our dollar is low the cost of all imported goods go up. That is economic reality. Five years ago we were paying the same price for games as US consumers. Right now we are paying 20-25% more because our dollar is low. I subscribe to a UK magazine (Retrogamer) and renewing it this year cost me less because the pound is lower. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose in the currency game. If you thought that Nintendo would slash their price in the UK to keep the price the same even though the pound is worth less then I guess you can say hello to the reality of floating currencies in a world where everything is pegged against the US dollar.

3DS will be have a fantastic year in 2017. There will not be anything as big as Pokémon Sun/Moon, but there will be lots of great games. If they marketing it right, Snack World could be a big title during holiday 2017.

2018 will be a different story. I expect that 3DS fans will have to make do with third party games, most of which will be localizations of Japanese games, because Nintendo will be 100% focused on the Switch. I think there will be a Pokemon game on Switch for holiday 2018 (bundled with the system at $300) and a price cut for the base hardware to $250. That will be the thing that pushes Switch to finally take off.

The problem with controllers these days is that they have so much technology packed into them that they are almost like computers themselves. They are not cheap to produce.

I think the reason that Nintendo is still throwing so much support behind the 3DS this year is that they know the Switch will take some time to ramp up. The initial cost will ensure that only die-hard fans and high end consumers are willing to pony up in the first 12-18 months. Which is OK. I think they have a long horizon for the Switch and thus they do not need to explode out of the gate. PS3 really struggled early on to the point where people were saying that Sony was doomed. However, it ended up selling over 80 million units.

My prediction is that there will be a price cut for holiday 2018 and that is when the Switch will really start to take off.

This will be a definite "get" for me.

I would like to see an original FE game on Switch. Considering how well Fates did I think we can assume that any future FE game will have multiple versions as well.

I would also like to see the FE series rolled out on the VC. Launch a new FE VC game every month between March and when the new game launches.

This game will ensure that Nintendo sell out their launch shipments for the Switch.

I am sure that Nintendo will have ironed out the frame rate issues on the Wii U as well.

Odds are that the Switch version is an enhancement of the PS Vita version of the game.

Nintendo's pricing is not meant to be competitive with PS4 and Xbox One because they do not see those machines as being their prime competitors. Rather they are pricing it to be comparable to the IPad. They can talk all the want about Switch being a "home console" but everything from the form factor to the internal storage to the price is designed with the tablet consumer in mind.

The fact that DQ Heroes is already localized and DQ Heroes 2 has been announced for localization on PS4 means that there is a good chance of this game coming west for Switch as well.

Overall I think that Japanese studios are definitely keen on the Switch. This particular game may not be a system seller, but Dragon Quest XI and Shin Megami will be. Even if DQ XI is also on PS4, many Japanese gamers will prefer to play it on a portable system.

I am also underwhelmed by what I have seen of the Switch software line-up so far. However, I do not think this will be Wii U part 2 either. For starters, Switch is the future for Nintendo. If it starts off slow they will do what they have to in order to make it a success. There is no 3DS to fall back on this time. If Switch fails then Nintendo fails and thus they will not let it fail.

Secondly, the games will come. The PS4 and Xbox One launch line-ups sucked as well. The days of awesome launch line-ups like the SNES are long gone and they are never coming back. The reality of HD game development is that games take 2-3 years to develop now. Most studios probably only received final development hardware in the past 6 months and it will take some time before they are ready to show what they have in development. By this time next year the software landscape on Switch will be very different. The stop-gap games will be ramping down and the exciting new games will be ramping up.

In the modern gaming era new platforms are going to take time to ramp up. This is why console makers are thinking about how to iterate the current hardware rather than start from scratch every six years. Expect Switch to have a ten year life with a "New 3DS" style update mid-life to allow for better games. That is my prediction. When your horizon is ten years you can afford to start slowly. That is what Nintendo are doing.

I have been saying this all along, but the presentation only hammered it home for me. Switch is going to be a huge success in Japan right from day one. It is obvious that Japanese developers have jumped on board in a big way. The rest of the world will take longer to get excited about Switch.

I predict that the launch in the west will start off well and then taper off quickly due to the high price and lack of exciting games in the launch period. However, I am also sure that Nintendo is prepared for that. They will have plans to ensure that things pick up again in the holiday period. My money is on a Switch Pokémon game to launch alongside Mario Odyssey and give the Switch a huge world wide shot in the arm this holiday.

I have the standard edition pre-ordered. I will stick with that.

@Dezzy - I think the editors wanted to get this review out early so that it would not be lost in the hype around the Switch that is going to drop later this week.

This will be a day-one purchase for me. It will end up going straight onto the backlog pile, but since I signed the petition for localization I feel duty bound to buy it.

Nintendo underestimated how aggressive Sony was willing to be in order to win back their position of dominance. Did anyone really expect the PS4 to be $400 at launch? I am sure that Nintendo were expecting to have a big price advantage at launch and it didn't happen. They also had a machine that was expensive to produce which limited their ability to cut their price.

If they could have rolled out a solid software line-up in 2013 then they might have pulled in decent sales. However, as the article says, they struggled on that front.

It should be noted that Sony also had a terrible first 18 months with the PS3, but they managed to overcome that and end up with a successful product (over 80 million units sold). Perhaps Nintendo simply did not have the same willingness to spend the money.

Although I am not affected by this, it illustrates why I hate the crowd funded model for making games. I am a big fan of the PS Vita and there have been several crowd funded games that sucked in Vita owners and then cancelled the Vita version shortly before launch. It is hard to not believe that they just didn't want to waste time on the Vita version with a small predicted sales volume.

@GraveLordXD
PSP is a powerhouse for emulation. It can play GBA/GBC/NES/SNES/Mega Drive/Master System/Turbografx/Neo Geo and even Capcom CPS1 and CPS2. I even use it to play old Commodore 64 games.

The fact that I can play GBA games at full speed with full sound on the PSP makes me wonder why Nintendo was never able to make it work on the 3DS.

For me the appeal of the Switch is precisely its ability to accommodate different ways of playing games. The kids can use it to play Mario Kart on the big screen TV. After they are in bed I can undock it and play Zelda in my favorite chair with headphones on so that I am in my own little world. If the kids are going to be at Grandmas house for the afternoon they can take it with them and play multi-player games with the controllers detached.

I seriously doubt that Switch will catch on with main stream young adult gamers very much. That is the crowd that Sony and MS are fighting over. Rather Switch will be ideal for families with younger kids, lapsed gamers who have not bought a new game machine since the Wii and Nintendo's traditional fans. That is OK because Switch does not need to beat PS4 and Xbox One to be successful. It just needs to sell well enough for Nintendo to make good profits off of it. I am sure that if it sells 60-70 million units Nintendo will be thrilled with it.

I have been half-heartedly looking for a controller to use with my VC games. I fully expect that I will not be able to find one until late January at the earliest.

If they made a Turbografx plug and play I would definitely look into it. It would not be hard to find 30 TG games that are worth playing, although some of the best were on CD and thus would probably not be selected.

I just went out and re-bought a couple of Game Cube classics recently (Mario Sunshine and Star Fox Adventures). The Cube was very much underappreciated in its time.

Super Mario maker 3DS was not promoted very extensively so it is not surprising that it did not rocket into the charts. However, I expect that sales will be steady for it.