electrolite77

@LazyDaisy

They had two big first party exclusives in June/July, and have launched a couple of Eshop games. There’s now Pokemon with 3 more coming before the end of the year, 2 being Switch 2 exclusives. They’ve got 8 games announced for next year (including the Duskbloods) 6 of which are Switch 2 exclusives. So quantity of first party games isn’t an issue.

Apart from MKW there seems to be a focus on spin offs and B Tier franchises but that is actually starting to make sense. With sales momentum like this why not keep their biggest hitters back for 2027 and beyond?

Those are really good numbers for DK Bananza BTW

Ok that is hugely impressive. Almost no drop off in momentum. If Christmas sales spike in a consistent way it will have irresistible momentum and be well past the point where there’s any risk of failure.

I like the design but nah, too expensive for me

Hyrule Warriors, Kirby Air Rider, Metroid Prime 4 and probably Assassin’s Creed (if it’s ported as well as Star Wars Outlaws). Already got a Switch 2 backlog building.

Still a really good fun time even if it’s obviously been surpassed by the brilliant third game. Not the longest which is why it got criticised a bit at time of release and it’s a bit obtuse on occasion but a great addition to Switch 2.

@SteveDaSteve

Not having to play it on the 3DS screen is the big plus in my eyes

A very welcome addition even if I got bored of waiting and am halfway through a play through on my GameCube. Enjoy everyone, still a great game and nice to have all 3 LM games on the same system.

Why? 😂

It was rubbish back in 1995. Got a lot of hype because of its graphics but it was a dreadful game compared to Tekken and even the original Virtua Fighter let alone VF2.

So biggest for a new physical game on any format since TOTK.

A period of time that has seen the release of Mario Wonder, Spider-Man 2, 3 Madden’s and 2 CODs

@Chimichanga

Digital sales are very hard to find. If the Platform holder/vendor doesn’t release them all that’s left is pointless guesswork. The lack of transparency here is on Nintendo/TPC.

@Sindayl

I’ve always found that response to MS very strange. They’ve been making games longer than Sony and making Consoles for only 7 years/1 generation less.

@Paraka

When I saw the development cost for Spider-Man 2 I knew that a crash was coming

@jojobar

I see your point (and the US Console crash in the 1980s backs it up) but it’s not quite the same in terms of numbers. We’re about to go from 3 competitors in the Console market to two, both with different approaches and both with previous for arrogance when they think they don’t have competition.

Remember whenever you see anything from Xbox executives at this point that a lot of the decision making has been taken out of their hands. They’ve been tasked with achieving profit margins of 30% (phenomenally high for the games industry) and now have to justify decision taken to justify that.

Sony and MS are doing just fine selling Consoles with exclusives. It’s just that the sheer spend needed to make AAA exclusives make it really difficult to achieve a 30% ROI.

Anyone who ever thinks Nintendo should be making a super powered home system to compete with Sony should just take one look at a company with MS resources failing to do so and forget the idea. Especially now with so many players embedded in their Friends lists and digital libraries. Part of the reason Nintendo are still doing so well is because they aren’t throwing money at competing in that market and seem to have a very good grip on their development costs.

@BrokenCiv

Less competition is never good for the consumer

Another game incomplete on physical media, and in the distant future when the servers go down. Another one for Collectors to avoid.

@Mommar

I played through the campaign in MCC last year and it was superb

@GamingGod

They’re porting Indiana Jones so I don’t think power is an issue. Far more likely there’s an issue with availability of dev kits/xbox not wanting to release everything at once

@datamonkey @SalvorHardin @Stormcloudlive

We now know Spencer isn’t really driving the change in tactics

https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/xbox/report-microsoft-cfo-amy-hood-has-forced-xbox-to-deliver-an-insane-30-percent-profit-margin-which-is-why-everything-is-crazy-right-now

@vio

It’s not that crazy really. Activision decided to port to the Wii U because their Wii versions had made them plenty of money. Then like everything else on the Wii U they sold about 35 copies so they never bothered with the Switch. There’s plenty of evidence in the Switch library that it’s easy enough to port PS3/XB1 games but Activision didn’t think it worth their while. I suspect that will change now Xbox are full third party.

@Chlocean

I don’t think it needed it, played a bit of MCC recently and it looks fine. My theory is like with Gears of War* they’ve done a very low level remake so they can have something ‘new’ for Xbox/GP and PS5 at the same time.

*Edit-and Fallout 4

@Maxz

Well into the Switch era actually.

In fact I saw someone on Social Media suggesting they still needed to do so as they’re being ‘left behind.’ Because Elden Ring was delayed.

I have a Series X but would love Halo on the go. Silly MS.

@UltimateOtaku91

Apparently so. Says a lot, and certainly clearly suggests the GKC uproar isn’t actually about anything to do with consumer choice.

Impressive stuff. Half the sales being on Switch 2 is pretty mad actually considering the disparity in the two systems userbase.

Digital only?! Not for me then, unless I see it for £10.

Would have been a likely buyer if there was a GKC or physical.

@johnedwin

A score on Metacritic is totally irrelevant to someone’s opinion on whether a game is great

Once again ‘vocal Online backlash’ proves exactly how relevant it is.

The games are A*, there’s a lot of people who won’t have played them before, there’s plenty of people who are pleased to play them again. Compared to the originals they’re a clear, if not earth shattering, upgrade and you don’t have to use waggle controls. They’re Mario. Of course they sold.

Interesting split. I’d have thought given the difference in Userbase size the Switch 1 share would have been much higher.

@DangoTown

I’m maybe splitting hairs and it’s all opinions but @DangoTown

“towards the end the only truly decent game we got was Tears of the Kingdom”

Within 6 months of that they’d released Pikmin 4 and Mario Wonder.

@KociolekDoSyta

I’m not saying there aren’t some people getting very emotional over GKC, it’s not good for Nintendo to potentially lose collectors as they’re some of their least discerning customers, what I’m saying they’re a very very small percentage of the user base. That isn’t a controversial statement.

The maths for Nintendo is simple-GKC keep costs down for them and therefore third parties, while still maintaining a retail presence to attract customers who are looking to buy a game rather than a bit of plastic for their shelf. If it means more third party support overall they’re calculating that’s worthwhile. I suspect they’re right no matter what Online echo chambers may be leading their members to believe.

Games haven’t been complete on storage medium for a long time now. The idea that they will force publishers to pay for physical options (more than one cart or 128GB carts for bigger games) to satisfy that tiny number of people, at the risk of publishers going digital only or simply not making games for Switch 2 is fantasy land stuff. So is the idea they will ultimately make much difference to whether Switch 2 shifts hardware units.

Given that they’ve found a way to monetise the VB library I can definitely see this happening. Finding a way to turn their back catalogue into shareholder pleasing subscription revenue is clearly something they’re willing to find unusual ways of achieving. The DS was wildly popular and has a huge number of worthwhile games so I’m sure they will at some point.

North America for me though neither is particularly great.

Alas, no PAL version as this was released in the days when Nintendo regarded Europe as a third world backwater

@KociolekDoSyta

Sure, add all 87k from that Reddit page. Multiply my numbers by 10 if you want. Multiply the Reddit page by 10 if you want, let’s really go for it. Maybe 20. Have we made it to 1% of the Switch user base yet? A system that at last count had sold 153 million pieces of hardware and over 1.4 billion pieces of software?

You can even pretend all of them won’t buy a Nintendo system at any point in its lifetime because of the storage medium third party games are on if you want. Amaze everyone by pretending that a Reddit page that hosts 87k people disproves all the other numbers showing first party games are the main drivers of Nintendos hardware sales. I’ll just give you one bit of advice gleaned from over 40 years of video gaming….dont presume the shouting of the most intense enthusiasts means much. Not compared to mass market behaviour.

P.S. If you’d choose digital over GKC, you’re literally walking into the trap Publishers are setting. They want an all digital future with no resale or sharing.

@KociolekDoSyta

I rounded up from the roughly 100 people on here who keep posting about it, and the roughly 200 people on a Facebook group with 400k members. It’s not a scientific number but in terms of the mass market where most people don’t post about Video Games enough to post on here or Social Media, it makes the point regarding the absolutely tiny number of people who will care.

I also didn’t say people are only interested in first party titles. However it’s well established that the games that drive sales of Nintendo platforms and sell the most on them are Nintendo games. Those are all on the cart anyway (or at least a playable v1.0 is before patches and updates). I feel confident in saying that the number of people who would not buy a Switch 2 because of third party games being on a GKC is very small indeed.

Fair play to Nintendo for working really hard to meet projections this time. Finally. As good as Switch 2 is though, I do feel 25 million in the first year is a stretch. Will guarantee stock on the shelves going into the next FY though.

@KociolekDoSyta

They’re really going to miss the 800 people who care enough about GKC to not buy a Switch 2 (a Nintendo system where first party games are on cart anyway)

If it was with a Switch 2 upgrade I’d have been interested

@OmnitronVariant

I’ve seen that and it’s a strange comparison. Nobody needs a technical breakdown to see Switch 2 games running better, it is easily as much of a generational leap as any previous Nintendo transition. MKW is a better looking games than MK8D. The likes of the Zelda games, Hogwarts Legacy, FC26 and Kirby Forgotten Land are significantly better on Switch 2. It already has several games (DK, Cyberpunk, Star Wars Outlaws) that are beyond Switch 1. Mouse controls are more of an innovation than adding extra buttons to the GBA or Analogue triggers on the GameCube. It’s entirely consistent with what Nintendo normally do.

I’m also slightly bemused about the statement that ‘Sony always make high quality Consoles’ given the well known issues with PS1 and PS2, the YLOD on the PS3, the preponderance of stick drift on PS5. They’ve got better but it’s taken them a while to get there

@OmnitronVariant

Nintendo have just done what they usually do like with NES>SNES, GB>GBC>GBA, N64>GC. The outliers are the years where they threw innovation in for the sake of it, which worked with Wii and DS (selling to a market that then moved to mobile phones), worked much less with 3DS (half the sales of DS and 20% of those sales didn’t even include the 3D gimmick), and failed with Virtual Boy and Wii U.

Fair enough. An awful lot of people wanted a refined Switch with. A good power jump. It’s exactly what we got, they nailed it.

@Pillowpants

It happens all the time. The teeth gnashing and howling on Gaming sites is pretty much never reflected in mass market behaviour.

This is over 100GB on Series S so always going to be a GKC, and that’s before we get to the streaming speeds required. The only other options would be Digital only or not getting released at all so obviously GKC plus digital is better than that.

@OldGamer999

Oh same 😂

@boxyguy

People would still have complained

@OldGamer999

It’s just good business sense. Launch at the highest price you think early adopters will buy in at, and allow yourself some leeway to look ‘generous’ with some price cuts to bring the mass market in

@bleeflooflah

Switch 1 is north of 150 million now. I agree Switch 2 is unlikely to reach that but given a similar lifespan it’s possible. It already has momentum and that’s before any revised models or almost all Nintendos big hitters. If Mario/Zelda/Smash/Animal Crossing/Splatoon etc are all up to the usual high standard it will have absolutely no problem selling

@Clammy

Going from Switch 1 to 2 is a proper generational upgrade like you get with PlayStation and Xbox every few years. I very very much doubt Switch 2 is what Nintendo was planning to release as the Switch Pro back in 2020/21.

@outsider83

P.S. DK Bananza is great