iakona23

@westman98 Thank you so much for these statistics. I am always looking for the numbers to see how sales are going compared to previous quarters and previous years.

This one of a kind prototype helps to tell the story of one of the most important turning points in video game history, when Sony could have decided to work with Nintendo or release their own game console. It belongs in a museum. It is worth 1 million dollars easy.

Imagine what the next Pokemon game could sell on an even larger Switch installed base if it were actually high quality on the level of Dragon Quest 11 or one of Nintendo's other main franchises?

Switch + Switch Lite sales in Japan almost reached 100,000 units for a week in January, while the PS4+PS4 Pro had 2 bigger game releases and only managed around 6,000 units. ok, I know that PS5 will be out in another 9 months or so, and most console gamers are saving up for that, but that is still very impressive sales performance from the Switch for this time of year.

@Alucard83 I believe that Nintendo will release an upgraded Switch with better performance and a better Sharp IGZO display and a magnesium alloy body in summer-fall 2020 before the PS5. More and more information is leaking out that supports my opinion.

So Sword and Shield each have their own expansion pack DLC with exclusive content on each DLC pack which costs $30 each and there is no way to get both expansion packs for less than $60? I guess that if you want all of the content you must get Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield for $60 each or as a 2-pack, and then you must buy each DLC for $30 each, meaning that you can spend $60 + $60 +$30 + $30 if you really want to get every single bit of content?

@sanderev You’re probably right about Cyberpunk. They would need to do a similar port like they did for Witcher 3 on original Switch. But the rest of my points stand.

It doesn’t have to be a world-beater. It just has to maintain better frame rates and resolution in portable mode on current games, and perhaps have some nice upscaling for 4K TVs in docked mode. And maybe be able to handle current 3rd party ports like Jedi Fallen Order and RDR2 and FF 7 remake and perhaps Monster Hunter World. And maybe even Cyberpunk 2077!

I think that 2019 had enough great new releases and ports for the Switch that even if there were no more Switch releases for the next 2 years, most Switch gamers would never run out of great new experiences to play. How many people really have the time to play all of the awesome games which are released in one calendar year?

Preorders are strong. The projection of 4-5 million units is the projection of what one analyst thinks that the Switch could sell in its first year in the market in China. Before that, most analysts were making very modest predictions for the first year in China for the Switch, something like 50,000-500,000 units at most. Personally, I think that the Switch is going to do a lot better than the consensus expectations. If they could reach 4-5 million units, it would be fantastic. The strong partnership with Tencent and other 3rd party developers like Ubisoft is what will make the difference.

Most analysts are somewhat doubtful about Nintendo making much money in China in this partnership with Tencent because of the restriction on game approvals by regulators in China, and because mobile and PC games dominate the market and consoles are minimal there. Also the Switch is already widely available in China through the grey market. But I have a feeling that this Nintendo-Tencent partnership is going to surprise people and it will do a lot to popularize the Switch and Nintendo games in China. I am very encouraged by what Ubisoft is already planning to release in China.

Even more impressive than software sales were hardware sales of 180k total Switch units vs 7k total PS4 consoles. There was no drop off this week for Switch consoles even in the week after a big Pokémon launch. Super impressive.

why don't those who have been expressing their intense dissatisfaction online before the game was even released just play the game for a while and give it a chance? I understand that it might not meet your expectations and that the game has shortcomings, but it still might be a fun experience.

Nintendo Switch needs all the momentum it can get going into 2020 with PS5 looming. We should all be celebrating instead of moaning about this. Look, The Pokémon Company needs to do a lot better in the future, and I think that they know that. But Gamefreak has developed 2 reasonably competent and fun Pokemon games in back to back years. They need to devote a lot more resources and talent into developing these games in the future though.

There should be affordable and power sipping SOCs that AMD and Nvidia can provide Nintendo that far outstrip the Tegra X1 SOC performance and in fact can outperform the base PS4. Nintendo really needs to launch such a Switch console by Q1 2021 at the latest or risk not getting any more ports from games designed to take advantage of PS5 level hardware performance. if you keep your resolution at 720p-1080p, and your framerate is at 30-60fps, then you could probably get ports of games designed to run at 4K 60fps on PS5 and XBox Scarlet.

We can't get games on the current Switch like Red Dead 2, Death Stranding, the latest Call of Duty, or Jedi: Fallen Order. But we can get these wonderful RPGs in portable form such as DQ11S, Witcher 3, Divinity Original Sin 2, and there are plenty of awesome Switch exclusives such as Zelda, Mario Kart, Super Mario, Luigi's Mansion, Pokemon, Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, Astral Chain, Metroid, etc. The Switch is a wonderful complementary system for non-portable game machines such as PC and Playstation, but it is also good enough as your only system because you will never run out of fantastic gaming experiences.

The Switch/Switch Lite is outselling the PS4/PS4 Pro at a ratio of 12 to 1. That is extreme!

Nintendo is facing a lot of pressure and criticism from investors and analysts because they don't make much revenue from mobile gaming compared to other game publishers. They tried to let mobile gamers pay a one-time fee to buy the game with Super Mario Run. Mobile gamers rejected that approach. So now Nintendo is doing what all of the other mobile free to play publishers do. If consumers did not buy all of these microtransactions, then these games would not exist, just as they did not exist in the early years of mobile gaming. This game could be sold for $20 plus DLC, but consumers don't buy mobile games for $20 or more.

@Ralizah I agree with you on Valkyria Chronicles 4. Also, Hollow Knight ended up being pretty good after everything was finished.

2018 was actually pretty weak for Switch game releases. Things were so bad that Octopath Traveler was considered the biggest hit until very late in 2018. 2019 has been much, much, better.

I guarantee you that 10% of the poll respondents here are not playing with their Switch Lite and experiencing severe issues. It’s probably 0% real Switch owners, and 100% trolls. The reporting on the issue based on a few alleged anecdotes out of the tens or hundreds of thousands of units in the hands of consumers is reckless and irresponsible.

The Switch lite is mostly going to skew toward younger gamers who would previously get a 3DS or 2DS from their parents. For everyone else, people are going to spend the extra $100 and get a larger display, detachable joycons, TV docking, and most importantly, a much longer battery life for portable gaming.

They addressed the most important issue, which is power consumption of the Tegra SOC, so this model is a success. But they didn't really try to fix many other things that need improvement, such as the wifi signal strength and the power consumption of the display and maybe a low energy bluetooth capability.

In my humble opinion the Switch is Nintendo's greatest platform ever, and that includes portable. Between Witcher 3 and Dragon Quest 11 S, we've got some seriously awesome RPGs coming this Fall. If you want CD Projekt Red to bring more games to Switch like Cyberpunk 2077, go out and buy The Witcher 3!

@Yorumi Here is what I was thinking of: https://youtu.be/s-X8C_8nJQ4

I believe that there is a completed but unreleased Star Wars game for the Wii called Rogue Leader that has been held up by various financial and legal problems. I know that the Factor 5 guys would love to release it on Switch, but that would probably mean that Disney and EA would have to give permission, among others. Maybe Nintendo and Epic could get involved and finally let this game see the light of day on Switch.

@NicolausCamp Bummer! Thanks for the info, though.

This physical release for $40 or less is really worth it. I used to play the soundtrack from the first game all the time. The music is really good, as are the games!

The July-September quarter is going to look very good compared to the period last year, with all of these new games being released now and with the revised Switch and the Switch lite coming out in August and September.

A strong yen also means that Nintendo’s cash on hand is worth more in dollar terms, which is a good thing. I think that Nintendo should be using that cash horde to open more Nintendo retail stores around the world.

Doom 3 is still an excellent game. I wonder if we will get gyro controls?

This is great. At this point, Dragalia Lost must be pulling in over $10 million per month. And there is lots of room for future growth as it has only launched in a limited number of countries so far.
Nintendo is doing ok with their mobile revenue. Mario Kart is still to launch, and I think that a new Pokemon mobile game is being developed with Tencent, and I am probably leaving something out.

@Roto13 I am a joycon apologist, but your comment had me laughing out loud!

@SuperCharlie78 Thanks again.

@SuperCharlie78 Thanks Charlie. This is very helpful information if true!

The main beneficiaries of this whole joycon drift exaggerated brouhaha are the websites and You Tube channels who report on it, the class action law firms who are looking to extract money from Nintendo, and the short sellers who will try to create a hysteria in the news media so they can force the share price lower to make money for themselves.

I don't think that this drift issue will affect sales at all. If you know enough to be worried about it, you will probably just spend $100 extra for the Switch revision which will be released before the Switch lite and which has much greater battery life and probably other small improvements.

This is not good. Still a tiny amount of storage at 32gb, a smaller display, and no ability to output to a tv in docked mode. Count me as very disappointed. For most people, saving $100 is not going to be worth everything that you give up!

I don’t like this. They should have released a refreshed Switch with improved display and internals along with this portable only $199 model. Or they should have included an HDMI port so you could output the Switch Lite to a TV, even if you had to buy the extra dock or cable yourself.
Can you buy a set of joycons to wirelessly connect to the Switch lite?

The total Switch game sales for the 3 month period July-September, both on terms of the number of games sold, and the total revenue, is going to show really strong growth over the same period of 2018. There were not nearly the number of Switch consoles, nor very many compelling new game releases in 2018 compared to what we have going in 2019. September 2019 is going to be nuts!

I fully sympathize with the complaints about the resolution and FPS issues on some of these games, but It's bloody amazing that a old unmodified, off the shelf Tegra X1 mobile SOC from 2015 can run all of these games such as Crash Team Racing and the upcoming Witcher 3 and Doom Eternal. The Switch mini and Switch Pro revision with an updated and more powerful chip cannot come fast enough....

If Nintendo had a large chain of stores like the Apple Stores, man oh man, imagine all of the T-shirts and baseball caps and plush toys and art books and video game accessories that they could sell! It could go a long way toward strengthening the brand and the various video game franchises. Expanding the number of Nintendo stores should be a top priority for Nintendo.

@LetsGoSwitch American websites have rumors, ha ha. I’m just kidding. I like British spelling and I try to learn all of the words which have alternate American and British spelling.

"Rumours" ? What is this, a British website?

@Bondi_Surfer All good points. I really hope they maintain the display size in the Switch mini and add some kid friendly features.

@Bondi_Surfer You could play anything on this Switch mini. But you might need to purchase some additional joycons or a dock or a docking cable, etc.

I don't remember that specific June prediction. Most of the predictions that I remember always point to a Fall launch.

The WSJ has reported that 2 new Switch consoles, likely the cheaper Switch mini with no detachable joycons, and a Switch revision which will be much like the current Switch but with certain upgrades and improvements, are already in production in Southeast Asia and are preparing for launch. I really hope that they go on sale this summer, or early this Fall at the latest. Nintendo could have well over a year to get lots of Switch console sales with no competition from new PS and XBox consoles until late next year.

It’s out now in Japan. Heavy monetization built into the game.

The Mario Kart World Tour Beta is live in Japan. Heavy monetization. You can gain an advantage by purchasing the rare cars. I hope we get a report here soon.