@Smug43
I'll put it this way. At launch 128GB cost about ~$100AU so a 15GB game effectively had an additional $12AU cost attached. Now because the cards are cheaper that cost is closer to an additional $3AU
Which you may say "that's an additional cost" which is true. But there are other discounts at play. Eg the regular retail price for games here is ~$70AU but if I go digital I can get a game voucher which drops the price to $67AU. Also digital games give you stronger gold coin rewards which adds to that. And additionally you can get discounted eShop cards (often ~15%). You can very easily end up paying ~$10-15AU less digitally, which more than makes up for the ~$3 you paid for that SD card storage. A card you need anyways for digital only games
And your last point about guarantees of being able to play the game in the future. I don't have any games that have become unplayable because I brought them digitally. None. Sure it has happened for some games but usually what happens is the servers for that game goes offline, which also impacts physical purchases. And in any case, other than preservation, why would I care? 15-20 years from now if I want to play Bayonetta 3 and Nintendo has made my game unplayable somehow? I'd personally feel justified playing it by other means
At this stage 15GB isn't a lot of storage so I don't get why people are going on like that's some sort of reason to go physical.
Sure when the Switch launched and a 128GB microSD card was $100AU. At that point it definitely mattered and was the reason I got a lot of games physically early on, especially >10GB games. But now you can get 512GB for a similar price
I think the Wii U more than any other console launched in a real limbo-era in terms of technologies. WiFi, hardware accelerated video decoding and LCD screens were good & cheap enough to make streaming low-latency 480p to a controller screen feasible in a way that wouldn't have been possible a couple of years prior. But on the other side flash and mobile hardware was well short of making a reasonable spec portable machine
Go back in time and put yourselves in that position of what to launch to follow the Wii. Do you launch a straight up "Wii HD", literally what the Wii U was minus the GamePad and hitting the Wii's $250US launch price. Or do you go Switch early and instead of the 3DS and Wii U release a portable Wii+, i.e. basically the Vita but with Skyward Sword on day 1. Or do you try to do both and make the Wii U
..... in hindsight? Wii HD would probably have been the best bet. But it was also the safest bet and the least interesting. Personally I'm glad they gambled on Wii U, I had fun with it. I would've liked it if they had made the controller a bit more sleek but
From what I've heard these leaks are very much real but also obtained via not particularly legit means. The leak also contains the name of the leaker. Some sites are not publishing this story because of that.....
Being able to grab your friend code from it is nice but not much use when you can't also use the app to add other people's friend codes
@HollowSpectre There is an official website to browse the eShop. Has been for a while. I think from near day one in the US, was only added a few months ago here
@Troll_Decimator It's not about some magical compression algorithm. It's about optimisation, asset resolution/reuse and so on. It could well be that this game is smaller due to the art style. Hell, because of the open nature of it they might have picked this art style because it allows for smaller sized textures which matters more in an open world environment
Switch 2/Switch Pro, same same. I don't know why people are so obsessed with the distinction because the end result is likely the same. Higher spec in a similar architecture, heavy BC, titles still releasing and compatible with OG Switch.
And 2024? I mean damn. What a bold prediction ey? You mean to say that Nintendo will not continue to use the more or less same SoC for more than 7 years? That the Switch won't start approaching OG Gameboy levels of no significant internal hardware revisions? Huge if true /s
I don't see what the issue is. As a consumer the size of the team who made the game and how resourced they are makes absolutely no difference to my enjoyment of the game. In the early days sure, you could tell the difference between them. Independently developed titles tended to be lower budget original titles in an era where everything had become a multi-million dollar blockbuster. But now? Independent developers are making huge titles and major studios are making small titles. As a consumer there is no gap between them anymore but the "smaller and low risk" titles still need a word. And that word is indie
Same thing happened with music. Indie there also used to mean music that wasn't on a major label which in the early 2000s was a particular sound. An alternative to alternative which at that point was the mainstream and not alternative. But then independents became popular, got labels and signed artists started to use the indie sound. These days indie is totally divorced from that original meaning
The meaning of words change, especially when the original meaning of the word doesn't have any value to the people using it. For a consumer the financing situation of the development studio is about as relevant to them as the brand of CPUs they used in their workstations when developing. So of course indie has come to mean something other than "independent"
@Onett
"No one is resting this and suddenly going "oh yes, time to buy an exorbitantly expensive PC just to emulate Method Dread"."
To be fair, the video linked has a 6 core i5 and a 1060. These were fairly mid-range components when the Switch launched, they're far from high end in 2021. But I do agree with the sentiment. This isn't really news to anyone
As someone who isn't interested in emulating Switch though it is still kinda interesting. So many pages on this site have talked about what comes after the Switch. I think this just highlights how scalable Switch games are. With a bit more horsepower higher resolutions aren't that out of the question at all
@Mauzuri
.......... because console exclusivity is such a great pro-consumer thing that must be defended. I get that there are licencing and commercial reasons and I'm far from condoning piracy due to exclusivity arrangements. But lets not pretend that console exclusives are a net-positive thing for consumers
As far as I'm concerned if you've brought the platform and brought the game? You should be able to do whatever you want with it. Legal grey area or not, I see no rational Ethical/Moral argument against that
@TSR3
I'm not arguing what advantages unlocking higher resolution modes on the current Switch would give. I'm just saying that technically with this new dock they could allow them. And in any case HDMI 2.0 adds more than just 4K @ 60fps, it also adds HDR
If we want to travel back into the "there is no Pro" space IMO the best thought is that this is for HDR. The OLED model has a higher dynamic range so it makes sense for Nintendo to think about HDR. HDMI 2.0 is the way you'd deliver that
@HenHiro
As I said, they already have a stockpile of Switch Docks and continue to sell the Switch non-OLED. This dock had some effort put into it. I doubt they did all this in the last year due to some sudden chip shortage for a non-new component.
So as you said, Occam's Razor. Which theory is more likely? That Nintendo had no plans for a higher end SKU at any point, that WSJ is entirely making stuff up and just got lucky with the OLED screen and that at the same time there is a shortage of HDMI 1.4 chips meaning Nintendo put HDMI 2.0 chips in their new dock which was redesigned to, I don't know, add Ethernet?
OR
Nintendo had planned to release a Pro SKU this year. As part of those plans they revised the Dock to support HDMI 2.0 for higher display resolutions and secured supply of some OLED screens to take advantage of HDR. But due to COVID related chip shortages they couldn't secure the new Tegra SoCs which are now slated for a late 2022 release. So they put an X1 SoC in it instead so they could move the OLED screens they had secured. WSJ and others got wind of those plans and reported on them which Nintendo naturally denies as they always do.
Well, I guess that answers that question. Also if it's just because of parts why revise the dock at all? They are still producing the original Switch afterall. Probably the most definitive proof that there at least were plans for a Switch Pro.
Also interesting thought. Technically this means the current Switch could output a 4K signal with HDR. Not much point given it's well short of rendering at that resolution but still. Opens the door for streaming?
@Ryu_Niiyama Usually Nintendo would just say they don't comment on rumours and speculation. They've been unusually vocal about these Bloomberg reports and Bloomberg isn't backing down. There's definitely something to this.
It's definitely technically possible, we literally got Sunshine already so there's that. The space concerns are legitimate but even there they could just make them stand alone releases. Also ~1.5GB is hardly as much space as it used to be, remember the Wii U had Wii games on it's VC service
The real limit is desire from Nintendo to do it. I mean technically GC is newer to the Switch than N64 was to the Wii. So it's almost time enough for it to be revisited like this. But like N64 on the Wii, they could easily charge for GC on Switch. Because GC is basically just a Wii with a different controller
Maybe a few years from now it comes to NSO. Assuming NSO still exists in its current form
@BAN As you said, clearly I'm more invested in this topic than you are. I could correct you on a number of things or even call you out on assumptions on my age/experience/knowledge. But this isn't the forum for that.
@MichaelP
Depends on what it is. I still think the community in general has got to the point where, in general, people are quick too quick dismiss some of these rumours/leaks as false.
The problem is the way rumours work you will never never get confirmation they are wrong. The closet you will ever get is no news which can, and will, be just brushed off as "just wait" or "plans changed" by the people making it up. But this doesn't mean that rumours are never true or leaks don't happen
In terms of this batch of NSO stuff you have to admit it's been pretty accurate. And it's not just one dude making stuff up. It's a combination of a Datamining, Eurogamer, Nintendolife then additionally the FCC filing. Then we get a Direct that confirms all of it except the Gameboy part of the rumour. So yeah, excuse me if I don't share the rush to cry "they're just making it up"
@SalvorHardin
You're not wrong about some channels on youtube, I mean youtube is an open platform. The algorithm serves you videos with high engagement not videos with reputable sources. But that's not really what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about rumours and leaks more broadly
Also, frankly, you are right to say that people really did go overboard with the rumour about the "4K" Switch Pro. As someone who still thinks it's on the cards I maintain that people don't understand the range of things that "4K" can actually mean. It really could be as little as upgrading the HDMI port from 1.4 to 2.0 and giving the Switch a marginal performance bump. And something like that is highly probable, especially compared to the delusional people who thought (or asserted others thought) it meant a portable PS5.
Oh, and on the OLED screen bit. Go back and read the threads from when that was leaked. There were plenty of people such as yourself saying that an OLED screen was completely impossible. These people were idiots. Time will be as kind to the people pretending the Switch can exist in its current spec for the next 5 years.
@BAN
They're incredibly inaccurate if you measure inaccuracy as a percentage of things said that you choose to remember were rumoured by the time of the reveal. But that's obviously a BS measure. People conveniently forget about the rumours that were correct. Like the OLED screen, New 2D Metroid, N64 on NSO and a higher priced tier for NSO. But of course lets obsess over the as-of-yet unknown Switch Pro as if it's current lack of existence is somehow proof "all rumours are baseless"
Hell, there were literally people under the post about that FCC filing for a new controller last week. People saying "more of these rumours" and so on. Over an FCC filing, literally a legal government document. Then we get the N64 controller announcement that Friday.
IMO people dismissing every rumour off hand are the problem here, not the rumours
As someone who's been pretty vocal about the idea of a Switch Pro this doesn't do much. The reason for a Switch hardware revision isn't really about higher resolutions. It's about more games reaching a 60fps target, things like longer draw distances and improved lighting and some of the newer goodies like HDR and VRR.
If it also does above 1080p via something like DLSS? That's nice. But resoluttion isn't generally the issue.... excluding games that drop bellow 720p.....
@Davzilla Usually the team who gets Zapdos has control before then, it's powerful but it's not everything. Usually when I lose Zapdos it's because nobody on my team is around to attack it. At least that's how most of the games I play have gone.
People talking about there not being may games on NSO. You realise at the NES app launched with 20 games which included Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 3, Zelda, Excite Bike, Dr Mario. And the SNES app launched a year later again with 20 titles including Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Yoshi's Island, Star Fox, StuntRace FX, FZero, Super Mario Kart....
Would I expect Pokemon on this thing? Not really. But I wouldn't be at all suprised if we get games like Metroid, Super Mario Land, Kirby, Zelda, Wario on Day 1.
@sleepinglion
Your smartphone from 10 years ago doesn't have buttons, or a 6" screen, or a HDMI output that allows you to connect it to your TV. Also your smartphone technically doesn't have any legitimate means to obtain ROMs for NES/SNES/GB releases......
Honestly I don't understand the whine about the classic games services on NSO. I mean I pay $55AU/year for a family account which is shared between four people including myself. I use those game vouchers for major releases which goes a fair way to covering the cost. But even without that it's what, $4.50/mo? It's not a lot
@liveswired Again, you're misunderstanding the tech. Using DLSS could potentially save them money and reduce the power consumption while still delivering a reasonable image. Sure it's not a free feature to include but the alternative is rendering it natively at a higher resolution which requires higher end hardware/higher clocks which costs MORE than DLSS would
For some reason when ever anyone talks about DLSS the obsession is to think about 4K or even 8K. That's not really what DLSS is and the video above shows that pretty well I think. DLSS is nothing more than a cheaper way (both in computation and actual $$$) to output games at a higher resolution than rendering the game natively at that higher resolution.
@DK-Fan
"Why you just can't enjoy the current switch?"
Why can't you let people enjoy hardware speculation? And why can't you understand that people can do both?
I mean, I live tech so this is just what I do. Some people in their spare time take photos of themselves on social media, play with their sporting fantasy leagues, go to the hardware shop or talk cars. I watch tech reviews, browse PC component shops and tinker with gadgets
I enjoy the current Switch, I've litterally been on this forum for over a decade so I better. But I also remember in 2007-ish talking about the DSLite with friends and saying "man, I hope Nintendo's DS successor has a larger 16:9 aspect ratio top screen". Only to be told that the DS Lite was perfect and there was no reason to change it......
People like you always exist, people like me also always exist. The only difference between the two mindsets is that while you may be right in terms of the marketing now, eventually I end up being right on the hardware. We both enjoy the current hardware to the same degree
@liveswired "As lovely as it sounds Nintendo will never go with DLSS to save a penny" You and I think a lot of people seem to have this all backwards. DLSS isn't some bleeding edge gaming technology for high end hardware. I mean it exists there because it's new but that's not where it has value. The value is in being able to reach a higher tier of performance with lower tier hardware
And higher teir performance may mean 4K/30 for a game that you render a 720p. It may also mean 1080p/60 for a game you render at 480p.
However you want to slice it the OLED model does show that Nintendo are expecting to tread water for the next year.
What people don't seem to grasp is that share prices go up when investors have confidence for the medium to long term. Sales are high now? Well ok. But what will they look like in 2022? 2023?
We don't know. Which is a bit of a risk if you're putting money on the line. Agree with the idea of a Pro or not, a Pro would've given investors some idea of what the next few years would look like. Without the Pro, well, we don't know
If I'm close to full I just buy a larger microSD card. The best thing about this approach is that every time I do this I'm basically 2x my storage so it's longer before the next upgrade. And by then the price of microSD cards have fallen. I went from a spare 32GB card to 64GB, 128GB and am now on 256GB. The cards I "retire" I've just put in phones/dashcams etc.
@Joriss
If you have a PC you can just copy the files across. MicroSD card readers are pretty cheap if you don't have one
@SalvorHardin
I think you've got it backwards. You can't put a Wii U disc into a Switch, to access these games they have to be ported. And if you don't remember the Wii U had a fair amount of content but very low sales. Porting from Wii U is low effort, high reward.
If they release a Switch revision there would be no reason to re-release titles that have already been ported to the Switch. They'd already be on the Switch platform. All it'd mean is suddenly the games that are already ported can run at a better framerate.
But if they don't release a Pro, if they go with a Switch successor. THAT would give them a reason to port all these titles all over again. If anything people dismissing the idea of a Switch Pro are the ones begging for more ports, not the other way around.
I read "redefining the console cycle" as "we're not doing the dump and start again cycle we've been doing since the 80s anymore". The Switch as it currently is has been a fairly traditional console cycle. What they do next will decide whether they're changing things up or not. A Switch Pro would be changing things up.
@ThanosReXXX The "we're redefining what a console cycle looks like" is letting the cat out of the bag a bit IMO. An extension of the Switch generation as you said. But as you know I think the way to achieve that is through hardware revisions.
The rest is just standard PR speak, I mean it's literally a standard response. Nintendo probably has a block of text they plonk down when asked about new hardware. Means nothing.
@COVIDberry
Ok, I'll bite again. Wages have remained flat adjusted for inflation pretty much everywhere in the west over the last few decades. Meanwhile things like property prices have gone up at rates higher than inflation. Which creates housing affordability issues.
But this article isn't about housing affordability, it's about game and tech prices. Two of the very few things which have at the very least largely maintained their nominal price. However you slice it, gaming is objectively cheaper than ever.
As I said in my last post, in the early 90s my parents had an income, adjusted for inflation, that was marginally lower than mine. Buying a family PC was a real stretch, buying games was a super occasional thing. Game rental was something to lean on for games. But owning their own house wasn't a stretch.
I'm in the reverse position. Being into tech I'm into one of the cheaper interests someone can be into. Games are one of the cheapest forms of entertainment by a large margin. Adjusted for inflation both are significantly cheaper than they used to be. But buying a house? I'll get there, but it's far from a given because house prices have grown much faster than inflation. And I happen to be lucky enough to live in one of the cheaper cities in Australia.
@westman98 We don't know what the rumoured Switch Pro is yet with 100% confidence. I mean at this point it's almost surely not a successor and that it's not long a way so I think it's fair to say it'll boost Switch sales. But we don't know for sure yet.
@screechums
I mean there are other factors that probably skew my perspective further. My parent's household income when I was a kid was smaller than my current wage, even adjusted for inflation. To be clear, that's not typical, wages have grown slower than inflation I just happen to have a higher paying job.
But in any case, as a kid it wasn't my money. So my memory of 90s game prices is that games were almost exclusively a Christmas/birthday thing. And you'd get one, maybe two if they were budget GB games. You'd play those games to completion and beyond because that was what you had. So in that environment of course, rentals were super appealing.
But now? I log into the eShop and it's not unusual to see an indie game for less than the price of a meal of the kids menu. That's an impulse buy, you don't think about those. And even the full retail releases, why not? I'll pay $20-80AU to go to a show or sporting event, what's $70AU for 10-20hours of digital entertainment?
If anything my issue these days is that I buy more games than I have time to play. And I don't think I'm alone. There's are quite literally websites dedicated to managing your gaming backlog. Game rentals, IMO it's a solution in search of a problem that no longer exists.
edit: The Australian game prices thing. I don't remember the cause, I'm sure there was a specific reason. But I think the rise of digital storefronts really put downward pressure on prices here. Also probably the threat of piracy, especially given releases used to be delayed for the Australian market.
@F_T_Wolf
As a counter point, if the Switch Pro is still a Switch and not a full on successor that would drive sales not supress them.
Think about it. If I upgrade to a Switch Pro? That's an additional sale. Lets say I then sell my current Switch, at most that negates that additional sale. But not everyone will sell their current Switch. And not all used sales are lost sales.
A Switch Pro Upgrade sale is a "net sale" of between 0 and 1. So it, mathematically, would only increase sales. Assuming it counts as a Switch.
On those numbers the Switch is currently the 9th best selling console of all time, just a small shade under the 360. If they hit that 25mill target over the next year (which is fairly conservative given they did 29mill this year) they'll jump to 5th overtaking the 360, PS3, Wii and PS.
At that point overtaking the PS4 and GameBoy would be a rounding error almost. I think it's fair to say that the Switch will end up, at the very least, being the 3rd best selling console of all time. Only behind the DS and PS2.
@screechums
I only picked launch because launch prices for consoles are easier to find. And frankly the drop in price accounting for inflation is so dramatic there isn't really any need to stretch the numbers to suit what I'm saying. Games are just cheaper.
Also, frankly, all I know is that I remember in the 90s being a kid and pouring over toy catalogues. Where it wasn't unusual to see a SNES game for $110AU, a GameBoy game for $70AU or a N64 game for as much as $150AU. But today? You might pay $80AU for a major AAA release.
And in that same time the price of petrol has gone from 60c/L to $1.50/L. The price of a house has gone from like $150K to $600K. Hell, if you were buying a PC in the mid 90s you probably paid a good $3000AU or so, today you're pretty good with a $1500AU. So you can understand my disagreement when someone says "with games being so much more expensive than they used to be".....
just no, they're not. They're just about the only thing that's cheaper
@screechums
Ok, lets do that comparison then. Lets say you're a kid in the early 90s and you get a SNES, adjusted for inflation that's $400US in today's money. Then over the life of that console you buy 5 games, which was about average for the SNES. Adjusted for inflation that's another $600US. So you've spent $1000US and you have five games.
By comparison the Switch is $300US, lets say NSO is a requirement over the ~5 years of the console's life so that's another $150US. You're about $50US behind the SNES.... but you also have a collection of NES & SNES games already. This leaves you with $550US left to spend on games over the life of the Switch. Given the lower price of games? That's about 8 or 9 games. But hey, not all games are full retail, there are a LOT of indie titles and free to play games now. And you also have all that NSO content.
So yeah, I don't buy the argument at all. Gaming is provably cheaper than it was in the 90s. But hey, at least 90s kid got a booklet.
Just to add to my point on inflation. Article starts out saying "oh noes, some games now cost $70US" but if you plug 2021 and $70 into a US inflation calculator and go backards? $70US now is $50US in 2004, $40 in 1995, $35 in 1990.
The average NES game cost $45US, SNES games were $60US, N64 games were $50US, GC games were $50US, Wii $50US, Wii U $60US and now, oh noes, in the Switch era we're looking at $70US supposedly?
The only time they were cheaper than a 2021 $70US was on the Wii. On the SNES, relative to inflation, games were almost twice that price.
The premise of this article is wrong. Games are not getting more expensive, they're getting cheaper. Inflation is mentioned but in the wrong sense. Sure, in the US $70 games are a thing but $70 isn't worth what it was 20 years ago.
Also from an Australian perspective, I remember games costing over $100AU new in the 90s. Even when the Wii launched I payed $95AU for my copy of Twilight Princess. Most Switch games are in the $70-80 range.
Meanwhile things like house prices have easily gone up by 4-5x since the 90s. So yeah, games are cheaper than ever.
@nhSnork
However you want to spin it there's a vast difference in quality between between reports from the likes of Bloomberg & Nikkei and the typical wishlist "leaks" from 4chan and Reddit. Especially when we also have firmware updates adding things in the background like this:
𝚞𝚜𝚋!𝟺𝚔𝚍𝚙𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚏𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚎𝚍𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛_𝚞𝚜𝚋𝟹0
4K display port output over USB anyone? The current Switch can't do that, why update the firmware to add it? Doesn't make sense unless a revision is in the pipeline in the short-to-medium term.
It's like before the Switch launched and there was all the speculation of the Wii U's successor. Of course there were the laundry lists of outlandish wishlists you could immediately dismiss. Impractical designs like that obviously fake 3D model (search the forums, I called it out as BS). But then there was the Eurogamer leak which was incredibly plausible and it turned out to be entirely accurate.
Pretty much all major products get leaked in some form before launch. The trick is being able to sort out the obvious BS from the technically plausible, the credible source from the "my uncle works at Nintendo". The current Switch Pro leaks from Bloomberg and now Nikkei? They're technically plausible rumours from very reliable sources.
@Xiovanni Every IOS version has a cut off point, they don't support them forever. Also if you're a developer you're eventually going to be forced to make any updates only available on the newer IOS. It's just how it is.
Also it shouldn't be particularly surprising that these phones are no longer supported. We're talking about a phones that were released in 2013/14 here, on both the Android and IOS side. There is an argument to be had about the disposable nature of tech but at the same time.... I'd be very surprised if anyone complaining under this article holds onto their phone for 6/7 years.
Especially if they're into Pokemon because if you had a phone that old you would've upgraded for Pokemon Go a few years back......
@Gus_Campos If you want to get into the weeds it's not going to be "4K". There are hardware standards, when you say the hardware supports 4K what you mean is it has HDMI 2.0 or above. Which yes, means 4K/60hz. But it also means HDR, VRR, 120hz and so on
@superderper
I have a NanoHD that covers pretty much the entire house and an AC Lite in the one corner of the house that had average coverage. Brick house so that makes it tricky but even then a single NanoHD just about covers the entire house.
If I was to buy one now I'd probably go with a 6 Lite instead but
@SwitchForce
I'm sorry but Nintendo's servers are not much faster than 30Mbps
I was going to comment about how the "APs that group 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz" is BS but apparently this is an old article being pushed to the top for some reason and I said the same almost two years ago. Instead I'll just point out that the advice about repeaters is also crap, repeaters are not a good idea. Adding a repeater a lot of the time just means you're adding more wireless interference.
If you want a the highest quality WiFi setup what you want are wired, decent quality access points in optimal locations. You don't have to use your ISP's provided router's built in WiFi, disable that and instead grab a decent access point from someone like Ubiquiti. Run an network cable to a central, high location in your house, power over PoE. That'll solve 90% of people's poor WiFi. For house layouts where it doesn't? Use more than one access point.
As OLED matures we're going to see OLED overtake LCD outside of purely premium devices. Smaller screens first like phones, portable consoles. Then monitors and tablet sized devices. Finally OLED will overtake LCD in the TV market.
Worth noting a few things. Firstly these are physical sales not digital so it's not the full picture. Especially when Ring Fit Adventure is a physical only release so even in usual times it would be boosted on these charts.
Given the style of game Animal Crossing is, the relatively small download size and that it's included in the voucher program? I think it's probably a reasonable guess that Animal Crossing is download more than most titles.
But probably most critically, these are not usual times. Based on Nintendo's last report digital sales were just a tad over 50% of their software sales in the last quarter. So I would expect Animal Crossing to be doing a fair bit better than this chart is saying.
With that said, love both titles and am 30 days into Ring Fit
Comments 694
Re: Bayonetta 3 Nintendo Switch File Size Seemingly Revealed
@Smug43
I'll put it this way. At launch 128GB cost about ~$100AU so a 15GB game effectively had an additional $12AU cost attached. Now because the cards are cheaper that cost is closer to an additional $3AU
Which you may say "that's an additional cost" which is true. But there are other discounts at play. Eg the regular retail price for games here is ~$70AU but if I go digital I can get a game voucher which drops the price to $67AU. Also digital games give you stronger gold coin rewards which adds to that. And additionally you can get discounted eShop cards (often ~15%). You can very easily end up paying ~$10-15AU less digitally, which more than makes up for the ~$3 you paid for that SD card storage. A card you need anyways for digital only games
And your last point about guarantees of being able to play the game in the future. I don't have any games that have become unplayable because I brought them digitally. None. Sure it has happened for some games but usually what happens is the servers for that game goes offline, which also impacts physical purchases. And in any case, other than preservation, why would I care? 15-20 years from now if I want to play Bayonetta 3 and Nintendo has made my game unplayable somehow? I'd personally feel justified playing it by other means
Re: Bayonetta 3 Nintendo Switch File Size Seemingly Revealed
At this stage 15GB isn't a lot of storage so I don't get why people are going on like that's some sort of reason to go physical.
Sure when the Switch launched and a 128GB microSD card was $100AU. At that point it definitely mattered and was the reason I got a lot of games physically early on, especially >10GB games. But now you can get 512GB for a similar price
Re: Reggie Explains Why The Nintendo Wii U Didn't Utilise Dual GamePad Support
I think the Wii U more than any other console launched in a real limbo-era in terms of technologies. WiFi, hardware accelerated video decoding and LCD screens were good & cheap enough to make streaming low-latency 480p to a controller screen feasible in a way that wouldn't have been possible a couple of years prior. But on the other side flash and mobile hardware was well short of making a reasonable spec portable machine
Go back in time and put yourselves in that position of what to launch to follow the Wii. Do you launch a straight up "Wii HD", literally what the Wii U was minus the GamePad and hitting the Wii's $250US launch price. Or do you go Switch early and instead of the 3DS and Wii U release a portable Wii+, i.e. basically the Vita but with Skyward Sword on day 1. Or do you try to do both and make the Wii U
..... in hindsight? Wii HD would probably have been the best bet. But it was also the safest bet and the least interesting. Personally I'm glad they gambled on Wii U, I had fun with it. I would've liked it if they had made the controller a bit more sleek but
Re: It Looks Like Nintendo's Game Boy Emulator For Switch Online Just Leaked
From what I've heard these leaks are very much real but also obtained via not particularly legit means. The leak also contains the name of the leaker. Some sites are not publishing this story because of that.....
100% some dude is losing their job over this one
Re: Nintendo Switch Online App Version 2.0.0 Includes Biggest Updates Yet
Being able to grab your friend code from it is nice but not much use when you can't also use the app to add other people's friend codes
@HollowSpectre
There is an official website to browse the eShop. Has been for a while. I think from near day one in the US, was only added a few months ago here
Re: Pokémon Legends: Arceus Pre-Load File Size For Switch Revealed
@Troll_Decimator
It's not about some magical compression algorithm. It's about optimisation, asset resolution/reuse and so on. It could well be that this game is smaller due to the art style. Hell, because of the open nature of it they might have picked this art style because it allows for smaller sized textures which matters more in an open world environment
Re: Analyst Predicts 2024 Release Date For Next-Gen Nintendo Switch Successor
Switch 2/Switch Pro, same same. I don't know why people are so obsessed with the distinction because the end result is likely the same. Higher spec in a similar architecture, heavy BC, titles still releasing and compatible with OG Switch.
And 2024? I mean damn. What a bold prediction ey? You mean to say that Nintendo will not continue to use the more or less same SoC for more than 7 years? That the Switch won't start approaching OG Gameboy levels of no significant internal hardware revisions? Huge if true /s
Re: Best Of 2021: The Term 'Indie' Is Losing Meaning, But Maybe That's A Positive Sign
I don't see what the issue is. As a consumer the size of the team who made the game and how resourced they are makes absolutely no difference to my enjoyment of the game. In the early days sure, you could tell the difference between them. Independently developed titles tended to be lower budget original titles in an era where everything had become a multi-million dollar blockbuster. But now? Independent developers are making huge titles and major studios are making small titles. As a consumer there is no gap between them anymore but the "smaller and low risk" titles still need a word. And that word is indie
Same thing happened with music. Indie there also used to mean music that wasn't on a major label which in the early 2000s was a particular sound. An alternative to alternative which at that point was the mainstream and not alternative. But then independents became popular, got labels and signed artists started to use the indie sound. These days indie is totally divorced from that original meaning
The meaning of words change, especially when the original meaning of the word doesn't have any value to the people using it. For a consumer the financing situation of the development studio is about as relevant to them as the brand of CPUs they used in their workstations when developing. So of course indie has come to mean something other than "independent"
Re: Rumour: Metroid Prime Switch Remaster Is "Wrapped Up" According To Industry Insider
@Damo
Unfortunately the internet hive mind only remembers the rumours/leaks that were "wrong". Which includes the ones that are yet to come to pass
Re: Nintendo's Switch Exclusive Metroid Dread Is Already Being Emulated On PC
@Onett
"No one is resting this and suddenly going "oh yes, time to buy an exorbitantly expensive PC just to emulate Method Dread"."
To be fair, the video linked has a 6 core i5 and a 1060. These were fairly mid-range components when the Switch launched, they're far from high end in 2021. But I do agree with the sentiment. This isn't really news to anyone
As someone who isn't interested in emulating Switch though it is still kinda interesting. So many pages on this site have talked about what comes after the Switch. I think this just highlights how scalable Switch games are. With a bit more horsepower higher resolutions aren't that out of the question at all
@Mauzuri
.......... because console exclusivity is such a great pro-consumer thing that must be defended. I get that there are licencing and commercial reasons and I'm far from condoning piracy due to exclusivity arrangements. But lets not pretend that console exclusives are a net-positive thing for consumers
As far as I'm concerned if you've brought the platform and brought the game? You should be able to do whatever you want with it. Legal grey area or not, I see no rational Ethical/Moral argument against that
Re: Teardown Suggests The Switch OLED Dock Is 4K 60fps-Ready And 'Future Proof'
@JaxonH
RTD2172 -> HDMI 2.0
RTD2173 -> HDMI 2.1
In the video it's clearly RTD2172
Re: Teardown Suggests The Switch OLED Dock Is 4K 60fps-Ready And 'Future Proof'
@TSR3
I'm not arguing what advantages unlocking higher resolution modes on the current Switch would give. I'm just saying that technically with this new dock they could allow them. And in any case HDMI 2.0 adds more than just 4K @ 60fps, it also adds HDR
If we want to travel back into the "there is no Pro" space IMO the best thought is that this is for HDR. The OLED model has a higher dynamic range so it makes sense for Nintendo to think about HDR. HDMI 2.0 is the way you'd deliver that
@HenHiro
As I said, they already have a stockpile of Switch Docks and continue to sell the Switch non-OLED. This dock had some effort put into it. I doubt they did all this in the last year due to some sudden chip shortage for a non-new component.
So as you said, Occam's Razor. Which theory is more likely? That Nintendo had no plans for a higher end SKU at any point, that WSJ is entirely making stuff up and just got lucky with the OLED screen and that at the same time there is a shortage of HDMI 1.4 chips meaning Nintendo put HDMI 2.0 chips in their new dock which was redesigned to, I don't know, add Ethernet?
OR
Nintendo had planned to release a Pro SKU this year. As part of those plans they revised the Dock to support HDMI 2.0 for higher display resolutions and secured supply of some OLED screens to take advantage of HDR. But due to COVID related chip shortages they couldn't secure the new Tegra SoCs which are now slated for a late 2022 release. So they put an X1 SoC in it instead so they could move the OLED screens they had secured. WSJ and others got wind of those plans and reported on them which Nintendo naturally denies as they always do.
Re: Teardown Suggests The Switch OLED Dock Is 4K 60fps-Ready And 'Future Proof'
Well, I guess that answers that question. Also if it's just because of parts why revise the dock at all? They are still producing the original Switch afterall. Probably the most definitive proof that there at least were plans for a Switch Pro.
Also interesting thought. Technically this means the current Switch could output a 4K signal with HDR. Not much point given it's well short of rendering at that resolution but still. Opens the door for streaming?
Re: Rumour: Developers Have Reportedly Been Working On "4K Switch Games"
@Ryu_Niiyama
Usually Nintendo would just say they don't comment on rumours and speculation. They've been unusually vocal about these Bloomberg reports and Bloomberg isn't backing down. There's definitely something to this.
Re: Random: Check Out These Mock-Ups Of GameCube For Nintendo Switch Online
It's definitely technically possible, we literally got Sunshine already so there's that. The space concerns are legitimate but even there they could just make them stand alone releases. Also ~1.5GB is hardly as much space as it used to be, remember the Wii U had Wii games on it's VC service
The real limit is desire from Nintendo to do it. I mean technically GC is newer to the Switch than N64 was to the Wii. So it's almost time enough for it to be revisited like this. But like N64 on the Wii, they could easily charge for GC on Switch. Because GC is basically just a Wii with a different controller
Maybe a few years from now it comes to NSO. Assuming NSO still exists in its current form
Re: Rumour: Game Boy And Game Boy Color Games Still Expected For Switch Online
@BAN
As you said, clearly I'm more invested in this topic than you are. I could correct you on a number of things or even call you out on assumptions on my age/experience/knowledge. But this isn't the forum for that.
Needless to say I don't agree
Re: Rumour: Game Boy And Game Boy Color Games Still Expected For Switch Online
@MichaelP
Depends on what it is. I still think the community in general has got to the point where, in general, people are quick too quick dismiss some of these rumours/leaks as false.
The problem is the way rumours work you will never never get confirmation they are wrong. The closet you will ever get is no news which can, and will, be just brushed off as "just wait" or "plans changed" by the people making it up. But this doesn't mean that rumours are never true or leaks don't happen
In terms of this batch of NSO stuff you have to admit it's been pretty accurate. And it's not just one dude making stuff up. It's a combination of a Datamining, Eurogamer, Nintendolife then additionally the FCC filing. Then we get a Direct that confirms all of it except the Gameboy part of the rumour. So yeah, excuse me if I don't share the rush to cry "they're just making it up"
Re: Rumour: Game Boy And Game Boy Color Games Still Expected For Switch Online
@SalvorHardin
You're not wrong about some channels on youtube, I mean youtube is an open platform. The algorithm serves you videos with high engagement not videos with reputable sources. But that's not really what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about rumours and leaks more broadly
Also, frankly, you are right to say that people really did go overboard with the rumour about the "4K" Switch Pro. As someone who still thinks it's on the cards I maintain that people don't understand the range of things that "4K" can actually mean. It really could be as little as upgrading the HDMI port from 1.4 to 2.0 and giving the Switch a marginal performance bump. And something like that is highly probable, especially compared to the delusional people who thought (or asserted others thought) it meant a portable PS5.
Oh, and on the OLED screen bit. Go back and read the threads from when that was leaked. There were plenty of people such as yourself saying that an OLED screen was completely impossible. These people were idiots. Time will be as kind to the people pretending the Switch can exist in its current spec for the next 5 years.
Re: Rumour: Game Boy And Game Boy Color Games Still Expected For Switch Online
@BAN
They're incredibly inaccurate if you measure inaccuracy as a percentage of things said that you choose to remember were rumoured by the time of the reveal. But that's obviously a BS measure. People conveniently forget about the rumours that were correct. Like the OLED screen, New 2D Metroid, N64 on NSO and a higher priced tier for NSO. But of course lets obsess over the as-of-yet unknown Switch Pro as if it's current lack of existence is somehow proof "all rumours are baseless"
Hell, there were literally people under the post about that FCC filing for a new controller last week. People saying "more of these rumours" and so on. Over an FCC filing, literally a legal government document. Then we get the N64 controller announcement that Friday.
IMO people dismissing every rumour off hand are the problem here, not the rumours
Re: Uh-Oh, Nintendo Switch Online's N64 Games Might Be 50Hz In Europe
1. Create second account with US region
2. Download the US version of the app
3. Play the app with your main account that has the sub
boom, 60Hz
(can also do this with Japan BTW)
Re: Hardware Review: Can You Really "Make Your Own Switch Pro" With This $100 Dongle?
As someone who's been pretty vocal about the idea of a Switch Pro this doesn't do much. The reason for a Switch hardware revision isn't really about higher resolutions. It's about more games reaching a 60fps target, things like longer draw distances and improved lighting and some of the newer goodies like HDR and VRR.
If it also does above 1080p via something like DLSS? That's nice. But resoluttion isn't generally the issue.... excluding games that drop bellow 720p.....
Re: Tencent's New MOBA Pokémon Unite Has Surpassed 9 Million Downloads On Switch
@Davzilla
Usually the team who gets Zapdos has control before then, it's powerful but it's not everything. Usually when I lose Zapdos it's because nobody on my team is around to attack it. At least that's how most of the games I play have gone.
Re: Random: Check Out These Mock-Ups Of Game Boy For Nintendo Switch Online
@Late
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_multiplayer_Game_Boy_games
Re: Random: Check Out These Mock-Ups Of Game Boy For Nintendo Switch Online
People talking about there not being may games on NSO. You realise at the NES app launched with 20 games which included Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 3, Zelda, Excite Bike, Dr Mario. And the SNES app launched a year later again with 20 titles including Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Yoshi's Island, Star Fox, StuntRace FX, FZero, Super Mario Kart....
Would I expect Pokemon on this thing? Not really. But I wouldn't be at all suprised if we get games like Metroid, Super Mario Land, Kirby, Zelda, Wario on Day 1.
Re: Random: Check Out These Mock-Ups Of Game Boy For Nintendo Switch Online
@sleepinglion
Your smartphone from 10 years ago doesn't have buttons, or a 6" screen, or a HDMI output that allows you to connect it to your TV. Also your smartphone technically doesn't have any legitimate means to obtain ROMs for NES/SNES/GB releases......
Honestly I don't understand the whine about the classic games services on NSO. I mean I pay $55AU/year for a family account which is shared between four people including myself. I use those game vouchers for major releases which goes a fair way to covering the cost. But even without that it's what, $4.50/mo? It's not a lot
Re: Digital Foundry Explores The Potential Of 4K DLSS On A Next-Gen Switch
@liveswired
Again, you're misunderstanding the tech. Using DLSS could potentially save them money and reduce the power consumption while still delivering a reasonable image. Sure it's not a free feature to include but the alternative is rendering it natively at a higher resolution which requires higher end hardware/higher clocks which costs MORE than DLSS would
For some reason when ever anyone talks about DLSS the obsession is to think about 4K or even 8K. That's not really what DLSS is and the video above shows that pretty well I think. DLSS is nothing more than a cheaper way (both in computation and actual $$$) to output games at a higher resolution than rendering the game natively at that higher resolution.
Re: Digital Foundry Explores The Potential Of 4K DLSS On A Next-Gen Switch
@DK-Fan
"Why you just can't enjoy the current switch?"
Why can't you let people enjoy hardware speculation? And why can't you understand that people can do both?
I mean, I live tech so this is just what I do. Some people in their spare time take photos of themselves on social media, play with their sporting fantasy leagues, go to the hardware shop or talk cars. I watch tech reviews, browse PC component shops and tinker with gadgets
I enjoy the current Switch, I've litterally been on this forum for over a decade so I better. But I also remember in 2007-ish talking about the DSLite with friends and saying "man, I hope Nintendo's DS successor has a larger 16:9 aspect ratio top screen". Only to be told that the DS Lite was perfect and there was no reason to change it......
People like you always exist, people like me also always exist. The only difference between the two mindsets is that while you may be right in terms of the marketing now, eventually I end up being right on the hardware. We both enjoy the current hardware to the same degree
Re: Digital Foundry Explores The Potential Of 4K DLSS On A Next-Gen Switch
@liveswired
"As lovely as it sounds Nintendo will never go with DLSS to save a penny"
You and I think a lot of people seem to have this all backwards. DLSS isn't some bleeding edge gaming technology for high end hardware. I mean it exists there because it's new but that's not where it has value. The value is in being able to reach a higher tier of performance with lower tier hardware
And higher teir performance may mean 4K/30 for a game that you render a 720p. It may also mean 1080p/60 for a game you render at 480p.
Re: Nintendo's Stock Price Sees Biggest Fall In Two Years Following Earnings Report
However you want to slice it the OLED model does show that Nintendo are expecting to tread water for the next year.
What people don't seem to grasp is that share prices go up when investors have confidence for the medium to long term. Sales are high now? Well ok. But what will they look like in 2022? 2023?
We don't know. Which is a bit of a risk if you're putting money on the line. Agree with the idea of a Pro or not, a Pro would've given investors some idea of what the next few years would look like. Without the Pro, well, we don't know
Re: Talking Point: What's That One Switch Game You Can't Bring Yourself To Delete?
If I'm close to full I just buy a larger microSD card. The best thing about this approach is that every time I do this I'm basically 2x my storage so it's longer before the next upgrade. And by then the price of microSD cards have fallen. I went from a spare 32GB card to 64GB, 128GB and am now on 256GB. The cards I "retire" I've just put in phones/dashcams etc.
@Joriss
If you have a PC you can just copy the files across. MicroSD card readers are pretty cheap if you don't have one
Re: Doug Bowser Responds To Reports About "Upgraded Switch Replacement" (Again)
@SalvorHardin
I think you've got it backwards. You can't put a Wii U disc into a Switch, to access these games they have to be ported. And if you don't remember the Wii U had a fair amount of content but very low sales. Porting from Wii U is low effort, high reward.
If they release a Switch revision there would be no reason to re-release titles that have already been ported to the Switch. They'd already be on the Switch platform. All it'd mean is suddenly the games that are already ported can run at a better framerate.
But if they don't release a Pro, if they go with a Switch successor. THAT would give them a reason to port all these titles all over again. If anything people dismissing the idea of a Switch Pro are the ones begging for more ports, not the other way around.
I read "redefining the console cycle" as "we're not doing the dump and start again cycle we've been doing since the 80s anymore". The Switch as it currently is has been a fairly traditional console cycle. What they do next will decide whether they're changing things up or not. A Switch Pro would be changing things up.
Re: Doug Bowser Responds To Reports About "Upgraded Switch Replacement" (Again)
@ThanosReXXX
The "we're redefining what a console cycle looks like" is letting the cat out of the bag a bit IMO. An extension of the Switch generation as you said. But as you know I think the way to achieve that is through hardware revisions.
The rest is just standard PR speak, I mean it's literally a standard response. Nintendo probably has a block of text they plonk down when asked about new hardware. Means nothing.
Re: Know Your E3 History? Test Your Credentials With Our Nintendo E3 Quiz
9, but I answered 2014 for the BotW because the question was poorly worded. It was announced at E3. 2014, 2019 wasn't really it's announcement.....
Re: Rumour: Nintendo Switch 'Pro' Reveal Expected Before E3, Out This Year
in before the people with their heads in the sand
Re: Soapbox: Is It Time For Game Rental Stores To Return?
@COVIDberry
Ok, I'll bite again. Wages have remained flat adjusted for inflation pretty much everywhere in the west over the last few decades. Meanwhile things like property prices have gone up at rates higher than inflation. Which creates housing affordability issues.
But this article isn't about housing affordability, it's about game and tech prices. Two of the very few things which have at the very least largely maintained their nominal price. However you slice it, gaming is objectively cheaper than ever.
As I said in my last post, in the early 90s my parents had an income, adjusted for inflation, that was marginally lower than mine. Buying a family PC was a real stretch, buying games was a super occasional thing. Game rental was something to lean on for games. But owning their own house wasn't a stretch.
I'm in the reverse position. Being into tech I'm into one of the cheaper interests someone can be into. Games are one of the cheapest forms of entertainment by a large margin. Adjusted for inflation both are significantly cheaper than they used to be. But buying a house? I'll get there, but it's far from a given because house prices have grown much faster than inflation. And I happen to be lucky enough to live in one of the cheaper cities in Australia.
Re: Nintendo Switch Sales Surpass Game Boy Advance As Demand Stays High
@westman98
We don't know what the rumoured Switch Pro is yet with 100% confidence. I mean at this point it's almost surely not a successor and that it's not long a way so I think it's fair to say it'll boost Switch sales. But we don't know for sure yet.
Re: Soapbox: Is It Time For Game Rental Stores To Return?
@screechums
I mean there are other factors that probably skew my perspective further. My parent's household income when I was a kid was smaller than my current wage, even adjusted for inflation. To be clear, that's not typical, wages have grown slower than inflation I just happen to have a higher paying job.
But in any case, as a kid it wasn't my money. So my memory of 90s game prices is that games were almost exclusively a Christmas/birthday thing. And you'd get one, maybe two if they were budget GB games. You'd play those games to completion and beyond because that was what you had. So in that environment of course, rentals were super appealing.
But now? I log into the eShop and it's not unusual to see an indie game for less than the price of a meal of the kids menu. That's an impulse buy, you don't think about those. And even the full retail releases, why not? I'll pay $20-80AU to go to a show or sporting event, what's $70AU for 10-20hours of digital entertainment?
If anything my issue these days is that I buy more games than I have time to play. And I don't think I'm alone. There's are quite literally websites dedicated to managing your gaming backlog. Game rentals, IMO it's a solution in search of a problem that no longer exists.
edit: The Australian game prices thing. I don't remember the cause, I'm sure there was a specific reason. But I think the rise of digital storefronts really put downward pressure on prices here. Also probably the threat of piracy, especially given releases used to be delayed for the Australian market.
Re: Nintendo Switch Sales Surpass Game Boy Advance As Demand Stays High
@F_T_Wolf
As a counter point, if the Switch Pro is still a Switch and not a full on successor that would drive sales not supress them.
Think about it. If I upgrade to a Switch Pro? That's an additional sale. Lets say I then sell my current Switch, at most that negates that additional sale. But not everyone will sell their current Switch. And not all used sales are lost sales.
A Switch Pro Upgrade sale is a "net sale" of between 0 and 1. So it, mathematically, would only increase sales. Assuming it counts as a Switch.
Re: Nintendo Switch Sales Surpass Game Boy Advance As Demand Stays High
On those numbers the Switch is currently the 9th best selling console of all time, just a small shade under the 360. If they hit that 25mill target over the next year (which is fairly conservative given they did 29mill this year) they'll jump to 5th overtaking the 360, PS3, Wii and PS.
At that point overtaking the PS4 and GameBoy would be a rounding error almost. I think it's fair to say that the Switch will end up, at the very least, being the 3rd best selling console of all time. Only behind the DS and PS2.
Re: Soapbox: Is It Time For Game Rental Stores To Return?
@screechums
I only picked launch because launch prices for consoles are easier to find. And frankly the drop in price accounting for inflation is so dramatic there isn't really any need to stretch the numbers to suit what I'm saying. Games are just cheaper.
Also, frankly, all I know is that I remember in the 90s being a kid and pouring over toy catalogues. Where it wasn't unusual to see a SNES game for $110AU, a GameBoy game for $70AU or a N64 game for as much as $150AU. But today? You might pay $80AU for a major AAA release.
And in that same time the price of petrol has gone from 60c/L to $1.50/L. The price of a house has gone from like $150K to $600K. Hell, if you were buying a PC in the mid 90s you probably paid a good $3000AU or so, today you're pretty good with a $1500AU. So you can understand my disagreement when someone says "with games being so much more expensive than they used to be".....
just no, they're not. They're just about the only thing that's cheaper
Re: Soapbox: Is It Time For Game Rental Stores To Return?
@screechums
Ok, lets do that comparison then. Lets say you're a kid in the early 90s and you get a SNES, adjusted for inflation that's $400US in today's money. Then over the life of that console you buy 5 games, which was about average for the SNES. Adjusted for inflation that's another $600US. So you've spent $1000US and you have five games.
By comparison the Switch is $300US, lets say NSO is a requirement over the ~5 years of the console's life so that's another $150US. You're about $50US behind the SNES.... but you also have a collection of NES & SNES games already. This leaves you with $550US left to spend on games over the life of the Switch. Given the lower price of games? That's about 8 or 9 games. But hey, not all games are full retail, there are a LOT of indie titles and free to play games now. And you also have all that NSO content.
So yeah, I don't buy the argument at all. Gaming is provably cheaper than it was in the 90s. But hey, at least 90s kid got a booklet.
Re: Soapbox: Is It Time For Game Rental Stores To Return?
Just to add to my point on inflation. Article starts out saying "oh noes, some games now cost $70US" but if you plug 2021 and $70 into a US inflation calculator and go backards? $70US now is $50US in 2004, $40 in 1995, $35 in 1990.
The average NES game cost $45US, SNES games were $60US, N64 games were $50US, GC games were $50US, Wii $50US, Wii U $60US and now, oh noes, in the Switch era we're looking at $70US supposedly?
The only time they were cheaper than a 2021 $70US was on the Wii. On the SNES, relative to inflation, games were almost twice that price.
Re: Soapbox: Is It Time For Game Rental Stores To Return?
The premise of this article is wrong. Games are not getting more expensive, they're getting cheaper. Inflation is mentioned but in the wrong sense. Sure, in the US $70 games are a thing but $70 isn't worth what it was 20 years ago.
Also from an Australian perspective, I remember games costing over $100AU new in the 90s. Even when the Wii launched I payed $95AU for my copy of Twilight Princess. Most Switch games are in the $70-80 range.
Meanwhile things like house prices have easily gone up by 4-5x since the 90s. So yeah, games are cheaper than ever.
Re: Nintendo Will Reportedly Ramp Up Switch Output To 30 Million This Fiscal Year
@nhSnork
However you want to spin it there's a vast difference in quality between between reports from the likes of Bloomberg & Nikkei and the typical wishlist "leaks" from 4chan and Reddit. Especially when we also have firmware updates adding things in the background like this:
𝚞𝚜𝚋!𝟺𝚔𝚍𝚙𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚏𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚎𝚍𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛_𝚞𝚜𝚋𝟹0
4K display port output over USB anyone? The current Switch can't do that, why update the firmware to add it? Doesn't make sense unless a revision is in the pipeline in the short-to-medium term.
It's like before the Switch launched and there was all the speculation of the Wii U's successor. Of course there were the laundry lists of outlandish wishlists you could immediately dismiss. Impractical designs like that obviously fake 3D model (search the forums, I called it out as BS). But then there was the Eurogamer leak which was incredibly plausible and it turned out to be entirely accurate.
Pretty much all major products get leaked in some form before launch. The trick is being able to sort out the obvious BS from the technically plausible, the credible source from the "my uncle works at Nintendo". The current Switch Pro leaks from Bloomberg and now Nikkei? They're technically plausible rumours from very reliable sources.
I wouldn't dismiss them so lightly.
Re: Pokémon HOME June Update Will End Compatibility With Select Smartphones
@Xiovanni
Every IOS version has a cut off point, they don't support them forever. Also if you're a developer you're eventually going to be forced to make any updates only available on the newer IOS. It's just how it is.
Also it shouldn't be particularly surprising that these phones are no longer supported. We're talking about a phones that were released in 2013/14 here, on both the Android and IOS side. There is an argument to be had about the disposable nature of tech but at the same time.... I'd be very surprised if anyone complaining under this article holds onto their phone for 6/7 years.
Especially if they're into Pokemon because if you had a phone that old you would've upgraded for Pokemon Go a few years back......
Re: Rumour: Evidence Of A "New" Nintendo Switch Dock Supposedly Datamined In System Update 12.0.0
@Gus_Campos
If you want to get into the weeds it's not going to be "4K". There are hardware standards, when you say the hardware supports 4K what you mean is it has HDMI 2.0 or above. Which yes, means 4K/60hz. But it also means HDR, VRR, 120hz and so on
Re: How To Improve Your Switch's Internet Connection
@superderper
I have a NanoHD that covers pretty much the entire house and an AC Lite in the one corner of the house that had average coverage. Brick house so that makes it tricky but even then a single NanoHD just about covers the entire house.
If I was to buy one now I'd probably go with a 6 Lite instead but
@SwitchForce
I'm sorry but Nintendo's servers are not much faster than 30Mbps
Re: How To Improve Your Switch's Internet Connection
I was going to comment about how the "APs that group 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz" is BS but apparently this is an old article being pushed to the top for some reason and I said the same almost two years ago. Instead I'll just point out that the advice about repeaters is also crap, repeaters are not a good idea. Adding a repeater a lot of the time just means you're adding more wireless interference.
If you want a the highest quality WiFi setup what you want are wired, decent quality access points in optimal locations. You don't have to use your ISP's provided router's built in WiFi, disable that and instead grab a decent access point from someone like Ubiquiti. Run an network cable to a central, high location in your house, power over PoE. That'll solve 90% of people's poor WiFi. For house layouts where it doesn't? Use more than one access point.
Re: Samsung To "Aggressively Position" OLED Tech Across Promising Market Sectors Including "Gaming Console Segments"
As OLED matures we're going to see OLED overtake LCD outside of purely premium devices. Smaller screens first like phones, portable consoles. Then monitors and tablet sized devices. Finally OLED will overtake LCD in the TV market.
Re: Japanese Charts: Ring Fit Adventure Outsells Animal Crossing For Second Week In A Row
Worth noting a few things. Firstly these are physical sales not digital so it's not the full picture. Especially when Ring Fit Adventure is a physical only release so even in usual times it would be boosted on these charts.
Given the style of game Animal Crossing is, the relatively small download size and that it's included in the voucher program? I think it's probably a reasonable guess that Animal Crossing is download more than most titles.
But probably most critically, these are not usual times. Based on Nintendo's last report digital sales were just a tad over 50% of their software sales in the last quarter. So I would expect Animal Crossing to be doing a fair bit better than this chart is saying.
With that said, love both titles and am 30 days into Ring Fit