westman98

Not sure it will matter too much what Nintendo releases this year on Switch 1 as long as long as the lineup isn't literally empty.

I struggle to think of a way to make a AAA Crazy Taxi game outside of turning it into GTA, which (if that happens) then begs the question: Why not just buy GTA (especially with VI coming out next year)?

@JokerCK
Yeah I don't know why they didn't just specify those 4 games during the podcast. The cat is already out of the bag, may as well name some names and get it over with.

@Littlejack
For multiplayer games where a significant portion of sales come from PC like Helldivers, retail sales won't matter much at all.

@Great_Gonzalez
No, that 583 million figure is the known combined sales of all Nintendo 1st party games on Switch, not just the games on the Top 10 list.

@jedgamesguy
Not too shocking to see the sequel of a highly acclaimed predecessor have a far bigger launch but then taper off quicker as the hype was centered around the launch window rather than spread throughout a long period like with BOTW (a Switch launch title).

Note that these are also shipment figures so the low sales of TOTK during the holidays is more to do with Nintendo letting existing supply sell-through before shipping additional copies than the game "tanking."

We went from Batman Arkham Knight being the fastest-selling superhero game ever upon its release to Suicide Squad selling half of the Guardians of the Galaxy game that infamously underperformed. Total collapse here.

This is the Nintendo equivalent of "As A Star Wars Fan, Do You Really Need To Watch The Star Wars Holiday Special?"

No

Predicting that the Switch 2 won't sell as much as Switch 1 is hardly a shocking guess given that Switch 1 is closing in on 140 million units sold, but maybe wait for the thing to be announced first??

The really bad thingg about all of this is that Microsoft isn't just laying off inexperienced college graduates or secretaries or HR, they are firing high level employees, many of whom have been at their respective studios for many many years. Even the Call of Duty studios are seeing big layoffs which is the last thing that should be happening to studios working on a massive GaaS annualized game franchise.

Not surprised at the return to LCD given that most of the handheld gaming PCs and the PlayStation Portal are sticking with LCD. The recently released SteamDeck OLED is an exception, but it also retails at $550 minimum and is far from the most affordable version of the SteamDeck.

Nintendo's customer base is far larger and more price conscious than those who buy handheld gaming PCs, so something had to give to keep the overall price down.

Remember when Iwata cut his pay in half when Nintendo was underperforming during the Wii U and 3DS doldrums in order to avoid firing employees?

Now the biggest company on Earth by market capitalization is laying off 8% of their entire gaming business after a record fiscal year.

This industry is in deep trouble.

@HeadPirate
Come on now, nobody is talking about Pals or Pokemon who look like simple easily-defined geometric shapes like spheres or cubes. All of the Pals that have been pointed out as possible evidence of plagiarism are complex 3D models with hundreds or thousands of vertices/tris/edges/etc.

@HeadPirate
Again, I'm not talking about Palworld designs sharing the same base creature concept as Pokemon designs (that is totally fine), I'm referring to parts of models or parts of models that share near-identical shape and topology (i.e. number of vertices, edges, tris, etc) with existing Pokemon.

@HeadPirate
People have dug into the in-game files and compared models from Palworld and Pokemon. Some of the comparisons absolutely indicate copying here, not just inspiration or parody (like you would see in other monster catching RPGs).

@HeadPirate
There is no way Studio Wildcard isn't aware but as long as their intellectual property or copyright isn't being violated then they can't do anything. Unlike with Pokemon, it doesn't seem like any Ark assets or models were plagiarized.

@DennisReynolds
To be completely fair to PocketPair, there is currently no proof that Palworld is using AI to generate their Pals. Their CEO seems to love AI based on some old comments he made, but there is no evidence that it is currently being used in the game. No need to muddy the already very muddled waters.

They are seemingly leaning into good old-fashioned plagiarism, not AI-generated plagiarism.

I'd say that's a good performance for Another Code. This is a very, very, very niche IP; other smaller Nintendo franchises like Xenoblade or Metroid would look like blockbuster successes relative to Another Code.

Nah, GameFreak just needs to make the games look and (more importantly in the case of Scarlet/Violet) run better. Do that and 90% of the issues and mainstream complaints go away.

5 years from now, when people are asking themselves "Why is there so much AI generated content in video games, movies, TV, comics, etc?", I'll be sure to point to this as a good starting point.

@Savage_Joe
"It's ok that Palworld rips-off Pokemon because Pokemon sucks" is not as good of a reason as you think it is.

Palworld monster designs are definitely bordering on blatant rip-offs but I don't think they are infringing on copyright, at least not yet.

@6thHorizon
The Switch 2 isn't even officially announced or even acknowledged, and those 8% of developers may be somewhat violating NDAs by even confirming they have Switch 2 projects in development, so I'd say 8% is a pretty high percentage.

Expect a February 2024 Switch-focused Direct, and be surprised if anything else happens.

Sucks to see as I found his videos very informative, but as I said before, the next Smash isn't going to direct itself.

Unless Toto has some insider info, this speculation is completely predictable and is something I would have told anyone years ago.

No.

Switch sales are declining, and the decline is significant enough such that I think new hardware is needed in 2024 to reinvigorate Nintendo's business.

Well the next Smash Bros isn't going to direct itself lmao

The idea that TOTK is a "dead game" is ludicrous - its still selling extremely well and is getting a bunch of GOTYs (even if Baldur's Gate 3 is winning more overall). One couldn't ask for much more.

I was under the impression that only corporate executives like company presidents and CEOs would be named in this kind of list, so it's cool to see someone on the creative side of the business be recognized.

@Max_the_German
This is a retail-only chart for all games, not just Nintendo titles.

The GameMill licensed games (and most tie-in licensed games in general) are worse than most of the games on this list, but that's because GameMill puts literally 0 effort and budget into those licensed games.

On the other hand, a game like Gollum or Quantum Error was developed with somewhat strong or moderate expectations of being a blockbuster title but ended up totally and utterly failing.

@HotGoomba
I found just the dog:

A Zelda Maker would either be way too simplistic to make for a fun standalone game or way too complex for most normal people to understand. I think striking the correct balance would be incredibly difficult.

2D Mario is different in that it's a sidescroller with very linear and straightforward levels with minimal puzzle-solving

Translation: "Tencent offered me a big check and I couldn't resist."

Looks like it could be the boxart for the inevitable Switch 2 version of the game 😉

I just saw some gameplay footage of GTA Online on base PS4 and the game is a total mess: terrible frame rate, stuttering, and objects/environment failing to load properly when driving (which you will spend 40-50% of the game of the time doing). Honestly it almost reminded me of the terrible Arkham Knight port that just released on Switch.

So I guess porting GTAV on Switch would require some effort on Rockstar's behalf, which seems like they would never provide given the current state of GTAV on last-gen consoles.

@electrolite77
The best point of comparison for Switch 2 is probably the SteamDeck, which is comparable to a base PS4 in terms of raw GPU/teraflop performance but has a much better CPU, more RAM, and faster storage.

If course the comparison isn't 1-to-1 since Switch 2 is almost guaranteed to use an Nvidia chip (rather than AMD) so DLSS upscaling is practically guaranteed which should help a lot.

But yeah I wouldn't expect GTAVI on Switch 2 either way.

I don't think GTAVI is coming to Switch 2, but that's less to do with hardware specs and more to do with Rockstar not really caring enough about Nintendo platforms: GTAV still isn't on the current Switch when it can easily run the game.

RIP it was fun while it lasted.

@PinderSchloss
No TOTK winning GOTY would make it worse since Aonuma would have been told to wrap it up twice rather than just once.

@Yoshif3
"The last Zelda game sold really well but secretly most people who played it hated it" has got to be one of the biggest copes I have read.

Good.

Link to the Past is probably my favorite game ever but I have no desire to return to games like it (or Ocarina of Time). It would be a massive downgrade to go from the vast open-world where the adventure is driven by the player's actions to a linear world where the adventure consists of a series of lock + key puzzle boxes.

@blindsquirrel
Hey now, can't forget the minutes-long Keyojima and Peele appearance to promote the Hollywood celebrity movie game.

They did this to every award recipient who had an acceptance speech.

@anoyonmus @RubyCarbuncle
Spider-Man 2 found it self being in a "jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none" situation. The game is great as the sum of its part but individual aspects were outclassed by other games.

That actually brings me to a complaint about The Game Awards: they should have more awards for technical achievements. Stuff like Ultrahand in TOTK or the sheer speed at which you can swing or fast travel in Spidey 2 are absolutely amazing but the people who make all of that possible will never receive any recognition. Games are computer programs after all, with programmers and software engineers to put everything together.

It's not like having too many additional awards will overwhelm the show since Geoff will just speed run through most of the awards in 30 seconds each lmao.

The Game Awards have always tried to balance being an award show vs being a pseudo-E3 event, but this year's awards leaned waaaaayyyyy too hard in the "pseudo-E3" direction. Maybe spend less time on celebrities cracking bad jokes and more time actually allowing developers to accept their awards with an acceptance speech.

So BOTW3 and Half-Life 3 have something in common: they won't exist.

I'm shocked at how many people here think Smash Ultimate is getting an enhanced Switch 2 port over a new entry. People need to stop assuming Nintendo will follow the exact same footsteps of the Switch with Switch 2.

Ther will be a new Smash game and it'll be more of the same (not some massive franchise reboot, doing that to any multiplayer game is way too risky). Probably won't have as many characters as Ultimate but that's fine.