Ronnie

Excuse me? Maybe just speak for yourself about not being convinced, or needing convincing in the first place for that matter. Oh and Jim Sterling relies on being on the same side as gamers, of course he's going to take the pro-gamer view.

Look I didn't mean for this to start a discussion about AAA game development and how much content there is in games etc. The simple fact is, we're getting bigger, broader, better looking games with much more content in the BASE GAME than we did 30 years ago, for comparatively, less money when you adjust for inflation. Games have remained at the same price because publishers don't want to raise them for fear of turning people off. Their alternative? Tack on DLC and the like for those people who WANT to spend more for extra content. That's all I'm saying. I resent being called a liar for stating the obvious.

Ok, compare them to SNES games then. $50, $60, $70 RRPs back in the day. Hence, we have it cheaper now. Oh come on. So you're saying we're getting less game now if you bought Metal Gear Solid V versus if you bought Metal Gear on the SNES back in the day for the same RRP? $60 back then was worth a lot more than $60 now. Even if your copied and pasted side missions argument had merit, it really doesn't, games back in the day relied on OTT difficulty to keep the game last a while. Castlevania on the NES can be finished in 45 minutes, same with Lylat Wars. Both games that cost the same RRP as modern AAA titles. That's the direction the (non Nintendo) gaming industry have decided to take things. Better GRAPHICS with each gen, more terraflops. If Sony and Microsoft provide consoles that can deliver incredible visuals, developers have to keep up with them or they sadly wouldn't sell.

Easy (comparatively speaking) to make Pokemon spin off games that may as well be free to play nickel and dime mobile shovelware is a little different than 100 hour Assassin's Creed games that took a thousand employees to make. I'm not talking about shitty little Pokemon games like Pokemon Quest or Go. I'm talking about AAA video game development. AAA development, as a whole, hasn't become a scam. I didn't pay more than the asking price for Spider Man, Red Dead, Detroit, AC: Syndicate, God of War. I got the base game, I put 100 hours into them (or 50 in Spider Man's case) and had a great time. Those games' RRP, with their 100 hour campaigns full of content, are the same RRP as Super Nintendo games back in the day, with their 2 hour campaign you replayed over and over. That doesn't mean that scummy practises haven't occured before obviously, Battlefront II being the most recent example, but on the whole, games are cheaper to play nowadays than they ever have been, that isn't a lie, it's the truth.

As usual digital sales for Nintendo games not counted in the above

Watching that brilliant ad back again brings back memories of the Switch launch window, good times. Still blow my mind the difference in their advertising this gen compared to the Wii U days. As for a new ad this weekend, I'm not sure it's really necessary. The first one two years ago was about telling the everyday public that there was a cool new Nintendo machine/Zelda game on the market. Nowadays everyone knows what the Switch is so a generic 'look how cool this thing is' ad wouldn't amount to much and they don't have a huge tentpole release on the horizon (sorry Yoshi), so probably advertising money better spent elsewhere.

Ahh the usual entitled, "I want stuff for free!" gamer attiude. Standard. Yes it is. You're the one peddling a lie if you think the top line stuff is more expensive these days than back in the SNES or N64 days. Or maybe you've just never heard of the term inflation, and how it should have, but never did apply to the gaming industry. Game's RRP is either the same as twenty years ago, or cheaper (go look up what N64 games used to cost), and yet modern games take 10x more development costs than they did back then. Now try and compare the actual amount of content you get from Ocarina of Time ($70), to Assassin's Creed Odyssey ($60). Even without optional microtransactions and DLC, games are enormous these days, packed full of content in a way they could never be back in the day. And yet games have remained either the same price or in some cases, cheaper thanks to inflation.

Because they value quality and protecting their brand? And because it wasn't ready to ship and probably had (at least) another year of development behind it, so why bother wasting that time on an inferior product? You're right, absolutely nothing. And certainly not a 2D Mario game that ended up selling 25% more than on Wii U. In your opinion. Animal Crossing and Luigi's Mansion are my two most anticipated games this year. So no, Metroid Prime 4 wasn't "the only game to look forward to", there's tons coming to Switch this year, that we know of, let alone what we don't.

The only game to look forward to? Switch's "ongoing software drought"? Are you being serious? We've got Yoshi, Fire Emblem, Luigi's Mansion, Animal Crossing, Town, Pokemon Gen 8, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Daemon X Machina and Pokemon Gen 8 coming this year. Plus more unnanounced stuff coming this year that Nintendo just teased overnight.

When they were offering free online it was still costing them to run the infrastructure. Times change. Be thankful gaming is cheaper than it’s ever been.

Selling 32 million in one product makes them more money than selling a combined 32 million of two products.

And you know... running online infrastructure. Unless all that comes free to them.

Investors Briefing news... 8 million subscriptions to their Online service. Basically 25% of users, way more than I expected!

Phew if the latter is the case. Them adding a new service wouldn't have gone down well.

I assume Gamexplain has analysed the reflection in the logo for any clues by now? Sounds fun, and a good fit for mobile. Interesting they've partnered with someone new, and didn't renew with DeNA.

Very strange.

Yeah this makes a ton of sense, especially with the 3DS finally looking like it's on the way out with the latest sales figures. I was suggesting a Swtich to my sister for my 8 yo nephew but at £280ish it's not cheap for a kid. I'd definitely buy a smaller model. I love my Switch but when I'm on the Tube or on the bus a more pocket friendly model would be great, especially with Animal Crossing around the corner.

Fantastic sales from Let’s Go. Fully deserved. Most people who actually played it seemed to have a great time, and that’s all that matters.

Same here, but those are very impressive numbers.

75 million HW sales in the era of smartphone gaming is pretty amazing tbf

I've listened to a few Sacred Symbols episodes but the other guy (Chris is it?) just didn't do it for me. Seemed a bit ignorant on the industry and his opinions and delivery were a bit generic.

Sounds really great. It needs heavy promotion from Sony to sell decent numbers, unlike what their last game Tearaway got (twice).

I love the joycons, never had any issues with any of mine, build quality seems good and I love playing with one in each hand spread out on the sofa. So comfortable. Pro Controller is better obviously (amazing battery life!!) but for a quick pick up and play the joy con are great imo

This is an interesting video that compares the VIP demo with the playtest demo people were invited to beforehand. The VIP demo was using a 6 week old build of the game, compared to the playtest. Key points stolen from ResetEra Performance was hugely improved to. Devs on Twitter have said it'll be 30fps on console at launch, with 60/4K patch for X coming later.