General Switch Discussion

[Ashley]

59 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

It's fine, I've mis-remembered things on here in the past, like the Uncharted 4 release date, but Nintendo never said Wii U would outsell Wii when it was doing badly.

Reggie saying it could outsell PS4/One was 8 or 9 months after the PS4 launched and the year Nintendo released DK, MK8, Smash and Bayonetta. Also given the Wii dominated PS3 and the 360, it wasn't that far fetched. Nintendo have a habit of turning struggling consoles around like the DS and 3DS they ended up being very successful, just didn't happen with the Wii U and maybe he figured Kart and Smash would give it a similar boost.

The NES Mini shortages were stupid, but they were launching a new console soon after and probably didn't want it to take up shelf space/conversation that could have been taken up by Switch. SNES Mini we have no idea how in demand it'll end up being. Amiibo was a brand new business for them, and the Gamecube controller adapter, I guess they didn't think it would be a big seller. I didn't even realise there were shortages of that?

I think I'm conflating various things.  Around launch they expected it to sell as much as the Wii (kind of SWAG approach to it, but understandable that they'd at least want that but the Wii was very much a freak success so presuming you'd do that again was arguably naive) and perhaps that just stuck in my mind.  The closest I could find was them predicting it would sell 9,000,000 between April 13 and March 14 (thus over doubling what it did during the just-shy of six months it had been on sale) when in fact it sold 2,720,000.  Given at launch they were aiming for 100 million units you'd think over the space of 5 years that would be weighted in a top-heavy fashion so they'd expect 30 million + in the first year.  If after six months you've done about 1/10th of that (3,450,000) I would question why you think you can go from that in six months to over double that in the space of the next twelve.  The report doesn't even give an indication as to why they think it could sell that (from a cursory glance anyway).

The PS4 outsold the one-year Wii U lead in the space of 2 months.  To say 7 months later "we may still overtake them" is overly brazen shall we say (from what I recall it was about this time the One outside the Wii U).

They chose when to launch the NES Mini... Amiibo problems persisted past the "new business" POV and did you not read the Smash thread when that adapter came out?  They were bloody impossible to get a hold of.  

[Ronnie]

11 minutes ago, Ashley said:

The PS4 outsold the one-year Wii U lead in the space of 2 months.  To say 7 months later "we may still overtake them" is overly brazen shall we say (from what I recall it was about this time the One outside the Wii U).

Except that he didn't say "we may still overtake them". He said (when asked by the interviewer whether the Wii U might overtake the other two down the line I might add): "if you look at life-to-date numbers, between Sony and Nintendo they’d be pretty close in terms of PS4 vs. Wii U, with Xbox coming in third place. I think it’s going to be a three-horse race for the balance of this cycle"

Obviously still a silly thing to say, but funnily enough, company execs say stupid things all the time. Sony told everyone that we would get a second job to afford a PS3. What exactly was Reggie going to say when the interviewer asked "Will Wii U ever overtake PS4 and Xbox One"?

 

[Ike]

Shopto seems to have some in stock.

[S.C.G]

Nintendo UK Post E3 Event Roundup

Here's all the impressions from the other Switch and 3DS games which @Dcubed got to try out recently.

My personal contribution being some banners, images and a few snarky comments.

Enjoy!

[Dcubed]

Wow!

 

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1403767

 

Actual 3rd party support! From Take Two of all publishers!  (granted, it's not exactly the greatest release ever, but still! Wow indeed! That's already more than I ever expected from them!)

Edited July 10, 2017 by Dcubed

[Kaepora_Gaebora]

49 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Wow!

 

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1403767

 

Actual 3rd party support! From Take Two of all publishers!  (granted, it's not exactly the greatest release ever, but still! Wow indeed! That's already more than I ever expected from them!)

What's even more unbelievable is they got Seth Rollins to make a specific Switch announcement video, with him playing the bloody thing!

What a time!

[Happenstance]

Now if only they could get the games to be any good we'd be all set!

[Helmsly]

Pretty cool its coming to Switch although I can't say I've enjoyed any games from that series since Smackdown vs Raw 2006.

WWE All Stars on the other hand, was probably the best wrestling game with the WWE licence in the past decade. I'd love a sequel to that to happen one day.

[Nicktendo]

Amazon Prime members! Micro SDs currently on sale with 20% off in Amazon Warehouse.

64gb - £14
128gb - £28

[Rummy]

On 09/07/2017 at 10:08 PM, Ashley said:

They chose when to launch the NES Mini... Amiibo problems persisted past the "new business" POV and did you not read the Smash thread when that adapter came out?  They were bloody impossible to get a hold of.

Let's not also forget they did such a shit job with their own product a 3rd party managed to rip it off, produce it, and get it onto shelves and into homes whilst Nintendo sat fumbling and fans were still scrambling for the official things.

Whatever the reason - these shortages are far from new for them, and as you say they really should know better.

Not at all surprised they've gone overcautious on the Switch after the WiiU but surely in this modern world there's ways to keep production lines running on standby for a bit of cash risk/speculation.

[Ronnie]

Again, there's a parts shortage that is heavily contributing to the lack of Switch units, combined with its popularity

[Dcubed]

For those looking for a micro SD card...

 

Currently there is a 128GB Micro SD card for £27.49

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Ult...128gb+micro+sd

The same card is £25.99 on Prime Now 

This 200GB one is also going up on sale later at 16:55.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00V62XB...WY31005BTWHKQG

 

Probably won't last the whole generation, but the 200GB one will be the best bang for your quid for now.

[Josh64]

I'm not interested in any SD cards right now but if I had a switch I'd be snapping them up, those are some amazing prices. It gives me hope for the future that perhaps we won't have to wait too long for them to drop in price. Those PS Vita storage days will hopefully feel like a distant memory for me...

[Rummy]

3 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Again, there's a parts shortage that is heavily contributing to the lack of Switch units, combined with its popularity

Doesn't seem to answer the question of why this seems to happen so often with Nintendo hardware - a game they've not exactly new to. Why did they manage to get it wrong so often ? Also didn't someone say they were competing with apple who ARE getting the parts - so why's there a discrepancy there, or is there not?

[Ronnie]

18 minutes ago, Rummy said:

Doesn't seem to answer the question of why this seems to happen so often with Nintendo hardware - a game they've not exactly new to. Why did they manage to get it wrong so often ? Also didn't someone say they were competing with apple who ARE getting the parts - so why's there a discrepancy there, or is there not?

Funnily enough, a company like Apple that can sell 70 million iPhones in a mere three months gets first dibs on parts.

Nintendo aren't the only console manufacturer to suffer from shortages.

[Rummy]

So it brings you on - why isn't/doesn't this happen so often to other folks? Which silly person thought a good design decision was to be using parts that might run these risks?

Like. Surely people are paid to do jobs around whole projects like console manufacturer launch and maintainence? Clearly someone's not doing it as well as they could be or some ill thought out choices were made.

[Ronnie]

It's very easy to pretend to know the situation better than people who are actually in the know, to flippantly say "they should have used different parts then!" and suggest that someone isn't doing their job properly. The reality is likely a little bit more complex.

Edited July 11, 2017 by Ronnie

[Rummy]

Want to give me the reality? Where's the forward thinking? Who's considering and minimising risks? Sure I don't know the picture but I do know Nintendo are very experienced yet repeatedly fail with their hardware levels and supply. These aren't products you're dropping to last for a week or a month - they're long term and regular use. To be hit with such a specific stock issue(is it affecting anyone else other than apple) so soon after launch strikes me as a lack of foresight and planning - which surely people are responsible for.

[Dcubed]

£52.79 for a 200GB microSD? Not bad

 

(And when I inevitably have to replace it down the line, I can reuse it for my New3DS!)

[Julius]

1 hour ago, Rummy said:

Want to give me the reality? Where's the forward thinking? Who's considering and minimising risks? Sure I don't know the picture but I do know Nintendo are very experienced yet repeatedly fail with their hardware levels and supply. These aren't products you're dropping to last for a week or a month - they're long term and regular use. To be hit with such a specific stock issue(is it affecting anyone else other than apple) so soon after launch strikes me as a lack of foresight and planning - which surely people are responsible for.

It's actually an industry-wide shortage which is affecting both Nintendo's and Apple's plans for flagship hardware this year (the launch of a new hybrid gaming console and the launch of the embodiment of 10th Anniversary of iPhone, the iPhone 8, respectively).

No-one saw this shortage coming except component suppliers - I'd hope - who have found themselves overwhelmed with the scarcity of such components in the consumer electronics business. 

From the WSJ:

Quote

Nintendo has told suppliers and assemblers it hopes to make nearly 20 million units of the Switch device in the year ending March 2018, people involved in the discussions said. Though the company’s official sales target for the year is 10 million, strong demand suggests it can sell many more—if it can make them.

The problem is an industrywide capacity shortage for components used in smartphones, computer servers and other digital devices. These include the NAND flash-memory chips that store data, liquid-crystal displays and the tiny motors that enable the Switch’s hand-held controllers to imitate the feel of an ice cube shaking in a glass.

 

[Rummy]

1 hour ago, Julius Caesar said:

No-one saw this shortage coming except component suppliers - I'd hope - who have found themselves overwhelmed with the scarcity of such components in the consumer electronics business.

Industry wide I found in an article but that's very broad - which other manufacturers is it affecting?

'No-one saw it coming' is weak. I'd bloody hope nobody saw it coming if this has still then happened! I imagine a lot of people hit by cars don't see them coming, but they still do their best to negate the risk by looking both ways by crossing.

How can Nintendo have so many years of experience and STILL not get on top of their hardware game, especially so close to launch?

[Sméagol]

I believe there's been a shortage of rare minerals for years. They simply can't make as many devices / components as they'd like. In general.

[Julius]

27 minutes ago, Rummy said:

Industry wide I found in an article but that's very broad - which other manufacturers is it affecting?

'No-one saw it coming' is weak. I'd bloody hope nobody saw it coming if this has still then happened! I imagine a lot of people hit by cars don't see them coming, but they still do their best to negate the risk by looking both ways by crossing.

How can Nintendo have so many years of experience and STILL not get on top of their hardware game, especially so close to launch?

In the WSJ quote I gave above, they cited other smartphone manufacturers as having difficulties getting parts, though no particular entities were mentioned. 

My feeling about this, though, is that your analogy is something of an unfair one: as far as we know, Nintendo did do their best to optimise units sold this year, and yet simply having a few components unavailable due to their scarcity across the industry has made this an impossible task.

They could have planned to sell only 5 million units this year, but factors outside of their control - such as these - could have still limited them still. For all we know, Nintendo placed an order back in June last year for the components for 20 million units, with 5 million units prepared for their planned March launch, and yet Toshiba and other component suppliers might have only become aware of their inability to fulfill such contracts in December, hence the conservative in-house predictions for the Switch, as well as the conservative number of units estimated to be produced and sold this year.

My own personal opinion is that these questions are far too rhetorical and without any solid basis for anyone to conclude - or not - that Nintendo is solely responsible for the scarcity of Switch units available right now, and this isn't aimed at you, @Rummy, but rather the industry - on both sides - as a whole; I don't see anyone pointing fingers at the component suppliers in this case.

[Rummy]

Yeah my issue with articles is that it's vague - the only reference I find to specific manufacturers are Nintendo and Apple - tho Samsung apparently plan to sink billions into manufacturing and parts in response.

My issue is if this is industry wide -and tbh I think the WSJ has fluffed up the Switch angle, as I can find info about NAND chip shortages ongoing from last year but didn't see other components mentioned - why can't I find so much more info about it online? Seriously go Google phone parts shortage or something and you get switch and apple. With some digging and changing it to the NAND shortage terms I got a bit more info. Mostly it seems to related to prices on SSDs not coming down.

Coming back to the original point of discussion tho I'm aiming to still keep it mostly Switch - why do Nintendo repeatedly end up with hardware issues I don't tend to see from other mafacturers, especially with what is presumably so many years in the business? It seems like every time the discussion comes up or it happens again that it's defended as something beyond control etcetc - but to me it just looks like a bad job to keep happening.

Let's not forget Apple are still getting the parts according to articles and posters here whereas Nintendo are not - so it isn't just purely out of their hands. If solid orders were made and contracted, how/why are they giving preference to Apple on parts? The order already existed without shortage, or possibly was even made shorter (NAND issues apparently been ongoing since last year) so in that latter case someone WOULD have known and taken a risk - someone WOULD have known about it, no?

 

Or ykno Nintendo could avoid this whole issue in future by doing what many have said for ages and stop using shitty amounts of internal NAND storage for their consoles in the first place

[dazzybee]

They didn’t struggle to have a supply of wii us... 

also maybe that’s why the amazing success of the switch caught then off guard. How many people expected it to do so well? Why criticise them for exceeding expectations? Such a bizarre thing to do. They’ve expressed quite clearly they’ve doubled production but these things aren’t instant.

some products in many industries sell better than expected and are then hard to get hold of. I really don’t see what’s so difficult to grasp in this situation.