General Switch Discussion

[Dcubed]

Ahh, finally, a real leaker

Guess we’ll be seeing Project Bloom here then? (Game Freak’s game they’re making with Private Division)…

… or maybe a port of that remake of Pocket Card Jockey that recently got released for Apple Arcade? I’d be well chuffed with that

Edited February 19, 2024 by Dcubed

[Josh64]

22 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Some of the Xenoblade games were for a while.

I can't see a budget range appearing. Things like Greatest Hits/Platinum/Players Choice ranges don't seem to be a thing anymore. Just as well because those boxes were always hideous.

Lol I half agree, I actually loved the silver boxes of Players Choice at the time, but silver was cool to teens in the early 00's right?  My silver game on my silver CRT DVD combi using my silver GameCube controller, it's the future! As for the Wii, that range did and still does look horrific. 

 The Switch is still doing well so maybe they won't happen this generation. I know with the GameCube they were fighting to stay ahead of Xbox and with the Wii they lost a lot of momentum after the first two years, as well as having software droughts, none of that applies to the Switch right now. 

@Cube I didn't consider that but with the amount of DLC for Smash and Mario Kart that's definitely an interesting option. I'm not sure they'd do Mario Kart right away as they seem to be getting a lot out of the Booster Course Pass by having it as an extra for NSO Expansion, as well as a few physical download code bundles, but I could definitely see a Smash Bros Ultimate Ultimate working, especially now all the DLC and amiibo are officially finished. 

[Hero-of-Time]

3 hours ago, Dcubed said:

Ahh, finally, a real leaker

Guess we’ll be seeing Project Bloom here then? (Game Freak’s game they’re making with Private Division)…

… or maybe a port of that remake of Pocket Card Jockey that recently got released for Apple Arcade? I’d be well chuffed with that

 

Spoiler

Given that he is liking Tweets that mention Pocket Card Jockey, it looks like that could be on the cards...no pun intended.

 

[Glen-i]

19 minutes ago, Josh64 said:

I'm not sure they'd do Mario Kart right away as they seem to be getting a lot out of the Booster Course Pass by having it as an extra for NSO Expansion

Actually, there is a physical version of that.

But it only goes to Wave 5 for stupid reasons.

[Hero-of-Time]

Another tease for the Direct.

Spoiler

 

 

[drahkon]

 

Just leak the whole thing or shut up

[Julius]

10 minutes ago, drahkon said:

 

Just leak the whole thing or shut up

Obligatory couple of minutes on leakers

[Josh64]

3 hours ago, Glen-i said:

Actually, there is a physical version of that.

But it only goes to Wave 5 for stupid reasons.

That's crazy, I heard of the physical with the download code but didn't know there was already a semi complete one! I know they did similar with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, only having part 1 of the dlc built in. Talk about jumping the gun 

[darksnowman]

At the start of the month, before this talk of a partner direct (say it ain't so) and Switch 2 in 2025 (why do Nintendo hate us), I quickly brainstormed what could come to pass in this year's Feb Direct for a potential hopes and predictions thread.*

nintendolphins is on the list.

I also surmised from my unimaginative ideas for Switch in 2024, that it can be a jampacked year if they want so successor in 2025—or later—stands to reason... from my point of view and reading of the situation anyway. Nintendo: "Please continue to enjoy buying additional Nintendo Switch Family of Systems for your relatives."

 

* Less than a mere three weeks ago I thought it would make for some fun chat. Now I'm fed up with the sight of speculation and self-styled Internet experts' "insight" and demands. Urgh.

[Ashley]

49 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

nintendolphins is on the list.

A game where you collect GameCubes?

[darksnowman]

1 hour ago, Ashley said:

A game where you collect GameCubes?

Think Nintendogs but from our partners previously responsible for Seaman. 

That's before you get to all the run-of-the-mill possibilities like still-to-be-ported GameCube games. 

[Dcubed]

BTW, just clocked onto this, but today's Pokemon Legends ZA announcement basically confirms that the rumours of Switch 2 being pushed back to 2025 are almost certainly true now...

... we may well be looking at our first launch-day cross-gen title if Switch 2 is indeed coming out in March 2025.  Pokemon Of The Wild is probably a decent replacement for BOTW in this case.

Begs the question of what they're gonna do to fill that big Xmas shaped hole that they were originally gonna slot Switch 2 into... Time to release the remaining Wii U ports out of the Nintendo Vault?

Edited February 27, 2024 by Dcubed

[Hero-of-Time]

Where has the time gone? 

[Josh64]

https://www.n-europe.com/news/happy-anniversary/

 

7 years!

[Hero-of-Time]

 

 

[Dcubed]

 

Nintendo sued the creators of the Yuzu Switch emulator and won via settlement.

Yuzu will pay $2.4 million in damages to Nintendo and shut down all operations involving the emulator.

Hell of a victory for Nintendo here.  I’m surprised that the emulator developers folded so easily, but I suppose once it was discovered that they were pirating ROMs and confidential Nintendo code/keys openly on their official discord server; they quickly realised that they were fucked.

Edited March 4, 2024 by Dcubed

[Ike]

3 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

 

 

Oh, right forgot that was a thing (and that it’s March already). Was wondering if they were just going to randomly drop dates for those 2.

After the Peach game releases, there’s currently nothing we know about 1st party games wise for the rest of this year, is there?

[Hero-of-Time]

24 minutes ago, Ike said:

After the Peach game releases, there’s currently nothing we know about 1st party games wise for the rest of this year, is there?

Is Endless Ocean classed as 1st party? Even still, its looking barren for the second half of the year. Saying that, given Nintendo's short release from reveal window, all it takes one Direct to change that.

I do wonder if they will actually have a big Winter game this year. Maybe Prime 4 and then launch a upgraded version of it on the next console? It could be that we finally see TP/WW HD and the Fire Emblem remake fill in the end of the year.

[Dcubed]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Is Endless Ocean classed as 1st party? Even still, its looking barren for the second half of the year. Saying that, given Nintendo's short release from reveal window, all it takes one Direct to change that.

I do wonder if they will actually have a big Winter game this year. Maybe Prime 4 and then launch a upgraded version of it on the next console? It could be that we finally see TP/WW HD and the Fire Emblem remake fill in the end of the year.

It's being published by Nintendo themselves, just like the two games on Wii, so yes.  It's a first party release.

Edited March 4, 2024 by Dcubed

[Josh64]

18 hours ago, Dcubed said:

 

Nintendo sued the creators of the Yuzu Switch emulator and won via settlement.

Yuzu will pay $2.4 million in damages to Nintendo and shut down all operations involving the emulator.

Hell of a victory for Nintendo here.  I’m surprised that the emulator developers folded so easily, but I suppose once it was discovered that they were pirating ROMs and confidential Nintendo code/keys openly on their official discord server; they quickly realised that they were fucked.

I tend to stick to news on actual games, as I'm not that into the industry/business side of things these days, but this felt too big to pass up.

I've tried my best to sum it up with quotes from both parties:

https://www.n-europe.com/news/yuzu-emulator-discontinued/

 

EDIT: Though I imagine this story will be overshadowed by the huge new Switch release today.

Edited March 5, 2024 by Josh64

[darksnowman]

2 hours ago, Josh64 said:

I tend to stick to news on actual games, as I'm not that into the industry/business side of things these days, but this felt too big to pass up.

I've tried my best to sum it up with quotes from both parties:

https://www.n-europe.com/news/yuzu-emulator-discontinued/

Party A: We want to profit off our platform for playing the latest Nintendo Switch games.
Party B: We want to profit off our platform for playing the latest Nintendo Switch games.

2 hours ago, Josh64 said:

EDIT: Though I imagine this story will be overshadowed by the huge new Switch release today.

Which is?? I hadn't factored in for another big one this Tuesday too.  

19 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Is Endless Ocean classed as 1st party? Even still, its looking barren for the second half of the year. Saying that, given Nintendo's short release from reveal window, all it takes one Direct to change that.

I do wonder if they will actually have a big Winter game this year. Maybe Prime 4 and then launch a upgraded version of it on the next console? It could be that we finally see TP/WW HD and the Fire Emblem remake fill in the end of the year.

What is known is Peach Showtime, Endless Ocean, Luigi's Mansion 2, Paper Mario TTYD, Pokémon Legends: Z-A and Prime 4. Far as I remember, this time last year there was nothing on the slate post-TotK so I'm sure the back half of the year will take care of itself once again. Maybe Prime 4 for Christmas and with a smaller game or two in Oct/Nov and another in Jan. Maybe a Kirby. Maybe a Yoshi. Maybe give Mario 35 another run on NSO. Maybe Prime Blast Ball. Maybe got Rare checking over a DK game. As for Fire Emblem, at this rate, they'll be porting the 3DS games while mining that library for anything else to shore up the calendar with.

Aside from Peach Showtime which I'm curious about as it's something new, I don't know what Nintendo themselves could wheel out that'll have me there on release day. At least there's still two or three of their games I wouldn't mind circling back for if there's a dry period.

Edited March 5, 2024 by darksnowman
double post avoidance

[Hero-of-Time]

23 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

Aside from Peach Showtime which I'm curious about as it's something new, I don't know what Nintendo themselves could wheel out that'll have me there on release day. At least there's still two or three of their games I wouldn't mind circling back for if there's a dry period.

I'll probably pick up Peach Showtime. Not sure if it will be that lengthy though. Going by the previews, the game looks to be VERY easy. 

[darksnowman]

12 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I'll probably pick up Peach Showtime. Not sure if it will be that lengthy though. Going by the previews, the game looks to be VERY easy. 

Maybe best give it a weekend then to see how you get on with it.  

[Josh64]

5 hours ago, darksnowman said:

Which is?? I hadn't factored in for another big one this Tuesday too.  

 

Plumbers don't wear ties 

[Hero-of-Time]

There's an old Yamauchi interview from 2001 doing the rounds on Era. 

Quote

Business interview to Hiroshi Yamauchi by the japanese financial magazine Zaikai around early 2001:

Q: Mr. Yamauchi, you've always espoused that games depend on how fun they are, and not on how advanced the graphics or hardware is. With that in mind, how do you look at the downturn the game industry is currently going through?

Y: Well, what I see right now is lots of people who look towards the game business with all these dreams in their minds about how bright the future of the industry is. When you ask them why, they all say "Oh, all these new systems are coming out that're even more powerful than the PlayStation 2, we'll be able to create things that'll attract even more people to games," and so on.

I've been consistently saying this is wrong, but most of them look at what I say and respond "No, no, you're wrong", and as a result, this is what's happening today. There really are just an overwhelmingly huge number of people out there that know nothing about the business of games. The game business is a tough one, and it's not been around for that long, either, so there are people out there that find this industry incredibly interesting. Venture capitalists, in particular. That's why these people are pouring money into the field right now.

Q: Because they don't know how difficult it really is?

Y: Right. They give money to people that really should be unemployed, and they in turn round up some friends, start a company and begin creating software. But is this really the best way to go about this right now? The more amazing graphics and sound you put into a game, the longer it takes to finish. Not just a year, but now, more like a year and a half or two years. So then your development costs balloon, and when you finally put it out you have zero guarantee of it selling. That's what the game industry is today.

Because of that, I've been saying since last year that this industry will undergo a major shakeout between now and next year. The general public doesn't realize it yet, but most people in the industry know it's happening. I've just been saying that pretty soon, even the public will be forced to recognize what's going on.

Q: Along with the crisis at Sega, many companies have recently been reducing their earnings predictions.

Y: True. For example, Square claimed that they would produce several billion yen (ie. tens of millions of dollars) in profit for fiscal 2000, but more recently they've turned that into several billion yen in losses, which is essentially exactly what I said would happen to them before. And Square's a publically-traded company, too! There are still many, many private software companies out there, and now all of these companies have no idea what's going to happen to them in the future. With all this downsizing going on, I'm sure we'll be seeing many more announcements like that.

The thing with this industry is, no one actually needs what it produces. If what we were making was absolutely essential in order to live, then the consumer wouldn't complain about price or supply, because he'd be in big trouble if he ran out. On the other hand, we produce entertainment -- and there's a million other kinds of entertainment out there. If the game industry went away, it's not like people would keel over and die on the street. If it came to pass that people started saying "These games are all stupid, I gotta stop playing them all the time", then what do you think would happen? You don't need games to live, after all, so the market could fall right out. It could even shrink to a tenth of what it was.

Q: Do you think things could become that bad?

Y: Certainly. The average gamer's perspective has gradually shifted over the years. They're getting sick of games that are nothing but graphics and force; they want something to play that's actually fun. So why are companies still aiming for nothing but graphics and force?

The most impressive phenomenon that occured last year, in my opinon, was when Enix released Dragon Quest [VII] on the original PlayStation, and not the PlayStation 2. It was the newest game in the series, but it ended up selling far more than I predicted -- something like three million or so copies. However, when you look only at its graphics and sound, it looks very rudimentary compared with other PS games. If you compare it to other titles, you'll find that there are hundreds of PlayStation games that have far more impressive graphics.

Despite that, out of everything released last year only DQ was able to rack up such high sales figures. Meanwhile games with incredible, utterly beautiful graphics were completely dead in the marketplace. This just backs up what I've always been saying -- games have nothing to do at all with graphics.

Q: So if you don't keep your eyes on the game itself [during development], you'll end up meandering down the wrong path.

Y: Right. Up until now games have had nothing to do with movies, like I've kept on saying all this time, but now people are going on about how every game will be like a movie from now on. We've come all this way and somewhere along the line, we've forgotten that we're supposed to be making games, and not movies. Now, as a result of that, game development is turning into a circus, costs are skyrocketing, users get bored faster than ever before, and the development of truly new games -- new ways of having fun -- has all but stopped. And now, because of all that, it's getting difficult to make a profit producing video games.

If we don't change the way game development is carried out, I can't see the industry or the marketplace rejuvenating itself anytime soon.

Q: Several software houses have undertaken a multi-platform strategy - signing agreements with Nintendo and others to become licensees for several different game systems. Do you think this will have a rejuvenating effect on the industry?

Y: Well, let's say that we make a game called X and we port it to game systems from Company A, Company B and Company C. Then it doesn't matter if a user bought A's, B's or C's system, he'll be able to play game X on his own console. There's no difference between any of the game systems in this case.

Now I certainly understand the reasoning behind a multi-platform strategy. As I said before, development costs have spiralled upward, and it's become difficult to guage how well something will sell in the marketplace. They want to cut their risks and be able to sell that many more copies of a single title, so they decide to just release it on everything. I can understand that.

However, if this becomes the norm, then it'll have a dire effect on the marketplace. If users can play the same game on every single system out there, then there'll be no reason to buy one system over the other. It'll be just like buying a TV; no matter which one you buy you'll still have all the same channels. In the game business, software is our lifeblood. If that software becomes the same everywhere then there'll be zero difference between companies. The marketplace will just turn into a giant hardware war.

Now, you'll agree with me that TV sets are a fairly indispensible part of life these days. More people have them then don't. Washing machines and refrigerators are the same way. People have to buy them no matter what, so dealers end up relying on added extra features and advertising to compete in the marketplace. On the other hand, game machines are far from indispensible. If the software was the same no matter which system you buy, then the only point we'd be able to sell on is price. This industry is based on producing fun, innovative games, but if that goes away then we're all done for. That's why, even though I understand where software houses are coming from, I think ultimately it could break apart the industry.

Q: That's why you continue to produce games only for your own systems, including the upcoming Gamecube.

Y: Yes. Nintendo's business is to make games that can only be played on Nintendo systems. Nintendo's games only run on Nintendo's consoles, and no one else's. Our aim is to get people to think Nintendo's games are the greatest, the best in the world.

We're devoting all of our effort to that right now, and we'll be able to show our efforts to the world this year. We'll see how it turns out after the Christmas season, or about ten or eleven months from now.

Q: What do you think is an appropriate price point for game systems?

Y: The cheaper, the better. Gamers play games, and not systems, after all. If a gamer wants to play game A and game B, then buying the game system is nothing but a secondary obstacle to that. As a result, the cheaper the hardware is, the easier it is for the users to buy it.

At the same time, though, we have to worry about our costs. Up until fairly recently it was safe to lose money on hardware sales, since you more than made up for it in the software you sold. It's impossible to get a system out the door that way anymore, however. So when you release a system today, you don't necessarily have to profit from it, but you can't afford to lose money on every single console you sell.

Q: What is your opinion of your rival Sony's PlayStation 2 game system?

Y: As a DVD player it's well worth the money; as a game system it has a few problems. It's just too hard to make software for it. It's absolutely vital that you design a system such that it's as simple as possible for developers to create games on. If you don't, then costs begin to rise, and it becomes more difficult for the designers to realize their creations. It just becomes a gigantic minus for the system in developers' eyes.

Q: There have been recent announcements that suggest game systems will function more as net terminals for online games in the future.

Y: There're a lot of ways of thinking about that. Personally, I think that most people going on and on about the net know nothing about video games. People who don't get game creation are going on and on about networked games -- probably because they can't come up with any better ideas themselves.

The salty PS2 quote and his answer about online gaming are hilarious but the majority of what he says is scary accurate about what we are seeing in the industry today. All hardware being the same, ballooning development costs, diminishing returns on visuals, looks over gameplay, all true today.