General Switch Discussion

[Ashley]

2 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

instead of cherrypicking the three words "only Nintendo could" why not mention the context of the quote. You know, where I brought up the company's biggest failure in a thread about the predictable Switch high sales.

That does not change things. The full quote is still console wars nonsense. As others have said, Nintendo is the only company that has had to. You have no basis for being able to say that only they could. 

And I'll just say this; be careful about pulling this string. You've made your point and others have made theirs. You may not agree with it and you may not agree with the moderation, but let's face it you've never agreed with moderation taken against yourself in the past so that's not new. Let's all just move on from it. 

[Ronnie]

3 minutes ago, Ashley said:

You have no basis for being able to say that only they could. 

What a strange over-reaction. I'll not bring up one of Nintendo's biggest failures in future for fear of being accused of console war-ing. 

And no I won't agree that a '' in reply to "What do you think it is if not a console? A butterfly?" was worthy of deletion but the latter quote wasn't. But hey, I don't have to I guess. Moving on...

[Ashley]

21 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

What a strange over-reaction.

I'll not bring up one of Nintendo's biggest failures in future for fear of being accused of console war-ing. 

And no I won't agree that a '' in reply to "What do you think it is if not a console? A butterfly?" was worthy of deletion but the latter quote wasn't.

Taking those in order...

1) My initial reaction was to make light of the fact you said they are the only ones that could go from the Wii U by taking it literally (they're the only ones that made the console after all). The one you just quoted was after you then claimed the 3DS wasn't a console, then claimed what you meant was it was released before the Wii U so the switch isn't a follow up to it. That's the semantic gymnastics I mentioned. And in my opinion (which of course is just mine) you have no ground for saying what you did because you have no way of knowing that; no other current console maker has had to. You don't know that Sony couldn't go from a flop to a success, nor Microsoft. Only Nintendo has is one thing to say (because others that flopped didn't recover, anyone still standing never has needed to) but it always has to be "anything you can do Nintendo can do better".

2) this kind of petulant deflection is exactly the problem. Nobody is saying you can't point out Nintendo's failures. You're choosing to interpret responses to your statement as that, then lambasting people for that. 

3) Given you made - if we're being generous - an unclear deceleration of what is and isn't a console you were asked to define it. Yes, with sarcasm but even so. You were asked to explain your definition and you did not. Thus you were not contributing to the conversation. Yeah Sheikah could have been a bit less flippant in his wording but at least he was trying to understand why you said what you did*, but if you're not going to explain yourself then you should have quit at that point and no responded at all.

*I'm aware it was likely because he wanted to then debate your response

[Sheikah]

I'm not boasting. Not everything is a console war. I made a casual and uncontroversial post about Nintendo being up and down, that's all.

"

Only Nintendo could do..." sure sounds like boasting. Especially when it's about something that out of the 3, only Nintendo have ever even been in the position to do.

[Sheikah]

"Not everything is a console war" from the same guy who earlier said "only Nintendo could...".
I can't tell if you genuinely can't see it or if you're being intentionally obtuse. 
(This post will do as my response to your previous question btw)

I'm pretty sure he actually can't see it.

[Cube]

The hidden posts made no attempt to further discussion, they had no additional points made within them. One was a single emoji post, the other one was a vague attack against someone else, and removed in an attempt to prevent an escalation.

My joke comment was followed by a point afterwards, that's the main difference.

 

[euroninfan]

This game Mario kart 8 deluxe doesn't work properly. 150cc mode is like 50cc Mode . This is the second time Nintendo Europe forums has said Mario kart 8 was best selling switch game, that was why I bought the game. Someone said there is a bug in the game ( this is terrible, games years ago never had trouble like this )👎👎👎👎👎

[Julius]

Following on from yesterday's quarterly report, Nintendo have shared some more details (and graphs!) with us. 

First off, 32 million paying subscribers for Switch Online! That's pretty incredible considering how much the quality of the service is questioned, though of course that's typically the vocal minority of the gaming community compared with the average user. 

For reference, the number of PlayStation Plus subscribers was sitting at 47.6 million subscribers as of March 2021. PlayStation Plus didn't surpass 32 million subscribers until around the end of December 2018 (back when they reported having 34.2 million subscribers), with the service starting back in 2010. Not to argue about which is more successful (they launched in very different circumstances, especially in terms of accessibility to the internet!), but Switch Online is going very strong considering it only launched in 2018. 

Think this is pretty incredible too, that the number of people to play their Switch in the first half of this financial year (and I would assume this is only those with internet access, so it's probably even higher) isn't far off the total number to play their Switch in the last financial year. 

I think seeing the demographics is always interesting too, you can see the dip in the teenage years before you see that massive spike at 21 (after people are graduating from university and getting into their first jobs I assume?). Anecdotally I also feel like hitting your 20's makes you a prime candidate for nostalgia-based purchases, not just because of the access to cash, but because of the way you can now use your free time (and typically have more of it). 

There's not really much to say about this one that yesterday's figures didn't. Just kind of killing it in software and hardware sales. 

And it's always good to see Nintendo putting the pile of money back into the machine to make more piles of money. Yay capitalism. 

[Ronnie]

Really interesting stuff, especially the age distribution! 32 million NSO users is a bit surprising but it probably helps that the original sub is so cheap.

Also, a new Nintendo console coming in... 20XX. Good to know.

[bob]

That massive peak at 21 must be something else. There can't be a huge amount of 21 year olds compared to other ages.

Maybe everyone selecting year 2000 as their birth year for some reason?

Or young people saying they're 21 to get past gambling laws?

[MindFreak]

1 minute ago, bob said:

Maybe everyone selecting year 2000 as their birth year for some reason?

Haha, yeah. This is probably true! It could be interesting to see how it looked two or three years ago..

[MindFreak]

13 hours ago, euroninfan said:

This game Mario kart 8 deluxe doesn't work properly. 150cc mode is like 50cc Mode . This is the second time Nintendo Europe forums has said Mario kart 8 was best selling switch game, that was why I bought the game. Someone said there is a bug in the game ( this is terrible, games years ago never had trouble like this )👎👎👎👎👎

Best selling Switch game is not the same as best Switch game.

That said, there is no bug in the game in that regard. If you feel it goes too slow, go to 200cc.

[MindFreak]

Seems like Nintendo thinks Switch is at the middle of its life:

Quote

We are not able to comment about the next game system at this time. It is now the fifth year since the launch of Nintendo Switch, and the total hardware sell-through has exceeded 90 million units. We recognize that the system is at the mid-point of its lifecycle. The launch of Nintendo Switch – OLED Model has also been contributing to continued sales momentum and we are now offering consumers three Nintendo Switch models to match their play styles and lifestyles, as well as a wide range of software. With this, we believe a foundation for growth has been laid that exceeds what we previously considered to be a conventional hardware lifecycle.

With regards to the next game system, we are considering many different things, but as far as the concept and launch timing are concerned, there is nothing we can share at this time.

Source: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2021/211105_2e.pdf

[Ronnie]

Now where have I heard that before 

[Ashley]

Proving either the phrase is not to be taken literally or their plans for length has changed. 

[Ronnie]

What it proves is that those two instances of comments in the past twelve months about it being around the mid point of the Switch's lifecycle... were in fact true. Who'd have thought.

[MindFreak]

Only time will tell - plans change. But for now, I think we can expect a reveal of the Switch 2 in 2023 if those comments are to be believed. However, I think that is a bit too late, I would prefer a reveal and release in 2023 at the latest.

[Sheikah]

42 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

What it proves is that those two instances of comments in the past twelve months about it being around the mid point of the Switch's lifecycle... were in fact true. Who'd have thought.

I mean, it doesn't prove it though, does it. Nintendo once said "Online is the air that we breathe" but that was patently untrue. 

The only thing that will prove whether we're really at the mid point is time. Not saying I disagree though, I personally thought people saying Switch 2 would be next year or thereabouts were off the mark.

[Ashley]

3 hours ago, Ronnie said:

What it proves is that those two instances of comments in the past twelve months about it being around the mid point of the Switch's lifecycle... were in fact true. Who'd have thought.

Well given last time we discussed this you were insistent it meant it quite literally (as opposed to being a vague "not at the beginning, not at the end") it can't be both true it was midway through several months ago and now. 

Yes it's not at the end of it's life, but the different statements also don't mean "it's another [today-launch] away". 

[Ronnie]

18 minutes ago, Ashley said:

you were insistent it meant it quite literally

Not once did I say it was literally the exact midpoint, there's an implied give or take. In fact if anything we're even further away from the end than some people suggested if 11 months after they first made the comment they're still saying midpoint. My point in the past was in relation to comments on here about us being at the end of the Switch life. I suggested we're not even close and that Nintendo have said the Switch will have a longer life cycle than most. Looks like that's the case, unless they're lying of course. I can't say I'm particular fan of these semantic gymnastics though so I'll happily drop this debate.

Edited November 9, 2021 by Ronnie

[Julius]

4 hours ago, Ronnie said:

What it proves is that those two instances of comments in the past twelve months about it being around the mid point of the Switch's lifecycle... were in fact true. Who'd have thought.

I remember last time this came up thinking that I remembered something coming out earlier about them being at the halfway point, but I thought maybe my perception was way off as a result of 2020 being what it was. 

David Gibson, who sits in on the Investors Q&A, actually shared that Nintendo's perspective was that the Switch was "barely in the middle of the Switch life cycle" way back in May 2020 after releasing their end-of-year report. 

So if we were to take that literally, then the Switch being 3 years old at that point would mean a 6 year life cycle ending in 2023. 

Now, obviously this was before the true extent of COVID was known, and plans are always changing. The middle of a 30cm ruler is 15cm, but the middle of a sandwich is anything between the two slices of bread, so to apply that here, the Switch could have been 50% way through its life in May 2020 or it could have been starting what Nintendo considers the middle of its life, the middle 33% - 50%  

I do hear you on them saying it'll have a longer life than most, but would a Pro extend that? I'd argue yes. But what about a Switch 2, or something so clearly a Switch successor that still carried the Switch name? I don't know, but if Nintendo considers it part of the Switch family, and there is no real difference in the "gimmick"/USP unlike the stereoscopic 3D from DS to 3DS, with the only bump being in processing capabilities, but the core concept of a hybrid console is clear front and centre, I guess that could still be argued to be extending the life of the Switch too. 

4 hours ago, MindFreak said:

Only time will tell - plans change. But for now, I think we can expect a reveal of the Switch 2 in 2023 if those comments are to be believed. However, I think that is a bit too late, I would prefer a reveal and release in 2023 at the latest.

Nintendo has always been a fickle pickle as it is, as they are by far the most unpredictable company in the video game industry, and honestly probably only second off the top of my head next to Tesla, who have a nutjob like Musk playing yo-yo with his company's valuation and paying his taxes. 

Which is my very kind way of admitting that I think trying to predict what Nintendo does next requires an almost complete absence of logic, and yet a hell of a lot of it at the same time. 

The Switch Pro for example, I still think transitioned into what we got with the OLED. Pretty much everything lined up with the rumours we got before this year except the boost in performance capabilities, and the change was most likely brought about by the ongoing chip shortage. So what would Nintendo do with a potential Pro model now? I think it really depends on how the chip shortage situation develops, and their confidence in being first in line once it starts to subside.

On the one hand, they could just leave the Pro in the dust, as the OLED has practically served the purpose of getting a "better" console out there in terms of screen size and clarity, and instead pool resources into getting a Switch successor ready to go. If that happens, maybe 2023 isn't too crazy a time for the Switch successor - the new console would sell out regardless, so it's not like the chip shortage will put a massive dent in their projections with the chip shortage potentially to subside in the following 12-18 months from launch (this is based on current reports on a changing situation, so could easily be different by the time we get there). I also think marketing a Pro and OLED model at the same time is something if a catastrophe waiting to happen, and I can already imagine the confusion from the average consumer. A 2023 launch alongside a potentially delayed-again Breath of the Wild sequel would be pretty great. 

On the other hand, Nintendo could just as well go the other way: if the Switch successor isn't going to be able to sell like crazy when compared to the Switch from the off (which you know they will want to be the case for their investors), then maybe a Pro model extending the life of the Switch wouldn't be such a bad thing after all. It would buy them time to make it past the chip shortage, buy them R&D time for the Switch's successor, and probably help cement the Switch's sales history as one of the greatest seen since the jump to HD development in the home console market. 

So I guess we'll have to wait and see!

Edited November 9, 2021 by Julius

[Helmsly]

Twitch is on switch now. You can download the app from the eshop:

 

Edited November 11, 2021 by Helmsly

[Dufniall]

Just a note that Twitch is purely for watching streams. You can't stream yourself. Also, if you want to see the live chat you will need to watch it on your mobile phone.

[MindFreak]

So just like voice chat. I guess everyone's fine with that.

[Helmsly]