Posted January 22 (edited) 1 hour ago, Ashley said: If anyone wants to potentially fix their Joy-Con sticks a company is offering replacement sticks using hall effect sensors. https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/22/23566353/switch-joy-con-drift-solution-nintendo-gulikit Speaking of, used the console in handheld mode for the first time in years and the left just wouldn't click. Hoping some compressed air in there will fix it up. It's good to see replacement Joy-Con sticks with hall effect sensors being offered. So long as you're fine with replacing them, and the price seems to be around £30 or so for the pair, this seems like a good solution. I decided to pre-order one of these controllers for the Switch, which offers hall effect joysticks, a proper d-pad and a few other improvements... https://nyxigaming.com/products/nyxi-wizard-wirleless-joy-pad-for-switch-switch-oled It has the same layout as a GC pad, functions like a pro controller, seems to work wirelessly and wired with the charging cable, and has a few extra buttons. I've no idea how it will be to use, and it won't be shipped for a while but it looks decent enough. The site isn't that great for ordering from, though you can get a 10% off discount code, which makes the controller/oversized GC joy-cons around £50. It likely won't replace an official GC controller for Smash, but it could make playing that game and others in portable mode for longer than half an hour a possibility. Edited January 22 by S.C.G 2 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 23 Plus it's the same colour as the second best console colour which is a bonus. The best colour should be obvious to all. 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 23 4 minutes ago, Ashley said: Plus it's the same colour as the second best console colour which is a bonus. The best colour should be obvious to all. I knew I liked you for a reason. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 23 I wonder if those Joycons could be modded with OEM GameCube controller parts… 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 7 (edited) Time for another quarterly report, this time for Q3 and the period ending 31st December 2022. The Big Takeaways • The Nintendo Switch across it's different SKUs sold 8.22 million units in Q3 (1st October 2022 - 31st December 2022), meaning it has now sold a grand total of 122.55 million units worldwide. This means it has now leapfrogged the total units sold figure of the PlayStation 4 (116.4 million units sold) and Game Boy (118.69 million units sold), making it the third best-selling console of all time, now behind only the Nintendo DS (154.9 million units sold) and PlayStation 2 (157.68 million units sold). • In terms of software, the Nintendo Switch has now sold 994.30 million units, making it the Nintendo platform with the most software units sold to date (this was previously held by the Nintendo DS at 948.76 million units sold). • Pokémon Scarlet/Violet came in with a bang and immediately soared to the sixth spot on the list of 10 best-selling Switch titles, meaning it becomes the fourth best-selling combination of Pokémon titles in just a month and a half, with 20.61 million units sold. Top 10 Best-selling Switch titles as of 31st December 2022 1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - 52.00M 2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 41.59M 3. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 30.44M 4. Breath of the Wild - 29.00M 5. Pokemon Sword/Shield - 25.68M 6. Super Mario Odyssey - 25.12M 7. Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - 20.61M 8. Super Mario Party - 18.79M 9. Ring Fit Adventure - 15.22M 10. Pokemon Let's GO! - 15.07M Sales figures for other titles of note released this Financial Year (FY23) • Pokémon Legends Arceus - 14.63M • Splatoon 3 - 10.14M • Switch Sports - 8.61 M • Kirby & The Forgotten Land - 6.12M • Mario Strikers: Battle League - 2.47M • Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - 1.82M • Bayonetta 3 - 1.04M Edited February 7 by Julius 1 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 7 (edited) Nearly a billion Switch games sold. Wouldn't be too surprising if the Switch surpasses the DS and PS2 in a couple of years, maybe after a price drop. Still, fully deserved, fantastic console. Edited February 7 by Ronnie Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 7 Wouldn't be surprised if Tears of the Kingdom hits the Top 10 faster than Voilet/Scarlett. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 7 Nintendo also states that the Switch sales declined 21.3 % year-on-year (first nine months) and software sales declined 4 %. Shortages on semiconductors and other components are the reason for this according to Nintendo. From their own report: Quote As for hardware, units sold declined 21.3% year-on-year to 14.91 million units, mainly due to a shortage of semiconductors and other component supplies that impacted production until around late summer. Total software sales declined 4.0% year-on-year to 172.11 million units, affected to some extent by the decline in hardware sales. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 7 (edited) Switch sales on the decline but Nintendo still dishing out pay rises Quote Nintendo announced a 20 percent Switch sales drop in its latest financial report, but still plans to institute a 10 percent pay raise, the company told investors Tuesday. Although it's not clear if Nintendo's 10 percent salary hike will apply to workers outside of Japan, some contract staff at Nintendo of America in Redmond, Washington said they recently saw substantial pay increases after months of pressing management on the issue. One tester, responsible for checking bugs on some of the company's biggest releases, told Kotaku their hourly rate jumped from roughly $16 an hour in 2022 to over $20 in 2023. “It’s important for our long-term growth to secure our workforce,” Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said during the company’s earnings report today, according to Reuters. The news comes after Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida recently called on companies to pay workers more after inflation hit its highest point in the country since 1981. Edited February 7 by Ronnie Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 8 So, this could be an interesting development to keep an eye on: it looks like Tears of the Kingdom could be $70 in the US (and, I would assume by extension, potentially getting a similar price increase in other territories?). First, someone spotted that Tears of the Kingdom's price went up as $69.99 on the US eShop... ...and then the price was removed. No big deal, it's probably an error or something, right? Well, it seems like the game's pre-order listings at Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop were then taken down, following earlier listings going up at $59.99: That could be pretty wild if it turns out to be the case! Personally, I'd have no real issue with a price increase - hell, if any game's going to justifiably be £70 or so over here I feel like this is it - but that steady staying power of the pricing for first-party Nintendo titles would certainly get annoying fast if it applied to their entire slate. Could definitely see it for a title like Metroid Prime 4, too, though, and other such premier titles. If this does play out, though, got to say I'm surprised they wouldn't just wait for the release of the Switch 2 before upping prices. The thing hasn't even been revealed yet, and probably won't be for a good while still. Unless... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 8 (edited) That would just be bringing the price in line with all other regions. BOTW was a €70/£60 game all the way back in 2017 (as was SSBU BTW), so I expect TOTK to retain the same €70/£60 price over here. Edited February 8 by Dcubed Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 8 9 hours ago, Ronnie said: Switch sales on the decline but Nintendo still dishing out pay rises They need to do this because Chinese developers have been aggressively headhunting staff from Japanese developers (by offering better pay) in recent years... and not even Nintendo have been immune to the effects of this. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 8 33 minutes ago, Dcubed said: That would just be bringing the price in line with all other regions. BOTW was a €70/£60 game all the way back in 2017 (as was SSBU BTW), so I expect TOTK to retain the same €70/£60 price over here. Yep. I won't be surprised in the slightest if they pull this stunt again with TotK. Tbh, I thought it was a given. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 8 (edited) 3 hours ago, Dcubed said: That would just be bringing the price in line with all other regions. BOTW was a €70/£60 game all the way back in 2017 (as was SSBU BTW), so I expect TOTK to retain the same €70/£60 price over here. Or they could raise the price to £70 here. We just don't know yet. Even though BOTW was £60 on the eShop I'm pretty sure other online retailers were selling it for 40/50, so hopefully won't be a big issue. Edited February 8 by Ronnie Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 8 That would just be bringing the price in line with all other regions. BOTW was a €70/£60 game all the way back in 2017 (as was SSBU BTW), so I expect TOTK to retain the same €70/£60 price over here. Dat inflation since then though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 8 (edited) 25 minutes ago, Sheikah said: Dat inflation since then though. Dat lack of increase in consumer spending power too. Oh, and the super weak yen too (of which, Nintendo generally benefits greatly from). The price increase has nothing to do with inflation, and everything to do with Nintendo (rightfully) thinking that they can get away with a price increase in the US. They clearly like the idea of charging higher prices for their most expensive productions and it clearly worked with BOTW and SSBU outside of the US (their biggest market). And with both Sony & MS now normalising the $70 price point in the US? NOA clearly got the confidence to cheekily raise that price to match the other regions this time around. It's no coincidence that NOA have just randomly decided to finally bring back the NSO vouchers scheme right before they announce the TOTK pricetag too... Edited February 8 by Dcubed Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 8 9 hours ago, Ronnie said: Or they could raise the price to £70 here. We just don't know yet. Even though BOTW was £60 on the eShop I'm pretty sure other online retailers were selling it for 40/50, so hopefully won't be a big issue. Except Nintendo stopped third party sellers selling digital codes. The only way to get it cheaper would be getting discounts on eShop top up vouchers or the voucher scheme. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 8 3 hours ago, Ike said: Except Nintendo stopped third party sellers selling digital codes. The only way to get it cheaper would be getting discounts on eShop top up vouchers or the voucher scheme. Sorry I meant online retailers selling physical copies. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 8 Dat lack of increase in consumer spending power too.Hasn't stopped Sony putting up the cost of the PS5 due to inflation though.The price increase has nothing to do with inflationHow so? Inflation makes everything more expensive. Increasing staff salaries 10% to combat inflation comes at a cost, for instance, and means they need to recoup the money however they can (increasing game prices being one option). I'm not singling out just Japan here either when taking about inflation. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 9 Quote Game Informer managed to get a statement from Nintendo on the matter. Nintendo was quick to say that they, “determine the suggested retail price for any Nintendo product on a case-by-case basis.” When asked if this would be a trend going forward, Nintendo responded with a clear-cut “no.” Nintendo says not all first-party game will be $70 going forward Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 15 Quote MarioGPT Uses AI To Generate Endless Super Mario Levels For Free MarioGPT uses AI, some text prompts, and a predicted player path to generate all the Mario levels you could ever want. The AI itself is trained on levels from two classic Mario games: "Super Mario Bros" and "Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels." This training gives it a solid grasp of assets, enemies, and general gameplay allowing it to generate authentic levels from there. If you want to know the ins and outs of MarioGPT, its creators have released an in-depth paper on its creation and functions. It's hoped that the tool could go well beyond the 2D Mario universe and speed up game generation in general. MarioGPT and programs like it could in theory help small indie developers take their games to the next level and punch well above their weight in an industry that is dominated by multi-billion-dollar resource-heavy companies like EA, Activision Blizzard, and Microsoft. Anyone can currently grab the program on GitHub, but there's a good chance not everyone will be able to use it. MarioGPT has a bit of a learning curve There's a very basic level of game development knowledge required to get things going with this program. The creators have included a few simple instructions for generating and previewing levels in a separate post on GitHub. Examples of prompts include: "many pipes, many enemies, some blocks, high elevation," "no pipes, many blocks, some enemies," "Some pipes, many blocks, no enemies, low elevation," and so on. There is also a small chance an error will happen and the level will be unplayable, but you can just run the program again and you'll likely end up with a working level on the next attempt. https://www.slashgear.com/1199870/mariogpt-uses-ai-to-generate-endless-super-mario-levels-for-free/ Things being taken to their natural conclusion. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 15 2 minutes ago, darksnowman said: https://www.slashgear.com/1199870/mariogpt-uses-ai-to-generate-endless-super-mario-levels-for-free/ Things being taken to their natural conclusion. Sentient Mario Maker for the win! I, for one, welcome our new AI (and future robot) overlords Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 15 This is how some people imagine open world games are made. "Big world; few towns; many collectables; go!" Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 16 VGC are reporting that Saudia Arabia have upped their stake in Nintendo to 7%: Quote As per Trading View, the country's Public Investment Fund (PIF), a sovereign wealth fund chaired by crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, has reportedly increased its stake in the Nintendo Switch maker to 7.08%. The fund first acquired a 5.01% stake in Nintendo in May 2022. Just last month, it increased this stake to 6.07%. Nintendo has previously claimed that when the PIF bought its initial 5.01% stake in the company, it was unaware of the transaction and first learned about the Saudi investment from news reports. It has yet to comment on the latest developments. sigh Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 16 "Acquire Stake in Ninty" needs put on the N-E Patreon! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
