General Switch Discussion

[Tim B]

If they are to announce Skyward Sword HD, I hope it's done at the same time as a new Zelda, then they can have some "In the meantime...." announcement for it. Kind of like how people are hoping for a Metroid Prime Trilogy announcement when the Prime 4 trailer finally drops. 

[killthenet]

Both games set out to do such different things, BOTW is all about exploration and experimentation while Skyward Sword is all about its story, dungeons and boss fights. Neither one is more or less of a Zelda game they just focus on different aspects of the franchise.

Despite how different they are you can actually see a lot of BOTW in Skyward Sword - the resource gathering, the climbing, the stamina wheel and the really expressive NPC's & vibrant town were all present in Skyward Sword. They were both directed by Fujibayashi, it's just that Skyward Sword was seen as a vehicle for the Wii motion plus by the higher ups at Nintendo so the gameplay was designed around that and they relied on the traditional Zelda tropes whereas BOTW's aim from the beginning was as a completely open playground which is why it eschewed the conventions and didn't have as focused a story.

[Jimbob]

The one Zelda game i never finished was Skyward Sword, and that was down to the motion controls being awkward.  Having to calibrate my controls every half hour or so really put me off, and i put it aside never to be finished.  If Nintendo reworked the game (it can be done, they modified Wind Waker's Triforce Hunt to be simpler) to allow the motion controls to be optional, i'd most likely pick it up.  If it was the same as before, just with jazzed up graphics then i'll give it a miss and leave it.

It's strange to see that a Zelda game like Skyward Sword divides fans of the series, with some loving it and others hating it.  This is a marmite game, and it's mostly down to the control choice and padding.

[MindFreak]

So.. that second Nintendo Direct we were supposed to have here in November? It must fall this week, perhaps Wednesday or Thursday, I guess.

[Ronnie]

I'd be really surprised if it was happening at all tbh, regardless of rumours. Just doesn't fit in with the schedule/how they normally do things.

[Dcubed]

1 hour ago, Ronnie said:

I'd be really surprised if it was happening at all tbh, regardless of rumours. Just doesn't fit in with the schedule/how they normally do things.

Actually, November/Early December Nintendo Directs are very normal for Nintendo.  It's actually weird if they don't have one around this time!

[Ronnie]

7 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Actually, November/Early December Nintendo Directs are very normal for Nintendo.  It's actually weird if they don't have one around this time!

There wasn't one last year, just game specific ones. Nor the year before when they had Miitopia and AC New Leaf focused ones. This year we've already had a Smash Direct. In Nov 2015 they had a general Direct though you're right. Basically, who knows.

Edited November 26, 2018 by Ronnie

[Dcubed]

18 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

There wasn't one last year, just game specific ones. Nor the year before when they had Miitopia and AC New Leaf focused ones. This year we've already had a Smash Direct. In Nov 2015 they had a general Direct though you're right. Basically, who knows.

A game specific Direct is still a Direct.  Wouldn't surprise me if they had a game specific one for Mario Kart Tour (It IS still supposed to be releasing before March after all!).

 

Though personally I'm hoping for one that announces the rumoured Metroid Prime Trilogy HD and Skyward Sword HD (The former of which was originally rumoured to be released in February; so now would be the time to announce it if that's still scheduled for February!)

Edited November 26, 2018 by Dcubed

[Julius]

I think it’s clear that Nintendo wants all eyes on Smash until the game launches, and rightly so, so it wouldn’t surprise me if we didn’t get one until after the game launches. At the same time, I expect that we’ll be getting something at The Game Awards the day before on the 6th (if anything, most likely Metroid Prime 4 - and the Prime Trilogy? - or Bayonetta 3), and it would be a strange move to have a Direct between the TGAs and Christmas (because you run into the same potential reason to avoid a Direct: they want consumers focused on what is available for Christmas).

I’ll be happy if I’m wrong and we do get a Direct by the end of the week, but I don’t think it makes much business sense for them to come out with a Direct. Now, with that being said, Nintendo are the kings of the unexpected, so...

Edited November 26, 2018 by Julius

[Ronnie]

I wasn't really considering a game specific Direct because well, we've just had one for Smash and everything else is a while off, and they might as well keep that to their usual January Direct. Could be a Mario Kart Tour one I guess.

20 minutes ago, Julius said:

I think it’s clear that Nintendo wants all eyes on Smash until the game launches, and rightly so, so it wouldn’t surprise me if we didn’t get one until after the game launches. At the same time, I expect that we’ll be getting something at The Game Awards the day before on the 6th (if anything, most likely Metroid Prime 4 - and the Prime Trilogy? - or Bayonetta 3), and it would be a strange move to have a Direct between the TGAs and Christmas (because you run into the same potential reason to avoid a Direct: they want consumers focused on what is available for Christmas).

I’ll be happy if I’m wrong and we do get a Direct by the end of the week, but I don’t think it makes much business sense for them to come out with a Direct. Now, with that being said, Nintendo are the kings of the unexpected, so...

Agreed, I don't see the business sense of doing one now before Smash launches and we'll get some stuff at the Game Awards anyway. But like you say, who knows what they're thinking.

[Grazza]

Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild are two extreme sides of the same coin.  The former excels at showing you how remarkable (I chose my adjective carefully there!) motion controls can be, and follows the linear style as much as Zelda can.  The latter takes the open world concept to the limit, and does so in truly amazing fashion.  Both have combat you really need to pay attention to, and RPG-style levels of material collecting.

 

I was impressed by both in different ways, but I didn't actually like either, and would rather get back to the "medium" style of OOT/MM/WW/TP.

[bob]

Did I miss something? What is Mario Kart Tour? When did that get announced?

[Hero-of-Time]

8 minutes ago, bob said:

Did I miss something? What is Mario Kart Tour? When did that get announced?

It's a mobile game and was announced at the start of the year. It was supposed to be released by March 2019 but nothing has really been seen of it yet.

[bob]

Oh that's a relief. Thought I'd somehow managed to miss the announcement of a huge franchise mainline title.

[Ashley]

It makes sense SS would get a remaster as the rest have.  Then the inevitable OOT/MM re-re-make (when the crowd say bo selector).

[markderoos]

Bundle them all in a Zelda 3D HD collection and I’m game!

Ocarina, Majora, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword all in one glorious HD collection. Now I think off it, add Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks to it too 👌🏻

[Ashley]

17 minutes ago, markderoos said:

Bundle them all in a Zelda 3D HD collection and I’m game!

Ocarina, Majora, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword all in one glorious HD collection. Now I think off it, add Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks to it too 👌🏻

They never would as they'd just release each one at £40 each. 

[Julius]

Just to add to the idea of Skyward Sword being remastered:

I completely forgot about this! It looks pretty stunning. 

Edited November 28, 2018 by Julius

[Hero-of-Time]

Looks like Nintendo had a cracking Black Friday/Cyber Monday period in terms of sales.

Quote

EDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nintendo Switch set two new records from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday: It became the best-selling Nintendo console in U.S. history for that five-day period, surpassing even Wii system sales. Nintendo Switch also had its best-selling week ever in the United States. In fact, according to Adobe Analytics, Nintendo Switch was among the most-purchased items online on Thanksgiving Day and the overall top-selling video game product online for the Black Friday-Cyber Monday time period.

Strong demand resulted in shoppers buying more than $250 million in Nintendo products from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, according to Nintendo’s internal sales figures, demonstrating that Nintendo has something for everyone this holiday season. That sales total accounts for video game systems like Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems, retro systems like Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition and Super Nintendo Entertainment System: Super NES Classic Edition, as well as all Nintendo-produced games and accessories. Total U.S. hardware sales for Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday increased 45 percent over the same period in 2017.

And that doesn’t even take into account that one of the most anticipated video game events of the year is still to come: the Dec. 7 launch of the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate game. As previously announced, the game has become not only the most pre-sold Nintendo Switch game of all time, but also the most pre-sold Super Smash Bros. game ever in the series.

Nintendo Switch
 

Nintendo Switch hardware sales grew 115 percent compared to the same period in 2017.

Lifetime sales of Nintendo Switch, which is entering only its second holiday season, have reached more than 8.2 million units.

Sales of first-party games, including digital downloads, topped 1 million units Nov. 22-26, beating 2017’s totals by 78 percent.

Nintendo Switch games Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! have hit combined U.S. sales of more than 1.5 million units since their Nov. 16 launch.

Super Mario Party surpassed lifetime U.S. sales of 1 million units, becoming the fastest-selling game in the Mario Party series and the fifth million-selling first-party Nintendo Switch game in the U.S. alone, joining The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Mario Odyssey and Splatoon 2.

Nintendo 3DS
 

Thanks in part to strong Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday sales, the total installed base for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems has hit 22 million.

Additionally, after 12 months of availability, lifetime combined sales of the Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Ultra Moongames crossed 2.2 million.

 

 

[Ronnie]

Great news overall. I don't understand these quotes though

8 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Lifetime sales of Nintendo Switch, which is entering only its second holiday season, have reached more than 8.2 million units.

8 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Thanks in part to strong Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday sales, the total installed base for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems has hit 22 million.

9 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Additionally, after 12 months of availability, lifetime combined sales of the Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Ultra Moongames crossed 2.2 million.

Is that 8.2 this fiscal year? The installbase of the 3DS is 80+ million? Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon have surely sold more than 2 million!

Anyway as for the Switch, maybe they do have a hope of hitting that 20 million target this FY. I was in Argos the other day and saw the Switch as one of maybe 5 or 6 products on the cover of their xmas catalogue!

[Hero-of-Time]

Just now, Ronnie said:

Great news overall. I don't understand these quotes though

Is that 8.2 this fiscal year? The installbase of the 3DS is 80+ million? Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon have surely sold more than 2 million!

No idea. I'm too busy at work to read up on it. I just copied and pasted the stuff from Era.  

[Ronnie]

19 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

No idea. I'm too busy at work to read up on it. I just copied and pasted the stuff from Era.  

Haha stupid me those are just US numbers I believe.

The great thing is 2019 looks to be an amazing year to keep the train rolling:

Animal Crossing
Fire Emblem
Yoshi
Pokemon Gen 8
Luigi's Mansion
NSMBUDX (...breathes...)
Smash DLC...

and then take your pick from any of these: Metroid Prime 4, Bayonetta 3, Starfox GP, Zelda(?)

Throw in a price cut/hardware revision... and yeah...

Edited November 28, 2018 by Ronnie

[Julius]

Speaking of Skyward Sword HD... [taken from Eurogamer]

Quote

Earlier this week, Zelda series boss Eiji Aonuma set tongues wagging when he mentioned the idea to fans during a concert of Zelda music in Japan. It sparked excitement for a potential re-release - and the prospect of fixes for a game whose motion control scheme divided the Zelda community.

"At this time we have no plans to release The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword on Nintendo Switch," a Nintendo spokesperson told Eurogamer today.

There's not much waggle room there.

Uh, yeah...sure, nameless Nintendo spokesperson. We believe you...

... 

[Ronnie]

True, but I also think Aonuma was only joking around with his comment. I'm surprised people are taking it at face value.

[Julius]

10 hours ago, Ronnie said:

True, but I also think Aonuma was only joking around with his comment. I'm surprised people are taking it at face value.

I mean, joking around and teasing are two very different things when it comes to projects like these in a major entertainment medium — and by all accounts, if what was described as having happened even did take place, I think it’s very clear that, in what is described, Aonuma was teasing Skyward Sword coming to Switch, in the exact same way that Reggie teased fans with his Earthbound pin a year or two ago. It does nothing but bring up an interesting conversation, gets some people digging and talking, and it drums up some interest: it’s Marketing 101 with Mario.

I don’t think that anyone here is taking Aonuma’s reported comments solely at face value, it’s just being discussed as these things typically are, and I that think there’s clear logic to believing that Skyward Sword would be next to receive a remaster/port, seeing as every other 3D Zelda game originally released on a home console got a remaster or port just last generation. I actually haven’t heard too many people asking for the game to be ported to Switch anyways — I’m sure that there are, but it seems something of an inevitability — so I was kind of surprised that Aonuma reportedly teased Skyward Sword in the first place.

But anyways, my comment above was actually more about Eurogamer and other gaming journalism outlets reporting on what is by all means a non-story and acting like it is confirmation of something — heck, anything. Leading with a title as absolute as “Nintendo shuts down Zelda: Skyward Sword Switch port reports” is wildly misleading. Any single person at Nintendo could have come out and denied it happening — and, in either case, why would Nintendo Spokesperson A be the one to break that news? — and even then, there would be reason to doubt that sentiment. I read just earlier today that similar comments to these were made in the latter stages of development for Majora’s Mask coming to 3DS, denying that Nintendo had any plans for such a thing to happen. 

It just comes across as lazy journalism; when I read stories like this, it always seems like they (Eurogamer, in this case — and not for the first time) just reached out to Nintendo’s customer service via a live chat or email and were given the response that they were very obviously going to get.  What are they going to honestly say if it actually is in the works?

“Yes, I would like to confirm to you that The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword will be releasing for Nintendo Switch on February 1st of next year [2019]. This news will be confirmed on Thursday [29/11/18] of this week, during a yet-to-be-announced Nintendo Direct. Thank you for your patience. Please don’t tell anyone, or I’ll get fired. Especially Reggie. Oh, and Metroid Prime 4 will be revealed at The Game Awards next Thursday [06/12/18], and is due to be released in Q3 2019. Keep that quiet too. Geoff’ll kill me if I steal his thunder...though I suppose in this case that would be Death Stranding shadow-dropping a demo and having a release date confirmed, which is happening. Anywho...

Yours,

Bill Trinen”

Edited November 29, 2018 by Julius