Nintendo Switch - Happy Switchmas Everyone!

[Ashley]

I know little of the tech side, but I really can't see Nintendo doing streaming regardless. Just not their thing, particularly when you consider LetterBox 2 removed the mic/camera options, they just seem to want to completely avoid that all together.

[Dcubed]

What does this mean for things like party chat, miiverse, streaming etc? Bad news? I realise 360 and PS3 had less and had party chat but what could this imply?

 

I think that it implies a less bloated and slow OS than what the Wii U had and a leaner approach to OS stuff than before (that's a good thing).

 

Like you said, 360 has done much more with much less before (can you believe that it did everything it did with its OS in just 32MB of RAM!? Crazy!). I reckon that's more than enough for things like webbrowsing, party chat and multitasking. It also shows that they have their priorities right this time and that future versions of Switch might end up adding more OS features as they get more memory (just like how iPhones do).

[Grazza]

This Pokémon business is nowhere near as bad as what Nintendo did with Twilight Princess - actually altering the GameCube version (the one they'd used to get people's interest) to be in line with the Wii port, and then having the cheek to release it one week later so most gamers would buy it on their new console!

 

Sometimes I think certain Nintendo fans can't bring themselves to criticise Nintendo itself, but will happily criticise The Pokémon Company for very similar (less bad, in my opinion) practices.

[Ronnie]

This Pokémon business is nowhere near as bad as what Nintendo did with Twilight Princess - actually altering the GameCube version (the one they'd used to get people's interest) to be in line with the Wii port, and then having the cheek to release it one week later so most gamers would buy it on their new console!

 

Sometimes I think certain Nintendo fans can't bring themselves to criticise Nintendo itself, but will happily criticise The Pokémon Company for very similar (less bad, in my opinion) practices.

 

How did they alter the Gamecube version of Twilight Princess?

[Goron_3]

This is a bit of an outlandish prediction, but I've been doing some thinking about Nintendo and 3rd parties and I have a hunch that we're going to see Ubisoft commit heavily to the Switch, in the same way that CAPCOM committed to Gamecube early on with the 'CAPCOM 5'.

 

Based on some of the rumours, I think it's possible that we might see Splinter Cell, Prince Of Persia, Rayman and Beyond Good & Evil 2 all launch exclusively on Switch.

 

If you look at those latter three games, they aren't the type of games that gaurentee massive sales and so developing them for XBO and PS4, where the market is a bit more saturated and where development costs are much higher, makes no sense. Each of those games could find a market on Switch, and I'm sure that a Rayman Legends sequel would go down well with Nintendo's audience.

 

The Splinter Cell rumours are odd but again, I could see it happening. The franchise has lost a lot of fans over the years with its move to becoming more action based as opposed to all out stealth; a reboot on XBO and PS4 would be expensive and I'm not quite sure it would be worth the money, especially if they wanted to return the franchise to its roots. On Switch it could be one of the big AAA exclusives; it would stand out much more.

 

Whilst I don't think I'll be buying games like Assassin's Creed on Switch (I'd rather play those games on more powerful hardware AKA PS4), there's a great opportunity here for Nintendo to pick up those franchises that have fallen by the wayside. Ubisoft do have plenty of those.

[Fierce_LiNk]

This is a bit of an outlandish prediction, but I've been doing some thinking about Nintendo and 3rd parties and I have a hunch that we're going to see Ubisoft commit heavily to the Switch, in the same way that CAPCOM committed to Gamecube early on with the 'CAPCOM 5'.

 

Based on some of the rumours, I think it's possible that we might see Splinter Cell, Prince Of Persia, Rayman and Beyond Good & Evil 2 all launch exclusively on Switch.

 

If you look at those latter three games, they aren't the type of games that gaurentee massive sales and so developing them for XBO and PS4, where the market is a bit more saturated and where development costs are much higher, makes no sense. Each of those games could find a market on Switch, and I'm sure that a Rayman Legends sequel would go down well with Nintendo's audience.

 

The Splinter Cell rumours are odd but again, I could see it happening. The franchise has lost a lot of fans over the years with its move to becoming more action based as opposed to all out stealth; a reboot on XBO and PS4 would be expensive and I'm not quite sure it would be worth the money, especially if they wanted to return the franchise to its roots. On Switch it could be one of the big AAA exclusives; it would stand out much more.

 

Whilst I don't think I'll be buying games like Assassin's Creed on Switch (I'd rather play those games on more powerful hardware AKA PS4), there's a great opportunity here for Nintendo to pick up those franchises that have fallen by the wayside. Ubisoft do have plenty of those.

 

The user bases of the PS4 and XBO are already there, whereas the Switch still needs to build up its crowd. I can't see Ubisoft limiting their potential sales by going for a smaller audience. Even if those markets are saturated, there's still so many potential customers to sell to that it wouldn't be wise to ignore them.

[Goron_3]

The user bases of the PS4 and XBO are already there, whereas the Switch still needs to build up its crowd. I can't see Ubisoft limiting their potential sales by going for a smaller audience. Even if those markets are saturated, there's still so many potential customers to sell to that it wouldn't be wise to ignore them.

 

Very true, but can you see some of those games doing well on the latter consoles given how heavily they flopped last time out? The audience for games PoP, BG&E and Rayman doesn't seem to the be the same audience that Sony and MS are so good at bringing in (18-35 year olds). With some support from Nintendo, those games could be made on Switch at a much cheaper price. If anything they'll resonate more with Nintendo's audience.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Very true, but can you see some of those games doing well on the latter consoles given how heavily they flopped last time out? The audience for games PoP, BG&E and Rayman doesn't seem to the be the same audience that Sony and MS are so good at bringing in (18-35 year olds). With some support from Nintendo, those games could be made on Switch at a much cheaper price. If anything they'll resonate more with Nintendo's audience.

 

I could see those games coming onto the Switch, but only alongside the other console's counterparts, too. It really depends on how much time, effort and money Ubisoft are willing to put into these games. They're going to want to see a return on those investments and they've got more of a chance of getting that if it's available to as many people as possible. So, based on that, I can only see them all being multiplatform. With the exception of maybe BG&E, which I could possibly see being exclusive or timed exclusive, depending on what deals have been talked about behind the scenes.

 

The audience on the other consoles isn't just one singular crowd. It's made up of lots of big and smaller crowds that co-exist together. There's the type of gamer who buys the Battlefields, CoDs, Titanfalls, etc, the type of crowd who play the competitive fighters (Street Fighter, King of Fighters, Mortal Kombat), the RPG nuts, the crowd who just play sports titles, anime fans, survival horror purists, etc. There's more, too. Within all of those, I do honestly think that Ubisoft would look at that and see market/s there that they could tap into with games like Rayman and Prince of Persia, etc.

[Dcubed]

Laura Dale's current 2017 list for Switch...

 

 

Seems like a pretty good starting list to me! (Guess I'm waiting for the Switch version of The Silver Case then!)

[Kounan]

Are most people here going to buy Splatoon and Mario Kart for Switch? I am asking because you are the only guys I play online games with.

[Nicktendo]

Are most people here going to buy Splatoon and Mario Kart for Switch? I am asking because you are the only guys I play online games with.

 

I still haven't finished with these on Wii U and would love to keep playing on Switch with the community, but if the titles are going to be full price, Nintendo either needs to include decent number of additions to justify the price or give Wii U owners some sort of discount for me to jump.

[Kounan]

I still haven't finished with these on Wii U and would love to keep playing on Switch with the community, but if the titles are going to be full price, Nintendo either needs to include decent number of additions to justify the price or give Wii U owners some sort of discount for me to jump.

 

But how do we get a discount if we want a physical copy? How do I prove that I have the game and that the game is mine?

 

I also hope for some add ons (MK with maybe 8 new tracks and some other tweaks and Splatoon with another single player campaing and then just to continue with the free DLC's they used to give before or even some we have to pay for, but they should be major, or cheap, but with this they would have to allow us to choose the maps we want to play - also it looks like there is a chance of having the option to change gear during an active game, so there is hope for some other tweaks).

[Nicktendo]

But how do we get a discount if we want a physical copy? How do I prove that I have the game and that the game is mine?

 

That's for Nintendo to decide, unfortunately, and highly unlikely in the grand scheme of things. I'm sure some sort of trade-in scheme could work, but I doubt they'd do it.

 

I also hope for some add ons (MK with maybe 8 new tracks and some other tweaks and Splatoon with another single player campaing and then just to continue with the free DLC's they used to give before or even some we have to pay for, but they should be major, or cheap, but with this they would have to allow us to choose the maps we want to play - also it looks like there is a chance of having the option to change gear during an active game, so there is hope for some other tweaks).

 

We've already seen King Boo in MK Switch, as well as characters being able to hold 2 items, new tracks have also been rumoured from the leakers, so it looks like there will be some kind of new content, how much is anyone's guess though. In Splatoon we've seen new character designs and a new map, so it seems like that is getting new content as well, but again it depends on the scale of this new content. If Splatoon will be (as rumoured) a pack-in with the system, then I suppose this discussion is fairly redundant as early adopters will be getting it anyway. If they are going down the 8.5 route as opposed to the Mario Kart 9 one for the system's lifespan, then I expect we'll see a healthy amount of bi-annual or annual DLC on top of a huge base game, in which case I'll probably buy it.

[bob]

Laura Dale's current 2017 list for Switch...

 

 

Seems like a pretty good starting list to me! (Guess I'm waiting for the Switch version of The Silver Case then!)

 

Urgh, turn off your spellchecker Laura!

[dazzybee]

That's a lot of games Wii U owners already own... We better get these free/cheap Nintendo!!!

 

Though I presume there are many games she doesn't know about yet, not lots o new exciting stuff for wii U owners to play.

 

Slightly worried about Pikmin 4 being a reboot, it's fine as it is; just another adventure, small additions, and an expanded online mode. Done!

 

@Fierce_LiNk I don't fully agree, I really don't think it's as simple as "it's available for more people so it will sell more" I think Rayman for example being an exclusive will sell better than it being a Multiplatform game. And an exclusive game on switch like Splinter Cell may appeal to Nintendo fans, but a mutliplatform game may not (as the other versions will probably be better graphically and such) but that may not appeal to PS4/One fans so it doesn't do that well on any platform.

[Grazza]

How did they alter the Gamecube version of Twilight Princess?

 

Took out shield control with R. Lengthened the beginning so Wii players could get used to the controls. All this was ported back to the GC.

[Happenstance]

Laura Dale's current 2017 list for Switch...

 

 

Seems like a pretty good starting list to me! (Guess I'm waiting for the Switch version of The Silver Case then!)

 

I was originally going to buy the Switch at launch but looking at that list there just isn't a whole lot for me. I'd probably only get Mario and Zelda then maybe Pokemon. I can see myself waiting a year or two before I buy a Switch if all that did turn out to be true. Obviously we all hope the third party support will be there but even if it is, I'd still buy that elsewhere.

[Goron_3]

I was originally going to buy the Switch at launch but looking at that list there just isn't a whole lot for me. I'd probably only get Mario and Zelda then maybe Pokemon. I can see myself waiting a year or two before I buy a Switch if all that did turn out to be true. Obviously we all hope the third party support will be there but even if it is, I'd still buy that elsewhere.

 

Keep in mind that there's a whole bunch of unannounced content that hasn't been shown off yet. I'm sure that there will be a few surprises.

[Happenstance]

Keep in mind that there's a whole bunch of unannounced content that hasn't been shown off yet. I'm sure that there will be a few surprises.

 

Yeah I hope so. I'm not against getting one at launch, just going off whats on that list at the moment.

[Ashley]

Only 54 days until we find out...

[Grazza]

It's a highly individual thing, but I like what I'm seeing. Mario Kart, Smash Bros and Xenoblade X were released on the system they were promised on (so that much was fair), but this gives them a chance of being more successful and for other gamers to play them. Personally, I would be far more inclined to play things like Skyrim on Switch than I would via one of the other consoles on a TV. I'd also like to have a go at some of the other multi-format games that haven't been on Nintendo, like the full Mass Effect series, but we'll see.

[Rummy]

Don't think this has been posted.

 

Taken from gaf

 

- The Switch is qualified as a "straightful" development system, opposed to all the problems they had on Wii U with Unity. He talks about how easier it is to work with it.

 

What or why were there difficulties with Unity? I thought the whole idea of Nintendo adopting and supplying it was because it was supposed to make development and porting easier for the WiiU?

 

Sun and Moon coming to switch

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...d-moon-version

 

With the games rumored to be releasing on launch and in 2017 I fail to see how the switch won't destroy what the wii u sold in year 1. Should be night and day.

 

Almost quite literally alolololol.

 

Still not happy with the Zelda delay, and Sun/Moon/Stars don't really interest me but with these and the rumours of Mario for launch and its more SM64 style the Switch is growing every more tempting for me. Getting the system sold well in the first year can only be good for it imo, and I won't mind taking as much of a chance on it. Online features and functionality is still going to be the real decision-maker for me but everything else is slowly starting to look as if Nintendo are going in a direction that I think is going to work well for the system this time round.

 

Splatoon pack-in is a good idea but its online functionality definitely needs some hard looking at and fixing in places.

[david.dakota]

I think this is absurdly good for 2017, and there's surely lots more to come too. We don't know about the big Christmas games, a bunch of third parties are missing. It's an amazing line up for those who never jumped into Wii U, maybe the faithful can see this as a bit heavy on remasters (but they're superb games, and hopefully Wii U owners get them discounted/free?).

[Rummy]

I think this is absurdly good for 2017, and there's surely lots more to come too. We don't know about the big Christmas games, a bunch of third parties are missing. It's an amazing line up for those who never jumped into Wii U, maybe the faithful can see this as a bit heavy on remasters (but they're superb games, and hopefully Wii U owners get them discounted/free?).

 

It is looking absurdly good for 2017, but we do still need to be mindful of 2018 and onwards. If they manage to have a really good start they need to ensure they do well to keep its momentum with lots of content - I'm excited to see what they do with more indie/downloadable stuff and storefronts etc. I think there's a lot more games I see on things like PSN store or Steam that I'd probably be more inclined to pick up on Switch with its lack of limitation of being tied to the TV.

[Grazza]

This would also be a great opportunity to re-launch Virtual Console. It goes without saying it'd be great to have SNES on there, but this would also be a good chance to bring Sega consoles back, as well as Neo Geo (which I believe weren't 60Hz last time) and genuine resolution-boosted N64 and GameCube. Even more than that, I'd love a return of Virtual Console arcade, and to have all those coin-ops I loved on the Switch.