Nintendo Switch - Happy Switchmas Everyone!

[Ronnie]

And yet Nintendo put out games like Federation Force. Is that supposedly 'testing the water' for another Metroid?...

 

Federation Force - didn't sell, bombed, and did significant damage to both the Metroid franchise and Nintendo's seal of quality.

 

Mario Tennis Wii U - didn't sell, bombed and did damage to the brand.

Animal Crossing: Board Game Bollocks - didn't sell, bombed and did damage to the brand.

M&L: Paper Jam... yep.

 

All these are example of doing exactly what you just stated they shouldn't do.

 

You're telling me that amongst all this we couldn't get a 1080, WaveRace, Excitebike, Advance Wars, F-Zero too?

 

All of those were released at a time when Nintendo's big developers were at work on Switch games, hence the filler content. Sure we could have seen F-Zero or Wave Race in there, it would have sold just as badly, and would have been just as rubbish. Wait till Switch hits and Nintendo have one platform to develop for, it should mean revisiting some old franchises, and they can put some decent effort behind it....

[Retro_Link]

All of those were released at a time when Nintendo's big developers were at work on Switch games, hence the filler content. Sure we could have seen F-Zero or Wave Race in there, it would have sold just as badly, and would have been just as rubbish. Wait till Switch hits and Nintendo have one platform to develop for, it should mean revisiting some old franchises, and they can put some decent effort behind it....

I do feel there's been an upswing in trend in 'nobody asked for this' game from Nintendo though. They make equally baffling decisions on game series they do choose to release and support, as those they don't sometimes.

 

But yeah hopefully. I very much hope this is the console it finally happens.

 

Also though, just a few days ago Nintendo didn't rule out a handheld successor, and clarifying the Switch as very much a home console. As baffling as it seems giving the Switches potential and Nintendo's recent internal reshuffling - we may see them back developing across two consoles yet.

[Glen-i]

Mario Tennis Wii U - didn't sell, bombed and did damage to the brand.

Animal Crossing: Board Game Bollocks - didn't sell, bombed and did damage to the brand.

M&L: Paper Jam... yep.

 

All these are example of doing exactly what you just stated they shouldn't do.

 

Did Paper Jam really bomb? Genuinely asking because I happen to think it's the best one in the series.

[Hero-of-Time]

Did Paper Jam really bomb?

 

Yeah, especially in Japan.

 

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros. is one of them, and it’s off to bad start. It only sold 49 266 units during the first four days, which is 17.97% of all copies sent to retailers (it looks like Nintendo shipped 274.157 copies of the game). Here’s how the previous two Mario RPGs on Nintendo 3DS fared at launch:

 

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros. (July 2013): 100 000 copies sold, sellthrough ratio of 25.49%

Paper Mario: Sticker Star (December 2012): 129 000 copies sold, sellthrough ratio of 33.42%%

 

Color Splash has also bombed over there but given the size of the install base that's not really a surprise.

 

Going by VGCharts ( not the most accurate but it gives you an idea ) Dream Team sold over 2 million WW, Sticker Star over 2 million WW and Paper Jam less than 1 million WW.

[Rummy]

Also though, just a few days ago Nintendo didn't rule out a handheld successor, and clarifying the Switch as very much a home console. As baffling as it seems giving the Switches potential and Nintendo's recent internal reshuffling - we may see them back developing across two consoles yet.

 

I've been wondering, somewhat skeptically, if they're pushing it as a home console first due to potential handheld limitations. It's hard to know without them telling us more about it, and if that's not going to be until January it's going to be quite a sting if there is something notable that people won't like.

[Agent Gibbs]

I get what @Retro_Link is saying, there has been a lot of nobody asked for this games - Federation Force being the easiest example, but also changes to certain game series, the paper mario games are no longer what they were when they were successful and despite poorer sales of the altered series nintendo has released more with this changed format i.e speaking with our wallets hasn't worked. I'm sure some would argue Captain Toad is another game nobody asked for, a mini game from one series dragged into its own stand alone, i'd say that worked though.

[Falcon_BlizZACK]

I get what @Retro_Link is saying, there has been a lot of nobody asked for this games - Federation Force being the easiest example, but also changes to certain game series, the paper mario games are no longer what they were when they were successful and despite poorer sales of the altered series nintendo has released more with this changed format i.e speaking with our wallets hasn't worked. I'm sure some would argue Captain Toad is another game nobody asked for, a mini game from one series dragged into its own stand alone, i'd say that worked though.

 

Though those games blatantly are not what we're dying to have, they do seem like filler games for dying consoles and perhaps were genius moves... Especially with the install base of the Wii U, the 3DS' declining sales and their succecsor around the corner.

 

I definitely wouldn't put my heart and soul into a great game for a console that has been corroding into irrelevancy for some time now.

 

So I believe Nintendo are following suit and looking to blitz the first 2 years of the Switch's life with the more popular games that we didn't get on Wii U. The launch is already looking at least as strong as the Wii's with a Zelda launch title.

[nekunando]

I held my DS lite upside down today to get an idea of what the four face buttons would feel like as a D-Pad substitute, assuming the buttons are a similar size to the Switch joycons! Without being able to play a game, it's hard to say but it might not be too bad, even if it isn't ideal

 

What irritates me, though, is that I still see comparisons to the 'split' D-Pad of the PlayStation controllers and how it's fine there so shouldn't be a problem here but people can't seem to understand that these are 4 independent buttons rather than one connected piece of plastic. You can't press left and right at the same time on a Dualshock, for example. Do people still not get this on the internet..?

[Retro_Link]

You can't press left and right at the same time on a Dualshock, for example. Do people still not get this on the internet..?

Do you mean can?

[nekunando]

Do you mean can?

 

No.. you can't press left and right at the same time, just as you can't with any regular Nintendo D-Pad.

[Cube]

Do you mean can?

 

The PlayStation D-pad is single piece of plastic/rubber/whatever, not four individual buttons.

 

I actually think that four buttons are actually better for modern games. A lot of the time, the D-pad is pretty much used for extra buttons and they're not that good for it.

[Retro_Link]

Yeah I know, single piece of plastic, so you press both left and right at the same time with a diagonal movement.

 

Sorry I don't understand the point. Why would you want to press two separate individual buttons at the same time?

 

EDIT: Never mind, I'm tired, I get you now :p

 

Left and Right.. god knows why I was thinking of Up and Left/Right...

 

But I still don't understand the point.

[nekunando]

Yeah I know, single piece of plastic, so you press both left and right at the same time with a diagonal movement.

 

Sorry I don't understand the point. Why would you want to press two separate individual buttons at the same time?

 

EDIT: Never mind, I'm tired, I get you now :p

 

Left and Right.. god knows why I was thinking of Up and Left/Right...

 

But I still don't understand the point.

 

With the D-Pad as a single, connected entity, there is no problem in discerning that if you press a certain direction, that's how the controller will register it. With 4 separate buttons, especially small buttons, where you may unintentionally press 3 or even all 4 of them together, something which would be impossible to do on a regular D-Pad. What way would your character move if you pressed left, down and right simultaneously? You could assume down but is there a guarantee? Is that even the way you wanted to go?

 

My point is that there may be potential problems with accuracy and the general input feeling unnatural.

[Ronnie]

I was thinking about storage last night. I suspect this will be one of the bits of "bad news" together with price and battery life. Obviously we'd all love 500GB in there but that's not really realistic especially since I imagine the majority of gamers won't use the on board hard drive and just get their games at retail.

 

Presumably there has to be an SD card slot underneath right? Like the 3DS. If that's the case how much space can you see this thing coming with out of the box? Personally I'm going to say it'll have something like 64GB. Not enough by any means of course but I think they'd want to keep the cost down and then offer the option of expanding to those that want it.

[dazzybee]

I was thinking about storage last night. I suspect this will be one of the bits of "bad news" together with price and battery life. Obviously we'd all love 500GB in there but that's not really realistic especially since I imagine the majority of gamers won't use the on board hard drive and just get their games at retail.

 

Presumably there has to be an SD card slot underneath right? Like the 3DS. If that's the case how much space can you see this thing coming with out of the box? Personally I'm going to say it'll have something like 64GB. Not enough by any means of course but I think they'd want to keep the cost down and then offer the option of expanding to those that want it.

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it'll be 32g, 64g tops so we're relying on SD cards. It would be amazing if the game carts can also store game saves and patches. But ultimately if games can run off SD cards - can they?! - then there's no big problem.

[killthenet]

I would be disappointed if it's as low as 32gb built in, but happy enough if it's 64gb and you can use SD cards to expand the memory like on the 3DS. I always found it bizarre that the Wii U accepts SD cards but you can't run games off it.

 

Some people will be disappointed by that solution but for a portable console having flash memory makes much more sense than a conventional hard drive. It would be nice if the dock featured a conventional hard drive so that you could transfer games between the two relatively quickly. I'm not someone who tends to keep all of their digital games stored on my console, i'm quite happy to delete them when I'm finished playing but I know that some people prefer to have access to everything at once for easy access and to protect against them being removed from the eShop, so I think being able to store the bulk of your games on the dock and have the option to move them to your Switch when it's docked would be a decent compromise for many people. It would just be a case of reorganising your games before going on a long trip so that you had the ones you wanted to play with you.

[Kav]

Nintendo offering the chance to win a Switch...

 

[tweet]790502556720128000[/tweet]

[Ronnie]

I would be disappointed if it's as low as 32gb built in, but happy enough if it's 64gb and you can use SD cards to expand the memory like on the 3DS. I always found it bizarre that the Wii U accepts SD cards but you can't run games off it.

 

Some people will be disappointed by that solution but for a portable console having flash memory makes much more sense than a conventional hard drive. It would be nice if the dock featured a conventional hard drive so that you could transfer games between the two relatively quickly. I'm not someone who tends to keep all of their digital games stored on my console, i'm quite happy to delete them when I'm finished playing but I know that some people prefer to have access to everything at once for easy access and to protect against them being removed from the eShop, so I think being able to store the bulk of your games on the dock and have the option to move them to your Switch when it's docked would be a decent compromise for many people. It would just be a case of reorganising your games before going on a long trip so that you had the ones you wanted to play with you.

 

At the very least the dock has two USBs on the side so you have to imagine it'll let you connect an external hard drive.

 

32GB would be a big shame but this thing is probably costing a lot as is, so if they have to cut costs somehow to get it at a good price so be it, especially if they have data that most people play games off retail cartridges. I'll be buying an extra SD card regardless. We're assuming it has an SD card slot of course...

[dazzybee]

At the very least the dock has two USBs on the side so you have to imagine it'll let you connect an external hard drive.

 

32GB would be a big shame but this thing is probably costing a lot as is, so if they have to cut costs somehow to get it at a good price so be it, especially if they have data that most people play games off retail cartridges. I'll be buying an extra SD card regardless. We're assuming it has an SD card slot of course...

 

But the hub isn't supposed to do that much, and that doesn't help you move games to the actual device. Can't see them doing it and over complicating it personally.

[Ronnie]

But the hub isn't supposed to do that much, and that doesn't help you move games to the actual device. Can't see them doing it and over complicating it personally.

 

True, what happens if you're playing of an external hard drive and then yank the Switch out. I think the dock likely does something though, it's far too chunky looking to just be an HDMI connector/charger.

[Kav]

Remember the rumours that said you'd be able to play "a version" of the home console games on the go?

 

What if it holds true and that it means thing like online play, DLC, Virtual Console etc can only be played when the console is docked?

So the dock has the HDD to store/run all this, then the handheld lets you play the basic game itself minus additions and some features..?

That way you could say it is a home console predominantly, as Nintendo have done...

 

I'm not suggesting this will be the case or that the features I've mentioned will definitely be the ones removed... I'm just spitballing.

[Retro_Link]

Better

 

[dazzybee]

Remember the rumours that said you'd be able to play "a version" of the home console games on the go?

 

What if it holds true and that it means thing like online play, DLC, Virtual Console etc can only be played when the console is docked?

So the dock has the HDD to store/run all this, then the handheld lets you play the basic game itself minus additions and some features..?

That way you could say it is a home console predominantly, as Nintendo have done...

 

I'm not suggesting this will be the case or that the features I've mentioned will definitely be the ones removed... I'm just spitballing.

 

Far too clunky. No chance. Everything will work on both, and you simply won't be abel to put a harddrive into, SD cards all the way. Does anyone know any reason why this won't work?!

 

I think he hub, at best, will just boost it a tochf or 1080p, 60FPS

[Kav]

Oh I don't think it will either. I was just spitballing as to the reason why the dock is so beefy.

 

Another though as to why it may be is because it houses a power brick within it. The Gamepad charge cable had a power brick on it so if it's included within the dock then the cable needn't have one.

[Cube]

Oh I don't think it will either. I was just spitballing as to the reason why the dock is so beefy.

 

Another though as to why it may be is because it houses a power brick within it. The Gamepad charge cable had a power brick on it so if it's included within the dock then the cable needn't have one.

 

I don't think it will need one - I think it will be charged over USB. A power brick would just be a pain.

 

I think it's "bulky" simply to make it sturdy.