In the "hardcore" gaming scene you’re certainly not alone. Everyone wants a better Switch and we’ll probably get that sooner or later (they won’t throw away the switch idea. Would make 0 sense so don’t keep your hopes up for a "Nintendo Series X"). The thing is that the core scene is certainly not the majority anymore and most people "causal players" don’t seem to care about resolutions or frame rates as long as there are games to play.
I never had anything not work out of the box for me honestly, even unverified (ok, Cold Steel 3 crashes on exit, but that is it). But for a casual person the possibility that it might not work can be daunting. The deck is amazing.
Said the same before owning one but it’s more of a thing you just have to get used to. People said the same thing about the Switch when it came out because it was much bigger then the 3DS but nowadays nobody cares. I’ll gladly take a more comfortable gaming experience and higher battery life even if it means that it takes up a little more space in my backpack.
The SD doesn’t have higher battery life than any of the Nintendo Switch. But yeah, I get what you mean.
For me the SD is just too big to be truly portable tbh. It’s amazing and I’m hoping for an OLED revision, but doesn’t replace my Switch.
Ik but for a handheld with a (compared to the Switch) inefficient x86 processor the battery life is pretty good.
I get what you mean. For me the SD also didn’t replace the Switch (all tho it was certainly portable enough for me) It was more like a third pillar for my gaming setup. The only real complaint I have is basically the same as yours: the screen is just not good enough. Compared to the Switch‘s beautiful OLED panel it’s really disappointing.
The "core scene" as you describe it has never been the majority.
The entirety of video game history has been driven by "is the game fun? Then I will play it".
The core hasn't really been the majority for a lot of the best selling consoles. The PS2 I'm sure didn't have a majority of its user base being core gamers. A good amount of the buyers probably used it as a DVD player.
Same with the DS. Lots of casual gamers just buying a few games here and there and you got the 2nd best selling console of all time behind the PS2.
The Switch has reached that stage where as long as there are games coming, there are gonna be people beyond the core interested in buying said console.
One other thing to consider is that while there are way more casual gamers, they also comparatively spend way less money on games compared to the "hardcore gamers". While most everyone I know has some kind of access to videogames/a video game console, the casual ones spend waaay less money. I know all too many people who own a switch, but also literally only own 1 or 2 games for it after years (usually animal crossing and maybe pokemon).
On the flip side, I would not really consider the people actually spending money on several (2-3) Nintendo games a year to be truly casual. The biggest issue for Nintendo is that they're too expensive for truly "casual" fans. The idea of dropping $60 on a single game is almost unthinkable to most truly casual players. They can play games for free on their phones after all.
I feel that all this discourse online about how "casual gamers" make up the majority of sales is missing some key elements and really undersells how important "core" gamers are to a gaming company's sales. Compared to my truly casual friends, I am basically a whale to a company trying to sell games. I probably play games 15+ hours a week, whereas they maybe play 15 hours a year, and as a result, I probably spend 20-40x as much money as them. There's no way that a company trying to make money doesn't realize that.
Instead of just saying "most gamers are casual", I think we need to recognize that there's a lot of variety in who is actually buying these games and keeping these companies afloat. For every pokemon/animal crossing, there's dozens if not hundreds of smaller games that are also an important part of Nintendo's bottom line. Games like Xenoblade and Bayonetta prove this, as they're genres that our stereotypical "casual gamer" wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole, yet they exist and Nintendo sees value in them.
I used to be a "hardcore" gamer but since I had a child, my switch has far more play time than my other consoles simply because there's a huge backlog of games for me to play and they are way more enjoyable to play than most offerings on the main consoles at the moment. I want to have fun with the games im playing with what little time I have and I find a lot of the popular games these days are more about how intense the game is rather than being enjoyable.
I wish the switch was 60fps 4k whatever, but i can live without it. I have a ps5 and a switch and my ps5 gets about 1 hour a month of playtime.
>There has to be a Mario game with the movie.
What? No, there doesn’t.
Why? Movie licensed merchandising revenue are things like toys, clothing, etc, not really video games any more.
We likely will. We don’t know much of what Nintendo will have for the latter half of the year, outside of Pikmin 4 assuming it doesn’t get delayed. I imagine we’ll be having a direct within the next month and one in June that will lay out their plans.
I think it'll be sooner than that. Then need to show TOTK before it comes out in May, although I guess they could have a dedicated direct just for that
I can’t really see Pikmin coming out this year. Right now we really only know the first half. Fire Emblem, Bayonetta Origins and Zelda of course. The February direct will probably reveal the two or three AAA games that are coming out at the end of the year with smaller titles being revealed over the course of the year.
I don’t really understand the mindset that every other Switch game is getting delayed. Relatively speaking, delays don’t happen THAT often. But, we always get “it’ll probably get delayed” when that’s entirely speculation based on absolutely nothing.
I’d say the earliest would possibly be November/Decmeber for Pikmin 4, assuming they are gonna drop a trailer in a possible Nintendo direct by Feb/March time.
It wouldnt be surprising if we got a new 2D and/or 3D Mario announcement by the end of the year, since we’re getting the movie and such and its been 5 years since Odyssey… Also the perfect time for a new DK country game since hes also featured in the film.
A surprise comeback for a franchise like Kid icarus, Rhythm heaven and Tomadachi life would be welcome imo and maybe theres a small chance to finally get a teaser for Metroid Prime 4 at E3? its been forever since we’ve heard about that one…
By that logic, imagine for a second that someone is waiting for TOTK to buy a Switch. Like, we have a shitton of great games dude. FFS, buy a Switch today and play BOTW at the very least.
I agree with Placiibo- the movie will tie into a big Mario game. :)))
I have a launch day switch with a failing cooling fan. I am personally going to get a kit and replace it myself, but at the same time, upgrading to an OLED model when TOTK drops is also tempting. So it isn't just new customers that higher demand may target.
sometimes I consider that Nintendo doesn't have a true *cheap* handheld to replace the GBC/GBA/2DS type line. I wonder if they would at some point launch a successor to the Switch but hold on to a revised Lite to get it down to $150 or less. If that happened, it could sell for a long long time.
Any further thoughts? Most businesses like to have both premium and low-cost entry models, so long as both have good ROI.
Nintendo has always liked a cheap system with aged internals but beefy shell. I don't know why they would be any different now. Unless they are running out of Tegra X1s from a manuf standpoint, I can't imagine they wouldn't mind continue to make them and selling that big catalog of old games to kids for another 5+ years.
If they're still selling us $60 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe they'll definitely sell us cheap Switches to play $60 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on and people will continue to buy $60 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
The official numbers are 40m behind the PS2, but that's without numbers for the Christmas quarter, which are usually around 10m.
Another 20m this year, and it's only 10m behind.
This is gonna be a deep dive as I’m passionate about gaming history, and because I’m trying to fall but can’t lol so I’m gonna get in-depth with my comment to tire out my mind a little 😅 The dvd aspect was just the trojan horse to the system’s incredibly vast, diverse and super large games of every single variety that existed lol. The n64/GameCube was a dark time for Nintendo, especially the GC, the systems both even had entire genres that were missing lol
It’s insane to think how a console, rich with JRPG games like the Super Nintendo, could somehow go from that, to the intensely dry atmosphere that the n64 would have lol.. absolutely insane. You can count the number of rpg’s using one it two hands
So at the end of the day, it was the software, the amazing selection of games and innovative/new types of experiences that the PS2 allowed us to have.. I grew up with the n64/GC as my “childhood” systems and always envied all the magazine advertisements for all the amazing looking games being shown, but was hurt when none of them ever featured a Nintendo logo at the bottom 😂🤣
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely hold the few Zelda and Mario games that released then very dear and close to my heart even now, but knowing having the experience of playing GTA 3/VC/SA, gran turismo, God of War, Sly Cooper, Jack & daxter, ratchet and clank, the dragon quest and final fantasy titles that made history around that time..the dark cloud games, shadow of the colossus,the freaking masterpieces that are metal gear solid 2 and Metal gear solid 3 snake eater, the kingdom hearts, to hearing about this FPS title called “Call of Duty” that supposedly had an amazing cinematic experience set during WW2, all the iconic and important fighting games released, most notably from the street fighter and tekken series, etc, you already know that I could go on for a very long time lol.
But thanks exactly what I’m suggesting as the reason for the PS2 being the most important device in gaming history as far as the one that truly had an incredibly amount of influence on EVERYTHING! On players, on developers, on competing companies, it was the first system that had enough power to finally Be “that” console to set an example of what was possible with video games… as games made on that system are still setting examples today to devs as far as influencing games from that point onwards
>This is gonna be a deep dive as I’m passionate about gaming history, and because I’m trying to fall but can’t lol so I’m gonna get in-depth with my comment to tire out my mind a little 😅
I think you went more for breadth. I can list out GameCube's great games pretty easily as well. And there are a ton.
>The n64/GameCube was a dark time for Nintendo, especially the GC, the systems both even had entire genres that were missing lol
Dark? Seriously?
The N64 and GameCube didn't sell well, but "dark time for Nintendo" seems to ignore the incredible profits they were making from their handhelds.
Or are you referring specifically to software? You'd still be wrong. The GameCube's software library is among the best there's ever been, and I firmly believe it outdid the PS2 (both were incredible and I wouldn't blame someone for disagreeing, but there's no huge gap between them like you're suggesting).
And missing genres? What genres were missing on the GameCube? You can definitely claim that the N64 was slim with RPGs (with Paper Mario being the only notable one), but you're digging down the wrong hole if you're suggesting its software library isn't incredible. Sure, it wasn't an RPG machine, but it gave us the most important games in history.
I don't disagree that the PS2 has a historic library of games. It pioneered open worlds and cinematic FPS games alongside PCs. It would be the 4th or 5th best software library in history for me, personally.
To make a huge generalization, the PS2 pushed technical capabilities of games while the GameCube focused on bringing new game design ideas into the industry. At the time, gamers were obsessed with seeing violence on the screen, and the PS2 delivered that in the highest fidelity possible. GameCube ignored that trend and did its own thing. An extremely fast platform fighter, a cel-shaded seafaring adventure, the first metroidvania in 3D, a platformer controlled with a water jet, a whimsical RPG that mixes turn-based combat with real-time action, a cooperative kart-racer.
"But thanks exactly what I’m suggesting as the reason for the PS2 being the most important device in gaming history as far as the one that truly had an incredibly amount of influence on EVERYTHING!"
Thanks? Who are you talking to?
I don't think the PS2 influenced anything. It was a successful console when Nintendo didn't want a DVD-based system and Xbox was irrelevant. It's pretty much what the NES did in the 80s. No competition.
You list a wide range of RPGs that we can now get on any console - those aren't Sony properties, neither is GTA, etc. Most of what you're describing are just generic titles from Capcom and Konami. Yes Sony did a great thing with the DVD and tried to recreate that with the BluRay drive a few years later - but I look at the list of games you just mentioned and yawn. Even the almighty Square had lost most of its greatest talent by the time the PS2 rolled around. Dragon Quest, even now in 2023, puts me to sleep and I love RPGs.
Put the pipe down. I hope you enjoyed yourself with this post, but you sound delusional. Most of what you're "bragging" about had nothing to do with Sony and everything to do with MSFT and Nintendo being irrelevant for a few years.
**TLDR:** *(or more like I didn't pay so I couldn't read)*
* Nintendo Plans to Increase Production to roughly 21 Million Units in Fiscal 2023
* Demand remains strong among shortages and it's expected to match higher demand.
* Nintendo has told Suppliers & Assembly Partners to increase production starting April.
* While anaylists expect sales to diminish first due to the systems life cycle but also as speculation of a next generation hardware looms.
* Special Edition Themed Consoles are expected to be a target they will hit as Splatoon 3 OLED Edition was considered a success.
* Article also reminds you that BOTW Tears of the Kingdom is a massively anticipated 2023 release.
* Nintendo Declined to Comment.
Not a fan of the gold everything for Zelda special products. Gold plastic just looks cheap. Glad I ended up not getting a new 3DS XL with gold for MM. I like my black one much better looking back.
I get so unreasonably angry every time I boot up a Zelda game on my PC, because it should just be available on the Switch.
Like don't get me wrong I love emulating some Nintendo games (if they can benefit from it), but many simply can't go above 30fps. I've been playing Windwaker and Twilight Princess HD on my Steam Deck and sometimes just think, "this is $120 I would have easily given to Nintendo"
I don't get it. It's so hard to access some of their catalogue.
WW HD on the steamdeck is awesome. I was honestly just craving a handheld experience to play WW; and caved and got a steamdeck. I plan on going through all the old Nintendo games I should be able to play on the switch (metroid fusion/zero mission). The switch has spoiled me so much; everything needs to be handheld now.
Oh I agree it's awesome. Emulation in general is fucking awesome and one of my favorite things to just mess around with. It blows my mind every time I play Breath of the Wild on my Ultrawide at 60fps.
I'm just trying to convey how ridiculous Nintendo seems sometimes. I know they have a reason that I am not privy to, but people have been *begging* them to re-release these games for a long time.
While I love the switch, honestly quite a few of Nintendo's 1st party releases this generation have felt like barren cash grabs (strikers, mario party, etc), or attempts to make money on Wii U software that didn't sell enough. If they're gonna keep doing that, I wish they would port some older classics.
Anyways - enjoy the steam deck man! It's my favorite device ever. If you need help with emulation at all, hit me up. My Deck is basically a gaming museum now.
Oh I would never ask for help. 90% of the fun is figuring it out yourself. This isn’t my first rodeo with emulation. I was one of the first modders on super smashbros for the wii (I wrote one of the earliest extraction/decryption protocols for wii ;) ) I appreciate the offer though!
I seriously doubt we see new hardware before 2025. Switch will have a life cycle of ~10 years, new system comes after 8.
I know some people are hoping for a mid generation refresh. Personally I hope it doesn't happen. I think they're pointless. The New 3DS was pointless. I
The better 3D is a nice plus and all and the build quality was nice, but there were barely any exclusive games and separating the player base was stupid in the first place... which Nintendo seemed to quickly realize, which is why they only put out like 4 N3DS games.
I agree that a refresh for the Switch is probably pointless, but I've gotta hard disagree about the 3DS.
The new 3DS was such a big improvement. The buttons were mapped better, felt better, and the shoulder buttons actually worked. The screen was better, improved battery life, and it was more comfortable to hold. I was pretty early on with the system but gave up after my original 3DS had both shoulder buttons go out. Getting the updated model totally sucked me back in and let me really enjoy the games. My only grip with the New XL is that it's a lot tougher to fit in a pocket for counting steps.
Switch just doesn't have those same problems because it's a console with a variety of controllers. More performance doesn't mean better games, and the pro controller has been satisfactory to anyone that I've talked to about it. I think if there was any "refresh" the Switch could use its a revamp of the Switch cons. If they could fix some of the issues, maybe make it a little more comfortable, and still have them slot on the sides we'd be golden
> More performance doesn't mean better games
It absolutely does. It's a travesty to see the work artists do on games like BotW and Xenoblade only for the Switch to hold them back so much. It's like having to watch a shitty phone recording of a movie while people tell you the experience wouldn't be better in an actual theater.
Even discounting resolution, games are just so much more pleasant at 60fps than at 30. Just look at Splatoon 3, the contrast between the hub and the solo campaign map. The fluidity of higher fps makes a world of difference, and it's a joke that consoles are still lagging so far behind in this regard.
I have this fantasy where what it means is exactly the opposite. The increased production is for a new unit and the entire world just bought the media line that Nintendo wants them to about no new hardware. Because for some reason the top people at Nintendo seem totally brilliant and totally stupid at the same time. That last part is when I wake up and remember it’s just a fantasy.
Not necessarily. They said at the end of last year that they've missed their target for where they expected sales to be of consoles and they've claimed it's due to "lowered production" due to supply chain issues... which is funny, because anytime I've been in a store, they're fully stocked (usually about 10-15 of them, this is at Gamestop, Walmart, Target, etc.)
They're in stores, they're just seeing a downward trend of console sales, which they'll more than likely see again this year and they'll realize they need to start switching to a new console (pun intended lol)
The problem is the developers that make games that run at sub 60fps. I really wish a console would come out that made that a minimum requirement for all their software.
I think that amount of curation would be logistically impossible to do. Would a frame drop in an intense sequence be false advertising or barred from sale?
Eh they should only release a new console when there’s a truly new gimmick to justify it.
If they haven’t thought of that yet then we can afford to wait.
I’m looking forward to whatever that will be as much as the next guy but it’s gotta be good enough to justify everyone wanting to buy it.
I expect this to be the last big year really. Zelda in spring. 2D Mario for the movie? Hopefully Metroid Prime is their big Holiday game. Likely Pokemon DLC and maybe Part 1 of a Zelda DLC with a meaty story content in 2024.
2024 will probably have some smaller games and I honestly think the reveal of a Switch Successor.
Switch has been doing fine. Really the only people complaining are a minority of “hardcores” that are loud, but a small sector.I think Switch’s lifecycle will continue for a while. PS5 is just eking along and Xbox is crickets. Power doesn’t equal interest in this market, limited as Switch’s capabilities are, they have a huge library. The “problem” with the powerful systems is everyone expects AAA level games that are expensive, slow to come to market, and many times unprofitable. A failed AAA can bankrupt a developer.
As an older gamer, the majority of AAA games aren't my thing anymore. I rarely play games with FPS/ Twitch combat anymore. Not to mention everything in AAA is loaded with a battle pass and MTX. The majority of Nintendo games are enjoyable and are relaxing.
More than anything I feel that a lot of today's AAA titles demand my time, sometimes without respect for it. Switch has been the perfect pick-up-and-play console thanks to the combined effort of Nintendo and indie developers.
I think Nintendo could actually use one more "demanding" franchise like Xenoblade, while the rest of the industry could use a whole lot more of the opposite.
Not every AAA game has a battle pass or micros transactions. God of War Ragnarok, Elden Ring, Returnal, Rachet and Clank, Cyberpunk 2077, and Spider-Man are all AAA games, with no battlepass or Micro transactions, maybe all multiplayer AAA games have them, but there are plenty of high budget great games that don’t.
All you have to do is look at the sales of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet to realize that the average Switch user doesn't care about specs or resolution or fps.
There's absolutely zero reason for Nintendo to bother with making something new when we're going into year 6 of insane demand for the current product. It's why there's no Mario Kart 9. Why would there be when MK8D is the best selling Switch game?
Yeah, I wish it ran better it's such a well designed game marred by bad performance and graphics. It took me a while to get used to how it runs, but I find myself wholly enjoying the game.
The issue is more with third parties. Nintendo lost them over the last gen and at the end of the Wii gen, but gained them back with the switch. With multi-platform ports struggling on the switch, theres risk of losing that third party support again.
And while Nintendo is perfectly happy targeting its own hardware, third parties cant, as they dont get the same returns as Nintendo does to invest into development. So they rely on porting their existing games, which target much better hardware like the One X and PS4.
But think of how many 3rd party Indie games that aren't graphics intensive still hitting the switch.
We never bought the switch for Starfield or Callisto Protocol. But think of how big Silksong is? Graphics are not that important in today's gaming landscape.
Look at the sales figures the switch sold 900 million videogames 450 million were first or second party games. Of the 74 games that have sold over 1 million copies 15 were third party games the rest are Nintendo owned.
On the switch atleast the first and second party games are literally equal to the entire third party support.
Or should it encourage third-party studios to think about why Nintendo make so much more than them from game sales while spending less on development? Animal Crossing is within 10% of the sales of RDR2, despite releasing a year later, and with a fraction of the development costs. Rockstar would kill to be able to hit those sales figures without spending $350-400m on development and the same again on marketing.
You can't really compare those two. Rdr2 has different development requirements than AC. You also need mocap etc. AC is very basic in comparison.
In the end you have to decide if you focus on gameplay and features or on a cinematic experience with state of the art graphics. The latter will always skyrocket development costs but that doesn't mean it will always outsell fun to play games.
> You can't really compare those two. Rdr2 has different development requirements than AC. You also need mocap etc. AC is very basic in comparison.
Yes, that's rather the point. Rockstar aren't trying to become renowned cinematographers, they're trying to make money by selling video games. As I said, they'd have given up the acclaim RDR2 received for the profit margins of New Horizons in a heartbeat.
>you have to decide if you focus on gameplay and features or on a cinematic experience with state of the art graphics
Don't you think there might just be a correlation between those diminishing returns and a conspicuously apathetic approach to gameplay in a video game?
videogames are art first and foremost, if rockstar only cared about money they would've stopped making games like RDR2 and done something like AC instead.
It's sad to see you advocating for masterclasses in game design and immersive game experience to be forgotten or less focused upon in favour of lesser games like AC.
Or what? You really think AC is pushing the medium of games as a whole more than RDR2? That it gives a more fullfiling experience as an art form than RDR2? If yes, i'm sorry but you're delusional. And dont bother with the sales and popularity argument - justin bieber is popular, but no one is crazy enough to say he makes better music than The Beatles.
> if rockstar only cared about money they would've stopped making games like RDR2 and done something like AC instead.
Or they'd have gone from making modestly-popular and successful titles like Max Payne, Bully and LA Noire to milking the absolute shit out of online versions of GTA and RDR that charge extortionate amounts for in-game currency and indulge in literal gambling to compel long-term players to spend ever more on the same game.
Rockstar long ago abandoned most of their artistic pretence.
>It's sad to see you advocating for masterclasses in game design and immersive game experience to be forgotten or less focused upon in favour of lesser games like AC.
Rockstar's games are _awful_ examples of game design and highly contentious examples of "immersion". They are very good examples of strict, linear narratives with no real scope for player agency, but that's not really a positive in a medium defined by player agency.
AC is no less of a game - or an artistic creation - than RDR2. The only difference is best summed up in response to your latter rant:
>You really think AC is pushing the medium of games as a whole more than RDR2?
Nope - I think they're equally unambitious. The key difference is that Nintendo don't pretend that AC:NH is a trend-setting paradigm shift despite it being little more than a twenty-year-old game with a shinier facade, whereas Rockstar _do_ pretend that RDR2 is.
RDR2 does nothing that open-world games haven't been doing for the better part of two decades. Of the two, it's Nintendo who are seeking to push the genre forward with the recent Zelda titles, whereas Rockstar have proven as outdated as ever. RDR2 is just GTA3 with a 4k texture pack.
>justin bieber is popular, but no one is crazy enough to say he makes better music than The Beatles.
But RDR2 isn't the Beatles in that analogy; it's Bieber. It's just one of the better examples of the Ubified open-world game, with all the same tricks, templates and jarring inconsistencies as every other example. It's Assassin's Cowboy; another generic, identikit, open-world action/adventure game, but with enough meaningless busywork and cinematic cutscenes to fool some into Beliebing otherwise.
It's exactly as original as Animal Crossing is. Rockstar, and it's more ardent players, just refuse to accept this fact.
Yeah… but I and many other people would still take Read Dead 2 over AC every day because it is an amazingly polished cinematic masterpiece with tons of stuff to do that is on literally every platform … except Nintendo
> I and many other people would still take Read Dead 2 over AC every day because it is an amazingly polished cinematic masterpiece with tons of stuff to do that is on literally every platform … except Nintendo
...whereas a near-identical number would likely say the exact opposite.
Going by sales numbers: no but RDR2 has been out for longer so it makes sense. While obviously Nintendo makes more money out of every Animal Crossing sale then Rockstar does out of every RDR2 sale because they spent less money on development, games like Read Dead 2 push the industry forward to places it has never been before while Animal Crossing is still pretty easily comparable to the first game on N64 (still a great game tho). What I’m saying is that the higher cost of production brings them less money in for the game itself but the game coming out of it usually creates a much bigger impact which can help them (and the industry itself) in the long run.
> games like Read Dead 2 push the industry forward
It is functionally identical to GTA3, from almost two decades earlier. Now compare that to something like BotW, which stands to _actually_ shove the industry a little further ahead.
RDR2 does absolutely nothing new. Not a thing. Even the cinematic narrative has been done better before (Naughty Dog's games, for instance). Just for the sake of my own curiosity, though, how can you simultaneously ignore RDR2's lack of innovation over not only the previous RDR, but also the GTA titles that preceded them both, while also stating that;
>Animal Crossing is still pretty easily comparable to the first game on N64
Are you sure you're not being fooled by the superficial details and missing that you're being sold the same skeleton over and over again?
>the higher cost of production brings them less money in for the game itself but the game coming out of it usually creates a much bigger impact which can help them (and the industry itself) in the long run.
What aspect of RDR2 is going to improve the industry? Its star feature is the narrative, and that already had several examples that were at least as good (including several Rockstar titles).
Or, to put it another way, what is RDR2 going to inspire in future games that wouldn't have been just as likely to be inspired by Horizon Zero Dawn, or Skyrim, or Witcher 3, or Yakuza 6, or Assassin's Creed [X], etc...?
Look at the sales figures the switch sold 900 million videogames 450 million were first or second party games. Of the 74 games that have sold over 1 million copies 15 were third party games the rest are Nintendo owned.
On the switch atleast the first and second party games are literally equal to the entire third party support.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Nintendo_Switch_video_games
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/index.html
I'm just glad the switch is still selling like gangbusters, because if Nintendo were to release a switch pro it'll be a massive flop because people would think it's an add-on to the switch just like what happened with the Wii U that became their biggest regret that even Iwata (RIP) cut his own paycheck just to keep the company afloat!
At this point, I would rather see a new console / the Switch's true successor. We're too far in the Switch's life cycle for Nintendo to offer a "Pro" version.
Nintendo also tried a Pro console before, which was the New 3DS, based on developpers' demands to get stronger hardware. The issue is that those same devs didn't jump on board immediately... and the N3DS didn't receive much support.
Exactly, which is my major concern :S
There is this "rumor" that developpers are complaining to Microsoft about making games for both the Series X and S, the latter being "too weak". Essentially, if they could ignore the Series S, they would love it.
For the Switch, I'm pretty sure that 3rd-parties will swiftly ignore the vanilla Switch if the Switch Pro allows them to be on par with the other consoles.
We don’t have to look far to get a pretty good comparison. I’m not familiar with any numbers, but how well does ps4 pro do against the basic pa4? Isn’t that likely how Switch pro and Switch would need to work?
Huh, in terms of sales or performances? Because as a performance example, Cyberpunk 2077 couldn't run "at all" on the base PS4 and "could manage" on the PS4 Pro, both at launch.
Sony did remove CP2077 from their store, which was a first for the company, and QA is usually done by the developpers, which in this case CD Projekt Red.
Nah I don’t think so. It’s still an exclusive. Games like Starfield or REmake 4 have the advantage that they are on multiple platforms. But it’ll definitely be in the top 10.
I forgot remake 4 will be out. I dunno. Can see Starfield doing best in terms of installs but bear in mind it’s a day 1 gamepass title and exclusive for a time I believe so I don’t envision many buys on steam.
I think real sales will happen if it’s as moddable as previous Bethesda games but we don’t know that it will due to new engine. Otherwise I feel most Xbox and pc users will gamepass it due to low risk and current AAA culture of burning customers by releasing buggy messes. Just my hunch. Now given it’s not coming out on ps5 and switch have 120m sales vs series S/X at 20m, that means a lot of pc users have to buy starfield vs the likely 80%+ of switch owners that will buy Zelda at some point.
Yeah pretty ambitious in hindsight. Can see it selling 20m out the gate though. Which would be 1billion revenue for 2023. Lifetime maybe breaks botw sales.
We don't know how well starfield wil do not to mention how game pass will effect the sales. Resident evil 7 the best selling resident evil has sold 12 million; botw sold twice as much at 27 million
I still have the OG switch. Had it since launch. I love the OLED display but have held off upgrading to it because the OG still works fine and it bugs me the OLED doesn’t have any other upgrades except the screen and better battery life. I’ve held off hoping for their next console to drop sooner than later. Hearing this news, I might just upgrade to the OLED and enjoy the bright pretty screen.
Okay, ***now*** the hope for a hardware upgrade is dead for a good, long while. This is Nintendo saying "we don't have new hardware ready, so let's push the sales numbers for what we have and milk it for all it's worth".
I've been thinking new hardware was imminent for the last year or so, but this is the announcement that changes my mind. If they're doing something as drastic as boosting production of the existing hardware, they have their backs against the wall. Manufacturing ramp-ups and ramp-downs are expensive and are almost always a sign of long-term commitment to something. Oof.
The Tegra X1 was discontinued in 2020, and Switch production was being done from existing stock. That was projected to last into 2023. But now we're *in* 2023, and rather than move forward with a new SoC, they've gotten nVidia to restart Tegra X1 production. That cost a *massive* pile of money.
So that tells me it was more effective to spend an enormous amount of money to restart production on an aging chip architecture than to release an updated console. If they were anywhere even *close* to releasing a new console, that wouldn't have been the case. They would have just accelerated its release, said "hey, backward compatibility is good enough", and told anyone wanting a budget option to get over it.
But Nintendo's R&D is *way* behind right now, it seems. They either took a nap during the lockdown and chip shortage, or else they're having serious issues getting the next big thing out the door. Neither of those things is good for Nintendo's financials, much less their long-term prospects as the game industry moves on to Unreal Engine 5 and its peers.
Its still amazing to me that theyve only released the OLED as a new model of the switch but it just keeps to be in such high demand.
I love my switch. One of the coolest consoles Ive ever owned. I have mine from Day 1 and it works great. No real reason to upgrade to the OLED though. If they came out with a bigger upgrade Id buy it though.
Im still hoping/praying for either WWHD or TP someday on the switch.
>Its still amazing to me that theyve only released the OLED as a new model of the switch but it just keeps to be in such high demand.
Why? They make amazing games every month... something MSFT hasn't done in a year. How is this surprising to you in the least? They're doing everything right and MSFT is fumbling like a moron and trying to acquire talent instead of creating something new and NINTENDO confuses you?!
Something tells me that Nintendo feels confident about Tears of the Kingdom and their other lineup of games coming soon like Pikmin 4 and Metroid Prime 4.
YouTubers constantly clickbaitin' about a switch 2 or pro for the past 2 years and Nintendo boosting production of the original system is chicken soup for the soul. Nintendo want to make this system the greatest of all time as it does its own thing away from Xbox or playstation. If they are boosting production, there must be more big titles coming.
Nice, used consoles will be cheeeap in the future when every family whose kids never used theirs will sell it. It’s insane how well the switch keeps on selling.
But you can't claim they don't have anything in the line up, it's just not a line up that you want. For me, I haven't touched my switch in years cause I haven't liked any games in previous years, but I am gona boot it up again on Zelda release 100%
Who's still buying Switches outside collectors!?!?!? I mean, I'm super happy they're selling well (especially as PS5s and Series X's are still basically nonexistent), but outside the crazies who need one of every color (that's me by the way lol), I'm shocked people keeping buying in record numbers!
Yeah, I'll be picking 3H after whenever I'm finished with Engage. I love Fire Emblem but couldn't justify buying a Switch for one game. I guess I can call the Switch my Fire Emblem machine, especially if the rumored FE4 remake ends up being true.
Considering 3-4 playthroughs takes a pretty dang long time, I would argue Three Houses would completely justify buying a whole system, but that's neither here nor there. My god, still crossing my fingers for FE4. I love Christian La Monte from 3H and voicing Seliph in FEH, so seeing him voice him in a full on FE4 remake would be the hypest thing!
I usually am against a new console, I never saw much improvement between PS4 and PS5, likewise for the XBox Series X/S etc.
With Nintendo, it seems like we never had a truly powerful console. I am eager to see a Nintendo game with a nice light engine, and no more pop ins
Yupp, majority of the modern games are disappointing. Indies are where the gameplay is at now. We don't need the latest GPU and processors to have fun.
(You have the exceptional game like God of War here and there, but the state of video games from AAA devs is sad nowadays. Unfinished garbage.)
I hope they boost output of accessories too. I got some money for christmas that I was gonna use for a pro controller for the upcoming legend of zelda game and I can't find one anywhere in person or online. I don't like buying pre-owned stuff if I can help it so this is really annoying.
More and more this support for the switch itself makes me believe that any sort of "pro" version will be an attatchment to the back of the dock, there'd be no point in boosting performance on the small screen and being stationary would give them alot more leeway with the size along with cooling.
The only reason I’d want stronger hardware is because I want Switch to still get ports of big releases on other consoles. That seems to be happening less lately compared to a few years ago. Otherwise I’m happy with what I have.
Probably Tears of the Kingdom will play a huge role in this, but I really hope we will get other great games on Switch this year.
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In the "hardcore" gaming scene you’re certainly not alone. Everyone wants a better Switch and we’ll probably get that sooner or later (they won’t throw away the switch idea. Would make 0 sense so don’t keep your hopes up for a "Nintendo Series X"). The thing is that the core scene is certainly not the majority anymore and most people "causal players" don’t seem to care about resolutions or frame rates as long as there are games to play.
The casual team also wants everything to just work out of the box as advertised, and the switch does that.
Yeah I mean that’s more of a console vs PC kind of thing. That’s kind of the whole point of consoles
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I never had anything not work out of the box for me honestly, even unverified (ok, Cold Steel 3 crashes on exit, but that is it). But for a casual person the possibility that it might not work can be daunting. The deck is amazing.
Too bad it's way too thick and chunky to be portable. It's basically a mini PC.
Said the same before owning one but it’s more of a thing you just have to get used to. People said the same thing about the Switch when it came out because it was much bigger then the 3DS but nowadays nobody cares. I’ll gladly take a more comfortable gaming experience and higher battery life even if it means that it takes up a little more space in my backpack.
The SD doesn’t have higher battery life than any of the Nintendo Switch. But yeah, I get what you mean. For me the SD is just too big to be truly portable tbh. It’s amazing and I’m hoping for an OLED revision, but doesn’t replace my Switch.
Ik but for a handheld with a (compared to the Switch) inefficient x86 processor the battery life is pretty good. I get what you mean. For me the SD also didn’t replace the Switch (all tho it was certainly portable enough for me) It was more like a third pillar for my gaming setup. The only real complaint I have is basically the same as yours: the screen is just not good enough. Compared to the Switch‘s beautiful OLED panel it’s really disappointing.
The "core scene" as you describe it has never been the majority. The entirety of video game history has been driven by "is the game fun? Then I will play it".
The core hasn't really been the majority for a lot of the best selling consoles. The PS2 I'm sure didn't have a majority of its user base being core gamers. A good amount of the buyers probably used it as a DVD player. Same with the DS. Lots of casual gamers just buying a few games here and there and you got the 2nd best selling console of all time behind the PS2. The Switch has reached that stage where as long as there are games coming, there are gonna be people beyond the core interested in buying said console.
One other thing to consider is that while there are way more casual gamers, they also comparatively spend way less money on games compared to the "hardcore gamers". While most everyone I know has some kind of access to videogames/a video game console, the casual ones spend waaay less money. I know all too many people who own a switch, but also literally only own 1 or 2 games for it after years (usually animal crossing and maybe pokemon). On the flip side, I would not really consider the people actually spending money on several (2-3) Nintendo games a year to be truly casual. The biggest issue for Nintendo is that they're too expensive for truly "casual" fans. The idea of dropping $60 on a single game is almost unthinkable to most truly casual players. They can play games for free on their phones after all. I feel that all this discourse online about how "casual gamers" make up the majority of sales is missing some key elements and really undersells how important "core" gamers are to a gaming company's sales. Compared to my truly casual friends, I am basically a whale to a company trying to sell games. I probably play games 15+ hours a week, whereas they maybe play 15 hours a year, and as a result, I probably spend 20-40x as much money as them. There's no way that a company trying to make money doesn't realize that. Instead of just saying "most gamers are casual", I think we need to recognize that there's a lot of variety in who is actually buying these games and keeping these companies afloat. For every pokemon/animal crossing, there's dozens if not hundreds of smaller games that are also an important part of Nintendo's bottom line. Games like Xenoblade and Bayonetta prove this, as they're genres that our stereotypical "casual gamer" wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole, yet they exist and Nintendo sees value in them.
I used to be a "hardcore" gamer but since I had a child, my switch has far more play time than my other consoles simply because there's a huge backlog of games for me to play and they are way more enjoyable to play than most offerings on the main consoles at the moment. I want to have fun with the games im playing with what little time I have and I find a lot of the popular games these days are more about how intense the game is rather than being enjoyable. I wish the switch was 60fps 4k whatever, but i can live without it. I have a ps5 and a switch and my ps5 gets about 1 hour a month of playtime.
>There has to be a Mario game with the movie. What? No, there doesn’t. Why? Movie licensed merchandising revenue are things like toys, clothing, etc, not really video games any more.
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Honestly, they should re-release 3D All Stars and patch it with DLC so you can buy Galaxy 2.
Cross-marketing certainly doesn't hurt.
No.
We likely will. We don’t know much of what Nintendo will have for the latter half of the year, outside of Pikmin 4 assuming it doesn’t get delayed. I imagine we’ll be having a direct within the next month and one in June that will lay out their plans.
Don’t give me hope ;(, but yeah, a direct before June is very likely.
I think it'll be sooner than that. Then need to show TOTK before it comes out in May, although I guess they could have a dedicated direct just for that
I’m worried those two games will be the only big ones. Nintendo gets lazy with games in the back half but there’s still so much potential
I agree, although it’s more likely that what looks like laziness is actually them working on games for whatever replaces the Switch.
I can’t really see Pikmin coming out this year. Right now we really only know the first half. Fire Emblem, Bayonetta Origins and Zelda of course. The February direct will probably reveal the two or three AAA games that are coming out at the end of the year with smaller titles being revealed over the course of the year.
I don’t really understand the mindset that every other Switch game is getting delayed. Relatively speaking, delays don’t happen THAT often. But, we always get “it’ll probably get delayed” when that’s entirely speculation based on absolutely nothing.
I’d say the earliest would possibly be November/Decmeber for Pikmin 4, assuming they are gonna drop a trailer in a possible Nintendo direct by Feb/March time. It wouldnt be surprising if we got a new 2D and/or 3D Mario announcement by the end of the year, since we’re getting the movie and such and its been 5 years since Odyssey… Also the perfect time for a new DK country game since hes also featured in the film. A surprise comeback for a franchise like Kid icarus, Rhythm heaven and Tomadachi life would be welcome imo and maybe theres a small chance to finally get a teaser for Metroid Prime 4 at E3? its been forever since we’ve heard about that one…
No.
Pokémon with its super advanced future graphics 😂😂😂😂
off topic but every time i see "BOTW" I think of Red Letter Media's "Best of the Worst"
Metro is and Pikmin are coming out this year I would assume.
By that logic, imagine for a second that someone is waiting for TOTK to buy a Switch. Like, we have a shitton of great games dude. FFS, buy a Switch today and play BOTW at the very least. I agree with Placiibo- the movie will tie into a big Mario game. :)))
I have a launch day switch with a failing cooling fan. I am personally going to get a kit and replace it myself, but at the same time, upgrading to an OLED model when TOTK drops is also tempting. So it isn't just new customers that higher demand may target.
It depends. Most Switch games are still near full price.
Lasped gamers and kids either getting back into gaming or starting to game may start with to if the advertising is there
I was a student when BOTW, so I played it on an emulator on my shitty laptop. So now I'm waiting for a special edition switch for TotK to buy a switch
Its almost a certainty. They won't go all in on production just for this zelda title. There has to be more massive titles coming.
Whelp, PS2. Having the record was nice while it lasted.
Still 45M units behind. Probably won't get there but 21M this year would put it in lofty company.
At this point in its lifespan the PS2 was about 10m units behind the Switch.
sometimes I consider that Nintendo doesn't have a true *cheap* handheld to replace the GBC/GBA/2DS type line. I wonder if they would at some point launch a successor to the Switch but hold on to a revised Lite to get it down to $150 or less. If that happened, it could sell for a long long time.
Doubtful they’d go that route, from a standpoint/point of view of a business.
Any further thoughts? Most businesses like to have both premium and low-cost entry models, so long as both have good ROI. Nintendo has always liked a cheap system with aged internals but beefy shell. I don't know why they would be any different now. Unless they are running out of Tegra X1s from a manuf standpoint, I can't imagine they wouldn't mind continue to make them and selling that big catalog of old games to kids for another 5+ years.
If they're still selling us $60 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe they'll definitely sell us cheap Switches to play $60 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on and people will continue to buy $60 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
The official numbers are 40m behind the PS2, but that's without numbers for the Christmas quarter, which are usually around 10m. Another 20m this year, and it's only 10m behind.
Who cares? We all wanted a DVD player back then, and PS2 was it.
This is gonna be a deep dive as I’m passionate about gaming history, and because I’m trying to fall but can’t lol so I’m gonna get in-depth with my comment to tire out my mind a little 😅 The dvd aspect was just the trojan horse to the system’s incredibly vast, diverse and super large games of every single variety that existed lol. The n64/GameCube was a dark time for Nintendo, especially the GC, the systems both even had entire genres that were missing lol It’s insane to think how a console, rich with JRPG games like the Super Nintendo, could somehow go from that, to the intensely dry atmosphere that the n64 would have lol.. absolutely insane. You can count the number of rpg’s using one it two hands So at the end of the day, it was the software, the amazing selection of games and innovative/new types of experiences that the PS2 allowed us to have.. I grew up with the n64/GC as my “childhood” systems and always envied all the magazine advertisements for all the amazing looking games being shown, but was hurt when none of them ever featured a Nintendo logo at the bottom 😂🤣 Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely hold the few Zelda and Mario games that released then very dear and close to my heart even now, but knowing having the experience of playing GTA 3/VC/SA, gran turismo, God of War, Sly Cooper, Jack & daxter, ratchet and clank, the dragon quest and final fantasy titles that made history around that time..the dark cloud games, shadow of the colossus,the freaking masterpieces that are metal gear solid 2 and Metal gear solid 3 snake eater, the kingdom hearts, to hearing about this FPS title called “Call of Duty” that supposedly had an amazing cinematic experience set during WW2, all the iconic and important fighting games released, most notably from the street fighter and tekken series, etc, you already know that I could go on for a very long time lol. But thanks exactly what I’m suggesting as the reason for the PS2 being the most important device in gaming history as far as the one that truly had an incredibly amount of influence on EVERYTHING! On players, on developers, on competing companies, it was the first system that had enough power to finally Be “that” console to set an example of what was possible with video games… as games made on that system are still setting examples today to devs as far as influencing games from that point onwards
>This is gonna be a deep dive as I’m passionate about gaming history, and because I’m trying to fall but can’t lol so I’m gonna get in-depth with my comment to tire out my mind a little 😅 I think you went more for breadth. I can list out GameCube's great games pretty easily as well. And there are a ton. >The n64/GameCube was a dark time for Nintendo, especially the GC, the systems both even had entire genres that were missing lol Dark? Seriously? The N64 and GameCube didn't sell well, but "dark time for Nintendo" seems to ignore the incredible profits they were making from their handhelds. Or are you referring specifically to software? You'd still be wrong. The GameCube's software library is among the best there's ever been, and I firmly believe it outdid the PS2 (both were incredible and I wouldn't blame someone for disagreeing, but there's no huge gap between them like you're suggesting). And missing genres? What genres were missing on the GameCube? You can definitely claim that the N64 was slim with RPGs (with Paper Mario being the only notable one), but you're digging down the wrong hole if you're suggesting its software library isn't incredible. Sure, it wasn't an RPG machine, but it gave us the most important games in history. I don't disagree that the PS2 has a historic library of games. It pioneered open worlds and cinematic FPS games alongside PCs. It would be the 4th or 5th best software library in history for me, personally. To make a huge generalization, the PS2 pushed technical capabilities of games while the GameCube focused on bringing new game design ideas into the industry. At the time, gamers were obsessed with seeing violence on the screen, and the PS2 delivered that in the highest fidelity possible. GameCube ignored that trend and did its own thing. An extremely fast platform fighter, a cel-shaded seafaring adventure, the first metroidvania in 3D, a platformer controlled with a water jet, a whimsical RPG that mixes turn-based combat with real-time action, a cooperative kart-racer.
"But thanks exactly what I’m suggesting as the reason for the PS2 being the most important device in gaming history as far as the one that truly had an incredibly amount of influence on EVERYTHING!" Thanks? Who are you talking to? I don't think the PS2 influenced anything. It was a successful console when Nintendo didn't want a DVD-based system and Xbox was irrelevant. It's pretty much what the NES did in the 80s. No competition. You list a wide range of RPGs that we can now get on any console - those aren't Sony properties, neither is GTA, etc. Most of what you're describing are just generic titles from Capcom and Konami. Yes Sony did a great thing with the DVD and tried to recreate that with the BluRay drive a few years later - but I look at the list of games you just mentioned and yawn. Even the almighty Square had lost most of its greatest talent by the time the PS2 rolled around. Dragon Quest, even now in 2023, puts me to sleep and I love RPGs. Put the pipe down. I hope you enjoyed yourself with this post, but you sound delusional. Most of what you're "bragging" about had nothing to do with Sony and everything to do with MSFT and Nintendo being irrelevant for a few years.
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We got 1 or even 2 1st party games every single month last year besides December. Seems like we're drowning in games to play more than anything!
We most certainly do!
**TLDR:** *(or more like I didn't pay so I couldn't read)* * Nintendo Plans to Increase Production to roughly 21 Million Units in Fiscal 2023 * Demand remains strong among shortages and it's expected to match higher demand. * Nintendo has told Suppliers & Assembly Partners to increase production starting April. * While anaylists expect sales to diminish first due to the systems life cycle but also as speculation of a next generation hardware looms. * Special Edition Themed Consoles are expected to be a target they will hit as Splatoon 3 OLED Edition was considered a success. * Article also reminds you that BOTW Tears of the Kingdom is a massively anticipated 2023 release. * Nintendo Declined to Comment.
Well I hope this means a tears of the kindgom themed switch. This is what I'm hoping for and why I haven't purchased an OLED yet.
There's a leak of one, but it looks not a cool as I'd hoped.
Not a fan of the gold everything for Zelda special products. Gold plastic just looks cheap. Glad I ended up not getting a new 3DS XL with gold for MM. I like my black one much better looking back.
Opposite for me. [Zelda should always be gold](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/618211245966753805/1008562045832134696/Untitled.jpg)
Share a link to it?
[here you go](https://famiboards.com/threads/images-of-switch-oled-tears-of-the-kingdom-edition-have-leaked.4898/)
Google is your friend
[Here’s a link to the non-paywalled article](https://archive.ph/dyBs7)
This is how we know new hardware isn't being released. Sadly.
But Mr. internet leaker man said there would be a super duper switch omega. Why would Nintendo lie to me?
Which I’m like ok fine. If your not gonna release a new console then port twilight princess and GC and wii fire emblem games. What a mind fuck.
I get so unreasonably angry every time I boot up a Zelda game on my PC, because it should just be available on the Switch. Like don't get me wrong I love emulating some Nintendo games (if they can benefit from it), but many simply can't go above 30fps. I've been playing Windwaker and Twilight Princess HD on my Steam Deck and sometimes just think, "this is $120 I would have easily given to Nintendo" I don't get it. It's so hard to access some of their catalogue.
WW HD on the steamdeck is awesome. I was honestly just craving a handheld experience to play WW; and caved and got a steamdeck. I plan on going through all the old Nintendo games I should be able to play on the switch (metroid fusion/zero mission). The switch has spoiled me so much; everything needs to be handheld now.
Oh I agree it's awesome. Emulation in general is fucking awesome and one of my favorite things to just mess around with. It blows my mind every time I play Breath of the Wild on my Ultrawide at 60fps. I'm just trying to convey how ridiculous Nintendo seems sometimes. I know they have a reason that I am not privy to, but people have been *begging* them to re-release these games for a long time. While I love the switch, honestly quite a few of Nintendo's 1st party releases this generation have felt like barren cash grabs (strikers, mario party, etc), or attempts to make money on Wii U software that didn't sell enough. If they're gonna keep doing that, I wish they would port some older classics. Anyways - enjoy the steam deck man! It's my favorite device ever. If you need help with emulation at all, hit me up. My Deck is basically a gaming museum now.
Oh I would never ask for help. 90% of the fun is figuring it out yourself. This isn’t my first rodeo with emulation. I was one of the first modders on super smashbros for the wii (I wrote one of the earliest extraction/decryption protocols for wii ;) ) I appreciate the offer though!
I seriously doubt we see new hardware before 2025. Switch will have a life cycle of ~10 years, new system comes after 8. I know some people are hoping for a mid generation refresh. Personally I hope it doesn't happen. I think they're pointless. The New 3DS was pointless. I The better 3D is a nice plus and all and the build quality was nice, but there were barely any exclusive games and separating the player base was stupid in the first place... which Nintendo seemed to quickly realize, which is why they only put out like 4 N3DS games.
I agree that a refresh for the Switch is probably pointless, but I've gotta hard disagree about the 3DS. The new 3DS was such a big improvement. The buttons were mapped better, felt better, and the shoulder buttons actually worked. The screen was better, improved battery life, and it was more comfortable to hold. I was pretty early on with the system but gave up after my original 3DS had both shoulder buttons go out. Getting the updated model totally sucked me back in and let me really enjoy the games. My only grip with the New XL is that it's a lot tougher to fit in a pocket for counting steps. Switch just doesn't have those same problems because it's a console with a variety of controllers. More performance doesn't mean better games, and the pro controller has been satisfactory to anyone that I've talked to about it. I think if there was any "refresh" the Switch could use its a revamp of the Switch cons. If they could fix some of the issues, maybe make it a little more comfortable, and still have them slot on the sides we'd be golden
> More performance doesn't mean better games It absolutely does. It's a travesty to see the work artists do on games like BotW and Xenoblade only for the Switch to hold them back so much. It's like having to watch a shitty phone recording of a movie while people tell you the experience wouldn't be better in an actual theater. Even discounting resolution, games are just so much more pleasant at 60fps than at 30. Just look at Splatoon 3, the contrast between the hub and the solo campaign map. The fluidity of higher fps makes a world of difference, and it's a joke that consoles are still lagging so far behind in this regard.
>The New 3DS was pointless Speak for yourself, that gave us an entrypoint to the system.
Oh is this the one that is surprisingly easy to mod?
They’re all easy to mod
Never knew myself since i've never done it
I have this fantasy where what it means is exactly the opposite. The increased production is for a new unit and the entire world just bought the media line that Nintendo wants them to about no new hardware. Because for some reason the top people at Nintendo seem totally brilliant and totally stupid at the same time. That last part is when I wake up and remember it’s just a fantasy.
Not necessarily. They said at the end of last year that they've missed their target for where they expected sales to be of consoles and they've claimed it's due to "lowered production" due to supply chain issues... which is funny, because anytime I've been in a store, they're fully stocked (usually about 10-15 of them, this is at Gamestop, Walmart, Target, etc.) They're in stores, they're just seeing a downward trend of console sales, which they'll more than likely see again this year and they'll realize they need to start switching to a new console (pun intended lol)
I really don’t need new hardware. This is the best console ever made and i’m afraid that the next one will be another Wii U style flop.
The problem is the developers that make games that run at sub 60fps. I really wish a console would come out that made that a minimum requirement for all their software.
I think that amount of curation would be logistically impossible to do. Would a frame drop in an intense sequence be false advertising or barred from sale?
They have similar requirements for other aspects of the software. I don't see why that would be impossible.
Eh they should only release a new console when there’s a truly new gimmick to justify it. If they haven’t thought of that yet then we can afford to wait. I’m looking forward to whatever that will be as much as the next guy but it’s gotta be good enough to justify everyone wanting to buy it.
2023 should be a big year for the switch. Zelda, Pikmin, maybe Mario and Metroid.
I expect this to be the last big year really. Zelda in spring. 2D Mario for the movie? Hopefully Metroid Prime is their big Holiday game. Likely Pokemon DLC and maybe Part 1 of a Zelda DLC with a meaty story content in 2024. 2024 will probably have some smaller games and I honestly think the reveal of a Switch Successor.
Switch has been doing fine. Really the only people complaining are a minority of “hardcores” that are loud, but a small sector.I think Switch’s lifecycle will continue for a while. PS5 is just eking along and Xbox is crickets. Power doesn’t equal interest in this market, limited as Switch’s capabilities are, they have a huge library. The “problem” with the powerful systems is everyone expects AAA level games that are expensive, slow to come to market, and many times unprofitable. A failed AAA can bankrupt a developer.
As an older gamer, the majority of AAA games aren't my thing anymore. I rarely play games with FPS/ Twitch combat anymore. Not to mention everything in AAA is loaded with a battle pass and MTX. The majority of Nintendo games are enjoyable and are relaxing.
More than anything I feel that a lot of today's AAA titles demand my time, sometimes without respect for it. Switch has been the perfect pick-up-and-play console thanks to the combined effort of Nintendo and indie developers. I think Nintendo could actually use one more "demanding" franchise like Xenoblade, while the rest of the industry could use a whole lot more of the opposite.
Cheers, fellow “older gamer.” I agree.
Not every AAA game has a battle pass or micros transactions. God of War Ragnarok, Elden Ring, Returnal, Rachet and Clank, Cyberpunk 2077, and Spider-Man are all AAA games, with no battlepass or Micro transactions, maybe all multiplayer AAA games have them, but there are plenty of high budget great games that don’t.
GoW, Spidey, and Elden Ring are the only reason I even bought a PS5. I mean for the most part my unit is a glorified Fire Stick.
Yuck, microtransactions and passes.
All you have to do is look at the sales of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet to realize that the average Switch user doesn't care about specs or resolution or fps. There's absolutely zero reason for Nintendo to bother with making something new when we're going into year 6 of insane demand for the current product. It's why there's no Mario Kart 9. Why would there be when MK8D is the best selling Switch game?
People *do* care, but are willing to make sacrifices for games they like more.
Yeah, I wish it ran better it's such a well designed game marred by bad performance and graphics. It took me a while to get used to how it runs, but I find myself wholly enjoying the game.
I enjoy it until I see 5fps NPCs walking around, textures and objects popping in, and remembering fan made games kick the shit out of SV.
The issue is more with third parties. Nintendo lost them over the last gen and at the end of the Wii gen, but gained them back with the switch. With multi-platform ports struggling on the switch, theres risk of losing that third party support again. And while Nintendo is perfectly happy targeting its own hardware, third parties cant, as they dont get the same returns as Nintendo does to invest into development. So they rely on porting their existing games, which target much better hardware like the One X and PS4.
But think of how many 3rd party Indie games that aren't graphics intensive still hitting the switch. We never bought the switch for Starfield or Callisto Protocol. But think of how big Silksong is? Graphics are not that important in today's gaming landscape.
This makes sense and should really push them to release a new switch with better specs, for the sake of keeping third party switch versions
Look at the sales figures the switch sold 900 million videogames 450 million were first or second party games. Of the 74 games that have sold over 1 million copies 15 were third party games the rest are Nintendo owned. On the switch atleast the first and second party games are literally equal to the entire third party support.
Or should it encourage third-party studios to think about why Nintendo make so much more than them from game sales while spending less on development? Animal Crossing is within 10% of the sales of RDR2, despite releasing a year later, and with a fraction of the development costs. Rockstar would kill to be able to hit those sales figures without spending $350-400m on development and the same again on marketing.
You can't really compare those two. Rdr2 has different development requirements than AC. You also need mocap etc. AC is very basic in comparison. In the end you have to decide if you focus on gameplay and features or on a cinematic experience with state of the art graphics. The latter will always skyrocket development costs but that doesn't mean it will always outsell fun to play games.
> You can't really compare those two. Rdr2 has different development requirements than AC. You also need mocap etc. AC is very basic in comparison. Yes, that's rather the point. Rockstar aren't trying to become renowned cinematographers, they're trying to make money by selling video games. As I said, they'd have given up the acclaim RDR2 received for the profit margins of New Horizons in a heartbeat. >you have to decide if you focus on gameplay and features or on a cinematic experience with state of the art graphics Don't you think there might just be a correlation between those diminishing returns and a conspicuously apathetic approach to gameplay in a video game?
videogames are art first and foremost, if rockstar only cared about money they would've stopped making games like RDR2 and done something like AC instead. It's sad to see you advocating for masterclasses in game design and immersive game experience to be forgotten or less focused upon in favour of lesser games like AC. Or what? You really think AC is pushing the medium of games as a whole more than RDR2? That it gives a more fullfiling experience as an art form than RDR2? If yes, i'm sorry but you're delusional. And dont bother with the sales and popularity argument - justin bieber is popular, but no one is crazy enough to say he makes better music than The Beatles.
> if rockstar only cared about money they would've stopped making games like RDR2 and done something like AC instead. Or they'd have gone from making modestly-popular and successful titles like Max Payne, Bully and LA Noire to milking the absolute shit out of online versions of GTA and RDR that charge extortionate amounts for in-game currency and indulge in literal gambling to compel long-term players to spend ever more on the same game. Rockstar long ago abandoned most of their artistic pretence. >It's sad to see you advocating for masterclasses in game design and immersive game experience to be forgotten or less focused upon in favour of lesser games like AC. Rockstar's games are _awful_ examples of game design and highly contentious examples of "immersion". They are very good examples of strict, linear narratives with no real scope for player agency, but that's not really a positive in a medium defined by player agency. AC is no less of a game - or an artistic creation - than RDR2. The only difference is best summed up in response to your latter rant: >You really think AC is pushing the medium of games as a whole more than RDR2? Nope - I think they're equally unambitious. The key difference is that Nintendo don't pretend that AC:NH is a trend-setting paradigm shift despite it being little more than a twenty-year-old game with a shinier facade, whereas Rockstar _do_ pretend that RDR2 is. RDR2 does nothing that open-world games haven't been doing for the better part of two decades. Of the two, it's Nintendo who are seeking to push the genre forward with the recent Zelda titles, whereas Rockstar have proven as outdated as ever. RDR2 is just GTA3 with a 4k texture pack. >justin bieber is popular, but no one is crazy enough to say he makes better music than The Beatles. But RDR2 isn't the Beatles in that analogy; it's Bieber. It's just one of the better examples of the Ubified open-world game, with all the same tricks, templates and jarring inconsistencies as every other example. It's Assassin's Cowboy; another generic, identikit, open-world action/adventure game, but with enough meaningless busywork and cinematic cutscenes to fool some into Beliebing otherwise. It's exactly as original as Animal Crossing is. Rockstar, and it's more ardent players, just refuse to accept this fact.
Yeah… but I and many other people would still take Read Dead 2 over AC every day because it is an amazingly polished cinematic masterpiece with tons of stuff to do that is on literally every platform … except Nintendo
> I and many other people would still take Read Dead 2 over AC every day because it is an amazingly polished cinematic masterpiece with tons of stuff to do that is on literally every platform … except Nintendo ...whereas a near-identical number would likely say the exact opposite.
Going by sales numbers: no but RDR2 has been out for longer so it makes sense. While obviously Nintendo makes more money out of every Animal Crossing sale then Rockstar does out of every RDR2 sale because they spent less money on development, games like Read Dead 2 push the industry forward to places it has never been before while Animal Crossing is still pretty easily comparable to the first game on N64 (still a great game tho). What I’m saying is that the higher cost of production brings them less money in for the game itself but the game coming out of it usually creates a much bigger impact which can help them (and the industry itself) in the long run.
> games like Read Dead 2 push the industry forward It is functionally identical to GTA3, from almost two decades earlier. Now compare that to something like BotW, which stands to _actually_ shove the industry a little further ahead. RDR2 does absolutely nothing new. Not a thing. Even the cinematic narrative has been done better before (Naughty Dog's games, for instance). Just for the sake of my own curiosity, though, how can you simultaneously ignore RDR2's lack of innovation over not only the previous RDR, but also the GTA titles that preceded them both, while also stating that; >Animal Crossing is still pretty easily comparable to the first game on N64 Are you sure you're not being fooled by the superficial details and missing that you're being sold the same skeleton over and over again? >the higher cost of production brings them less money in for the game itself but the game coming out of it usually creates a much bigger impact which can help them (and the industry itself) in the long run. What aspect of RDR2 is going to improve the industry? Its star feature is the narrative, and that already had several examples that were at least as good (including several Rockstar titles). Or, to put it another way, what is RDR2 going to inspire in future games that wouldn't have been just as likely to be inspired by Horizon Zero Dawn, or Skyrim, or Witcher 3, or Yakuza 6, or Assassin's Creed [X], etc...?
Look at the sales figures the switch sold 900 million videogames 450 million were first or second party games. Of the 74 games that have sold over 1 million copies 15 were third party games the rest are Nintendo owned. On the switch atleast the first and second party games are literally equal to the entire third party support. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Nintendo_Switch_video_games https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/index.html
I'm just glad the switch is still selling like gangbusters, because if Nintendo were to release a switch pro it'll be a massive flop because people would think it's an add-on to the switch just like what happened with the Wii U that became their biggest regret that even Iwata (RIP) cut his own paycheck just to keep the company afloat!
C'mon Sega there's still time to release a port of Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 for the Switch
And please make it a port, not a remake. I don’t like the newer Sonic engines.
At this point, I would rather see a new console / the Switch's true successor. We're too far in the Switch's life cycle for Nintendo to offer a "Pro" version. Nintendo also tried a Pro console before, which was the New 3DS, based on developpers' demands to get stronger hardware. The issue is that those same devs didn't jump on board immediately... and the N3DS didn't receive much support.
The big money would still be on old switch use base, new games would somehow need to be compatible with both
Exactly, which is my major concern :S There is this "rumor" that developpers are complaining to Microsoft about making games for both the Series X and S, the latter being "too weak". Essentially, if they could ignore the Series S, they would love it. For the Switch, I'm pretty sure that 3rd-parties will swiftly ignore the vanilla Switch if the Switch Pro allows them to be on par with the other consoles.
We don’t have to look far to get a pretty good comparison. I’m not familiar with any numbers, but how well does ps4 pro do against the basic pa4? Isn’t that likely how Switch pro and Switch would need to work?
Huh, in terms of sales or performances? Because as a performance example, Cyberpunk 2077 couldn't run "at all" on the base PS4 and "could manage" on the PS4 Pro, both at launch.
CP2077 is kinda notorious, but it’s weird if Sony QA left that kind of release slip. I think Nintendo would want its game to be playable.
Sony did remove CP2077 from their store, which was a first for the company, and QA is usually done by the developpers, which in this case CD Projekt Red.
I wish you all would understand they have no plans for a new or pro console this year or likely next.
I hope you’re right, because then maybe they’ll finally announce a new 3D Mario for the Switch instead of holding one off for the successor’s launch.
Sorry, I don't know how to read so I am going to assume this comment means that a Switch Pro 4K is coming out next week.
Good, I don't have the money for it anyway
This is definitely because of Zelda. I mean it’s almost certainly gonna be this years best selling Switch game.
Maybe even best selling game full stop
Nah I don’t think so. It’s still an exclusive. Games like Starfield or REmake 4 have the advantage that they are on multiple platforms. But it’ll definitely be in the top 10.
I forgot remake 4 will be out. I dunno. Can see Starfield doing best in terms of installs but bear in mind it’s a day 1 gamepass title and exclusive for a time I believe so I don’t envision many buys on steam.
Probably be that Harry Potter game, especially if it turns out to be good. It's releasing on every platform
It’s still huge tho. It’s a Bethesda RPG for PC. It’ll sell numbers and it’ll sell lots of them even if it’s the buggiest mess ever.
I think real sales will happen if it’s as moddable as previous Bethesda games but we don’t know that it will due to new engine. Otherwise I feel most Xbox and pc users will gamepass it due to low risk and current AAA culture of burning customers by releasing buggy messes. Just my hunch. Now given it’s not coming out on ps5 and switch have 120m sales vs series S/X at 20m, that means a lot of pc users have to buy starfield vs the likely 80%+ of switch owners that will buy Zelda at some point.
80% of Switch owners would be about 80M units of TOTK.
Yeah pretty ambitious in hindsight. Can see it selling 20m out the gate though. Which would be 1billion revenue for 2023. Lifetime maybe breaks botw sales.
80% of Switch owners is a bit much. 80% of adult Switch owners that actively play games and care about gaming.
Remake 4, that's a big deal. I don't really think Starfield (or anything MS does) is that relevant to the game industry. My money is still on Zelda.
It’s a Bethesda RPG. Just the fact that it’s made by the same studio as Fallout and The Elder Scrolls (!) will already make it sell like hot cakes.
We don't know how well starfield wil do not to mention how game pass will effect the sales. Resident evil 7 the best selling resident evil has sold 12 million; botw sold twice as much at 27 million
\*fake shock face\*
I still have the OG switch. Had it since launch. I love the OLED display but have held off upgrading to it because the OG still works fine and it bugs me the OLED doesn’t have any other upgrades except the screen and better battery life. I’ve held off hoping for their next console to drop sooner than later. Hearing this news, I might just upgrade to the OLED and enjoy the bright pretty screen.
You can sell that OG Switch for slightly higher price to the guys that like to hack things.
That’s an idea. Thanks!
pretty crazy that switch is still going strong after almost 6 years
Okay, ***now*** the hope for a hardware upgrade is dead for a good, long while. This is Nintendo saying "we don't have new hardware ready, so let's push the sales numbers for what we have and milk it for all it's worth". I've been thinking new hardware was imminent for the last year or so, but this is the announcement that changes my mind. If they're doing something as drastic as boosting production of the existing hardware, they have their backs against the wall. Manufacturing ramp-ups and ramp-downs are expensive and are almost always a sign of long-term commitment to something. Oof.
I mean isn’t that good business? If they are making them and people are buying them. *shrug*
The Tegra X1 was discontinued in 2020, and Switch production was being done from existing stock. That was projected to last into 2023. But now we're *in* 2023, and rather than move forward with a new SoC, they've gotten nVidia to restart Tegra X1 production. That cost a *massive* pile of money. So that tells me it was more effective to spend an enormous amount of money to restart production on an aging chip architecture than to release an updated console. If they were anywhere even *close* to releasing a new console, that wouldn't have been the case. They would have just accelerated its release, said "hey, backward compatibility is good enough", and told anyone wanting a budget option to get over it. But Nintendo's R&D is *way* behind right now, it seems. They either took a nap during the lockdown and chip shortage, or else they're having serious issues getting the next big thing out the door. Neither of those things is good for Nintendo's financials, much less their long-term prospects as the game industry moves on to Unreal Engine 5 and its peers.
Price cut?
They don’t have to yet. Maybe holiday 2024.
Its still amazing to me that theyve only released the OLED as a new model of the switch but it just keeps to be in such high demand. I love my switch. One of the coolest consoles Ive ever owned. I have mine from Day 1 and it works great. No real reason to upgrade to the OLED though. If they came out with a bigger upgrade Id buy it though. Im still hoping/praying for either WWHD or TP someday on the switch.
>Its still amazing to me that theyve only released the OLED as a new model of the switch but it just keeps to be in such high demand. Why? They make amazing games every month... something MSFT hasn't done in a year. How is this surprising to you in the least? They're doing everything right and MSFT is fumbling like a moron and trying to acquire talent instead of creating something new and NINTENDO confuses you?!
Im not sure what your problem is with my comment. I think its a very straightforward comment. Any confusion about it is just your own.
You're confused that a system that gets tons of great games every month is selling well.
Something tells me that Nintendo feels confident about Tears of the Kingdom and their other lineup of games coming soon like Pikmin 4 and Metroid Prime 4.
YouTubers constantly clickbaitin' about a switch 2 or pro for the past 2 years and Nintendo boosting production of the original system is chicken soup for the soul. Nintendo want to make this system the greatest of all time as it does its own thing away from Xbox or playstation. If they are boosting production, there must be more big titles coming.
They should create a legit family share plan so siblings can easily share games on different Switch Lites.
One account can be used on up to two consoles
True. But I have 4 Switches. It’s madness.
Yeah, I caved & bought several special edition switches. But I have no idea what to do with them.
Nice, used consoles will be cheeeap in the future when every family whose kids never used theirs will sell it. It’s insane how well the switch keeps on selling.
They could boost processing power a little bit...
How about upgrading the weak hardware?
Really hoping the newer titles can at least run at 60 on the switch. Kirby and the Forgotten Land is really pushing that thing when it shouldn’t :/
My gosh just cut the life line already and make a new damn console.
Nintendo has literally no reason to make a new console while the current switch is still making billions
Kinda nutty that if they sell all 21m units, that’s like 5billion revenue just for console in year 6 and Zelda alone likely to break records.
But that isn't what Nawt_ wants!
Yeah right
We will never get a Switch 2 at this point.
\*points at Mario Kart 8 Boost Course Schedule\* We'll probably get it in early 2024.
LOL, you bring up another point. With MK8 sales the way we are, we will never get a MK9.
Hopefully they have some good games this year then because I don't see any in the current lineup :(
Zelda???
Not really my thing unfortunately. Tried very hard to like the first one but just wasn’t enjoying it :(
But you can't claim they don't have anything in the line up, it's just not a line up that you want. For me, I haven't touched my switch in years cause I haven't liked any games in previous years, but I am gona boot it up again on Zelda release 100%
I can absolutely claim that & already have ❤️ it’s my opinion!! haha
Fire emblem just came out
…Lol
Who's still buying Switches outside collectors!?!?!? I mean, I'm super happy they're selling well (especially as PS5s and Series X's are still basically nonexistent), but outside the crazies who need one of every color (that's me by the way lol), I'm shocked people keeping buying in record numbers!
Me. Now that a second Fire Emblem game has been released for the console I'll be buying my first Switch today.
Oh man, you're in for a treat if you haven't played Three Houses yet! Easily the best FE ever in my opinion! Hoping to get Engage soon too.
Yeah, I'll be picking 3H after whenever I'm finished with Engage. I love Fire Emblem but couldn't justify buying a Switch for one game. I guess I can call the Switch my Fire Emblem machine, especially if the rumored FE4 remake ends up being true.
Considering 3-4 playthroughs takes a pretty dang long time, I would argue Three Houses would completely justify buying a whole system, but that's neither here nor there. My god, still crossing my fingers for FE4. I love Christian La Monte from 3H and voicing Seliph in FEH, so seeing him voice him in a full on FE4 remake would be the hypest thing!
There are a lot of people on this planet and video games are becoming more and more acceptable and accessible.
I usually am against a new console, I never saw much improvement between PS4 and PS5, likewise for the XBox Series X/S etc. With Nintendo, it seems like we never had a truly powerful console. I am eager to see a Nintendo game with a nice light engine, and no more pop ins
Does anyone know what this will effect the Nintendo Switch
The Nintendo: Game like its 2012
2012 (and its bookends 2011 and 2013) had some of the greatest games of all time! Wish we could go back sometimes.
Yupp, majority of the modern games are disappointing. Indies are where the gameplay is at now. We don't need the latest GPU and processors to have fun. (You have the exceptional game like God of War here and there, but the state of video games from AAA devs is sad nowadays. Unfinished garbage.)
I think you’re looking at this too subjectively, like 80% of indies suck.
Duh
I hope they boost output of accessories too. I got some money for christmas that I was gonna use for a pro controller for the upcoming legend of zelda game and I can't find one anywhere in person or online. I don't like buying pre-owned stuff if I can help it so this is really annoying.
More and more this support for the switch itself makes me believe that any sort of "pro" version will be an attatchment to the back of the dock, there'd be no point in boosting performance on the small screen and being stationary would give them alot more leeway with the size along with cooling.
Maybe we get a price drop!
Could they fix the fucking drift first?
The only reason I’d want stronger hardware is because I want Switch to still get ports of big releases on other consoles. That seems to be happening less lately compared to a few years ago. Otherwise I’m happy with what I have.