*** Nintendo Switch ***

[enfo]

The thing i find frustrating with Nintendo is its not like they need to go back to the drawing board when coming up with new games.
They have a massive back catalogue / IPs to tap into , while developing new games they could easily have teams pushing out upscaled reboots of GC / Wii / Wii U games to fill the gaps and people would lap it up ( i know i would give me galaxy / wind waker etc )

 

[Plainsong]

They've obviously tried to focus on games that are imminent or coming out within the next 6 months. I don't mind that at all. I'd have preferred some kind of surprise (Mario Party isn't for me) or more word on the Yoshi game with a release date but it is what it is.

Don't underestimate how much people love Smash. With 20 million Switches out there it will sell loads.

 

[baldmonk]

I wanted to get a switch for splatoon 2,but decided to wait for more titles ,I'm interested in Mario tennis is one as is the new pokemon and after seeing the info on smash its about when not if ill pick one up

 

[Quixote]

Its not like they are satisfying all of their core fanbase with new games in their favourite franchises either.

Well, that's impossible because... well, you know how fans are.

the Zelda we got was a Wii U game ultimately

Even as a Wii-U owner, I couldn't care less because it was a brilliant, brilliant game & I'd much rather play it on switch for the reasons you list (portable, plus for me I much prefer the controllers & [performance is beter)

Nintendos new AAA games output for the switch has frankly been ****

I just can't agree with that. Aside from Zelda, Odessy was a strong title, they haven't put a foot wrong with Splatoon 2, Xenoblade was very impressive if a bit niche & even the update to Mario Kart was good, although not enough to get me to buy it again.

I guess my complaint really comes down to the fact that their 2 big E3 games don't much interest me personally & I'm not convinced they'll interest many outside their core fans or youngsters. Part of it I think is Smash is huge in America but I'm not sure UK/ EU care as much.

 

[Phate]

13 million on the Wii, 8 million on the 3DS, and even the WiiU version sold 5 million on a still born console.

Smash is huge for Nintendo, and I don't think any game other than the trio of Mario/Zelda/Pokemon tops it, all three of which have already been released or announced.

The first Metroid Prime sold less than 3 million copies for comparison.

You said this much better than the reply I was constructing.

This is going to be a console shifter for them. So is Pokemon. Both released in November & December, prime time for holiday console sales. Even if Pokemon isn't a core RPG the userbase of Pokemon GO clearly shows there are lots of "casual" Pokemon fans.

I do agree this wasn't Nintendos "best" E3 in terms of big games. The heavy focus on Smash did clear up a lot of questions people had. I did think it was a bit too long in the presentation, but enjoyed the content all the same.

Various other Nintendo news has trickled out in the Treehouse event, and will continue to do so until Friday. So we'll have other info continue to come out.

There will be another direct in a couple of months, there always is. Would be nice if they put in an Animal Crossing or Pikmin 4 this year. But its not like there aren't at least 10 games I want to buy right now anyway, not lacking in content.

 

[Kreeeee]

The thing i find frustrating with Nintendo is its not like they need to go back to the drawing board when coming up with new games.
They have a massive back catalogue / IPs to tap into , while developing new games they could easily have teams pushing out upscaled reboots of GC / Wii / Wii U games to fill the gaps and people would lap it up ( i know i would give me galaxy / wind waker etc )

They have an enormous number of development teams but they keep working on rubbish that I'm not interested in

 

[megalomanic]

I thought last year was pretty amazing, Nintendo released 2 of their biggest games ever in Mario & Zelda. Splatoon is one of the best competitive shooters I've ever played, ARMS & Mario+Rabbids were nice surprises and something different. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a great JRPG even if it's perhaps not for everyone. There's been few years in console history as strong for exclusives imo.

They might not be the 'next big thing', but Pokemon Let's Go & Smash will help sell loads of Switch consoles this year.

Nintendo generally don't tend to show off their games until they're less than a year or so from release, where other publishers tend to show cinematic trailers years ahead.

 

[HeX]

All I wanted to see was Metroid Prime 4

 

[Kreeeee]

You said this much better than the reply I was constructing.

This is going to be a console shifter for them. So is Pokemon. Both released in November & December, prime time for holiday console sales. Even if Pokemon isn't a core RPG the userbase of Pokemon GO clearly shows there are lots of "casual" Pokemon fans.

And you've perfectly complemented my post with that point.

Nintendo are doing what they need to do to have a huge Christmas, and the third parties should fill in the gaps.

 

[fez]

Even as a Wii-U owner, I couldn't care less because it was a brilliant, brilliant game & I'd much rather play it on switch for the reasons you list (portable, plus for me I much prefer the controllers & [performance is beter)

Oh its one of my favourite games ever, my point is simply that you cannot bundle that into the "things Nintendo have done for the Switch" category.

I just can't agree with that. Aside from Zelda, Odessy was a strong title, they haven't put a foot wrong with Splatoon 2, Xenoblade was very impressive if a bit niche & even the update to Mario Kart was good, although not enough to get me to buy it again.

Odyssey was a brilliant game, Xenoblade has reviewed pretty well if not spectacularly, Mario Kart was a Wii U game so again, not a Switch game per se. Splatoon 2 is brilliant but leans very heavily on the first game so i doubt it was a huge effort on the studios part.

I did a list a while back of the best reviewed games on the Switch in the first year and a bit and once you take out the indies and ports you are left with a pretty small list of games. I think the console is great and I'm happy with the games I have and can get but that doesn't mean I don't think Nintendo are being lazy as hell with their game output. Too many ports and too few triple A titles coming up.

I'm sure the new Pokemon will sell some consoles and so will Smash but Pokemen is a lazy rehash of the originals mostly and Smash isn't my cup of tea and I know its not a lot of other peoples.

 

[Kreeeee]

once you take out the indies

A lot of them are better than the "triple A" rubbish pumped out these days.

 

[Plainsong]

Indeed. I've had a ton of fun playing games that I would never have touched before if it weren't for the Switch. Shovel Knight, Celeste, Owlboy, Axiom Verge, all the Steamworld games, Golf Story, Cave Story, Hollow Knight the list goes on and I've played most of the first party stuff as well. I think the mix and pacing has been decent. I don't need a £40-£50 game every month. If I did I would never play them.

 

[Quixote]

And you've perfectly complemented my post with that point.

Nintendo are doing what they need to do to have a huge Christmas, and the third parties should fill in the gaps.

Right, but both are rebuttles of an argument no one was making:

'Nintendo are stupid because they're not releasing what I want & they're going to lose lots of money, Smash & Pokemon won't sell'

I get that these are the titles likely to sell in big numbers to their fan base. Still for me, it was a disappointing & conservative offering.
I understand the commercial reasons behind what they showed. But this isn't the Nintendo shareholders thread.
It isn't necessary to recieve an unsolicited 101 in business strategy every time we express what we thought of the games Nintendo showed.
We're under no illusion that we are particularly representative of the wider market.
I don't mean this as aggressive or salty, that's not how I feel, just explaining what I'm on about.

Anyway, like I say, I'm not worried. Most of these titles didn't much interest me. But I've got enough to play & enough is on the way that I've more good games than time to play them. If anything, it will mean I'll give a chance to a couple of 3rd party titles in the meantime.

 

[fez]

A lot of them are better than the "triple A" rubbish pumped out these days.

I completely agree but Nintendo have always been good at making their core gameplay elements brilliant. For a long time now they haven't been anywhere near the competition graphically so gameplay had to compensate for that.

Hollow Knight is brilliant so far, Axiom Verge was great, Celeste was fantastic.

I'm not complaining so much about the overall catalogue of games on the Switch but more the output and effort of Nintendo themselves. Mario & Rabbids was brilliant and the DLC looks equally as good, DK:TF is a platforming masterpiece, Mario Odyssey is great, Splatoon 2 is the best fun I have had in ages in an online shooter. They have the ability and franchises to release so many quality games but they just seem to be so slow about it.

Its like saying well done to a kid who gets a B by coasting when they could easily get an A* with a bit of work. Not bad but under-performing massively.

 

[fez]

Double Post

 

[Kreeeee]

I do wonder what all their development teams are working on, but then their style is to announce things closer to their release.

 

[asteldian]

I did a list a while back of the best reviewed games on the Switch in the first year and a bit and once you take out the indies and ports you are left with a pretty small list of games. I think the console is great and I'm happy with the games I have and can get but that doesn't mean I don't think Nintendo are being lazy as hell with their game output. Too many ports and too few triple A titles coming up.

It is a good point that Nintendo themselves seem to be a bit slow at releasing anything, but what is quite interesting is the fact that they get away with it thanks to an excellent Indie and decent Port scene (non-Nintendo ones in particular) - one big fear regarding Nintendo Switch was that it would be massively under-supported and its great to see how many games are available for the Switch even though not many are Nintendo.

Not that this post has any actual relevance to your issue in terms of agreeing or disagreeing, but just thought it was interesting that the bad thing about the Switch is lack of Nintendo games is also a 'great thing' about the Switch in terms of success and overall game availablity.

 

[fez]

The bad thing about the Switch is lack of Nintendo games is also a 'great thing' about the Switch in terms of success and overall game availablity.

I honestly never bothered really playing indie games when I just had a PS4. We only have one TV so I couldn't steal it for whole evenings and I couldn't be bothered to turn it on for a quick go on something. I don't think it helped that there were also so many AAA games on the PS4 I wanted to play as well.

The biggest thing that the switch has got right IMO is the portability and pick up and play aspect. I quite often pick it up, play 20 minutes and put it down again. If the missus wants to watch love island I berate her for her poor choice of tv and then go and play the switch in the other room. Indie games suit this style of play perfect and the comparatively low number of top quality games on the Switch has helped them hugely.

 

[Plainsong]

I think after the failure of the Wii U Nintendo were probably being cautious with their next hardware and supporting software releases. This might have slowed down some of that early decision making. Some AAA and ports of well thought of Wii U games (as filler?) may have got them through this year. Hopefully 2019 will have allowed them enough development time to get some more big hitters on the shelves like a Metroid and a full blown Pokemon.

I an understand some people's frustrations (especially Wii U owners who already played those games) but for me it has worked out far better than I could have hoped.

The biggest thing that the switch has got right IMO is the portability and pick up and play aspect. I quite often pick it up, play 20 minutes and put it down again. If the missus wants to watch love island I berate her for her poor choice of tv and then go and play the switch in the other room. Indie games suit this style of play perfect and the comparatively low number of top quality games on the Switch has helped them hugely.

My wife is a real bookworm and just loves to sit and read, and read, and read. Everything we watch on TV we watch together - thankfully this doesn't include Love Island. When she reads I will be sat next to her with my headphones on playing something either on the TV or in handheld. I've never much played indie games before either. Meat Boy and Limbo were probably the only two.

 

[Quixote]

Yeah, it's hard to begrudge them the Wii-U ports because most of those games never reached the public they deserved to, due to the wii-u flopping. Most of them they've made some decent improvments & additions to. I think they should probably re-release almost every good Wii-U game, because to most Switch users they are new games.
I'm not re-buying anything I had on Wii-U but where I missed the original, I'm considering the ports. Haven't bitten the bullet on one yet though because generally they're the titles I was a bit doubtful about the 1st time round.