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So nintendo has hit a home run with the switch


LutzfromOz

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As the title says, I'm glad to see Nintendo back in commercial success, even though the wii u wasn't a commercial success I'm personally a fan of the wii u, I wouldn't call it a flop, but the switch is a moderately beastly console, more 3rd party support than ever (doom), stellar 1st party Nintendo games, and more of them to come over the years, i gotta buy a switch this boxing day with Mario odyssey, watched it on youtube and liked what I saw. In honesty before the switch was released I was skeptical and wondered if it would make or break Nintendo

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The Wii U is one of my favorite systems, but I'm glad to see that they've followed up on it with something that once again is attracting fans by the millions.

 

While I have no serious complaints with the Wii U (Plenty of small nitpicks though), one thing that pleases me here is that one purchase opens the door to the entire Nintendo catalog for a generation. Was tiresome having to buy a new console and a new handheld every generation just to enjoy the games from my favorite developer, not to mention the limitations forced upon the customer by such a divide like DS/3DS games being limited to the small screen.

 

Now one purchase does both jobs. It's the best of both worlds in my opinion, and is a direction I'm very glad Nintendo has gone down.

Edited by Atariboy
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Sure in a technical sense the WiiU was not a flop because it barely scraped by with making the most basic of profit. It's not a flop in the eyes of (sorry) a Nintendo fanboy because if you just and only buy Nintendo published stuff, you had games to keep busy with for certain. But in actual reality for what a game system should accomplish, the kind of sustained expected sales, decent to excellent backing of all parties for games (1st and 3rd both physical and digital) it was a colossal flopping failure.

 

I had it, it was fun for about almost 2 years and then it started to reek and get sad to even have just sitting around for less than interesting scraps. I entirely regret owning it which is a big thing as I've always liked and supported Nintendo systems and right now I'd rather never event remember let alone see something that says Wii anything on it again. I wouldn't even buy a dedicated nintendo console at this rate anymore without it being out 1-2 years to know it won't go down in flames. Nintendo idiotically catered only to one thing, their narrow view on how a system should be done and only those who eat that spoon fed bs and go along for the ride and it horrifically backfired showing you can't make it alone. WiiU for 5 years X systems, Switch for 1 year, same systems sold, pathetic.

 

Nintendo knew they burned their bridges and reformatted their entire way to approach things. They closed their console R&D development and merged it into the successful handheld branch under the one tent philosophy to be more profitable not fighting for sales against not just others but themselves. They put the old developers out to pasture as a recent piece had them saying the entire system concept and design was made by a young new generation of hires into their company to do something fresh and new to get them relevant again which appears they did in spades. Those people got with Nvidia, pitched an idea to take their stock existing tech, modify it to the Nintendo needs, crafted the very smart designs of their to be joycon, and you had the Switch. Even the insides are smart as it's all compartmentalized and modular so they can easily make a Switch 2 in like 3 years with the Tegra X2 tech in the same frame that has like double the power, smaller imprint on the chip, double the speeds, uses radically less battery life too and all it would take it part swaps - Tegra, RAM, etc.

 

They knocked it out whereas the crapped it out on the WiiU using 15 year old Gamecube tech with a really rotten backwards programming language that made ports a nightmare and a gimped system in an unrealistic budget blowing much on a non-really wireless controller because of the almost extension cord short range from the base.

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The Switch is basically a much more refined Wii U. If you take a Switch and put it next to a Wii U gamepad, it's pretty easy to see the inspiration. They moved the console itself behind the screen, made everything smaller and made the controllers detachable.

 

In terms of computing power, they're very similar when the Switch is undocked. But since Nintendo doesn't seem to want people to have a vastly different experience docked vs. undocked, most games seem to be developed for undocked mode. They don't look much different than Wii U games. (I don't have Zelda for the Wii U, but most people who do say it looks almost exactly the same as the Switch version, albeit with a little more slowdown in places).

 

It's interesting how they took a failed console, refined it and turned it into a success. To me, the Wii U now feels like a beta product. It's the Switch version 0.8. It's really clunky in comparison to the Switch, but basically is the same concept. Being able to play games anywhere (with Wii U, at least anywhere in your house), but with home console fidelity. It's just that the Switch does that so much better.

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The whole time with my 3DS I wished I had a dock so I could play it on my TV.

 

It may just be an "average" home console, but that's okay because it's by far the best handheld ever made. And with the capability to play it on the go or at home you really can't go wrong. It hugely widens the appeal.

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I know it's bad but I kind of wish I ahd sold my 3DS at times, still do, but I can't make myself pull the trigger. It's to me right now a system I can't make time for that had very very unfinished Metroid and Mario RPG going on there I can't see being able to get back to anytime soon and otherwise on the whole a dozen games I'm finished with. I see it and think I'd dump it but then regret it as I may want it later or further back to the DS too. Yet I still see no time in the future for many systems. 3DS is a wonderful handheld, DS was fairly nice too but the more instant jump into it bite sized (and definitely not too) style of the old GB to GBA era more fits my needs now and forward.

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http://nintendotoday.com/switch-was-the-most-purchased-product-online-on-black-friday/

https://landing.adobe.com/en/na/solutions/digital-index/ctir-2840-holiday-predictions-2017/?sdid=3NQZBD29&mv=social&scid=ADI74571707&adbid=1599694940073833&adbpl=fb&adbpr=341657335877606

 

Seems that the Switch for Black Friday (and reading the source of the story in link 2) also Thanksgiving, and the day before was #3 (Wednesday) which is incredible. Adobe isn't totally specific if it's just the Switch or switch stuff cumulatively but that's nuts.

 

This is what Adobe's site says to promo this data so these numbers make sense: 4,500 retail websites, 55 million SKUs, and more than one trillion visits. Through Adobe Experience Cloud, we analyze billions of datapoints up-to-the-minute and deliver the most comprehensive and accurate retail insights in the industry. It’s our gift to you, to last the season and beyond.

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I think spacecadet nailed it above. Whether you love or hate the Wii U, the Switch is simply a Wii U with all the "console" crammed into the screen/gamepad.

 

I'm happy to see the Switch being so successful, but knowing Nintendo I know in a year or two, we'll see a New Switch XL Plus !! Faster processor, bigger screen, etc. I already cringe at the thought.

 

It's small form factor is going to greatly hinder its performance moving forward. I strongly suspect we'll see 3rd party developers dropping their support (for big titles) down the line, just like they did with Wii U. That is my major complaint with Switch. Rather than try to make a new console that has some oomph, Nintendo opted to stick with the handheld route and gimmicky controllers. They know their main audience is (and has always been) younger, so whether it was Game Boy, GBA, 3DS, 2DS, or whatever, they want you looking at and focused on their screen. If the Switch wasn't dockable to the tv, I wouldn't have bought it and sadly, it might be the last Nintendo system I'll buy because I don't do handhelds.

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That's a big pile of what ifs.

 

Remember that the X2 version of Tegra puts it up to snuff with what's out there, not what was with the X1 set switch uses that's more on a PS3 than a PS4 type of level. The X2 runs far cooler, less power hungry, yet while being notably faster and more capable of visual feats. As micronization of the tech continues while keeping heat under wraps I would not underestimate the eventual Switch X2 level hardware to end up not being all that hindered. In the end it's that alternative system for on the go, you can't expect a 2017/18 console 4K experience in your pocket as that's just asking too much on such a little device. Games as long as it's a well made engine can be scaled better or less better depending on the abilities of the workers as seen between what Bethesda and Rockstar have pulled off so far. As long as stuff will work or instead of the existing ports, going forward can be done and done well on its own assets it's fine. It wasn't that far back that Activision took enough care with the Wii that they did SD versions of all 3 of the COD Modern Warfare titles and also World at War in 480p vs the 720p(and up) HD/PC assets.

 

If the money is there and the base puts that money there, they will come. If people don't buy a damn thing, then you have a WiiU situation and I think it's fairly well beyond that tipping point since the WiiU sales numbers will get topped within a year from the look of things, maybe less. Switch is a tough one to crack you can't rate it against anything at all as it's its own unique thing. It's not an overkill handheld like the Vita fairly well was when it was new, nor was it an undercut handheld against it like the DS was or the Wii either which did amazing sales on subpar (compared) parts. Switch is treading on grounds that can't be well analyzed as this direction is one not taken yet until now.

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I think spacecadet nailed it above. Whether you love or hate the Wii U, the Switch is simply a Wii U with all the "console" crammed into the screen/gamepad.

 

I'm happy to see the Switch being so successful, but knowing Nintendo I know in a year or two, we'll see a New Switch XL Plus !! Faster processor, bigger screen, etc. I already cringe at the thought.

 

It's small form factor is going to greatly hinder its performance moving forward. I strongly suspect we'll see 3rd party developers dropping their support (for big titles) down the line, just like they did with Wii U. That is my major complaint with Switch. Rather than try to make a new console that has some oomph, Nintendo opted to stick with the handheld route and gimmicky controllers. They know their main audience is (and has always been) younger, so whether it was Game Boy, GBA, 3DS, 2DS, or whatever, they want you looking at and focused on their screen. If the Switch wasn't dockable to the tv, I wouldn't have bought it and sadly, it might be the last Nintendo system I'll buy because I don't do handhelds.

Funny how moving the brains from the dock into the gamepad made all the difference. NEver mind migration to a modern CPU architecture, slimmer form factor, great controllers, and devs jumping on board instead of jumping ship. Oh yeah, and Nintendo advertised the crap out of it. ;-)

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The Wii U gamepad seems like a childs toy from the 90's after holding the small and dense Switch. While I loved the Wii U, I never really liked the gamepad and always preferred to use the pro controller or even a wiimote when possible.

 

The Switch is doing well so far but it's early yet for us to all be patting each other on the back and say it's a smashing success. Lets see if it sells more than the Wii U and Gamecube for starters....lol

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The Switch is doing well so far but it's early yet for us to all be patting each other on the back and say it's a smashing success. Lets see if it sells more than the Wii U and Gamecube for starters....lol

 

It's already more than halfway to what the Wii U sold, so I'm pretty confident you could cease all marketing and game development and it'd still blow past the Wii U...

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It's already more than halfway to what the Wii U sold, so I'm pretty confident you could cease all marketing and game development and it'd still blow past the Wii U...

Well I tend to err on the side of caution these days with sales predictions. After all that's what people were saying initially about the Wii U compared to the GameCube numbers and that thing stalled dead in the water after about two years...

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Oh it's well beyond the half way point off the WiiU. Did you see the story from Adobe two days ago? The most picked up item tallied from like 7000 online US retailers for the Thanksgiving, BF and the weekend was the Switch in the #1 spot. More has come out since to back that up as well and Mario Odyssey also made the same list in high standing against stuff like hatchimals and others. I'm really really curious how what they'll report in January as December 31st ends their 3rd business quarter (Q1 18 for them is 4/1/18.)

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For some reason, a little voice in my head had been nagging me for a long time to consider the Switch. I don't know why. I like Nintendo, certainly more than I like Microsoft and Sony, but I was never so big of a Mario fan that I had to have it NOW, and I had never really played a Zelda game. The two series of modern games I like the most, Rock Band and Pinball Arcade, saw only token attention on Nintendo platforms. And yet still that little voice...

 

Then, last week during a drip to Best Buy, I looked on the shelf, and sure enough, still no Switches. But then I glanced at a display kiosk across the aisle, and there were two Switches, one of them already getting pawed at by another potential buyer. I hemmed, hawed, and finally what-the-hecked. Bought the Switch, Ultra Street Fighter 2: The Final Challengers, and, for some reason I can only guess was me deciding I'd try for once to keep up with a modern adventure game while it was still modern, Breath of the Wild. And wouldn't you know it, I like it! Despite what Capcom implies on the game box, SF2 is the same old SF2 with a high-def glossy sheen and more colors to choose from, but hey, that's okay, as perfect as SF2 was to begin with (and I say that as someone who usually preferred Mortal Kombat or DarkStalkers). Breath of the Wild is... wow. I don't know how its game mechanics compare to previous Zelda games, but it's not the strategy-heavy stats-happy RPG I thought it would be. It definitely requires strategy, and there are certainly plenty of stats to keep track of, but ultimately it's something of a puzzle adventurer not entirely unlike Portal II, the last semi-open adventure game I enjoyed.

 

So, the Switch has already seen more activity than the XBone I bought two years ago to keep up with Rock Band 4. I think I'm okay with this.

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Congrats on now wussing out at the store. :D I've said it before around but Zelda I had written off because it got so rank and stale, just boring, as I had Nintendo consoles as first year (or two) purchases due to anything Wii related. I took the leap and don't regret it and like this system more than their last 2 by far and depending how things continue perhaps the Cube too. BotW is Zelda lore but so unique in most other ways it's a time sucking leech you don't mind as it's so engrossing you just lose track of time around it and don't care. USF2 is a solid game and even has that dumb 3D thing I still haven't tried out yet with the 1st person Ryu battling around all the good classic stuff.

 

Zelda was never RPG stat heavy, this one is the heaviest in that way with the ranking up, kind of crafting, collecting, and so on for gear, weapons, and armors. The mechanics of the puzzles in the big beasts and a few other spots are somewhat similar in style but not in execution to anything in the past and really are far more genius when you try and deal with a problem. You're not stuck anymore, depending what you have you can use metal items to bridge electrical circuits, use a wind talent to pop over annoying locked gates or whatever, it has many ways to do the same thing if you think where in the past it was one way was the correct way.

 

My advice to you, look towards for main line stuff Bethesda and Rockstar currently with Capcom, Bandai/Namco, Atlus to name a few going forward, but if you want some really refreshing indie level tier stuff look at Nicalis current and future(Wonderboy in Jan/Feb), some other no namers who put up some decent stuff, and some nearly no-name/one off types (like Axiom Verge) for even more variety and a good bit of it falls into the $30-40 range and not $50-60.

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Yea Fujiskunk, welcome! You made the right choice. Took me a while to finally get mine, but I don't regret it. Ultra SFII was one of my first game purchases also and I've enjoyed it. I will admit though that now that the honeymoon is over, I've already moved back to PS4 to work on my massive backlog. That should change soon once I get Xenoblade 2.

 

The biggest takeaway with the Switch, for me, is the realization that I don't care about what "console" or hardware I'm using, as long as I can get games to my television screen, use a "normal" controller, and buy my games on some kind of physical media. I don't mean to derail into the "are consoles dying" discussion, but the Switch has proven to me that the video game console as we know it is kind of dead and that's ok. The only thing I can't get behind is an all-digital distribution method and if Nintendo does away with the cart slot and Sony does away with an optical drive for PS5, that will probably be the time I'll bow out of "console" gaming.

Edited by glazball
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the Switch has quickly become my most used console, leaving my Xbox and PS4 feeling neglected. I wasn't sold on the Switch at first as well. I new it had a lot of buzz around it, so I wasn't surprised it was doing well. However, I never was a Nintendo gamer and I didn't see myself being interested in the games that would be coming out for Switch. Boy was I wrong.

 

It was listening to people talk about and reading how amazing Zelda BOTW was that finally got me to get a Switch. Both my wife and I have put tons of hours into Zelda, enjoying every minute of it. Super Mario Odyssey didn't grab me anywhere near as Zelda did, but I enjoyed it enough to finish the main story line and then collect another 100 or so moons after finishing the story. Today I should have Xenoblades Chronicles 2 waiting for me when I get home.

 

I love the Switch. The hardware isn't perfect, but it is really good. But, the main selling point is the strong game lineup. I'm playing the Switch because the games I want to play more right now are on it.

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Yeah it's funny because I always stated I would LOVE the Wii U so much more if I could take my controller and play the games on the crapper (e.g. the VC titles I bought, etc.). But as you all know it doesn't like being taken away from the main console.

 

Nintendo must have heard that complaint a lot because that was so obviously the reasoning behind the Switch's design where you can do exactly that now. It's like the Wii U was kind of like the half-idea before they realized how it should really work. Anyway, I digress.. the Switch is friggin brilliant. :)

 

note.. I haven't seen my Switch in over 2 months.. it's lost in my house somewhere. :lol: Good thing the kid still has his.

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Nintendo must have heard that complaint a lot because that was so obviously the reasoning behind the Switch's design where you can do exactly that now. It's like the Wii U was kind of like the half-idea before they realized how it should really work.

 

I am curious if they did realize it and just didn't have time to fully flesh out the Wii U, or if it was something they only realized in brainstorming sessions for its successor. Or maybe they just didn't have the right platform at the time; the Wii U came out 3 years before the Tegra X1 that the Switch is based on, and I don't know if any of the previous Tegras would have worked in that form factor.

 

It does seem really obvious in hindsight, though.

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