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The Nintendo Switch will be the Greatest Failure in the History of Video Games

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rainless

Old Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2006
So far the Switch is doing okay. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/nintendo-switch-sales-225738169.html

Best sales in Nintendo history, blah, blah, blah...

...but their achilles heel ever since the end of the Gamecube has been their lack of 3rd party support and subsequent shortage of games.

Resident Evil 4 on the Gamecube was AMAZING. So was Madden. In fact there were tons of great games for the Cube.

The Wii? Not so much. Wii-U? Even less.

And now... with the Switch... in Germany at least: They have two games.

One of them is sold out everywhere you go and the other is 1 2 Switch.

That's absolutely terrible... but from HERE it gets worse! All the big AAA titles for PS4 and Xbox One will be coming in the next few months. A new Mass Effect, a new Halo, an entire Onslaught of games are coming (not to mention both Sony and Microsoft are also giving away a ton of games for free every month...) and there's no way Nintendo will be able to keep up.

They HOPE to put out three games this year.... including Zelda. The rest will be wii-like filler.


So let me be the first to say: This is going to be BAD.
 
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They are NOT trying to directly compete with PS/XB. If they were, they will certainly fail. They are trying something different, to open a new area and recreate the Wii's success. Title choice may be a bit poor but there are more titles on the near future horizon. A quick look on Amazon UK shows Zelda sold out, 1-2-Switch and Bomberman are available without looking at minor titles. I agree with many reviewers that 1-2-Switch should have been bundled with the Switch.

I'm on wait and see myself. I'd love to see a main line Pokemon game on it, and that would likely be my trigger. The DS has been showing its age for some time.
 
LOL that's the most yellow journalism headline I've seen outside of the mainstream media in a while. In its launch weekend the Switch has already sold more consoles then other spectacular console failures of the past, such as the Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari Jaguar, the 3DO, the Gizmondo, the 32X, the Virtual Boy, the CD-i and probably some other garbage game consoles that I can't think of at the moment. Nintendo has said they are spacing out the game releases to keep the Switch from having the kind of droughts that the Wii U experienced.

Wait and see how the Switch does after the initial launch hype and Zelda hype dies down, keep an eye on how it does over the next few months before you pull out the "Nintendoomed" card. Personally I'm hoping for the best with the Switch. I think it's a pretty cool system, Nintendo got the docking/portable "switching" aspect of it down pretty well, they're doing good marketing with it, and I like how they're still trying to encourage people to play local co-op whereas the competition has mostly shunned that in favor of online multiplayer gaming. It will be a sad day if Nintendo ever pulls out of the console making business.
 
LOL that's the most yellow journalism headline I've seen outside of the mainstream media in a while. In its launch weekend the Switch has already sold more consoles then other spectacular console failures of the past, such as the Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari Jaguar, the 3DO, the Gizmondo, the 32X, the Virtual Boy, the CD-i and probably some other garbage game consoles that I can't think of at the moment. Nintendo has said they are spacing out the game releases to keep the Switch from having the kind of droughts that the Wii U experienced.

Wait and see how the Switch does after the initial launch hype and Zelda hype dies down, keep an eye on how it does over the next few months before you pull out the "Nintendoomed" card. Personally I'm hoping for the best with the Switch. I think it's a pretty cool system, Nintendo got the docking/portable "switching" aspect of it down pretty well, they're doing good marketing with it, and I like how they're still trying to encourage people to play local co-op whereas the competition has mostly shunned that in favor of online multiplayer gaming. It will be a sad day if Nintendo ever pulls out of the console making business.

It simply outsold everything else because nintendo has far more fanbois or zelda heads. IMHO.
 
I wish nintendo all the best but I do see some issues here.

They seem to be doubling down on the failed WiiU format. I have a WiiU and it is a terrible system. It seems that the battery life is better on the switch but we will see how long they last in the wild.

From what I have seen, only older users are buying the Switch. I have two kids, 10 and 12, neither one cares a lick about nintendo. They both use mobile devices and game on my computer. My son and his friends talk Xbox and PS4 all the time.

When the switch was announced I felt they would sell 12 million world wide in the first month and then sales would drop to almost nothing. We will see.

Losing nintendo would not be a good thing for the console market, but they are not really playing in the same sandbox as Xbone and PS4 anyways.
 
If Pokemon (stars) ever goes to switch, then I'm willing to bet that it won't flop. But Yes, the Lack of games is why people don't buy their consoles. If you are Nintendo these days, you are either a Mario(not me) or Legend of Zelda(me) Fanatic. I personally own the Wii U, and am content with it until switch has more titles, bugs get ironed out, etc. Maybe Xenoblade.

I just wish I could play a 3d *not gimmick 3ds* Pokemon game on a screen bigger than 5" so my neck muscles and eyes aren't murdered. Plus, being disabled makes it VERY difficult to hold a handheld console without fear of dropping your $350 brick to the ground, breaking it.

We'll see.
 
They are NOT trying to directly compete with PS/XB.

HAHAHAHAHA! That's hilarious! That's like saying Burger King isn't trying to compete directly with McDonalds. "We're trying something different... We're in the Food Entertainment Business."

It's like if I were to join the UFC... lose all my fights... and explain that my main purpose of being there is to create informative workout videos.

LOL that's the most yellow journalism headline I've seen outside of the mainstream media in a while. In its launch weekend the Switch has already sold more consoles then other spectacular console failures of the past

I'm a REALIST. Seeing the same thing happen over and over again is what makes me a realist.

They've sold over a million Switches. So what? Sony sold 6.4 million PS4s last Christmas: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ollieb...on-sales-over-the-2016-holidays/#726474307b41

They sold 53.4 million consoles as of January of this year.

Nintendo will never get close to that number without a solid library that I see no chance of them developing. I haven't even heard of a third party developer even mildly interested in making a game for the system. And without third party support even the Xbox and Playstation brands would fail.

Well Nintendo hasn't really had any third party support since the GAME CUBE. Which means, no matter how big a fan you are of Zelda and Pokemon, they are in serious... SERIOUS trouble.

I've seen this play out before. I never would've dreamed that Sega (my nostalgia company of preference) would get annihilated by two companies that, up until that point, weren't even in the video game business... but it happened. Both the Genesis and the Dreamcast were commercial and critical successes... but Sega liked to precede every success with a gigantic, costly failure. The Sega Master system? Didn't quite compete with the NES. The Sega Saturn? Powerful system, great games, but they angered a lot of third party developers who subsequently turned their backs on the company.

I believe their hardware division was a wrap before the PS2 and Xbox had even been announced.

So believe me when I tell you the Switch is going to be a problem. (Can you even imagine all the R&D dollars they've sunk into that thing...?)
 
HAHAHAHAHA! That's hilarious! That's like saying Burger King isn't trying to compete directly with McDonalds. "We're trying something different... We're in the Food Entertainment Business."

If you're going with that analogy, I'm saying they're not yet another burger shifter wannabe. They are still doing food. Maybe bibimbap or something totally different. Not everyone gets the taste, and it may be a bit niche at first. If they were to do burgers, that would be a much harder fight.
 
If you're going with that analogy, I'm saying they're not yet another burger shifter wannabe. They are still doing food. Maybe bibimbap or something totally different. Not everyone gets the taste, and it may be a bit niche at first. If they were to do burgers, that would be a much harder fight.

So Nintendo's already a niche... we'll agree on that. But we already saw what played out, why it played out that way, and how everything went with the Wii-U... We JUST saw that right? I'm sure we can at least agree on that much.

So knowing WHY the Wii-U failed... what makes you think the Switch is going to do any better? I could see them having a chance if you could actually use the Switch as a tablet (which you CAN'T). I could see the extremely limited library not being as big a problem if it ran IOS or Android (which it doesn't). I could even see it appearing in people's briefcases on the way to work if it offerred SOME unique functionality... be it a word processor... or a new way to handle emails... or literally anything.

Unfortunately it does none of these things. It's not Bibimbap. It's not even an eggroll. It's got (mostly) ground beef, two buns, and a pickle. It's a burger in a fancy wrapper. It has the exact same features as a burger... and you can eat it... and that's it.

It plays games. That's absolutely all it does... but unfortunately it doesn't play all the games Sony and Microsoft play. Red Dead Redemption 2 and Mass Effect Andromeda are going to be big deals. They will each sell MILLIONS of copies and millions of people who have been holding off or saving up to buy a new system will finally pony-up just to play them. Meanwhile the latest Mario Kart, coming to the Switch, is just a rehash of the version that's already out for the Wii-U. So about 90% of the fanbase for that game probably already have it. It's not going to sell any new systems for Nintendo. (Or it will only sell about 10% of the systems that a brand new game would've.)

You do the math and it all starts to add up...
 
Well, I disagree on one point rainless; It doesn't need to make your toast or build your house. It needs to run the games that are designed for it flawlessly.

Does it do that? I don't know. The Wii U Doesn't, that much is true.

We are spoiled by our omni-devices known as the smart phone and Personal Computer. "It washes my clothes, and brushes my hair. Oh, It also plays video games very well. And Streams my movies to me. And So on and so on and so on."

All I would ever want from a console is for it to run the games I'm interested in at a minimum solid 60 fps. We are only NOW getting there, sadly. And even then, new titles, such as Breath of the wild, Fail to maintain the 30 fps it is limited to on the console it originally was designed for.

This is why I maintain my stance of "PC Enthusiest", Because I'm not limited by the hardware for the experience I get to enjoy. I can upgrade it's components and achieve a more fluid gameplay. If it had USB 3.1 type-c and could attach a gtx 1080ti 11gb and up its fps count, I'd be elated.

But I cannot.

And It is frusterating.

Mainly, its just a lack of game selection that makes people hesitant to buy a console. "Why waste my money if all I'd ever own is two, maybe three games on it?"

Anyways, getting off topic there.

TLDR: Consoles shouldn't need to be omni-devices to be successful.
 
Well, I disagree on one point rainless; It doesn't need to make your toast or build your house. It needs to run the games that are designed for it flawlessly.

Does it do that?

It has 1 game. (No, 1-2-Switch doesn't count.)

No, it doesn't run it flawlessly.


Granted, not everyone has the same problems, but it appears that quality control, the hardware, and software took a back seat to rushing out a system that just wasn't ready.
 
It has 1 game. (No, 1-2-Switch doesn't count.)

No, it doesn't run it flawlessly.


Granted, not everyone has the same problems, but it appears that quality control, the hardware, and software took a back seat to rushing out a system that just wasn't ready.

It's not just you: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ollieb...eds-to-resolve-two-major-issues/#7f9e1ba97130

Just FYI, that is heel, as in part of the foot, not hill a geologic formation.

Yup... Once every 10,142 posts even I will misspell something.

TLDR: Consoles shouldn't need to be omni-devices to be successful.

That's not what I meant at all. I meant that it has to offer SOMETHING if it's not going to have a steady stream of great games on a consistent basis. I was saying it would be nice if it did more if it's NOT going to.

Also no: It doesn't run all its own games flawlessly: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ollieb...eds-to-resolve-two-major-issues/#7f9e1ba97130
 
Okay, Well, I can see your point there. I will say this, though.

Almost ALL Modern consoles have buggy launches. The degree of buginess is what is important.

I still don't believe the console itself will flop because of the issues I've come across in my research; But only time will tell if third party devs return or not.
 
Okay, Well, I can see your point there. I will say this, though.

Almost ALL Modern consoles have buggy launches. The degree of buginess is what is important.

I still don't believe the console itself will flop because of the issues I've come across in my research; But only time will tell if third party devs return or not.

Well... How much time do you need? The console is out now... and the devs aren't producing anything for it.

In fact here's the entire, announced, 2017 launch list: https://rankedboost.com/nintendo-switch/game-release-dates/

You've got one 2k game (NBA2k18) coming in September. No Fifa... No Madden. No Resident Evil (though there will be Ultra Street Fighter 2!)

That's every game announced for 2017 as of March 3rd.

I'm all for optimism... buuuuuut...

It has 1 game. (No, 1-2-Switch doesn't count.)

No, it doesn't run it flawlessly.


Granted, not everyone has the same problems, but it appears that quality control, the hardware, and software took a back seat to rushing out a system that just wasn't ready.

Some more info into your problem (Nintendo has official acknowledged it and they're looking into it): http://finance.yahoo.com/news/nintendo-just-admitted-game-console-152150287.html?hl=1&noRedirect=1
 
Well... How much time do you need? The console is out now... and the devs aren't producing anything for it.

In fact here's the entire, announced, 2017 launch list: https://rankedboost.com/nintendo-switch/game-release-dates/

You've got one 2k game (NBA2k18) coming in September. No Fifa... No Madden. No Resident Evil (though there will be Ultra Street Fighter 2!)

That's every game announced for 2017 as of March 3rd.

I'm all for optimism... buuuuuut...



Some more info into your problem (Nintendo has official acknowledged it and they're looking into it): http://finance.yahoo.com/news/nintendo-just-admitted-game-console-152150287.html?hl=1&noRedirect=1

I hear where you're coming from; I frankly cancelled my pre-order once news started to break about it. First strike was when it became apparent they were going to use a Tegra X1. Those that follow the SOC world know that it wasn't very good and had significant thermal issues which prevented it's wide adoption. Second was when they said they wouldn't have online services ready for launch, which again is typical Nintendo. Lastly the final straw was when they said VC wouldn't be ready at launch. I give it a year before Nintendo looks for a buyer and I'll come out and say it now.. It'll be Apple.

Mark my words Apple will buy Nintendo's IP and make it exclusive to the iPhone and use the AppleTV to push into the console space. Nintendo isn't stupid, there's a reason why Mario Run (no matter how bad it was) was an Apple exclusive for the launch. That wasn't by accident.

It would be one thing if they had VC ready and were already porting games into it like it was originally promised; ex: Luigi Mansion and Eternal Darkness etc etc but nope!
 
I give it a year before Nintendo looks for a buyer and I'll come out and say it now.. It'll be Apple.

Mark my words Apple will buy Nintendo's IP and make it exclusive to the iPhone and use the AppleTV to push into the console space. Nintendo isn't stupid, there's a reason why Mario Run (no matter how bad it was) was an Apple exclusive for the launch. That wasn't by accident.

http://sourcegaming.info/2016/06/02/quick-analysis-nintendos-major-bank-account/

Take a look at recent news articles, I posted one but there are many others, as of last FY Nintendo had over 4.4 billion dollars and over 2 billion of that is cash. I don't think they'll be looking for buyers anytime soon. And while the joy-con syncing issue may be a more widespread issue, based on the numbers of people complaining about it, I personally think the other issues like the hard locks and graphical glitches seen in that YouTube video are overblown. I've seen video of people pulling their Switches out of the dock quickly and at an angle, and then they complain about the screen scratching. Part of that is on the users being rough with it, and part of it is on Nintendo using an easily scratchable plastic screen just like they did on the Wii U Gamepad. I wish Nintendo used glass but perhaps they used plastic to make it more durable to being dropped, I don't know what they were thinking but for the obsessing people like me that are worried about the potential of it scratching easily we know to buy a screen protector with your new hardware on day one.

Nintendo sold two million Switches during the launch and if 1% or 2% of those are having issues, and let's be honest a large number of people buying this console are millennials and that's who Nintendo is marketing to, if they have an issue like graphical corruption or overheating or scratching screens or weird system locks they're the most likely group to complain online and post a video to YouTube instead of contacting Nintendo directly about the issue. Even 2% of consoles being defective is still really good for a new product launch. Nintendo has stated that they are willing to help users out with their system or accessories if they're having problems, what more do people want? I've had my Switch since launch day and last night I had a hard lock during Zelda after trying to put the console to sleep with the home button on the new Pro controller I just picked up and had charging off of the dock, that is the only issue I've had with the system in over a week, that's pretty good in my mind. I didn't take a video of the hard lock and start griping about it on YouTube, just like I didn't take a video of the hard locks I got with the PS4 and Xbox One after those launched, or all of the times I had to pull the power plug on the Xbox One just to get it working after it screwed up in the early days of the software.

People are blowing this up way too hard. If the Switch isn't for you, fine, but some people act like they have an axe to grind and want Nintendo to fail. Console wars are freaking stupid. I hope the people that are having troubles with their Switch and/or accessories are able to get their issues resolved but pontificating and making grand statements about how Nintendo is doomed and stupid (especially from people who don't even own the product!) is getting really tiring.
 
That was a very clickbaity title there, rainless.

While I agree that Nintendo has a lot of work to do to get the Switch sold to more people. It is currently sold out pretty much everywhere, so while the sales numbers look good from Nintendo's perspective, they could be significantly higher if they had the stock to back it up. As of right now there are only maybe 2 games worth owning on the Switch -- Zelda (which I am playing on my WiiU and like a lot) and Snipperclips which is only good with co-op. There's some more Nintendo-developed games coming out this year that may be interesting to some people (splatoon2, mariokart 8 deluxe, and the new Mario Odysee). And, of course, some others from third parties. I think that it was a mistake to use the older Tegra X1 chip in the tablet, the new one is significantly more powerful and could get some attention by game devs. The X1 is already behind the times, so I doubt many third parties will want to downgrade and port the game to the Switch.

At least they don't have to worry about dual-screen stuff and other issues that people had with the WiiU. If only it was more powerful and the storage wasn't crap at stock w/o needing to buy an SD card to increase it (comes with 32GB of storage).

I think the console has some potential, I will likely get one eventually, but I have no desire to get one right now when I already have a WiiU for playing Zelda.

Looking at this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nintendo_Switch_games

(sort by release date) there are a good amount of games listed for 2017 (including FIFA, which you mentioned) - (http://www.gamespot.com/articles/ea-announces-ea-sports-fifa-for-the-nintendo-switc/1100-6446899/) (http://www.gamereactor.eu/news/503543/FIFA+on+Switch+will+be+FIFA+18,+possible+September+launch/)

While yes, they have some work to do to get more games lined up that people want to play, the Switch is an evolution of the WiiU in that you actually get a mobile gaming device that works as well as a (Nintend) home-console.
 
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