Nintendo Switch Revelation

[Entropy]

That's not a trend. A trend in consoles would have to be charted across several generations. Otherwise people could have looked at Wii and concluded that N.'s next console would sell 200 million... With only two reference points you've no idea if one of them lies on the trending curve or is an anomaly. Looking at all Nintendo's consoles, there's a very clear downward trend with Wii just being anomalous.

(I'll add that I wouldn't even expect such obvious trends as I'd have thought ongoing adaptation would result in different products with different levels of success. It's only Nintendo of the current players that has this definite market-share erosion going on. The other guys have platforms that are hit or miss per platform, no trends.)

While your argument is not without some merit, it has problems too. It pretty much says that we need more data to draw strong conclusions, which is true. But on the other hand, manufacturers, publishers and developers can't wait around for a decade to find out what they should do today. They have to lick their finger, stick it in the air and try to estimate where the wind is blowing and how fast. And the one big certain trend is the growth of mobile platforms.
The presense of a strong dominating trend makes it difficult to estimate other market forces, whose influence gets overwhelmed in the overall picture. So in this case, even though dedicated gaming platforms are declining in the marketplace, if you want to launch one anyway, then it is arguably harder to see just what is required to build a sustainable business around such a platform of if indeed it is possible at all.
It may be that the CEO of Ubisoft will turn out to be correct - that the NX will help the industry grow and pull back some of the casual audience. He may also turn out to be dead wrong. But if you are a publisher, you have to decide now whether you will invest in trying to strengthen such a platform, or if you should spend those funds hedging your bets on iOS instead.

 

[milk]

There hasn't been a nintendo console that Ubisoft did not take a good chance on. All nintendo launch windows see many games from them, including flagship IPs. Those horny frenchmen want to stick their dirty disks (or cartridges) inside anything Ninty puts out!

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Well, this had better work..

https://twitter.com/mochi_wsj/status/791074797115408384

 

[Tkumpathenurpahl]

I really hope it does. If successful, it could play a part in popularising local multiplayer again.

 

[Entropy]

Well, this had better work..

https://twitter.com/mochi_wsj/status/791074797115408384

The damn thing is that if you do the same with Sony, it won't look too pretty either since the glory days. And lets not talk about the sales of the XBox One.
Anyone who cares about the console business had better hope that Switch hits a chord with consumers. It is not as if somewhat more of the same coming from Sony and MS is likely to set the segment on fire.

 

[eastmen]

The damn thing is that if you do the same with Sony, it won't look too pretty either since the glory days. And lets not talk about the sales of the XBox One.
Anyone who cares about the console business had better hope that Switch hits a chord with consumers. It is not as if somewhat more of the same coming from Sony and MS is likely to set the segment on fire.

well if you started with the xbox and went to the xbox one it wouldn't be that horrible. But that's because the xbox only sold like 25m units and the xbox one is ahed of that. Sony wuld have what 100m ps , 150m ps2 , 80/90m ps3 and 40m ps4s so it would just look like a downward spiral from the ps2 days.

I think this generation for both sony and MS could see them breaking 100m with their systems. It just depends on how the systems are counted for sales


For Nintendo I think the handhelds still do well. I think they need good price points with this and they need to link a dedicated handheld to the same platform. I said ti before but a Gameboy using the same soc but clocked a little lower and a smaller screen priced at $150 or so would be a great companion to this switch and they could simply sell the same software and have the switch target 720p and the Gameboy a lower res like 540p. They need a steady flow of games and they need some third parties. If they can have the newest fps games running on these systems well it would allow a gamer to bring their games with them on the go.

I have a surface pro 1 which is slow but I could still play some games on it and its great being able to do so. I stopped brining my 3ds with me on trips and now I play x com or civ5 on the plane.

 

[Rodéric]

Local multiplayer for the win !
(With a preference for coop ^^)

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

Local multiplayer for the win !
(With a preference for coop ^^)

How is this going to popularize local multiplayer? It's not even like one person can play on the tablet while another plays on the TV in the same room.

 

[ninelven]

I would assume multiple devices can connect through LAN via wifi (and possibly wired connection through the dock). Also possibly wifi direct.... the size and portability of the console itself would certainly make this much easier (not to mention each one coming with its own built-in screen and controller).

 

[Rangers]

The damn thing is that if you do the same with Sony, it won't look too pretty either since the glory days. And lets not talk about the sales of the XBox One.
Anyone who cares about the console business had better hope that Switch hits a chord with consumers. It is not as if somewhat more of the same coming from Sony and MS is likely to set the segment on fire.

Xbox one is selling better than xbox 360 life to date. Just because PS4 came along and doubled PS3 sales, doesn't reflect on Xbox One.

Now too be fair, Xbox 360 had a strong late life fueled by Kinect. It's unknown if XBO will match that. The whole thing gets pretty hard to compare once you figure Scorpio comes into the equation in a year.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

How is this going to popularize local multiplayer?

It supports two players on one device by design!

 

[MrFox]

The video was showing two devices placed back-to-back on a table, and it looked like a 4 players game.
That's a really great idea. Amazing configuration for 2 vs 2 racket sports. This could be another Wii-Sports-like success.

 

[orangpelupa]

btw wii games on-the-go is superb

ages ago I did it with my friend by playing wii on dolphin on laptop on campus with 2 wiimotes.

total fun

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

It supports two players on one device by design!

I assume this is sarcasm? The PS4 supports 4 players on one device by design and the XB1, eight.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

They don't come with two controllers. Base spec for NS is two controllers.

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

Unless I'm missing something, base spec is two half controllers which won't be sufficient for the vast majority of games.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Analog stick, four buttons/D pad, one shoulder button (?) And probably a start button somewhere. That is one (shoulder) button short of a DS. Seems plenty to me.

 

[BRiT]

Analog stick, four buttons/D pad, one shoulder button (?) And probably a start button somewhere. That is one (shoulder) button short of a DS. Seems plenty to me.

I think he's saying it wont be enough for full games. It might be enough for simple games.

I wouldn't want to try to play any sort of TPS or FPS or Racing games with half the normal buttons.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I think he's saying it wont be enough for full games. It might be enough for simple games.

I wouldn't want to try to play any sort of TPS or FPS or Racing games with half the normal buttons.

FPS should be fine. The D-pad is more than good enough for movement when combined with an analog stick. PC users are used to using what basically amounts to a D-pad when using keyboard and mouse. Weapon switching and item selection would likely need to be simplified, however.

Regards,
SB

 

[BRiT]

FPS that I play would never be fine with just half a joy-con; its missing an entire look direction control stick, an entire Dpad which is typically weapon switches, an aim down sight button (left trigger), and most importantly a fire button (right trigger). its definitely incapable of playing a FPS without the means of aiming or firing.