While true that Nintendo’s first party games matter the most, they do not make 100% of the reasons to get a Nintendo system, Wii U had great first party games yet fell flat on its face. I believe a console’s success is a combination of factors that include first party support as well as others like pricing, online service, BC, third party support, controller and to a lesser degree power. I find it difficult to understand why the Wii U failed but I can recognize while first party is very important, it by itself isn’t always enough to warrant the success of a console, even a Nintendo one at that.
Switch 2 Speculation
- Thread starter Goodtwin
- Start date
arandomguy
Regular
Let's be honest here if people knew exactly what makes game, console (or movie or etc.) successful or not the business side would be easy.
General social factors like knowing other people that have one and general positive public sentiment are under appreciated imo. Have friends that have one, they're enjoying it, you've given it a go and enjoy it too? You want one, you tell others about how good they are etc, natural marketing for lack of a better term. If you don't know people who have positive things to say or are hesitant to get one then that's a negative in a lot of people's minds because there could vbe something wrong with it right? Why else wouldn't they get one if it was actually good then that compounds over the years and you end up with a Wii U. Also had terrible marketing where people thought it was a tablet for the Wii which doesn't help.
Then you have a Wii and Switch scenario where it crossed over from "gamers" to mainstream, people who aren't that into it ordinarily were hyped, having fun and talking about them.
You can have a great product or dump money into marketing and advertising for a bad product, but if people don't actually like it and all you hear is to avoid it or they barely know it exists then it's unlikely to sell well
Frenetic Pony
Veteran
And this is where Nintendo first party helps! The only reliable splitscreen left anywhere, but hey you go and play Mario Kart or etc. with your friend, then you want one too.
The problem with the Wii-U getting confused for some sort of thing for the Wii has been discussed to death, but for those that have missed it as of yet I've seen it confirmed by multiple people who were retail employees at the time that a lot of people got confused and didn't know it was an entirely new console.
I'm still hoping for a more robust hybrid system from Nintendo. Like an actual console that will also be a docking station. Bit more power when both devices are combined. The mobile unit can be called the Thwitch. And the console/docking station can be called the Thwii.
I wonder what the data are regarding how often people use the Switch in docked mode compared to portable mode.
Maybe if it's really lopsided, Nintendo can drop the docked mode. Or maybe not really care about pushing docked mode performance -- well they're likely to do that anyways.
the only data came out around a year after release that shown that docked and handheld only modes were evenly split
Rumor ...
wccftech.com
Switch 2 Storage Speculation Sparked by Samsung’s Newly-Revealed 800 MB/s microSD Cards
Samsung has revealed new extra-speedy microSD cards. Could we be looking at the storage for Nintendo's Switch 2?
wccftech.com
Not really a rumor, more just speculation.
I'll say again though - while some balk at the notion of Nintendo shelling out for faster, more expensive SD cards, it's gonna be necessary if they want to increase I/O capabilities while still being able to run games from the carts. Otherwise, they're either gonna fall way behind on I/O, or they're gonna require mandatory installs for Switch 2 games, rendering the cartridge format somewhat pointless outside BC purposes.
Will be interesting to see what they go with cuz there's heavy pros/cons no matter what they choose.
I'll say again though - while some balk at the notion of Nintendo shelling out for faster, more expensive SD cards, it's gonna be necessary if they want to increase I/O capabilities while still being able to run games from the carts. Otherwise, they're either gonna fall way behind on I/O, or they're gonna require mandatory installs for Switch 2 games, rendering the cartridge format somewhat pointless outside BC purposes.
Will be interesting to see what they go with cuz there's heavy pros/cons no matter what they choose.
cheapchips
Veteran
SD Express would have to cost about the same to make as regular 256Gb express cards for it to keep Switch 2 Cart pricing the same. No idea if that's plausible or not.
265Gb would be a healthy size. That should see the Switch 2 through it's lifespan quite nicely. Nintendo clearly had issues with pricing on larger sized XtraRom carts.
Frenetic Pony
Veteran
I'm not sure these cards actually cost that much to make, so much as there's a quiet price monopoly agreement to keep prices artificially jacked way the hell up. Why else would one version of flash cost 10x more than a different packaging? It's been done before by almost these exact same companies for RAM.
Volume.
But yea, I think this would obviously be overcome if Nintendo decided on a specific format.
Problem with that is those devices aren't gonna be connected on SOC level and whatever connection between them is going to suffer from latency which is very important to co-processing. I believe it's one of the main reason SLI/Crossfire didn't really take off.
arandomguy
Regular
That isn't the only way to do it. The dock could just provide more cooling and power for increased performance. The problem though is cost, as in order for signficicant uplift you'd effectively not only need to lower clocks but likely partialy disable the SoC in mobile mode, which would mean the mobile solution is horrible from a perf/cost stand point. Which means it's unlikely to be done.
With AI upscaling you have more flexiblity in terms of the added performance needed to translate the experience to the TV.
With AI upscaling you have more flexiblity in terms of the added performance needed to translate the experience to the TV.
Hopefully the carts will get faster and not become psvita carts where it still needs to be installed (iirc).
I read the chart as
0-18% docked
18.1%-70% docked and undocked
70.1%-100% undocked
And got even more confused when reading the chart subtitle.
I read the chart as
0-18% docked
18.1%-70% docked and undocked
70.1%-100% undocked
And got even more confused when reading the chart subtitle.
18% spends 80% of play time in docked mode
30% spends 80% of play time in handheld mode
52% spends less than 80% of play time in either mode
so the majority of people are playing their system in varying ways
Which could be 79%. We might have a case where 80% of players are playing 70+% of their time in handheld and docked isn't that important, or 70% of players are playing docked and handheld isn't that important.
There's a lot of grey area. Coloured appropriately.
Intuitively, you would think most people use it in handheld mode because it's the easiest way to access the games and play right away.
Maybe party or local multiplayer, it would make sense to put it up on a big TV but how often do they have people over? Maybe kids still in school do it, though in the last couple of years of the pandemic, maybe kids having their friends over was less frequent.
It would also seem like younger gamers would be more likely to use handheld mode all the time. Fewer of them have their own TV which they could use just for gaming and younger people tend to prefer consuming content on their phones so maybe that applies to gaming on the smaller screen rather than sitting down in front of the big TV.
Are there really popular Switch games which are carryovers from the Wii where people would be standing up in front of the TV and using motion controllers? That might be another category which occasions people to use the docked mode.
Maybe party or local multiplayer, it would make sense to put it up on a big TV but how often do they have people over? Maybe kids still in school do it, though in the last couple of years of the pandemic, maybe kids having their friends over was less frequent.
It would also seem like younger gamers would be more likely to use handheld mode all the time. Fewer of them have their own TV which they could use just for gaming and younger people tend to prefer consuming content on their phones so maybe that applies to gaming on the smaller screen rather than sitting down in front of the big TV.
Are there really popular Switch games which are carryovers from the Wii where people would be standing up in front of the TV and using motion controllers? That might be another category which occasions people to use the docked mode.
Just Dance, Switch Sports, and Ring Fit Adventure immediately come to mind
Only if you think most Switch users are kids or people who throw gaming parties a lot or something. Switch turned into way more than just some device people only use to play Nintendo games.
There's also nothing 'easier' about handheld, really. If it's docked, you just pick up the controller, hit the Home button and you're ready to go. Only more difficult if you've only got the base joycons and you're mixing docked and portable a lot and need to grab the joycons off the unit.
Personally, I used docked like 95%+ of the time. Better visual experience and vastly more comfortable for my hands. I like the Switch, but ergonomically it kind of sucks, not just to hold but also the tiny controls on the joycons and everything. Switch Pro controller is excellent, so using that makes it a great traditional console experience.
