Nintendo Switch

[Harsin]

Nintendo have really sewn up the Eternal Darkness loving business man with a 2 hour commute market.

[scottcr]

23 minutes ago, Protocol Penguin said:

Nah, don't sell the GC games. You'll regret it. I know, as it took me a great deal of effort to rebuild my (NTSC only) collection, and that was back in 2010/11 before all the prices went mental. Never sell the evergreen and irreplaceable for the latest flash in the pan.

 

Normally I'd agree... I've got Xenoblade on 3DS, I've got metroid prime on WiiU and I'd expect those GC games to come out on VC. That's why I need to know if GC VC is real.

[Nespresso]

Speaking of multimedia apps (such as Netflix or Youtube)... why doesn't this have any?

 

I'm veering more and more into "maybe I shouldn't support Nintendo and their shitty business practices"-territory. I'm close to €420 now if I want to play Zelda on day 1 with 5.1 surround sound lol (if that even works properly as I've got no idea if an HDMI audio extractor thingy introduces delay or not). 

[rubberducker]

31 minutes ago, ann coulter said:

 

They're an ultra conservative company and they know that once they do a Netflix style subscription based virtual console, they instantly devalue their entire back catalogue and that's it - there's no going back. From their perspective, they go from each game being worth £2/£5/£10 or whatever depending on the original system, to £10 a month for their entire back catalogue (or whatever chunk you're expecting them to dump on there).

 

I want it too, but why would this fiscal dinosaur of a company (which thinks something like 1, 2, Switch is worth £40) ever come close to doing something so wildly charitable?

Which is exactly why they need to wake the fuck up in the 21st century... 

 

newsflash! Their games are worth less! It's not 1988 anymore. And the faster they repackage them in a way modern users desire the better.

 

as is... Nintendo have some really stupid people steering the ship.

 

 

[mogawoods]

19 minutes ago, Majora said:

 

Yeah but surely the percentage of the player base willing to keep rebuying the same game digitally is shrinking with each new console? 

 

With Wii, people were excited about the VC. Each week the releases got loads of attention. For the first time in years it was possible to legally own and purchase a lot of these games. They even released games which didn't previously make it to Europe. 

 

Then Wii U came and it got a lot less attention. The drip feed started again from scratch. A lot of people had already bought these games once. Are much of their fanbase really going to care a third time when the VC gets a weekly update of NES Excitebike and SNES Wario Woods?

 

Surely it's reached a point where most of these games are going to garner no interest and very few sales? The novelty has gone. A Netflix style service may devalue them in the sense that they can no longer sell them separately for silly prices but I bet it would suddenly interest a lot more people and get more people reaching into their pockets if you could access their whole back catalogue of N64, SNES and NES games for a month. 

 

Nintendo just can't seem to understand that dripfeeding two 20-30 year old games a week for purchase for the third time in ten years isn't going to excite anyone anymore. 

 

Well, they're 60 year old Japanese business men, not 25 year old American gamers. I suspect that's a large reason why they don't get a lot of our frustrations.

 

I suspect too their confidence in the quality of their own games, past and present, makes them almost offended at the idea their games should be cheaper. I don't think they try to gauge the value of their games in the minds of consumers so much as decide for themselves their software's value and declare it - take it or leave it.

 

I reckon they'd make more money from people regularly paying £10 a month for everything rather than buying the odd game here and there for a 'silly' amount (they genuinely don't think the prices are silly). Presumably Nintendo suits don't.

 

It's almost as though they're waiting for the 'cheap games' bubble to burst. They don't realise it's Nintendo that's in the bubble.

[R0b]

2 hours ago, scottcr said:

Thinking of punting a whole bunch of GameCube and Wii games... Metroid trilogy, Xenoblade, fzero, chibi robo, last story, 1000 year door etc... methinks I should be able to raise enough....

 

Is the GameCube VC definitely a thing? 

 

THE LURE IS TOO STRONG

 

I think this (and neoelite flogging his WiiU) is fundamentally foolish: tons of great games and times for launch stuff. There's so little on offer at console launches, and look at those treasures you've listed! Have you rinsed them? Never let Chibi Robo out of your heart. 

[Mallet]

Why is it up to Nintendo to pioneer the netflix approach? Why not Sega, EA or any other big publisher, do they need to wake the fuck up as well? I'm not defending Nintendo here I'm just curious as to why the other publishers don't have the same expectations levelled at them. 

[Shimmyhill]

21 minutes ago, Nathan Wind said:

Bung a 3.5mm jack in each Joycon at the cost of,ooooh, I dunno....pennies?  They're already wirelessly communicating with the base or connected to the tablet.  Or just make your own Bluetooth mic if there aren't any suitable ones on the market.  It surely isn't much of a stretch to do a little single ear mic thing like business-twats and taxi drivers wear.  But what do I know about console design? Fuck all, that's what.  Maybe it's not that easy.

 

Normally I'd be rolling my eyes at the miserable bastards on 'muk sucking the joy out of a console launch yet again, and nit-picking, but quite a bit of this one is actually quite shit.

 

There has to be more than just the port, presumably some kind of day and amp!?

 

19 minutes ago, Harsin said:

Or stick a jack in the grip between the controllers. Nintendo are charging £25 for the fucking thing anyway.

 

The actual Switch has a jack anyway, so you just only a solution for when it's docked.

 

But thats just for the dog head thingie, what about if you are only using the side pads, one or the other or both - what about online multiplayer when you are also 2p at home (mind, that assumes both players have a sub) 

 

I think the problem is more complex that it looks and is easy to pick apart the solution but I can't think of a catch all that works!

 

On a related note, Xbox live chat on the Xbone is so bad that often we have resorted to doing the chat on the PS4 while playing on the xbone - with the sony earbud in an ear and headphones over the top - I guess we were one step ahead of Nintendo

 

Im not even kidding...

 

[Harsin]

21 minutes ago, Mallet said:

Why is it up to Nintendo to pioneer the netflix approach? Why not Sega, EA or any other big publisher, do they need to wake the fuck up as well? I'm not defending Nintendo here I'm just curious as to why the other publishers don't have the same expectations levelled at them. 

 

EA are already arguably already doing something a bit like this with Access so that was a really bad example for you to pick.

 

We all breathe a sigh of relief if Sega manages to get through another fiscal year without doing the equivalent of  publically soiling itself, expecting them to manage to set up something like that is asking a bit much I fear.

 

But why people keep tmentioning Nintendo is because have a arguably the largest and most beloved back catalogue out there, so they're an obvious choice for A service like that. Most other publishers just simply don't have the quality and depth of a back catalogue for something like that. No conspiracy theories.

[Stanley]

1 hour ago, Zombait said:

It's crazy isn't it? That's a fine example of the Nintendo Free Pass to get away with shit right there. This whole using an app to do voice chat is utterly backwards, besides everything else not everyone has a smartphone and I'm led to believe everyone who want's to play online will be required to pay the subscription. If this was Microsoft or Sony they'd be getting the full force of the internet's outrage until they clarified or back peddled...but Nintendo they can brush it all off with some pictures of Zelda or Mario and everyone's like  I'm gonna sell my gran to get one. 

I think it's so bizarre that people are actually still reeling from it. If they don't change this and provide a fully functioning fully integrated online system like everyone else then no one will pay for it, simple as that.

[joe bazooka]

They also don't make consoles.

[scottcr]

6 minutes ago, Rob Rule said:

 

I think this (and neoelite flogging his WiiU) is fundamentally foolish: tons of great games and times for launch stuff. There's so little on offer at console launches, and look at those treasures you've listed! Have you rinsed them? Never let Chibi Robo out of your heart. 

 

True... there's no way I'd sell me Wiiu. It's a treasure trove of wonderment. Was just thinking that these games are likely to go on VC. Chibi Robo unlikely though 

[SpagMasterSwift]

16 minutes ago, Harsin said:

Nintendo have really sewn up the Eternal Darkness loving business man with a 2 hour commute market.

We are many...

[macosx]

I'm not buying into their idea of the switch.: An online voice service for my system on a phone app, decades old games for only 1 month rental, a 2.5 hour battery life for decent games, a mini game collection where you dont really need the games screen and is charged full price, the cost of a decent controller £70 and memory and online subscription costs. No depth of third party support and a very limited launch selection.

what exactly have Nintendo learned. Fuck all.

 

Still Zelda and Mario. 

 

[gizmo1990]

Could the voice chat stuff be being offloaded to a separate device because of the relatively weak spec of the Switch? Otherwise I can't see any reason for such an odd implementation.. 

 

[Harsin]

19 minutes ago, Shimmyhill said:

 

On a related note, Xbox live chat on the Xbone is so bad that often we have resorted to doing the chat on the PS4 while playing on the xbone - with the sony earbud in an ear and headphones over the top - I guess we were one step ahead of Nintendo

 

Im not even kidding...

 

 

 

So you have a PS4 where saving clips takes minutes at a time and an Xbone with awful voice chat functions (as opposed to the problem free expeierence nearly everyone else has).

 

You really don't have much luck with your consoles do you.

[HarMGM]

30 minutes ago, Majora said:

Yeah but surely the percentage of the player base willing to keep rebuying the same game digitally is shrinking with each new console? 

[...]

Surely it's reached a point where most of these games are going to garner no interest and very few sales?

Oh boy, have I got a quote for you Majora.

 

From Reggie's Wired interview:

Quote

Kohler:Did the surprising, to you, demand for NES Classic open your eyes to understanding the popularity of classic Nintendo products in this day and age?

 

Fils-Aime: We know the popularity of our classic games. That’s a known situation. The challenge for us is that with this particular system, we thought honestly that the key consumer would be between 30 and 40 years old, with kids, who had stepped away from gaming for some period of time. And certainly we sold a lot of systems to that consumer. But what we also see here in the Americas is that we’ve sold a lot to [fans] who just saw a compact, all-in-one opportunity to get the 30 greatest games from the NES generation. I think that incremental demand is what surprised us. Because again, how many times have you purchased the original Super Mario Bros.? We thought that the consumer that already had a Wii or a Wii U and had purchased those games once or twice already, we didn’t think that they’d buy the NES Classic. And they did.

 

[matt0]

1 hour ago, Captain LeChuck said:

Of course not. Calling them the best in the gaming landscape is. Which you at the very least implied.  Enough. I have no interest in this machine, there's no point me being in this thread. 

 

Despite my negative feelings about the Switch I'd still put money on the new Mario and Zelda being two of the best, if not the actual best games this year. Nintendo at their best are legendary. 

[BBBBBB]

4 hours ago, Mr Do 71 said:

 

I bet it's £20 a year.

 £9.99 a month. No yearly option.

 

Calling it. 

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

3 hours ago, Shimmyhill said:

 

How do you not have a HDMI amp?

When mine was built, HDMI was still science fiction. But it's a very nice Onkyo amp that does everything I want it to so not really eager to replace it.

 

The guy I bought it from committed suicide. True story.

[Shimmyhill]

8 minutes ago, Harsin said:

 

So you have a unique PS4 where saving clips takes minutes at a time and a unique Xbone with awful voice chat functions (as opposed to the problem free expeierence nearly everyone else has).

 

You really don't have much luck with your consoles do you.

 

Neither being unique, xbone voice comms being crap and worse the 360 has been a thing forever - half of reddit is dedicated to it

 

My PS4 taking a while to grab an in game clip is also not unusual, it takes loads longer than it used to - it was pretty instant until the latest big update and again plenty of people whining about it online.

 

FWIW both my launch 360 and the elite I bought are both going strong, never failed me...

[The Boatman]

Some Guardian commentary for those interested:

 

Hands-on: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/14/nintendo-switch-games-console-london-launch-zelda-splatoon-2

 

Pre-ordered!: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/13/why-i-am-confident-enough-to-pre-order-a-nintendo-switch

 

Keith Stuart's view: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/12/nintendo-switch-is-this-hybrid-console-the-future-of-gaming?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+main+NEW+H+categories&utm_term=208220&subid=15029219&CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2

[Super Craig]

29 minutes ago, VN1X said:

Speaking of multimedia apps (such as Netflix or Youtube)... why doesn't this have any?

 

I'm veering more and more into "maybe I shouldn't support Nintendo and their shitty business practices"-territory. I'm close to €420 now if I want to play Zelda on day 1 with 5.1 surround sound lol (if that even works properly as I've got no idea if an HDMI audio extractor thingy introduces delay or not). 

 

According to Laura Kate Dale, Nintendo have asked the BBC to withdraw iPlayer on the Wii U and have said that they're not interested in a Switch version. I've got an Apple TV for that stuff, but it seems weird anyway.

[SweatyTravolta]

I'd get your Xbox looked at. I hate playing backwards compatible games with people uses 360s because that means we have to use the 360 voice chat and the quality difference is staggering. It's incredible we used to think that was amazing.

[Majora]

12 minutes ago, HarMGM said:

Oh boy, have I got a quote for you Majora.

 

From Reggie's Wired interview:

 

I can understand the Nintendo die-hards buying the NES classic as it's more than just buying a ROM on a console for the third time. You're buying into the replica of the original hardware, the original controller, the overall nostalgia experience. 

 

I feel like the number of people willing to buy some of these crummy old NES games for a third time on Switch must be tiny. But who knows, only Nintendo know the sales figures. Maybe there's enough crazy people out there buying NES Volleyball each time they release it to make it viable. 

[Strafe]

There are wrist charger straps too?!

[HarryBizzle]

11 minutes ago, Ale Crow said:

 £9.99 a month. No yearly option.

 

Calling it. 

 

I'm calling it going free within 12 months when nobody buys this thing. 

 

I don't see how they are going to tap into the "buy this for my kids to shut them up" market that the DS and 3DS have at £280 and a subscription when you can buy them a tablet and they'll probably be happy with crappy free games. 

[Sarlaccfood]

The people demanding Nintendo throw all their games into a Netflix or Spotify style service realise the movie and music industries fucking hate those services and would shut them down in an instant if they had a choice?

 

Those services came from a necessity to combat widescale piracy the likes of which videogames don't really experience nowadays.

 

They would be mental to do it without charging a price that people would moan about anyway so why would they?

[Protocol Penguin]

7 minutes ago, Super Craig said:

 

According to Laura Kate Dale, Nintendo have asked the BBC to withdraw iPlayer on the Wii U and have said that they're not interested in a Switch version. I've got an Apple TV for that stuff, but it seems weird anyway.

That seems rather shit. I use my Wii U for accessing iPlayer, Netflix and other streaming services, so that's one more reason why I won't be 'upgrading' to a Switch.

[Super Craig]

WWE have actually hurt their profits with their WWE Network, so it's definitely not a win-win scenario either.