And well deserved, too! I was pretty much done with console gaming after the Wii. That was the most excited I ever was for a console (since I was 13), but after the launch, I never played it nearly as much as my GameCube.
I played about 5 games on my Wii U, and didn't even plan on getting a Switch, but my oh my could I have not been more wrong! I think the portability and the power to run pretty much any modern game (albeit with worse graphics) was a true winning combo.
Also, I was just thinking today how it's crazy that Nintendo has been the dominant portable console maker basically since the Gameboy in 1989. There were some competitors, but nothing ever took the throne, just 33 years of being the King. Really impressive!
Atari lynx was possibly the best handheld game system, followed by the game gear, but their cost meant it most out to the more affordable Gameboy.
I think though, what won it was not the hardware but the software. The switch is a great handheld console and a good console in dock mode. But Breath of the Wild was worth the cost of the console alone. I liken it to GTA IV or GTA V, but for my kids. It is a beautiful open world that really knocks out of the park every aspect, music, graphics, gameplay, puzzles. It is a beautiful game and I believe it is a major reason the switch is so successful, or at least it's launch period was.
I also think that the portability is a huge factor, I know many households where they have a PS5 or and XBOX and a switch. Few people will buy all consoles but the switch being portable means it has the extra edge when deciding on a second system.
Not just it's portability. I've seen kids in coffeeshops. Their mom is reading a magazine and the kids have put the Switch on a table using its stand and then use the controllers to play 2+ player games. No other handheld I know of has ever done that.
Absolutely agree on Breath of the Wild. I think every successful console has The Game that really differentiates it (speaking as someone who never had a console growing up, just Sierra games).
Having got a Switch for my son - Breath of the Wild is that game for Switch, but is also possibly the best game made so far. If you haven't played it, don't argue - just play it.
I much preferred the GB to the GG. The former took 3 batteries and lasted months. The latter took something like 6 batteries and only lasted 3 hours. While the GG was undoubtedly a better machine hardware wise, that counted for nothing when your batteries ran out mid road tip.
I think the most impressive hardware-wise was the Turbo Express. It was released in 1990, just a year after the Game Boy and Lynx and same year as the Game Gear.
It had a 400x270 screen vs 160x144 in the Game Boy and Game Gear and 160x102 in the Lynx.
It was basically a portable TurboGrafx and could run Street Fighter II (which was also released for the Game Boy but it was miles behind).
Breath of the Wild released on the Wii U as well, as did the pre-deluxe version of Mario Kart 8 and what was at the time arguably the best Super Smash Bros game yet (some people prefer Melee, but Brawl was notoriously not great, and Ultimate obviously had not come out in the Wii U's heyday). I'm not sure good first-party games alone can completely carry a console; people need to be hooked in first before they start considering the platform, and the Switch had the most intriguing hook there's been so far.
> I think though, what won it was not the hardware but the software.
Not even just new stuff: I had Grandia II on the Dreamcast as a kid, and thought I'd never play it again. Then I found out it was ported to the Switch, and that was the tipping point that got me to buy it a few years ago.
> Atari lynx was possibly the best handheld game system, followed by the game gear, but their cost meant it most out to the more affordable Gameboy.
It doesn't matter how powerful a handheld system is if the batteries only last an hour or two.
In the era when the lynx and game gear were released, NiMH batteries were not mainstream yet, and NiCd were not as suitable for the application. I knew a few kids who had the Lynx and they realistically could not use it unless it was plugged into the wall.
> Atari lynx was possibly the best handheld game system
I'm sorry but I have to disagree. The best handled game system was undisputably the Nec PC-engine GT (was called Nec GT turbo in my country) -> https://www.google.com/search?q=nec+gt+turbo
I owned a Lynx and it was incredible to have something with colors when the competition was the original B/W Gameboy.
But I was the only one I ever met to own that, which meant I could never trade games or share the excitement. The lower cost Gameboy had "network effects", and so ended up being a much better buy for a random kid.
> I also think that the portability is a huge factor
At least out here, I’ll often go to the park and see little clusters of 10 year olds, either all wrapped around one Switch, or all playing together on their respective Switch. I’ve never seen that before, even with Gameboys.
I don’t know exactly why, but they did something right.
Same boat. After the Wii I was done. If I wanted to put money into gaming it was going to be on PC. The Switch isn't the most powerful, or has the best library (Nintendo first party games notwithstanding), or the most portable, but it's "good enough" at everything in the way VHS and MP3s were/are. It also helps that it's relatively inexpensive to get into, and has a huge indie game scene. So while you may not get the best version of "Soldiers on a Battlefield 2022" or whatever, there are hundreds of semi-exclusives.
Getting a console and a portable in one unit was also brilliant and something that neither Sony or Microsoft can do with their "most powerful hardware first". Nintendo cares about things that affect the gameplay experience, and Microsoft and Sony care more about how cool the software is. Orthogonal purposes but it lets Nintendo, a relatively small company, compete globally and effectively against two 9 million pound mega giants.
Without detracting anything from your other statements (the comparison to MP3 is excellent), "notwithstanding" is doing a lot of work in the line, "Nintendo first party games notwithstanding." Nintendo's games are the reason folks buy a Switch.[1] It's pretty unbelievable the record they (and especially EPD) have:
1. Breath of the Wild was game of the year for most publications, is considered by some the greatest game of all time[2], and single-handedly sold the console for many people I know
2. Super Mario Odyssey is generally heralded as one of the best Mario games ever made and shipped 22 million copies
2. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the best selling fighting game of all time
3. Mario Kart 8 is the best selling racing game of all time, and the 7th highest selling video game of all time
4. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the 13th highest selling video game of all time (2nd highest in Japan)
To help the thread, this is the Nintendo way of "lateral thinking with withered technology.[0]" They for example choice lack of color for the Gameboy for the sake of battery life, that is, using cheap technology that can be replicated and mass produced well.
Nintendo figured out when the xBox came out that if you weren't Sony and or Microsoft you would have a really hard time competing in the space so they tried just to focus on making consoles that had some kind of gimmick and optimizing on having fun and they had a clear domination over the mobile space.
I would say that the Switch is their response to Apple as being off balance on the mobile space and they were easily defeated by just focusing on a fun and portable console that also can be plugged into a TV. Really the Switch has a NVIDIA Tegra 1 and the rest of the console is Nintendo's design.
> If I wanted to put money into gaming it was going to be on PC.
I think people that are otherwise PC gamers make for a great audience for Nintendo. They don’t need any power, they already have that on the PC. What they want is to be able to carry the thing around and play anywhere they want.
I bought the Switch in part because of portability, but almost never ended up using this way. I used to game a lot as a child and teenager but almost stopped entirely once my job involved sitting in front of a screen all day. But I still like playing some games I can pick up to kill half an hour here and there, completely casual.
The game selection, is perfect for this. Or a couple rounds of couch co-op. I have zero interest to play hyper competitive games with random people over the internet.
The Switch really brought back the fond memories I had when first being exposed to gaming, when I kept going to my neighbors home to play Super Nintendo games against each other
I do love the portability of my Switch, but eve more I do love how casual it is. And how a lot of their games, while they can be played multiplayer, are focused on single player stuff. They've great single player titles, and that keeps me coming back to Nintendo regularly (especially their mobile stuff, I'm pretty sure I've owned at least one iteration of everything since the Gameboy Pocket).
Interestingly the Wii is more or less the same hardware as the GC but with upgraded specs. In fact the Wii even has GC ports on it (for GC controllers and memory cards) and plays GC discs. Additionally the Wiimote was originally designed to be an add on for the GC before Nintendo decided to release it as the primary controller for their next console.
I mostly lost interest in AAA games when I was 14 or so, but the Switch has been great for going back and playing some of the games that came out around then that I never got a chance to play. The idea of closing out of all my work stuff and rebooting into another operating system is just a complete non-starter, but the Switch is perfect just to grab whenever I'm backing up my hard drive, upgrading my OS, the Internet is down, etc.
The nice thing is that most games don’t _feel_ underpowered on Switch. Sure the graphics don’t look as good but it’s not laggy in the games I’ve tried.
For example: Immortals Fenyx Rising is cross platform, but it feels smooth. I would rather play on Switch than other consoles so I can occasionally play while traveling. It’s really nice to have the same game, same save point, with same controller on the TV or on the go.
My job these last few years has mainly been focused on trying to get games running smoothly across all platforms and finding workarounds or optimizations for switch has been the biggest part of it. It's so incredibly weak in comparison to any other modern console. It's literally a mobile SoC from 2015.
As a user, however, the switch is by far my favorite console. It might not look as flashy but I can play almost any game I want anywhere I want.
Nah. It got the power of a really high end 6 year old Android phone. And with the fan it can provide more power than the same soc in a phone form factor.
I really enjoyed the PSP or PlayStation portable. It was the first thing I ever hacked and played games for free. Set me on a path. But I do love my switch greatly. It appeals to me with the kid friendly games. Watching my 5 year old develop his hand eye coordination makes my heart melt.
I must be about your age and damn, I played so much Wii. I must have >200h on several games: both Mario Galaxy's (one of my favourite games), Wii Sports Resort, Smash, etc.
On the contrary my Switch is almost exclusively a BotW machine x) bar a few indie games here and there. I must be getting old
I literally didn't even notice the WiiU release :) I heard the rumours and forgot about it. The next time I saw anything WiiU related it had already been in stores for a while.
I don't know a single person who got one even near the release. _Everyone_ had a Wii though.
That used to be the case, but modern game engines like Unity make it easy to plop out an switch-capable version. The hardware is similar enough to a normal PC that it’s a matter of just turning the graphics down (way, way down). It certainly wasn’t a majority at the start but now more than half of new AAA releases have a Switch version.
That said, buying a switch to play AAA games is not ideal. I find the graphics compromises too great, myself. Indie games (only certain genres like platforming), visual novels and Nintendo-first-party games are what I find the switch excels at.
Nintendo has finally sued too many smart people, and shut down too many fan projects. I can no longer support their bad behaviour so I can't support the Switch. I know they've been bad actors in that space for a long time but I guess I've just gotten old enough to see past my nostalgia.
Also the quality of the switch is below my expectations. My NES controller still works, but my joycons are dead.
> Nintendo has finally sued too many smart people, and shut down too many fan projects. I can no longer support their bad behaviour so I can't support the Switch. I know they've been bad actors in that space for a long time but I guess I've just gotten old enough to see past my nostalgia.
For reference, Nintendo stalked Neimod and compiled a dossier on him[1][2], tried to get him to incriminate himself online[2], and then dangled a job opportunity in front of him in exchange for information about his 3DS exploits[3].
From here[4]:
> Nintendo had run background checks on the hacker, knew where he lived, where he worked, and where he graduated from. To make the story even more creepy, the gaming company was allegedly spying on the man, knew everything about his typical day, his usual activities, friendships, times he left his residence, restaurants he liked to visit, and more.
Is it known how they got this info? Typically this would've required hiring some private investigator for a few weeks to follow them and gather intelligence, but now it seems they could have simply ran his name to get all this information from a background check agency (in my experience these background checks are typically very detailed including employment and income information).
This reenforces my decision to jailbreak my Switch Lite. It's been sitting unused for 2 years, I don't like it, gives me cramps, and the store prices are ridiculous when used to the convenience and sales offered by Steam. And I have to pay for the Nintendo Online subscription to install a NES and SNES emulator. Yeah, no.
Any good Switch jailbreak resources? I'm comfortable doing it, I don't know what's the latest and most effective hack these days.
It's surprising that no one in the community takes retaliation, in one form or another. If you don't have the ability to harm others you are sheep in the jungle.
>Nintendo has finally sued too many smart people, and shut down too many fan projects.
I've always wondered, with Nintendo's history of being rather litigious and forcing fans to take down gameplay videos, etc, how have they not sued Roblox out of existence yet? Practically every game I see my kids play on Roblox makes heavy use of unlicensed Nintendo IP: models/images of Mario, Yoshi, Pikachu, well known music and sound effects from various Nintendo games, and so on. Robolox is not some obscure app, AFAIK it has over 150 million users and rakes in money from these games that are making extensive use of Nintendo's IP. IANAL but this seems like a slam dunk, what gives?
> IANAL but this seems like a slam dunk, what gives?
Roblox is protected by the DMCA from liability for copyright infringement based on user submitted content. All that Nintendo can do is file DMCA claims and then wait. Nintendo could not sue unless Roblox fails to take down the material.
Suing the users who submitted the material would be a waste of time in most cases, because most users don't have any money to pay damages.
Because lawyers don't pick fights to lose them. Arguing to what extent a platform has to moderate content, in a foreign court, against a warchest in the billions, is a much different ballgame to just binning a beloved fan game community once in a while to send a message.
Can they even sue roblox? They are only the platform, the content after all comes from the creators. And the question is whether this amounts as fair use. Fanart and stuff is not getting sued either for reasons.
But then again, people can make money with Roblox, so i'm curious whether Nintendo does sue people who make Money with their content on Roblox.
I don't understand people getting upset about fan projects being shut down. What do you expect to happen? You can create an earthbound-like game without calling it earthbound.
Among my children's friends, I don't know of _any_ who own a console that isn't a Switch. The PS5 is basically impossible to procure, and the XBox just doesn't seem to appeal to the child-age market.
So I'm a little surprised that it has taken it this long to outsell the Wii; but then again, more children appear to play on a hand-me-down phone than play on a Switch.
I dunno, if you look at [0], it seems to put the sales in perspective. I'm curious when these lifetime sales figures stop being updated? I'm assuming it's as long as the product is sold by the parent company. I'm amazed the DS did that well? Then again, I do remember everyone except me seeming to have one when I was a teen :)
Seems crazy it took Nintendo that long to come up with a 'worthy successor', in some ways.
Features of the NDS that may have been forgotten, that all could have contributed to the popularity:
* Two game slots, one for NDS games and one for GBA games, making it almost a straight upgrade (it dropped support for pre-GBA games) so you could have two games in your pocket instead of just one.
* PictoChat, an ad-hoc network chatroom that wasn't just text but also drawing with the stylus. I remember bringing it to school and finding several others were also online, we chatted instead of paying attention to the assembly.
* Download Play, for games that supported it you could do multiplayer on multiple systems with only one game cartridge.
* For that matter, it was their first handheld with built-in wireless multiplayer.
Also in terms of games, I think it was their first handheld that really appealed to the more casual/relaxed players: For example it was the first portable Animal Crossing and introduced Nintendogs.
I thought that Switch should be already outsold Wii, because it's combined Wii+DS, and PS/Xbox aren't direct rival. Maybe due to birth rate declining in developed world?
As a kid, I was a big outdoors person until I got my SNES as a Christmas gift. It set me on a path to becoming a night owl software engineer.
I fell in love with Zelda, Donkey Kong Country, Mario RPG, and never worked harder to earn enough money to buy an N64. The web was just starting to take off, and it was at that point I started using the internet to look up cheat codes and make friends to talk about games with.
Because of Nintendo I found out there was incredible depth to Japanese culture. I learned Japanese, discovered anime and manga. Dragon Ball, Cowboy Bebop, Miyazaki, Princess Mononoke, tokusatsu, that whole lot. I also learned to build websites to share cheat codes (strategywiki.org), and started to engineer chat, matchmaking (dsmeet.com), character designer tools, and more. I eventually wound up in Japan teaching English for a bit, working on code on the side.
Eventually video games lost the magical spell and I preferred to spend my time with building and creation. But I don't think any of it would have happened, at least not quite the way it did, without Nintendo.
But it hurts to see that Nintendo can be real jerks to their fans. They force take downs for indie games, ROM hacks, and even music. For a long time they vehemently tried to destroy the vibrant Smash Melee scene. Contrast this behavior with Sega, which actively leans into their fans' excitement and issues artistic license for their creations.
Nintendo also doesn't get the broader picture. They consistently fail at online gaming and paint themselves into boxes.
Switch was a success, but Wii U was not. Wii was a success, but Gamecube and Nintendo 64 undersold. I don't know what they're going to do against the juggernaut power of Microsoft and all of the studio consolidation. Or how they'll fare with Steam entering their lucrative market. They're going to need more successes in this crowded market. I hope they continue to innovate. They're the Studio Ghibli of the gaming world, and it'd be sad to see them go.
The thing is, these "fans" are not their target demographic, so they really don't care.
Nintendo tends to focus on people that play their games for fun, and less on people that turn it into a serious hobby or try to build it into their personal identity.
>and less on people that turn it into a serious hobby or try to build it into their personal identity.
Sadly this is almost true for all products out there, just a small percentage of exceptions. In software it's more tolerant and occasionally encouraged (ID Software's open source policy). We are on our own.
Not the person you're responding to, but a recent example that caused outrage was Nintendo sending C&Ds to online Melee tournament organizers during the pandemic (using emulators with mods). I'm sure there's some way in which Nintendo is within their legal right to do this though, even if I think this behavior is a plague to art and technology.
I despise the Switch joycons, and not just for the drift issues.
“Is my controller in single horizontal mode or paired vertical mode?”, “I want to be player 1”, “stop hitting buttons!”, “The pairing failed.”
When the kids play together it’s always a shit show. Contrast this with the PS4, we pick up the controllers and play. I’ve never had to even think about the controllers with the PlayStation, they just work.
Their hardware quality is definitely sub-par. I got the Pro Controller because the joycons are The Worst [1], and it's definitely the worst quality controller compared to Xbox and PS4. For example, its D-Pad will occasionally mis-press up or down when pressing right or left, which is failing the basic purpose of a D-Pad.
That said, the concept of the Switch remains fantastic, and I take it with me whenever I travel. I'm definitely in line for getting the Steam Deck.
Which is good, but they've been selling broken hardware for 5 years now. They'll fix them for you, but they'll sell you them in a state where they'll need to be fixed. I love Nintendo games. Grew up with them, and still play them (playing the new Pokemon at the moment), but man do I hate the corporation. Their development teams are incredible and the big ones never miss, but the corporate has so many knocks against them, from YouTube demonetization to the still broken joy cons.
I can't think of another first party wireless controller (since they became standard in 2005-2006ish) that has ever had issues this bad.
The reliability of the joycons is absolutely unacceptable.
The repair isn't too tricky and a set of replacements can be had for pretty cheap. I'd recommend people look at getting them repaired, rather than buying a set of (highly overprices) replacements.
for me too - I finally figured out they just have a very weak connection to the Switch. basically needs a clear line-of-sight to the console. Try putting your joycons behind your back and you'll see what I mean! Hope this helps
Oddly enough, my experience was the opposite. After enjoying the Switch for 3+ years (purchased late 2018), the same price point bought me an XBOX Series S earlier this year (Series X were/(are?) hard to find and this was an impromptu purchase. Not entirely happy about that tradeoff).
Suffice to say, been having a blast catching up with old favorites and new games. The backward compatibility enhancements (higher FPS and upres'ing) really put into perspective just how little gaming has progressed generationally, which makes these games that much more enjoyable.
The Switch is an amazing device (own two - one modded and one non). While the availability of games increases daily, its performance will always remain the weak point.
That^ and its horrible controllers. The XBX controller is sublime.
> While the availability of games increases daily, its performance will always remain the weak point.
Honestly I don't care that much about performance any longer, graphics were mostly good enough 10 years ago. Modern graphics looks better when you put them side by side, but the graphics 10 years ago was good enough that you easily get used to it. The current switch has problems running 10 year old high end graphics, yeah that is a problem, but the switch is 5 year old hardware, if they made a new switch with modern hardware it should be able to run all those games smoothly.
Strongly disagree on the controllers. No other controller allows me to sit in the middle of my couch and stretch my arms out to both sides and still play a game.
I've always had the opinion that Nintendo consoles were best when paired with something else. For me, I have a powerful gaming PC for all my gaming needs, and the switch is for portable/Nintendo titles.
I usually game at 3440x1440 @ 120hz and I don't find it jarring playing the Switch. I love it for what it is :)
Except if you use it on the PC. My Xbox Series controller keeps randomly dropping connection and it reports two different battery levels to Windows 10 ("50%" and "Critical"), which are both wrong, so you'll have to replace the batteries without being prompted unless you want it to die at random during a game. This is a widely-known issue, but Microsoft has done nothing to fix it: https://github.com/NiyaShy/XB1ControllerBatteryIndicator/iss...
Have been trying out Xcloud gaming lately and it works surprisingly well. Although I won't be able to play on a train or plane, it will definitely fill my travel/hotel gaming use case.
Yeah, it goes so far that I don't quite understand those that say that they use their Switch exclusively docked, or exclusively handheld. I definitely use both, and love the Switch for it (not just for that).
Even the motion controls add value: In games like DOOM, it's pretty cool to effectively have the portable Switch display as a "window" into the virtual world, and move the Switch around for aiming. I'm usually not a fan of motion controls, but that "aiming with the window" thing feels natural, and like something I might do anyway even if it didn't have an effect (like leaning your body into curves when playing a racing game).
The Wii U and Virtual Boy aside, how do they do it? Even the 3DS people came around on. Really wild how much weird shit ('innovation'?) this company can get away with.
>The Wii U and Virtual Boy aside, how do they do it?
Nintendo's top-tier exclusives, and a constant focus on end-to-end user experience.
The PS4/Xbone (and even, to an extent, the 360/PS3) have so much jank when it comes to playing a game on them.
My experience with The Last of Us Part II basically consisted of inserting the game, waiting nearly 25 minutes for it to install, going through that entire process again, twice, because there was a smudge on the disc, then waiting another 20 mins to download a 10GB patch, only to load up the game and sit through hours upon hours of boring-as-fuck intro content before I saw a single zombie.
With Super Mario Odyssey, I put the game in, downloaded some optional 50MB patch in about 20 seconds, then started jumping around collecting coins and throwing my hat at everything.
They just "get it" in ways that Sony and Microsoft don't (or at least, haven't "got" since the original PS2/Xbox era).
It's called Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology. It was Gunpei Yokoi's credo. Other console makers start off with, okay, we are going to design a system around the latest and best technology and really wow people with our graphics. Nintendo starts off with, what can we build using old technology that we can pick up for a song and second-source easily if need be? So it becomes a question of, how do you combine these old technologies in new ways that would have a fun gameplay story in them? When you do LTwWT, you really have to focus on gameplay and fun, because you don't have much to fall back on. And then on the software side the question becomes, what kinds of games can we write for this system that a) play to the system's strengths; b) look, sound, and feel great, even with the hardware's more limited capabilities?
Developing for a Nintendo system is not for everybody. It's like being a Mac developer only more so: you have to write software that integrates smoothly with the hardware and contributes to the grand narrative of the vendor.
Pokémon, Legend of Zelda, and Smash Bros all sell consoles and their innovation is child-targeted so they innovate in weird ways cuz kids don’t care really about processor speed or graphics cores.
It's unlike anything else- with Xbox and PlayStation you can get mostly the same experience on the "opposite" console, or even on a PC. All of nintendo's consoles have followed a similar thread where it adds something that you just don't have on other consoles.
Nintendo exclusives don't hurt, either. But Xbox and PS have exclusives, too.
I have to imagine the changes have to have been somewhat more driven by developers coming up with fun gameplay ideas while messing with new hardware. Super Mario 64 DS for example includes a collection of minigames with varying gameplay mechanics that explore different ways to use the dual screens along with the pack-in metroid demo, the Wii U had Nintendo Land, and the 3ds faceraiders, Mii Plaza and some AR demos, which all seem like polished proof of concepts for how to take advantage of the new hardware.
If you travel at all and want to plug your switch into the TV still (say your hotel room TV), I 100% recommend the Covert Dock[1] by Genki. A total game-changer for me. Really allows me to use the Switch to its fullest wherever I am.
Just finished manually eye-balling every single on the Switch some hours ago today -- took me about 10 weeks on and off doing it casually when I was in the mood. Used an external website of course because Nintendo's is a disaster.
Out of ~6900 games in total (and about 600 more that are upcoming and/or unavailable to me in my country) I liked about 200, wouldn't mind buying other 50, so that's 250 games that I either like or don't hate. And I have about 40 in my collection, some of which I uninstalled.
So realistically I can still buy 250 games out of 7500 in the next few years and get a lot of value for my money.
That's 3.3% of all the games. I count that as a big win and I don't regret my investment in the Switch one bit. Even considering the OLED variant for the bigger and better display -- though I have to say I was very disappointed that Nintendo didn't bump up its specs even a little bit.
It’s basically a tablet - in 2022, an underpowered one. It was underpowered as a console 6 years ago. It has very few third party games (ok, you can play Skyrim and Witcher 3, but most of the games just are not there).
But it’s still so fun. And the first party games are all amazing. Even when stuff like Mario Kart and Super Mario 3D World is a port from even older generation.
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I played about 5 games on my Wii U, and didn't even plan on getting a Switch, but my oh my could I have not been more wrong! I think the portability and the power to run pretty much any modern game (albeit with worse graphics) was a true winning combo.
Also, I was just thinking today how it's crazy that Nintendo has been the dominant portable console maker basically since the Gameboy in 1989. There were some competitors, but nothing ever took the throne, just 33 years of being the King. Really impressive!
I think though, what won it was not the hardware but the software. The switch is a great handheld console and a good console in dock mode. But Breath of the Wild was worth the cost of the console alone. I liken it to GTA IV or GTA V, but for my kids. It is a beautiful open world that really knocks out of the park every aspect, music, graphics, gameplay, puzzles. It is a beautiful game and I believe it is a major reason the switch is so successful, or at least it's launch period was.
I also think that the portability is a huge factor, I know many households where they have a PS5 or and XBOX and a switch. Few people will buy all consoles but the switch being portable means it has the extra edge when deciding on a second system.
Having got a Switch for my son - Breath of the Wild is that game for Switch, but is also possibly the best game made so far. If you haven't played it, don't argue - just play it.
It had a 400x270 screen vs 160x144 in the Game Boy and Game Gear and 160x102 in the Lynx.
It was basically a portable TurboGrafx and could run Street Fighter II (which was also released for the Game Boy but it was miles behind).
Not even just new stuff: I had Grandia II on the Dreamcast as a kid, and thought I'd never play it again. Then I found out it was ported to the Switch, and that was the tipping point that got me to buy it a few years ago.
It doesn't matter how powerful a handheld system is if the batteries only last an hour or two.
In the era when the lynx and game gear were released, NiMH batteries were not mainstream yet, and NiCd were not as suitable for the application. I knew a few kids who had the Lynx and they realistically could not use it unless it was plugged into the wall.
I'm sorry but I have to disagree. The best handled game system was undisputably the Nec PC-engine GT (was called Nec GT turbo in my country) -> https://www.google.com/search?q=nec+gt+turbo
But I was the only one I ever met to own that, which meant I could never trade games or share the excitement. The lower cost Gameboy had "network effects", and so ended up being a much better buy for a random kid.
At least out here, I’ll often go to the park and see little clusters of 10 year olds, either all wrapped around one Switch, or all playing together on their respective Switch. I’ve never seen that before, even with Gameboys.
I don’t know exactly why, but they did something right.
Getting a console and a portable in one unit was also brilliant and something that neither Sony or Microsoft can do with their "most powerful hardware first". Nintendo cares about things that affect the gameplay experience, and Microsoft and Sony care more about how cool the software is. Orthogonal purposes but it lets Nintendo, a relatively small company, compete globally and effectively against two 9 million pound mega giants.
1. Breath of the Wild was game of the year for most publications, is considered by some the greatest game of all time[2], and single-handedly sold the console for many people I know
2. Super Mario Odyssey is generally heralded as one of the best Mario games ever made and shipped 22 million copies
2. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the best selling fighting game of all time
3. Mario Kart 8 is the best selling racing game of all time, and the 7th highest selling video game of all time
4. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the 13th highest selling video game of all time (2nd highest in Japan)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Nintendo_... (and apropos of nothing, compare to PS4's: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_PlayStati... - Switch's top 6 best sellers all moved more than PS4's #1)
[2] https://www.ign.com/articles/the-best-100-video-games-of-all...
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpei_Yokoi#Lateral_Thinking_... From the venerable Gunpei Yokoi, who helped develop the original Metroid and the Gameboy
I would say that the Switch is their response to Apple as being off balance on the mobile space and they were easily defeated by just focusing on a fun and portable console that also can be plugged into a TV. Really the Switch has a NVIDIA Tegra 1 and the rest of the console is Nintendo's design.
Actually the PSP had video out. Really just a marketing thing.
I think people that are otherwise PC gamers make for a great audience for Nintendo. They don’t need any power, they already have that on the PC. What they want is to be able to carry the thing around and play anywhere they want.
N64, Gamecube, Wii, Wii U, and Switch.
GB, GBA, DS, 3DS, and Switch.
All of them feel like a generational leap instead of the incremental improvement model of other companies.
To be specific: 720p and severely degraded effects, textures, models, anti-aliasing, etc - and you'll be lucky to get 60fps.
The Switch has about as much horsepower as a ~6 year old mid-tier Android phone.
For example: Immortals Fenyx Rising is cross platform, but it feels smooth. I would rather play on Switch than other consoles so I can occasionally play while traveling. It’s really nice to have the same game, same save point, with same controller on the TV or on the go.
As a user, however, the switch is by far my favorite console. It might not look as flashy but I can play almost any game I want anywhere I want.
Imagine how many they would have sold if the iPhone didnt exist!
On the contrary my Switch is almost exclusively a BotW machine x) bar a few indie games here and there. I must be getting old
I don't know a single person who got one even near the release. _Everyone_ had a Wii though.
But the Wii failed pretty hard in terms of games.
After the 5th mini games collection it became pretty boring...
Huh? Any modern game?? I'm pretty sure just a small fraction of modern AAA titles is available on the Switch.
That said, buying a switch to play AAA games is not ideal. I find the graphics compromises too great, myself. Indie games (only certain genres like platforming), visual novels and Nintendo-first-party games are what I find the switch excels at.
Also the quality of the switch is below my expectations. My NES controller still works, but my joycons are dead.
For reference, Nintendo stalked Neimod and compiled a dossier on him[1][2], tried to get him to incriminate himself online[2], and then dangled a job opportunity in front of him in exchange for information about his 3DS exploits[3].
From here[4]:
> Nintendo had run background checks on the hacker, knew where he lived, where he worked, and where he graduated from. To make the story even more creepy, the gaming company was allegedly spying on the man, knew everything about his typical day, his usual activities, friendships, times he left his residence, restaurants he liked to visit, and more.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25580861
[2] https://twitter.com/forestillusion/status/134123063191354163...
[3] https://twitter.com/orcastraw/status/1341178144708059136
[4] https://www.technadu.com/nintendo-spying-3ds-hacker-neimod-t...
Any good Switch jailbreak resources? I'm comfortable doing it, I don't know what's the latest and most effective hack these days.
I've always wondered, with Nintendo's history of being rather litigious and forcing fans to take down gameplay videos, etc, how have they not sued Roblox out of existence yet? Practically every game I see my kids play on Roblox makes heavy use of unlicensed Nintendo IP: models/images of Mario, Yoshi, Pikachu, well known music and sound effects from various Nintendo games, and so on. Robolox is not some obscure app, AFAIK it has over 150 million users and rakes in money from these games that are making extensive use of Nintendo's IP. IANAL but this seems like a slam dunk, what gives?
Roblox is protected by the DMCA from liability for copyright infringement based on user submitted content. All that Nintendo can do is file DMCA claims and then wait. Nintendo could not sue unless Roblox fails to take down the material.
Suing the users who submitted the material would be a waste of time in most cases, because most users don't have any money to pay damages.
But then again, people can make money with Roblox, so i'm curious whether Nintendo does sue people who make Money with their content on Roblox.
Bro, what?
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Do you have to blow in your switch to get the games to work?
So I'm a little surprised that it has taken it this long to outsell the Wii; but then again, more children appear to play on a hand-me-down phone than play on a Switch.
Seems crazy it took Nintendo that long to come up with a 'worthy successor', in some ways.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_cons...
Features of the NDS that may have been forgotten, that all could have contributed to the popularity:
* Two game slots, one for NDS games and one for GBA games, making it almost a straight upgrade (it dropped support for pre-GBA games) so you could have two games in your pocket instead of just one.
* PictoChat, an ad-hoc network chatroom that wasn't just text but also drawing with the stylus. I remember bringing it to school and finding several others were also online, we chatted instead of paying attention to the assembly.
* Download Play, for games that supported it you could do multiplayer on multiple systems with only one game cartridge.
* For that matter, it was their first handheld with built-in wireless multiplayer.
Also in terms of games, I think it was their first handheld that really appealed to the more casual/relaxed players: For example it was the first portable Animal Crossing and introduced Nintendogs.
As a kid, I was a big outdoors person until I got my SNES as a Christmas gift. It set me on a path to becoming a night owl software engineer.
I fell in love with Zelda, Donkey Kong Country, Mario RPG, and never worked harder to earn enough money to buy an N64. The web was just starting to take off, and it was at that point I started using the internet to look up cheat codes and make friends to talk about games with.
Because of Nintendo I found out there was incredible depth to Japanese culture. I learned Japanese, discovered anime and manga. Dragon Ball, Cowboy Bebop, Miyazaki, Princess Mononoke, tokusatsu, that whole lot. I also learned to build websites to share cheat codes (strategywiki.org), and started to engineer chat, matchmaking (dsmeet.com), character designer tools, and more. I eventually wound up in Japan teaching English for a bit, working on code on the side.
Eventually video games lost the magical spell and I preferred to spend my time with building and creation. But I don't think any of it would have happened, at least not quite the way it did, without Nintendo.
But it hurts to see that Nintendo can be real jerks to their fans. They force take downs for indie games, ROM hacks, and even music. For a long time they vehemently tried to destroy the vibrant Smash Melee scene. Contrast this behavior with Sega, which actively leans into their fans' excitement and issues artistic license for their creations.
Nintendo also doesn't get the broader picture. They consistently fail at online gaming and paint themselves into boxes.
Switch was a success, but Wii U was not. Wii was a success, but Gamecube and Nintendo 64 undersold. I don't know what they're going to do against the juggernaut power of Microsoft and all of the studio consolidation. Or how they'll fare with Steam entering their lucrative market. They're going to need more successes in this crowded market. I hope they continue to innovate. They're the Studio Ghibli of the gaming world, and it'd be sad to see them go.
I also hope they learn to treat fans better.
Nintendo tends to focus on people that play their games for fun, and less on people that turn it into a serious hobby or try to build it into their personal identity.
Sadly this is almost true for all products out there, just a small percentage of exceptions. In software it's more tolerant and occasionally encouraged (ID Software's open source policy). We are on our own.
“Is my controller in single horizontal mode or paired vertical mode?”, “I want to be player 1”, “stop hitting buttons!”, “The pairing failed.”
When the kids play together it’s always a shit show. Contrast this with the PS4, we pick up the controllers and play. I’ve never had to even think about the controllers with the PlayStation, they just work.
That said, the concept of the Switch remains fantastic, and I take it with me whenever I travel. I'm definitely in line for getting the Steam Deck.
[1] especially as someone with big hands https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2001/08/29/you-know-what-...
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I can't think of another first party wireless controller (since they became standard in 2005-2006ish) that has ever had issues this bad.
The repair isn't too tricky and a set of replacements can be had for pretty cheap. I'd recommend people look at getting them repaired, rather than buying a set of (highly overprices) replacements.
Now I don’t think I’ll ever buy a non portable dedicated console again.
Suffice to say, been having a blast catching up with old favorites and new games. The backward compatibility enhancements (higher FPS and upres'ing) really put into perspective just how little gaming has progressed generationally, which makes these games that much more enjoyable.
The Switch is an amazing device (own two - one modded and one non). While the availability of games increases daily, its performance will always remain the weak point.
That^ and its horrible controllers. The XBX controller is sublime.
Honestly I don't care that much about performance any longer, graphics were mostly good enough 10 years ago. Modern graphics looks better when you put them side by side, but the graphics 10 years ago was good enough that you easily get used to it. The current switch has problems running 10 year old high end graphics, yeah that is a problem, but the switch is 5 year old hardware, if they made a new switch with modern hardware it should be able to run all those games smoothly.
I usually game at 3440x1440 @ 120hz and I don't find it jarring playing the Switch. I love it for what it is :)
Maybe on console, friend. Not on PC.
> The XBX controller is sublime.
As long as it's not the Xbox Elite, which fails like clockwork.
Except if you use it on the PC. My Xbox Series controller keeps randomly dropping connection and it reports two different battery levels to Windows 10 ("50%" and "Critical"), which are both wrong, so you'll have to replace the batteries without being prompted unless you want it to die at random during a game. This is a widely-known issue, but Microsoft has done nothing to fix it: https://github.com/NiyaShy/XB1ControllerBatteryIndicator/iss...
Even the motion controls add value: In games like DOOM, it's pretty cool to effectively have the portable Switch display as a "window" into the virtual world, and move the Switch around for aiming. I'm usually not a fan of motion controls, but that "aiming with the window" thing feels natural, and like something I might do anyway even if it didn't have an effect (like leaning your body into curves when playing a racing game).
Nintendo's top-tier exclusives, and a constant focus on end-to-end user experience.
The PS4/Xbone (and even, to an extent, the 360/PS3) have so much jank when it comes to playing a game on them.
My experience with The Last of Us Part II basically consisted of inserting the game, waiting nearly 25 minutes for it to install, going through that entire process again, twice, because there was a smudge on the disc, then waiting another 20 mins to download a 10GB patch, only to load up the game and sit through hours upon hours of boring-as-fuck intro content before I saw a single zombie.
With Super Mario Odyssey, I put the game in, downloaded some optional 50MB patch in about 20 seconds, then started jumping around collecting coins and throwing my hat at everything.
They just "get it" in ways that Sony and Microsoft don't (or at least, haven't "got" since the original PS2/Xbox era).
Developing for a Nintendo system is not for everybody. It's like being a Mac developer only more so: you have to write software that integrates smoothly with the hardware and contributes to the grand narrative of the vendor.
Nintendo exclusives don't hurt, either. But Xbox and PS have exclusives, too.
[1] https://www.genkithings.com/products/covert-dock
Out of ~6900 games in total (and about 600 more that are upcoming and/or unavailable to me in my country) I liked about 200, wouldn't mind buying other 50, so that's 250 games that I either like or don't hate. And I have about 40 in my collection, some of which I uninstalled.
So realistically I can still buy 250 games out of 7500 in the next few years and get a lot of value for my money.
That's 3.3% of all the games. I count that as a big win and I don't regret my investment in the Switch one bit. Even considering the OLED variant for the bigger and better display -- though I have to say I was very disappointed that Nintendo didn't bump up its specs even a little bit.
It’s basically a tablet - in 2022, an underpowered one. It was underpowered as a console 6 years ago. It has very few third party games (ok, you can play Skyrim and Witcher 3, but most of the games just are not there).
But it’s still so fun. And the first party games are all amazing. Even when stuff like Mario Kart and Super Mario 3D World is a port from even older generation.
The library of games on the switch is enormous…