Nintendo Switch (previously NX)

I think the success or failure of this console will be its price point. They've already said they won't sell it at a loss, which leads me to believe this will be in the $400 to $500 range, which IMO is too high. If they can come in at $299, they may have a hit. I still cannot believe they missed the Christmas window. That is absolutely inexcusable. Even if they released with only a handful of games, they would've moved a lot of units.

The Wiiu was not a loss leader and was $299 for basic and $349 for the deluxe bundle at launch. I think this will follow the exact same path. Missing X-mas is Bonkers..

It ain't ready for Holidays. Or rather the launch lineup isn't ready - they don't want a repeat of the Wii U and 3DS Launches.

etchazz said:

I think the success or failure of this console will be its price point. They've already said they won't sell it at a loss, which leads me to believe this will be in the $400 to $500 range, which IMO is too high. If they can come in at $299, they may have a hit. I still cannot believe they missed the Christmas window. That is absolutely inexcusable. Even if they released with only a handful of games, they would've moved a lot of units.

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Not to pick at you, but I've seen multiple people say that $300 is the sweet spot for this machine and I'm still trying to wrap my head around how that makes this a good buy. Even if the base cost is "only" $300 you are still going to have to add in additional costs (storage, decent controller) and by the time it's all said and done you could have bought a PS4 Pro for around the same price or less. I realize that they are somewhat different markets but the Wii U proved that there aren't enough Nintendo diehards to prop a console up on their own. All the fanboying up in the world about how the U had the best games and was the best console, of which there was plenty, and all the pre-release hype didn't have any impact on it's success. They are going to have to attract people who want to play stuff other than first party games, people that they claimed to try an attract with the U and failed miserably. Also, $300 without some waggle party gimmick also seems, to me at least, like it prices out the casual person that made the Wii a fast burner so they aren't going to get this massive install base from those people either.

I mean when it's all said and done the thing is basically a Wii U 2.0 only now instead of two screen gameplay you get to take your tablet on the road. I think Nintendo has basically engineered themselves out of the home console space and the only way this thing becomes a hit is if their faithful portable crowd buys this thing in droves. But this thing isn't exactly all that portable either, is it?

Maybe I'm just out of touch, but I see nothing but excitement and people fawning over this thing and I can't for the life of me figure out why. Other than the random niche case, like someone in this thread mentioned earlier with long flights, I don't see how this thing can been seen as exciting to anyone but the usual get hyped Nintendo crowd, and those guys are a dying breed. I dunno, maybe I'm just overly negative because I've thought for a while they should just get out of the hardware business completely and just make games, but I'm gonna go ahead and say about this what I said about the Wii U, it will be lucky if it breaks Gamecube sales and that will be an utter disaster for Nintendo.

The WiiU was a disaster because people didn't know what the hell it was. Was it a re-skinned Wii? Was it portable? Was it next gen? Turned out to be none of those things, and just a hodge podge of several decent ideas, with horrible execution. It was really a dry run for the system they now have. With all of the first party games they're guaranteed to have, along with what appears to be a lot more third party support, this thing could definitely be a success. Like I said before, it's all going to come down to the price. If it's over $400, I see this as a failure. If they come in around $299 or so, I think it's a success.

etchazz said:

The WiiU was a disaster because people didn't know what the hell it was. Was it a re-skinned Wii? Was it portable? Was it next gen? Turned out to be none of those things, and just a hodge podge of several decent ideas, with horrible execution.

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The marketing and identity crisis hurt the Wii U a lot more than people give credit, I think. I like to think I'm pretty representative of an average gamer, in that I'm generally aware of what's going on with consoles and big games coming out, but I don't read gaming websites every day. I remember the Wii U had been out for nearly 2 months before I realized it was a wholly new console. Until that time, I had seen it referenced here or there, and seen boxes in stores, but without examining it closer I just assumed it was an upgraded/deluxe version of the Wii. I can't imagine I'm the only one who had that experience.

I think how they market the Switch will affect how much people are willing to pay, too. If they focus their marketing on the portable aspect of it, I think people might be less willing to fork over $300 or more. I can see people thinking "My (whatever version)DS never cost that, so why do I have to pay such a high price for their next portable?"

I think its gonna be even worse in the casual space, with people thinking "well, mario and pokemon just came out for the iphone, i'll just buy their future games on my phone". Its going to be a tough explanation of "well... these are PREMIUM games that are ONLY available on switch, these other casual games on mobile aren't as good as these other games... which also cost $60... wait, come back!!"

The fundamental issue with the Wii U is the meager game library. We can talk about hardware all day long, but simply put: your console's gonna be reduced to a coaster if you can't offer anything beyond the usual kiddy fare like Mario Kart. Forget third-party titles. Those are meaningless in the grand scheme of things and certainly don't sell consoles. They need to establish better development partnerships and return to the good ol' days of Rare.

more confirmation that the switch is pretty much its own thing again, 4GB in the system means 500mb-1GB for the OS and 3GB for the games, will make it tougher to port ps4/xbone games as they run with 6-7GB of memory for the games

Still a nice amount of memory for a handheld, carts are also going to be 16GB default size although it will support larger sizes for those games that need it. I'd assume most nintendo launch games though are 16 or 32gb. With only SD cards as a storage option, going digital is not going to be great though if you are capped at 128 - 256gb storage.

4GB ram is not so fantastic, neither are typical SD data speeds.

This is yet another problem with trying this form factor right now. It's not going to hold a candle to PS4/XB1 yet they are trying to get more purchase in that "real gamer" market with their expanded game selection.

I feel like they are trying to sell a sweet portable 3DS replacement as a Wii replacement and it's going to be just as disappointing and confusing on the market.

PS4 only allocates 5GB for games, so it's still not that far off to be honest. At least so long as the Switch's OS isn't bloated, which apparently an insider on GAF has hinted at them finding a way around that.

looks like the release date is going to be march 17th, Monster Hunter XX released on march 18th too

If this is somehow just a coincidence then both Nintendo and Capcom are retarded.

Pyros said:

I'm leaning towards coincidence which is pretty dumb. While I'm sure they started working on a switch MH probably, not sure it'd be ready for launch already. Capcom did mention recently in an interview that they want to bring MH to living room consoles instead of(or in addition to, not sure) handhelds because in the west handhelds games don't sell nearly as well, so there's that, but not sure it's for this one and not a future one. Also XX is japan only so far iirc so yeah.

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I feel like one of these companies should move their date. Unless of course it comes to the Switch, which would be massive.

Horizon Zero Dawn and Ghost Recon Wildlands also release in March 2017