Disclaimer: The below follow up article is purely the thoughts and opinions of Karl Smart and do not reflect the thoughts or opinions of anyone else on The Outerhaven staff. For their thoughts and opinions, refer to the Nintendo Entertainment Podcast and any follow up Nintendo Switch articles.
The major hyped up presentation for the upcoming Nintendo Switch has just ended about an hour ago and to be honest, there are a lot of mixed feelings about it here at The Outerhaven HQ. Some people liked the presentation, some to the point of blowing a load over things announced, others were negative, but there was a fair bit of “We need more” from everyone involved. Even as more and more news broke about the Nintendo Switch itself and the plans Nintendo has for the console, things either felt worse or better depending on the person you talked to.
Just before this presentation, I posted an article called “Things the Nintendo Switch can do to make me switch consoles”, which has not been the worst pun made during the whole presentation period. In the article I detailed a list of 10 simple things that Nintendo could do to win me over as a consumer, which I will relist here.
- Pricing
- Software Line up
- Region Free Gaming
- Virtual Console 2.0
- One Account, One Console
- Battery Life
- Work with the 3DS or Kill the 3DS
- Ease of Accessibility
- Manufacture Enough to Meet Demand
- Listen to the Fans, They Want to Help
What I’d like to do in this follow up article is go through those 10 points and see what was answered, what I got right, and just anything else that either worries me about some of the announcements, or lack thereof.
1 – Pricing
I put the Nintendo Switch at the USD$300-$350 price range. One of the first things Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima did was come out and state that the release date of the Nintendo Switch was March 3, 2017 worldwide. This was followed up by the pricing of ¥29,980 for Japan & $299.99 for American regions. While this was pretty much what most people in those regions expected, there’s still no pricing for the European & Australian regions as of the time of writing. However, if I was going by direct conversion rates this puts the Nintendo Switch at AUD$400 and some change. But that’s not going to be the retail price, so I’m guessing somewhere in the AUD$430-$450 range for my poor Australian wallet. This makes me think that waiting for a bundle or a price drop would be better suited to me.
Update during writing: Australian pricing released at $470. See that reaction here.
2 – Software Line up
We got The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild announced as a lunch title for the Nintendo Switch… And that’s about it. There’s a couple of rumored launch line ups floating around at the moment, but nothing official from Nintendo themselves or retailers. However there are a lot of great looking titles that would really interest me… In the future. With a line up of 80 Nintendo Switch game in development, it’s a shame that the launch line up for Nintendo’s new console is consisting of one game, and 1-2-Switch!; Which is nothing more than the glorified tech demo games that usually come bundled with the console as something to sell it. It’s the beginning of some worrying changes in Nintendo’s outlook on gaming. No game with the console at launch? I don’t mind paying for a few games at launch, but at least include something to prove to me that I didn’t just waste money.
3 – Region Free Gaming
Called it! For the first time since the NES Top Loader, Nintendo is going region free with their console system. Sure, some of the handheld consoles have been region free in the past, but it’s been a long time since Nintendo’s main consoles have been region free. This is going to be a good thing for Nintendo as I’ve got a bad feeling that they are going to keep going with their “Japan first, the rest of the world later… Maybe” style of production, especially with a lot of their JRPG titles which they are going to flood the system with over the next year. Hopefully this makes Nintendo extend their eShop too so that people can at least some of the older titles that never saw Western release.
4 – Virtual Console 2.0
We don’t know too much about how Nintendo is planning to deal with people who already have bought Virtual Console games on their Wii, Wii U or 3DS since they’ll be using the MyNintendo account system, but all we know is that with the paid subscription system that they are planning to use for the Nintendo Switch, you’ll have access to one or two NES or SNES games per month that use a new emulation system that allows online play to occur. At this point I might remind people that the games you have access to for the month, once the month is up, then it’s either pay up or wait till they come around again. If this is how Nintendo is going to treat their paid subscribers when their opposition are offering free games to keep (or at least keep while you pay the subscription) then I’m not looking forward to the idea of people having to shell out money for their favorite NES, SNES and other era games for a third or fourth time, even if once again Nintendo offers a discounted rate like they did when they went from the Wii to the Wii U.
5 – One Account, One Console
Correct! We are finally getting the one account system that we have been wanting for a long time on Nintendo consoles. Goodbye friend codes, you will not be missed in the slightest. Also it looks like Nintendo is also embracing the whole “pay to play online” business model that Sony & Microsoft have already had in place for years… Except the Nintendo Switch version looks a lot worse on paper by locking online play, voice chat (via the Nintendo Switch app), and a monthly game RENTAL service behind the paywall. Sure, there’ll be exclusive deals like Playstation Plus has, but since it’s Nintendo, don’t expect anything higher than 20% on full retail price games as Nintendo don’t believe in software price drops. So overall, this one is a win and a loss at the same time.
6 – Battery Life
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I hope you like having a battery pack, portable charger or your power plug constantly plugged into the Nintendo Switch while you’re out and about, otherwise you’re going to get sweet fuck all out of the console. The maximum battery life possible out of the Nintendo Switch according to the presentation is… 6 hours! The new 3DS XL has a battery life of a maximum of 7 hours! The Nintendo Switch has less battery life than a 3DS! And if you’re planning on playing a full proper Switch game like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild be prepared for a grand total of 3 hours of game time! Not to mention that Nintendo is starting to put out bullshit excuses why a lot of features that appear on competition systems are being moved to smartphone apps. Stop lying Nintendo, you’re just trying to save the already shitty battery life of your system, not give developers more chance to develop for other mediums. While I’m talking about things we are short changed on, I just want to say that having 32Gb of internal storage for a system in 2017 is a fucking joke! Sure, you can expand the memory in the Nintendo Switch to a possible 2Tb via microSDXC cards (Even though the highest known microSDXC card is 512Gb at the time of writing). But that’s a lot more money to be dropping on an already high priced console.
7 – Work with the 3DS or Kill the 3DS
Reggie “My Body is ready” Fils-Aimé has addressed that the Nintendo Switch and 3Ds will survive side by side at the time of writing, but there’s a high chance that will change depending on how well the Nintendo Switch is adopted by the general public and also how willing developers outside Nintendo are willing to develop for both systems. Reggie did say that “there are plenty of 3DS games on the way, as soon as first quarter 2017.” But again, this could change at a moment’s notice. There was nothing mentioned of the 3DS being able to work with the Nintendo Switch as either another controller or even if there would be games with Cross-Buy/Cross-Play features like there currently is with the Playstation 4 & the PSVita. I was hoping to hear more than just lip service support for the 3DS as it was lip service that began the end of the PSVita in western markets.
8 – Ease of Accessibility
Look at the image above. Does that look simple and easy to access to you? To me it looks like a god damn nightmare, but I also tend to look at these things from a business and development point of view. Reports are already coming in that when the Joy-Con’s are in the 2 player mode (the smallest sized configuration) that the controllers are small and cumbersome. A lot of people are comparing them to smaller Wiimotes already with a preference towards the Classic Pro Controller (Priced at USD$70 each) for some games like Ultra Street Fighter 2: The Final Challengers. Other complaints are that the joysticks on the controllers are oddly placed and that there are way too many buttons in odd places to be easy to use. When people are already saying that the in-box controllers are bad and you need to get a Classic Pro Controller, that’s a huge fail in my opinion.
9 – Manufacture Enough to Meet Demand
The image above, though needing work in the lighting department, comes directly from The Outerhaven’s editor-in-cheif Keith Mitchell only hours after the end of the Nintendo Switch presentation. His local GameStop store had a total of 20 units available for pre-order. Then only a couple of days later, Reggie Fils-Aimé addressed the shortage by saying that there are 2 million units WORLDWIDE in the first run with more on the way. NINTENDO HAS NOT LEARNED A FUCKING THING!! There’s going to be short run after short run of these consoles for at least the first 3-4 months from now, if they even meet demand before the launch in March. This is a fucking joke and is something even Nintendo fanboys are not going to stand for. HUGE FUCKING FAIL!!
10 – Listen to the Fans, They Want to Help
6 hour battery life, 32Gb onboard storage, paid online with a terrible incentive system, no wired internet support, lackluster launch line up, extremely high pricing, Limited pre-order units… Does any of this sound like listening to the fans at all? NOPE! Nintendo has learnt NOTHING from their past failures and are very much looking down the barrel of the same gun that ended the Wii U so early into it’s lifespan. I know Nintendo wants to be the gimmicky alternative to the more powerful, and frank-fully better systems on the market (and that includes the 3DS & PSVita), but they look more like a tablet company now than an actual gaming company. They don’t listen to fans, think they can get away with the same bullshit time and time again because hardcare Nintendo fanboys will flock to whatever crap they put out. Well there’s a lot of backlash over the Nintendo Switch and honestly, a lot of fans are not going to switch to this thing ever.
Personally speaking, Nintendo has not convinced me to switch to the Nintendo Switch. If anything, they have driven me away even further from the Switch than ever. If the AUD$470 didn’t do enough damage to my expectations, it’s the long list of terrible business decisions that have finished me off. Sure, people are hyped about this because “ZOMG ZELDA!!” but once that hype has died down, there are going to be a lot of people frustrated that they bought into Wii U version 2.0. But if I learnt anything from watching and then discussing the Nintendo Switch presentation it’s the following that was summed up nicely by Youtube personality Alpha Omega Sin:
Gamers on the internet
If you say something good you're a fanboy
If you say something critical you're just hating
Never any middle ground— AlphaOmegaSin (@AlphaOmegaSin) January 13, 2017
You can look forward to a lot of positive coverage on the Nintendo Entertainment Podcast here at The Outerhaven, which I’m sure I’ve just been given a lifetime ban from given this article. Otherwise keep reading The Outerhaven in general as we bring you more information and coverage about the Nintendo Switch all the way and beyond the March 3, 2017 release date.
