Topic: Switch Discussion Thread (Year 3: But where are the folders??!?!)

[Mop it up]

I think it's just that Zelda has been being hyped for years, so Nintendo don't feel a need for a strong hype campaign right before launch. And let's be honest, most people are already sold on Zelda. Nintendo are better off focusing hype on the Switch and every other game for it, because those are the things which need more coverage and need to succeed.

[Stratos]

I linked my NNID to my My.Nintendo.com account a long time ago...

edit: That is stupid I had to create a new one. shyguy6 since ShyGuy was taken even though that has been my userid since Miitomo came out...

Yeah, someone already took Stratos so I went with my fallback Chronocast. They could have announced this better instead of letting it just be through word of mouth.

[Lemonade]

Today I saw that Hori is making a stand for the Switch, that got me thinking, will it work with the 3DS stand. It seemed like the Switch might be too tall for it. My main reason for wanting a stand is so it can be charged in table top mode without laying it down flat.
So Then I had the idea, why dont I just make my own Switch. I went to the Nintendo UK website which has a front on image and exact dimensions. I printed it out then used cardboard to make it almost the right thickness.
Turns out the 3DS stand will be perfect, the charger will work too, thanks to the cut out bit originally for the 3DS headphone jack
https://twitter.com/adeeelnv/status/834349828507267075

[lolmonade]

So...given that they've been pretty quiet about it, is it safe to speculate that there'll be no virtual console at launch? 

[Khushrenada]

That's my thinking. 3DS launched with the Virtual Console getting added later. Can't remember if that was the same with the Wii U also or if it at least had a couple games available on the Virtual Console. Maybe there will be a virtual console with a couple mainstays like Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario World but it doesn't seem to be a robust offering at launch like we keep hoping would happen. Of course, there's still a week and a half for Nintendo to suddenly launch another Switch Direct and surprise us with this type of news.

[Shaymin]

3DS: VC launched with the eShop (E3 2011)
Wii U: VC started with the 30 cent games in January but did one game a month until April.

[lolmonade]

That's my thinking. 3DS launched with the Virtual Console getting added later. Can't remember if that was the same with the Wii U also or if it at least had a couple games available on the Virtual Console. Maybe there will be a virtual console with a couple mainstays like Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario World but it doesn't seem to be a robust offering at launch like we keep hoping would happen. Of course, there's still a week and a half for Nintendo to suddenly launch another Switch Direct and surprise us with this type of news.

I never expected a deep bench of VC games, just was hoping for a small offering as something to switch from Breath of the Wild for short bursts.  I've accepted I won't be unplugging my Wii U from the main tv for a bit given the sparseness of the Switch's library for most of the year.

[Soren]

http://nintendoeverything.com/bethesdas-todd-howard-cant-say-whether-skyrim-on-switch-is-the-original-game-or-remaster/


Todd Howard can't answer a simple yes/no question. I don't wanna hear developers question why they're not getting any love from consumers on Nintendo systems.

[nickmitch]

That's frustrating.

[Lemonade]

Its probably enhanced over the original version of Skyrim, but not the full remaster.

[Phil]

Sort of off-point: Todd Howard is similar to Peter Molyneux in having to take his PR with a grain of salt since he usually overpromises, right?

[Shaymin]

Has Howard ever promised his games will work out of the box? Because if he has, then he's worse than Molyneux.

[ThePerm]

I doubt Skyrim would change much with a remaster anyhow. I was watching a seminar on modular games and the way the build levels..... is pretty cookie cutter.

To update the game graphics, you just udate the kit graphics.

[Order.RSS]

I doubt Skyrim would change much with a remaster anyhow. I was watching a seminar on modular games and the way the build levels..... is pretty cookie cutter.

Out of curiosity, what is cookie cutter about them? I've only played Morrowind years ago of the series and mostly just ran around trying stupid cheat combinations (at one point I could jump over entire towns). So I've got no real conception of the level design in Elder Scrolls games, so just wondering what makes them kinda average?

Skyrim was praised a lot right, I might give it a shot on Switch eventually.

[Soren]

Hey look no Virtual Console at launch. Why do we keep giving this company the benefit of the doubt?

[lolmonade]

Hey look no Virtual Console at launch. Why do we keep giving this company the benefit of the doubt?

I don't, personally.  A lot of apologists on reddit insisting it's a non-issue, but it's always been a nice side option inbetween the bigger games.  It's just a bigger glaring omission given the lack of launch day options.  I had already accepted it was basically going to be my Zelda machine until Mario comes out, but to me this is the kind of stuff that'll result in death by a million papercuts.


It does look like Shovel Knight and Fast RMX have been bumped up to launch day, which is a nice way to soften the blow.


Don't know why I should even care about their virtual console service when the only time they got it right with content availability was the first time with the Wii.

[Soren]

Also, we're getting a Nindies Direct next week, but I'm not expecting anything more than the set of Wii U games that got moved to the Switch. When they should be focused on making sure stuff like Rocket League comes out ASP.

Also, this (plus the left Joy-Con issue that's plaguing reviewers) is a bad omen:

[Adrock]

Virtual Console is a non-issue for me personally, but Jebus, Nintendo, get your **** together. It at least has a working NES emulator running on an ARM. I wonder what the hold up is. If Nintendo is going to launch Virtual Console late, it better have hundreds of games.

(It won't though)

[lolmonade]

Virtual Console is a non-issue for me personally, but Jebus, Nintendo, get your **** together. It at least has a working NES emulator running on an ARM. I wonder what the hold up is. If Nintendo is going to launch Virtual Console late, it better have hundreds of games.

(It won't though)

Absence of Virtual Console at launch isn't the issue by itself.  To me, the biggest issue is that the Wii U has been faced with a slow death for a long while now, and as an admittedly ignorant person to the process of a new console launch, this just feels like a big "what have you been doing with all this time?" question in my head as a gut reaction. 


My other gut reaction is that they saw how well their singularly Zelda focused E3 went, and decided the launch can be almost literally just Zelda, which would be ok if the other games at launch weren't games that have been over half off on other platforms already (skylanders), or games IMO that are already $20-30 too expensive (1-2 Switch, Bomberman).

[lolmonade]

Also, we're getting a Nindies Direct next week, but I'm not expecting anything more than the set of Wii U games that got moved to the Switch. When they should be focused on making sure stuff like Rocket League comes out ASP.

Also, this (plus the left Joy-Con issue that's plaguing reviewers) is a bad omen:

Nintendo actively courted devs of ultimate chicken horse to port their game to switch, between that and your comment on "ninties direct", I expect one of the Swtich's shining use cases will be a "take anywhere" indie local multiplayer powerhouse machine.


If I read the comment about the article correctly, the sync issue happens specifically when you slide the left joycon into the joycon grip, which is no doubt an issue.  Hopefully it's contained to that one use case and it's something that is software based, not hardware.

[Evan_B]

What is the left Joy Con issue?

I'm not surprised that the system isn't full-featured at launch, honestly. It speaks a lot about how Nintendo treats each new machine as a "reboot" of sorts. But literally anything that existed in the past that could be on the system at launch (VC, Miiverse, friggin Amiibo Tap) is another reason to be playing it. I also agree about Wii VC- it was the first version of the service and the best, and to expect anything more than 3DS-level commitment to VC would be laughable.

[Adrock]

...as an admittedly ignorant person to the process of a new console launch, this just feels like a big "what have you been doing with all this time?" question in my head as a gut reaction.

Nintendo was previously emulating each game individually which took roughly for-fucking-ever. If Nintendo is working on emulators that work per platform rather than per game and will work on Switch successors, I can see how that may take longer. That's one hell of an if though.

What is the left Joy Con issue?

I believe it randomly dosconnects in the middle of gameplay. I read that it doesn't happen often, but the fact that it happened enough that multiple journalists wrote about it is disconcerting.

[lolmonade]

Adrock, that's probably best case (and probably overly optimistic) scenario for the virtual console, as you've alluded to.  I know they've talked several times about Nintendo's console approach being more about a platform that spans across several devices, and maybe that's where they're headed with it.  But I suspect Nintendo will follow the same trend lines they typically have, and at best would offer a half-step solution.

[Khushrenada]

Absence of Virtual Console at launch isn't the issue by itself.  To me, the biggest issue is that the Wii U has been faced with a slow death for a long while now, and as an admittedly ignorant person to the process of a new console launch, this just feels like a big "what have you been doing with all this time?" question in my head as a gut reaction. 

As mentioned earlier, with no VC Day 1 on 3DS and Wii U, this now seems to be Nintendo's modus operandi. My only theory as to why this is the case is that Nintendo wants to have fewer things to look after at launch. With a lot of people suddenly buying a system at one time and booting up on their network, there could be glitches or bugs with the interface that need to be patched along with issues with all the games being released at the same time. So, keeping the VC off the console for a little while is one less potential problem to cause any issues or headaches.

The other possibility is that it gives them something to promote or announce after the initial launch enthusiasm starts to wane a bit but unless it is a new console offering like GameCube games available at the launch of the Switch VC I'm not sure how exciting an announcement it would be to promote that NES or SNES VC titles are available now on Switch.

[Order.RSS]

As mentioned earlier, with no VC Day 1 on 3DS and Wii U, this now seems to be Nintendo's modus operandi. My only theory as to why this is the case is that Nintendo wants to have fewer things to look after at launch. With a lot of people suddenly buying a system at one time and booting up on their network, there could be glitches or bugs with the interface that need to be patched along with issues with all the games being released at the same time. So, keeping the VC off the console for a little while is one less potential problem to cause any issues or headaches.

Could be yeah, but maybe it's just a "lucky side-effect" of not having the full system done like they wanted to entirely? Assuming the average console cycle lasts 5~ years for Nintendo, they're only right on the cusp here. Wii U's poor performance probably had them rush development in some ways.

To be honest I'm not sure how big of a deal this is; the day-1 crowd will likely mostly be Nintendo converts who are buying their new Zelda machine. And the eShop will be up and running right? But yeah you'd expect VC at launch nowadays, and it's not really the kind of thing you can announce at E3 without receiving scorn.