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31

TalkBack / Re: Switch 2 Sells 3.5 Million Units In First Four Days To Become Fastest Selling System In Nintendo

« Last post by Caterkiller on June 16, 2025, 12:54:09 AM »

What's interesting to me is the discussion of game pricing. At some point too much is too much but I really don't think we are there now. I remember many discussions revolving around Pokemon specifically. Every generation the games went up and the idea of going from $39.99 3DS Pokemon games to $59.99 Switch Pokemon games had some people up in arms. Obviously there wasn't much uproar outside of Pokemon communities and not to mention console games were already $60 for ages by that point. Still some people were convinced there was no way Pokemon games would be able to reach the sales heights of R/B/G/Y or even G/S/C. Lo and behold a full gen later we would see that even the questionable quality of Sword and Shield surpassed Gold and Silver! Then lo and further behold Scarlet and Violet with it's own major controversies surpassed Gold & Silver along with Sword and Shield within the same generation.

It's certainly a reasonable assumption that higher priced games will sell less but man I really don't know. There could be some perceived premium value associated with the higher prices and some people(in the case of the Switch generation MORE people) are just willing to pay.

The extra budgeted Prime Remastered certainly didn't light up the charts but Retro's other title, Donkey Kong Country Returns, upped in price and did pretty well lol. Granted I understand there are huge differences between the IP's, marketing etc. However I think there is something to be said about the online discourse of both. The $40 Prime Remastered was just sure to get the Switch effect with that budget price point and take the series to new heights. The $60 Donkey Kong Country Returns was overly priced, sure to bomb and further disgrace the "forgotten" series.

My entertainment budget is like 80% video games. Occasionally taking my family to the movies and whatever silly streaming services we have. If push came to shove I'd prioritize my Nintendo any day of the week. Smash, Mario/Kart, Zelda, Donkey Kong, F-Zero and Tetris are just too difficult for me to put down. I'll sacrifice my movie and streaming dollar for my gaming dollar. For my personal needs the gaming dollar gets carried a heck of a lot further than my theater dollar. 

I suppose I'm saying that like with anything else people will adjust to the rising costs around them and be more selective with their expendable dollar. Does that mean less games or gaming services? Or maybe less streaming, 1 less super deluxe coffee in a given week, or one less trip to the movies?

32

TalkBack / Re: Switch 2 Sells 3.5 Million Units In First Four Days To Become Fastest Selling System In Nintendo

« Last post by Luigi Dude on June 14, 2025, 02:37:24 PM »

Yes, after Nintendo abandoned the Wii U altogether, put their entire development focus on the platform, and cut the price severely. Let's not pretend the 3DS was a roaring success in its first few years. Have people seriously forgotten the disaster that the 3DS was early on? The "Ambassador" program?

You're literally proving my point once again.  The 3DS was a disaster because it launched with Nintendogs+Cats and Steel Diver and then had nothing until Ocarina of Time 3D, which came out 3 months later.  Then its next biggest game wasn't until Star Fox 64 3D, which came out 3 months later after that.  Then the next big game wasn't unit Mario 3D Land which was another 2 months away.  Seriously what exactly were people suppose to be buying the 3DS for its first year?  There was literally a 8 months gap between its launch and the holiday season where the only games from Nintendo were two remasters of N64 games.

The Switch on the other hand just launched with Mario Kart World, the sequel to a game that sold about 70 million units.  Has a brand new 3D platformer in Donkey Kong a month later that's from the Mario Odyssey team whose last game sold about 30 million units.  Plus once again you actually have major third party game on the Switch 2, something the 3DS didn't have.  We already have reports from North American NPD that Cyberpunk was the second best selling game for the Switch 2 launch in North America.  Which shows that a lot of the people buying the Switch 2 aren't all hardcore Nintendo fans who only care about the most recent Nintendo games.

Not sure why you keep comparing the 3DS to the Switch 2, when the situation for both systems is the complete opposite.

Pessimist me still thinks because of pricing, lack of true Switch 2 exclusives, and its iterative nature will have sales be more of a slow burn.  I have a hard time recommending it to anyone outside of our slice of gaming, especially when a lot of my friends are rocking Steam Decks.  But maybe I'm discounting a deep hunger for more MarioKart.

You're once again proving my point about people online living in a bubble.  The Steam Deck has sold less than 4 million units since it came out 3 years ago.  There's a good chance the Switch 2 either outsold it by the end of last week, or has done so by the end of this week.  Plus how many times do I need to say it, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold close to 70 million units.

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/software/index.html

Mario Kart is literally one of the biggest franchise in gaming.  Anyone that wants to play the newest Mario Kart will need to buy a Switch 2.  You can't recommend them any other system when no other system will have the newest Mario Kart.

Even when expecting a drop off in sales, when you compare what happened with the DS/Wii era to the 3DS/Wii U era, the best selling Mario Kart of the DS/Wii era was Mario Kart Wii which did 37 million units while the best selling Mario Kart of the 3DS/Wii U era was Mario Kart 7 which did about 19 million units.  So even if you had a similar drop between Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Mario Kart World, Mario Kart World would still end up selling around 35 million copies.  Which would literally put it about what Mario Kart Wii sold, which was on a system that did over 100 million units.

Of course keep in mind the main reason for Mario Kart's drop was because of the lose of the Nintendog/Brain Age/Wii Sports/Wii Fit audience that made up a large part of the DS and Wii.  The Switch on the other hands biggest sellers behind Mario Kart are Animal Crossing, Smash Bros, 3D Zelda, 3D Mario, Pokemon which all have a history of very constant sales and very dedicated fanbases.  Hell in the case of Animal Crossing it did better on the 3DS then it did on the DS, despite the 3DS having only half the audience.  Pokemon X/Y only did a million less than Diamond/Pearl, while Sun/Moon did a million better than Black/White.

Nintendo's main franchise from many of it's 20-30 year series, that have had constant if not steady growth over that time span have done better then ever on the Switch.  To suddenly expect them to sell even worse then their 3DS counterparts is just silly and would literally require something magical altering reality, or something like a nuclear war creating an apocalypse where nobody can play games anymore.  Or course after certain event going on in the world right now, the later is kind of looking somewhat likely.

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TalkBack / Re: Switch 2 Sells 3.5 Million Units In First Four Days To Become Fastest Selling System In Nintendo

« Last post by lolmonade on June 12, 2025, 05:10:25 PM »

Yes, after Nintendo abandoned the Wii U altogether, put their entire development focus on the platform, and cut the price severely. Let's not pretend the 3DS was a roaring success in its first few years. Have people seriously forgotten the disaster that the 3DS was early on? The "Ambassador" program?

Hell yeah 3DS ambassador gang right here.

34

TalkBack / Re: Switch 2 Sells 3.5 Million Units In First Four Days To Become Fastest Selling System In Nintendo

« Last post by broodwars on June 12, 2025, 02:38:19 PM »

"Plus the 3DS with all its problems still managed to sell over 70 million units in the end so I'm not sure why you picked that as an example.  I'm sorry but using the 3DS as an example pretty much shows the worst case situation for the Switch 2 is around 100 million units which would still make it a very successful console."

Yes, after Nintendo abandoned the Wii U altogether, put their entire development focus on the platform, and cut the price severely. Let's not pretend the 3DS was a roaring success in its first few years. Have people seriously forgotten the disaster that the 3DS was early on? The "Ambassador" program?

35

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo Switch 2

« Last post by lolmonade on June 12, 2025, 01:46:51 PM »

I'm pretty satisfied on the hardware front.  Even with losing OLED, the screen looks sharp.  The size up is pretty meaningful and a great upgrade for my eyes.  I was ok with the original joycon but they feel just right in the hands now. 

Software-wise my feelings are pretty muted:

- Street Fighter 6 is a good port of a game I like a lot, you can feel safe buying it if you're a fighting game fan.

- Mario Kart World is a mixed bag.  It's bursting with character, everything is so expressive and the soundtrack's like a love-letter to everything Mario.  Several of the tracks are way too wide, even with the additional racers (that said, we have the best Rainbow Road ever).  You can find yourself in 15-20 second stretches of not seeing any CPU racers in these stretches.  I'm ambivalent to the free roam mode.  Could use a lot more to do inside the world, and it'd be great if I could drive around at the same time as my sons.  Knockout Tour is the best thing that's happened to MarioKart in a long time.  it's some of the most grueling and brutal racing i've played, and it's a lot of fun overcoming that challenge.

- Breath of the Wild - I've had limited time to dive in, but in dabbling a little bit it's of course nicer looking, much more smooth running.  I struggle a little bit with it because i've played the original several times and my brain has a hard time not saying "this feels wrong".  Had a similar experience between Ocarina of Time & Ocarina of time 3D.

- I'm so happy that Gamecube games made their way to NSO.  Almost immediately jumped into Soul Calibur 2 & F-Zero GX.  I would have paid for an HD remaster but in lieu of that I'm really grateful it's here.


On the new software features, the most important one to me is funny enough the app integration with screenshot & video sharing.  Changing the setting to always transferring screenshots & video to the app makes it incredibly easy to share them with others.  I don't have a use case for the camera so some of the communication features aren't important to me.  i'm grateful the eshop has been revamped, flagging which of your wishlist games are on sale is huge.  An eshop that isn't snail slow is great too, but we'll see how long it takes for this one to buckle under the weight of thousands of games.


Overall satisfied with my purchase.  It's not a must have but for someone who plays primarily Nintendo I don't feel cheated on the hardware.  It's just a good thing i've got a decent backlog to burn time until something that appeals to me comes out.

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TalkBack / Re: Switch 2 Sells 3.5 Million Units In First Four Days To Become Fastest Selling System In Nintendo

« Last post by lolmonade on June 12, 2025, 01:31:28 PM »

I'll give Nintendo a little bit of rope about the 1st party games since they've gotten better at not announcing stuff until it's closer to launch (Metroid Prime 4 notwithstanding).  A 4 day window of sales doesn't say anything about the long-term success other than showing they're off to a good start and were able to fulfill most of the demand. 


Anecdotally, about half the people I know who are into gaming have gotten the Switch 2.  They're waiting for something worth playing on the system and have no interest in Donkey Kong.  My kids haven't touched the thing except for a few matches of family MarioKart World. 

Pessimist me still thinks because of pricing, lack of true Switch 2 exclusives, and its iterative nature will have sales be more of a slow burn.  I have a hard time recommending it to anyone outside of our slice of gaming, especially when a lot of my friends are rocking Steam Decks.  But maybe I'm discounting a deep hunger for more MarioKart.

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TalkBack / Re: Switch 2 Sells 3.5 Million Units In First Four Days To Become Fastest Selling System In Nintendo

« Last post by Luigi Dude on June 12, 2025, 01:17:54 PM »

I do think the whole Game prices thing will affect game sales for the system due to various economic issues but at the same time, indie games are becoming an increasingly viable solution for more budget conscious customers and the Switch 2 is in a really good position to be able to handle those kinds of games, both because of its portability and increased power over the Switch, and because of the wide array of control options the system has over the competition.

I think the mouse deserves special mention because of how it opens the door for several neat indie games that have never really been feasible to bring to a console before because they are built around being played with a mouse. There's stuff like Pony Island and The Hex which are suddenly much more viable to bring to a console because there is now a console that has some sort of mouse input packed in.

If Nintendo can continue to play to their strength with indie games while ensuring that the eshop doesn't become a cesspool of ai hentai shopping simulator games again, then I believe that they will be able to provide options for more budget conscious customers.

Yeah this is something many forget when talking about the Switch as well.  We know from actual sales data, the Switch was a beast when it came to indie sales.  Many indie devs would talk about how the Switch version of the games was either the best selling, or second best selling behind only Steam sales.  And these aren't just small games, quite a few of these indie titles were major hits.

Seriously look at the numbers for Stardew Valley

https://www.stardewvalley.net/press/

As of December 2024, Stardew Valley has sold over 41 million copies across all platforms, with over 26 million copies sold on PC, and 7.9 million copies on the Nintendo Switch.

So yeah, indie games had massive success on the Switch and made up a pretty large amount of its overall library sales.  So many of the Switch userbase will still have access to a large library of lower priced games.

Plus when talking about Nintendo's own games that will be $10-20 more.  We know from data that most people only buy 2-3 games a year anyway.  So even if those 2-3 games are the newest Nintendo titles at full price, that's still only an increase of $30-60 more on gaming a year then they spent during the Switch 1 era.  To most people, that's not a huge increase.

Even the Wii U & 3DS sold out at launch IIRC, and how'd that work out for both of them a year later?

Both consoles then had a massive drought after launch, with third party support ranging from bad on the 3DS, to non-existence on the Wii U.  The Switch 2 on the other hand has the complete opposite of that with it getting literally a major games in Donkey Kong a month later, as well as great third party support to fill in the gaps.  It's literally a night and day situation with the Switch 2 versus those systems.

Plus the 3DS with all its problems still managed to sell over 70 million units in the end so I'm not sure why you picked that as an example.  I'm sorry but using the 3DS as an example pretty much shows the worst case situation for the Switch 2 is around 100 million units which would still make it a very successful console.

38

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 928: Ultra-Italian Luigi

« Last post by jarodea on June 12, 2025, 12:37:05 PM »

I don't have any issue with Welcome Tour being $10 because yeah, less than a tip on a meal or delivery these days.  I also agree that business side of it is up for grabs at the moment.  I wonder, though, if it could have been an advertising vector for Nintendo if it had been installed on all Switch 2s.  Hey, did you know there are extra peripherals worth $95 available?  Why, here is what they do and how they work!  Now you need to own one to go in-depth and play the demos to get all of your Welcome Tour Achievements!  Then, update it every time a new peripheral like ring fit or labo comes out and notify Switch 2 owners.  Rinse and repeat.

We have two dogs & two elderly cats.  We have no carpet in the house & it is such a relief.

I haven't found dogs (well 6 months+) too much of a problem, but cats man, cats.

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TalkBack / Re: Switch 2 Sells 3.5 Million Units In First Four Days To Become Fastest Selling System In Nintendo

« Last post by broodwars on June 12, 2025, 07:53:49 AM »

I think any claim about the Switch 2's success, positive or negative, will be premature until a year or 2 from now. With rare exceptions, consoles sell out at launch, either through legitimate purchases or scalpers. Nintendo had abundant supply this time, so they had more to sell out. Even the Wii U & 3DS sold out at launch IIRC, and how'd that work out for both of them a year later?

As everyone else is saying, I think the dramatic increase in game prices is going to do serious damage long-term to all the console manufacturers. Nintendo pushing for everyone to adopt Game Key Cards also doesn't help matters. I'm not buying a Switch 2 until there is actually 1st party content worth buying. Never been much of a Mario Kart fan, so I'm waiting for the real games a year or 2 from now.

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TalkBack / Re: Switch 2 Sells 3.5 Million Units In First Four Days To Become Fastest Selling System In Nintendo

« Last post by pokepal148 on June 11, 2025, 10:00:27 PM »

I do think the whole Game prices thing will affect game sales for the system due to various economic issues but at the same time, indie games are becoming an increasingly viable solution for more budget conscious customers and the Switch 2 is in a really good position to be able to handle those kinds of games, both because of its portability and increased power over the Switch, and because of the wide array of control options the system has over the competition.

I think the mouse deserves special mention because of how it opens the door for several neat indie games that have never really been feasible to bring to a console before because they are built around being played with a mouse. There's stuff like Pony Island and The Hex which are suddenly much more viable to bring to a console because there is now a console that has some sort of mouse input packed in.

If Nintendo can continue to play to their strength with indie games while ensuring that the eshop doesn't become a cesspool of ai hentai shopping simulator games again, then I believe that they will be able to provide options for more budget conscious customers.