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Luca
ಠ_ರೃ
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
 
2017-02-24, 11:35

There's a lot about the Switch that doesn't buzz me much.

The only launch game worth a damn is Zelda, and it's getting released for Wii U as well so you don't even need a Switch to play it.

1-2-Switch should be $20 or a pack-in game. It's not worth what they're charging.

Other launch games are pretty meh for the price too. Most look more like $20 indie games than full $50-$60 releases. Many of them are older games being ported to the system.

Accessory prices are insane. $50 per joycon, or $80 for a set of two? $70 for a pro controller? Yikes.

Paid online. Granted, it looks like it'll cost about half as much as Xbox/Playstation, but those systems were created with online play at their core. You get a large library of free games if you subscribe to Xbox Live or PSN, whereas Nintendo subscribers get one NES/SNES game that disappears and is replaced at the end of every month. You don't get to keep it like you do with XB/PS games.

Nintendo have also confirmed that they will charge people yet again to move their downloaded games from previous systems. Because they can't just tie your purchases to an account, they have to make you keep paying over and over again for the same shit you already bought. They already did this when moving games from the Wii virtual console to the Wii U.

I just can't see this thing taking off like the Wii did. It has some neat gimmicks but I think not making 1-2-Switch a pack-in will kill it. The entire reason the Wii succeeded is that the Wii Sports pack in title was extremely accessible and everyone wanted it.

Now I suppose you could argue that while the Wii came with Wii Sports, it also only shipped with one controller, and you had to buy a second controller (many people bought the Wii Play controller bundle, which was $10 more than buying the controller alone). And the Switch comes with 2 controllers out of the box, so you don't have to buy extra (but you do have to buy 1-2-Switch). I don't know about that. At least with the Wii you could start playing immediately, and you could always take turns and then decide that it's worth buying another controller.

I have a feeling the Switch is going to disappoint much like the Wii U did. Nintendo keeps making the same promises about third party support that they haven't kept since the GameCube days, their games are few and far between, and all their stuff is expensive. I hope it doesn't fail because I like Nintendo, but I'm having a hard time seeing how the Switch will succeed.

From what I've heard about their launch production, they are playing it very safe with how many they're going to even build. So maybe they won't lose money - they'd rather underestimate its popularity than overestimate like they did with the Wii U.
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