Nintendo Switch

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Drew Sebastino
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Re: Nintendo Switch

Post by Drew Sebastino »

And like I said, I don't think number of stocks is the number 1 indicator of how well a company is doing, although I'm no financialist so you can correct me if I'm wrong.
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Banshaku
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Re: Nintendo Switch

Post by Banshaku »

@Espozo

I'm not saying in any way that nintendo should jump on the f2p bandwagon crap with the switch, that was not my point of my argument. I'm not fond of such game which are often just a threadmill for selling more IAP. On the contrary, I hate them like the plague. What I said is:

- the mobile market in japan is huge and Nintendo didn't try up to now to target them with casual games on smartphone. Some game like Super Mario Run and a fire emblem are coming soon though
- the switch trailer seems to target the casual gamers which is already lost to smartphone and forget completely about their current market, the kids with games like pokemon which is their bread and butter now
- the stock market in Japan reacted to this for that reason

The switch should focus on gamers and have a good portion or their kids games promoted too. The mobile part is quite useless for outside BUT could be used at home when the kids want to play games but other people want to use the tv. What they shown in the trailer seems not the right market to target so the fault is on their marketing department.

Yes, the market in the Us is bigger for console but in Japan this is not the case anymore. It is normal that that companies in Japan would react that way with the current state of affair here. The stock seems to have stabilized now so the blow is not so bad.

@Drag

I don't think the stock market is everything and hate that gambling thing but it sometimes shows how investors feel confident about a product. For example, with pokemon go, nintendo stock literally doubled since people have been waiting for a while that they try to target mobile and reacted to it (even though we know that it's not Nintendo that did it but niantic..). There are a lot of talented individuals at the kyoto head office and I'm not saying anything about that. I'm just concerned about what the hell their marketing department is smoking because that trailer was awful :)
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Sumez
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Re: Nintendo Switch

Post by Sumez »

Let's not forget that rather than short sighted investments, one of the reasons Nintendo are what they are today (and no matter how poorly you think they are doing - they are still worth more than Sony) is because they have always been protecting their integrity and people KNOW that they can always expect quality games from them.

Giving in to sloppy casual games would cause a lot of people to lose their faith in them, and even though it might make a lot of money for them now, it may destroy their brand in the long run. There's no saying how long mobile games will keep bringing in money, or how easily they'll be able to compete with the random success stories like Flappy Bird and whatevs. I think the Wii was really on the edge in this regard, but at least they kept the usual high standard with their own games!

But now I'm just doing what I just criticized other people of doing, so as I started out saying, I'll just remain glad that they seem to be focusing on things that I like, rather than other things that may or may not sell more.
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Fisher
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Re: Nintendo Switch

Post by Fisher »

Maybe adding smartphone capatibilities to the new console could blast the sales.
Just an idea... maybe even a bad one, since the costs envolved could make the price skyrocket. :?
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Re: Nintendo Switch

Post by nitro2k01 »

Fisher wrote:Maybe adding smartphone capatibilities to the new console could blast the sales.
Just an idea... maybe even a bad one, since the costs envolved could make the price skyrocket. :?
Absolutely not. Making it a phone is not just a non-feature, it's an anti-feature. It's too big and heavy to carry with you in your pocket or hold up to your head. Then people would be tempted to buy it and use as their only phone, and you would inevitably get family conflicts where one person wants to play, and the other person needs to take a call. Making it have smartphone features would actively work against what it attempts to be.
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tokumaru
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Re: Nintendo Switch

Post by tokumaru »

Game consoles will probably die soon, companies really don't know where to go with them anymore. What Sony and MS have are just computers with controllers, the hardware doesn't matter at all as long as the graphics are pretty, and Nintendo is trying to come up with the next big hardware gimmick, but they're overdoing it and not really finding anything that captivates the masses. I'll be surprised if the Switch does any better than the WiiU. The Switch is kinda all over the place, it's a console, it's a portable, it's a tablet, it's a multiplayer portable... I mean, while it may seem like a wide range of options would have the potential to captivate a wider audience, it actually ends up showing a lack of focus and clear direction, and the chances of the different aspects of the console not being properly explored increases.

Anyway, what do I know? This is the opinion of someone whose latest console is a PlayStation 2, and has been completely out of the loop for over a decade when it comes to modern gaming in general. These are my impressions, though.
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Re: Nintendo Switch

Post by tepples »

tokumaru wrote:Game consoles will probably die soon, companies really don't know where to go with them anymore. What Sony and MS have are just computers with controllers
Computers that invite players to connect more than one controller. Computers that come with a living-room-friendly case from the factory. Computers that aren't bogged down with quite as many background tasks. Computers guaranteed to support particular shader and texture compression capabilities, allowing micro-optimizations to rendering paths that take those into account. Computers where all applications are certified by the operating system publisher, and end users don't have to worry about having to leave the safety of the official store to play a particular game. Computers where someone playing online multiplayer with strangers is far less likely to run into cheaters.

Which assumptions in my article "Consoles are easy" no longer hold?
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Drew Sebastino
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Re: Nintendo Switch

Post by Drew Sebastino »

tepples wrote:Which assumptions in my article "Consoles are easy" no longer hold?
Because you invited me... :lol:
tepples wrote:Computers that invite players to connect more than one controller.
Not the case anymore...
tepples wrote:Computers that come with a living-room-friendly case from the factory.
What does this even mean?
tepples wrote:quite as many background tasks
I'd almost say debatable now. :lol:
tepples wrote:allowing micro-optimizations to rendering paths that take those into account.
Like there's any kind of optimization in modern games.
tepples wrote:users don't have to worry about having to leave the safety of the official store to play a particular game.
Aren't 99% of computer games now bought from Steam?
tepples wrote:Computers where someone playing online multiplayer with strangers is far less likely to run into cheaters.
By that same note, you can't mod the games nearly as easily, which is something I enjoy.
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Re: Nintendo Switch

Post by Drag »

Game consoles aren't going to die any time soon, for the same reason desktop computers aren't going to die.

Despite game consoles, mobile phones, and PCs all being capable of playing games, each device satisfies a slightly different market, and there will never be a device that can satisfy the needs of all three, because the device would need an unreasonable amount of features, and each user will only use the third of the functionality that pertains to them. That's a pretty big waste of resources and would have a greater cost than benefit.

I'm the type that likes gaming time to be a session of sitting on the couch with a big TV and a good adventure to tend to for hours. I prefer the luxury of ignorance, where I don't have to worry about hardware, compatibility, workarounds, hardware, upgrades, etc; I prefer the game to target the console, not my PC to target the game. This is pretty much the definition of a console gamer. Mobile gaming and PC gaming don't quite fit the bill.
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Re: Nintendo Switch

Post by rainwarrior »

Espozo wrote:Like there's any kind of optimization in modern games.
Apparently years worth of my professional life doing optimization work on modern games were some kind of hallucination.
Last edited by rainwarrior on Tue Oct 25, 2016 6:07 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Nintendo Switch

Post by tepples »

Espozo wrote:
tepples wrote:Computers that invite players to connect more than one controller.
Not the case anymore...
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U still encourages use of multiple controllers. In fact, Nintendo made available an adapter to plug in GameCube controllers.
Espozo wrote:
tepples wrote:Computers that come with a living-room-friendly case from the factory.
What does this even mean?
So-called "wife acceptance factor". Gamers' significant others tend not to want a big, ugly, noisy tower in the living room.
Espozo wrote:
tepples wrote:quite as many background tasks
I'd almost say debatable now. :lol:
Compare to Windows 10, with antivirus, Windows Update, application-specific update services, and all those other services running in the background, plus a bunch of minimized apps that the player has left open expecting to return to using them after the game is over. Modern consoles tend to dedicate a core to that stuff rather than letting a general-purpose scheduler steal CPU time from the game at inopportune moments.
Espozo wrote:
tepples wrote:users don't have to worry about having to leave the safety of the official store to play a particular game.
Aren't 99% of computer games now bought from Steam?
Except those that say "Now available on Itch.io. Vote for us on Greenlight to help us get on Steam."
Espozo wrote:
tepples wrote:Computers where someone playing online multiplayer with strangers is far less likely to run into cheaters.
By that same note, you can't mod the games nearly as easily, which is something I enjoy.
There are points for both sides here. On the one hand, some publishers prefer platforms where they can sell two games to a customer to platforms where they can sell only one game whose replay value the user extends through modding. On the other hand, games that serve as a platform for mods see continued sales to people who buy the game just for the mods. But when I've tried to bring this up on other forums, some console fans accuse people who like mods of being cheapskates because they're Eastern European or otherwise in a country whose currency is undervalued.
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Drew Sebastino
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Re: Nintendo Switch

Post by Drew Sebastino »

rainwarrior wrote:You say a lot of hella ignorant stuff, Espozo.
I saw this coming from a mile away. :lol:
tepples wrote:Super Smash Bros. for Wii U still encourages use of multiple controllers.
When we were talking about consoles versus computers, I had automatically assumed we mean Xbone/PS4 vs PC. I definitely see the advantages of having a Nintendo console instead of a PC for first party games, like this one.
tepples wrote:In fact, Nintendo made available an adapter to plug in GameCube controllers.
I know, because I own one. I couldn't get used to using the Wii U gamepad of pro controller to save my life (or Captain Falcon's, rather.)
tepples wrote:Gamers' significant others tend not to want a big, ugly, noisy tower in the living room.
I guess they're out of luck if their husbands bought an Xbone.
tepples wrote:Except those that say "Vote for us on Greenlight to help us get on Steam".
They're not going to be on consoles either.
tepples wrote:when I've tried to bring this up on other forums, some console fans accuse people who like mods of being cheapskates because they're Eastern European or otherwise in a country whose currency is undervalued.
Wow, they're even bigger asses than I am! :lol:

Edit:
Apparently years worth of my professional life doing optimization work on modern games were some kind of hallucination.
Why did you change your original statement?
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rainwarrior
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Re: Nintendo Switch

Post by rainwarrior »

Espozo wrote:Why did you change your original statement?
It was insulting and written in anger, and I felt I shouldn't contribute anger to the conversation. I'm sorry.
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Re: Nintendo Switch

Post by tepples »

Espozo wrote:
tepples wrote:Gamers' significant others tend not to want a big, ugly, noisy tower in the living room.
I guess they're out of luck if their husbands bought an Xbone.
And I guess my perception of the PC vs. console debate is biased by my interactions with a fan of PlayStation consoles on this other forum, who takes jabs at Xbox 360/One platform policies just as easily as PC.
Espozo wrote:
tepples wrote:Except those that say "Vote for us on Greenlight to help us get on Steam".
They're not going to be on consoles either.
Some people find value in these low-rent games made by wannabes with a dream living in mom's proverbial basement. Others find value in their remaining out-of-sight and out-of-mind, and they choose consoles specifically to avoid what they perceive as the same sort of crapflood that nearly killed the North American video game market in 1983 and 1984.
Espozo wrote:
rainwarrior wrote:Apparently years worth of my professional life doing optimization work on modern games were some kind of hallucination.
Why did you change your original statement?
He probably thought of a better way to express what he meant without the put-down. Not everybody consistently phrases every statement with both accuracy and tact on the first try.
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Drew Sebastino
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Re: Nintendo Switch

Post by Drew Sebastino »

rainwarrior wrote:I'm sorry.
No need to say sorry! (I appreciate it though) I will admit, I am pretty ignorant... :lol:

Anyway, to make this post not totally worthless, I found out something that's very mildly interesting and that's that the actors for the Nintendo Switch commercial (or at least one of them) were pretty much randomly selected off the street. Unsurprisingly, they never actually got to play any games, and apparently one of the Japanese people had to have their hair died blonde for the shoot. (yes, it's a Kotaku article, fight me.) http://kotaku.com/what-it-was-like-to-m ... 1788202165
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