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[KratosEnergyDrink]

It's not like certain developers did not try on the Wii. People just predominantly bought the Nintendo offerings and/or games like Dance Party. Publishers just gave them what they wanted.

Thats not true at all. Sure "Dance Party" & Co had good sales but CoD, Golden Eye Resident Evil 4 too.

But some publishers saw that alleged "simple" and "cheap" games like Wii Sports sold a lot and they produced only low budget efforts for Wii in the same style. Only few tried more "traditional" games, and most of them sold well.

 

[Theonik]

This isn't actually true. At least one Call of Duty entry sold more on the Wii than the PS3, and I believe the on-par Maddens sold better than the dumbed down Maddens.

For the install base even those didn't sell very well. And the Wii required very specific effort to be able to port to it. PS3 to 360 ports were pretty straight forward towards the end of that gen.
Now, successful efforts on the Wii did receive sequels so of course publishers listened.

 

[LordRaptor]

It's not like certain developers did not try on the Wii. People just predominantly bought the Nintendo offerings and/or games like Dance Party. Publishers just gave them what they wanted.

Just Dance - high production values, appealing aesthetic - more than 7 million sold.
Dance Party - shit, shit, cash in shit, less than 500k copies sold.

The misconception that people who want things in videogames other than playing a bald man shooting or stabbing other men are somehow dumbfucks who can't see the difference between production quality and are free money if you churn out some cloneware shit with a similar name are what soured sales.

 

[yophlow]

I can dig the whole "take it with you" thing, but man I can't understand the appeal of huddling around this minuscule screen to play multiplayer. With two players it's already uncomfortable enough, and I was playing Tetris. Four player MK8? I wouldn't even think it would be physically possible.

 

[phanphare]

is this thread a taste of what GAF was like during the Wii's heyday? because whew

 

[Jacce]

is this thread a taste of what GAF was like during the Wii's heyday? because whew

GAF was full on "Wii is a fad" Wii is for non-gamers, it doesn't count", "Wii is destroying gaming" nonsense in every thread for it's entire life.

 

[PSFan]

It is BS to claim that there are no quality Nintendo games for a 2 months old device, just because you don't like a certain game, which btw was very well praised by the majority.
I for myself felt kinda forced to play modes I didn't really enjoy to unlock things with MKWii.

I don't give a rat's ass how well it's praised, or scores or what critics say. It only matters to me if I think a game is fun and enjoy it.

 

[Skittzo0413]

For the install base even those didn't sell very well. And the Wii required very specific effort to be able to port to it. PS3 to 360 ports were pretty straight forward towards the end of that gen.
Now, successful efforts on the Wii did receive sequels so of course publishers listened.

Selling well relative to the install base isn't ever a publisher's goal though. It's selling well enough to make a good return on investment. I will grant you that the Wii presented porting issues, just as much due to controls as hardware power, but you claimed publishers gave people what they wanted, when the reality is the actual high effort games with any bit of parity to the PS3/360 games actually sold better than those without them. I forget which, but that CoD which outsold the PS3 on the Wii should've been followed up by the next one next year, but they decided not to even put it on the system. People clearly wanted it, and in greater numbers than people on the PS3 did, yet the publisher decided it wasn't worthwhile. That's not giving people what they want.

 

[megabytecr]

As a Nintendo fan who loved the Wii U, I am interested in the Switch but moving to a more casual gaming and finding myself still with a 3DS, Wii U, PS4 and low end notebook, with lots of games still to play and to get. I will probably bite in a year or if I see something I can not wait for, maybe Mario O.

 

[kunonabi]

The original claim was that there was no Nintendo console with "great Nintendo games" which is a very objective statement about a very subjective thing, so it didn't really make much sense from a broad perspective. But yeah, if you're happy with the Wii U versions of those games I can totally understand not being interested in getting them for the Switch.

You are missing out on Snipperclips though...



This isn't actually true. At least one Call of Duty entry sold more on the Wii than the PS3, and I believe the on-par Maddens sold better than the dumbed down Maddens.

Snipperclips and now bomberman are the two games that i feel bad for not being able to play now. Snipperclips looks amazing but it isnt enough for me to buy a switch now.

 

[Inferno313]

I got a free $100 gift card from my car dealership for letting them look at my airbags. Totally gonna grab PuyoPuyoTetris and Minecraft with it. I love this fucking thing.

 

[D.Lo]

For the install base even those didn't sell very well. And the Wii required very specific effort to be able to port to it. PS3 to 360 ports were pretty straight forward towards the end of that gen.
Now, successful efforts on the Wii did receive sequels so of course publishers listened.

No. They sold very well early on in the console's life, aka not because of install base. COD3 on Wii outsold the PS3 version, and Madden/Tiger Woods sold very well, despite being technologically PS2 ports, because of interesting new control methods. Other 'core' games also sold well, like Red Steel, Resident Evil 4 etc.

But then the publishers shat the bed. Despite selling well as normal versions, EA then re-branded their sports titles 'All Stars' aka Babiez editions. RE4 was followed up with light gun games 'because Wii owners can't handle real games' (paraphrased from Capcom). EA released Dead Space on Wii - as another fucking light gun game. And COD's breakout hit, Modern Warfare, skipped the Wii altogether.

Two years later a late port of COD4 was released alongside the other consoles getting Modern Warfare 2. And it STILL sold a million copies!

 

[Takat]

I can dig the whole "take it with you" thing, but man I can't understand the appeal of huddling around this minuscule screen to play multiplayer. With two players it's already uncomfortable enough, and I was playing Tetris. Four player MK8? I wouldn't even think it would be physically possible.

It's fun. Two player is a lot of fun, I've yet to try four, but it's all about fun. This is something that's important to me when I play games, and my friends. It's about the fun, not the technical.

 

[reKon]

There's just something amazing about being able to whoop rando's ass in Smash Bros on the go. I hope this thing continues to sell very well AND that Nintendo goes all out on the local and online MP aspect of Smash. That game deserves it.

 

[Skittzo0413]

Snipperclips and now bomberman are the two games that i feel bad for not being able to play now. Snipperclips looks amazing but it isnt enough for me to buy a switch now.

Yeah I totally appreciate that. I still haven't gotten Bomberman yet but I plan to at some point. I'm way too busy with Binding of Isaac.

It will definitely get a good amount of software you'll want, and probably pretty soon. This first year is as stacked as any first console's year I can remember, except maybe the Wii's.

 

[The Greek Freak]

GAF was full on "Wii is a fad" Wii is for non-gamers, it doesn't count", "Wii is destroying gaming" nonsense in every thread for it's entire life.

The weird thing is, if you disconnect the statements from the angry hissy fits some of that shit was true.

It didn't destroy gaming, but it did lead to MS/Sony wasting tons of time and money on trashy motion controls.

It's iffy to call something that popular a fad, but considering how noone gives a fuck about motion, and noone cared about the WiiU at all, is fad really the wrong word for the wii? Lightning in a bottle or enormous outlier are better less negative terms, but the same idea.

"Wii is for non-gamers" was that wrong? I know plenty of people who almost never play games anymore and didn't before, that got super into the wii for a moment. You could also apply the same label to Rockband/guitar hero when they were big.

 

[Widge]

I got a free $100 gift card from my car dealership for letting them look at my airbags.

Sexy.

 

[Kintaro]

It is a nice little machine, but I believe I should have waited for revisions down the line. I'm finding that I'm not as into Nintendo as I once was (the big titles anyway, Mario, Zelda, Kart, etc) while I do still like their niche stuff (Kirby, Metroid) and it'll be awhile before those needs are met. It'll be awhile that JRPGs that aren't ports make their way to it.

So yeah. Neat machine. I should have waited. =/

 

[Kurt]

"Wii is for non-gamers" was that wrong? I know plenty of people who almost never play games anymore and didn't before, that got super into the wii for a moment. You could also apply the same label to Rockband/guitar hero when they were big.

Yes that was wrong. It expend the gaming. And yes we didn't get a gta on that system for no good reason.

A lot of quick party trash was been release from 3th party developers. Mainly because their a(aa) games sources were focused on none nintendo console for the first years.And second, because of the power of the Wii. That doesn't mean that there aren't a lot core games on it...

I mean, we had the same trash games on ps2, But this console was a lot better supported by 3th party developers.

Now these days, trash games are mainly moved to mobile development.

 

[LordRaptor]

"Wii is for non-gamers" was that wrong? I know plenty of people who almost never play games anymore and didn't before, that got super into the wii for a moment. You could also apply the same label to Rockband/guitar hero when they were big.

Wii had mass appeal; there are plenty of examples of 'core' games of the exact same types that have always sold well to gamers, but there are also plenty of examples of 'non-games' being games made for people that are not traditionally gamers and do not traditionally buy consoles.

That's the problem.

Gaming is (actually, should be) a broad church like movies, or music, or any other form of entertainment. You might not like Rap or Country & Western, but you shouldn't be mortally fucking offended that people do and declare outright war on those people for liking different things and screaming how they are 'ruining' things and that selling those people entertainment are 'wasting money'

 

[Brodnax]

The weird thing is, if you disconnect the statements from the angry hissy fits some of that shit was true.

It didn't destroy gaming, but it did lead to MS/Sony wasting tons of time and money on trashy motion controls.

It's iffy to call something that popular a fad, but considering how noone gives a fuck about motion, and noone cared about the WiiU at all, is fad really the wrong word for the wii? Lightning in a bottle or enormous outlier are better less negative terms, but the same idea.

"Wii is for non-gamers" was that wrong? I know plenty of people who almost never play games anymore and didn't before, that got super into the wii for a moment. You could also apply the same label to Rockband/guitar hero when they were big.

It's wrong and delusional because there's people that buy ps4s and xb1s to casually play FIFA/Madden/COD every once in awhile, that doesn't make them less gamers and ofc that doesn't make those consoles less consoles. Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft products are made for the entertainment of anyone, there's no "gamer's console".

 

[cacildo]

Best price i get in brasil is R$1700, which means kinda like U$530

Without any games or anything

if anyone knows about better prices i would welcome the info

 

[TunaMarshmallow]

So far, I've been using the Switch's system memory for all of my downloads. I've now decided to get a 128GB microSD card. What happens when I install the SD card? Does the system automatically copy everything over to the SD card? I don't think there's an option to do it manually. So what do I do?

 

[The Abominable Snowman]

It didn't destroy gaming, but it did lead to MS/Sony wasting tons of time and money on trashy motion controls.

Is it really a waste if they profited from it and people enjoyed them?

 

[CaviarMeths]

It didn't destroy gaming, but it did lead to MS/Sony wasting tons of time and money on trashy motion controls.

MS made Kinect, which was a huge source of revenue for them an extended the lifespan of the 360 by years. It positioned the 360 strongly against the Wii as the "family console" and eventually outsold the Wii in the US.

Sony's investment in motion controls led to PSVR.

Not sure how either of those situations could be construed as a "waste of time and money."

It's iffy to call something that popular a fad, but considering how noone gives a fuck about motion, and noone cared about the WiiU at all, is fad really the wrong word for the wii? Lightning in a bottle or enormous outlier are better less negative terms, but the same idea.

It's not lightning in a bottle when they sustain the demand for years. We also can't keep calling all of Nintendo's successes "lightning in a bottle" just because we want to call them a fad without looking like a negative nancy. That phrase has been used to describe about 5 different pieces of Nintendo hardware and at least one of their IPs (Pokemon fad still going strong 20 years later).

"Wii is for non-gamers" was that wrong? I know plenty of people who almost never play games anymore and didn't before, that got super into the wii for a moment. You could also apply the same label to Rockband/guitar hero when they were big.

It's wrong because the Wii had a strong attach rate. You don't get "super into the Wii for a moment" and go out and buy 9 fucking games for it. Clearly, it was bought and enjoyed by many, many "core" gamers. The grandmas and soccer moms meme is not an accurate description of the Wii's majority audience. It's like attributing the PS2's success for people wanting a cheap DVD player. Sure, partially, but it's ridiculous to suggest that nearly a billion units of software was being sold to non-gamers.

 

[UncleSporky]

It's iffy to call something that popular a fad, but considering how noone gives a fuck about motion, and noone cared about the WiiU at all, is fad really the wrong word for the wii?

What do you mean, no one gives a fuck about motion? Motion has been around for ages and is here to stay.

PC mouse is a form of motion control and is lauded by many people as being superior to joysticks. The Wii's best motion control was as a pointer, which wasn't far off from mouse control, and plenty of people have said for FPSs, mouse > motion pointer > joysticks.

Everyone has motion control built into their standard controllers except MS. Motion assisted aiming is awesome and intuitive and deserves to be an option in many games these days.

Plus without the Wii laying the groundwork and igniting public interest in motion control, we wouldn't have seen the sudden spike in research, funding, development of motion control systems, which have ultimately resulted in the first consumer grade VR. Motion control is 100% necessary in VR because you can't see where your hands are, accurate detection of the controllers means you can feel like you are actually inside and interacting with VR. It's also given us the necessary head tracking systems and other advancements in detection of the human body and its positioning.

Motion was big, and is still big.

 

[kunonabi]

Yeah I totally appreciate that. I still haven't gotten Bomberman yet but I plan to at some point. I'm way too busy with Binding of Isaac.

It will definitely get a good amount of software you'll want, and probably pretty soon. This first year is as stacked as any first console's year I can remember, except maybe the Wii's.

By the end of the year it will look pretty nice with arms, splatoon 2, mario, and fire emblem. At that point my holding off on a purchase will be more about my issues with the hardware than the software.

 

[James Scott]

Nothing right now, except for a great Nintendo home console with great new Nintendo games, lol. I mean, nobody forgets how poorly the Wii U performed at market, but everyone overstates people's familiarity with it and it's library.

The fact that Zelda and Mario Kart are on Wii U is of little consequence to most people.
Because to most people, the Wii U never existed. It's not a thing.

People didn't care that Breath of the Wild was available on a less expensive, more mature platform. It's -literally- a new Nintendo game regardless of your dismissal of it, one that itself sold a new platform despite being available on last gen hardware.
Most of the people who would play Mario Kart 8 haven't, because its original release landed on a failure of a platform. It's not a brand new game, but it might as well be to most of the people who will play it in the event that Switch sees sustained sucess.

Fun fact; there are more people who own MK7 than there are Wii Us

 

[AyaisMUsikWhore]

I have a switch and I'm currently in the phase where I can't enjoy it as much as I want because the games aren't there yet. It's cute and I'm glad I'm out of the search headache. I know zelda exist and at this time, th game is too time consuming for me to buy and stop my entire backlog for...that's setting myself up for failure. However once I get a handle on it, I will be able to actually begin the fun aspect

 

[Meffer]

My sister visited last week with her daughter and i brought my Switch to play MK8 with her. She was wowed by how the game looked considering it was a handheld to her. Then I took off the JoyCons and gave one to her. She was so surprised that multiplayer was so easy for the Switch. She thinks the Switch is awesome and my niece loved it.

 

[reKon]

Well because of a reward program thing at work, I've just added $200 to the Amazon.com Switch fund.

 

[Xaero Gravity]

I found it go be a neat piece of hardware from the little time I spent with it, but it doesn't have anything on it at the moment that interests me where must own s Switch to experience it.

Another factor is the fact that I'm not a fan of gaming on the go, so for me it would just be an underpowered console hooked up to the TV. I'll get one eventually, but not until there's some exclusive software that appeals to me, and the only thing currently in the pipeline for me is XB2.

 

[Wamb0wneD]

Just Dance - high production values, appealing aesthetic - more than 7 million sold.
Dance Party - shit, shit, cash in shit, less than 500k copies sold.

The misconception that people who want things in videogames other than playing a bald man shooting or stabbing other men are somehow dumbfucks who can't see the difference between production quality and are free money if you churn out some cloneware shit with a similar name are what soured sales.

This so fucking much. And EA is on it's way to repeat that exact mistake again. Smh.

By the end of the year it will look pretty nice with arms, splatoon 2, mario, and fire emblem. At that point my holding off on a purchase will be more about my issues with the hardware than the software.

And what issues would that be?

 

[James Scott]

I found it go be a neat piece of hardware from the little time I spent with it, but it doesn't have anything on it at the moment that interests me where must own s Switch to experience it.

Another factor is the fact that I'm not a fan of gaming on the go, so for me it would just be an underpowered console hooked up to the TV. I'll get one eventually, but not until there's some exclusive software that appeals to me, and the only thing currently in the pipeline for me is XB2.

A cool thing about portables is that it's not just about "gaming on the go" it's about convenience. I've used it outside of my house maybe 10 minutes? But it's super comfortable to use and convenient to use while doing something else.

 

[Theonik]

Selling well relative to the install base isn't ever a publisher's goal though. It's selling well enough to make a good return on investment. I will grant you that the Wii presented porting issues, just as much due to controls as hardware power, but you claimed publishers gave people what they wanted, when the reality is the actual high effort games with any bit of parity to the PS3/360 games actually sold better than those without them. I forget which, but that CoD which outsold the PS3 on the Wii should've been followed up by the next one next year, but they decided not to even put it on the system. People clearly wanted it, and in greater numbers than people on the PS3 did, yet the publisher decided it wasn't worthwhile. That's not giving people what they want.

There is clearly a set of compromises that needed to be made for the Wii, not only because PS360 games would need to be backported to what was essentially last-gen hardware at that point but also to accommodate for the Wii's unique capabilities. (controls, and non-existent online infrastructure)

Arguing that at one point Wii ports sold well is really obtuse. Wii ports were not cheap to make and often failed to fit the overall strategy publishers had at the time for these games due to system limitation. The kind of port people wanted would take a substantial amount of time to do often and even if it sold near or somewhat better than the PS3 one it would still be considered a failure simply for failing publisher's expectations for the platform. Why waste resources doing real ports to the Wii when you could spend the same money and give them Just Dance which might sell orders of magnitude more? It didn't make sense from an opportunity cost perspective.

No. They sold very well early on in the console's life, aka not because of install base. COD3 on Wii outsold the PS3 version, and Madden/Tiger Woods sold very well, despite being technologically PS2 ports, because of interesting new control methods. Other 'core' games also sold well, like Red Steel, Resident Evil 4 etc.

But then the publishers shat the bed. Despite selling well as normal versions, EA then re-branded their sports titles 'All Stars' aka Babiez editions. RE4 was followed up with light gun games 'because Wii owners can't handle real games' (paraphrased from Capcom). EA released Dead Space on Wii - as another fucking light gun game. And COD's breakout hit, Modern Warfare, skipped the Wii altogether.

Two years later a late port of COD4 was released alongside the other consoles getting Modern Warfare 2. And it STILL sold a million copies!

See above actually.

 

[Skittzo0413]

There is clearly a set of compromises that needed to be made for the Wii, not only because PS360 games would need to be backported to what was essentially last-gen hardware at that point but also to accommodate for the Wii's unique capabilities. (controls, and non-existent online infrastructure)

Arguing that at one point Wii ports sold well is really obtuse. Wii ports were not cheap to make and often failed to fit the overall strategy publishers had at the time for these games due to system limitation. The kind of port people wanted would take a substantial amount of time to do often and even if it sold near or somewhat better than the PS3 one it would still be considered a failure simply for failing publisher's expectations for the platform. Why waste resources doing real ports to the Wii when you could spend the same money and give them Just Dance which might sell orders of magnitude more? It didn't make sense from an opportunity cost perspective.

I don't disagree that the ports were likely quite difficult and costly, and that sometimes they may not have been worth it. I'm really only responding to your claim that publishers put out the games the audience seemed to want/purchase, which was not really the case. If that were the case, why was a successful Madden and CoD entry followed up by a dumbed down "kiddy" version and nothing at all, respectively?

I get that the Wii was hamstrung by its hardware and controls but that doesn't change the fact that publishers ignored several "mature" genres and games which actually sold quite well and decided to push for low effort "family" style games instead, when the audience at that point had not in any way indicated they wanted stripped down versions of games. And I'm not even criticizing these publishers for doing that, since it may have indeed been incredibly expensive to put out a Wii version with parity- all I'm really trying to say is that the audience for AAA "mature" western games existed on the Wii, and likely exists on the Switch as well.

It demonstrably did not exist on the Wii U of course, but that shouldn't be indicative of Nintendo's overall potential audience when so few third party games at all did well on the Wii U.

 

[Neff]

No, there is a class of hater who objects to a different paradigm from 'large console box with western 3rd party support' being successful. They fear another different success will harm their preferred paradigm.

I think there's a pretty good case to be made for that. The amount of times varying forms of 'will NX/Switch be successful' are met with immediate, unreasoned shutdowns is telling. There's often no explanation or informed critique, just indignation and mocking reaction images directed at the suggestion of any other outcome than a continuation of the status quo.

Switch has surprised us all, there's no shame in admitting that it might become a very, very big thing indeed.

noone gave a shit about the wii a year after release.

This is my favourite ever NeoGAF post.

 

[LordRaptor]

Why waste resources doing real ports to the Wii when you could spend the same money and give them Just Dance which might sell orders of magnitude more? It didn't make sense from an opportunity cost perspective.

Its pointless re-litigating things that happened a decade ago, but the simple answer is; if you want people to care about your franchises, you give people a reason to care about your franchises.
I don't believe it is an outrageous statement that the people who may have been interested in a 'downgraded' port of an FPS or TPS are not the same people who may have been interested in Just Dance.

If you then later show up with sequel 5 to an FPS franchise people have never played it seems unreasonable to just expect people to automatically give a shit about that franchise that there has been no efforts to build an audience for, no?

 

[Kenzodielocke]

Since I can't find a Switch OT I'll ask here. How do I get the Switch to NOT turn my TV on when getting docked?

Edit: Never mind.

 

[DirtyLarry]

So far, I've been using the Switch's system memory for all of my downloads. I've now decided to get a 128GB microSD card. What happens when I install the SD card? Does the system automatically copy everything over to the SD card? I don't think there's an option to do it manually. So what do I do?

It looks like you need to delete it and redownload it again, unless I just did not find the option anywhere. And I only have 1 game downloaded.

 

[marc^o^]

Minecraft on Switch was reviewed twice so far, and both reviewers say the Switch version might be the best of all systems. They point out its technical limitations compared to other versions, yet still prefer it for the hardware it runs on.

It's interesting to see, to say the least. Switch fitting into people lifestyles give its games extra points, or so it seems.

 

[James Scott]

Minecraft on Switch was reviewed twice so far, and both reviewers say the Switch version might be the best of all systems. They point out its technical limitations compared to other versions, yet still prefer it for the hardware it runs on.

It's interesting to see, to say the least. Switch fitting into people lifestyles give its games extra points, or so it seems.

It seems like it should be a pretty good fit. Shame the retail version is at a later date.

 

[Buggy Loop]

http://kotaku.com/look-at-this-snes-themed-nintendo-switch-1795108744

My jaw fucking dropped. It's gorgeous.

 

[James Scott]

http://kotaku.com/look-at-this-snes-themed-nintendo-switch-1795108744

My jaw fucking dropped. It's gorgeous.

Selling custom docks and joy cons seems like easy money. I imagine they'll stick with the joy con varients for now

 

[marc^o^]

Selling custom docks and joy cons seems like easy money. I imagine they'll stick with the joy con varients for now

http://press-start.com.au/news/nintendo/2017/05/11/welcome-super-nintendo-switch/

This needs to happen:

 

[Etrian Oddity]

http://press-start.com.au/news/nintendo/2017/05/11/welcome-super-nintendo-switch/

This needs to happen:

this is fucking BEAUTIFUL

 

[foxuzamaki]

]For the install base even those didn't sell very well[/B]. And the Wii required very specific effort to be able to port to it. PS3 to 360 ports were pretty straight forward towards the end of that gen.
Now, successful efforts on the Wii did receive sequels so of course publishers listened.

Do you know the install base of that time period? because it certainly wasn't at 100 million as it is now, and big install base or not, if it sold more than the other console versions......uhhh that seems to be enough

 

[Samanosuke Akechi]

noone gave a shit about the wii a year after release.

 

[coughlanio]

If/when they introduce GC VC, they need to make joycon with the GC controller layout and analogue triggers. Could be useful for Smash too.

 

[TheSkullPrince]

Reggie told me to Switch the style up, and if they hate then late 'em hate, and watch the games pile up.