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[Celine]

stufff like Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Bayonetta 3, Metroid Dread, while performing better haven’t been much better than the games before.

No, they are performing much better compared to the previous entries (with the exclusion of Bayonetta 3 for which official data isn't known yet).
It's just that franchises like Xenoblade, Bayonetta and Metroid have lower sales ceiling compared to other Nintendo's big guns.

Xenoblade 3 (NSW) after 1 quarter: 1.72M
Xenoblade 2 (NSW) after 1 quarter: 1.06M

Xenoblade games released on Nintendo consoles before the Switch (WII, WIIU, 3DS) never broke 1 million units.


Bayonetta 3 (NSW): ? (launched in the current quarter)
Bayonetta 2 (NSW) as December 2021: 1.04M

Bayonetta 2 (NSW) is the first time a Bayonetta game broke 1 million units on a Nintendo console (and likely the first time a Bayonetta game broke 1M on a single platform).


Metroid Dread (NSW) after 2 quarters: 2.90M
Metroid Prime 3 (WII) after 6 quarters: 1.38M

After just 2 quarters Metroid Dread is already the best selling Metroid game ever.
The last Metroid game to broke 1 million units before Dread was Metroid Prime 3 on Wii released in 2007.

 

[remember_spinal]

No, they are performing much better compared to the previous entries (with the exclusion of Bayonetta 3 for which official data isn't know yet).
It's just that franchises like Xenoblade, Bayonetta and Metroid have lower sales ceiling compared to other Nintendo's big guns.

Xenoblade 3 (NSW) after 1 quarter: 1.72M
Xenoblade 2 (NSW) after 1 quarter: 1.06M

Xenoblade games released on Nintendo consoles before the Switch (WII, WIIU, 3DS) never broke 1 million units.


Bayonetta 3 (NSW): ? (launched in the current quarter)
Bayonetta 2 (NSW) as December 2021: 1.04M

Bayonetta 2 (NSW) is the first time a Bayonetta game broke 1 million units on a Nintendo console (and likely the first time a Bayonetta game broke 1M on a single platform).


Metroid Dread (NSW) after 2 quarters: 2.90M
Metroid Prime 3 (WII) after 6 quarters: 1.38M

After just 2 quarters Metroid Dread is already the best selling Metroid game ever.
The last Metroid game to broke 1 million units before Dread was Metroid Prime 3 on Wii released in 2007.

I mean thats exactly what i said, metroid dread being the best selling in the series (in 30 years) with still under 3 million in sales is my entire point. All the ‘core gamer’ franchises on switch have an incredibly low ceiling compared to their other games and they’re barely growing even with the massive success of the switch.

We already know how nintendo games sell when the audience embrace a franchise, we just saw splatoon 3 do 7 million in sales in days. Same with Pokemon. Those action-franchises are barely growing however

Those Xenoblade growth numbers are terrible when you consider the difference in install base between year one of the switch and today.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Knowing Nintendo they’ll make sure we get 1-2 years of barren, depressing release schedules before launching a new system.

That was the Wii to Wii U succession strategy… only this time they do not have two streams of income for their consoles (handheld and home consoles)… so… hopefully not.

Let’s see what they dig out of the back shelves from nVIDIA, I am still thinking they are struggling to agree on something new and that comes at the low cost / high margins Nintendo is accustomed to. All things considered, they are not yet tied in too much custom nVIDIA tech, they are better off paying AMD for a semi custom RDNA3+ and Zen4 based design, getting a preview of their next gen portable SoC in the most low power consumption configuration.

 

[Gambit2483]

The industry isn’t as narrow as you’re making it out to be.

Some of the biggest moray profitable games are available on wide ranges of hardware and aren’t demanding.

And? Despite Wii having a wide cast that's exactly what happened to it.

No console is going to run just as strong in its 6th year with no games as its did in its 2nd year with a packed release list. There is no precedent for what you are saying.

 

[Celine]

I mean thats exactly what i said, metroid dread being the best selling in the series (in 30 years) with still under 3 million in sales is my entire point. All the ‘core gamer’ franchises on switch have an incredibly low ceiling compared to their other games and they’re barely growing even with the massive success of the switch.

If you call "barely growing" an increase over 100% then the problem is with you.
How much are selling other Metroidvania games on other non-Nintendo platforms? Even more apprecciated examples which hold up their price over $30 like Metroid Dread.

 

[UnNamed]

After five years, it’s time for a more powerful Switch that can erase some of these past and future issues with a faster chipset capable of displaying games in 4K.

This article lost its credibility at this point. Reading that we need a 4K console is like we need 50MPX camera to make better photos.
The only things that count is the IQ, keep your 4K PS3 games for yourselves.

 

[FStubbs]

That's what I want, but it ain't going to happen.

A tech standard that has only just started shipping (in expensive devices) on a Nintendo console?! Not a chance!

They did ship immature glasses-less 3D on the 3DS, and in fact motion sensing wasn't quite mature on the launch Wii. So - especially considering nvidia is partnering with the hardware - it's not impossible. I wouldn't hold my breath, but it's not impossible.

 

[OuterLimits]

If Hello Games can do a fairly impressive port of No Man's Sky on the Switch, then certainly the shape Pokemon released in has more to do with Game Freak than the console itself.

My guess is a switch Pro would have been released(much like the N3DS was during last gen) but a combination of Covid followed by chip shortages and overall global supply chain woes derailed that.

 

[Petopia]

If it isn't backwards compatible I'm switching to a Zen3 portable.


That just probes your memory is bad

Do you think Halo 1 looked like Infinity too cause It was running on a MS product?


There is no damage. I t only peoples damaged expectations and unrealistic views of how reality should be.

I don't play Pokemon. I have never played Pokemon. I don't give a shit how it runs.

I will play Bayo 3 after the other 2 games.

Cap cause Nintendo publishes the game bet you didn't cap for them during the 7th gen days

 

[TheGodfather07]

The audience Nintendo caters don't even understand anything about resolution or hardware specs. It would be super risky for Nintendo to try and compete with Sony and Microsoft with a high spec $500 system.

 

[Mozza]

nintendo diehards don't care they play in sub HD resolution at terrible framerates. And that is exactly the reason why Nintendo keeps making dated hardware, because they know the fanboys will eat it up as usual.

Just look at the copium in this thread.

Looking at the amount of subscribers on Digital foundry, very few people care about resolutions and frame rates, the core that comment on forums obviously care, it's a case of people in bubbles, speaking to people in the similar bubbles, Which is why I feel a new Switch is quite a way off, the console can still sell 15 million plus for the next couple of years at least.......... the main demographic has no interest in power, so why would Nintendo need to rush a successor to the market.

Another issue is we keep comparing the Switch to the consoles from Sony and Microsoft, and suggesting the reason the Switch need more power is to get ports of triple AAA games, when in reality it's always Nintendo's own software that sells it's hardware, and the third party ship sailed years ago.

 

[Mozza]

Looking at Nintendo's demographics from it's last earnings, I don't see how they could not believe they need a home console.

The age only tells part of the story though, you could simply have many older players who are not core graphic obsessives, they just buy the console to have fun and play games in some of their spare time, which is why Mario Kart and Animal crossing are top of the tree, both titles can be played in shorter bursts, Mario Kart also having all tracks unlocked form the get go.

 

[nkarafo]

Happened before with the original Game Boy, GBA, DS, etc. It's a portable console.

 

[Mozza]

Happened before with the original Game Boy, GBA, DS, etc. It's a portable console.

Hybrid... surely.

 

[Romulus]

They care if their release schedule dries up due to 3rd parties losing interest in trying to work with severely outdated hardware which causes their hardware sales to dwindle, causing Switch momentum and mindshare to fall off a cliff.

They would care about that.

3td parties can port whatever potato version they need to if they like money. Switch is one the best selling devices ever and their owners are anything but graphics whole. Besides ps5 generation is just like ps4 with higher settings and pathetic attempts at RT. This isn't the revolutionary next gen jump some thought. For the most part it's ps4 1.25. So we're not doing much more than last gen other than better framerates and resolution, which switch owners don't care about.

 

[Nautilus]

I mean thats exactly what i said, metroid dread being the best selling in the series (in 30 years) with still under 3 million in sales is my entire point. All the ‘core gamer’ franchises on switch have an incredibly low ceiling compared to their other games and they’re barely growing even with the massive success of the switch.

We already know how nintendo games sell when the audience embrace a franchise, we just saw splatoon 3 do 7 million in sales in days. Same with Pokemon. Those action-franchises are barely growing however

Those Xenoblade growth numbers are terrible when you consider the difference in install base between year one of the switch and today.

You need to understand that growth is relative. There are some genres, popular ones like shooters, that if it had a growth of only going from 1 to 2 million would indeed be considered small.

But for other genres, like RPG, and specially for smaller franchises like Xenoblade, going from 1.06 million to 1.72 million is massive, because the expectations are different, just as the budget is appropriate for each game's sales expectation.Same for Metroid.For as much as the fanbase is vocal, Metroid was always a small franchise, and its fanbase was loud, but limited. Dread did fantastic and grew the franchise, but it was never going to do 10 million +, because the franchise never had that potential to begin with(yet at least).

And sales are not proportional to the console userbase.The bigger the userbase, the bigger the potential sales sure. But its not like " The user baser is 10x bigger, so sales should be 10x bigger". If selling a game was that easy, there wouldn't be flops.

 

[daveonezero]

The audience Nintendo caters don't even understand anything about resolution or hardware specs. It would be super risky for Nintendo to try and compete with Sony and Microsoft with a high spec $500 system.

The audience of gamers in general don’t know.

I’ve been in houses with HD TVs and cable boxes and they are still watching in 480p.

 

[Gambit2483]

3td parties can port whatever potato version they need to if they like money. Switch is one the best selling devices ever and their owners are anything but graphics whole. Besides ps5 generation is just like ps4 with higher settings and pathetic attempts at RT. This isn't the revolutionary next gen jump some thought. For the most part it's ps4 1.25. So we're not doing much more than last gen other than better framerates and resolution, which switch owners don't care about.

Switch owners might not be graphics whores but that doesn't mean they want cloud versions or extremely poor looking and running ports. If Pokemon Scarlet/Violet was any other game, e.g. Temtem,, and ran like crap it would have been mocked and sold like crap

Also devs don't want to waste time trying to port a game that simply won't run on Switch. There are tons of ports (unannounced/unreleased) that devs toyed around on Switch but simply gave up because it just wasn't feasible. That is why you see cloud versions of RE2 Remake and not native versions

 

[remember_spinal]

You need to understand that growth is relative. There are some genres, popular ones like shooters, that if it had a growth of only going from 1 to 2 million would indeed be considered small.

But for other genres, like RPG, and specially for smaller franchises like Xenoblade, going from 1.06 million to 1.72 million is massive, because the expectations are different, just as the budget is appropriate for each game's sales expectation.Same for Metroid.For as much as the fanbase is vocal, Metroid was always a small franchise, and its fanbase was loud, but limited. Dread did fantastic and grew the franchise, but it was never going to do 10 million +, because the franchise never had that potential to begin with(yet at least).

And sales are not proportional to the console userbase.The bigger the userbase, the bigger the potential sales sure. But its not like " The user baser is 10x bigger, so sales should be 10x bigger". If selling a game was that easy, there wouldn't be flops.

Looks at Persona 5 and Nier Automata

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

idk, I've been more impressed with what the switch has been able to pull off lately.
Alan Wake Remastered for example runs and looks pretty good for a handheld.
edit: Nier Automata is a great example too.

 

[AJUMP23]

Tears of the kingdom is going to be great though.

 

[Trunx81]

After five years, it’s time for a more powerful Game Boy that can erase some of these past and future issues with a faster chipset capable of displaying games in 640x480. I mean, it’s nearly 1995!

 

[Nautilus]

Looks at Persona 5 and Nier Automata

Exceptions that just prove the rule.

Not to mention that these franchises took many tries(6 in Persona's case, and at least once in Nier case(More if you count the many versions the first game had).

And for every game with explosive growth like Persona 5, how many other grew steadily?

 

[remember_spinal]

Exceptions that just prove the rule.

Not to mention that these franchises took many tries(6 in Persona's case, and at least once in Nier case(More if you count the many versions the first game had).

And for every game with explosive growth like Persona 5, how many other grew steadily?

Those franchises are probably the closest in comparison to something like a Xenoblade though, they are singular platform releases that were big critical successes with multiple entries.

Xenoblade has yet to break out of that low ceiling like other popular JRPG, minus like…’Tales of’ series? Which still hasn’t really hit the highs and level of hype of Xenoblade.

It’s also probably one of the biggest budget and post polished games Nintendo produces. For it to be stuck in that low 2.5m Lifetime sales while pokemon also exist on nintendo and sells like 5 million in preorders alone tells you the market isn’t there to expand JRPG market on nintendo. The typical nintendo consumer just isn’t interested in those big rpgs outside of Pokemon which still feels very much like a mobile centric series.

Its telling when xenoblade has active representation all over the Game Awards and other outlets award list and it’s still selling a tiny fraction that a Pokemon spinoff game is doing on the same platform

 

[Mozza]

Those franchises are probably the closest in comparison to something like a Xenoblade though, they are singular platform releases that were big critical successes with multiple entries.

Xenoblade has yet to break out of that low ceiling like other popular JRPG, minus like…’Tales of’ series? Which still hasn’t really hit the highs and level of hype of Xenoblade.

It’s also probably one of the biggest budget and post polished games Nintendo produces. For it to be stuck in that low 2.5m Lifetime sales while pokemon also exist on nintendo and sells like 5 million in preorders alone tells you the market isn’t there to expand JRPG market on nintendo. The typical nintendo consumer just isn’t interested in those big rpgs outside of Pokemon which still feels very much like a mobile centric series.

I think you are forgetting that quite a few good games on the PS4 sold pretty low numbers too, Killzone shadow fall, big exclusive on a more core console, only shifted 2.5 million, was that down to power limitations etc

 

[remember_spinal]

I think you are forgetting that quite a few good games on the PS4 sold pretty low numbers too, Killzone shadow fall, big exclusive on a more core console, only shifted 2.5 million, was that down to power limitations etc

I’m not forgetting that, its why Killzone is a dead IP. The market for those Shooters just wasn’t there on playstation, just like the market for ‘core’ gaming experiences doesn’t seem to exist on the switch outside of Zelda and Monster Hunter

I doubt sony even entertains the idea of going back into making shooters and multiplayer games if they didn’t have the PC sales and F2P in mind

 

[Boy bawang]

Looking at Nintendo's demographics from it's last earnings, I don't see how they could not believe they need a home console.

Interesting graph. I have a pretty clear idea as to where the teenagers game

 

[Mozza]

I’m not forgetting that, its why Killzone is a dead IP. The market for those Shooters just wasn’t there on playstation, just like the market for ‘core’ gaming experiences doesn’t seem to exist on the switch outside of Zelda and Monster Hunter

But there were quite a few games on the PS4 that sold around that or less, still great games, in fact only 7 games sold above 10 million. We do tend to look at the big sellers and think the lower grossing games are somehow underperforming, but in reality it's rarely as simple as that.

Final fantasy XV was around 2.5 million, I think this says more about the worldwide demand for RPG more than anything else, and until Breath of the wild, even Zelda was not selling silly numbers.

 

[remember_spinal]

But there were quite a few games on the PS4 that sold around that or less, still great games, in fact only 7 games sold above 10 million. We do tend to look at the big sellers and think the lower grossing games are somehow underperforming, but in reality it's rarely as simple as that.

I can’t think of many that are still producing sequels

 

[Mozza]

Interesting graph. I have a pretty clear idea as to where the teenagers game

On mobile mostly, my teenage daughter and all her friends certainly do, she has a Switch but does not use it all that much.

 

[Mozza]

I can’t think of many that are still producing sequels

True, fame is a very fickle mistress, but there are quite a few big names there.

 

[Mozza]

Error post...

 

[remember_spinal]

gotta work on that formatting, i don’t know what you’re trying to show me

 

[tkscz]

If games run like shit on the Switch it's not the Switch's fault. The specs haven't changed in years, so the platform is a known quantity. If new Switch games don't run well it's because the devs fucked up.

While games running sluggish on the Switch hasn't been anything new, this blow up in the conversation because Pokemon ran poorly while four months earlier Xenoblade Chronicles 3, another open world game (for the most part), ran significantly better and because one person ran Pokemon on an emulator, everyone started blaming the Switch itself, but not how poor a job Gamefreak has done with the game.

Yes, the Switch's hardware is older than the actual release date of the Switch, but devs at this point should know that.

 

[remember_spinal]

While games running sluggish on the Switch hasn't been anything new, this blow up in the conversation because Pokemon ran poorly while four months earlier Xenoblade Chronicles 3, another open world game (for the most part), ran significantly better and because one person ran Pokemon on an emulator, everyone started blaming the Switch itself, but not how poor a job Gamefreak has done with the game.

Yes, the Switch's hardware is older than the actual release date of the Switch, but devs at this point should know that.

It seems almost every non-nintendo first party game runs like ass on switch these days outside of monoliths. Pokemon, Bayonetta, Alan Wake…then you look at all the delayed game releases this year on switch like Life is Strange, Dying Light, Hogwarts next year, etc.

3rd party devs shouldn’t have to find some magical loopholes to get their games to run on the switch or resort to cloud streaming. Devs are starting to drop ps4 and xbox one just because its a pain in the ass trying to optimize their games for 2013 hardware and the switch is even less capable than the base model versions of those consoles.

Nintendo is absolutely out of their minds if they don’t release new hardware next year

 

[Woopah]

Looking at the amount of subscribers on Digital foundry, very few people care about resolutions and frame rates, the core that comment on forums obviously care, it's a case of people in bubbles, speaking to people in the similar bubbles, Which is why I feel a new Switch is quite a way off, the console can still sell 15 million plus for the next couple of years at least.......... the main demographic has no interest in power, so why would Nintendo need to rush a successor to the market.

Another issue is we keep comparing the Switch to the consoles from Sony and Microsoft, and suggesting the reason the Switch need more power is to get ports of triple AAA games, when in reality it's always Nintendo's own software that sells it's hardware, and the third party ship sailed years ago.

First party does sell the hardware, but Nintendo gets a cut of every third party game sold. They are going to want to continue the progress made in that area.

Those franchises are probably the closest in comparison to something like a Xenoblade though, they are singular platform releases that were big critical successes with multiple entries.

Xenoblade has yet to break out of that low ceiling like other popular JRPG, minus like…’Tales of’ series? Which still hasn’t really hit the highs and level of hype of Xenoblade.

It’s also probably one of the biggest budget and post polished games Nintendo produces. For it to be stuck in that low 2.5m Lifetime sales while pokemon also exist on nintendo and sells like 5 million in preorders alone tells you the market isn’t there to expand JRPG market on nintendo. The typical nintendo consumer just isn’t interested in those big rpgs outside of Pokemon which still feels very much like a mobile centric series.

Its telling when xenoblade has active representation all over the Game Awards and other outlets award list and it’s still selling a tiny fraction that a Pokemon spinoff game is doing on the same platform

Pokémon is by far the biggest JRPG franchises in existence. You can't tell anything by other JRPG franchises selling less. I'm not sure what you mean by "mobile centric".

Fire Emblem is as big as Persona now, so if Persona 5 sales shows there is a JRPG market on PlayStation then Fire Emblem should show the same.

Also how are you "core gaming experience"?

 

[Gambit2483]

Nintendo is absolutely out of their minds if they don’t release new hardware next year

I think the key is to look at Zelda. Nintendo knows that Zelda has the power to litterally sell consoles on its back alone. Nintendo can carry a new console for literally 5-6 months on Zelda alone.

Then you have to ask why was Zelda pushed back 8 months to May (of all months). They most likely wanted to

- give devs plenty of time to optimize it for the aging Switch

- give devs plenty of time to also develop for the possible new hardware that properly shows off the new hardwares capabilities

- hold it back to release when the new hardware is ready to release (And can stockpile as much inventory as well)

If Nintendo's next major update for Zelda makes absolutely no mention of new hardware then new hardware isn't coming and they've wasted a monumental opportunity to all but ensure the success of their next platform.

 

[tkscz]

It seems almost every non-nintendo first party game runs like ass on switch these days outside of monoliths. Pokemon, Bayonetta, Alan Wake…then you look at all the delayed game releases this year on switch like Life is Strange, Dying Light, Hogwarts next year, etc.

3rd party devs shouldn’t have to find some magical loopholes to get their games to run on the switch or resort to cloud streaming. Devs are starting to drop ps4 and xbox one just because its a pain in the ass trying to optimize their games for 2013 hardware and the switch is even less capable than the base model versions of those consoles.

Nintendo is absolutely out of their minds if they don’t release new hardware next year

Of course down porting from far more powerful consoles will have these issues, the games weren't made with the Switch's hardware in mind. If they make a down port it was because they were told they have to by the publisher.

If the game simply can't run on Switch, a port shouldn't be made at all. If it has to be delayed because they can get it to run it'll just take more time to do it, so be it. Sucks for Switch owners but the hardware is out dated and if the plan is to make a Switch port, developers should be tasked with understanding what they are getting into to make a good port. It may not be easy but if they don't believe it can be done, it shouldn't be attempted.

With the sales of the Switch coming close to 120m+ units, I doubt a successor is even on their mind right now. I said it in another thread, until sales start to decrease significantly, Nintendo won't budge for a successor.

 

[remember_spinal]

Fire Emblem is as big as Persona now, so if Persona 5 sales shows there is a JRPG market on PlayStation then Fire Emblem should show the same.

No it isn’t persona 5 and royal sold over well 5 million copies on ps4 alone, i think the last number for three houses was 3.6

 

[Nautilus]

Those franchises are probably the closest in comparison to something like a Xenoblade though, they are singular platform releases that were big critical successes with multiple entries.

Xenoblade has yet to break out of that low ceiling like other popular JRPG, minus like…’Tales of’ series? Which still hasn’t really hit the highs and level of hype of Xenoblade.

It’s also probably one of the biggest budget and post polished games Nintendo produces. For it to be stuck in that low 2.5m Lifetime sales while pokemon also exist on nintendo and sells like 5 million in preorders alone tells you the market isn’t there to expand JRPG market on nintendo. The typical nintendo consumer just isn’t interested in those big rpgs outside of Pokemon which still feels very much like a mobile centric series.

Its telling when xenoblade has active representation all over the Game Awards and other outlets award list and it’s still selling a tiny fraction that a Pokemon spinoff game is doing on the same platform

Persona, FF, DQ, Fire Emblem, and many others had humble beginnings. Its easy to say now that "Even Fire Emblem or Persona sells more now", but in both cases the first 5 to 10 entries of such franchises didn't even break a million individually.

And in terms of smaller franchises that have several entries, there are plenty. Tales of, Atelier, the HD-2D games(though they have also been growing steadily), Bravely games, Gust RPGs in general, Digimon, Star Ocean, Ni no Kuni, etc.All of them have 3 or more entries, but sell less than Xenoblade, but most of them are going strong in some form or another.

Which brings to my point: Not every franchise needs to be a sales juggernaut, AND not all sales juggernaut is a overnight success.

You mention that Xenoblade is one of the biggest big budget Nintendo games, but we don't know that.Not only that, but " big budget" for Nintendo might not even be a lot of money if you compare to the ammount of money that other companies spend on their games. So success is relative. What matters is if the game is profitable, and its showing growth that the dev is happy with.

And Xenoblade checks both boxes.The first XC 1 sold about 1 million in its original release, and the sequel went from that to what will most likely be 3 million. XC 3 opened higher than XC 2, and everything seems to point to the fact that XC 3 will sell more than XC2. If it ends up on "only" 4 million or go up to 6 million, only time will tell.

But its beyond a doubt that XC is a success as a franchise, and XC 3 is as an individual game. Because of its relative growth compared to previous entries, and how Nintendo seems happy with its performance.Everyone would have wanted that it sold 2 times that it did, but at the moment its simply not realistic.

Until Nintendo says otherwise, that's what the data points towards.

 

[Nautilus]

No it isn’t persona 5 and royal sold over well 5 million copies on ps4 alone, i think the last number for three houses was 3.6

FE Three Houses is at 4.05 million by december 2021.

But yes, Persona is, for now, bigger than FE.

 

[Romulus]

Switch owners might not be graphics whores but that doesn't mean they want cloud versions or extremely poor looking and running ports. If Pokemon Scarlet/Violet was any other game, e.g. Temtem,, and ran like crap it would have been mocked and sold like crap

Also devs don't want to waste time trying to port a game that simply won't run on Switch. There are tons of ports (unannounced/unreleased) that devs toyed around on Switch but simply gave up because it just wasn't feasible. That is why you see cloud versions of RE2 Remake and not native versions

They already do play poor-looking ports. The Witcher 3 and Doom looked like complete ass and sold well. "Next gen" versions of those will just be higher resolution or shitty RT implementations, which is easy to remove. You're essentially left with a 480p Witcher 4/New Doom with 20-30fps. Switch owners are used to that. You also have to take into consideration that if Switch 2 comes out, the user base will be far less than Switch 1 for long time. Do you want to sell to a consumer base of 100+ million or 10 million? I think having a bit more GPU and CPU grunt won't compare to the $$$ devs will make. That's the development cycle as of now. Even if Switch 2 releases by the end of the year, we are 1-2 years out from big game releases. By that time Switch 1 will have 140+ million users.

I think they're just going to milk switch 1 because PS5 gen really isn't next gen. Much of the horsepower is tied up in things that don't matter to people that mostly play on a tiny screen anyway. 4k and RT are just wasteful anyway for tiny screens, so we're left with another generation that's like ps4. Switch 1 is fine looking like ass for another 4 years. The exclusives will look good enough for the market and the multiplatform will look slightly worse, but not enough to ignore the $$$ potential.

 

[Woopah]

No it isn’t persona 5 and royal sold over well 5 million copies on ps4 alone, i think the last number for three houses was 3.6

Persona 5 sold around 3.3 million on PS3 and PS4. The expanded version of Royale added to those sales, but Three Houses doesn't have an expanded version so we need to compare base game to base game.

 

[Gambit2483]

They already do play poor-looking ports. The Witcher 3 and Doom looked like complete ass and sold well. "Next gen" versions of those will just be higher resolution or shitty RT implementations, which is easy to remove. You're essentially left with a 480p Witcher 4/New Doom with 20-30fps. Switch owners are used to that. You also have to take into consideration that if Switch 2 comes out, the user base will be far less than Switch 1 for long time. Do you want to sell to a consumer base of 100+ million or 10 million? I think having a bit more GPU and CPU grunt won't compare to the $$$. That's the development cycle as of now. Even if Switch 2 releases by the end of the year, we are 1-2 years out from big game releases. By that time Switch 1 will have 140+ million users.

None of those examples, i.e. Witcher 3, DOOM etc. look or run "extremely poor" on Switch. If they did then they wouldn't be lauded as "miracle ports" among the general concensus of critics and consumers.

How do you know Switch 2 hasn't been in development for 2-3 years already and doesn't have games already in development 2-3 years as well. We've heard nothing from Nintendo EAD since their release of Mario odyssey back in 2017...there are many other studios that have gone quiet for some time as well also. There was also a rumored RE Switch game that went quiet as well. Nintendo isn't going to release a console with nothing to play for 1-2 years. They aren't MS

 

[Romulus]

None of those examples, i.e. Witcher 3, DOOM etc. look or run "extremely poor" on Switch. If they did then they wouldn't be lauded as "miracle ports" among the general concensus of critics and consumers.

How do you know Switch 2 hasn't been in development for 2-3 years already and doesn't have games already in development 2-3 years as well. We've heard nothing from Nintendo EAD since their release of Mario odyssey back in 2017...there are many other studios that have gone quiet for some time as well also. There was also a rumored RE Switch game that went quiet as well. Nintendo isn't going to release a console with nothing to play for 1-2 years. They aren't MS

20-30fps 480p is poor no matter how you try and slice it. You can make versions of anything that are "miracles" doesn't mean it's not poor. SNES Doom is another example of this, as is Xbox Half life 2. They still suck, even though they're impressive. And I don't know about Switch 2's release, no one does. This is for speculation.

 

[cireza]

in the most low power consumption configuration

Can't wait to see how shit the games are going to run.

 

[Foilz]

Devs are given development kits for all consoles so they know exactly what the consoles can handle. If a game runs like crap on the switch that's the devs fault for trying to do too much for the hardware.

 

[FStubbs]

Those franchises are probably the closest in comparison to something like a Xenoblade though, they are singular platform releases that were big critical successes with multiple entries.

Xenoblade has yet to break out of that low ceiling like other popular JRPG, minus like…’Tales of’ series? Which still hasn’t really hit the highs and level of hype of Xenoblade.

It’s also probably one of the biggest budget and post polished games Nintendo produces. For it to be stuck in that low 2.5m Lifetime sales while pokemon also exist on nintendo and sells like 5 million in preorders alone tells you the market isn’t there to expand JRPG market on nintendo. The typical nintendo consumer just isn’t interested in those big rpgs outside of Pokemon which still feels very much like a mobile centric series.

Its telling when xenoblade has active representation all over the Game Awards and other outlets award list and it’s still selling a tiny fraction that a Pokemon spinoff game is doing on the same platform

The purpose of Xenoblade, Bayonetta, and Metroid is to pad out the exclusives catalog so people will want a Switch. As long as they are profitable Nintendo will be happy. They don't need to be heavy hitters.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

No, they are performing much better compared to the previous entries (with the exclusion of Bayonetta 3 for which official data isn't known yet).
It's just that franchises like Xenoblade, Bayonetta and Metroid have lower sales ceiling compared to other Nintendo's big guns.

Xenoblade 3 (NSW) after 1 quarter: 1.72M
Xenoblade 2 (NSW) after 1 quarter: 1.06M

Xenoblade games released on Nintendo consoles before the Switch (WII, WIIU, 3DS) never broke 1 million units.

Xenoblade 2 released when Switch was at like 10M consoles sold in 2017.
Xenoblade 3 released when Switch had sold over 110M consoles sold by 2022.

Your numbers would be good if Xenoblade 3 came out when Switch was at like 17 or 18M...not 110M.

That's terrible when you analyse the increase in hardware possible for that game to be played. I actually had no idea it was that bad.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Can't wait to see how shit the games are going to run.

Look at Steam Deck or AyaNeo2 and imagine power efficiency savings from RDNA3 plus some semi-custom work by AMD with early RDNA4 features .