Game Inbox: Will Nintendo Switch 2 fail?

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One trick pony
I was surprised and disappointed at the Switch 2 leak from a few weeks ago. After all the talk about how unpredictable Nintendo is, the result is almost identical to the existing model, only bigger and faster. It might be what gamers are asking for, but I don’t see that changing as many units as the Switch does now. For a simple reason: the novelty has worn off.

In my estimation, a large part of the Switch’s sales, and the reason it continues to sell today, is because of families and young people. This segment will not be in a hurry to upgrade, especially if the current Switch will continue to support the most popular games, like Mario Kart 8, Fornite, Minecraft, etc. with sufficient quality.

Another big segment is people who suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out) and want to see what all the fuss is about. The majority are also reluctant to upgrade if they don’t like what they see or feel if they’ve had enough of what the Switch has to offer, especially if the price of the new device is higher.

So, barring mainstream killer apps in the vein of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, what’s left are the existing Nintendo fans who have been successfully sucked into the Nintendo ecosystem for the past seven years. Having a more powerful device with more third-party support will have zero impact on this segment, as it has already been purchased.

My prediction is that Switch 2 can sell fast but it will sell no more than 20-30 million units. Can Nintendo pull two rabbits out of the same hat? We will wait and see.
Ali K

GC: You make some good points, but the sales predictions are close to Wii U levels, which is unlikely.

Always
RE: Sean. I understand where they are coming from, about whether they should sell a limited edition PS5 Pro. I hate scalpers too. The way I recommend it is if you need money ASAP then sell it and make a profit. Today, the game isn’t what it used to be and it changes, but if you don’t need the money and just sit in the bank, then I’d stick with it. You’ve got the exclusive PS5 Pro that the world wants. Something very rare some would pay £5K in a heartbeat.

I’ll be honest, I was the one who got two PlayStation 5 pre-orders at launch and I was going to sell one for profit, until my friend said she missed it because of work, so I sold her. spare at the same price I paid.

What I’m saying is, if you don’t need money, keep it; like it. If you really need the money then sell it but just remember that once you sell it, it’s gone and you won’t get your hands on it again. If it were me, as soon as it came through the door, I would set it up and I would sell my old PlayStation 5 for some 100.
David

Save it, then sell it
An interesting dilemma for readers over the weekend, who can get a pre-order of the 30th anniversary PS5 Pro bundle. The bundle was not available when I queued, but I always chose the standard PS5 Pro (£700 is pretty bad). I was never a fan of the gray color for PS1, so nostalgia does not work in me.

My advice to Sean is don’t sell pre-orders. Sell ​​it once you have shipped it and leave it closed. I suspect you will make more money. Actual proof of purchase will further convince skeptical buyers. The regular PS5 Pro hasn’t sold out yet, so it’s not like you don’t have a replacement.

It turns out that Sean doesn’t want to be a scalper, so his conscience is clear. It’s no coincidence how quickly listings go up on eBay. Why didn’t Sony produce 30,000 units? It would make more sense than the vague 12,300, which only reflects the release date.

Sony must have known scalpers would take the majority. I guess they wanted free publicity. When people sell a product for more than it’s worth, it only increases the desire.
Mr

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Artificial Miyamoto
I’m having a hard time deciding if Miyamoto’s comment about not using AI is that he’s just saying what he thinks is popular, that he doesn’t know what the difference is with AI, or that he’s just a grumpy old man saying, ‘we don’t know. need this tool in my day’.

If you go beyond the tech demo of creating an entire game with text commands and look at the AI ​​products people have created, this is all an evolution of the products we’ve been using for the past 20 years. Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot for devs is simply a more powerful autocomplete that can predict the next block of code instead of just the next word. Also, a nice chat window effectively replaces google with answers that have code base context when you’re a bit stuck.

Nintendo has said that they will not use the tool as much as banning the use of Excel and telling staff to add it manually. As more and more programs improve AI, I don’t really get how they want to do it. Will they leave all their superior dev and design tools behind?

Of all people, I also expect Nintendo to be the one to come up with a unique way to use the underlying technology for a new gaming experience. The obvious idea is to integrate Mario Maker next, maybe as a character creator for things like making me Mario as a frog that can jump faster. But I’m sure Nintendo can make something better.

It’s not like AI just means to replace the voice artist. On the tools side, it’s just an easy-to-use auto-complete or Q&A tool. They still need someone to ask them to do something. And from a technology perspective, it’s really open to people’s creativity to decide what to do.
The team

GC: We doubt it means a blanket ban, but thankfully there’s no chance of AI-generated art or sounds in Nintendo games.

Political issues
After looking at the European sales figures for Concord, I’d love to know what lessons Sony has taken from all this. They went mental over Days Gone which was a bit worse than other games, without sequels and pushing developers, so what will they do now that Concord has proven that being a Sony game means nothing in terms of guaranteed sales?

Looking at the comments, it seems everyone is convinced to ignore it and move on, with almost nothing but live service games. I request. I understand why you think that way, but I’d like to think they’re wiser. I guess it depends on whether the new CEOs want to blame everything on Jim Ryan or not. It’s sad to think that office politics now play a huge role in the future of gaming.
Tackle

Stuck in the system
After the Redfall debacle Phil Spencer did some damage control interviews/podcasts bemoning how Xbox’s hands were tied going toe to toe with Sony.

They say releasing 11/10 games won’t make people give up their PlayStation. That’s true but it means you sell more Xboxes. I thought this was a bit of nonsense to say, in all honesty.

Another flaw that I feel is legitimate, is that Sony uses its dominant position to secure third-party exclusivity, time or otherwise. Also, who lost the last gen when many built up a digital collection obviously far more gamers were locked into the PlayStation ecosystem than Xbox’s, including me.

I really wonder if the locked aspect will see me move to PC, as I said.

I was playing through the PlayStation back catalog before I got the PC. This will take a year or more. While doing this, there are always some games that need to be played or I want to support like Astro Bot.

Now that Microsoft is releasing games on PlayStation I really won’t miss many games with PlayStation 5 and Switch now.

I also enjoy gaming on both devices, although I would appreciate the PC aspect would bring better performance, mouse and keyboard support, and be the best device for Indie games.

If I had nothing and was going to choose a format today it would be the same PC. But unless Sony has an Xbox like a crash console I can see myself living on PlayStation for the foreseeable.
Simundo

I’m a potato
After reading the Reader’s Feature, I don’t think about the Switch 2 issue that is definitely leaking. But now that he mentioned it, it seems clear that we’ll be getting some kind of potato cam photo before anything official, if we wait until next year.

So, yes, count me in the ‘maybe tomorrow’ crowd. Even if not, as he said, it’s good to be excited about something in the game again. Mainly as a new console means new first party Nintendo games and right now we don’t know what that could be.
Probe

They are all Zelda
Got Zelda on Thursday and it was amazing. I’ve started replaying previous Zelda games (Four Swords was particularly good and I still think The Wind Waker is underrated).

But now they are under arrest.

Echoes is pretty much just a great game and it’s great to play.

The absolute core of the game is Zelda mechanics, but you get new abilities instead of new items/weapons (with more echoes than you get new stuff).

It will take ages to play through, because my son and husband have also started playing. For the interesting thing, we have been walking in different ways after the beginning (for example, after the first point, I went to the right and my husband to the left, the two children are a little different, so they discover new and different things).

We totally watch each other play, as everything will be something that everyone has to do at some point.

It probably took forever to finish, but it was a great shared experience.

It has been shown two things: most bits in the game definitely have different ways to solve (different bounces / solutions, different ways to defeat baddies and bosses), which is really inventive.

Games produced by women should resonate with women. Out of four people in the house, I’m the only guy, and everyone has played more than me!

It also really seems to come from the pieces of the game ‘Zelda Maker’ (think this is rumored). And if it doesn’t, it should.
The Zero

GC: According to Nintendo, the game started out as a ‘dungeon edit’ game. He got a lot of interesting details about the new Ask a Developer feature.

Inbox well-rans
My favorite part of the story about the Switch 2 release date was imagining what Nintendo would do to those peripherals when they found out they were talking like that. Doesn’t he know what he looks like? Pocketpair does.
Focus

Been playing EA Sports FC 25 a lot over the weekend and it’s great. I don’t see EA ever getting it completely right but if it’s going to be the only serious football game contender out there I think we could do a lot worse.
Cassell

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