OPINION –  Nintendo has always been on the road not even near the other big two. They do not follow the market, and most of the times the company just walks around raking in cash with their ideas, hardware, and occasional mega hits. The Wii was a cultural phenomenon and generated record profits for the company back in the day. After the Wii came to the WiiU which was the market saying to Nintendo: “You can do your own thing, but only if it makes sense.” From naming to marketing, the WiiU was a hot mess, and it seems Nintendo’s hubris led to a lack of interest from both consumers and third party developers alike.

 

It was a tough few years for Nintendo, but with the Switch, they might have learned their lesson. With clear marketing, a great line up of games, this product might be a fresh start for the company.

It ain’t 4K but looks great

With the hype around Xbox One X, and PS4Pro doing all sorts of 4K and dynamic checkerboarding, the Nintendo Switch instead offers what the other two consoles barely do – exclusives. Sure the PS4 and Xbox have their own exclusives (especially the PS4), but I cannot help but notice how Nintendo is drip feeding the fanbase with a new exclusive almost every month. Zelda was the opener, then came ARMS, and later down the line we will have Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Super Mario Odyssey. Plus a new crossover between Rabbids, and Mario which looks like a fantastic. Almost every month a Switch user will get an exclusive. It is an interesting strategy from a company to provide such a gap between releases, but it does keep the momentum up for the consumers.

The Nintendo Switch is a hybrid console, both a portable and a home console. Yet it is not aimed as a competitor against Microsoft or Sony’s beasts, and even so, the console is still successful. In the first month alone almost three million units were sold, and the only thing keeping the sales momentum down is Nintendo barely being able to keep up with the production of the product. Still, it is rather interesting, especially in an age where we keep pixel counting and trying to reach 4K that a product that does 720P in portable mode in some games, and barely does 1080p in docked mode is a success.

So much so that it just passed recently one million units in Japan, and it only took 17 weeks to do that while the PlayStation 4 (the current market leader), needed 46 weeks to do the same. Sure it might be the overall hype, and the marketing, plus who knows in a year or two where Switch’s sales will lead, but currently it seems unstoppable (without any 4K or weird hardware prowess).

First Party punch, third party retreat?

In the end, though what matters the most is how the third party publisher responds to the product, and from the looks of it… it might be a mixed bag? While it is a success, there is a tiny problem with Nintendo Switch, that it is underpowered compared to the big two’s consoles, and while it feels disingenuous to compare it to the Xbox and PlayStation, you still need to make such comparisons. While Nintendo will support the Switch with first parties and will try to minimize the drought in between releases, the big third party companies might end up not maintaining the effort to publish for Switch. Not just because it is underpowered, but because of the HDD size (32GB unless added by the consumer), and by the fact that patches are a bit more difficult to push out for the Switch. So instead of big third party games, I think what we will see is it being an Indie machine. Binding of Isaac, Wonder Boy and Shovel Knight have all been released for it, and many more indies are on their way such as Cave Story, while Red Hook creators of Darkest Dungeon have also been thinking of porting the game over. Based on this the Switch will be a boon for indies and an untapped market.

The big third parties will probably have issues in supporting the devices, but in the end, the Switch seems to be a success on all fronts. Although there are some minor hardware issues, the portable console is pretty sturdy, and hopefully, in the coming years, we will get a Switch 2, or maybe a Super Switch. For those who have not bought one yet, but travel a lot the console is a must have. For those hesitant, they should at least until Black Friday, or X-mas deals to pick up some good bundles. Let us hope Nintendo keeps up the support and the strong marketing so that we may enjoy the Switch for many years.

-Dante-