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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Switch Launch Feels Like a "Soft Launch"

thevideogameninja on 20 January 2017
Soundwave said:

Say this on NeoGaf and have to say this makes a lot of sense, Switch launch feels an awful lot like a "soft launch". 

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1336018

- Not too many third party games, and lots of devs don't even seem to have dev kits yet. Most of big third party stuff will be coming by end of year
- Only 2-3 million units for launch
- OS by all accounts, seems incomplete
- No proper online functionality
- Seemingly no other apps (Netflix, browser, etc) besides core gaming functions.

Even the games when you think about it the first two "major" Switch games are Wii U ports .... Zelda and Mario Kart 8. It's not until summer (and that could be as late as August/September) that Splatoon 2 shows up and even that looks exactly like the Wii U game just expanded outwards. 

I think they are rushing the system out for March so that they can have some systems sold for the fiscal year end report (which ends March 31st, 2017). 

They'll trickle out some systems, get a little bit of a userbase going, but I don't think the system "really" launches until September or so, when Splatoon 2 will be out and this when third party games like NBA 2K, Skyrim, FIFA, etc. are presumably going to start coming out. 

I also would not be surprised if Switch inventory/shipments are supply constrained for a while, probably into September. Fall 2017 I think is when the system actually has it's "real" hard launch, that's when you'll get Mario Odyessy + Pokemon Stars (seemingly), better supply, some better third party content, maybe a price cut (or maybe not), etc. 

March is also kind of a random time to launch a system too, I think Nintendo is mostly just going to be aiming at their really core fanbase for the first several months, they're going to be conservative with supply of the system for fear of overproducing. 

I agree for the most part. I also think they want to get "out of the gate" before any potential new consoles touch down. Less competition that way, at least from their perspective. 

 

 



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bigtakilla on 20 January 2017

Too few offerings, they certainly should have shown more off. What they did show didn't look bad though (lame Xeno 2 characters aside).



DanneSandin on 20 January 2017
RolStoppable said:
DanneSandin said:

In what way have we lost our minds? You never clarified that I think

It is in the same post you originally quoted. People are trying to say that Zelda doesn't really count. I could go on, but my point is already made with this one example. Every console manufacturer would kill to have a launch title like the new Zelda.

And in my first reply to you I pointed out that this game is also coming to the Wii U - and that there isn't much else to play for quite some time after the Zelda launch. Zelda DOES count, but it's still a soft launch of the console with few games and missing features. I said that ONE game doesn't make this a great OR a good launch; it IS a soft OR weak launch. Maybe, at best, it's an ok launch, but that might be stretching it.



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Furthermore, I think VGChartz should add a "Like"-button.

Peh on 20 January 2017
RolStoppable said:
Peh said:

..than the rest of me? How does that even work?

It was a plural you.

Vivster won this one :3



Intel Core i7 8700K | 32 GB DDR 4 PC 3200 | ROG STRIX Z370-F Gaming | RTX 3090 FE| Crappy Monitor| HTC Vive Pro :3

d21lewis on 20 January 2017
vivster said:
God bless early adopters.

You're welcome.



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AZWification on 20 January 2017

That's why I'm glad I'm not getting it at launch. Screw that!



                
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Screamapillar on 20 January 2017

This is true for any console launch. Not everything is finished yet. Launch is the worst time to buy a new console. Always been that way.



The Screamapillar is easily identified by its constant screaming—it even screams in its sleep. The Screamapillar is the favorite food of everything, is sexually attracted to fire, and needs constant reassurance or it will die.

Barkley on 20 January 2017

They should have waited till the Holidays or at least Summer. They don't know what they're doing with the online service yet, Third Parties couldn't even show footage of their games at the January Event, and the only Nintendo Launch title of note is Zelda, which is on WiiU.

If they launched in Summer they could have:

- Had a decent presentation at E3 that wasn't horrifically painful to watch.

- Had Splatoon 2 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as Launch Titles

- Have Third Parties actually show footage of their games on stage instead of "We're making a thing" and then exiting.

- Have actual details about the online service they're going to provide this fall, rather than just say "You're gonna have to pay, bye." Probably because they don't even know what's going on yet.

Lastly they could have done with another big event to try and overcome the disaster of what they just did last week.

That Mario Kart 8 isn't a launch title considering what it is... is crazy.



VGPolyglot on 20 January 2017
RolStoppable said:
DanneSandin said:

And in my first reply to you I pointed out that this game is also coming to the Wii U - and that there isn't much else to play for quite some time after the Zelda launch. Zelda DOES count, but it's still a soft launch of the console with few games and missing features. I said that ONE game doesn't make this a great OR a good launch; it IS a soft OR weak launch. Maybe, at best, it's an ok launch, but that might be stretching it.

You really don't get it, huh?

Zelda stands so tall that in the real world people won't even consider which other games and how many the system will launch with. The decision to buy Switch will have already been made before that point. This is what a killer app is.

Read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_launch

Switch does not match the definition at all. Switch also does not have a weak launch, because it's getting out of the gates with a killer app that is followed up by a massive multiplayer hit in the following month. It doesn't matter that Zelda is also on the Wii U, because the two versions launch day and date, the Switch version is superior and nobody is going to buy a Wii U at this point. It doesn't matter that Mario Kart 8 was on the Wii U, because the Switch game is a complete package of the biggest Mario Kart game to date and all the sales data we have access to shows that remasters of blockbuster hits are comfortably among the topsellers for a new system. That's two killer apps in the first two months that hit different spots: One is a huge singleplayer game, the other one is a multiplayer champion.

Yeah, Zelda is such a killer app that the GameCube had two of them yet was still outsold 7:1 by the PS2.



Barkley on 20 January 2017
RolStoppable said:
VGPolyglot said:

Yeah, Zelda is such a killer app that the GameCube had two of them yet was still outsold 7:1 by the PS2.

The comparable situation is that the Wii had Zelda at launch and blew the competition out of the water.

Yet I doubt Zelda was the deciding factor there. Zelda is a decent seller but there are many Nintendo games that would do more when it comes to hardware sales in my opinion. Wii Sports was clearly the shifter in that situation.

Hell I'd say New Super Mario Bros 12 would.

It's a shame really as Breath of the Wild looks phenomenal, but while Zelda has a strong core fanbase and is a multi-million seller, it isn't really that much of a system seller, as the majority of the Zelda Fanbase are synonymous with the Hardcore Nintendo crowd that would buy anything with Nintendo written on it regardless.

I don't believe Zelda is a title that reaches out and draws new people in, it's more of a staple for the fans that are already there, Mario Kart, Wii Sports, Pokemon, Mario Bros. Things like that are a much bigger deal for shifting units in my opinion.