But they can't have bad first party output. Unifying the the two lines with the switch is the Messiah.

Good calls.  I don't see any of these becoming phenomena, but the good news here is Nintendo and partners got together a serious lineup of games throughout 2017.  If they can repeat that in 2018 it will help. Edit - and Rol correctly identifies some of these are for 2018 anyway!

I see a few claiming 2D Mario doesn't sell consoles any more - but it sure helped sell out Wiis Christmas 2008.  This is a series that can easily sell 20 million plus, where 3D Mario has trouble breaking 10.  In my opinion the real problem with 2D Mario is the lazy, formulaic games New Super Mario Bros games.  Why does Giana Sisters look better than New Super Mario Bros U?

Overall, I'm not worried about the Switch line up, I'm frustrated because Breath of the Wild gave us a glimpse of the same "Winner Nintendo" I saw on Wii and DS.  I like Winner Nintendo.  Super Mario Odyssey, Yoshi, Xenoblade these are Loser Nintendo products.  They're fun in their own right, and I don't want to see them go away, but the only way I'm going to see, say, a proper Final Fantasy sequel (or even reamake) on Switch is if Winner Nintendo gets out there and sells 80 million+ Switches.

I will buy Switch for Xenoblade 2. Therefore, it is a system seller, at least once.

Only if you vote "Yes" in the "Nintendo has never had a bad game" poll. ;)

The release list is very consistent now, which is great news and I think an awesome strategy by Nintendo.  Great idea to have a "weak" launch lineup that lead to a more consistent release schedule.  But I doubt they could have gotten away with it if Zelda wasn't so good.

Will an ongoing consistent release list of "OK" games be enough to push Nintendo Switch to 1st? I'm doubtful.  It doesn't matter until they can fix supply issues anyway.

Please elaborate on that.

I was confident that you were joking, until I saw your previous posts.

Do you seriously think that Nintendo has worse/less games than Sony and Microsoft?

Sorry I stopped taking your critiques seriously when you mentioned that part of why you are worried about Mario is the "cornball theme song"

- I think 2D Mario (NSMB in particular) sells great to people who already bought a Nintendo platform but it doesn't sell consoles by itself. If I had to define it, it would be as a fantastic support title with loooooong legs that's an almost defualt purchase title in-between big releases.   It's like Tomodachi Life; it sold over 5m but seriously, do you think a ton of people saw an ad or gameplay for Tomodachi Life and thought "I gotta get a 3DS...NOW".  That being said, I believe 2D Mario can be a system seller but it really needs a new approach because the last time I personally think a 2D Mario game sold hardware was with the DS.

- I don't mind that MP4 isn't coming from Retro after seeing what the former Metroid Prime guys did on their own with ReCore.  After that, I'm convinced that the success for the series had more to do with Kensuke Tanabe than any of the key people that left Retro Studios.  As long as he's producing the game, it'll be fine.  It's like with Samus Returns; some people are worried that it won't be as good because MercurySteam is developing it but as long as Sakamoto (who still does great 2D Metroid games) is producing it, I think it'll be fine.   I mean, I don't think many people would be worried if a new Smash game were being developed by some nobody company as long as Sakurai were the guy in-charge of the project.

As for 2018, I think the heavy hitters will probably be Animal Crossing, Metroid Prime 4, whatever Retro is working on and a Smash game (either a deluxe version of 4 or Smash 5).  Pokemon will probably be a 2019 title and I think MP4 probably started development in mid to late 2015.

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=230049&page=1#

That's last gen software output by each of the 3 companies, I'm sure this one will go much the same way, or Nintendo might overtake Microsoft cause they've really lost the plot this gen.