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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Nintendo looking to support the Switch for more than the traditional 5-6 year period

DélioPT said:
zorg1000 said:

Yes, it is currently marketed & priced as a home console but Kimishima has stated they want to position Switch as 1 per person device rather than a 1 per household device. In other words, like a handheld. Future revisions and price cuts will make it more appealing to handheld gamers.

As for software, its 3rd party lineup primarily consists of  small-medium sized indie games, Japanese games, kid/family games and late ports/remasters. Thats the typical support of a handheld.

1st/2nd party releases so far have been more console oriented but that comes from the fact that they ended support of Wii U early and porting some Wii U titles over while 3DS still had decent support from Nintendo in 2017.

1st/2nd party studios like Game Freak, Intelligent Systems,  HAL Labs, Arzest, Alpha Dream, NST, Camelot, Grezzo, ND Cube, Syn Sophia, Good-Feel, Ambrella, Next Level Games, Creatures released games for 3DS in 2016/2017 so 2018/2019/2020 will see more handheld style games release.

 

I have no idea what their handhelds not having competition has to do with anything.

 

Yes, you are correct, i forgot they showed the age breakdown again in Oct but i still stand by what i said, people who buy tech/gadgets early on are typically going to be teens/young adults. This is the age group of people who typically dont have a lot of financial responsibilities thus have more disposable income to spend hundreds of dollars on a hobby. Im interested in seeing the breakdown after the holidays when kids/families get them as presents.

Other than that we see with Labo that they are going to push hard to get the kid/family audience on Switch.

 

 

I dont know what you are suggesting with your last paragraph. Your whole argument up to this point has been about getting AAA multiplats which you said wouldnt be possible, now you are talking about its portability and exclusive IP being reasons for PS/XB owners to get one. It seemsblike you flip flopped.

More per household is probably due to it not needing a TV to be played with. Not because it's seen as a portable.
I can see a 149-180$ as a good price for handheld users, but seeing as it is 300-329 and it's selling this well, i only see that happening in a few years.
I don't know what revisions you are imagining, but anything that makes it onesided (either portable or home console) will only make it seem like the inferior version.

Indies and kid/family games are common in both portable and home consoles alike.
Japanese games are pretty much of console games. Actually, i think the only two handheld i've seen coming to Switch are that SE game that was announced recently and the other is a port of a GBA game. Don't recall the game.

The real 3DS support didn't end a lot after Wii U's, anyway. And with the unifying od the development teams we should have seen more handheld games and we didn't and aren't.
Nintendo will most certainly release some handheld IPs, but seeing as it is pushing Switch as mainly a home console, i'm pretty sure the majority of it's titles will be home console oriented. Specially if 3rd party home console titles keep coming and really start being sucessful.

That 2nd party/affiliates argument is something that can't really be proven or disproven right now. We'll have to wait and see.
And just by looking at some of those names, i'm already remembered of franchises that are also on home consoles or started as such: Mario Party, Fire Emblem, Yoshi, Paper Mario, Luigi's Mansion.

I can see the holidays shaking the userbase's age up, but i don't see it as a sign of an actual change.
That sample shows that during the non-holiday period it's not kids who are buying it. And not just buying, but actually owning it. 
Honestly, with that in mind, and seeing Switch's release schedule, i don't foresee a change in user demographics anytime soon. 

Yeah, Labo is probably the thing that can't add a lot of kids to it's userbase.

 

I naver said it wouldn't be possible for Switch to be a success without 3rd parties. I said it could suffer IF the gap increases, which could lead to lack of support when PS5 and XB2 arrive. It's not the same thing.
What i'm saying is that, for the time being, everything is working in Nintendo's favour (portability, 1st party games and userbase). Therefore, the best course of action should be leveraging those strengths to expand it's userbase.

So the best thing Nintendo could do is take advantage of that while it can.

Not needing a TV=portable/handheld. The most popular sku of 3DS was $199 so thats a good price point for making it a 1 per person device and for primarily handheld gamers to get one.

Making a handheld only or console only version will be seen inferior to people who like both, but not to people who only like one or the other.

 

They are pushing it as a console currently because of the price and to keep it coexisting with 3DS. In the next year or two when the price drops, 3DS is phased out and games like Pokemon/Animal Crossing come out then it will be very much pushed as a handheld as well.

 

 

The 3rd party support of Switch will not be affected by PS5/XB4. Like i said, the majority of its 3rd party upport comes from indie games m, Japanese games, kid/family games & previous generation ports/remasters.

These type of games do not typically require big budgets or high end specs so Switch has little risk of losing them.

Like i said to Curl, Switch 3rd party supprt can be compared to the consolidated support of Wii U, 3DS & Vita. Those 3 systems were underpowered and recieved very few AAA multiplats and so far Switch hasnt recieved many either. You cant lose something you never had so lack of multiplats will not be a factor.



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zorg1000 said:
DélioPT said:

 

Not needing a TV=portable/handheld. The most popular sku of 3DS was $199 so thats a good price point for making it a 1 per person device and for primarily handheld gamers to get one.

Making a handheld only or console only version will be seen inferior to people who like both, but not to people who only like one or the other.

 

They are pushing it as a console currently because of the price and to keep it coexisting with 3DS. In the next year or two when the price drops, 3DS is phased out and games like Pokemon/Animal Crossing come out then it will be very much pushed as a handheld as well.

 

 

The 3rd party support of Switch will not be affected by PS5/XB4. Like i said, the majority of its 3rd party upport comes from indie games m, Japanese games, kid/family games & previous generation ports/remasters.

These type of games do not typically require big budgets or high end specs so Switch has little risk of losing them.

Like i said to Curl, Switch 3rd party supprt can be compared to the consolidated support of Wii U, 3DS & Vita. Those 3 systems were underpowered and recieved very few AAA multiplats and so far Switch hasnt recieved many either. You cant lose something you never had so lack of multiplats will not be a factor.

Note: I wrote "Yeah, Labo is probably the thing that can't add a lot of kids to it's userbase.". I meant to say "can add". My bad.

I don't think things are as simple as lowering the price and cutting out the TV mode.
Switch is a success because it does both. Any kind of model that takes something away will indeed be seen as less.
Usually consoles or portables, when having a HW revision, usually add something. But there are exceptions like the 2DS (although removing the 3D screen wasn't a major deal) or the Vita (inferior screen; added internal memory).
In this case you'd be going from the best of both worlds, to just one. It wouldn't be an upgrade, it would be a downgrade, and a major one at that.

3DS had a higher price tag but you had a better product - even if slightly. And the move was to upgrade.
In this case, it would be the exact opposite.

Yes, you can say that despite that, handheld-only gamers would buy it. The question would be, how relevant would that userbase be, so that it could pay off R&D for an inferior product, when you could use that Money and spend it on upgrading the product most would want.

I can see Nintendo positioning Switch as a handheld for Animal Crossing, but Pokémon? I seriously doubt that.
People have spent years, decades, begging for a real Pokémon on consoles. The day it releases you can bet Nintendo will remind people of that! After all, handheld users are a shoo-in anyway.

Your description of the support Switch is getting, is pretty much correct. But, assuming that it's going to stay like that forever, is speculation.
So far, from what we have seen, i really can't heavily refute that, but given that some companies have already expressed that they jumped on the Switch bandwagon too late (didn't believe in its success), i can only assume that, if not before, next year, we might see some meaningful changes. As in, less ports and more multiplats and even exclusives.

But Switch is in a different position from Wii U, 3DS and Vita. 
It's succeeding in the home console front, unlike the Wii U. And unlike, 3DS and Vita, which only got japanese support - because western developers don't care about handhelds -, Switch can appeal to both sides.
In other words, it's a success in home console land and a success in handheld land. It's the perfect situation to be in!