S.T.A.G.E. said:
Gotcha, well.. Since i'll be getting the Switch, I'll obviously mainly be using it for exclusives 90% of the time, but if a multiplat comes a long and im traveling with no access to a console, i'll definitely get that. Nothing multiplayer heavy, since I have the PS4 or Xbox One for that. I could definitely use it for multiplatform indie titles. I dont even think I will be using it as a normal console. The problem with the multiplat titles is people will overlook the switch if they have other platforms for more graphically intense games (yes, even in favor of the Xbox One). I will be as well. All of my friends have established their platforms of choice already and that makes my ability to go multiplat harder on the NS. It literally has to come down to a single player experience that does not rely on its graphics to get by. |
I'm not so sure that will be the case for a lot of people. It's very similar to PC vs. consoles. PC allow for better specifications, but mainstream consumers chose consoles because the experience is more convenient. I think Switch will share a similar relationship with home consoles. Again, I think many people underestimate the appeal that not needing to sit in front of a TV will have to mainsteam consumers, mostly because people aren't considering its full gammit of use cases.
You can use it on a TV. But then you can use it in bed/dinner table/desk/anywhere in the house, which I'm sure will account for the most use cases. The wording I keep using is that the Switch is "not tethered to your TV," and that is the appeal. If you want a TV play experience, you can have that easily, but you no longer have to play those games on a TV. I keep comparing it to laptops because the comparison it 1:1. Laptops didn't explode in popularity because you could use them in an airplane. They exploded in popularity because you could use them on your lap and your desk and an airplane if you wanted to.
Like I've said in this thread, I think the difference in power between the Switch and XBO will be not unlike the difference in power between the PS2 and GCN. It will undoubtably be less powerful, but there reaches a point in fidelity where most people will not notice the difference. Most people cannot tell the difference between a game running on XBO and one running on PS4, and I'm sure the Switch will have a similar case when compared to the other two for most people.
I do agree though that multiplayer will be an obstacle on the Switch because of PSN and XBL. But I don't think that it's an insurmountable obstacle. All you need is one friend who only has a Switch to get you to buy one multiplayer game on the Switch to play with them. This Gen is still developing, so I can see it being the case that a lot of people who still haven't upgraded to 8th gen will upgrade to Switch. Anecdotally, one of the biggest reasons I'm getting a PS4 and XBO is to play multiplayer games with different groups of friends that I have, and I see little reason why a third group couldn't develop on the Switch. Say I have a group of 4 friends who all want to play the new MvC together, and say it's announced for Switch. All four of us have a Switch but one of us doesn't have a PS4. We're obviously going to play the Switch version. The more scenarios like that happen, the more you'll see people migrate partially to playing multiplayer on Switch.
Don't get me wrong, though. There's very little in the way of resisting 80m players on two other platforms. But the Switch can definitely get some legway. And that depends a lot on Nintendo improving their online, which we have no information on.
