Does It Really Matter How Much Switch Sells?

[Soundwave]

RolStoppable said:

Soundwave said:

If they're on Vita they'll be on Switch. It doesn't need to sell 100 million units to get that type of support. 

Nintendo systems are fun if you like Nintendo games. Maybe you have a different agenda and can't enjoy things on Wii U because it didn't sell as well as Wii ... I don't give a shit quite frankly. 

The real reason for "caring" about sales was primarily the whole schtick that we've been sold that better Nintendo hardware sales = way better developer support and that is just not true. As you yourself point out again and again, AAA developers are never going to care, OK, and A-AA developers just by pure economics can't afford to not have their games on any viable platform. 

So long as Switch is "viable", which can mean anyting from 30-50 million, it will get those games, and Nintendo is largely going to keep making the same types of games they always make and they will find a way to make a good amount of profit because they always do. 

So really I think putting it into context, really all the bitching and consernation about Switch sales is largely much ado about nothing. It's not going to impact much about the platform .... I'll tell you the ending to this movie if you're that much in suspense about it ... Switch will have some fantastic Nintendo games and some OK lower budget third party games now and again. It will be supported really for mostly about 4 years before Nintendo farms out projects to outsourced teams. 

And none of this is going to be terribly different if it sells 40 million instead of 80 million. Even with the Wii, you tell me that they supported that thing well in 2011 and 2012, I'd rather just have moved onto Wii U, but ultimately even that is besides the point. The point is 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 million doesn't really change anything dramatically. 

Maybe as a Nintendo fan I should feel "bad" because they're not making the max profit, but they make so much money anyway and have such a low overhead that quite frankly it's really not worth being that worried about. Nintendo has making good money even with sluggish hardware sales down to a science by this point. 

If you want to make it subjective, I own less than half as many games for Wii U than I own for Wii. There's a direct correlation to sales of these two systems, because the system that did worse got fewer games that are worth buying.

Back to objective measurements, didn't I just point out that many indie games release later or not at all on Nintendo systems? If Switch sold 80m units, the stance of indie developers may very well change. Not just that they would release their games day and date on the Nintendo console, but they might prioritize it by making it the only platform to get a physical release.

If it sells half way decent those little indie games are going to be on the system because of simple economics. Those studios are small, they are working to put food on their table (literally), any viable system those games can be on they will be on. 

I'm not gonna lose sleep over that or wish that the Switch has to sell some unrealistic super high number to get such little in return from developers. We've gone from having top tier third party games to grovelling for same day releases of indie studio games, sorry but I just can't work up enough "give a fuck" about that. If they want to port those types of games, great, if they don't so be it. 

There's a reason too a lot of indie games aren't that great too and that's because if you're really such a hot shot programmer, designer, or artist, odds are you would've been scooped up by a bigger money studio ages ago, talent doesn't float around unnoticed very long in this business, but that's a different point. A lot of these game rely on a quirky art style but really they're 6/10 or 7/10 in actual game play, usually trying to ape (or "pay homage") to much better games made 20-30 years ago. 

Like I said largely speaking none of this is worth losing any sleep over. Big whoop if some little "it's a 8-bit game with an emotional story" indie studio doesn't make their game day and date on a Nintendo Switch, who cares. 

It's not like games like Splatoon 2 or Mario Odyessy popped out of a vacuum either, these are probably Wii U games that just got moved over to the Switch, which is a system as a Nintendo you were going to have to buy eventually no matter what ... now you can just play these games on better hardware and play them portably instead of them being stuck on the Wii U. 

Again, how is this worse for you as a Nintendo hardware buyer? Nintendo just makes games continously, if they miss one hardware platform they just move on to the next system, so the "death" of any Nintendo hardware is never really a big deal, it just means usually that a game project moves on to the next hardware and is usually better for it.  To be honest I'd take Splatoon or Mario Kart 8 or Mario 3D World or DKC: Tropical Freeze over anything on the Wii not named Mario Galaxy but that's just me. Plenty of Nintendo's best games ever have been on their lower selling systems.