potato_hamster said:
joora said:
But of course everyone has the right to question design decisions of any product/company - at least in places that promote free speech. There is no product in any category that would fully satisfy the needs/wants of every person on this planet - if there was, it would be already game over for other companies.
Switch, as any other high-profile mass produced tech product, was result of balancing of numerous factors - research data was one of them. There was also need for distancing from competition, meeting planned budget and time constraints, and so on. Unlike your or my opinion on what the Switch should be or should do/have, Nintendo's opinion is based on much better insight of the needs and wants of large groups of people. Sure, that doesn't necessarily guarantee success (hence WiiU and GC failures), but dismissing a currently hot gaming product (preorders sold out) as a bad design on a basis that it should have a mic jack on a controller or web browser or X feature is a bit naive.
It's obvious that the Switch has a premature launch, but what does the gaming community expect - that the Nintendo execs come out and say "Please don't buy our product, it isn't fully ready for primetime." They obviously expect that the games and innovative features will compensate for the shortcomings. And, judging by initial reactions, they might be right.
Even if everything goes south, all they need is to announce a Switch Pokemon game.
And sorry about the Wii argument, but you do realize that it was just reaction to your Wii U argument, so you were the origin of that bit.
Edit: the bit about the premature launch is aimed toward lack of certain software feautres (browser, netflix).
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Is Nintendo's opinion based on much better insight of the needs and wants of large groups of people? Are you sure about that? If they have such great insight, how on earth did they birth the Wii U? That was a console for practically nobody, and sold as such. If they can be so wrong about the Wii U in 2012, why should I just assume that they got their market research right just a few years later? Don't forget the Wii U was sold out for months after release as well, and then cooled off very quickly.
Again, I never said the Switch was a bad design, but it's feature list leaves out many features that people now take for granted in 2017. No one is going to convince me that a console that doesn't ship with say, a Netflix app in 2017 is acceptable. Some people find it equally unacceptable for the Switch to require a smart phone to have voice chat. Other people find it equally unacceptable for the Switch to lack any type of trophy/acheievement system. These people are not wrong. Many of these issues can be remedied, but then we have to trust that Nintendo will actually remedy them, and what Nintendo hasn't demonstrated in the past 10-15 years is an ability to listen to people that are interested in their consoles. Many pleas for common sense features that should have been included on the Wii and Wii U have been ignored.
I jsut don't have the trust in Nintendo that you have. Nintendo has lost my trust over the years. You might not like that, but you should respect that many people aren't nearly as optimistic about Nintendo getting it right as you are. I mean for fuck's sake, it's 3 months since the release of the NES classic mini, and I have still yet to see one, and I've gone to stores looking for one at least twice a week, and even the the controller cord is 3 feet long. Sometimes Nintendo tends to succeed based on nothing but nostalgia inspite of themselves doing seemingly everything in their power to fuck it up.
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Yet again banging the Wii U drum. Wii U had several problems, one of them being the name itself, and the physical likeness of the console to Wii, and the marketing direction, meaning that average Joe couldn't figure out that Wii U is full-blown successor to the Wii.
Also, remember that Wii was sold without any DVD video playing functionality, let alone Blu-ray or HDDVD format support. In 2006. Would you find that acceptable from a game console at that time? Yet, it sold like crazy. I wouldn't go that far in saying that some people weren't bothered by the fact, especially the casuals. But it obviously dodn't bother them enough.
I personally find DLC/season passes/microtransactions unacceptable (DLC acceptable only if it adds more significant gameplay content, especially , especially if the game is sold for full retaill price. I thought I was one of many in the gaming community that shared that opinion, especiall seeing that it's becoming more of a rule than exception. Yet, Activision Blizzard made $3.6 billion on DLC/season passes/microtransactions in 2016. So, I guess it's acceptable to the majority of players regardless of what i think.
I also find gacha model in mobile games unacceptable. It's clear to me that it's based on a similar principles as gambling, so I at least find it morally questionable. I thought majority of population figured it already and was tired of the manipulative model. Yet, when Nintendo released Super Mario Run, not using the gacha model, it got burried by the app store reviews, many of the people criticising it for not having the gacha model. And when Nintenod released it's first gacha game, Fire Emblem Heroes. And behold, glowing reviews on both App store and Play store.
And of course, I find it unacceptable that in 2017 game console is based on the almost exactly same principle from PS2 era (main and only packed game input is a controller with two analog sticks, d pad, 4 buttons, sholulder buttons), and is basically (often weaker and less flexible) equivalent to a PC hooked to a TV set. Yet both PS4 and Xbone sales are good.
All in all, it's irrelevant what me or you find acceptable/unacceptable. To Nintendo, and gaming industry, the only benchmark will be sales (and software sales + profit in case of Nintendo).
