Nintendo's first half of 2018: How bad is it?

[The_Liquid_Laser]

Speaking personally, I am very happy with Switch.  I already have a backlog of games I want to play, and I expect third party releases to only accelerate at this point.  Ironically of the 4 "big" games of 2017, there was only one I really wanted (Zelda).  In 2018, there are quite a few third party games I wanted/still want: DQ Builders, Darkest Dungeon, Octopath Traveler, Sonic Mania, etc....


When it comes to hardware sales this year, Nintendo has already exceeded my expectations, but that is only because I think I was the only one who accepted early on that they were going to have a really disappointing first party schedule for most of the year.  What I didn't expect is that third party games are already picking up the slack in the absence of big first party games.  Octopath is going to outsell every first party game this year that was released between January and September.  And Fortnite is arguably even bigger than that. 

These games will keep the Switch from losing momentum before the holiday season.  And really that is what third party games are supposed to do.  Fill in the gaps.  I didn't think this sort of thing would happen until next year, but third party games are already doing their job.  I can only expect that next year's third party lineup will be significantly stronger than even this.

Last edited by The_Liquid_Laser - on 05 August 2018