| Jumpin said: They can still release remastered versions of games on a platform where the existing older version exists, no one’s stopping them, Steam does this all the time.Why do you think values of games will drop? Why do you think potential buyers will decrease? Nintendo rarely drops the price of their games. If they don’t want to, they don’t have to. Additionally, Switch already has massive price drop sales all the time. Dual support isn’t going to make this any worse. And potential buyers of software won’t decrease, they’ll increase. It’s not like people will stop buying new games because they already have old ones, this hasn’t happened on any platform, ever. The Human Resources stuff is only a problem with the way things are currently done. It splits the markets, usually in favour of the new generation while the prior generation goes underserved, and game sales underperform. That’s the point of Switch 2 expanding on Switch 1, to have a single game support two tiers rather than splitting the market, and selling to only part of the potential audience. Lastly, exclusives aren’t the only reason people buy new hardware: Nintendo has proven this multiple times with GBA SP and DS Lite outselling the older models - again, they serve the same purpose as a new generation in those cases because of the substantial improvements over the previous hardware. People will buy Switch 2 because it’s new. People buy new PCs and phones all the time for this exact reason. New hardware that plays games better is a compelling reason to upgrade to the next generation, or entice new customers to buy into the ecosystem. |
The point to gamers who already own the base version of the same games. If Switch had backwards compatibility with Wii U Mario Kart 8, Super Mario Bros U, Pikmin, Tropical Freeze and others would have a smaller cumulative sales. If I have the standard game who runs almost identically as the "remastered" version then I have no reason to buy it again. Of course new players are another thing entirely, but Switch is HIGHLY successful, I doubt Switch 2 userbase will have that of a big turnover in the userbase, indeed Switch 2 is likely to be composed mostly of Switch owners
Blocking Switch 1 game on Switch 2 games will obligate people to buy again if they want to keep playing Switch games on Switch 2, kinda shady but it is what it is.
Need to point though that this is just a theory, Nintendo can surprise us and release a console with backwards compatibility, I personally will not complain lol
About Nintendo cutting the support for the old hardware, that's because Nintendo relies 90% on Nintendo studios to give some life to their hardware in their first years. One of reasons why Switch manage to do well was because Nintendo killed Wii U and take every team making games for Wii U to work for Switch instead. There is no point in making hybrid support. Phones and PCs have a very clear scheduled obsolescence, Windows and Android become unusable after years of update unless your hardware was beyond the standard in the industry. Console games are used only to play games and as long they still playing that game smoothly there is no point in changing your hardware, if it was such a issue no console would be their prime years 3 to 4 years after its release
Most customers just wait some few years to see the games that get actually releases in the new platform. For a Nintendo hardware that barely gets 3rd party in the first years delaying the exclusivity of their own games is pretty much signing the death certificate for the new hardware
Are there exceptions? Yes, but then you need to make a hardware that is so attractive that people will buy it regardless of its tame gamelist. That's what Nintendo tries to do when they introduce a new hardware mechanic, but sometimes it just doesn't work well. But overall I see the strategy of making a Switch 2 just a clone of Switch 1, making it backwards compatible and releasing cross-gen games is basically setting up Switch 2 to live its first 2 years in the shadow of original Switch.
