Hi everyone. For this thread I'd like to look back at both the hardware and the software side of the Switch and just talk a little bit about how this first half of 2018 looks in general but also in comparison to 2017.

First of all, everybody knows that this year was going to be weaker than the last one. This is mainly due to lesser big games being pumped out, but we also know that this was partly intended by Nintendo because they ran the strategy of kicking the door in and rolling into the gaming industry with guns blazing.

2017 saw four heavy system sellers in the form of Zelda BotW, MK8DX, Splatoon 2 and Super Mario Odyssey along with a lot of great supplementary games like Arms, 1-2 Switch, Pokken Tournament, Fire Emblem Warriors, and of course Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Also, we saw a lot of throwback games that supposedly appeal to the so called lapsed gamers like Puyo Puyo Tetris, Namco Museum, Super Bomberman R, Ultra Street Fighter II, Sonic Mania, Wonder Boy and the Dragon's Trap, Blaster Master Zero, maybe even I am Setsuna and Fast RMX. Another pillar were third party games like Disgaea 5, Skyrim, Doom, FIFA 18, NBA 2K18, or Dragonball Xenoverse II. Those were few in numbers, but still essential to the library's diversity. And finally, there were a truckload of awesome indie games of which many reported excellent sales numbers.

So basically, there was fun to find for everyone. I imagine the 2017 library is very strong. Hardware sales show that the mass audience took notice and made the Switch become a hot item for three reasons. First is the mentioned library, second is the portability and third is the inherent local multiplayer component. There are additional reasons like (mostly) good hardware design and appealing marketing offensives.All this lead to the system being sold out frequently.

As we know of course, producing games takes time and effort. So after a strong year 2017, a slower year 2018 was about to happen. Everybody saw this coming. Nintendo is working on more software as we speak, but having not too much now when they fired all their shots last year shouldn't be a big surprise. Instead, some Wii U ports and a few leftovers like Kirby and the whatever-the-hell-this-is Labo were released to do the job. This is all we see when we don't like what Nintendo is doing. Now let's look at the numbers and the whole picture (hint hint, it ain't all that bad, actually).

• Kirby Star Allies sells and sells and sells despite complaints about being short and easy. I finished it myslef and I can agree that it is short indeed, but it's still a good Kirby game because, guess what, all Kirby games are short and easy. And it' just so damn cute!
• Labo. Oh lord, Labo. 'Cardboard shouldn't cost 80 bucks ffs! The thing will break instantly! The software is garbage! Labo takes away resources from core games! I hate Labo because I'm not creative and lost the ability of imagination! What's that supposed to mean 'made for kids and kids at heart? Is that supposed to cool me off from making nonstop complaints even if I'm neither interested nor the target audience?' And on and on and on.
  Labo shipped 1.39m already and we all know that this will be big in the holidays. But hey, even if it sold 20m every year from now on there would still be people bitching about it, I guarantee that.
• Now I'm not sure how Hyrule Warriors Definitve Edition did, honestly. I can only say that had been prominent in the eshop for many weeks. I don't see numbers, but my guess is that it did like 500k or something? Which is quite okay.
• Nintendo was able to ship 1.4m copies of Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze in just about two months. I saw A LOT of people complain about the full price of 60 bucks, but here we are, the price was right after all. It goes to say that a good game will sell. Simple as that.
• Mario Tennis Aces sold 1.38m in one month and is going to become the best selling Mario Tennis game ever. I think there isn't much to add.
• Fortnite, Paladins and other popular f2p games have been welcomed with open arms. Octopath Traveler does fantastic and not all of us saw that coming. Then we have more supplementary titles like Captain Toad, Wolfenstein II, Crash Bandicoot Trilogy Remastered, Ys VIII, Shining Resonance Refrain alongside even more strong indie titles like Darkest Dungeon, Golf Story, Owlboy, Salt and Sanctuary, Hollow Knight, and so on, on top of even more games for lapsed gamers like the Mega Man (X) Collections, Harvest Moon (yes, I count that; mostly due to lapsed gamers recognising the name) or Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection.

So basically, this first half was good. It wasn't mindblowing, but it wasn't terrible either. Luckily the rest of the year doesn't look too shabby! More Games to look out for:

Dragonball Fighter Z, Mega Man 11, FIFA 19, NBA 2K19, Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, Super Mario Party, Valkyria Chronicles 4, Dark Souls Remastered, Undertale, Fire Emblem Three Houses, No More Heroes: Travis Strikes Back, Bayonetta 3, Yokai Watch 4, Pokemon Let's Go Eevee / Pikachu and Super Smash Bros Ultimate. And in 2019 we will see Metroid Prime 4, the Pokemon core game, Shin Megami Tensei V, Daemon X Machina, Yoshi, Tales of something something, and many others.

Now if you ask me, as much as I considered the 2017 lineup to be strong, the lineup of 2018 is not all too short either. It's also strong in my eyes, but you cannot argue against the four big hitters of 2017, that's probably impossible to beat if we are honestly serious. Now I guess I know what some of you might think of this:

• Jonathanalis: Good numbers, but I wanted it to reach 20m.
• Green098: Those are good sales numbers, actually!
• Soundwave: They banked too hard on Labo.
• Myamotoo: Near perfect!
• Jranation: *jumps around* I'm so happy right now!
• OTBWY: The Switch is killing it!
• Ganoncrotch: Think I'm going to order a bigger SD card, mine's jammers again after buying another bunch of games on sale.
• nemo37: Me too, bought a ton of third party games yesterday.
• TalonMan: Bitches please, I buy ALL Switch games.
• PwerlvlAmy: Bitch please, I even make actual BOXES for my digital games!
• DreadPirateRoberts: Stop buying all these games I can barely keep track!
• zorg1000: Ya cool and all.
• Barkley: 1-2 Switch must die!
• HylianYoshi: Labo must die!
• vivster: Hi mum!
• tbone51: Now watch all of those sales numbers go up to 15 MILLION each! You heard it here first!
• RolStoppable: Sales data prove that hardware numbers were slow while software sales were good. You know sales data? The essence of all this discussion, hmm?
• quickrick: Doing okay but not doing any wonders compared to the PS4.
• Kerotan: The PS4 is a beast!
• PAOerfulone: The Switch is what the Wii U should have been.
• curl-6: The Switch needs to have one system seller every four months.
• DelioPT: No, it needs to have one system seller every fucking day! It could be doing so much better. Even 2017 could have been better!
• Ka-pi96: I want trophys!
• HintHRO: I want an internet browser!
• OdinHades: I want Britney Spears!
• VGPolyglot: I want Chun-Li!
• Nuvendil: I want Dragon Quest 11!
• mZuzek: I want Starfox!
• LonelyDolphin: I want Animal Crossing!
• Also LonelyDolphin: SPLATATATATATA!
• cycycychris: SPLATATATATATA!
• Shiken: I play Switch inside the house, outside the house, at work, on family trips, under the shower, on a surfboard, in my sleep, ...
• ryuzaki57: Still not enough weebo games.
• bananaking: Still too many lethal mistakes.
• Mummelmann: Are you ready to rock?!
• spurgeonryan: We should become friends.

I agree. A decent first half, but nothing mind-blowing. People seem to be sitting on the new Mario Party and Pokemon as well. August/September is the biggest drought of big releases since Switch launched, though it does have the Xenoblade 2 expansion as a stand-alone release.

Poor Medisti isn't important enough to guess what he'll say. I'm sad now. ;)

I am so sorry! It's just that I couldn't think of anything catchy enough when I thought about you. You're too balanced.

I've bought 47 games on Switch this year, it's not been bad at all from my point of view

I'll take that as a compliment, lol. On topic, you did a very good and well thought out break down, so good job. :)

If you compare the releases compared to its competition it hasn't been good.

I'm happy with my Switch because I have plenty to play. It suits my life-style right now (lengthy train commutes for work) so it's my default system. In fact, this is the first time in 20 years I've only used one system. I'm in the sweet-spot, really; plenty of ports coming to Switch are new to me, like the Crash remaster, Wolfenstein 2 and Ys 8, the latter of which I just finished after 55 hours play. I've got Octopath, Golf Story, Wolfenstein 2 and Crash to be getting on with, four expansions to consider (for Xenoblade, Mario + Rabbids, Sonic Mania and Splatoon 2), and eighteen indie games on my wishlist. Add near-certain purchases like Dark Souls Remastered (pre-ordered), Smash, Valkyria Chronicles 4, Tales of Vesperia, and War Groove, plus possible purchases like Pokemon Let's Go, Super Mario Party, and Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, and there's more than enough to keep me occupied. It's not a stand-out year like last year, but for me, Switch is doing more than enough to keep me entertained. I have broad tastes when it comes to games, so keeping on top of the latest releases is less and less important to me; there's simply too much stuff. So what if a game is late on Switch? I can still play it when it arrives, and I'll play other stuff in the mean-time.

That being said, there are issues. The lack of any UI updates or save storage solution that doesn't require the subscription is poor form. A few streaming apps wouldn't go amiss and further details about the online mode would be good, but presumably the latter at least will be coming soon. Commercially, Nintendo have made a mistake in leaving such a huge gap between guaranteed system-sellers and that's something I really think they need to avoid in future.

But like I said, Switch keeps me busy and entertained with ease. There's more than enough software for me to consider buying and 2019 looks like it's going to shape up nicely: Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Daemon X Machina, Yoshi, and Pokemon Gen 8 could be joined by things like Dragon Quest XI, Metroid Prime 4 and Bayonetta 3. And that's without further announcements, which we know will come.

Those are good sales numbers, actually!

But really if Nintendo just saved one big title (either critically, in sales or both) for the first half of 2018, things would of went more smoothly for the Switch in the reputation department.

Other than that things went very well, software is noticeably great and 3rd party support is leaps and bounds ahead of the Wii U.

Second half of 2018 will be great and all of 2019 has some great potential to be Switch's best year so far.

I guess you mean AAA titles, right? Yup, they won't come.

I have included in red some low prediction for a less than 19M (18,88) fiscal year 2018 for Nintendo.

Here we can see that the Switch still hold done well against the PS4 even starting with one Q3 less.