By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Nintendo Discussion - To me, 2017 wasn't as amazing for the Switch looking back

JWeinCom said:

SO... how are you defining what a good year?  What makes one year better than another, and why?  Is there an objective criteria we can use?

A good year for a console is when there's a steady release of quality software from first and third party developers. Be it ports, new games, etc. Anything that can help keep a console's momentum afloat and software sales strong is considered a good year. Now which year you like is entirely subjective. Some people didn't like Switch in 2018 as they either don't care about portability enough to buy the ports, or simply were more interested in Nintendo first party games, which were a bit lacking compared to 2017 in terms of quality and relevancy. But objectively speaking, the Switch had a pretty good 2018. 

I say in some ways that 2018 was better because it had more third party support, along with more releases of games in the year. 2017 had a lot less games, but it had bigger releases, so some people say it was better simply because of that fact. 



Around the Network

You say 2017 wasn't amazing looking back... but the year had Mario, Breath of the wild which just those 2 titles alone effectively best any year of either rival console so far, now in your OP you try to say that 2017 wasn't as good... because 2018 also has a lot of good games (blaz blue isn't out this year btw, think it's delayed til next) but still just because Switch has a good 2018 it doesn't mean that 2017 didn't get 2 GOTG in it tbh with you, the fact that 2018 also had good games is nice... but that doesn't take away from past achievements, they don't remove Gold medals from the last Olympics because people win races in the current one.

Also rocket league.... and Splatoon 2... heck even MK8D and Arms were last year... and Skyrim ... last year I mean 2017, god damn new year messing things up.



Why not check me out on youtube and help me on the way to 2k subs over at www.youtube.com/stormcloudlive

Hm...I dunno about that. Maybe in quantity, which I'm too lazy to check, but in quality, 2017 was one of the best gaming years I've had, and nearly all of those games were on Switch. Xenoblade 2 and Breath of the Wild are both in my top 10, and Mario Odyssey is pretty handily my favorite 3D Mario game. I also had Fire Emblem Warriors and Splatoon 2 in the meantime, which were both fun experiences. Compared to that, my favorite games in 2018 were Valkyria Chronicles 4 and Torna: The Golden Country...the latter of which is an expansion to a 2017 game to begin with.

I can see why someone with different tastes than me might be dissapointed...but I'd honestly prefer to play Zelda alone over anything I played in 2018.



NNID: Zephyr25 / PSN: Zephyr--25 / Switch: SW-4450-3680-7334

TheMisterManGuy said:
Cloudman said:
Well, I suppose if you're looking more for 3rd party and indie games, I can see why this year seems better than the last. Your OP doesn't seem to really convey that though. It seems you sort of contradict your opinion, saying things like 3rd party still being mediocre or not being console moving games, as well as it coming down to quantity vs quality. I'm not really convinced after reading your OP and I still think 2017 was really excellent.

What I'm saying is that, I don't mean to discredit 2017 too much, it certainly had stellar titles and helped get the Switch to where it is now. My point was that people may be overrating how good 2017 was a bit. 2017 was only as good as it was because Nintendo made sure there were 4 big system sellers on the Switch as early as possible, but take those away, you have a deceptively lackluster year compared to 2018 and soon 2019, mainly due to third party support just not being there for most of the year. It was largely up to Nintendo to prove the Switch's worth and they managed to do so with flying colors.

2018 would see less big titles from Nintendo, however, it made up for it by having more Nintendo published games released in the year, plus, third party support was much better by the Switch's second year vs. launch window, with more and more relevant games being confirmed for the platform. This is what I mean by quality vs quantity. You have a choice between a smaller number of games, but with most of them being massive AAA games. VS. a quieter year with less big releases, but overall a larger and more diverse library of still solid titles. Hope that clarifies things a bit. 

I dunno, even if you take out the major hit games that released on Switch in 2017, there were still small title games that released that year, so there would still be games to play during the Switch's 1st year. 2018 for Switch seems like an increase in those smaller games and more 3rd party games... but without those big games, at least to me.



 

              

Dance my pretties!

The Official Art Thread      -      The Official Manga Thread      -      The Official Starbound Thread

Cloudman said:

I dunno, even if you take out the major hit games that released on Switch in 2017, there were still small title games that released that year, so there would still be games to play during the Switch's 1st year. 2018 for Switch seems like an increase in those smaller games and more 3rd party games... but without those big games, at least to me.

Which is exactly my point, 2017 overall had far less games, but it had bigger titles. 2018 didn't have a lot of big titles, but it made up for it by having a lot more games in general, most of which are still pretty solid. Like I said, it's really down to quantity vs quality. You either prefer 4 big titles that carry the system, with a handful of smaller titles mixed in. Or 2 big titles at the end of the year, compensated by a lot more smaller and third party games for most of the year. 



Around the Network
TheMisterManGuy said:
Cloudman said:

I dunno, even if you take out the major hit games that released on Switch in 2017, there were still small title games that released that year, so there would still be games to play during the Switch's 1st year. 2018 for Switch seems like an increase in those smaller games and more 3rd party games... but without those big games, at least to me.

Which is exactly my point, 2017 overall had far less games, but it had bigger titles. 2018 didn't have a lot of big titles, but it made up for it by having a lot more games in general, most of which are still pretty solid. Like I said, it's really down to quantity vs quality. You either prefer 4 big titles that carry the system, with a handful of smaller titles mixed in. Or 2 big titles at the end of the year, compensated by a lot more smaller and third party games for most of the year. 

I dunno if I would say the list of games in 2017 were thaat small.. I picked up some other small games in 2017 alongside the main core titles and I was plenty satisfied.



 

              

Dance my pretties!

The Official Art Thread      -      The Official Manga Thread      -      The Official Starbound Thread

TheMisterManGuy said:
Cloudman said:

I dunno, even if you take out the major hit games that released on Switch in 2017, there were still small title games that released that year, so there would still be games to play during the Switch's 1st year. 2018 for Switch seems like an increase in those smaller games and more 3rd party games... but without those big games, at least to me.

Which is exactly my point, 2017 overall had far less games, but it had bigger titles. 2018 didn't have a lot of big titles, but it made up for it by having a lot more games in general, most of which are still pretty solid. Like I said, it's really down to quantity vs quality. You either prefer 4 big titles that carry the system, with a handful of smaller titles mixed in. Or 2 big titles at the end of the year, compensated by a lot more smaller and third party games for most of the year. 

Exactly, 2018 had much better 3rd party support in terms of indies, Japanese & western titles and even Nintendo's small-medium tier titles had an increase in output.

The only thing that was worse was the output of 10+ million mega sellers. 2017 had one each quarter and 2018 had 2 in the last quarter.



When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.

Cloudman said:
TheMisterManGuy said:

Which is exactly my point, 2017 overall had far less games, but it had bigger titles. 2018 didn't have a lot of big titles, but it made up for it by having a lot more games in general, most of which are still pretty solid. Like I said, it's really down to quantity vs quality. You either prefer 4 big titles that carry the system, with a handful of smaller titles mixed in. Or 2 big titles at the end of the year, compensated by a lot more smaller and third party games for most of the year. 

I dunno if I would say the list of games in 2017 were thaat small.. I picked up some other small games in 2017 alongside the main core titles and I was plenty satisfied.

2017 output was significantly lower.

Retail titles 2017

Japan-56

Americas-76

Other-83

Retail titles 2018 (Q1-Q3)

Japan-116

Americas-158

Other-149

At the end of 2017 the eShop had just over 300 titles, at the end of 2018 it's well over 1000.

2017 had a decent amount of games but 2018 had like 2-3 times as many.



When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.

KLAMarine said:
C'mon man, I'm not reading all that.

It's a two minute read at worst, buddy. 

I see OP's point, but, on the other hand, 2017 saw the release of Nintendo's biggest game in many, many years (I didn't like it a lot, though), so there's a case to be made there. Yes, the 2017 release output and its quality may have been about the same or just below of 2018's, but Zelda alone marks a before and after in the history of the company. 



My bet with The_Liquid_Laser: I think the Switch won't surpass the PS2 as the best selling system of all time. If it does, I'll play a game of a list that The_Liquid_Laser will provide, I will have to play it for 50 hours or complete it, whatever comes first. 

http://www.vgchartz.com/yearly/2019/Global/

The top 4 best selling games on Switch for 2018 were games released in 2017. Zelda, Mario Kart, Mario Odyssey, and Splatoon were Nintendo's top-selling titles for most of 2018, and they were 2017 games. While Let's Go Pokemon numbers will no doubt get higher, and Smash Bros will probably take #1, the fact that for 10 months of 2018 were dominated by 2017 games is a testament to how great 2017 was.

Even with all those game titles released in 2018, it wasn't them, but the 2017 titles that dominated the charts. Retail shelves did not particularly expand for the Switch in 2018, they stayed relatively the same size, even shrank a little, after 2017. Even on the EShop charts, the exclusive location for the vast majority of all 2018 releases, 2017 titles still held a very strong presence all the way until November (which still had 6 titles from last year in the top 15).

If I were to hazard a guess: come holiday season 2019, titles from 2017 will be selling significantly better than those of 2018.

It's not that 2018 sucked (far from it), it's that 2017 really was that damn good, the most electrifying year in Nintendo's history to date. Right now, it's looking like 2017 might be the best year the best there was, and the best there ever will be (in the foreseeable future), and that's the bottom line.

Last edited by Jumpin - on 03 January 2019

I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.