Will the Switch 2 be fine? Yeah, I think so. I think (and notice the *think* not *know for sure*) that the people comparing it to DS->3DS are right on their money. It will not be as big as the Switch, but it will not be a failure either. Probably in the range of the PS5.

Sure, the game prices sting. The price for the console is actually OK, the hardware exceeds what I was expecting. But game prices are really on the high side and Nintendo shows themself greedy as fuck with charging for Welcome Tour, the Game Chat and so on. But that never hindered a console success. Maybe slowed it a little.

So why do I think that the Switch 2 will be overall fine? Well, because the lack of shown 1st party titles. Welcome Tour is a little thing that really should've been a pack in. Drag×Drive is this gens Snipperclips. Kirby Air Riders will be a nice Sakurai-game, on the level of Kid Icarus Uprising. Not a big hitter, not a failure either. So the only two games Nintendo really showed as mainliners were Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza.

Mario Kart World will be a big hit. Anyone who doubts that I can only laugh at. Mario Kart 8 was basically everything of all previous MK titles mixed together in a big all you can eat buffet. All modes, all multiplayer options, all racers (including non-mario ones), the most racetracks ever. Where to go from here? World opens up new possibilities in it's open world features. That is very exciting and will be a major draw. This title will be in the end >50M sold and it will drive Switch 2 sales throughout it's lifetime. It will be the must have title for Switch 2 owners. And Nintendo knows that, that's why they made it a bundle and made the game a launch title.

Donkey Kong Bananza basically is the new 3D Mario. It is Odyssey, but for Donkey Kong. The thing is, without the Mario branding it will not sell as great probably, but it will sell really well. More than 15M for sure. And it releases just a month after the launch. This will drive momentum further, just if the initial hype is going down.

But then? We know nothing about the release calendar after that. No one believes Air Riders is their big holiday title. So what this lack of further reveals means to me is: Nintendo told us enough to drive initial momentum and held their other cards close to the chest. I expect a Direct close to launch with at least one more big reveal and a big fall direct with the holiday lineup. There will be more Nintendo 1st party games.

And this fills me with cautious optimism. If Nintendo feels unsure, they blurt out the games that are farther out. They did that with WiiU. Here we know the games for the first month. After that it is completely dark. Nintendo feeld confident enough to do that.

If we are at it, I might as well take a guess what their big 1st party titles are left for the year. Going for big and semi-big series, Nintendo has: Mario Kart, 3D Mario, 2D Mario, Mario Maker, Mario Party, 3D Zelda, Splatoon, Smash Bros, Nintendo Sports, Animal Crossing. Pokemon is GameFreak and the operate a bit independent and we know their next game with A-Z. There will nothing else big Pokemon this year.

Mario Kart is covered, and Donkey Kong replaces 3D Mario for the time being. Mario Party Jamboree gets a substantial Upgrade Pack, so that covers that. I feel like Zelda is too early. Mario Wonder just hit. Smash Bros will not happen without Sakurai and even if he works on Smash, the Air Riders reveal shows us that Smash is not coming soon.

That leaves us with Mario Maker, Splatoon, Nintendo Sports or Animal Crossing. Animal Crossing last happened 2020, Mario Maker 2 2019, Splatoon 3 was 2022 and Switch Sports also 2022. All these are in the possible range. Let me get through each to state the case.

Mario Maker 3 would actually be a good showcase for the new mouse features. It has a long period it didn't happen. As 2D Mario probably won't happen because Mario Wonder just released, this would be a great replacement.

Splatoon 4 might feel a bit early, but as a reminder Splatoon 2 happened just two years after the first one for new hardware. So three years later doesn't seem too outlandish. Still, it would be the least likely in my books. Yet still a possibility.

Nintendo Switch 2 Sports is in my opinion highly likely. It would be a good game to utilize the controllers. Also I feel there was development happening, shown in the Basketball update for Switch Sports in 2024. That update so much after release came kinda out of the blue. But if a team geared up to create Switch 2 Sports, as prototyping and get into it making a new sport for the current title would be a good place to start. Similar to how the Mario Kart Booster Pack was an indication of the development of a new Mario Kart. The teams nowadays are bigger, new people have to be eased into the task and making upgrades for the previous game is just a good way of doing that. So yeah, Nintendo Switch 2 Sports will be likely coming. It will not be the big holiday title though, so something else as well.

That leaves Animal Crossing. Enough time has gone since New Horizons. Moreover, after Mario Kart was New Horizons the second best selling title on Switch, what better way to start the new console than to make sequels to the two best-selling titles of the previous gen. I think the new Animal Crossing will be the big holiday title.

So, the most likely lineup in my opinion is Animal Crossing as big holiday title with Nintendo Switch 2 Sports in Fall. mario Maker 3 or Splatoon 4 may happen as well, as may smaller titles like Kirby or Xenoblade to round out the lineup.

Bloody hell, that's insane...that's $600 before 25% VAT on top for Switch 2 MK bundle...they're killing you out there.

Nintendo: Doomed since 1889

Listen, inflation is a thing. And not just a recent thing. It's always existed.  I remember a time when $400 was an absolutely outrageous price that few people could afford. You want to talk about expensive. These were expensive consoles by the standards of their day:

Both systems released for $400. Adjusted for inflation, the Neo Geo was $937 (for the basic "Silver System" SKU) while the Saturn was $838. $400 was once enough to kill a system. Oh, and the Neo Geo's games cost way more than those of its 16-bit contemporaries, typically retailing for $200, well beyond the $50-70 that was the norm for 16-bit consoles and equal to the launch price of the SNES ($463 in current dollars). Again, this is in early 90s dollars.

By time 2013 rolled around, the purchasing power of the dollar had declined enough to where $400 for the PS4 was considered downright reasonable by most.

Adjusted for inflation, the Switch 1's launch price is just under $400. The PS4's was $547, and the PS5's was $490 for the digital SKU and $613 for the disc SKU. So, the Switch 2's launch price is hardly outrageous. It's a much more sophisticated console than its predecessor with more bells & whistles.

As for the games, except for Wii titles the adjusted price of most games prior to 2014 was over $80. Like I said in another thread, I paid $70 for N64 games back in 1998 when I was making only $5.40 an hour. You're not getting stiffed, people. Everyone just got used to the $60 standard because game prices didn't keep up with inflation and that price point was the norm for everything except Wii games from 2006 to Oct. 2020.

So, whenever I hear people complain about the price of video games, my reaction is typically this:

In any case, while I doubt the Switch 2 will sell as well as the Switch 1, I think it should sell at minimum at least 120M units. It's not going to flop. The pricing is not unreasonable, and isn't some killer like the Saturn's launch price was. If anything is a threat to the Switch's sales potential, it's not $80 games. It's the trade war America's Dumbass-in-Chief started.

Trump fucking the industry as if COVID and wars weren't enough. Nintendo should raise Switch 2's price in Japan to make up for some of the losses. It's very cheap over there, and really doesn't need to be considering Nintendo's Japan domination.

I'd assume Nin knows they were pushing the limits with pricing all around (besides Japan), but if they were thinking of backing off a bit, they weren't going to drop the hardware $50 while also dropping the games $10. It would've been one or the other. Now while $50 off the hardware would be less of a loss for Nin, and would help to build up the SW2 userbase quicker, $10 less for the games would've been the more consumer friendly move overall and would've led to the least amount of backlash.

While Nin is stubborn, and likely won't budge, if SW2 sales are weak enough, a $399 holiday price could totally be possible. I don't see the games getting cheaper though. That would truly be a miracle.

I think few actually believe that SW2 is going to only sell like 15-20M units.

What I think most pointing to Wii U are basically saying is that Wii U sold like garbage compared to Wii, and they think SW2 will sell like garbage compared to SW1. However, that could totally mean that they think SW2 may sell like 75M units let's say, which would certainly not be garbage sales at all in reality. They also might be taking into account that without the errors made with Wii U, some which seem to be obvious like the name, that it could've ended up a success, and they may be seeing the same kinda obvious mistakes with SW2, holding it back from succeeding to the degree that it potentially could have.

Just a guess.