KevinKeene
Banned
Since it was me who started the rather negative thread about the Switch' h1/2018-lineup, I really wanted to make this one here to put the current situation into a more nuanced, fair perspective, especially since we seem to have many users having gone on the quarterly 'Nintendo is doomed'-spree
There are several ways to eveluate Nintendo at this moment in time and I feel that people are forgetting a couple of them. This goes for both the negative as well as the positive crowd. Since we're living in the now and here let's start with 2018:
As I detailed in the other thread, Nintendo's h1/2018-lineup was terrible and E3 was never going to chance that, time being linear and such! I also think the h2/2018-lineup is nothing to be impressed of - 1st party-wise! That is an important differentiation to be drawn. Criticism against Nintendo's first-party offerings is well deserved. There's not much, there have been delays, etc.. But fortunately, the Switch' h2/2018-lineup doesn't only consist of first-party games. Let's have a look at the games releasing THIS YEAR. I'll surely miss some, but just the most popular ones:
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
- Pokemon Let's Go!
- Fortnite
- Paladins
- Octopath Traveler
- Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate
- Mario Tennis Aces
- Ys 8
- Wolfenstein 2
- Dark Souls Remastered
- Starlink
- My Hero One's Justice
- Valkyria Chronicles 4
- Shining Resonance Refrain
- Dragon Ball FighterZ
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2-DLC
- Tales of Vesperia
These are titles that I think have some 'meat' to them. It's not the complete lineup. But I think it shows well enough: There's no overall drought in the h2/2018-lineup. The first half was terrible, definitely. But the second half is easily decent. Unless you're rich and have really too much time, this should satisfy anyone, be it rpg-fans, action-fans or multiplayer-fans.
It could be better - Fire Emblem and Yoshi in 2018 would have gone a long way - but even then, it's okay. And let's stop being couch potato analysts here: Most of us aren't Switch-only gamers. I know I'll be getting Spiderman for my PS4 and other titles as well. I'll try to tackle my Steam-backlog. And there's some Vita-games I need to finish, too. In short: None of us depend on the Switch alone to satisfy our gaming palate. The same is true for any one system. We're (mostly) past any fanboy/console warrior bs, we pick and choose the games we want to play not based on what system we own. We buy systems that have games we want to play. Gaming is affordable enough for that. The Switch has an okay h2/2018-lineup. The PS4 and X1 have, too.
That's 2018. On to 2019. Which is where the real, new problems come into effect:
At the heart of it, I see three central problems for the year 2019 that haven't been answered and that we shoud focus our criticism against Nintendo on.
1) 2018 titles were delayed to 2019.
The aforementioned Yoshi and Fire Emblem were moved to next year. Most of us fully expected both to release this year. I vividly remember people wondering why Nintendo would release Kirby and Yoshi so close to each other - yeah, Yoshi was once expected to release early 2018. Now they're 2019-games. But their delay itself isn't the main issue here: It's not too far-fetched to assume that Nintendo will be using these games to fill out their first-party 2019-lineup - in the same way they did 2018? My big fear is that similar to h1/2018, we'll ONLY see Yoshi and Fire Emblem in the first half of 2019, two games that originally were supposed to strengthen last year's lineup. It makes me think Nintendo will AGAIN stretch their games extremely thin, believing that it's enough. But that wouldn't be fair, would it. It reminds me of a shitty husband who treats his wife without any affection all year long, but on her 30th/40th/50th/etc birthday he plans a big party for her and even sings in front of all the guests for her. I daresay most wives would prefer a loving husband on a daily base, rather than some spectacle every ten years. That's what Nintendo is prone of doing: Saving up games that should have long released, then using them to 'reward' fans at a later date. It doesn't feel good.
2) Third-Parties? Hello, McFly, hello?!
This is the Switch' 2nd year. It's a massive (on-going) success. Most 3rd-party games released on Switch are great successes. And yet here we are and have less/worse 3rd-party announcements than during last year's E3. EA still gives incremental support. Capcpom is Capcpom. Bethesda only announced some old f2p-game, ports of Fallout 3/4 nowhere to be seen. Activision with the mind-baffeling omission of Spyro. And where's GTA5? This was the last sensible year to announce and release it. By next E3, a GTA5-announcement would be rather embarrassing. And then the most disappointing publisher: Ubisoft. One would have thought the success of Mario+Rabbids would bear fruits with more high-profile titles. The only new announcement is a Trials-port and the Starfox-bonus in the last year announced Starlink. Where's Ubisoft's support? If they really can't port Assassin's Creed to Switch, then they should have looked into different options. A Switch-exclusive Prince of Persia would have been great. A new Rayman-game. Zombi U2. Or another Nintendo IP-collaboration. There's plenty of approaches. But nothing.
The lack of 3rd-party support is a BIG problem, on a level that's not precedent for successful Nintendo-systems. 'Nintendo-fans should be used to this' is an entirely invalid excuse for 3rd-parties. Wii had many great 3rd-party games. GameCube and N64 had them, too. The Wii U is the only exception and we know why that is. But what's happening is that 3rd-party publishers are treating the Switch like another Wii U. And that's not good.
3) 1 + 1 = 0?
Most of us expected all software droughts in Nintendo's 1st-party lineup to be a thing of the past when they combined handheld- and console efforts/ressources into one system. That hasn't had any visible results (yet?). This might be the most bewildering revelation after 1,5 years of the Switch. You'd like to imagine Nintendo would be 'crapping out' 1st-party titles month after month now that all their dev teams support one system. The opposite is true: Nintendo's 1st-party output is worse (on par at best) than during the Wii U-days! It's absolutely staggering how that came to be. But it did. Nintendo either saw massive internal problems or they're following an asinine release strategy. And did I touch upon the missing Virtual Console, the lack of Netflix, the lack of proper voice-chat (that Fortnite proved to be possible), etc.?
Something is off in the house of Nintendo.
To conclude:
There are real, important problems that ought to be talked about so that Nintendo feels pressured enough to adress them. That's especially important because it's the future of Switch that's at stake, not the present. Which brings me to 2018: Let's stop the silly doom and gloom-talk about this year's lineup. I understand that there'll always be people individually who don't like the ENTIRE lineup. But chances are you have other systems then to satisfy your gaming urges. By all practical means, though, the Switch' h2/2018-lineup looks fine. Not overly impressive, but fine enough to get hundreds of hours of fun playtime.
Nintendo's E3 2018 was terrible.
Their remaining 2018-lineup is fine enough.
Let's talk about the real problems.
That's it. I hope some of you can look at the situation at hand like I do. Please post your own opinion and how you feel about the above proposed points
There are several ways to eveluate Nintendo at this moment in time and I feel that people are forgetting a couple of them. This goes for both the negative as well as the positive crowd. Since we're living in the now and here let's start with 2018:
As I detailed in the other thread, Nintendo's h1/2018-lineup was terrible and E3 was never going to chance that, time being linear and such! I also think the h2/2018-lineup is nothing to be impressed of - 1st party-wise! That is an important differentiation to be drawn. Criticism against Nintendo's first-party offerings is well deserved. There's not much, there have been delays, etc.. But fortunately, the Switch' h2/2018-lineup doesn't only consist of first-party games. Let's have a look at the games releasing THIS YEAR. I'll surely miss some, but just the most popular ones:
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
- Pokemon Let's Go!
- Fortnite
- Paladins
- Octopath Traveler
- Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate
- Mario Tennis Aces
- Ys 8
- Wolfenstein 2
- Dark Souls Remastered
- Starlink
- My Hero One's Justice
- Valkyria Chronicles 4
- Shining Resonance Refrain
- Dragon Ball FighterZ
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2-DLC
- Tales of Vesperia
These are titles that I think have some 'meat' to them. It's not the complete lineup. But I think it shows well enough: There's no overall drought in the h2/2018-lineup. The first half was terrible, definitely. But the second half is easily decent. Unless you're rich and have really too much time, this should satisfy anyone, be it rpg-fans, action-fans or multiplayer-fans.
It could be better - Fire Emblem and Yoshi in 2018 would have gone a long way - but even then, it's okay. And let's stop being couch potato analysts here: Most of us aren't Switch-only gamers. I know I'll be getting Spiderman for my PS4 and other titles as well. I'll try to tackle my Steam-backlog. And there's some Vita-games I need to finish, too. In short: None of us depend on the Switch alone to satisfy our gaming palate. The same is true for any one system. We're (mostly) past any fanboy/console warrior bs, we pick and choose the games we want to play not based on what system we own. We buy systems that have games we want to play. Gaming is affordable enough for that. The Switch has an okay h2/2018-lineup. The PS4 and X1 have, too.
That's 2018. On to 2019. Which is where the real, new problems come into effect:
At the heart of it, I see three central problems for the year 2019 that haven't been answered and that we shoud focus our criticism against Nintendo on.
1) 2018 titles were delayed to 2019.
The aforementioned Yoshi and Fire Emblem were moved to next year. Most of us fully expected both to release this year. I vividly remember people wondering why Nintendo would release Kirby and Yoshi so close to each other - yeah, Yoshi was once expected to release early 2018. Now they're 2019-games. But their delay itself isn't the main issue here: It's not too far-fetched to assume that Nintendo will be using these games to fill out their first-party 2019-lineup - in the same way they did 2018? My big fear is that similar to h1/2018, we'll ONLY see Yoshi and Fire Emblem in the first half of 2019, two games that originally were supposed to strengthen last year's lineup. It makes me think Nintendo will AGAIN stretch their games extremely thin, believing that it's enough. But that wouldn't be fair, would it. It reminds me of a shitty husband who treats his wife without any affection all year long, but on her 30th/40th/50th/etc birthday he plans a big party for her and even sings in front of all the guests for her. I daresay most wives would prefer a loving husband on a daily base, rather than some spectacle every ten years. That's what Nintendo is prone of doing: Saving up games that should have long released, then using them to 'reward' fans at a later date. It doesn't feel good.
2) Third-Parties? Hello, McFly, hello?!
This is the Switch' 2nd year. It's a massive (on-going) success. Most 3rd-party games released on Switch are great successes. And yet here we are and have less/worse 3rd-party announcements than during last year's E3. EA still gives incremental support. Capcpom is Capcpom. Bethesda only announced some old f2p-game, ports of Fallout 3/4 nowhere to be seen. Activision with the mind-baffeling omission of Spyro. And where's GTA5? This was the last sensible year to announce and release it. By next E3, a GTA5-announcement would be rather embarrassing. And then the most disappointing publisher: Ubisoft. One would have thought the success of Mario+Rabbids would bear fruits with more high-profile titles. The only new announcement is a Trials-port and the Starfox-bonus in the last year announced Starlink. Where's Ubisoft's support? If they really can't port Assassin's Creed to Switch, then they should have looked into different options. A Switch-exclusive Prince of Persia would have been great. A new Rayman-game. Zombi U2. Or another Nintendo IP-collaboration. There's plenty of approaches. But nothing.
The lack of 3rd-party support is a BIG problem, on a level that's not precedent for successful Nintendo-systems. 'Nintendo-fans should be used to this' is an entirely invalid excuse for 3rd-parties. Wii had many great 3rd-party games. GameCube and N64 had them, too. The Wii U is the only exception and we know why that is. But what's happening is that 3rd-party publishers are treating the Switch like another Wii U. And that's not good.
3) 1 + 1 = 0?
Most of us expected all software droughts in Nintendo's 1st-party lineup to be a thing of the past when they combined handheld- and console efforts/ressources into one system. That hasn't had any visible results (yet?). This might be the most bewildering revelation after 1,5 years of the Switch. You'd like to imagine Nintendo would be 'crapping out' 1st-party titles month after month now that all their dev teams support one system. The opposite is true: Nintendo's 1st-party output is worse (on par at best) than during the Wii U-days! It's absolutely staggering how that came to be. But it did. Nintendo either saw massive internal problems or they're following an asinine release strategy. And did I touch upon the missing Virtual Console, the lack of Netflix, the lack of proper voice-chat (that Fortnite proved to be possible), etc.?
Something is off in the house of Nintendo.
To conclude:
There are real, important problems that ought to be talked about so that Nintendo feels pressured enough to adress them. That's especially important because it's the future of Switch that's at stake, not the present. Which brings me to 2018: Let's stop the silly doom and gloom-talk about this year's lineup. I understand that there'll always be people individually who don't like the ENTIRE lineup. But chances are you have other systems then to satisfy your gaming urges. By all practical means, though, the Switch' h2/2018-lineup looks fine. Not overly impressive, but fine enough to get hundreds of hours of fun playtime.
Nintendo's E3 2018 was terrible.
Their remaining 2018-lineup is fine enough.
Let's talk about the real problems.
That's it. I hope some of you can look at the situation at hand like I do. Please post your own opinion and how you feel about the above proposed points
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