Sky Walker
Member
He should have said that for the Wii U 
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
EA's VP Söderlund on the Switch: "...didnt get the concept, I was puzzled by it..."
- Thread starter Malakai
- Start date
Vegetable Lasagna
Member
I don't totally get why it is so popular. I don't get what defines if a Nintendo console does well anymore considering they mostly all have had the same issues since the N64. Underpowered compared to the competition, lacking really good 3rd party support and still rather expensive to invest in. Not much different so far with the Switch. It's like Nintendo's success is based on a dice roll and nothing more.
But I've enjoyed mine either way for the Nintendo exclusives so far. Zelda has made a bunch of plane rides much more tolerable, but outside of that I just don't care about it being portable. If I'm out of the house it's usually because I'm busy doing something that would prevent me from playing games at the house, so it just sits in my backpack. Probably just an old man yelling at cloud thing for me though. I get why kids would like it.
He works for a Western publisher. Many of them struggle at the whole 'handheld' concept.
SinCityAssassin
Member
You also don't use them to play fully featured video games, so battery life for normal tablet use ain't really something to compare to.
Jonneh3003
Banned
Nintendo's success certainly isn't random. They go for a USP with their systems and sometimes it catches on with the mass market and other times it doesn't. The Switch isn't like anything else currently on the market which in turn makes it very appealing, the fact Nintendo have been supporting it with some huge games makes it even better.
The Wii U's failure wasn't random and nor was the Wii's success.
Tom Nook Sawyer
Member
What did he say?
Yep. It simultaneously perfects the Wii U concept and completely revolutionizes it. That is what full portability achieves. It even achieves portable, local, one-device co-op with the Joy-cons.
And this is before considering the software advantages "also being a portable" brings to the system.
Switch is exactly the system Nintendo needed with the position they've put themselves in. Wii U was a fumbled attempt to navigate the "TV problem" and the "mobile problem."
LizardKing
Member
Last data we had said 86% percent of the install base was over 18. It's a hit with 20's/30's men with lives, wives and kids. For obvious reasons. There's nothing random about it. One system gives the benefits of big screen tv gaming and untethered free play anywhere gaming, and you can play the same game doing either depending on your situation at the time.
TwistedFreeze
Member
He meant that it's no less portable than something like a tablet. Short battery life doesn't make it any less of a portable
Battery life is extremely important to portability.
I am happy for Nintendo's success, I just don't understand why.
Leafhopper
Banned
Physically but not dimension wise for me when I think of something just to play video games on.
Also as others have said battery life for handhelds have just been getting worse over the years and the Switch's is pretty bad.
Huge Succeeded
Banned
I use my Switch as a portable constantly and have never once had it die on me while away from home.
As a Switch owner, this meme that Switch's poor battery life is what precludes it from being 'portable' is a bit of a stretch.
I don't get it. Is this one of those "it must fit inside my pocket or it's not 'portable' " things?
Jaded Alyx
Member
It's a well marketed product that looks desirable and has a unique and actually useful selling point, and has great games that people want to play. To the point where it actually makes people want to play games on it over alternative systems.
Wii U had good games, but it had terrible marketing and was not desirable at all to the relatively few people who even knew what it was.
Tom Nook Sawyer
Member
...that can function entirely, and possibly exclusively, as a console.
This also had the form factor of a handheld, and yet no one would argue it was
OrbitalBeard
Member
He was probably spending a lot of time on GAF.
When answering to the thread "Will the Switch be a success?"
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=228262018&postcount=912
Vegetable Lasagna
Member
That's an awesome story. Despite that the Switch's battery life is still less awesome than your story.
Huge Succeeded
Banned
#1 - I know. I just said that. :3
#2 - What's your point, anyways? My point was that the Switch's poor battery life doesn't preclude it from being a portable system or being used as a portable system. My anecdotal evidence wasn't meant to be some objective, mic-drop type shit. Just minor support for my argument.
TwistedFreeze
Member
So are the 3DS and Vita not really portable systems then? Their battery lives aren't much better
The Switch is doing well because it's gimmick is very appealing and useful to boot. It has a solid line-up of games, especially for it's first year. The marketing for the system has been on-point. The overall design and presentation for the system makes it feel like a premium product. It'd be more confusing if it wasn't successful
Jaded Alyx
Member
I didn't say otherwise, to your first point. It can function as a home console, but it is physically a handheld/portable gaming system....that can function entirely, and possibly exclusively, as a console.
This also had the form factor of a handheld, and yet no one would argue it was
I say this as someone who rarely takes the Switch out of the Dock.
Nobody argued the Gamepad was because it was literally a controller with a screen, not the game console itself.
DigitalScrap
Member
I agree, especially since it's battery life is as good as the 3DS, and I don't remember seeing anyone saying that the 3DS wasn't a portable.
Tom Nook Sawyer
Member
Sure, but my point was physically resembling a handheld doesn't preclude it from being a console, and not just having the function of one. But it really is mostly a matter of semantics
That post is pretty great in hindsight, and really helps show the risk Nintendo took, and why it isn't always so easy to predict when a product will be a success or not
No it still works because your arbitrary battery life assessment is terrible for assessing portability. A gaming Laptop is a portable Desktop PC. Just because you can't play The Witcher 3 for more than 30 minutes without plugging it in doesn't suddenly remove this fact.
Switch's concept is not even remotely abstract. Not sure why he couldn't figure it out.
Does it really matter what he thinks though? Switch could sell 100 million and still have garbage third party support just like the Wii did. I'm not gonna fall for lip service from executives. If you think the Switch is cool, announce some games or piss off.
Does it really matter what he thinks though? Switch could sell 100 million and still have garbage third party support just like the Wii did. I'm not gonna fall for lip service from executives. If you think the Switch is cool, announce some games or piss off.
It's a Nintendo handheld with Nintendo console software. I would have been more surprised if they messed it up somehow. I hope Sony or MS can one day do the same now that they have embraced tiered hardware, but I don't know how they solve the storage problem. Maybe 500GB M.2 drives will drop like crazy in the next couple of years.
IdreamofHIME
Member
Skittzo0413
Member
Above all I think the main appeal of the Switch hardware is convenience. Convenience is not always treated as the most desirable feature of a product but look at the best performing technology products- the iPhone combining your phone, mp3 player and PDA, the rise of laptops and tablets over high end desktop PCs... people will often desire convenience over power or performance.
Nintendo seemed to get this and while I'm sure the concept years ago didn't look as elegant as that presented in October, this guy clearly didn't value the convenience the Switch presents as much as he should have.
Nintendo seemed to get this and while I'm sure the concept years ago didn't look as elegant as that presented in October, this guy clearly didn't value the convenience the Switch presents as much as he should have.
Vegetable Lasagna
Member
Was someone saying it wasn't portable at all? I just don't see the need to make it sound better than it is with anecdotal stories.
It's absolutely very portable if you want to lug around another device to charge it. Still annoying.
GlitchyDegree
Banned
No one argued that the Wii U gamepad was a handheld because it was a controller that was tethered to a console that had to be plugged in....that can function entirely, and possibly exclusively, as a console.
This also had the form factor of a handheld, and yet no one would argue it was
I mean that would still diminish portability as a consideration for consumers, like what happened with gaming laptops and PC enthusiasts.
Really is a problem for Nintendo though, that they get these kinds of reactions along with the '*chuckle* oh Nintendo' sort of comment. They're marching against the preconceived notions third parties tend to have about the future of gaming and they don't do a great job convincing others of their vision, waiting to prove it (or fail to, as the case may be) with success instead.
DeuceGamer
Member
This is why I love my Switch, along with a lineup of games that really appeal to me.
Astral Dog
Member
Because you don't like it being a portable, thats a huge deal for many people, plus they nailed the marketing and design
James Scott
Banned
It's a concept that takes awhile to get used to just how good it is.
But at first glance it doesnt seem like it should be hard to understand? Console you can dock. A bit more power allocated to TV mode so it looks nice on both modes.
But at first glance it doesnt seem like it should be hard to understand? Console you can dock. A bit more power allocated to TV mode so it looks nice on both modes.
OrangeGrayBlue
Member
Funny he said that about "stretching out" switch games. I most often play on a 110" projector screen and think the games uniformly look better there than on the tablet screen. That said I'm also not the biggest graphics stickler in the first place.
Huge Succeeded
Banned
I feel ya, it hasn't been much of an annoyance for me because I carry my stuff around in a bag anyway but that's just me. But if you follow the reply chain back a couple of posts, you'll see that I was just responding to the battery life being cited as reason to consider Switch 'not so portable'. You're fixated on a totally relevant anecdote that I already declared was unimportant, one that I was just using to show how three-four hours of battery life doesn't preclude a device from being portable. I promise you I wasn't trying to 'make the Switch sound better than it is'.
Rodney McKay
Member
The Switch is like the easiest concept for a machine Nintendo has launched in over a decade, IMO.
-Gamecube wasn't hard to understand since it was just a normal console, but it had weird little discs instead of full DVDs and a controller with odd buttons, so not all third-party games played as well or looked as good as the Xbox or PS2 versions.
-DS was a handheld with two screens which was super weird to hear as a concept, but worked out very well. And it was extra confusing because Nintendo claimed at launch that it was a "third-pillar" instead of just replacing the GBA.
-Wii had one of the weirdest concepts ever with a system not much more powerful than the previous generation, and the craziest controller we've seen on a mainstream console. Motion controls? Whaaaaaat?!
-Wii U was hard to understand because a lot of people thought it was just a tablet accessory since it still used Wii Remotes, and it's not even a real tablet controller since it needs to be within 20 feet or something to stream video from the console to it.
-3DS was kinda crazy too since almost no-one had seen glasses-less 3D before this system released (I think there was a cell phone that did that a little before it came out), and it was also just as expensive as the much more powerful Vita at launch.
Switch is much simpler than any of those (maybe not the GameCube, but definitely all the others). It's a regular console, that you can take with you and play on the go. Or it's a powerful handheld that you can dock and play on your TV.
It's literally one of those or the other, and both are an easy concept to wrap your head around.
-Gamecube wasn't hard to understand since it was just a normal console, but it had weird little discs instead of full DVDs and a controller with odd buttons, so not all third-party games played as well or looked as good as the Xbox or PS2 versions.
-DS was a handheld with two screens which was super weird to hear as a concept, but worked out very well. And it was extra confusing because Nintendo claimed at launch that it was a "third-pillar" instead of just replacing the GBA.
-Wii had one of the weirdest concepts ever with a system not much more powerful than the previous generation, and the craziest controller we've seen on a mainstream console. Motion controls? Whaaaaaat?!
-Wii U was hard to understand because a lot of people thought it was just a tablet accessory since it still used Wii Remotes, and it's not even a real tablet controller since it needs to be within 20 feet or something to stream video from the console to it.
-3DS was kinda crazy too since almost no-one had seen glasses-less 3D before this system released (I think there was a cell phone that did that a little before it came out), and it was also just as expensive as the much more powerful Vita at launch.
Switch is much simpler than any of those (maybe not the GameCube, but definitely all the others). It's a regular console, that you can take with you and play on the go. Or it's a powerful handheld that you can dock and play on your TV.
It's literally one of those or the other, and both are an easy concept to wrap your head around.
Tom Nook Sawyer
Member
This.
Yep. Today was a slow day at work so I played BOTW until it was time to clock out.
SinCityAssassin
Member
Man that was a fun thing to look back to.
Foxy the Fox
Member
Isn't that bad and is comparable to the OG 3DS and way better than other handhelds like the Lynx or the game gear.
Oh, and is a handheld that can plug to your tv.
Didn't knew Söderlund had a GAF account
Sammy Samusu
Member
Switch is like "surprise bitch" to all third parties.
People need to educate themselves and look at the Switch's battery life as this is the best we can do because of current battery technology instead of calling it bad.
I've been playing video games for over 30 years. In that time, the biggest thing I've learned about Nintendo is that I just can't predict whether something new of theirs will be a success or not.
I don't know why people are giving this exec shit for not knowing, either. Think about it from their point of view. Game dev is way more expensive today than it previously was. Indies are competing for the same dollars as the big publishers. There is more competition now than ever before. And here is a new platform that is not like the others. It's not just the difference in power; it requires extra effort to develop properly for, just as Wii U did. It directly followed the Wii U, a market disappointment. Would you set your expectations low? Of course you would. That is the safer business decision. Nobody wants to repeat past mistakes.
Now that Switch seems to be a success, you will see greater support from EA and other major publishers within 1-2 years.
I don't know why people are giving this exec shit for not knowing, either. Think about it from their point of view. Game dev is way more expensive today than it previously was. Indies are competing for the same dollars as the big publishers. There is more competition now than ever before. And here is a new platform that is not like the others. It's not just the difference in power; it requires extra effort to develop properly for, just as Wii U did. It directly followed the Wii U, a market disappointment. Would you set your expectations low? Of course you would. That is the safer business decision. Nobody wants to repeat past mistakes.
Now that Switch seems to be a success, you will see greater support from EA and other major publishers within 1-2 years.
Skittzo0413
Member
There's a difference between not knowing or thinking it will be successful and being puzzled by the concept like this exec was. Most people would probably understand that companies like EA were skeptical on the commercial viability of the console after the Wii U, but what's a bit harder to understand is why the concept could be hard to grasp.
As we know it, it's a very simple concept compared to most of Nintendo's recent hardware, though I will admit it definitely depends on how they presented it years ago to EA.