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EA's VP Söderlund on the Switch: "...didnt get the concept, I was puzzled by it..."
- Thread starter Malakai
- Start date
Imagine what will happen once Pokémon Gen 8 comes out.
Ruud_Luiten
Member
He probably also doesnt know how to play Sonic.
Refreshment.01
Member
It seems i faired a little better than him 5 years ago XD:
http://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=36197188
Not saying im wright or wrong. It's just a very plausible scenario, backed with a real life example (Japan) and consumer trends, that they should consider rather now than later as it gives then the chance to innovate with a product different from the competition. That is if Nintendo decided to use a portable/home console hybrid.
Take the time to read carefully, im not talking in absolutes. As explained above there are patterns in the consumer behavior that Nintendo should pay attention. What i suggested is that maybe 5 years from know there could be a market decline for consoles not their extinction. So there's a chance for Nintendo to innovate differentiate themselves with that hypothetical product i proposed.
Yet a significant amount of people believe Wii U was Nintendo reacting to the increasing tablet popularity when the screen in a controller was been conceptualized before the Wii release and had a precedent with the DS.
It is going to be a fucking massacre...
zenspider
Member
From a business perspective I guess where it fits in the industry, especially with the narrative that Switch is a console first, plus what becomes of the handheld market.
I find the playing MK with his plus story kind of heart warming, but it boggles my mind that nobody outside of Nintendo R&D had the imagination to see that exact use case from the inital pitch.
R&D folks aren't the marketing team. His[Söderlund's] kid with Mario Kart 8 isn't something the R&D would be thinking about while showing off at prototype Switch.
NippleViking
Banned
Not super surprising. When LKD/Eurogamer/Emily Rogers came out about the NX being a dockable handheld, with removable controllers and cartridges, a lot of the internet were left scratching their heads.
Just scroll through this thread for example
Just scroll through this thread for example
I think one important factor was that even though the concept of the Switch is largely the same as the Wii U, the 'gamepad' is actually not tethered to the hardware anymore. I mean the Wii U controller HAD to function with the Wii U console. Now its literally free from the TV and people like that. I used to have the Wii U in the lounge but couldn't bring it into the bedroom because it was too far. I bet people really dig that sort of thing.
Every console that Nintendo makes usually gets a lot of positive hype to begin with. Even the Wii U, while there was a bit of confused reaction towards it, it was still met with a lot of faith in Nintendo that they knew what they were doing, especially coming after the Wii.
Whether it has staying power ultimately depends on a mix of first and third parties, which Sony gets right most of the time.
Every console that Nintendo makes usually gets a lot of positive hype to begin with. Even the Wii U, while there was a bit of confused reaction towards it, it was still met with a lot of faith in Nintendo that they knew what they were doing, especially coming after the Wii.
Whether it has staying power ultimately depends on a mix of first and third parties, which Sony gets right most of the time.
Cuningas de Häme
Member
This thread is full of people who still doesn't get what the Switch is. Söderlund was in the same position when Nintendo showed the concept years ago.
Is it a handheld? A console that you take with you? It's neither and both. It fits like a glove in this hectic lifestyle of ours.
And his point about his son is great. Kids take more easily new concepts and utilize them. Be it new ways of playing or anything. Your average gaffer will scream and resist every lastbit of his puny soul if you introduce something actually new to him.
You should know GAF by now...
For me it is a console that you can take on the go, too. But I never had handheld systems, so that view is more natural for me. People who used handhelds in the past will think other way more easily, I think.
You need to remember that Söderlund is, after all, a Swedish. He might very well choose some words poorly.
He has been pretty honest with his statements, and you must remember that even though he might like the Switch and/or Nintendo, he must think from to corporate prespective. Switch doesn't exactly fit in the EA's modern game portfolio.
And he is the founder of the company that made the first Battlefield, until DICE bought them. So he's a good guy.
Just chill a little, damn it.
Bruce Springsteen
Member
The Wii U was definitely a sad attempt of carrying over the 3DS success over to home console. Don't know how Nintendo could've been so inept to not realize that looking from the TV screen down to your handheld screen was never going to work. I give it to Nintendo this time for not overthinking the gimmick of the portable home console
I wouldn't be a bitter underachieving man-child arguing with strangers in a gaming forum if I made fking Battlefield haha.Didn't knew Söderlund had a GAF account
How can we criticize him if we don't know exactly what he was shown? I doubt it was as sleek as the final product.
As for dual screens, the WiiU was bad because the screens were so far from each other. On DS and 3DS, having the screens close to each to each other is amazing and I hope Nintendo goes back to that someday. I'm really gonna miss dual screens.
As for dual screens, the WiiU was bad because the screens were so far from each other. On DS and 3DS, having the screens close to each to each other is amazing and I hope Nintendo goes back to that someday. I'm really gonna miss dual screens.
Man, that thread was something to look back at.
Hell, even I had little faith in the hybrid. Gladly eaten my crow by this point though.
lwilliams3
Member
Nintendo just tried to do too much with the Wii U.
Is it a HD console that competes with the other companies?
Is it a media machine (Netflix, Hulu, brower, etc)?
Is it portable?
Is it BC with the Wii that is compatible to all of Wii's accessories?
Is it the successor to the Wii?
Is it something different?
Nintendo attempted to answer "yes" to all of those questions with the Wii U, and it ended up as an unfocused product that answered those previous questions in half-ass ways expect for it being BC compatible to the Wii's hardware and software.
As the Switch, Nintendo gave up on it being BC with the previous systems and stripped any media center apps from the launch window. They didn't customize the Tegra chipset (that reduced cost and speeded up development) and focused on improving software development tools. The primary focus was for the system to be a real portable console, and they nailed the marketing of that.
This post literally made me lol.
Spyder_Monkey
Banned
Oh come on, it hasn't even been a year yet an there's already revisionism going on.
I feel we all saw that Nintendo had the right idea with moving to a shared catalogue. Hybrid was always the most elegant application of that approach; we just had it off the table a good while in NX speculation threads. When we figured out that that was what NX was, personally, I was relieved: No more staggered launch (so Japan/West could be hit at same time); cross-compatibility in one box to act as a hook INTO the ecosystem rather than a weaker among between elements of the ecosystem.
(But this still operates on a handheld/stationary binary, when the Switch can operate in those paradigms but also as a hybrid, which has unclear market potential.)
In concept, Switch is the device Nintendo needed to make imo. It's a further question whether that device does well or Nintendo executes that concept well. So far it is doing the former and I think they did quite well wrt the latter and are providing the sort of software they need to prove it in the first year.
I think it's hard not to get the concept on a "it's both, to appeal to diverging markets level!" It is also not hard to get "you can continue playing at home/away!" but it is perhaps hard to gauge how much that hybrid functionality will be appreciated and how well equipped Switch is to execute it. It's sales potential was probably pretty murky.
(But this still operates on a handheld/stationary binary, when the Switch can operate in those paradigms but also as a hybrid, which has unclear market potential.)
In concept, Switch is the device Nintendo needed to make imo. It's a further question whether that device does well or Nintendo executes that concept well. So far it is doing the former and I think they did quite well wrt the latter and are providing the sort of software they need to prove it in the first year.
I think it's hard not to get the concept on a "it's both, to appeal to diverging markets level!" It is also not hard to get "you can continue playing at home/away!" but it is perhaps hard to gauge how much that hybrid functionality will be appreciated and how well equipped Switch is to execute it. It's sales potential was probably pretty murky.
neurosisxeno
Member
I understand the concept. But I'll never understand the appeal.
He very likely doesn't play video games much, at most a couple of phone games. It's not surprising that he didn't see the appeal of the Switch.
If you try telling me that this some place is excellent for dating, I would just be as puzzled as he was, and ask you what this "dating" thing is.
If you try telling me that this some place is excellent for dating, I would just be as puzzled as he was, and ask you what this "dating" thing is.
SinCityAssassin
Member
neurosisxeno
Member
I apparently have less interest in the ability to game everywhere than most people on GAF. It's cool that the system fills a role for those people, but I just don't see the appeal. If I'm going to play games It's either 5-10 minutes on my phone while waiting for dinner or something, or sitting at my PC or TV/PS4 for some focused time gaming. From what I've seen the Switch thrives for people who spend a lot of time in public transit or are traveling a lot. I do neither, so it's not really for me.
James Scott
Banned
It's super convenient and really slick.
If I want to boot up Breath of the Wild I just take it out of the dock and in 10 seconds I'm on the main menu.
If I want to stop playing for a bit I can press power and it goes to sleep mode. From there it takes almost no time at all to continue a play session.
It's also always fully charged for me since I put it on the dock when i'm not using it. Pretty big difference from something like 3DS which is usually dead when I want to use it recently.
Just a lot of tiny things that make it a pleasure to play.
I have used my Switch maybe once outside. It's the convenience which makes me want to play as many games as possible on Switch instead of elsewhere.
SinCityAssassin
Member
It's more like the inbetween, you got half an hour to burn somewhere? Play the Switch. You feel like playing but you don't feel like turning on the television and you don't want to leave your space. You can use the Switch. It's a use case thing that somehow resists the problem Vita had by providing actual console level gaming on the go. And there's also the thing where you can just plug it in as a normal console.
For instance my Switch and PS4 are situated in the living room, and more than often someone is using the TV. It's much more of a boon for me to just take the switch out of the dock than to just wait till night time to turn either it or the PS4 on for a focused game session.
neurosisxeno
Member
Another situation I don't particularly run into. I have my own TV in my room for my PS4, so I'm rarely if ever sharing a TV with someone. I suppose for people with families or significant others that want to use them it's a huge convenience factor. Never been something I've had to worry about though.
DecoReturns
Member
The story about his son is pretty adorable.
Utter chaos and stock shortages.
ZombiePlatypus
Member
A hybrid platform with built in multiplayer outta the box.
It's one thing to see some people online miss the point and try and arbitrarily shove it in a purely "handheld/home console" box. To see a higher up from the same industry struggle to understand such a basic concept though is frankly insane. How do people like this function in their position? Makes me wonder how many neat ideas/projects they blocked due to their sensibilities.
It's one thing to see some people online miss the point and try and arbitrarily shove it in a purely "handheld/home console" box. To see a higher up from the same industry struggle to understand such a basic concept though is frankly insane. How do people like this function in their position? Makes me wonder how many neat ideas/projects they blocked due to their sensibilities.
ZombiePlatypus
Member
I guess to a person like this, any platform presented without a whole song and dance about gflops automatically = an alien enigma.
This was it's main selling point for me, I bought that with Bomberman and puyo Tetris and put it to the test with so friends and we had a blast, one of them even decided to not a switch for him.
Yup.
TLZ
Banned
He's probably on about the 2 tiny joycon multiplayer on the 6 inch.
ArtHands
Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
Thats not true. Where were you when we have countless pages of negative Switch threads after it got announced earlier this year?
added_time
Member
It's weird that someone in the games industry would not understand something so obvious.
Let's hope Nintendo doesn't plunge into NON-EXIST-ENCE :^)
on topic, I don't see what's so hard to grasp about the switch. Maybe they didn't explain it very well. I think what's important is that it's a Nintendo console with a button layout like the other consoles. The WiiU seemed to encourage the touchscreen, but the switch doesn't, so we finally get another Nintendo console with a "regular" controller, without sacrificing the fun Nintendo gimmicks.
If I was a high level exec, this community would make me never want to open my mouth. God forbid a guy gives you some honest inside information about a concept he heard about years before it was realized.
The typical person would go, "Wow, that is a fascinating inside look." But don't worry, here comes all the gaffer keyboard CEOs to tell you how much of an idiot you are.
The typical person would go, "Wow, that is a fascinating inside look." But don't worry, here comes all the gaffer keyboard CEOs to tell you how much of an idiot you are.
Lets be honest...the Switch could have been the most exciting/interesting new hardware concept the guy had ever seen but it still wouldnt have amounted to more support than we have now.
Its a Nintendo console after the WiiU at the end....greenlighting everything else except Fifa for year 1 would probably make you the laughing stock in that company.
At least they seem to be willing to improve their support if the games/plattform supports accordingly.
I still think that Sims 4 on Switch could have been big....especially in November where there is....as of now...nog big Switch first party releases planned. Weird that they didnt try it.
Its a Nintendo console after the WiiU at the end....greenlighting everything else except Fifa for year 1 would probably make you the laughing stock in that company.
At least they seem to be willing to improve their support if the games/plattform supports accordingly.
I still think that Sims 4 on Switch could have been big....especially in November where there is....as of now...nog big Switch first party releases planned. Weird that they didnt try it.
Someone will post a photo of a table with 25 Switches, I guess?
Switch is pretty gosh darn easy to understand.
It's a console, but it's also a handheld
It's a handheld, but it's also a console
It's one controller, but it's also two
It's two controllers, but it's also one
It's light, but it's also shadow
It's water, but it also has the properties of metal
It exists in the future, but also in the past
It's here in the human world, but also in the Baba Yaga's dream recreation of Russia, in the thrice-nine lands of the thrice-tenth kingdom
It's exceedingly simple, Mr. EA.
It's a console, but it's also a handheld
It's a handheld, but it's also a console
It's one controller, but it's also two
It's two controllers, but it's also one
It's light, but it's also shadow
It's water, but it also has the properties of metal
It exists in the future, but also in the past
It's here in the human world, but also in the Baba Yaga's dream recreation of Russia, in the thrice-nine lands of the thrice-tenth kingdom
It's exceedingly simple, Mr. EA.
AcademicSaucer
Member
I think the people at EA understood how it works, they didn't understand how it was going to be successful coming from the Wii U