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WSJ: Nintendo Offers Bright Outlook on Expectations for Switch

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
”It is surprising that Zelda is doing so well, but it also proved what we have been saying is right: A good game title will spur sales of the platform device," Mr. Kimishima said.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/iwat...one-game-away-from-reversing-fortunes/0145690

Iwata was right, it didn't save wiiu though, but it made Switch a success already. GG Iwata!

But thats true for any console really. Like some of the biggest sales the PS4 seen was from the Destiny launch or a later bundle, cant remember right now. Whether its a good game or not is debatable but games ultimately sell consoles. The Wii U saw a bump in sales when Mario Maker launched.

In the case of GTA 5, I dont even know to say at this point, lol. Last gen it sold consoles, at this point its just the default game to get when getting a PS4, XBO.
 

big_erk

Member
Disregarding the battery (that is kind of as good as it gets IMO), youtube/netflix apps will make Switch literally my most used device inside the house (too scared to always have it with me outside).

I carry my Switch with me everyday. Lunch breaks at work have never been so fun. Now granted, I carry a backpack everyday but a nice Switch case isn't that large on its own.
 

bill0527

Member
Good to see the GAF prediction was right: Switch is Dead On Arrival.

I'll be first

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+

common_raven_sim_1.jpg
 

E-phonk

Banned

We haven't even arrived at the bold part of your prediction though.

By Q4 2018 it'll most likely have it's own Pokemon (even if stars doesn't happen), Animal Crossing, MonHun 5, Dragon Quest 11, Fire Emblem etc...
It will be the de facto number one platform in Japan, and it will do well in the west.

I still go by 3DS like numbers or better, between 60-70 million LTD.
So by the end of Q4 2018 I should have outsold the gamecube LTD.
 

Kebiinu

Banned
Expect maximum damage control by the usual suspects. You know who I'm talking about.

It's already starting in this topic with PSfan and that other homeboy with his "wish list". Lol, I'm just waiting for the, "It's still too early to call the Switch a success." posts.
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
I'd say 'dead-on-arrival' crow is appropriate at this stage, but how much of a success Switch turns out to be is still a pretty uncertain question IMO. It's not yet easy to see Switch's eventual performance as separable from Zelda. We're not out of the 'Zelda-halo effect' stage, but it won't last forever - Switch will need more hit software, or general platform appeal to take over, and I'd still put myself down as unconvinced about the latter at least.
 
I'd say 'dead-on-arrival' crow is appropriate at this stage, but how much of a success Switch turns out to be is still a pretty uncertain question IMO. It's not yet easy to see Switch's eventual performance as separable from Zelda. We're not out of the 'Zelda-halo effect' stage, but it won't last forever - Switch will need more hit software, or general platform appeal to take over, and I'd still put myself down as unconvinced about the latter at least.

I think the sales of MK8 Deluxe and April's hardware sales overall will be very telling regarding this. A lot of people are sleeping on Mario Kart which is easily Nintendo's best selling franchise these days. I'm expecting that to outsell Zelda quite handily.
 

nubbe

Member
Summer will be the best sale period for Switch
Belive

Console quality while traveling is too impressive to pass on
 

Zedark

Member
I'd say 'dead-on-arrival' crow is appropriate at this stage, but how much of a success Switch turns out to be is still a pretty uncertain question IMO. It's not yet easy to see Switch's eventual performance as separable from Zelda. We're not out of the 'Zelda-halo effect' stage, but it won't last forever - Switch will need more hit software, or general platform appeal to take over, and I'd still put myself down as unconvinced about the latter at least.

I mean, MK8D is launching tomorrow, so that will do the main charge, and Zelda as support. After MK8D is the only period where I can see a slight lull, since ARMS' performance is a wildcard, but Splatoon 2 will ensure great performance once again, and after that the holidays are upon us already.

Obviously predicting a Wii type success with any semblance of certainty is a foolish thing to do, but discussing its possibility is no longer something we can just laugh at.
 

flkraven

Member
We haven't even arrived at the bold part of your prediction though.

By Q4 2018 it'll most likely have it's own Pokemon (even if stars doesn't happen), Animal Crossing, MonHun 5, Dragon Quest 11, Fire Emblem etc...
It will be the de facto number one platform in Japan, and it will do well in the west.

I still go by 3DS like numbers or better, between 60-70 million LTD.
So by the end of Q4 2018 I should have outsold the gamecube LTD.

I'm not here to make any new predictions. You just said 'crow thread', and I implied that perhaps 54 days into a consoles life span may be a little early to 'call it'. I'm not Nostradamus, so if I end up being horribly wrong I will be happy to admit it. So far, however, things are moving in roughly the direction I expected. Let's see what the rest of the year through 2018 looks like before claiming people need to eat crow.
 
Japan it looks like it's pretty locked to go the distance and challenge the 3DS and NDS in terms of hardware sales. It's a little hard to say that because it is so far out, but the starting signs are there and it has a great first year laid out ahead of it without any additional announcements.

North America I need to see an additional month or two of sales, but things are looking promising at this point considering it is still sold out and Mario Kart is about to release. It will be interesting to see if Arms and Splatoon 2 have any major impact, if they do I think you can guarantee some sort of long term success as those aren't even Nintendo's western big guns. The E3 showing will also be very telling for the west.

Europe/Rest of the World has always been Nintendo's hardest market to reach. I think price is a little prohibitive there and they need big sports titles to appeal to the market. It might find more success there after a price drop and a more solid library forms.

Overall I am expecting 80 million right now for Switch and 14 million this upcoming FY.
 

marc^o^

Nintendo's Pro Bono PR Firm
I'd say 'dead-on-arrival' crow is appropriate at this stage, but how much of a success Switch turns out to be is still a pretty uncertain question IMO. It's not yet easy to see Switch's eventual performance as separable from Zelda. We're not out of the 'Zelda-halo effect' stage, but it won't last forever - Switch will need more hit software, or general platform appeal to take over, and I'd still put myself down as unconvinced about the latter at least.
About that...

It's likely the Switch will be even more defined by Mario Kart, considering its multiplayer and universal appeal, than Zelda.

These 2 articles among others explain it well:
http://www.express.co.uk/entertainm...eluxe-REVIEW-Nintendo-Switch-games-list-Wii-U

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidt...-the-nintendo-switch-than-zelda/#48ca05265378

MK8 appears to sell more than any game that is not Zelda on amazon this year, and it's more viral than it. The out of the box 2 player multiplayer on the go will do wonders to show the game to others, the new smart steering controls will achieve to make anyone enjoy it, even non gamers.

So I think you underestimate it, look no further for more hit software. Then there's Minecraft, Arms, Street Fighter 2, NBA Playgrounds, Splatoon 2 in the next few weeks. They could all be hits on this system.
 

E-phonk

Banned
I don't think it's entirely a crow thread. Still a bit too early to tell. I think it will surpass the Cube but beyond that depends on the games.

I think people were exaggerating, cause of the price and paying for online

It's a crow thread because of the non-nuanced answers in there. "DOA", "Not a chance in hell (it'll succeed)", "lower then wii U numbers" etc...
Of course anyone who was slightly skeptic or had reasonable doubts about it's potential shouldn't be counted, but those first pages are almost entirely wrong.
 

OryoN

Member
We should laugh at ourselves. I said it would fail if I remember. Happy to be wrong.

Nope nope NOPE! What you should do is eat that uncooked, unseasoned, unplucked black bird that we have set for you and the rest of the gang. It's a crow thread now, not a laugh-at-ourselves thread. So don't even...

Y'all just wanna feign laughter, while slowly nudging the plates away, but Ima sit by the table till the last feather is gone. The only thing you'll hear me say is; "Laugh and eat, bros... laugh and eat!" :p
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
“We have done a lot of things to raise awareness about how the Switch experience can offer something new, and I am just relieved that consumers seem to have accepted it,” the company’s chief executive Tatsumi Kimishima said
Yeah I'll fucking bet you guys are. The launch had to be nail biting
 

llien

Member
We are still at the bolded section of my prediction. If you had said "But I thought Nintendo was doomed" then I would have nailed it.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=228486940&postcount=4108

Here's my prediction of how everything will go down with the Switch:

-Preorders will sell out
-It will be difficult to find for a month or two
-Every sales thread on here for the first 2 months will inevitably include snarky people posting some variation of "But I thought Nintendo was doomed?" in the same vein as those that post "but I thought console gaming was dead" in NPD threads during the first year of PS4/XB1.

-It will get some decent play on mainstream media (ie. Today show, etc), but the gaming press will largely be 'ho-hum' on it.
-Once the Nintendo hardcores get their console, sales will slow down.
-Lack of games means lack of news
-No more mainstream media since it isn't 'new'
-Pay online begins, and most multiplayer games (like the 3 that will be out) will be barren wastelands with low populations.
-Holiday 2017 rolls around. It's decent but much more in line with first year gamecube/wii u holidays. Behind the PS4, and 3rd place in NPD.

At this point, if there isn't a major shift it's all downhill. Either a massive price drop, unprecedented influx of first party games or a huge wave of third party support are the only things that possibly save it.

-Sales stagnate in 2018
-Holiday 2018 it looks much more like the Wii U and the same discussions start popping up every where (ie. Should Nintendo go 3rd party? etc etc)


Impressive. =)

I wasn't in that thread, although I would have been skeptical (despite having 2 3DSes in house for kids) and am still skeptical.

At least in my case, I do not have any plans to buy it, it is too expensive for what it is, it isn't worth it for a couple of games (for me) and I have better gadgets (both screen resolution and batter life) for media consumption.
 

marmoka

Banned
Nope nope NOPE! What you should do is eat that uncooked, unseasoned, unplucked black bird that we have set for you and the rest of the gang. It's a crow thread now, not a laugh-at-ourselves thread. So don't even...

Y'all just wanna feign laughter, while slowly nudging the plates away, but Ima sit by the table till the last feather is gone. The only thing you'll hear me say is; "Laugh and eat, bros... laugh and eat!" :p

I already had lunch. Leave that crow for dinner. Bring me a bottle of red wine btw. I like Nappa Valley wine.
 

JCX

Member
Nintendo is just making themselves more valuable so their price will be higher when Sony buys them. Only logical explanation.
 

Timbuktu

Member
RIP Iwata. This was his vision. I'm happy to see it vindicated and hope Nintendo does enough in the coming years to preserve his legacy.
 

Drackhorn

Member
I'd say 'dead-on-arrival' crow is appropriate at this stage, but how much of a success Switch turns out to be is still a pretty uncertain question IMO. It's not yet easy to see Switch's eventual performance as separable from Zelda. We're not out of the 'Zelda-halo effect' stage, but it won't last forever - Switch will need more hit software, or general platform appeal to take over, and I'd still put myself down as unconvinced about the latter at least.

This, plus they still have to implement their paid online plan. Plenty of time to see if it really has stamina.
 

marc^o^

Nintendo's Pro Bono PR Firm

PSFan

Member
RIP Iwata. This was his vision. I'm happy to see it vindicated and hope Nintendo does enough in the coming years to preserve his legacy.

Was it though? Wasn't Iwata the one who said that their next system would not be a hybrid (and we were constantly reminded of it by Neoxon)? It seems more like when he passed, Nintendo changed everything he wanted to do.
 

BD1

Banned
I am kind of worried that the OS won't get touched for a long time since it is working just fine and Nintendo is selling well. Doesn't Nintendo only change things up when things are rocky?

Hoping for customization and Netflix. I would kill for some sort of comic reader but that is laughable.

I think we will see new OS features when the paid service launches.
 

NSESN

Member
I'm not here to make any new predictions. You just said 'crow thread', and I implied that perhaps 54 days into a consoles life span may be a little early to 'call it'. I'm not Nostradamus, so if I end up being horribly wrong I will be happy to admit it. So far, however, things are moving in roughly the direction I expected. Let's see what the rest of the year through 2018 looks like before claiming people need to eat crow.
You are getting defensive for nothing. The op is obviously talking about the people claiming DOA.
 
It really goes to show you how important spacing out their releases over the year was, rather than dumping everything there on day 1. Demand will only go up during the leadups to MK8D and Splatoon 2.

yeah people saying "it's only because Zelda" don't realize the importance of MK8D.

Well advertised, ARMS can create some buzz. And Splatoon this summer will set the charts on fire. At least in Japan, don't know how it will sell in Europe or US.
 

Timbuktu

Member
Was it though? Wasn't Iwata the one who said that their next system would not be a hybrid (and we were constantly reminded of it by Neoxon)? It seems more like when he passed, Nintendo changed everything he wanted to do.

I was going by what Miyamoto said in the Time interview:

http://time.com/4668908/nintendo-switch-miyamoto-interview/

Time: Is there anything in particular about Switch that reflects Satoru Iwata's involvement? [Iwata was Nintendo's president from 2002 to 2015, and passed away in July 2015.]

Miyamoto: I mentioned that Mr. Iwata, Mr. Takeda and myself provided feedback and made decisions, but ultimately Mr. Iwata was the head of development, so he put a lot of thought and time into Switch. I think that the idea of Nintendo Switch being a device you can take out and anywhere, and the idea of it being a system that really allows networking and communicating with people, I think that's something Mr. Iwata put a lot of emphasis on.

Because Mr. Iwata was tech-savvy, a lot of our discussion involved trying to figure out how to make the technical things like network capabilities or servers or whatever fun. For example, think about when we added the ability to use a browser on the DS [Nintendo's two-screen gaming handheld—the browser was added to North American systems in 2007]. As time goes on, all of these services become more and more advanced, and so we need to think about "How do we incorporate mobile devices or new browser features that come up?" That's something Mr. Iwata and I discussed a lot, really trying to decide what to do and what not to do in our hardware.
 

ggx2ac

Member
Was it though? Wasn't Iwata the one who said that their next system would not be a hybrid (and we were constantly reminded of it by Neoxon)? It seems more like when he passed, Nintendo changed everything he wanted to do.

I'm surprised I have to bring this back long after the NX speculation threads were done.

This post goes through explaining how Iwata was trying to explain to investors what integrating the architecture of their software meant so that they wouldn't be confused by merging physical hardware. He never said there wouldn't be a hybrid.

Further along, that post also goes about the family of devices stuff etc.

Then in this post Iwata said this:

Since we are always thinking about how to create a new platform that will be accepted by as many people around the world as possible, we would like to offer to them "a dedicated video game platform with a brand new concept" by taking into consideration various factors, including the playing environments that differ by country. This is all that I can confirm today.

That definitely sounds like the Switch to me, a hybrid that was made to appeal to the handheld users in Japan and the stationary console users in the west.
 
yeah people saying "it's only because Zelda" don't realize the importance of MK8D.

Well advertised, ARMS can create some buzz. And Splatoon this summer will set the charts on fire. At least in Japan, don't know how it will sell in Europe or US.

I think ARMS will sell fairly well but I don't think it will create the same type of hardware demand that MK8D and Splatoon 2 will. Maybe it'll be able to capitalize on the post-E3 buzz though.
 
Good to see the GAF prediction was right: Switch is Dead On Arrival.
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I didn't think the Switch was going to be a Wii U-like failure, but it certainly has exceeded my expectations in terms of sales. I will probably end up picking one up later this year once Mario releases and those sweet holiday bundles come out.
 
It's not yet easy to see Switch's eventual performance as separable from Zelda. We're not out of the 'Zelda-halo effect' stage, but it won't last forever - Switch will need more hit software, or general platform appeal to take over, and I'd still put myself down as unconvinced about the latter at least.

You'll have your answer in about a week.

Anecdotally, I've seen more advertisements for Mario Kart, Arms, and Splatoon than for Zelda.

Zelda may be the title that's driving sales, but it's not the only title Nintendo is using to drive interest.
 
I'd say 'dead-on-arrival' crow is appropriate at this stage, but how much of a success Switch turns out to be is still a pretty uncertain question IMO. It's not yet easy to see Switch's eventual performance as separable from Zelda. We're not out of the 'Zelda-halo effect' stage, but it won't last forever - Switch will need more hit software, or general platform appeal to take over, and I'd still put myself down as unconvinced about the latter at least.

I've been saying for awhile that we'll have a pretty good indication of Switch's mid-term success at the end of May. Possibly earlier depending on how well MK8D sells at launch.
 
I've been saying for awhile that we'll have a pretty of indicator of Switch's mid-term success at the end of May. Possibly earlier depending on how well MK8D sells at launch.

For me, there are two questions:

1) As Nintendo increases shipments, will the system's sales climb with the shipments? If so, then it seems to be a sustainable hit.

2) As Nintendo releases new hit titles, will those titles have a strong attach rate against new system sales? If so, then they seem to have a sustainable software pipeline.

MK8D's launch should answer at least one of those two questions (I'm not sure how many systems Nintendo will ship for its launch).
 
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