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The Nintendo Thread of Existential Doom

I mean, this is the same company that just showed a literal tech demo/interactive instruction booklet for their console and painstakingly explained that it was not a free title
 
Digital vs. physical? Is Nintendo finally going to make good on the promise of digital being cheaper because physical requires transportation, logistics, materials, etc.?
 
otakujeb said:
I mean, this is the same company that just showed a literal tech demo/interactive instruction booklet for their console and painstakingly explained that it was not a free title
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Truth.

It kinda feels like maybe the runaway success of the Switch 1 (150 million sold and still going) has given Nintendo an extremely inflated head.
 
Ya'll really burying the lede here:
How the fuck does Greg Kasavin look like he hasn't aged a day in the last 20 years? I swear he could have posted that Hades video on Gamespot yesterday.

Announcement of the show for me was Path of Radiance no longer being exclusive to the 5 richest kings of Europe. Couldn't be more glad that my copy will presumably lose value on the secondary market if it means more people get to play it. Sad that this makes a PoR/RD duology remaster/port less likely, though, and I've been wanting that for ages. Not the Fire Emblem announcement I was hoping for from this Direct, but I guess I'll take it.
 
Phantoon said:
Well I've preordered
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Are preorders actually up?

4-So said:
Digital vs. physical? Is Nintendo finally going to make good on the promise of digital being cheaper because physical requires transportation, logistics, materials, etc.?
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Blergmeister said:
Yeah, maybe the price reflects tarrifs after cards are printed in Mexico??
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That's a good a guess as any. But if this is being used as a loss-leader to convince people to go full-digital, then don't expect it to be a thing forever. There will always be a rug pull.
 
How uncommon/expensive are the microSD express cards they kept talking about, btw? For all I know, I have one, but I have purposely avoided learning anything about the billion different microSD card versions for years.
 
I haven’t seen the Direct, but from little I’ve read here and elsewhere I believe we are approaching PS3 Launch Sony levels of hubris from Nintendo.
 
The price is rough, but I was kind of expecting bad news on that front. I'll probably buy a Switch 2 at launch, because I know I'm getting one eventually and I don't expect to see any significant price reduction over the console's lifespan (heck, the PS5 actually got MORE expensive post-launch in most countries). That said, I'm curious how much fat there is on the launch price and whether they could realistically drop it to $399 USD at some point down the line. If demand is soft, do they have the ability to bring the price down without going too far into the red? Only Nintendo knows the answer to that, I guess.

Games also look to be getting more expensive, with DK Bananza starting at $70USD and Mario Kart costing a cool $80USD. Again, it sucks, but it doesn't come as much of a surprise. The extra fee to have a (blank?) physical game card is kind of a kick in the teeth, though.

But what really bums me out is that there was no mention of a new 3D Mario game. And with the launch of DK Bananza in July, they probably won't want to release a Mario game in the same genre for a good while afterwards. So are we looking at a 2026 launch, then? I enjoy Mario Kart as much as the next person, and the open-world iteration might be a fun twist on the formula, but Mario was the main thing I was hoping for from this Direct. And I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my expensive Switch 2 once I've had my fill of racing around the Mushroom Kingdom...
 
otakujeb said:
Called it

I wonder if this is replacing the Physical Box With A Download Code Inside games, at least
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I prefer this over box + a sheet of paper with a key. That way I could lend out the game card to my nephews or whoever. I'd much prefer the full game on the card, though.
 
otakujeb said:
Called it

I wonder if this is replacing the Physical Box With A Download Code Inside games, at least
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This, basically. And not all games will be like that. I think the Bravely Default remaster (or whatever it is) is one of the examples. It clearly shows on the packaging when a game card is just blank and will require a download, so I guess that's something.

MCBanjoMike said:
But what really bums me out is that there was no mention of a new 3D Mario game. And with the launch of DK Bananza in July, they probably won't want to release a Mario game in the same genre for a good while afterwards. So are we looking at a 2026 launch, then? I enjoy Mario Kart as much as the next person, and the open-world iteration might be a fun twist on the formula, but Mario was the main thing I was hoping for from this Direct. And I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my expensive Switch 2 once I've had my fill of racing around the Mushroom Kingdom...
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It's the 40th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. this year; I would not rule out a new 3D Mario game. I'd be very surprised if Nintendo didn't have more Mario up its sleeve in a late-year Direct.
 
Switch 2 upgrades for Odyssey and Wonder with some fun additions should be the bare minimum for SMB's 40th, hopefully they also have something more interesting in store.
 
Kazin said:
How uncommon/expensive are the microSD express cards they kept talking about, btw? For all I know, I have one, but I have purposely avoided learning anything about the billion different microSD card versions for years.
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I was able to find a 1TB microSD express card for $200, as opposed to microSD non-Express for $100; same vendor, same brand.

Having said that, microSD cards go on sale pretty often. All told, the Express cards do appear to be a fair more pricey.
 
Ugh, okay, thanks. Further evidence I'll be waiting on Switch 2 (which is fine - the only game I'm really interested in at the moment is Pokemon Legends Z-A, and that will be getting a Switch 1 version, so I'm fine there).
 
I successfully guessed that Masahiro Sakurai had been hired by Hal, but I did not venture to guess that he was working on a sequel to Kirby Air Ride.
 
R.R. Bigman said:
I haven’t seen the Direct, but from little I’ve read here and elsewhere I believe we are approaching PS3 Launch Sony levels of hubris from Nintendo.
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That's interesting. I caught a lot of the direct and I came out of it thinking that Nintendo had a good launch lined up. If the issue is the price, I think that's largely due to inflation and tariffs. Otherwise, it seems like good hardware with a lot of features and 3rd party support. Elden Ring and the new From game are nice bonuses too. Were there other issues?
 
otakujeb said:
Lol Nintendo, wtf

But it's $50 as a pack-in? How does that make sense
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To boost sales of the pack-in version. "Ohh, I'll get a deal." It's digital so there's no production overhead for the pack-in copies.

The launch lineup looks pretty solid to me. Elden Ring is going to get a LOT of people on board.
 
Patrick said:
That's interesting. I caught a lot of the direct and I came out of it thinking that Nintendo had a good launch lined up. If the issue is the price, I think that's largely due to inflation and tariffs. Otherwise, it seems like good hardware with a lot of features and 3rd party support. Elden Ring and the new From game are nice bonuses too. Were there other issues?
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I'm not SURPRISED it's $449, and compared to buying it separate $499 with MK World is not bad. I think there's a bit of sticker shock at games being priced up to $80 though, and a bit of mixed news (such as the empty "dongle" carts) trickling out post-Direct that is tampering the excitement down a little.
 
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Yeah, sticker shock is real. And I'm not trying to say it is not expensive - just that prices going up are at least partly outside of Nintendo's control.
 
256 GB internal storage was legitimately one of the more exciting things to come out of this, feature-wise. For the kind of usage I'll probably have for the system, that'll be fairly sizable compared to the paltry 32 GB that was the previous default.
 
Considering how few companies prioritize small file sizes (looking at you, Square Enix and your FF7 Remake announcement), that 256 GB will probably get eaten up fast (though, yes, it will depend on the games you typically play on it, which may be small).
 
That's why I qualified, yeah. Not my "main" system, have no problem deleting things once I'm done with them (like with every other platform, really), the exclusives that I have to play on the thing will probably be comparatively smaller given Nintendo's design directions and preferences.
 
BotW and TotK Switch 2 Edition upgrades are free for NSO Expansion Pack subs, and it's confirmed that you can still play the regular versions of upgraded titles on S1
 
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