The money making machine Nintendo have with the Switch is incredible, and I do not think they expected anything like this. Gamers may recall that the US launch practically asked fans to take it easy on them wrt things like joycon drift as it was make or break time for the company after the mess of the Wii U.
But it paid off, and if they manage to carry this momentum over a generational transition it will be very hard to see how anyone is going to displace their position, especially with the younger end of the audience, though it seems likely most of their revenue is with the older crowds.
Older crowd checking in, yea, I like my Switch alot and bought plenty of games on it. Mainly because most Nintendo games are not: only play this game for 5 hours a day, multiplayer only live service hell. I fired up Super Mario Odyssey over 20 hours total, played entire game, beat the boss and thought "I had a good time and it's over, moving on."
I am a little jealous of my friends with switches. They seem to "just work" 99% of the time.
What paid off for Nintendo was a willingness to bet on games and take risks on changing up their strategy.
Other gaming experiences, ironically, lack the playfulness of the Switch. The design language and marketing has been on point.
They are 7 years deep though and the suspected new console will have big shoes to fill. How can they farm revenue while not offending their current customers?
Backwards compatibility with the cartridges and transferring the digital downloads seamlessly would go a long way towards making most other owners and me happier about upgrading/replacing my Switch. I have only two pain points with Switch which I believe everyone has - the web/store is incredibly sluggish no matter your internet connection, and all official Nintendo controllers will eventually drift in the joysticks because they cheaped out on the construction.
>official Nintendo controllers will eventually drift in the joysticks because they cheaped out on the construction.
Oh for the days of nintendium. I got upset playing Sonic Advance 2 when I was little and overhand-hurled my GBA down an entire flight of stairs onto tile, ran down, picked it up then ran to the next door to throw it down the basement stairs to a concrete floor.
I was suddenly overcome with regret and ran to check my precious device. One small (4mm) stress fracture that did not change the surface of the plastic.
Their parental control system is not too good either. For a box with multiple users (some kids, some adults), its almost all or nothing in terms of game access. Tough to sub-list when the main page is all the games unfiltered. If they could somehow fix that it would be good.
> I am a little jealous of my friends with switches. They seem to "just work" 99% of the time.
I don't know what our household's problem is then. We've had nothing but problems with joycon connections across three devices. Repeatedly one of the two controllers would fail to pair with the switches despite being physically docked. I've got to the point where I told my girls I'm not trying to help fix it anymore and they should play games on one of the many other options they have. Mostly they play games on PC now.
If you're willing to give them a shot, 8bitdo makes wireless controllers that are Switch and PC (+ Apple and Android) compatible that work way better than the official Nintendo ones. I've never seen any weird connection behavior in contrast to our joycons and pro-controller, not even counting the tweezer surgery I had to do to replace Nintendo's drifty sticks.
Switch hits the couch coop spot for casuals. I got converted by couple friend playing Luigi Mansion and I've converted a few others. People otherwise not interested in gaming / console gaming. It's just a nice way to pass time every once in a while, pretty cheap relative to other couple activities.
> People otherwise not interested in gaming / console gaming.
I bought my mother a Switch and a copy of Animal Crossing when it came out, early in lockdown. She had never played a video game before, but was looking for some new hobbies other than watching the news and getting depressed. She played it daily for years. It gave her something positive to do, she got to play online with my kids and my sister's kids... it was by far the best purchase I've ever made.
And they essentially abandoned it less than two years after release. (2020/03/20 - last content update/v2.0.0 2021/11/05) Regardless of whether it was dedication to the next version, they still left a shitload of money on the table when they could've added a little content and kept attracting new players.
Nintendo reinvigorated my love for their games since playing Super Mario Maker on Wii U, so much so that I bought a Switch when they released Super Mario Maker 2. Only to be infuriated with the decision to put half of the game behind their paid Nintendo Online service.
One thing to add a paid service to a game but to put features that were in the original game behind the service as well is not OK with me. Very similar to split screen multiplayer mode lacking in games these days. Now, if you want to play with a friend, well you need internet, you need another console, you need another game and you are more than likely not even playing in the same house let alone same room.
But it paid off, and if they manage to carry this momentum over a generational transition it will be very hard to see how anyone is going to displace their position, especially with the younger end of the audience, though it seems likely most of their revenue is with the older crowds.
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