How accurate were your initial impressions of the Switch?

[oni-link]

Did you think it would succeed or fail? Did it do better than you expected or did it do worse?

Did you think it would put Nintendo back on track or was it the final nail in their coffin?

It's a shame we can't really link to our old posts as that discussion took place elsewhere

For me, I was cautiously optimistic. I thought it looked great but also thought it could struggle as an under powered system fighting cheaper and more convenient mobile gaming on one front and more powerful and established console gaming on the other

I thought the one thing that boded well was the dropping of controller gimmicks for a console gimmick. The Wii and Wii U were great systems but pointer controls were limited and the appeal fast started to wain, and the gamepad and second screen gaming just wasn't a good idea in 95% of situations

Dropping the need to make games that forced a specific feature into the gameplay for a system that was able to play standard games well, but portability, was something that would resonate with the hardcore and those who love handheld gaming. I just worried that they would trip themselves up by not making it clear it was a hybrid system by also pushing the 3DS, which they have kind of done, but it's not actually been that much of an issue. I think it's unlikely at this stage we will see a 3DS Successor

Overall I thought it would do better than the Wii U, but I didn't expect it to do as well as it has

What about you, ERA, how accurate were your initial impressions of the Switch?

 

[Sylverstone]

A home console/handheld hybrid was really one of my dreams for a future Nintendo generation... though after the Wii U era, there was some cautious optimism at first.

But after I got my hands on it at the NYC preview event, I just knew that the Switch was gonna be the hottest item of 2017. And it totally was.

 

[JCW]

It's more or less exactly what I wanted so I was pretty happy with it (I was expecting attached controls instead of the Joycons but this is better). Still am.

 

[Deleted member 442]

I was wrong.

I figured it would be a damp launch though for some reason I expected 1 2 Switch to become a dumb meme and become popular.

I didn't figure on Odyssey coming out in the same year as BOTW.

I was going to wait until the first hardware revision or a price cut. I didn't.

 

[Epilexia]

I wasn't as optimistic concerning its indie catalogue, seeing the Wii U precedent. So I bought the console as an alternative to Steam, giving that my main interest in the current video game scene are indie games. But finally, Nintendo nailed it curating a rich and varied catalogue of indies games. So now with a few exceptions, I rarely use Steam anymore.

 

[Deleted member 8196]

I bought a NSW on March i own 4 games since then.

BOTW - Too boring and i didn't finished yet
Sonic Mania - Very good game
Super Mario Odyssey - Close to perfection 9/10
Mario Kingdom Battle - Good game

I had basically 0 faith in the console, after the Wii U flop, ye i bought a Wii U day one :(
Now Nintendo is doing a good job, the console is popular, a lot of games and support from 3rd parties and indie devs.

 

[Deleted member 1759]

Honestly thought that it would fail. But I may be biased in that regard because I really don't care about handhelds/portable gaming.

 

[Inuhanyou]

I was half right. Its a nintendo hardware positioned as a viable handheld in Japan. its gonna do gangbusters and i was right. I was caught off guard by the western success it has had.

 

[Deleted member 8197]

I expected it to bomb, and I didn't expect the people who did buy one to never shut up about how amazing it is to the extent that they do.

 

[Deleted member 8784]

I thought it looked great, and immediately more desirable than the WiiU, but I thought it would trip up due to the high price. Fortunately it's been a great success despite it, and it's a cracking little thing.

 

[Haruka]

I definitely didn't expect it to succeed as much as it did especially with its price but I didn't expect it to fail either.
I never thought Nintendo would go third party or the NW would be that horrible. I think having a great design and introducing the system the right way were they key to NW success
Also we had a Zelda and a Mario in the first year and we haven't seen Zelda since the Wii. It practically took the Vita's place for Indie games also I think the WIIU deserves some credit for this major success as well. word of mouth was a key factor too.

 

[Forkball]

I was interested in it from day one but I wasn't sure if the gimmick would appeal to the masses. I was really let down by the January presentation and brushed off early sales as being typical of a new console release (people did line up for Wii U's believe it or not). It wasn't until I got my hands on it that I realized the appeal. And Zelda was just that good.

 

[Mcjmetroid]

Never thought it would do this well but knew it would do better than the WiiU. I didn't expect it to almost eclipse the Wii though, we'll see.

There was a lot of negativity at the beginning with storage space, and graphics etc. It didn't end up harming it. Fact is for what they do Nintendo don't really have any competition.

I eventually caves and bought it after reviews of Super Mario Odyssey. If that game didn't review well I'd still not have it I'd say.

 

[pagrab]

I was absolutely positive it will fail (because of the high price and small selection of games).

 

[D.Lo]

Did you think it would succeed or fail? Did it do better than you expected or did it do worse?

Did you think it would put Nintendo back on track or was it the final nail in their coffin?

Click to shrink...

Jan 13, 2017
"Yes [I think it will be a success] - correct
"It's not really a console but the start of an ecosystem. It's the Nintendo iPhone 1." - yet to be seen
"The initial model will sell 20-40 million." - very likely far too low now

April 30 2017
"And I think if they can ramp up production it will easily surpass the Wii U total within months" - correct

 

[Molemitts]

I thought is was a really good idea with a good name and good marketing which actually gets the idea across which was a huge improvement from what Nintendo had been doing before. I thought is would do well but I didn't expect the sudden great success it has now.

 

[Clefargle]

I expected it to bomb, and I didn't expect the people who did buy one to never shut up about how amazing it is to the extent that they do.

Click to shrink...

Haha, the salt is real.

 

[Deleted member 9584]

I did not think it's be as successful as it was. I figured it'd be another console full of first party games and VC (which I'm sad we didn't get yet) and what we got was the opposite. A system that third parties (i count indie because why wouldn't I?) have taken over and found a lot of success. I figured his would've fallen somewhere around the N64 in the end and it seems to be in line to surpass that.

 

[mutantmagnet]

I expected wii level success around the time I noticed search results exceeded Wii searches aligned to similar pre launch time frame.

Right now the Switch is poised to even outperform Wii but it will depend on labos long term health and Pokemon coming out this year and not underperforming.

 

[Alwayscrazybacon]

I thought it would do well, but it's done amazing.

 

[hanmik]

I thought it would burn out faster then the Battery in the Switch..

guess I was wrong..

 

[KORNdog]

it's still too early to say for me. my theory was it would sell better than the Wii-U (not that difficult), but wouldn't sell amazingly well overall. i was right about the former (it's at about 15 million worldwide now isn't it?), and while early sales have been really strong, i gotta wait and see how things go a few years from now to really to see how close i was in my initial prediction (30-50 million all said and done)

for the record, i still think third party will dry up/fail to even start in most cases and their first party will end up spread too thin. i also think the sales will ultimately hit a wall and slow substantially, i simply don't think there are enough nintendo fans out there to sustain it.

either way it's not going to hit wii numbers, i stand by that. it lacks that new, never before seen novelty factor that appealed to 3 year olds and 90 year olds alike. that's ultimately why the wii sold as many units as it did...because moms and grans were buying it...moms/grans aren't buying the switch and never will.

 

[DrDeckard]

I knew it was going to fly, and man it has soared. So good to have Nintendo back on top form.

I wouldn't want to be questioning it's success when Pokemon hasn't launched, or Smash or animal crossing or...the list goes on and on!

 

[oni-link]

I expected wii level success around the time I noticed search results exceeded Wii searches aligned to similar pre launch time frame.

Right now the Switch is poised to even outperform Wii but it will depend on labos long term health and Pokemon coming out this year and not underperforming.

Click to shrink...

You think it could sell more than 100m units in it's lifetime?

That would put it 2nd to the PS2 in all time sales (unless the PS4 also breaks 100m)

 

[McNum]

I thought it would be big. But I didn't think it would be "Sells faster than the Wii" big. I was optimistic, and yet managed to underestimate it.

Honestly, I just got mine for Zelda and Fire Emblem.

 

[mocolostrocolos]

I was wrong since I didn't think ir would be this successful, but I saw it was going to be a hit.

 

[Deleted member 31092]

I expected it too be a huge success like the Wii and the DS for some reasons that I could rationalize, it just looked cool, and I expected BotW to be 10/10, but not the GOAT title we get.

I bought the console for Splatoon 2 and that too exceeded my expectations.

The console itself is almost flawless, the concept was executed perfectly and I didn't expect it all from their first model.

 

[Deleted member 8197]

Haha, the salt is real.

Click to shrink...

Indeed it is, because I will reluctantly buy one at some point.

 

[Platy]

Count me in the "I knew it would be big the second I heard it would be their only console... but not THAT big"

 

[Deleted member 10234]

I was not expecting it to be a massive success. Better than Wii U sure, but not outselling it in the first year. I was expecting indies to support it well and I'm happy to see that's the case. I never thought games like Doom and (especially) Wolfenstein 2 would be coming to it, so in that sense it has surpassed my expectations as far as third party support from big developers is considered.

Personally I saw it as something with the potential to be the best handheld gaming device ever made and that's exactly how I feel after a year with it. We're getting there with the game library, too..

 

[oni-link]

I expected it too be a huge success like the Wii and the DS for some reasons that I could rationalize, it just looked cool, and I expected BotW to be 10/10, but not the GOAT title we get.

I bought the console for Splatoon 2 and that too exceeded my expectations.

The console itself is almost flawless, the concept was executed perfectly and I didn't expect it all from their first model.

Click to shrink...

I always got the impression the Switch was what they had wanted to do with the Wii U, but for whatever reason the technology wasn't there

Both systems have a second screen and both can be played off TV

The Wii to Wii U was a bigger shift than the Wii U to Switch in a lot of ways

I'm just glad they dropped the second screen gaming concept with the Switch

 

[Deleted member 31092]

You think it could sell more than 100m units in it's lifetime?

That would put it 2nd to the PS2 in all time sales (unless the PS4 also breaks 100m)

Click to shrink...

The DS sold 150 millions too.

 

[oni-link]

The DS sold 150 millions too.

Click to shrink...

Ah that completely slipped my mind

I remember in late 2012 and early 2013 when everyone was saying consoles and handhelds were dead

What a difference 5 years can make

 

[Boy Wander]

I didn't expect it to work as well as it does. Playing something like BOTW on the go was a mindblower for me.

 

[Amaterasu]

I thought it was pretty cool, but I figured it would fail because Gaf and most comment sections were bitchy. Realized people on the internet do nothing but bitch and are the vast minority.

 

[oni-link]

I thought it was pretty cool, but I figured it would fail because Gaf and most comment sections were bitchy. Realized people on the internet do nothing but bitch and are the vast minority.

Click to shrink...

Yeah I remember the majority of the comments on the GAF thread during the reveal were along the lines of "the marketing is good but it will fail because it's weak"

 

[Zalman]

I knew it would succeed, mainly because I expected handheld games like Pokémon to arrive eventually. However, I was prepared for a slow start after the January event. I didn't expect it to take off right out of the gate.

 

[OrakioRob]

I thought it would sell better than the Wii U, but I never thought it would be such a hit. I knew being portable was a big plus, but I thought the lack of big 3rd party games such as GTA, Final Fantasy and EA games would limit it's reach. I'm still a bit puzzled by it's success, tbf.

 

[blueredandgold]

That it wouldn't be properly recognised.

That has.....not been the case.

But then, it totally is.

It's odd, I blame the recent spate of ports, but there's been less chatter about the console itself, the fawning over Nintendo Labo notwithstanding.

Take right now for example, I want to see what's new and great on the eshop.

I'm stuck here trawling through Metacritic, 60-second Youtube trailers, and reviews of games written at their launch, on other platforms. I just want to figure out what's worth my time on the eshop, but I have precious few places to turn to weed out what is, a steady pace of wheat from the chaff we always see on digital platforms.

I've had much experience with many types of all-you-can-eat virtual shop-fronts, it's very hard to get right, the eshop certainly doesn't do it right now, so I feel I should be able to rely on others to help me here.

Oh, and absolutely NO-ONE has done the roof-top party crash with this thing. I would bet on that.

 

[Griffith]

I thought I would dislike the new "D-Pad" and I do.

I thought the noise surrounding the outdated specs would be muffled by quality software offerings and for the most part I'd say I was right.

I don't think or remember if I speculated immensely about the Switch's success one way or the other, I only cared about what software they'd be releasing on it and between Zelda, Mario and Xenoblade 2, which arrived surprisingly early in my opinion, I was pretty much sold on it.

 

[Sarah The Great]

Looked like a cheap under powered, over priced tablet to me so didn't expect much. Now that I have one, I sort of like it, it's ok but it seriously needs some decent media apps. It's pathetic that it doesn't have YouTube or Netflix. Then there's the whole chat mess which is just bizarre. So, yeah, I think my initial impressions were spot on. It's under powered, over priced, lacks apps and has a couple of decent games but really nothing that makes it worthwhile at this point.

 

[FreddeGredde]

Speaking about sales, it's still too early to say. They might cool down considerably this year, or they might take off further. But I thought it would be a decent success, 50-80 million sold. We'll see where we'll end up.

Game-wise (which is all I personally care about), I expected a more steady stream of Nintendo games because of all the "all efforts put into a single system" talk, and I'm starting to worry. Hopefully second half of 2018 will be packed!

 

[Deleted member 10551]

I thought it was going to flop as a home console but succeed as a handheld, so I was half wrong.

 

[Deleted member 9971]

30m units was my guess, wich will be passed somewhere in 2019 for sure.

Or wait it's over wii u numers already right? Then it can even do so this year.especially with labo & stuff and the awesome legs of the games from 2017.

 

[Deleted member 36622]

The moment i saw the first trailer i was immediately on board with this, and i immediately thought this had the potential to be another DS.

in January at the event though i started to worry a little:
- for EU prices "please check your local retailer"
- some of the games that then made the launch weren't at the presentation so everyone was worrying that maybe this was another N64 with only two games available
- confusing videos and interviews with no announcements and that translator,...

 

[Deleted member 923]

I thought it was a stupid concept and laughed at the price tag. I was certain it'd bomb. And then months after release I bought one and am pretty happy with it.

I still think it has issues with the portable mode (some games are horrible to look at) but I don't regret the purchase. BOTW was worth it alone tbh.

 

[Kaxi]

I missed the point completely.

No matter how much I wanted it to be great, just after the January reveal I predicted a tough situation. I had three reasons to be pessimistic:

1. Too weak hardware, even considering I knew it to be not so powerful. Weaker than expected specs meant either a diminishing third-party support as lead platforms get stronger, or a more powerful version of the console pretty soon in the lifespan. This one can actually still happen

2. Too many re-releases. It actually happened, but as a Wii U player, I underestimated the fact that those for many will be actually new experiences. People don't seem to mind. Still, I will be playing mostly indies on Switch for the next 6 months, it seems.

3. Switch (and its marketing) was prepared in a hurry, which never bodes well.

 

[Malakai]

I don't know how to quantify my extreme fanboyish predictions. I wrote that the Switch would be a slaughterhouse and that the Switch will expose and decapitate frauds in the video gaming industry....

 

[newmoneytrash]

i was very excited but still wary after the first teaser, but after the reveal stream i was completely bought in and it's still exceeded my expectations

 

[New Donker]

I didn't think it would be such a hit. I thought it looked great and figured I'd wait a few months to pick one up.

I also didn't think I would end up loving it this much. I even remember saying to my wife "I just want Zelda and Mario kart and then I'll go back to mostly playing PS4". I played my Switch waaaaaay more than my PS4 last year.

I never guessed it would oursell the Wii U in under 1 year.

Fast forward closer to launch and I'm standing outside Walmart before they open to get it day 1 (after the flood of Zelda hype). I'm glad I did, because they were near impossible to find in a few months after launch.