Slow year but I was basically playing Xenoblade (then Torna), Octopath, Hollow Knight until pokemon and smash arrived and didnt notice that much
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Kotaku: The State Of The Nintendo Switch In 2018
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In the confirmed 2019 list? I think DQ11 and Doom Eternal are the only ones there that have not officially been given a 2019 date but everything else has.
Switch 2018 was awful enough for me to dump my Switch. I always intended to sell it before the next iteration of the hardware came out, but didn't expect to do it so early. The lineup was that bad. Felt incredibly burned after buying the god-awful Mario Tennis game. The realization that all I was playing on it was Tetris made it really easy to sell.
Switch has been an indie machine only for me this year, my traveling companion.
I owned a Wii U and so the ports were of no interest to me, and Octopath nor Smash are of any interest to me. I'm still impatiently awaiting MP4 and Bayo 3... And Pikmin 4!
I owned a Wii U and so the ports were of no interest to me, and Octopath nor Smash are of any interest to me. I'm still impatiently awaiting MP4 and Bayo 3... And Pikmin 4!
Yeah I guess. I don't see DQXI in 2019 for sure, and I don't see Metroid 4 coming as quickly as people assume either. Maybe everything else is fine thinking about it.
the fuck
these people are playing mobile games
and mario kart, mario, pokemon and smash are casual-friendly money-making megahits that will each outsell wii music, and in the case of smash and kart, may exceed wii fit
I've already played Bayonetta 1 and 2. Wasn't really interested in the other games, so yeah, for me there wasn't much to play. I'm sure for others there was stuff to play. I'm only speaking for myself here.
Perspective of Nintendo's output this past year.
February: Bayonetta 1/2 port
March: Kirby Star Allies
April: Nintendo Labo(1 and 2)
May: Donkey King TF and Hyrule Warriors Ports
June: Mario Tennis Aces
July: Octopath Travellor and Captain Toad Port
August: Nothing
September: Torna the Golden Country
October: Super Mario Party
November: Pokemon Let's Go
December: Super Smash Bros Ultimate
Not amazing like 2017 but decent in my opinion. Octopath, Smash Bros, and Pokémon are great games which helps.
Honestly, if Kirby and Mario Tennis had more content at launch both games would be consider great entries(especially Mario Tennis as that would easily be the best of the franchise if it had more content).
February: Bayonetta 1/2 port
March: Kirby Star Allies
April: Nintendo Labo(1 and 2)
May: Donkey King TF and Hyrule Warriors Ports
June: Mario Tennis Aces
July: Octopath Travellor and Captain Toad Port
August: Nothing
September: Torna the Golden Country
October: Super Mario Party
November: Pokemon Let's Go
December: Super Smash Bros Ultimate
Not amazing like 2017 but decent in my opinion. Octopath, Smash Bros, and Pokémon are great games which helps.
Honestly, if Kirby and Mario Tennis had more content at launch both games would be consider great entries(especially Mario Tennis as that would easily be the best of the franchise if it had more content).
2018 was okay.
I don't have much time to play anyway. With South Park, Captain Toad, Pokemon and Picross S /S2 I had enough games to play. Could have been 1 or 2 more games, sure.
My biggest disappointment for 2018 is how Nintendo handled Switch Online /VC and it's accessories. I was hoping for a full blown Online Service with NES/SNES/N64/GC/GB/GBC/GBA titles and more color options for the Pro Controller and Joycons. It's almost like Nintendo doesn't want to sell Online Subscriptions and additional controllers.
Switch Online is a bare bones experience with a bunch of NES games. Additional Controllers are expensive and different colors are even more expensive since they are special editions for specific games (Pro Controller: Splatoon, Xenoblade, Smash. Joy-cons: 1-2 Switch, ARMS, Mario Odyssey, Mario Part, Pokemon).
I waited since the launch to buy a Pro Controller. Since the situation didn't get better, I ordered a black Pro Controller in combination with a bunch of discount codes for 45€.
Compared to what's available for PS4/XBO, Nintendo's offerings are weak.
Its like the Switch is a handheld. If you are willing to pay extra money, you can have a very basic home console experience.
I don't have much time to play anyway. With South Park, Captain Toad, Pokemon and Picross S /S2 I had enough games to play. Could have been 1 or 2 more games, sure.
My biggest disappointment for 2018 is how Nintendo handled Switch Online /VC and it's accessories. I was hoping for a full blown Online Service with NES/SNES/N64/GC/GB/GBC/GBA titles and more color options for the Pro Controller and Joycons. It's almost like Nintendo doesn't want to sell Online Subscriptions and additional controllers.
Switch Online is a bare bones experience with a bunch of NES games. Additional Controllers are expensive and different colors are even more expensive since they are special editions for specific games (Pro Controller: Splatoon, Xenoblade, Smash. Joy-cons: 1-2 Switch, ARMS, Mario Odyssey, Mario Part, Pokemon).
I waited since the launch to buy a Pro Controller. Since the situation didn't get better, I ordered a black Pro Controller in combination with a bunch of discount codes for 45€.
Compared to what's available for PS4/XBO, Nintendo's offerings are weak.
Its like the Switch is a handheld. If you are willing to pay extra money, you can have a very basic home console experience.
I loved this year, almost as much as last. . Sushi Striker, Mario Party, Diablo 3, Civilization 6, Octopath, Smash, and some smaller budget games like Labyrinth of Refrain and indies. I was pretty satisfied even with the slowdown of big hitters.
Granted, I think next year will outshine this one.
Granted, I think next year will outshine this one.
Article did a good job looking at the Switch as whole for 2018. The Switch for me personally was alright this year. Not bad, not great, just kinda meh somewhere in between. I have played a lot of games this year on all three major platforms as well as older consoles and when I think of 2018 the Switch wasn't as prevalent as my device to play games. I don't have any qualms about the Switch going forward, everyone has alright years and there is some good stuff to look forward too in 2019
While I am excited for a number of titles next year on the Switch, a graphic like this shows how much room Nintendo has to grow and kinda the different mindsets with how gamers who primarily play in one product family see gaming (Thats not a knock on anyone btw). The exclusives look excellent, as always with a Nintendo console and the ports on the graphic look good but the amount is tiny. I play way more games than the average consumer (At 62 beat for the year) and so my opinion is heavily skewed. When you look at the amount of third party titles (and generally good to okay ones) being released on PS4/Xbox it swamps Nintendo's lineup neatly.
The good thing though is Nintendo is becoming more prevalent with third party companies which is great to see so hopefully graphics like this farther down the graphic icons are much smaller and the amount of icons is much larger! (This was already a big image!)
I don't think this is complete and some of the stuff (Like Doom Eternal) isn't 100% confirmed for 2019 yet but:
While I am excited for a number of titles next year on the Switch, a graphic like this shows how much room Nintendo has to grow and kinda the different mindsets with how gamers who primarily play in one product family see gaming (Thats not a knock on anyone btw). The exclusives look excellent, as always with a Nintendo console and the ports on the graphic look good but the amount is tiny. I play way more games than the average consumer (At 62 beat for the year) and so my opinion is heavily skewed. When you look at the amount of third party titles (and generally good to okay ones) being released on PS4/Xbox it swamps Nintendo's lineup neatly.
The good thing though is Nintendo is becoming more prevalent with third party companies which is great to see so hopefully graphics like this farther down the graphic icons are much smaller and the amount of icons is much larger! (This was already a big image!)
Yeah I do agree with your overall point but I wouldn't base their potential multiplat lineup on this image. Like I said it's definitely not exhaustive in terms of games we already have confirmed, but even on top of that I still believe the vast majority of 2019 multiplats and ports have yet to be announced. Like even this June we had no idea Diablo 3 and Civilization VI and plenty of others were coming in 2018. I suspect that list will be a lot bigger at the end of 2019.
OP
OP
It is poor form to include more than like 1-2 paragraphs.
OP
OP
I just added two paras from three sections in a five section long article, each much longer than three sections. Really, look at how big the source is.
I can understand this year to be quite overwhelming for someone who bought a Wii U. But for us that skipped that console, this year was still a blast. Not like last year, but still awesome.
OP
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Which to be fair is most people in the world. The Switch is already doubling the LTD sales of Wii U, so even if we assume every single Wii U owner bought a Switch, the Switch already has a fair share of its base that is perfectly catered to with Wii U ports.
It's 2018... that "Blue Ocean" ship sailed long ago.
Why does Switch NEED to do this again? That audience isn't coming back.
The spirt you're guaranteed to get after a fight is a gacha system? What?
A decent secondary system but could never be my primary and I don't even game that much anymore. The 2018 software lineup was pretty disappointing.
Well to be fair to Kohler, Smash hasn't even been out a full week, not enough time to erase the "slump" and he probably thought Ultimate was just a "vaporware" announcement right up until it was actually released.
Not as good as 2017 but still very good. Anyone who says they couldn't find games to play on switch this year needs to reevaluate what they play and try something new.
2019 is looking good with AC, LM3, Yoshi and FE. Hoping a new Pikmin comes out too
2019 is looking good with AC, LM3, Yoshi and FE. Hoping a new Pikmin comes out too
Kotaku's opinion(s) on the Switch has kinda become a meme at this point.
GiantBomb shows more enthusiasm for Nintendo.
GiantBomb shows more enthusiasm for Nintendo.
Come on. Recently I went through a lost of Switch games picking out the ones I want, I wound up with 45 on the list. I've had my ps4 for 3 years now and I have less than 20 games on that. For me, Switch is killing it. Of course I should point out that I don't play online so the online part doesn't factor into my opinion.
Fair enough.
Interesting article.. Pokemon and Smash have been a major return to the heady days of one heavy-hitter after another in 2017. Excited to see that momentum continue with the great line-up next year, and also looking forward to what else we get in H2 2019. I hope AC comes in the spring or summer and we get another blockbuster or two later in the year. Mario Maker 2 would fit the bill. Also hoping for 3D world finally.
In my opinion, this year was a heavy down year for the Switch with Octopath being the only shining light. PLGP/E was a massive, casual letdown and Switch online is trash (but necessary).
Next year looks great though. I cant wait to dip into FF again, potential portable P5, DQ11, Bayo 3 (please) and hopefully a good gen 8 pokemon game. Please dont f*** up TPC.
Next year looks great though. I cant wait to dip into FF again, potential portable P5, DQ11, Bayo 3 (please) and hopefully a good gen 8 pokemon game. Please dont f*** up TPC.
Yep. If you only live for Nintendo first party releases, not every year will be for year. They only release 1 of each franchise in some cases and how many times have we heard about Animal Crossing? What are those people going to do after the next one launches? Ask for a sequel every year for the next 5 years?
I'm not a Smash fan nor did I pick up Pokemon Let's Go and 2018 was pretty good to me.
2018 was a good year. It's no 2017, but it's going to be a long time before we see anything like that again from Nintendo. 2018 was in effect a recovery year after many of their major teams blasted out stuff they'd been working on for the last 3-5 years. 2018 was never going to be as big a year, it's just not possible with how their teams are organized.
Which isn't to say there wasn't good stuff this year on the platform. Highlights for me this year:
"Feels like a gacha" != "is a gacha". They're not completely off base with that comment. Spirits look a lot like what you find in many mobile gacha games: star rankings, leveling, evolving, grinding up lesser ones, etc.
Which isn't to say there wasn't good stuff this year on the platform. Highlights for me this year:
- Bayo 1/2 port gave me a chance to finally play these games
- Octopath was a warm blanket for fans of sprite-based JRPGs in the classic mold.
- Mario Party finally had a return to form after being lost in the wilderness for years.
- Labo was an attempt at doing something different even though it seems to have fallen flat.
- Smash Ultimate is super good and I don't think I've ever seen a hype train like that before
"Feels like a gacha" != "is a gacha". They're not completely off base with that comment. Spirits look a lot like what you find in many mobile gacha games: star rankings, leveling, evolving, grinding up lesser ones, etc.
I don't think this is complete and some of the stuff (Like Doom Eternal) isn't 100% confirmed for 2019 yet but:
If Shin Megami Tensei 5 comes out in the west next year that would be great
I don't think this is complete and some of the stuff (Like Doom Eternal) isn't 100% confirmed for 2019 yet but:
Phantom Thief is coming to Nintendo Switch! Make ERA threads anytime, anywhere.
For a lot of casuals I think this was a great year for the Switch, though I understand opinions to the contrary.
In my case, having portable access to games like Crypt of the NecroDancer, Wasteland 2, Steredenn: Binary Stars, Hollow Knight, and Toki Tori 2+ (all 2018 on Switch), etc., meant a lot. Plus Doom came right at the end of 2017, so that felt like a 2018 release to me.
Anyway, I'm pumped for next year and still have so many games on my wishlist from this year. I had to pull back just to save money because I had so many new options, mostly from titles I had missed or overlooked on PC. The portable factor counts.
Going to have to be a little more careful with purchases next year just so I don't get to the point where I'm piling up games I haven't even given a fair shake.
In my case, having portable access to games like Crypt of the NecroDancer, Wasteland 2, Steredenn: Binary Stars, Hollow Knight, and Toki Tori 2+ (all 2018 on Switch), etc., meant a lot. Plus Doom came right at the end of 2017, so that felt like a 2018 release to me.
Anyway, I'm pumped for next year and still have so many games on my wishlist from this year. I had to pull back just to save money because I had so many new options, mostly from titles I had missed or overlooked on PC. The portable factor counts.
Going to have to be a little more careful with purchases next year just so I don't get to the point where I'm piling up games I haven't even given a fair shake.
Nothing this year really spoke to me save for Smash, but no doubt they still had a pretty good year with a steady stream of good games. Hopefully 2019 will be more my cup of tea. I've never played a Pokemon game and am exctied to step in next year.
I don't think that Switch had a weak 2018 tbh, even if we don't consider WiiU ports (remember, two of the best games of all time were re-released this year on the Switch) or 3rd party multiplat games:
-My favourite game this year is Ultimate and it's not close
-The 2 best JRPGs this year are Torna (especially this one) and Octopath (Valkyria 4 is NOT a JRPG), and I love JRPGs
-Even if disappointing, Aces is a lot of fun with friends or online
So in retrospective, I remember worse years for the Ps4, the WiiU, and especially the 360.
-My favourite game this year is Ultimate and it's not close
-The 2 best JRPGs this year are Torna (especially this one) and Octopath (Valkyria 4 is NOT a JRPG), and I love JRPGs
-Even if disappointing, Aces is a lot of fun with friends or online
So in retrospective, I remember worse years for the Ps4, the WiiU, and especially the 360.
2018 was not as good as last year, but I bought these for Switch this year:
Octopath Traveler
Captain Toad
Mega Man Legacy Collection
NBA Playgrounds 2
Hollow Knight
Okami
Chasm
Gris
And maybe a few more. I know I'm getting LA Noire, DK Tropical Freeze, and Hyrule Warriors for Christmas. Just about to talk myself into New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe too. Not too bad, but there was a long dry spell after Hollow Knight for me. Spider-Man could have had something to do with that, though.
Octopath Traveler
Captain Toad
Mega Man Legacy Collection
NBA Playgrounds 2
Hollow Knight
Okami
Chasm
Gris
And maybe a few more. I know I'm getting LA Noire, DK Tropical Freeze, and Hyrule Warriors for Christmas. Just about to talk myself into New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe too. Not too bad, but there was a long dry spell after Hollow Knight for me. Spider-Man could have had something to do with that, though.
Plus, and this comes from someone who is 100% going to get a Switch in the future, many of those games are ports of games which released on other consoles or PC years ago, or Wii U ports. Now, I didn't own a Wii U, so remasters are fine, but I'm not going to pay the obscene amount of money for New Super Mario Bros U, which will be a 7-year-old game at that point. Andif I didn't have a PS4 or XBO and just waited out this gen, then yeah, stuff like Diablo III would be great! Undertale would be great! Dragon Quest Builders would be great! Inside, Outlast, Payday 2, The Banner Saga, Don't Starve, that's a lot of games.
And I get the feeling. On PS4, I received Undertale years later, but hey, that was a great purchase last year! I got The Swapper after it released on PC on PS+, and it was great! So I totally get how someone who has a Switch doesn't feel it was a slow year if they hadn't really played all of this yet. For me, there's no incentive to buy it until they release some more exclusives, which they will.
For me, once mainline Pokemon arrives, then there's that and Zelda for me as my two first purchases. And I still want to give Odyssey a chance despite some of the lukewarm reception here.
I really think that for someone to think the Switch has had a slow year, they either play their indies/3rd party games elsewhere, or don't care about/play those games, and/or literally only play Nintendo's first party output on the system.
My wish list is the length of the great wall of China - I seriously don't know how anyone could say this year has been slow. No one ever talks about how the other consoles have slow years when their exclusive list is small, but when it's Nintendo everyone is all "nothing to play on it". To me it's people still treating indies like they're not "games" in the same way that AAA third party games are "games". I logged WAY more hours into games like Stardew, Morphite and Celeste this year than I did almost anything else.
My wish list is the length of the great wall of China - I seriously don't know how anyone could say this year has been slow. No one ever talks about how the other consoles have slow years when their exclusive list is small, but when it's Nintendo everyone is all "nothing to play on it". To me it's people still treating indies like they're not "games" in the same way that AAA third party games are "games". I logged WAY more hours into games like Stardew, Morphite and Celeste this year than I did almost anything else.
I don't think this is complete and some of the stuff (Like Doom Eternal) isn't 100% confirmed for 2019 yet but:
Cool graphic. Some of those might not make it, but then again there will be several other titles that will only be announced next year during Directs or conferences.
I feel like 2019 is a key year for the Switch. The console is already going to be a success, but just how great and how financially successful will largely be determined by 2019.
I think earlier in the year, people were hoping for Fire Emblem to make 2018. That's been my biggest disappointment.
Yeah, 2018 was really rough for the Switch, even moreso in comparison to the stellar slate of 2017 releases.