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Nintendo Switch surpasses 7 million units in Japan, close to PS4 LTD
- Thread starter Meelow
- Start date
Nintendo games > Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest etc etc
Uh you're either overestimating Switches Japanese support or underestimating the GCNs support. GameCube had the first 3rd party Sonic game, exclusive final fantasy game, thr best tales game up to that point in Symphonia, and REmake in the first year, and thats off the top of my head. Switch's 3rd part jp support has been extremely lukewarm.
Yeah remember the Capcom 5? That was huge! There are no Capcom 5 announcements for the switch.
Even if they don't, Switch is region free.
Switch is a product made specifically to appeal to the Japanese videogame market; compact, versatile and humble.
Nintendo will always treat Japan as a priority, even at the cost of the larger Western markets. I don't know if that is commendable or naive.
I dunno about that. It seems that the system is growing incredibly for 3rd party and indie titles. It's certainly stronger now than it was for Wii and Wii U.
What? GameCube had a ton of 3rd party support...nearly every 3rd party was on board. Revisionist history is surely something.
Entry point PS4 is more expensive than the Switch. It is a videogame machine that can be both a console and a portable. The machine itself and the games are more expensive than a "handheld" system traditionally. Saying it being more popular simply because it is portable is highly dismissive and doesn't take other factors into account.
I think the most obvious reason the Switch is successful in Japan is because Nintendo are bringing games that people want. They have so many million sellers in Japan already and have rejuvenated series like 3D Zelda and 3D Mario. Splatoon is a monster and seems to resonate really strongly with the Japanese audience.
Sony's first party is not targeted at Japan at all and if you don't draw customers with first party then you need a miracle from a 3rd party. The PSP got that miracle with Monster Hunter and to a lesser extent Minecraft. The PS4 got all the support from the biggest 3rd party games in Japan but it only raised it just above the PS3, they didn't have those one or two evergreen titles that a platform needs.
While I agree with you that the Japanese support for switch isn't that good, does it really matter that much in the Japanese market ?
I mean if I list the top 10 strongest games in term of sales in top of my head in Japan these days 7 or 8 will probably be games that is published by either Nintendo or The Pokemon Company,
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If the Switch had the equivalent of Gamecube support it would have the bulk of major multiplatform games. Gamecube 3rd party support was not bad by any means.
If we are talking about the relevant market from this thread, Switch support is and will continue to blow Gamecube support out of the water.
But its so hard when they are masters of baiting us.
But seriously, the Switch is a beast.
Doesn't really contradict my point though.
But obviously yes you are correct.
This post wins :)
Because the thing that now Switch needs to reach 8 millions is a 'Pac-Man' compilation, including 'Pac-Man Championship Edition', 'Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+', 'Pac-Man 256', 'Pac'n Roll' and 'Pac-Man Tilt' :)
Gamecube third party support wasn't really poor. It was overall pretty decent.
Long term I expect Switch to be the new target for most of the more low key Japanese games. Like your resident evils will be targeting the mainline consoles with cutting edge graphics, but I think a lot of the Japanese games targeted at the domestic market that came to vita, 3DS and even Ps4 will now be primarily focusing on Switch with ports to ps4.
It's going to be fascinating to keep an eye on PS5 in Japan.
It's going to be fascinating to keep an eye on PS5 in Japan.
Ehh. It got some high profile stuff but the volume was definitely lacking
I was a generation where multiplatform development wasn't nearly as common. PS2 swallowed most of the air from the competition in a way that wont ever be repeated. But It got major games, had publisher support from Western publishers, got some Japanese support as well. It missed volume but the system sold like shit so not really surprising.
Saying a Nintendo system had worse third party support than the Gamecube isn't saying much frankly. You have to go to the SNES to be better than the Cube. The Wii got a lot of support as well though it leaned very differently than the Cube.
Gamecube had a total of 19 Japanese 3rd party games break 100K and approximately 120 overall. Switch will surpass those numbers this calendar year. Launch aligned its already better and will blow it away soon enough.
Just need all that energy to transfer to Japanese third party devs. Hopefully it inspire them to develop ips. I need to see that same energy that was on the Ds done on the switch.
I'm talking release quality: we've not had anything in line with Soul Calibur 2, Resident Evil 4 or Tales of Symphonia yet
Switch is even getting PS2 games that GC didn't lol (FFX/X-2/XII, Okami, Katamari Damacy, Onimusha, MMX7/8, etc). Gamecube's Japanese multiplatform support was pathetic, way worse than Switch is.
Ok I guess that's fair. I'd say DQ XI and SMT V are absolutely at that level
How many of those are games that push hardware though? RE4 alone destroys them all.
Getting remasters 10 years after the fact as a comparison point is literally not a point even worth considering so I'm just gonna ignore you even said this.
But yes, Gamecube's Japanese support is undoubtedly worse than the Switch's. I never said differently.
Could you use the Code tags in your post? It looks bad when it is a straight up copy and paste. Thanks.
yeah, ports of good games are always welcome but id like to see more new stuff, it lacks good quirky japanese games. It also sucks that the japanese indie developers scene is not nearly as big as it is in the west
RE4 came four years after launch. Switch like barely halfway there.
Oh, I thought we were speaking on Japan. For western stuff GC did okay for around 2-3 years but everything fell off quick after that as things reoriented to online and Xbox pulled ahead in the west. Switch already has more total multiplats than GC ever managed anyway.
The PS2 thing was just a cute aside, people forget just how much it cornered Japanese devs back then. Switch is getting also a good amount of current gen JP multiplats compared to GC (or Xbox, or DC) too.
Nevermind the fact every subsequent portable is pricier than its predecessor - Nintendo moreso than anyone else has made a consistent concerted effort targeting Japan with both their home consoles AND handhelds, yet the data shows only one of those devices resonating with Japanese audiences.
So yes, in this instance you can be reductionist and say "Switch's success is because its a handheld", because it's sell-rate support, and reception follows the exact same trend as every other handheld Nintendo has released prior.
Switch's sales are actually closest to Wii in Japan. It's well behind DS or 3DS.
And coincidentally Japan responded pretty great to Wii too upfront.
It's matched PS3 sales pretty closely. Sony has mostly ignored Japan with its own first party software being western focused, it shipped world wide except for Japan for the first 5 or 6 months as well.
In contrast, Nintendo focuses on Japan, it's first party software have mostly all been huge successes in Japan and sales reflect that. Over half the dedicated devices sold this year in Japan were Switches, and Nintendo as a publisher sold over half of all software that sold in Japan.
Dragon Ball FighterZ is definitely on Soul Calibur 2's level imo.
Lol hell no.
PS2 cornered the whole market. The thing saw a dominance that will probably never be repeated again.
Right, but that doesn't change the fact that the system has no third-party game of the same caliber yet.
Wii's sell-rate represents 1/6 pre-hybrid home consoles, meaning its anomalous and not at all indicative of Nintendo's standard performance curve at selling stationary devices.
Which is not to say the Wii wasn't brilliantly executed - it was, and Iwata's/Nintendo planning and marketing of the Wii is always overlooked. But normalizing for typical performance, I'm very confident in saying the Switch is behaving far more closely to a standard Nintendo handheld In Japan than it is a standard Nintendo home console. Which is also why this news is neither shocking nor impressive but rather expected - at least to me.
The Nintendo Switch is for all intent purpose is a home console, even Nintendo officially calls it a home console that you can play on the go.