Postby BanjoPickles » January 20th, 2017, 10:16 am
My initial excitement has worn off, and I've taken a more critical look at the Switch. Honestly, I don't think that this system can do anything but land with a resounding thud, for a number of reasons:
1). The price tag itself doesn't bother me. $300 does seem to be an industry standard. In fact, I thought the anticipation of a $250 price point was unrealistic. What does bother me, though, is the fact that they're doing the same thing that they did with the Wii U. Whereas the PS3/4 and Xbox 360/One equipped their consoles with 500GB, or more, Nintendo is sticking to 32GB! Considering that you can buy a 500GB PS4 for $300, oftentimes with a game, the price of the Switch does seem a bit ridiculous.
2). Speaking of games, the lack of a pack-in does seem like a very stupid decision on their part. Even dumber is pricing 1, 2-Switch at $50, when it had "this is a tech-demo pack-in" written all over it! If they're expecting that game, fun as it may end up being, to sell like gangbusters....I just don't see that happening.
3). The games. Nintendo has been relatively quiet for the past couple of years, leading many (myself included) to believe that the time was spent creating a flood of games to sell their future on. So far, from what has been shown, I feel like I was wrong in my assumption. They DID show off some games that looked fun, compelling, and made good use of the hardware (Arms actually looks like a lot of fun), but they really needed to knock this one out of the park! Honestly, I get the feeling that this launch is going to be even worse than that of the Wii U's! "It's launching with Zelda, though!" Yeah, on the same day that the same exact game launches on the Wii U! Oh, and if you wait six more weeks (!), you can pick up a deluxe edition of Mario Kart 8! Oh, and if you wait for several weeks after that, you can pick up Splatoon 2, which looks more like an expansion than a full-fledged sequel! So, what you're basically getting, until late summer (at the earliest), are three expanded Wii U games.
4). Paid online subscriptions. This doesn't bother me as much as it has some others, but there are issues that I do have. Though this has become the industry standard, PS and MS provide real incentives via a flood of free software. Nintendo offering one free NES/SNES per month, only for that month, seems absolutely ridiculous at best, and cheap at worst. Also, PS and MS provide a robust online experience, and Nintendo has always been rather conservative when it comes to providing a true online experience. Also, the ball is in their court with the virtual console. There is no reason why they couldn't have put Gamecube VC on the Wii U, save for the lack of a true analog shoulder button, and I get this feeling that they are going to ignore the Gamecube once again.
5). The ridiculous price of their accessories. The price for that pro controller is beyond arrogant! It's a sharp controller, but I seriously doubt that it is of a higher quality than the dualshock 4 or the XBO controller, which retails for, what, $30 less? The fact that you have to pay an additional $30 for a charging cradle, $80 for a set of joy-cons, and suddenly that $300 ripoff becomes a $400+ ripoff. Add in a couple of games and you are close to the $500 mark! Right now, for a point of reference, I can go into a store, buy a 500GB Xbox One bundle that comes with everything that I need, oftentimes with a game or three, for $250-350! How can Nintendo compete with that? "They're not competing with MS and PS!" Apparently not, but they SHOULD be competing for my hard-earned money, and yours, and theirs! So far, they're not doing anything that is convincing me that the Switch is a better experience than that provided on the PS4 or XBO.
6). Third-party developers. Remember, back in 2012, when you had all of these major developers come out in droves and say "yeah, that AAA game is not going to be coming to the Wii U?" Welp, it's happening again. Borderlands 3? Nope. Red Dead 2? Not a chance. UbiSoft is mainly releasing games from last generation. EA has pledged support with one game. You had several developers who appeared at the conference who basically said "it's a cool system. We love the concept....and expect many things from us in the future." Do you know what I heard? "If it sells, we'll concoct something but if it doesn't, then best of luck." I'm not seeing that same level of support that would be offered to PS or MS, and that does concern me. That isn't my way of saying "Switch needs the same exact games," but they need something more than what they're getting!
I just don't see this being a success at all. Those who only want Zelda can buy a Wii U, if they haven't already. They seem to be self-sabotaging themselves at every step right now. For the first time ever, I'm really starting to think that Nintendo is irreperably out of touch.