Nintendo Switch, doomed to fail?

[AmyLane]

In my opinion, and I hope I'm wrong, but I can't help but feel the Nintendo Switch is doomed to fail for a few reasons such as it's launching in March 2017, everyone knows for a successful launch of a console it needs to be done around the christmas holiday time, it's not really "portable" as a DS/3DS and I can't imagine the battery lasting more than an hour or two at best.

[vorticalbox]

3 minutes ago, AmyLane said:

In my opinion, and I hope I'm wrong, but I can't help but feel the Nintendo Switch is doomed to fail for a few reasons such as it's launching in March 2017, everyone knows for a successful launch of a console it needs to be done around the christmas holiday time, it's not really "portable" as a DS/3DS and I can't imagine the battery lasting more than an hour or two at best.

 

Probably, I guess it all comes down to how valuable people believe it's features are. 

1. Portable
2. multi-user play
3. Goes on a big screen

so long as the games are good I can see it doing quite well.

[AlTech]

5 minutes ago, AmyLane said:

In my opinion, and I hope I'm wrong, but I can't help but feel the Nintendo Switch is doomed to fail for a few reasons such as it's launching in March 2017, everyone knows for a successful launch of a console it needs to be done around the christmas holiday time, it's not really "portable" as a DS/3DS and I can't imagine the battery lasting more than an hour or two at best.

"Nintendo. Not knowing when to stop screwing up products and living off of pure nostalgia".

AluminiumTech 2016

[Oshino Shinobu]

It sounds like a peripheral, not a new console. I think it's going to have a similar issue to the Wii U in that people just don't know what it is and don't care because the name is terrible. 

[Monte_Carlo]

12 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

It sounds like a peripheral, not a new console. I think it's going to have a similar issue to the Wii U in that people just don't know what it is and don't care because the name is terrible. 

 

People bought the Wii which is by far one of the worst names I can recall for a gaming console.  Personally I hope it will be a success. 

[porina]

You have to give them credit for trying something different, and it remains to be seen how that works out. In principle, this seems like a tablet with controllers, and a tablet is capable of console level gaming. I have the nvidia shield tablet, and while I've never timed it, it does last several hours gaming. That's quite old now, so I'd expect the Switch to do even better there.

[skywake]

@AmyLane

 

1. The 3DS launched in March globally, and the PS3/360 launched in March in Europe and Australia. Conversely the Wii U launched in November. The conventional wisdom on the interblags might say that you need to launch in November to be a success but it's not that black and white.

 

2. Not really a portable? I mocked the iPad before it launched for the same reason and I even I said the same thing about the DSi XL. I wouldn't be so quick to make that judgement. Anyways if you actually look into it the Switch should be about the size of a small tablet. Kinda like a 3DS XL with extra width. Probably too big to pocket but not a bad size for either a coffee table device or something to put in a bag. There's certainly a market for devices of that size. If there wasn't tablets, which are almost all bigger than the Switch, wouldn't exist.

 

3. How do you know the battery life is bad? What are you basing that assumption on? Maybe it's best to wait and see how it actually performs first and then complain about it. Anyways, the live demo they had the other day showed fairly clearly that it has a USB type C port on the base. So who cares what the battery life is. Just plug it into a battery bank.

 

but it's Nintendo so lets brainstorm some reasons why it might fail..........

[Oshino Shinobu]

2 minutes ago, Monte_Carlo said:

 

People bought the Wii which is by far one of the worst names I can recall for a gaming console.  Personally I hope it will be a success. 

But people didn't buy the Wii U because they didn't know what it was. The Wii was marketed fairly well and actually sounded somewhat like a new console. The Wii U and Switch do not if you ask me. Nintendo needs to do a good job marketing the console or it's going to fail like the Wii U did.

 

I hope it will be a success, it would be a shame to see Nintendo fall, but they need to get their act together if they want to survive. 

[minibois]

"everyone knows for a successful launch of a console it needs to be done around the christmas holiday time"

Looks at the March release date of the Nintendo DS and Sony PS2

[porina]

3 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

But people didn't buy the Wii U because they didn't know what it was. The Wii was marketed fairly well and actually sounded somewhat like a new console. The Wii U and Switch do not if you ask me. Nintendo needs to do a good job marketing the console or it's going to fail like the Wii U did.

The Wii's success was mainly due to them not copying Sony/MS and doing something different, which attracted an untapped part of the market. The Wii U didn't do that. I suppose thinking about it this way, Switch probably isn't going to be a Wii either. Will it find enough conventional gamers?

[Master Disaster]

Given what is rumoured right now I'd say it has a pretty great chance of succeeding.

 

1) At least as powerful as XB1 when docked. Thats a freaking huge step up from the Wii U

2) 720p full desktop experience on the move. What other handheld offers this experience?

3) New 3D Mario game at launch. That alone is enough to shift units off shelves.

 

I see it going down like this, initially the switch will do well with the Nintendo fans flocking back to them with avengeance, they're doing a better job of communicating what switch is this time, the single trailer they released already tells people more than the entire marketing campaign for the Wii U did pre launch. Its a cool gimmick which I can see people wanting and its also looking like it will have a great first party launch line up. These things combined should secure a decent launch window.

 

Its continued success depends on 2 things, Whether Nintendo secure the third party support they claim and can get games on shelves is by far the most important factor is whether it succeeds or not. No customers are going to buy it if it has a game list that reads like the Wii Us does.

 

Second depends on Nintendo and whether they learned the lessons from the Wii U or not. They need to keep communicating to customers what the Switch is and does, they need to establish it as a product people know about and want in their lives.

 

The balls is with them now and perhaps if they drag themselves out of the 16th century mentality and took a look at the real world and how it operates they might just make a success out of the switch.

[Mira Yurizaki]

2 hours ago, AmyLane said:

everyone knows for a successful launch of a console it needs to be done around the christmas holiday time,

Most consoles release in the US around September to November. However correlation does not imply causation.

 

EDIT: I stewed on this a little more.

 

Nintendo's primary market is still Japan, despite having a showing in the US. In Japan, Christmas isn't really a holiday to them. So there's no point in the Japanese market to try to rush anything out by Christmas. This would help explain the release dates for other consoles that released after the holiday season in the US and Europe, like the PS4 (it was about four months after those regions go it)

 

Besides, maybe Nintendo's going for a world wide release.

[Ithanul]

5 hours ago, Minibois said:

"everyone knows for a successful launch of a console it needs to be done around the christmas holiday time"

Looks at the March release date of the Nintendo DS and Sony PS2

I think some forget that the usual time people get their tax returns.

 

I'm keeping an eye on the Switch, especially if the rumors of a Pokemon game are true.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Also another point...

 

The holiday season is the worst time to release a console IMO because it's too early to include bundles or price drops that would drive sales even more. e.g.., a PS4 now gets you a game with the console. A PS4 during Christmas of 2013 just got you a PS4. You needed to fork over another $60 for a game. Or you might've gotten a slight discount if you bought a game with the console, but that depended on the store.

 

And if you don't have the supply to meet demand, well, you're missing out.

[skywake]

12 hours ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

But people didn't buy the Wii U because they didn't know what it was. The Wii was marketed fairly well and actually sounded somewhat like a new console. The Wii U and Switch do not if you ask me. Nintendo needs to do a good job marketing the console or it's going to fail like the Wii U did.

To be fair the Wii U was called the Wii U and was originally revealed in a trailer that only talked about the "new controller". They also made the decision to make the console itself look fairly similar to the original. Not only that but the pack-in game and the first few releases used WiiMotes for multiplayer. The ads were even fairly similar to the Wii. As a techie I always thought it was weird that people thought the Wii U was an accessory given how big the graphical leap was. But when you think about it, the messaging wasn't that clear.

 

But I do think it's odd that you're saying the Switch makes the same mistake. For a start the name is entirely different which IMO does 90% of the re-branding work for them. Ontop of that they've shown people mostly playing either on the device itself or with a traditional controller in the footage thus far. Not at all similar to the way the Wii was marketed. Are there parallels to the Wii U? For sure. But even then they've made a point of constantly showing that the portable component is the device. That's why there was that stupid rooftop party scene. I think they've explained the Switch pretty damn well.

 

Case and point threads like this. What are the cynics talking about? What are people comparing this against? When the Wii U was revealed it was instantly put alongside the Wii. People aren't doing that with the Switch. They're not at all jumping to the wrong conclusion that this is just another Wii/Wii U. They're not talking about the range of the screen or how bored they are of motion controls. They're mostly saying it's too bulky or power hungry to be a portable system like the 3DS. They're saying that the footage is misleading and that it won't be able to run those sort of games. Which says to me that, despite the cynicism, they understand entirely what this device is trying to do.

[Ithanul]

^ My Mom straight up thought the Wii U was an accessory just because of the name.  I had to explain to her that the Wii U was a whole new console.  I have to give it to Nintendo.  They got even my Mom who is 55+ years old to buy a console and play it. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

I'm just irked the person thinks releasing a console for the holidays makes or breaks it. It's hurting my head.

[skywake]

It's better to launch it with a good amount of content and stock than to launch it in the "right month" with neither of those things. Nobody remembers when a console came out. But the do hear stories, first hand or otherwise, about what the console was like at launch. Those first impressions matter. It's why the Wii was seen as a console that had Wii Sports and was always out of stock and why the Wii U was seen as a buggy system with no games.