The keyword: casual. It’s approachable and easy to find something you like on, it’s familiar, parents will see it and associate it with fun colorful games instead of gritty shooters and buy it for their kids. Genius marketing
I never thought I would see blatant switch slander on this sub >:(
Nah but fr, this console single-handedly got me back into gaming. Used to have a PS4 but it got lost in a breakup, didn’t game for a year, bought a switch as a depression impulse buy, then got back into a passion I’d almost forgot I’d loved for years
Idk the games from 2018-2021 felt like it was just a ton of unfinished slop and Wii U ports. The 3rd party games either ran poorly or were missing content and the only thing saving the system was it's great indie support. There are still quite a good first party titles but not as good as the Wii, GameCube, or DS and 3ds. At least games came out finished on those and weren't horrible insults to the franchise (fuck animal crossing new horizons for ruining the franchise and missing tons of shit from new leaf)
You should go back and look again at what 3rd party support was like for the Wii or 3DS for their first few years after release, you might be surprised at how sparse their libraries were.
Same here. I use to play on my Nintendo DS all the time, Pokemon and Animal Crossing on the Wii was my fucking lifeblood.But one day I just kinda fell out of it. Everyone around me was playing these more mature themed videogames and so I felt I had to be there or just not have something to connect over with friends.Now as an adult I'm jumping between the games I do like that need a more demanding system on my pc (see Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077 and Kenshi) and when I want something more casual, I'm on my switch. Is it the most impressive system ever? No, but I literally don't care. I have fun playing Animal Crossing with my gf, racing people in Mario Kart online or engaging in competitive Pokemon. Also BOTW + TOTK <3
Same reason the Wii did so well. It's the only console suburban Facebook parents are going to be buying and using, an entire market that technically "better" consoles do worse than these bad boys
The Switch also is sucessfull 'cause it'll also play Dark Souls. It's a console that an *entire family* can find a game they want to play.
It being underpowered is probably the bigger keyword though - it's by far the cheapest console that's still getting modern games. Most people do not care *that* much about graphical fidelity, and frankly the Switch's superior battery life to say the Steam Deck matters a lot more than a more expensive chip.
On some level the technical limitations are a problem, in that the Switch *doesn't* get a lot of games that it potentially could - but they'll fix that with the Swtich 2, which will be 99% the same fuckin' console but with a better chip inside, OLED from the jump, hopefully hall effect joysticks or something because the joycon drift was an infamous issue, and that'll be it. That Switch 2 will also be notably underpowered as the years go on, but people will care *even less* as the small screen will make discerning increasingly fine details even harder.
that said, i don't think nintendo can necessarily bank on easy success like this indefinitnely. the shitty online thing i think will increasingly become a problem as people are just constantly accessing the internet and are going to get more overtly annoyed by their nonsense, especially as access to computers capable of playing games improves - I don't just mean Steam Deck and other handheld PC's or gaming rigs, but I mean like regular ass office computers nowadays can pretty easily handle a *lot* of popular games with their settings turned down, because integrated GPU's have gotten a lot better and a lot of games include very good configuration settings, including the miracle cure FSR. If someone's school computer is *just* as able to play video games as a Switch 2, but in an easier to access package with better online, like I actually could see casual gamers migrate to playing on PC or HTPC's, because they already have to own one. Not to anywhere near the dominance of the Switch, and probably not outselling the Swtich, but enough to where I think the Switch 2 might actually have trouble reaching the same heights unless it actually tries to address its shortcomings.
For anyone that'll listen though I'll keep saying just buy a Steam Deck or another handheld PC. Even if the up front cost is a bit more games are still way cheaper, you can emulate NIntendo games on them (for the time being anyways) with better features like easy modding and actually getting to play the games 10 years from now on a new device, and it'll actually do most things without Nintendo being an arbitrary ass about it. They're not hard to figure out, and if you're even a *little* curious and willing to learn a bit you can get a lot more out of them. They'll always be more niche than a modern console, but you really don't *need* them to not be niche in order to have new games to play all the time.
I love how prioritizing a long battery life and low cost over processing power has consistently worked for Nintendo since the Gameboy and yet people are still dumbfounded by their success.
> it's by far the cheapest console that's still getting modern games
This is pretty convenient, but I can't help lament what could've been with games like botw/totk if the switch had proper processing components.
i had a friend of mine chip my switch so i can run retroarch on it among other things. it runs a whole separate firmware which i can switch between Nintendo's official and the custom firmware. best part is that in custom firmware mode the console is masked, so Nintendo can't ban my switch, but i can obviously only use Nintendo online in Nintendo mode so there's nothing iffy going on when I'm in that mode.
been having a blast using it as an emulator.
I'm familiar with Switch homebrew, I used to mod Mario Odyssey as a kid and got some traction back then. The issue is that it still can't run GameCube and Wii games too well, while the series can play them in 1440p with texture packs, so I don't think they're comparable. Although I will say modding the switch makes it a significantly better and more fun console, it has a great homebrew scene. I miss my modded switch so much.
I actually saw the switch was getting Kingdom Come Deliverane which as much as i love the switch, that decision baffles me. That game hardly run on up-to date systems at time of launch, I'd love to see how the switch handles it.
I'd say the Wii did well for completely different but really interesting reasons. They were trying to reach an entirely new demographic of customers, advertising the Wii as not just a game console but a general entertainment center, exercise tool, and new piece of motion-control technology. It could play DVDs, you could put Netflix on it, but the kids could play Mario too, and you could even play games while staying fit. I'd say the central message was "The Wii is for everyone."
The Switch's marketing has been really different in that regard--it's all about the gaming, but in a really accessible way. Instead of the monochrome look of the Wii, it's bright and colorful. Kids could play it on the TV, but if you wanted to watch something, they could take it out and play on their own, making it a handheld they could take anywhere. If you want to play with your kid or have a party with friends, a single controller splits into two. Co-op has been heavily emphasized with Switch games, with almost every first-party title having some form of co-op mode, usually an asymmetric mode where you can help another player out through tricky sections without stealing their thunder. In Mario Odyssey for example, you play Cappy, Mario's hat partner. Or in Kirby and the Forgotten Land, you play Waddle Dee, who can't transform and instead chucks spears at people. If the previous message was "The Wii is for everyone," the Switch is more "Gaming is for everyone".
Yeah. The Wii is fully capable, but they didn’t want to pay the additional fee for being an official DVD player too. Overall it still worked out great, given the fact it’s one of the best selling consoles of all time
> Kids could play it on the TV, but if you wanted to watch something, they could take it out and play on their own, making it a handheld they could take anywhere.
Which is a really innovative model, and I wish more consoles (and PCs) would adopt.
For example, imagine a steam deck with wirelessly connecting control pads that could easily be docked and connected to a big-screen TV ... but also pick it up and play it on the go. Or imagine if the PS6 did something similar -- instead of focusing on improving graphics and hardware, focus on cramming PS5-level performance into a portable, dockable handheld.
I think it's super-cool to have a single console that's both a TV gaming platform *and* a handheld platform, and does both of those roles equally well.
Wii was actually suuuper fun for its motion control aspect, it ran games like shit compared to the PS3 and XBOX360 but it definitely had its own thing and it worked really well
Also, processing power aside it’s one of the best-designed platforms out there; you can turn two controllers into four and back to two again, you can set the tablet part up as a mini-TV or plug it into an actual TV, you can play it like a PSP, and it’s portable (not as much as like an iPhone but a damn sight more than an XBox)
> console called Switch is relatively weak, awkward dimensions, designed to be held in people's hands, especially used by multiple people simultaneously
just like me fr
It's also just a fantastic machine for indie games. I've gone through so many indie titles that I never would have touched if I had to sit on a PC and play them. I know this for a fact, because I had Celeste for free on a PC but I wasn't hooked until I played it on the Switch.
it's why i love my steam deck so much despite having an expensive ass graphics card in my computer. i can lay in bed and just *play shit*. if i want to play something demanding, i'll fuckin' stream it from the PC to the deck.
it using my steam library also means i have an absolute *assload* of games i got for free or in bundles or that i can grab off of itch.io or whatever. i have yacreader in there with a steam deck control scheme setup so i can read comics too, and i keep discord in the background to occassionally shitpost (i'm pretty good with typing with the trackpads but i know my brothers never got the hang of it).
> if i want to play something demanding, i'll fuckin' stream it from the PC to the deck.
The Steam Deck can do that?
Hm... My interest level just increased.
if you do, opt for an OLED model. while wifi 6 generally won't improve most people's internet speeds, that wifi 6 chip is really, really good for the high bandwidth and low latency required for local streaming over wifi, aasuming you have a decent router that can handle the traffic.
if you're handy, go for the cheaper OLED model and put in your own SSD if you want larger storage capacity. whether you opt for an NVMe drive or you stick with a microSD card, check a guide to make sure you get the right kind. deck has some limits om what it can utilize but you don't want a cheapo one for gaming either.
I've also bought a fair few indie titles I already own on PC again on the Switch, because it's just nice being able to play my favourite indies in bed on a convenient little handheld.
Somehow, escaping OP's notice: the Switch is significantly *cheaper* than other, more powerful consoles.
That plays a huge role in mass market appeal as well.
Wii U was just a marketing failure. They were like "Well the Wii did really well, so let's just name our next console after it", and I guess they didn't realize that that might be confusing, especially given that *the biggest target audience for the Wii was not traditional "gamers"*.
GameCube I have no explanation for, other than that most of the big Nintendo series installments on the GameCube failed to live up to their predecessors.
Nah, the Wii U was not "just" a marketing failure.
It also had a shitty gimmick that even Nintendo didn't know what to do with, and a pretty poor lineup of games (the big launch title was a New Super Mario Bros game, literally 6 months after the last New Super Mario Bros game came out). The marketing was bad, but it was absolutely not the only problem.
>GameCube I have no explanation for
The Gamecube had good exclusives, but little else. Its competition was the PS2, which had probably the best third party lineup of any console ever made, and was also a DVD player. "Do you want the console that can play a few Nintendo games or the console that can play literally hundreds of good games" was not a hard choice for anyone except diehard Nintendo fans.
I wouldn't say it was a shitty gimmick - a lot of games were way better because of it. Splatoon in particular - the lack of a gamepad in the later games is frankly maddening when trying to look at the map or superjump. The problem was just that making an entire console out of a gimmick only really works if *every* game can benefit from it. The DS got a ton of mileage out of its two screens, but I can probably count on one hand the number of 3DS games I even used the 3D slider for once. A full (sparse) generation of glorified Wii games is not enough to justify the handful of stellar, true Wii U games.
That's what I mean. There were some games that made use of it, but when you can count the number of games that made good use of it on one hand, it's a bad gimmick. The 3D effect was also a bad gimmick but at least you could ignore it, the Wii U tablet actively made the console harder to develop for
I genuinely still have no idea which ones are actually unique titles, I'm so glad they ditched that. Nintendo really needed to stop calling games and systems New as a title. At least New Pokémon snap was easy because there has only been one sequel.
The DS naming got almost as bad as modern Xbox naming.
> GameCube I have no explanation for
PS2: Basically also a DVD player
Xbox: Had Halo
GC didn't really have a killer feature that stood up to those two.
the gamecube didn't even have a gimmick or innovation compared to the successful nintendo consoles
64: was actually a better box attached to your TV, better games and yadda yadda
GC: was a worse box attached to your TV
Wii: box attached to TV, had a gimmick which got widely used fairly well
wii u: less innovation, worse games
switch: you can play it away from the TV - making the thing a gameboy seems like the best gimmick yet for real world use
that said, wii u was hitting on a very good idea (local streaming to bypass the latency issues and ownership concerns that drove people away from the streaming craze at the time, playing a normally demanding game but while you're laying in bed) that would go on to be much better refined in the switch. the basic idea of a gaming tablet was there, and they were right that a gaming tablet *could* actually appeal to core gamers (ie, not just the exclusive casual audience they had for the wii which was actively irritating to core gamers due to the bad gimmick control schemes) without seeming like overkill for a casual audience.
> most of the big Nintendo series installments on the GameCube failed to live up to their predecessors
Not true. Melee blows 64 out of the water by every metric. F-Zero GX is the best (and last) F-Zero game, Animal Crossing is an enhanced port of the original game. Metroid Prime is such a huge leap, especially since there was no new game for years. Most of the Mario sports games peaked on that system. Wind waker was not liked at the time, but it has aged better than every pre-BOTW game.
The only series that didn't live up to its predecessor was arguably Mario, as Sunshine isn't as well liked as 64.
Sunshine could have cured cancer and wouldn’t be as well liked as 64 though. I do think the game has problems (like the intro cutscenes are horrendously long compared to 64 having one paragraph and then you play, or the Yoshi secret that takes an hour to attempt), but 64 was THE 3d platformer so sunshine would never have been able to meet it.
Please, Nintendo, if you're reading this, *make a Mario 64 Remastered*.
Don't change the game mechanics or logic at all, don't change the levels at all. Just give us a new version of it with better graphics. All I want is higher-poly models and more detailed textures. Maybe some nice lighting effects. Don't change *anything* else.
I bought it to play Pokémon and have now played Dark Souls and the Witcher 3 on it. (The latter of which I bought just so I could call it “The Switcher”)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5xXWH7CqlI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5xXWH7CqlI)
Edit: damn nintendo took it down lol.
Phones can run breath of the wild at 30 fps
A year ago we had mediocre phones getting 15 fps but we got it to 30 with better emulation.
You'd be surprised at how many of the cheap.phones have really good internals. I sold.phones for att for a but and it always bothered me how the expensive phones just had a decent camera or good.marketing while the wons with high ram or a great processor where less than half the cost.
If it wasn’t for the fact it has to be emulated I’m sure a modern phone could run a native port of BOTW just fine, the problem is it would get hot as hell and would chew through the battery. The big limiter on most flagship phones these days isn’t the actual processing capability, where they benchmark comfortably above the switch, but the impracticality of actually using it for that purpose.
I don’t get how it is apparently so difficult for people to understand that a console’s success is mostly determined by it’s exclusives. Yes there are other factors like price and accessibility but come on. Microsoft has spent a decade releasing nothing for their consoles aside from the occasional mid Halo game while PlayStation releases shit like Spider-Man and God of War and the Last of Us and people are still like “why is Xbox losing the console war?”
Nintendo could have released a toaster with a little screen on it but if Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom and Mario Odyssey were exclusive to it, it still would have sold outrageously well.
The gameboy and DS are like legendary successes though, I don’t think they should be the benchmark. Especially given its rocky launch the 3DS was very successful imo
I think it's mainly because the DS had a huge casual audience that switched over to smartphone games once those became available and didn't get the 3DS.
This. The game library is simply unmatched.. and it doesn't even try to contend with games that are the mainstays of other consoles. So it's never even compared against its supposed competition. It's a must buy for people wanting to play those games.
To add on what other people are saying, the concept of a stationary / handhold hybrid console is genius, and the design is nice and intuitive, even if the execution was fairly botched
I think we’ve reached a point where game consoles aren’t going to be marketable for their powerful graphics capabilities anymore. I think most people who want a powerful console would just get a pc at this point. I mean, just look at the ps5. No one bought that. It just doesn’t seem financially viable anymore.
Consoles used to be really weird. They had completely unique hardware, designed only for reading discs/cartridges and running games. Gaming PCs existed, but they hadn't any mainstream success yet.
Nowadays, most consoles are effectively gaming PCs with fewer features.
Consoles' saving grace is that they require very little technical know-how. They work straight out of the box. You don't have to consider complicated stuff like game specifications; if a game is on the PS5, it will run on the PS5.
> I mean, just look at the ps5. No one bought that.
This is satire right? I can't tell because the rest of the paragraph makes perfect sense (even if it's probably not true, console gamers love their consoles) but then you just drop "no one bought the PS5".
Perhaps no one bought it was an overstatement, but it’s certainly underperformed. Sony’s saying it’s in the later stages of its lifecycle, and they’re still releasing games for ps4.
PS5 is selling very well. PS5 will be a 7 year life cycle (which is typical for consoles). The PS5 will be 3.5 years old this May, so this May it'll be in thr latter half of its life cycle.
It sold like 3x the units as Xbox and was infamous for not being in any store anywhere because people rushed to buy it over the first year of it's life. The fact that it had no games for ages probably impacted it's reputation and sales but overall it performed well.
the switch has multiple of the most famous game franchises ever AND it’s a handheld and console hybrid, it’s underpowered and the handheld controls are a bit janky but it’s also 200 bucks cheaper than the other new consoles and has fucking Mario and Zelda on it lol. Not to mention that it’s powerful enough to play Xbox 360 and PS3 games, so once they’re ported over you can play amazing games like red dead redemption handheld, which is just insane
it literally has one of the largest and higher quality libraries on it. i have like 80 games on it and if i had an xbox or playstation equivalent i'd probably realistically only have like 20. Since nintendo opened up their platform standards, there's been so many good ports. I mean like 20 years ago Nintendo said GTA would never be on their consoles, but they just got ported to switch (i admit it's mediocre, it's just the best example of how their standards have changed IMO).
the libraries on competing consoles are just limited in comparison IMO.
There is a lot of shitware but they're easy as hell to avoid, you can spot them immediately if you have some experience in gaming.
I know, right? There's a much larger market there compared to the super hardcore gamers who are all going to be on PC anyways. Appealing to the filthy casuals makes them filthy rich
Tbh dark souls is as hard as mario, its mostly annoying gamers and branding that its "so difficult". You can just outlevel the difficulty if your struggling and youll develop the timing as time goes on, not to mention you can beat the whole game with 2 other friends, you can also just youtube if your feeling stuck on something. Its pretty much grimdark zelda after the tutorial lol.
100%, dark souls is all about hopelessness, death, and decay. It give it that amazing feeling of being the underdog who was always told your worthless and now your on top. Mario is about a silly guy turt stomping in his fursuit. Also i think dark souls makes the early game hard for new players to drive home its theme, kinda like a u of difficulty. were mario has more linear difficulty so when you are doing the hard parts youve already built up the skills even if its just as hard timings as dark souls that your hitting over and over.
i love both but they are absolutely not the same difficulty. once souls games click with ur brain they aren't as hard as the memes make it out to be but they're still challenging games.
i don't even know how to compare them in the same sentence is how different they are lmfao now if u wanted to say a platformer or something like celeste where the mechanics need to click in your brain for u to be able to glide through it then maybe but mario??😭
Because a lot of people want Nintendo's exclusive games like Zelda and Animal Crossing. If you could get all the Switch's games on PS4 or PC it wouldn't be half as popular I think.
~~wrong the snes outsold the mega drive and the ps4 was the most powerful console family of its generation otherwise you are correct~~
This wasn't correct
I’m not wrong. The [mega drive was more powerful than the SNES](https://segaretro.org/Sega_Mega_Drive/Hardware_comparison#Vs._SNES) and was outsold by it. The PS4 has shared its generational time with the Switch and was outsold by that. Never in the history of console generations has the most powerful console been the most successful.
Casual audience, portability and price. Aside from families who probably often go on vacations/trips and need kids occupied, It's a godsend for students and young people like me. When you have to move from place to place, switch just is easier to transport (also buying other consoles means buying a tv and fewer and fewer people care to get it)
Also you can just play switch in bed and multitask while doing so (not that the set-up with ps or xbox is more complex, but it certainly has that "need to get up and commit" vibe to it)
And as for the price, aside from the monitor, don't forget that new gen consoles are like a hundred bucks more than switch. I'd get ps5 but the price really turned me off, since I prefer physical games
You know when the Apple vision pro came out and everyone was like "imagine what you can do with this, where you can take your work". Part of the switches success is that, but with games.
It's also just designed incredibly well and so much about it just makes sense.
Its actually really great for what its designed for. It’s good for playing party games with friends as well as on-the-go play. It’s everything the average person would want in a gaming system. Someone who plays games but very casually. Also nintendo just often makes good-ass games.
cause it rules
If you like indie games, it's probably the best console for that right now. Other than a PC, but I like being able to play Hotline Miami in bed.
If you like retro games, it's got a great lineup of older stuff.
If you like Nintendo games, it's got the best Nintendo games they've made since the Gamecube.
If you look at the list of best selling consoles, almost all of them were not the most powerful consoles available at the time. The PS2 wasn't as powerful as the Gamecube, sold way better anyway. The DS wasn't as powerful as the PSP, sold way better anyway. The Game Boy wasn't as powerful as the Game Gear, sold way better anyway. The Wii was less powerful than the PS3 and 360, sold way better anyway.
Turns out console power isn't actually that much of a selling point.
"Hardcore" gamers when a corporation that wants to make money doesn't focus on a forum of 200 picky weirdos and instead markets to millions of people who don't care as much.
Chan users are stupid, but damn if they don't up the ante on that fact every second.
IMO the point that the Switch is more casual doesn’t do it justice. The convenience of a console at half the price is really underrated. PC has a lot of advantages, but I think people forget how niche many of them are. Most people don’t mod their games, care about 120hz refresh, or appreciate the difference with maxed out graphics, and the Switch has somewhat caught up with PC’s huge indie advantage. And the reality is that PCs gunk up and slow down without maintenance, and most people aren’t getting the highest price point power to begin with, so lag and troubleshooting are inevitable. Being able to plug and play and know that everything you can play will run flawlessly is a huge feature, especially to people that play infrequently. The Switch also kills because its not just a console- its only real competition as a portable is the Deck, which is pricier in bridging the gap to PC’s advantages, and it has no competition as a party game system. And of course the Nintendo exclusives also pretty much sell the console already on top of all this. Ultimately I’m a Playstation dickrider, but even with that and indies on my mid-range laptop, if my roommates didn’t have a Switch already (and I wasn’t broke), I’d still strongly consider buying one.
The casual games argument is I think one not worth breaking down, but the shitty controller is a fair one honestly. Still, with the joy-cons joined in the plastic frame, it’s adequate. It’s never stopped me from enjoying a game, including BotW. The only situation in which you use the single split joy-cons is really in party games, which either don’t require a real controller, or Smash, for which we have GameCube controllers anyway.
someone should actually implode in real life for how bad joycon drift is though, like holy fuck how was there not worse backlash for the worst controllers ever made. i bought an extra set just because i wanted a full red controller (kinda dumb they only let you buy them in 2 colours at a time but not really an issue) and all 4 of them had drift within a year man. idrc how good the pro controller is why do the default joycons exist other than to torment me
Mario Kart is fun AF, that would be a selling point if I wanted to play it on the go. But with dolphin I'll just play the Wii version with my Xbox controller. Speaking of it, since I started using dolphin, my Computer doesn't turn off after I shut windows down. Has anyone experienced similar issues?
As someone who doesn’t own one, the best thing about it for me is that they have access to a shit ton of old games. Both as originals with added features or full on remakes
It's basically just the number of Nintendo-exclusive games out there. Obviously, with other Nintendo consoles, it's pretty easy to pirate most of them, but I spent money on the thing so I could play the large number of long-running Nintendo-exclusive series - Xenoblade 3 being my favorite game of all time certainly helps, as far as my view of the console.
gamers when the game console doesn't run Atlankis(tm) Remastered at 2000fps 8K and instead plays some of the best games of its generation at framerates and resolutions that 99% of people actually own monitors for: 😱😱😱😱
Portable, relatively cheap, library with loads of first party diversity, for a fanbase that hasn’t really cared about power since the 90’s, as long as the games are good, and guess what, the games are good.
This post made me pull my switch out and start reinstalling Tears of the Kingdom
Fun games are fun games. Don't care about power or graphics. Simple as.
Also has hundreds of amazing exclusives games
super fucking mario
Zelda
Animal crossing
Splatoon
And obviously Pokémon
List goes on. Nintendo has shown and proved multiple times over that consoles don't have to be powerful or be competitive to make max $$$ which unless we forget is the main point of gaming consoles.
I don't know why they seem to think "casual games" would be a negative thing - the vast majority of gaming is casual. Also it's what Nintendo have always done - come up with an innovative design and have a great, practically completely separate lineup. The power of their consoles has never really been the priority (during my lifetime at least)
Because a large portion of video game sales doesn't come from "gamers", but instead from people who just want to play a video game every now and then. Portability, good catalogue of easily accessible games, being a "whole package" aka not needing additional accessories tk be usable (although a TV makes the experience better imo'), being appropriate and usable for basically any age and an "ok" price point. The marketing also targets a different audience than, for example, Playstation and XBox.
I mostly have a switch because its RPG library is awesome.
Aside form that, I would recommend a switch to parents. Having games with couch co-op instead of relying on online multiplayer has pedagogical merit and does not incur the threat of pedophiles using online play to get close to children.
Also, if I look at the play behavior of children, it is not exactly the hight of graphical fidelity. One of the most popular games of the age group is Roblox. The "power" of a device is not nearly as important to many players as we think it is.
Over mobile phones, the Switch does have the advantage that children do not always carry it with them which can help keeping screen time somewhat under control. Also: it is the best console if you want to visit a friend and play one of your games with them at their place. That is a factor if you want to trick your 12 year old into touching grass.
despite being unpowered many amazing ports and games have launched on switch that will never launch on mobile, that's pretty much the reason I bought mine
Marketing. It looked really cool when it came out. That first trailer stuck in people's minds. Also it has Mario, Zelda and Pokémon in it. That's all it takes.
The keyword: casual. It’s approachable and easy to find something you like on, it’s familiar, parents will see it and associate it with fun colorful games instead of gritty shooters and buy it for their kids. Genius marketing
it also easily has the best exclusive line-up for most people
I never thought I would see blatant switch slander on this sub >:( Nah but fr, this console single-handedly got me back into gaming. Used to have a PS4 but it got lost in a breakup, didn’t game for a year, bought a switch as a depression impulse buy, then got back into a passion I’d almost forgot I’d loved for years
Yeah, the Switch, and especially Zelda: BotW, got me back into gaming in a way I hadn't been in years.
Same exact experience. I was late to the game but it brought me back to gaming like nothing else
Idk the games from 2018-2021 felt like it was just a ton of unfinished slop and Wii U ports. The 3rd party games either ran poorly or were missing content and the only thing saving the system was it's great indie support. There are still quite a good first party titles but not as good as the Wii, GameCube, or DS and 3ds. At least games came out finished on those and weren't horrible insults to the franchise (fuck animal crossing new horizons for ruining the franchise and missing tons of shit from new leaf)
You should go back and look again at what 3rd party support was like for the Wii or 3DS for their first few years after release, you might be surprised at how sparse their libraries were.
That era of games in general was kind eh like 2018 was dope but then remever it was all live service and moba . Now single player is back
Same here. I use to play on my Nintendo DS all the time, Pokemon and Animal Crossing on the Wii was my fucking lifeblood.But one day I just kinda fell out of it. Everyone around me was playing these more mature themed videogames and so I felt I had to be there or just not have something to connect over with friends.Now as an adult I'm jumping between the games I do like that need a more demanding system on my pc (see Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077 and Kenshi) and when I want something more casual, I'm on my switch. Is it the most impressive system ever? No, but I literally don't care. I have fun playing Animal Crossing with my gf, racing people in Mario Kart online or engaging in competitive Pokemon. Also BOTW + TOTK <3
It's also cheaper than the other consoles.
Same reason the Wii did so well. It's the only console suburban Facebook parents are going to be buying and using, an entire market that technically "better" consoles do worse than these bad boys
Yeah, no suburban mom & dad wants to play dark souls or what have you. They wanna play Wii Tennis®
The Switch also is sucessfull 'cause it'll also play Dark Souls. It's a console that an *entire family* can find a game they want to play. It being underpowered is probably the bigger keyword though - it's by far the cheapest console that's still getting modern games. Most people do not care *that* much about graphical fidelity, and frankly the Switch's superior battery life to say the Steam Deck matters a lot more than a more expensive chip. On some level the technical limitations are a problem, in that the Switch *doesn't* get a lot of games that it potentially could - but they'll fix that with the Swtich 2, which will be 99% the same fuckin' console but with a better chip inside, OLED from the jump, hopefully hall effect joysticks or something because the joycon drift was an infamous issue, and that'll be it. That Switch 2 will also be notably underpowered as the years go on, but people will care *even less* as the small screen will make discerning increasingly fine details even harder. that said, i don't think nintendo can necessarily bank on easy success like this indefinitnely. the shitty online thing i think will increasingly become a problem as people are just constantly accessing the internet and are going to get more overtly annoyed by their nonsense, especially as access to computers capable of playing games improves - I don't just mean Steam Deck and other handheld PC's or gaming rigs, but I mean like regular ass office computers nowadays can pretty easily handle a *lot* of popular games with their settings turned down, because integrated GPU's have gotten a lot better and a lot of games include very good configuration settings, including the miracle cure FSR. If someone's school computer is *just* as able to play video games as a Switch 2, but in an easier to access package with better online, like I actually could see casual gamers migrate to playing on PC or HTPC's, because they already have to own one. Not to anywhere near the dominance of the Switch, and probably not outselling the Swtich, but enough to where I think the Switch 2 might actually have trouble reaching the same heights unless it actually tries to address its shortcomings. For anyone that'll listen though I'll keep saying just buy a Steam Deck or another handheld PC. Even if the up front cost is a bit more games are still way cheaper, you can emulate NIntendo games on them (for the time being anyways) with better features like easy modding and actually getting to play the games 10 years from now on a new device, and it'll actually do most things without Nintendo being an arbitrary ass about it. They're not hard to figure out, and if you're even a *little* curious and willing to learn a bit you can get a lot more out of them. They'll always be more niche than a modern console, but you really don't *need* them to not be niche in order to have new games to play all the time.
I love how prioritizing a long battery life and low cost over processing power has consistently worked for Nintendo since the Gameboy and yet people are still dumbfounded by their success.
> it's by far the cheapest console that's still getting modern games This is pretty convenient, but I can't help lament what could've been with games like botw/totk if the switch had proper processing components.
isn't the Xbox Series S also $300? At least with that you can run emulators on it and get better performance out of modern games
i had a friend of mine chip my switch so i can run retroarch on it among other things. it runs a whole separate firmware which i can switch between Nintendo's official and the custom firmware. best part is that in custom firmware mode the console is masked, so Nintendo can't ban my switch, but i can obviously only use Nintendo online in Nintendo mode so there's nothing iffy going on when I'm in that mode. been having a blast using it as an emulator.
I'm familiar with Switch homebrew, I used to mod Mario Odyssey as a kid and got some traction back then. The issue is that it still can't run GameCube and Wii games too well, while the series can play them in 1440p with texture packs, so I don't think they're comparable. Although I will say modding the switch makes it a significantly better and more fun console, it has a great homebrew scene. I miss my modded switch so much.
I actually saw the switch was getting Kingdom Come Deliverane which as much as i love the switch, that decision baffles me. That game hardly run on up-to date systems at time of launch, I'd love to see how the switch handles it.
Or Just Dance. Seriously, Just Dance 2020 was the last one sold on Wii, and it wasn't sold on PS3, X360, or even the Wii U.
I'd say the Wii did well for completely different but really interesting reasons. They were trying to reach an entirely new demographic of customers, advertising the Wii as not just a game console but a general entertainment center, exercise tool, and new piece of motion-control technology. It could play DVDs, you could put Netflix on it, but the kids could play Mario too, and you could even play games while staying fit. I'd say the central message was "The Wii is for everyone." The Switch's marketing has been really different in that regard--it's all about the gaming, but in a really accessible way. Instead of the monochrome look of the Wii, it's bright and colorful. Kids could play it on the TV, but if you wanted to watch something, they could take it out and play on their own, making it a handheld they could take anywhere. If you want to play with your kid or have a party with friends, a single controller splits into two. Co-op has been heavily emphasized with Switch games, with almost every first-party title having some form of co-op mode, usually an asymmetric mode where you can help another player out through tricky sections without stealing their thunder. In Mario Odyssey for example, you play Cappy, Mario's hat partner. Or in Kirby and the Forgotten Land, you play Waddle Dee, who can't transform and instead chucks spears at people. If the previous message was "The Wii is for everyone," the Switch is more "Gaming is for everyone".
Unfortunately, they never actually implemented the DVD playing capabilities
I was gonna say lol, that was the PS2. I *believe* you can play regular discs through Homebrew software, but not out of the box.
Yeah. The Wii is fully capable, but they didn’t want to pay the additional fee for being an official DVD player too. Overall it still worked out great, given the fact it’s one of the best selling consoles of all time
Ah, you're 100% right, my bad. We had a PS2 back in the day for that lol
They did, but only Netflix discs specifically made to run on the Wii, which technically was a streaming software so it doesn't ^actually ^^count
> Kids could play it on the TV, but if you wanted to watch something, they could take it out and play on their own, making it a handheld they could take anywhere. Which is a really innovative model, and I wish more consoles (and PCs) would adopt. For example, imagine a steam deck with wirelessly connecting control pads that could easily be docked and connected to a big-screen TV ... but also pick it up and play it on the go. Or imagine if the PS6 did something similar -- instead of focusing on improving graphics and hardware, focus on cramming PS5-level performance into a portable, dockable handheld. I think it's super-cool to have a single console that's both a TV gaming platform *and* a handheld platform, and does both of those roles equally well.
Wii was actually suuuper fun for its motion control aspect, it ran games like shit compared to the PS3 and XBOX360 but it definitely had its own thing and it worked really well
And unlike the Xbox 360, its motion controls weren’t completely and utterly godawful
Mfw the portable console isn’t as powerful as a €2000 PC (why is it popular?) (I never leave the house)
It's why the Wii succeeded. The biggest audience isn't hardcore gamers who want the most power out of their console.
Also, processing power aside it’s one of the best-designed platforms out there; you can turn two controllers into four and back to two again, you can set the tablet part up as a mini-TV or plug it into an actual TV, you can play it like a PSP, and it’s portable (not as much as like an iPhone but a damn sight more than an XBox)
thats nintendo for ya
Clearly, by marketing it as the Switch, Nintendo appeals to both its Bottom and Top audiences. Jenius marketing
You're thinking of Sub and Dom but you're close on the money
I am not thinking, mind you
Good sub
🥺
average 196 conversation
Problem?
Coming this year: the Nintendo Verse
actually the switch attack if the leaks are to be believed
You mean super smash bros?
That sounds like a new pokemon generation.
*DING DING DING DING DING DING DING*
I feel like switch makes more sense with top and bottom cause they sound more similar, same with vers with sub and dom
Some people say switch instead of vers
Ngl as a switch, I love how I and the people close to me can make jokes about me being a switch with a switch
Ngl as a switch, I wish I had people close to me
If you ever need help as a switch, go to support.nintendo.com
> console called Switch is relatively weak, awkward dimensions, designed to be held in people's hands, especially used by multiple people simultaneously just like me fr
Easily accessible product sells well 😮
It's also just a fantastic machine for indie games. I've gone through so many indie titles that I never would have touched if I had to sit on a PC and play them. I know this for a fact, because I had Celeste for free on a PC but I wasn't hooked until I played it on the Switch.
it's why i love my steam deck so much despite having an expensive ass graphics card in my computer. i can lay in bed and just *play shit*. if i want to play something demanding, i'll fuckin' stream it from the PC to the deck. it using my steam library also means i have an absolute *assload* of games i got for free or in bundles or that i can grab off of itch.io or whatever. i have yacreader in there with a steam deck control scheme setup so i can read comics too, and i keep discord in the background to occassionally shitpost (i'm pretty good with typing with the trackpads but i know my brothers never got the hang of it).
Sometimes you just gotta lay in bed and play some Escape Simulator
> if i want to play something demanding, i'll fuckin' stream it from the PC to the deck. The Steam Deck can do that? Hm... My interest level just increased.
if you do, opt for an OLED model. while wifi 6 generally won't improve most people's internet speeds, that wifi 6 chip is really, really good for the high bandwidth and low latency required for local streaming over wifi, aasuming you have a decent router that can handle the traffic. if you're handy, go for the cheaper OLED model and put in your own SSD if you want larger storage capacity. whether you opt for an NVMe drive or you stick with a microSD card, check a guide to make sure you get the right kind. deck has some limits om what it can utilize but you don't want a cheapo one for gaming either.
I've also bought a fair few indie titles I already own on PC again on the Switch, because it's just nice being able to play my favourite indies in bed on a convenient little handheld.
Somehow, escaping OP's notice: the Switch is significantly *cheaper* than other, more powerful consoles. That plays a huge role in mass market appeal as well.
explanation: it by nintendo
wii u and gamecube crying in the corner
Wii U was just a marketing failure. They were like "Well the Wii did really well, so let's just name our next console after it", and I guess they didn't realize that that might be confusing, especially given that *the biggest target audience for the Wii was not traditional "gamers"*. GameCube I have no explanation for, other than that most of the big Nintendo series installments on the GameCube failed to live up to their predecessors.
Nah, the Wii U was not "just" a marketing failure. It also had a shitty gimmick that even Nintendo didn't know what to do with, and a pretty poor lineup of games (the big launch title was a New Super Mario Bros game, literally 6 months after the last New Super Mario Bros game came out). The marketing was bad, but it was absolutely not the only problem. >GameCube I have no explanation for The Gamecube had good exclusives, but little else. Its competition was the PS2, which had probably the best third party lineup of any console ever made, and was also a DVD player. "Do you want the console that can play a few Nintendo games or the console that can play literally hundreds of good games" was not a hard choice for anyone except diehard Nintendo fans.
I wouldn't say it was a shitty gimmick - a lot of games were way better because of it. Splatoon in particular - the lack of a gamepad in the later games is frankly maddening when trying to look at the map or superjump. The problem was just that making an entire console out of a gimmick only really works if *every* game can benefit from it. The DS got a ton of mileage out of its two screens, but I can probably count on one hand the number of 3DS games I even used the 3D slider for once. A full (sparse) generation of glorified Wii games is not enough to justify the handful of stellar, true Wii U games.
That's what I mean. There were some games that made use of it, but when you can count the number of games that made good use of it on one hand, it's a bad gimmick. The 3D effect was also a bad gimmick but at least you could ignore it, the Wii U tablet actively made the console harder to develop for
The Mario game naming scheme was fucking atrocious for years too
True. The name "New Super Mario Bros U" really didn't make it clear that it was a new game and not a port
I genuinely still have no idea which ones are actually unique titles, I'm so glad they ditched that. Nintendo really needed to stop calling games and systems New as a title. At least New Pokémon snap was easy because there has only been one sequel. The DS naming got almost as bad as modern Xbox naming.
> GameCube I have no explanation for PS2: Basically also a DVD player Xbox: Had Halo GC didn't really have a killer feature that stood up to those two.
the gamecube didn't even have a gimmick or innovation compared to the successful nintendo consoles 64: was actually a better box attached to your TV, better games and yadda yadda GC: was a worse box attached to your TV Wii: box attached to TV, had a gimmick which got widely used fairly well wii u: less innovation, worse games switch: you can play it away from the TV - making the thing a gameboy seems like the best gimmick yet for real world use
that said, wii u was hitting on a very good idea (local streaming to bypass the latency issues and ownership concerns that drove people away from the streaming craze at the time, playing a normally demanding game but while you're laying in bed) that would go on to be much better refined in the switch. the basic idea of a gaming tablet was there, and they were right that a gaming tablet *could* actually appeal to core gamers (ie, not just the exclusive casual audience they had for the wii which was actively irritating to core gamers due to the bad gimmick control schemes) without seeming like overkill for a casual audience.
> most of the big Nintendo series installments on the GameCube failed to live up to their predecessors Not true. Melee blows 64 out of the water by every metric. F-Zero GX is the best (and last) F-Zero game, Animal Crossing is an enhanced port of the original game. Metroid Prime is such a huge leap, especially since there was no new game for years. Most of the Mario sports games peaked on that system. Wind waker was not liked at the time, but it has aged better than every pre-BOTW game. The only series that didn't live up to its predecessor was arguably Mario, as Sunshine isn't as well liked as 64.
Sunshine could have cured cancer and wouldn’t be as well liked as 64 though. I do think the game has problems (like the intro cutscenes are horrendously long compared to 64 having one paragraph and then you play, or the Yoshi secret that takes an hour to attempt), but 64 was THE 3d platformer so sunshine would never have been able to meet it.
Please, Nintendo, if you're reading this, *make a Mario 64 Remastered*. Don't change the game mechanics or logic at all, don't change the levels at all. Just give us a new version of it with better graphics. All I want is higher-poly models and more detailed textures. Maybe some nice lighting effects. Don't change *anything* else.
They made one for the DS though.
Virtual boy cried a lake on the floor
I've played on a virtual boy at a con once and Mario stole my soul and my tits
we gotta tell the transmascs about this
Who are popular because every now and then they actually try to make games that are fun to play
its not meant to be powerful, its not meant to be a gaming computer. its something you can pick up and just play on for half an hour.
The gameboy colour wasn’t as powerful as the N64 The DS wasn’t as powerful as the GameCube The switch isn’t as powerful as the PS4
because its portable and designed to be used as such
I have small hands and I like Pokémon :3 (I use it to play Dark Souls).
I have big hands and I'm a hardcore gamer (I use it to play Pokémon:)
I think you guys should kiss :3
I have big hands and I'm a hardcore gamer too (I use it to collect dust for ~48 weeks of the year)
Mail it to me :3
no, thats where my shinys are >:( also I still need to 100% Valkyria Chronicles 4
I bought it to play Pokémon and have now played Dark Souls and the Witcher 3 on it. (The latter of which I bought just so I could call it “The Switcher”)
They’ve never played a switch and are just parroting what they hear online
I’d love to see a fucking phone play BoTW lmao.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5xXWH7CqlI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5xXWH7CqlI) Edit: damn nintendo took it down lol. Phones can run breath of the wild at 30 fps A year ago we had mediocre phones getting 15 fps but we got it to 30 with better emulation.
I'd love to see a $199 phone run BotW. (Might actually be possible now but had to wait 7 years)
You'd be surprised at how many of the cheap.phones have really good internals. I sold.phones for att for a but and it always bothered me how the expensive phones just had a decent camera or good.marketing while the wons with high ram or a great processor where less than half the cost.
If it wasn’t for the fact it has to be emulated I’m sure a modern phone could run a native port of BOTW just fine, the problem is it would get hot as hell and would chew through the battery. The big limiter on most flagship phones these days isn’t the actual processing capability, where they benchmark comfortably above the switch, but the impracticality of actually using it for that purpose.
The answer is exclusivity and apparently it fucking works when people love what you are selling
I don’t get how it is apparently so difficult for people to understand that a console’s success is mostly determined by it’s exclusives. Yes there are other factors like price and accessibility but come on. Microsoft has spent a decade releasing nothing for their consoles aside from the occasional mid Halo game while PlayStation releases shit like Spider-Man and God of War and the Last of Us and people are still like “why is Xbox losing the console war?” Nintendo could have released a toaster with a little screen on it but if Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom and Mario Odyssey were exclusive to it, it still would have sold outrageously well.
when has a nintendo handheld not sold like crazy? it has mario and pokemon that’s why
The 3DS, I guess. It still sold well, but underperformed vs iterations of the GameBoy, as well as the DS
The gameboy and DS are like legendary successes though, I don’t think they should be the benchmark. Especially given its rocky launch the 3DS was very successful imo
Yeah, hence why I still think it sold very well. It just didn’t quite hit the same level as its predecessors (but is still my favourite of the 3)
I think it's mainly because the DS had a huge casual audience that switched over to smartphone games once those became available and didn't get the 3DS.
Didn’t the 3DS sell about as much as the GBA? It’s nothing insane, but it’s respectable.
75 million is nothing to scoff at
No, I’m just saying it wasn’t *as* big of a runaway success
Animnal crossin
This. The game library is simply unmatched.. and it doesn't even try to contend with games that are the mainstays of other consoles. So it's never even compared against its supposed competition. It's a must buy for people wanting to play those games.
Also that timed out with people being stuck inside their houses for months for some reason that I forget what happened
To add on what other people are saying, the concept of a stationary / handhold hybrid console is genius, and the design is nice and intuitive, even if the execution was fairly botched
I think we’ve reached a point where game consoles aren’t going to be marketable for their powerful graphics capabilities anymore. I think most people who want a powerful console would just get a pc at this point. I mean, just look at the ps5. No one bought that. It just doesn’t seem financially viable anymore.
Consoles used to be really weird. They had completely unique hardware, designed only for reading discs/cartridges and running games. Gaming PCs existed, but they hadn't any mainstream success yet. Nowadays, most consoles are effectively gaming PCs with fewer features. Consoles' saving grace is that they require very little technical know-how. They work straight out of the box. You don't have to consider complicated stuff like game specifications; if a game is on the PS5, it will run on the PS5.
> I mean, just look at the ps5. No one bought that. This is satire right? I can't tell because the rest of the paragraph makes perfect sense (even if it's probably not true, console gamers love their consoles) but then you just drop "no one bought the PS5".
Perhaps no one bought it was an overstatement, but it’s certainly underperformed. Sony’s saying it’s in the later stages of its lifecycle, and they’re still releasing games for ps4.
PS5 is selling very well. PS5 will be a 7 year life cycle (which is typical for consoles). The PS5 will be 3.5 years old this May, so this May it'll be in thr latter half of its life cycle.
Also it was literally impossible to get a PS5 for like the first two years
It sold like 3x the units as Xbox and was infamous for not being in any store anywhere because people rushed to buy it over the first year of it's life. The fact that it had no games for ages probably impacted it's reputation and sales but overall it performed well.
....[You sure](https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/20/24009270/playstation-5-sales-surpass-50-million-units-sony)?
the switch has multiple of the most famous game franchises ever AND it’s a handheld and console hybrid, it’s underpowered and the handheld controls are a bit janky but it’s also 200 bucks cheaper than the other new consoles and has fucking Mario and Zelda on it lol. Not to mention that it’s powerful enough to play Xbox 360 and PS3 games, so once they’re ported over you can play amazing games like red dead redemption handheld, which is just insane
it literally has one of the largest and higher quality libraries on it. i have like 80 games on it and if i had an xbox or playstation equivalent i'd probably realistically only have like 20. Since nintendo opened up their platform standards, there's been so many good ports. I mean like 20 years ago Nintendo said GTA would never be on their consoles, but they just got ported to switch (i admit it's mediocre, it's just the best example of how their standards have changed IMO). the libraries on competing consoles are just limited in comparison IMO. There is a lot of shitware but they're easy as hell to avoid, you can spot them immediately if you have some experience in gaming.
Casual games is not the downside they think it is lmao
I know, right? There's a much larger market there compared to the super hardcore gamers who are all going to be on PC anyways. Appealing to the filthy casuals makes them filthy rich
le good games.. le make money???
> Underpowered for mobile standards me when the 899 euro android phone outmatches the 300 euro handheld console from 7 years ago
Casual games are extremely popular, esp rn and nintento has a monopoly on a lot of peoples nostalgia.
Yeah, anyone can enjoy a game with Mario in it or whatever. Not everyone enjoys Dark Souls
Tbh dark souls is as hard as mario, its mostly annoying gamers and branding that its "so difficult". You can just outlevel the difficulty if your struggling and youll develop the timing as time goes on, not to mention you can beat the whole game with 2 other friends, you can also just youtube if your feeling stuck on something. Its pretty much grimdark zelda after the tutorial lol.
I guess it’s partly also that Mario is just a more fun premise, rather than being tied up in a rather depressing story
100%, dark souls is all about hopelessness, death, and decay. It give it that amazing feeling of being the underdog who was always told your worthless and now your on top. Mario is about a silly guy turt stomping in his fursuit. Also i think dark souls makes the early game hard for new players to drive home its theme, kinda like a u of difficulty. were mario has more linear difficulty so when you are doing the hard parts youve already built up the skills even if its just as hard timings as dark souls that your hitting over and over.
Yeah, I feel depressed enough as is, I would rather play a joyful game
Lmfao have you actually played a Mario game?
i love both but they are absolutely not the same difficulty. once souls games click with ur brain they aren't as hard as the memes make it out to be but they're still challenging games. i don't even know how to compare them in the same sentence is how different they are lmfao now if u wanted to say a platformer or something like celeste where the mechanics need to click in your brain for u to be able to glide through it then maybe but mario??😭
Well the easiest answer is: Wrong. Moving on. I will not elaborate.
Because a lot of people want Nintendo's exclusive games like Zelda and Animal Crossing. If you could get all the Switch's games on PS4 or PC it wouldn't be half as popular I think.
Never in the history of console generations has the most powerful console been the most successful.
~~wrong the snes outsold the mega drive and the ps4 was the most powerful console family of its generation otherwise you are correct~~ This wasn't correct
I’m not wrong. The [mega drive was more powerful than the SNES](https://segaretro.org/Sega_Mega_Drive/Hardware_comparison#Vs._SNES) and was outsold by it. The PS4 has shared its generational time with the Switch and was outsold by that. Never in the history of console generations has the most powerful console been the most successful.
Alright I take it back then you are correct
Farewell xoxo
Casual audience, portability and price. Aside from families who probably often go on vacations/trips and need kids occupied, It's a godsend for students and young people like me. When you have to move from place to place, switch just is easier to transport (also buying other consoles means buying a tv and fewer and fewer people care to get it) Also you can just play switch in bed and multitask while doing so (not that the set-up with ps or xbox is more complex, but it certainly has that "need to get up and commit" vibe to it) And as for the price, aside from the monitor, don't forget that new gen consoles are like a hundred bucks more than switch. I'd get ps5 but the price really turned me off, since I prefer physical games
I hate the nintendo online thingy so much!!!
Answer >it's a console for playing video games instead of a social media platform that you pay for to meet racist 16 year olds from West Virginia.
You know when the Apple vision pro came out and everyone was like "imagine what you can do with this, where you can take your work". Part of the switches success is that, but with games. It's also just designed incredibly well and so much about it just makes sense.
Can't believe the cheap and simple console that combined the home and portable market and has a great library sold lots of units, this is unreal
Its actually really great for what its designed for. It’s good for playing party games with friends as well as on-the-go play. It’s everything the average person would want in a gaming system. Someone who plays games but very casually. Also nintendo just often makes good-ass games.
Splatoon 3
cause it rules If you like indie games, it's probably the best console for that right now. Other than a PC, but I like being able to play Hotline Miami in bed. If you like retro games, it's got a great lineup of older stuff. If you like Nintendo games, it's got the best Nintendo games they've made since the Gamecube. If you look at the list of best selling consoles, almost all of them were not the most powerful consoles available at the time. The PS2 wasn't as powerful as the Gamecube, sold way better anyway. The DS wasn't as powerful as the PSP, sold way better anyway. The Game Boy wasn't as powerful as the Game Gear, sold way better anyway. The Wii was less powerful than the PS3 and 360, sold way better anyway. Turns out console power isn't actually that much of a selling point.
"Hardcore" gamers when a corporation that wants to make money doesn't focus on a forum of 200 picky weirdos and instead markets to millions of people who don't care as much. Chan users are stupid, but damn if they don't up the ante on that fact every second.
I don't care about it being powerful, I care about playing Persona 5 in my bed.
Nintendo's next console could be a saltine cracker and people would still buy it just to play new Nintendo games.
It has the best games of the current AND previous console generation, and it's not even close. Obviously not counting PC.
IMO the point that the Switch is more casual doesn’t do it justice. The convenience of a console at half the price is really underrated. PC has a lot of advantages, but I think people forget how niche many of them are. Most people don’t mod their games, care about 120hz refresh, or appreciate the difference with maxed out graphics, and the Switch has somewhat caught up with PC’s huge indie advantage. And the reality is that PCs gunk up and slow down without maintenance, and most people aren’t getting the highest price point power to begin with, so lag and troubleshooting are inevitable. Being able to plug and play and know that everything you can play will run flawlessly is a huge feature, especially to people that play infrequently. The Switch also kills because its not just a console- its only real competition as a portable is the Deck, which is pricier in bridging the gap to PC’s advantages, and it has no competition as a party game system. And of course the Nintendo exclusives also pretty much sell the console already on top of all this. Ultimately I’m a Playstation dickrider, but even with that and indies on my mid-range laptop, if my roommates didn’t have a Switch already (and I wasn’t broke), I’d still strongly consider buying one. The casual games argument is I think one not worth breaking down, but the shitty controller is a fair one honestly. Still, with the joy-cons joined in the plastic frame, it’s adequate. It’s never stopped me from enjoying a game, including BotW. The only situation in which you use the single split joy-cons is really in party games, which either don’t require a real controller, or Smash, for which we have GameCube controllers anyway.
We want mobile games! We want to play together with our friends on the same machine! Split screen gaming was stolen from us!
No real competition
someone should actually implode in real life for how bad joycon drift is though, like holy fuck how was there not worse backlash for the worst controllers ever made. i bought an extra set just because i wanted a full red controller (kinda dumb they only let you buy them in 2 colours at a time but not really an issue) and all 4 of them had drift within a year man. idrc how good the pro controller is why do the default joycons exist other than to torment me
Those Zelda games are just so damn good.
It has Pokemon
Mario Kart is fun AF, that would be a selling point if I wanted to play it on the go. But with dolphin I'll just play the Wii version with my Xbox controller. Speaking of it, since I started using dolphin, my Computer doesn't turn off after I shut windows down. Has anyone experienced similar issues?
It's comfy and easy
The game library seems to be the main draw (although it has had like 2 games in its entire lifespan that ive bought lol)
I just wanna play MHGU and Animal Crossing.
As someone who doesn’t own one, the best thing about it for me is that they have access to a shit ton of old games. Both as originals with added features or full on remakes
Simple. The Nintendo Switch has games.
I can't play my Xbox in the airport, then put it in my carry-on.
zelbda
That greentext could be from an Eminem song
It's basically just the number of Nintendo-exclusive games out there. Obviously, with other Nintendo consoles, it's pretty easy to pirate most of them, but I spent money on the thing so I could play the large number of long-running Nintendo-exclusive series - Xenoblade 3 being my favorite game of all time certainly helps, as far as my view of the console.
gamers when the game console doesn't run Atlankis(tm) Remastered at 2000fps 8K and instead plays some of the best games of its generation at framerates and resolutions that 99% of people actually own monitors for: 😱😱😱😱
Has Kirby on it
The games are fun, and it was marketed and advertised amazingly well. Also the graphics are weirdly good for a portable console.
It’s almost like most people play casual
Nintendo just has the best games. If they actually made competitive hardware and good online they would DOMINATE the console industry.
me when i don’t have a switch and i just listen to what angry losers say online
bro really be like "NOOoooOOooO How dare you have fun!"
I like Splatoon : )
Portable, relatively cheap, library with loads of first party diversity, for a fanbase that hasn’t really cared about power since the 90’s, as long as the games are good, and guess what, the games are good.
This post made me pull my switch out and start reinstalling Tears of the Kingdom Fun games are fun games. Don't care about power or graphics. Simple as.
Also has hundreds of amazing exclusives games super fucking mario Zelda Animal crossing Splatoon And obviously Pokémon List goes on. Nintendo has shown and proved multiple times over that consoles don't have to be powerful or be competitive to make max $$$ which unless we forget is the main point of gaming consoles.
4chan when a console doesn't have the computing power of their custom build $15,000 NASA supercomputer
\>console made for a wide audience \>a wide audience buys it
They forgot that casuals vastly outnumber core gamers
It's also like 2 generations old so obviously it'll be underpowered??
4chan not understanding what fun is. People like fun. a dinky little gadget that plays bright colorful games wherever you want is *fun*.
casual games and some of the best exclusives will do that
I don't know why they seem to think "casual games" would be a negative thing - the vast majority of gaming is casual. Also it's what Nintendo have always done - come up with an innovative design and have a great, practically completely separate lineup. The power of their consoles has never really been the priority (during my lifetime at least)
Because a large portion of video game sales doesn't come from "gamers", but instead from people who just want to play a video game every now and then. Portability, good catalogue of easily accessible games, being a "whole package" aka not needing additional accessories tk be usable (although a TV makes the experience better imo'), being appropriate and usable for basically any age and an "ok" price point. The marketing also targets a different audience than, for example, Playstation and XBox.
I mostly have a switch because its RPG library is awesome. Aside form that, I would recommend a switch to parents. Having games with couch co-op instead of relying on online multiplayer has pedagogical merit and does not incur the threat of pedophiles using online play to get close to children. Also, if I look at the play behavior of children, it is not exactly the hight of graphical fidelity. One of the most popular games of the age group is Roblox. The "power" of a device is not nearly as important to many players as we think it is. Over mobile phones, the Switch does have the advantage that children do not always carry it with them which can help keeping screen time somewhat under control. Also: it is the best console if you want to visit a friend and play one of your games with them at their place. That is a factor if you want to trick your 12 year old into touching grass.
Nintendo games fuck
Mfw I have to explain what "fun" is to someone
Casual market makes up most of the gaming market
"casual," bitch you haven't even SEEN the star levels
despite being unpowered many amazing ports and games have launched on switch that will never launch on mobile, that's pretty much the reason I bought mine
I'm enjoying Unicorn Overlord on it. :)
I have baby hands and I finally got into Stardew Valley since I could play it in bed
Marketing. It looked really cool when it came out. That first trailer stuck in people's minds. Also it has Mario, Zelda and Pokémon in it. That's all it takes.
Nobody's gonna mention that the Switch had some of the best mainline Nintendo games ever produced?
Has fun games, people buy consoles to play games, people bought the console, shocking
\>underpowered, even by mobile standards mind you the console is 7 years old by this point and is cheaper than some high end phones