Do you think the Switch can sustain its momentum?

I think so. I think Nintendo learned the hard way with the Wii U what happens when you don't have good support and are out of touch with customers. The Switch is definitely a mainstream gaming device, and it also fills a void in the market. It's a handheld with console level graphics, and it has all of the Nintendo IP's we love, plus some decent 3rd party support mixed in there. The fact that Doom and Wolfenstein are coming to Switch means it is heading in a very positive direction. I also like how Nintendo's handheld franchises and console franchises are now on one platform. I don't see why the Switch wouldn't be able to maintain its momentum. It's kicking ass right now, and there no other console or device out there that can compete with it as a secondary console. It's pretty much PS4 and Switch at this point. PC will always be there and they're in their own world. I don't know what to make of Xbox. Hopefully they'll take a hint and give us some good exclusives.

What do you think, SW? Will Switch continue to do well or is it still too early to tell?

Yes if they keep continue what i said almost 2 years go they should do. Games , games and games. As long as they doing that right there , will be fine. Now the big question is ... will they keep doing it and if they will for how long ... Its the bet im speaking of .. for yet again almost 2 years when it comes to switch ( back then called NX ).

Depends on what they got coming next year.

No, seriously, I'm wondering what have they got coming in 2018?

At this point, yes, I think it can.

I believe what you say will not happen, due to a consolidation of their studios.

Right now, they have Metroid Prime 4, Pokemon, Fire Emblem, Kirby, and Yoshi announced for next year (among first party games); third party games are likely to include Wolfenstein 2, Dragon Quest 11, Octopath, Lost Sphear, and Shin Megami Tensei V, among others.

Nintendo usually does not announce its own lineup for the year until January, so we have a while to wait in that regard.

Im wondering that too but all it takes to keep momentum is ...on point marketing and advertisement.

What you have out now and what is coming its all you want to make your product appealing and currently Nintendo has that. You might not have games for a period of times on release but what you have already out with the hype of what is coming is enough to keep the buzz and momentum imho at this point.

Few new announcements in 2018 for a new Smash and Kart its all you need.

@SolidGame_basic:

At this point, yes, I think it can.

What do you mean what i say will not happen ? It doesnt have to be 1st parties. Traveler octopath is a game on right direction that can keep buzz up till a 1st party arrives.

So are some 3rd party multi games like Wolf 2 or Fifa 18 etc that they definitly can be marketed as " the definite handheld version" to define themselfs vs consoles versions which theyll look better etc so again , feeling the time gap between 1st parties releases further.

Its now or never for Nintendo , consolidation or not. They heading in right direction as of now. All they have to do is to keep it up.

I think the Switch will do well long term. The hype/newness is driving sales right now. With some more good exclusives, it can continue to do well. Hell... they got me to buy it at launch for Zelda and I haven't bought a Nintendo console since GameCube. I refused to buy the Wii consoles because I thought they were shit (Don't worry, I still played the essential titles by borrowing a friend's console). Knowing Super Mario Odyssey was coming soon was a big factor in my launch purchase decision.

@AzatiS: I mean that the fizzling out will not happen with the Switch. I feel like Nintendo's own consolidation and readjustment of its development pipelines means that it should be able to put out a game a month on the system for a very long time to come (just look at how well Nintendo is managing to support two active platforms on the market at the moment), and, as you pointed out, getting high impact third party games such as Skyrim, Doom, Wolfenstein, FIFA, NBA, WWE, Rocket League, Resident Evil, LA Noire, and so on, will help it sustain its momentum too.

The system still has a lot of potential. A ton of games from last gen can get a portable treatment that would make the switch appeal to a lot of people...

Lets start with Bioshock, Borderlands, Dead Space trilogies please!

Stack that on top of what appears to be Nintendo's best effort at making games from the big IPs. Can you imagine Prime 4 with BotW attention?

Plus the VC streaming service has potential.

It definitely can. It could just as easily fall on it's face though. At some point, time will catch up and Nintendo will not be able to maintain the new first party release every month momentum. If they have enough third parties on board by then, it won't be much of a problem. Nintendo has made great strides in making it easier for people to release games on their systems, so I'd say the ball is in consumer's court to actually buy Switch versions of third party games.

Also, there needs to be a revamped version of the Switch with a bigger hard drive in the next year or two.

Nope. When the 10 million or so Nintendo fans in the world who are actually willing to throw their money away with Nintendo have bought the Switch, it's game over. No one else is buying that disaster.

Too early to tell...this year has been good...I'll wait to see what they have lined up next year. :P

Yes, because the sales are driven by the hardware concept, and not the software.

Also, you can say that Nintendo hardcore fans can only be a dominating factor in the first few months.

the only reason they seem so hard to find is because nintendo is only shipping like 3 at a time every month to store i'm telling its all deliberate

Yeah.

if they can keep exclusive content coming then yes. its great that the likes of doom (i cant wait for the DF overview of that...hopefully with input from ID themselves also) and fifa are also coming to the switch but these wont drive switch sales.

they need exclusive content (1st or 3rd party) that is appealing to more people.

I think it'll just be the same as before except this time around, they actually released decent 1st party games near launch. This going forward, 3rd party games will be non-existent, hence they need big 1st party games to continue the success but highly doubtful. They can try to make it seems like there's still a "shortage" issue. I remember Sony doing similar strategy with the PS3 which backfired.

Switch is set through at least Holiday 2017. Nintendo will sell through whatever it is able to make. As promised, the supply has gotten much better since July, and is promised to be increased again around October. So the install base will be strong.

Pokémon pretty much guarantees a huge sales spike on hardware and software when it releases, but we don't know yet if that is 2018 or later. So I think that 2018 will depend on a combination of compelling software, consistent supply, and continued appeal of the hardware itself.

Ah. Cheers. Looks pretty decent, actually, though it could use one or two more blockbusters. Guess we'll see in January, then.

Yeah, Nintendo are certainly doing well right now, but I believe this thread is talking about the long term. That's why I asked about their 2018 line-up, which should set the tone for the said long term prospect.

They got the 3DS owners and the first holiday coming up. I'd say it has barely launched yet. I'm afraid 2018 will be a little bit of a downer year in terms of releases, but I think 2019 onwards it will pick up because of 3DS devs switching to the Switch and their big hitters like MP4 and Pokemon Switch.

I'd hope for them to keep this up gamewise through 2018 but that seems impossible, right? No other gaming company has done what they are doing this year. In terms of quantity and quality releases they are writing history. If they could keep it up through 2018, that would be legendary.

I think they'll do well in 3 years but still slowly go down towards that 3rd year in terms of sales yoy but not much

Well, its gimmick isn't bad, so i'm sure it will keep going longer than i expect.

Since N has always, always done good with handhelds, Bait will be no exception but true MaterRace console gamers will demand Mighty X1X.. Just sayin. :P

Yeah I think they will. They learned how to support their games while releasing new titles. They also have a lot of WiiU titles they can easely port to the Switch to fill gaps. I'm sure we will see much more WiiU ports like Mario Maker or Smash Bros.

It would first have to have momentum in order to lose it

Just in case

No I don't..... they've blown their load too soon..... Mario kart, Zelda and a Mario game all in first 12 months?

Nintendo don't exactly release their top games every 12 months like most studio's leaving at least 2 years before we get another Zelda or Mario game.

They have other games on the horizon (Metroid) and a few other games but it's not enough as they have very very little games on the calibre of Zelda and Mario.

They should of at least staggered the releases a little further apart.

I can hardly believe I'd see the day where someone said it was a bad thing to have too many great games that everyone wants.

I can see a bit of a point, but only in that Switch sales have topped out. Simple hardware demand is likely enough to explain all their sales since it's been sold out for a long time now. It's clear that in most areas, it would have still sold out even if there were far fewer games. However, even with the factor of topped out hardware, the aging software will still drive sales considering that Nintendo games tend to be slow burning in terms of sales.

But Nintendo's strategy was to try and get as much market excitement as possible by stacking the deck in the Switch's favour, and the payoff is that third parties will be impressed enough to start making games for it, and that should cover any lulls in first party support. It looks like that strategy will succeed.

And btw, I see no reason why the Switch wouldn't get new games in those series. I could see a Mario Odyssey 2 come really quickly, just like how Galaxy 2 didn't take long since it could re-use some assets. In the meantime, Metroid and Pokemon are plenty.

Neither can I, can you point out where that comment was made?

It'll all depend on Nintendo. Personaly they havent done anything so far to justify its current success outside of Zelda BotW, wich is probably a good game, but then again, Sony also didnt do enough at the start of the PS4 life cycle to justify its success. The difference is that the PS4 still had strong 3rd party support going for it while the Switch, like every other Nintendo console before it, is lackin in that regard (sorry, but I dont consider ports of old games "good" 3rd party support or the WiiU had also had "good" 3rd party support in the beggining of it's lifecycle). Super Mario Odyssey is on the horizon, wich may entice people into buying the console but Metroid Prime 4, although I'm sure its most diehard fans are excited about it (and with good reason) I dont see it being a system seller... so, unless Nintendo puts some pokemon games on the switch, I'm seeing it losing momentum in some near future. Unless, as I've already said, Nintendo surprises everyone and keeps the good support coming

And this is the issue.

There's a very noticeable gap from January to April (the last quarter of the year - and part of the previous one).

We know Metroid Prime 4 is coming - presuming it's ready for holiday 2018. But what else? This is when Nintendo needs to double down and have a major first party title every quarter, and a couple during the Fall - Holiday stretch.

Switch is in stock at local video game store....SHOULD I GET IT?

@KungfuKitten: they always had games released back in the Wii era ... The u really screwed up but yes the switch is doing better then wiiu and psvita and Xbox one. .

you know, a car doesnt need much momentum to crash into a garage door.

I don't think it'll have the same kind of year. The first quarter will still be see lots of Switches being sold as Nintendo tries to restock stores after the holidays, but there's not much that we know of for next year that will move systems; all that is being done this year. After Mario and Xenoblade 2, the only other big hitters I can think of are Yoshi and Kirby, and they're not THAT big of hitters. I mean, there's Metroid Prime 4, but I highly doubt that will make next year.

I think it will be 2 years at best. Like pretty much every other Nintendo consols ( except WiiU ).

The first two years they have great release of hard hitter game and sometimes 3rd parties games and then "poof" the consol is almost dead, almost game comes out, 3rd party live that dead corpse and then during the 4th year it is like the system is completely dead. Almost no selves in stores and bah a new Nintendo consol...

Like look at the Switch ... Zelda is out the next one will be in 4 years if not more, Mario Odyssey is near then they will have a 2D Mario and this is pretty much it. Mario Kart8 is out and it is super great, what it should've been on the WiiU ... so maybe another one will be there but still a big maybe. Splatoon 2 is here I doubt they'll make a 3rd one on this consol. They still have Pikmin, Metroid Prime, maybe a Kirby ... a lackluster StarFox ... mario party 20 000 and then what ? it will be dead there ... If they continue to put their heavy hitter and keep the same pace as in previous gen ... they will run out of game very soon and the Switch, like all other Nintendo system, will die prematurely during the 3rd year of its existance

Heavily dependant on the games. The switch can't just rely on it's own exclusives developed by Nintendo themselves. If more third party developers come on board, then Nintendo can sustain to an extent.

... Pokemon?

WEll said.

If they want a healthy generation from start to end , theyll need help from outside.

I somewhat agree where you are coming from. My main concern with the Switch is the 3rd party games it can attract. To be honest, I feel Xbox and Playstation have outran Nintendo in terms of attracting 3rd party audiences. One example is people here in the UK adore the FIFA franchise and it's an instant console seller, not so much on Nintendo but we will find out how well the Switch performs. If the switch fails to attract 3rd party developers, Nintendo are fucked.

The Switch does need to attract 3rd party software, but it really doesn't need to have all those main series that the other consoles get. It's already looking like the Switch will have more of that type of software than the Wii ever did, and that console sold over 100 million.

So far, the Switch has attracted some third party stuff, and more encouraging is that reports are they are selling really well. That's why LA Noire, Doom, and Wolfenstein 2 got added. Skyrim will probably do really well too.

Metroid Prime 4 will be a big system seller if they take the lesson from BotW. Don't just make it a linear puzzle game with action beats. Embrace the non-linear roots, and it will be a smash success. Games like Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess sold millions, but didn't have near the impact that BotW has. So if Nintendo likes money and success, they'll develop Metroid the right way. (edit: and btw Mario being open world is a huge indication that Metroid will be developed that way too)

You compare the early third party support for the Switch as the same as the WiiU but it was the same for the PS4. Lots of ps3 gen porting going on, and no impact software until about 1.5 years in. So no, the Switch does not need massive third party support ASAP to keep the sales momentum going. The excitement for the hardware is more than enough.

The real indication that the Switch is not the WiiU is that the third party games on the Switch are selling really well. Wolfenstein 2 is a sign of things to come, where the Switch will start getting ports of ps4/xbone gen software at around the same time as the 'main' release.

There have been doubters of the Switch since day 1. Even a month in, the popular opinion around here would be that it would sell no more than 6 million units by the 1 year mark (next march). I would think people would stop underestimating this thing. It will sell a lot. It will get amazing third party support. There's little that can stop that now

@Vatusus: I feel like it is too early to determine whether 3rd party support is successful or not on the Nintendo Switch.

Independent studios have highlighted significant success on the platform and support in this area appears to be continuing, but there haven't been that many AAA launches from 3rd party developers yet on the platform, and certainly not many that have documented their results with the platform. So who knows?

It's nice to see Bethesda supporting the platform with their games. Likewise, EA are trying their hand with a couple of sports titles, SEGA with Puyo Puyo Tetris (which I do believe sold most on Switch), Shin Megami Tensei and Sonic Forces. Then Rockstar are bringing L.A. Noire to the Switch, and Square Enix have been very interested in Nintendo Switch with Dragon Quest and Octopath Traveler. If the performance of these games satisfy their publishers, then maybe third party support will continue.

Too soon to say, but at least developers have expressed positive sales on the platform.

Indies are selling well, but it's more than indies. Capcom even said that sales of Ultra Street Fighter 2 were so good that it would invest in the console in the future. I know USF2 is not exactly a AAA game, but the important part is that a major dev believes the Switch is good for third parties. Bomberman R and Sonic Mania also sold well (couldn't find exact figures on Sonic, but it was on the best seller list for the Switch). We'll see how FIFA 18 does, and EA said that if it does well then they will start putting their other games onto the system. If Skyrim does well, then it's very likely that the Switch will get other Bethesda games.

It's highly likely that strong third party sales is why Square is putting FFXV on the Switch.

Keep in mind this is a launch console. The third party support is not currently on the level of the ps4 and xbone but those consoles started weak as well, and are in mid-gen form. Of course devs will have more games on it at this time considering they are used to programming for them and they have big userbases. For a launch window, this support is pretty good so far, and the really important thing is the indicators for the future. We have these devs putting simple software on the Switch to gauge it, and they are getting very positive feedback. This is not what we got with the WiiU, and a strong indication that the Switch userbase is a lot more diverse than just Nintendo loyalists.

You mean the fake momentum? Where they ship 5 consoles to every country and claim it is sold out everywhere?

LOL

Nintendo does this on purpose or they are incompetent. Which one is it guys? How can such a big company never be able to predict sales of the Wii, Wii u, amiibos, 3DS, toys, other handhelds and accessories like controllers/docks and now the switch?

How is that possible? Nintendo = liars or incompetent.

Sony seems to have no problem shipping 60 million consoles world wide and counting. Apple has no problem selling 20 million iPhones day one.

Not anymore. Nintendo Switch aren't hard to find now and I see them on shelves every time I walk into Target or Best Buy.

I believe that Nintendo can and will maintain that Momentum. For 2 simple reasons:

First Nintendo has always had Great Success with all of their Portable HW.

2nd Nintendo no longer has to worry about making games for both Handheld and home consoles as the Switch Consolidates these 2 into one allowing Nintendo to focus solely on the Switch.