Non-tech people usually don’t care about the ToS and the dirty practices a company does. They’ll gladly pay for the ‘convenience’.
Most Nintendo fans even argued that prices, new ToS (bricking the device) and such were “justifiable”. Same thing about owning games, most argued that “in today’s era you barely own anything anyway”.
It’s very unfortunate and sad to see but it is reality.
Personally though, I’ll wait for either a working emulation or when there’s an actual exploit found to hack the Switch 2.
Matt Piscatella pointed out on Bluesky that a launch like this is only a function of how much inventory they made available. The Xbox One had the third most successful US launch of a console.
Every Nintendo console released gets negative press. I remember the articles bashing the original Switch because it was underpowered and that it was another gimmicky console - only for it becoming so successful that the form factor is being copied left and right.
As for boycotts, I only saw people bitching about games being more expensive. I get it, I too would love to get shit for free. But inflation is a thing, games are more expensive to make nowadays, and that cost will be offloaded to consumers. At least Nintendo games are not plagued with monetization and typically are released in a complete state.
In the end of the day Nintendo products are for casual gamers who only care about commercial material. It wouldn‘t even cross their minds to read reviews or discuss it outside their neoliberal Discord bubble. Emulating? How scary!
Besides, the Switch is a beloved system and many users waited for an upgrade for years. The Switch 2 is downwards compatible and able to give your older games a considerable performance boost. 90€ for new games just isn‘t enough of an argument to sit out this generation when you‘ve already spent thousands on games in the Nintendo ecosystem. The locked in effect is strong.
I am not very surprised by this but I sure as hell am glad I bought my Switch and and several games second hand for I‘m mostly a PC gamer.
In the end of the day Nintendo products are for casual gamers who only care about commercial material. It wouldn‘t even cross their minds to read reviews or discuss it outside their neoliberal Discord bubble. Emulating? How scary!
This sounds very inaccurate to me. Either that, or I just learned that I am a casual gamer that only cares about commercial material. And it seems that I don't read reviews or only discuss things on some hypothetical neoliberal Discord bubble.
You derive far too much meaning from people's preferences for console platform.
I sure as hell am glad I bought my Switch and and several games second hand
I had a Switch but I sold it after realizing that even second hand games sell for 90% of new. I've no idea how the economics of that situation works out...
It's that a handful of people virtue signaling about how bad X game/company is on niche social media communities don't matter if their opinions aren't aligned with your average person.
Most people just enjoy games as a hobby and treat it the same way they treat picking something to watch on Netflix.
On the plus side, the virtue signalers saved $ and can spend it on something that'll bring them more joy and is hopefully more aligned with their views. And gives them practice and a mindset of "I'm the kind of person willing to boycott" for any other boycotts that might have a real effect someday.
…I have thought about it and it is interesting that "virtue signal" is such a dirty word now. When I say "please" and "thank you" I'm essentially just virtue signaling that I'm willing to play nice, but nobody calls me the bad word for that. Although I understand that the current use of "virtue signal" is more about people you find to be sanctimonious and obnoxious online who you personally don't think actually bother with real activism, just online keyboard warrior-ing, and not about any type of "hi, I am not horrible to interact with" social signaling ever.
I would wager they many of the same people arguing for a boycott went on to purchase it anyway. Opinions are free, as long as it doesn’t affect your life in any way.
An intentional boycott, no. But we don't know how a console will do by its launch. The Wii U and 3DS sold out at launch too after having very successful predecessors. It wouldn't be people intentionally boycotting that would humble Nintendo, but the masses just deciding it's not worth their money for them or their kids. We'll see what they do.
Nintendo has spent decades building an extremely loyal, multigenerational consumer base. They also release very popular, high quality games. I have no interest in owning a Switch, but I get why so many people do.
Ah yes, the one Nintendo IP that has gone to shit. Not fully by the way, as Legends Arceus was fantastic, and even my mom who hasn't given a fuck about Pokemon since Yellow loved watching me play it. If Gamefreak would finally make another side game like Mystery Dungeon (or the more forgotten cult classics like Pokepark, Ranger, Conquest, Rumble, etc.) we wouldn't be trolling them so hard. It's also more of a Gamefreak problem than anything, as other companies that did Pokemon games (Chunsoft, Genius Sonority, etc.) did fantastic.
Anyway Zelda and Mario are still making bangers, Kirby Air Riders is coming back, Metroid fans are fed, Splatoon is getting a whole new game for Switch 2 (fuck me...), people are still relatively happy with Animal Crossing NH, we'll see how Donkey Kong's new game does, and while FE's newest entry wasn't so hot you can't ignore how Three Houses brought in a brand new wave of loyal FE fans.
Literally everyone knows Pokemon mainline has been going to shit (and not the characters, designs, music, etc. imo, just the animations and story writing). Pick another game, even Nintendo (and Pokemon) fans make fun of it.
Yeah, I'm not happy about the Switch 2, but the amount of cope is unbelievable. I've seen multiple people claiming, "the Wii U sold out a launch too," even though the Wii U sold worse than the Wii on opening weekend. The sales might still fall off a cliff in a month, but breaking the PS4's record for launch sales is not a great sign.
Aside from the analog sticks, the console itself seems like a fine upgrade from the original making it a tempting for anyone looking for "Switch Pro". But it'll be intersting to see how the price of games and the digital key aspect will affect the game sales down the line.
Steam Deck and other portable pc:s seem to be also getting a lot of momentum so there's increasing amount of competition for handheld devices which was not really the chase with Switch 1.
Not yet, but availability of steam decks and other pc handhelds is improving rapidly.
Valve also just recently allowed other manufacturers like Lenovo to produce their own devices.
PC gaming is currently overshadowing console gaming and these pc handhelds are just extension of that.
Was the switch 2 a successful launch from a monetary perspective: Hopefully
But people also have to understand. Gaming gets more and more mainstream every year AND population increases every year. Of course units sold are going to increase. The last time we had a console launch was 2020-ish. It has been five years of new people getting into video games and so forth.
Its similar logic to any time we see "Call of Auto 789151 is the fastest selling Call of Auto ever!".... Of course it is. If it wasn't then that would be a huge red flag for the franchise.
Man, the comment section here is wild!
If we would all listen to Lemmy, we would need to boycott:
Nintendo, Sony, Windows, Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard, Pokemon, Disney+, Netflix, every other streaming service that exists.
We also need to boycott Fromsoftware a little bit because for some reason a 40$ game is a scam...
It's feels impossible to talk about anything positive in most of Lemmy's sub's.
People here are calling people dumb and stupid for having fun with a console, while they suck off Steam that also just shut down a Fan Mod for Counter Strike and unless other Fan Games, they had approval to develop it.
If we would all listen to Lemmy, we would need to boycott: Nintendo, Sony, Windows, Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard, Pokemon, Disney+, Netflix
I do boycott all of these as well as EA (made an exception for Split Fiction), most fast food restaurants, and I am trying to use Amazon significantly less.
So despite all of the bitching and moaning about all of the "game breaking" features, the shitty little camera, the lack of original games and the price they still bought it. This is why companies keep putting out crap.
Exactly! Rewarding bad behavior is a understatement in this case. I grew up with Nintendo but as it stands they're a disgusting corporation in which I want nothing to do with! They LITERALLY ruined Lives! I suggest every Gamer researches NintenDONTs dark history.
And this is why The Gaming Industry is in COMPLETE turmoil! Sheeple literally reward the most abysmal business practices. Which in turn ruins it for everyone.
If a dog was to bite your hand would you immediately offer it a treat?