Nintendo addresses Switch 2 price, supply versus demand, and Game-Key Card concerns
Nintendo addresses Switch 2 price, supply versus demand, and Game-Key Card concerns
hardware improvements of the Switch 2 could affect development costs
I've never understood this. Yeah, better hardware means you can spend more time making a more complex product, but that doesn't mean you have to. You can make an OG Switch capable game for the Switch 2 and charge less for it than larger games. If the game is fun, it'll sell well.
Look at Pico Park, I can count the polygons on one hand and it's one of my kids' favorite games. I wouldn't be surprised if you could port it to a gameboy without losing anything important. I want more games like that, because they get great battery life and are tons of fun at parties. Half the games I play on the Steam Deck also run just fine on my 8yo laptop w/ integrated graphics.
You don't need to spend years building a game that struggles to hit 30 FPS, spend under a year and make a fun game with no framerate concerns. Spend 1/4 the time and charge half the price and I'll probably get it.
You have to include the risk of not succeeding. Without high graphical fidelity to differentiate yourself, you’re forced to compete on gameplay alone. Large companies like Nintendo do not know how to make hits reliably. That’s why Nintendo keeps recycling old franchises.
Look at all of the indie games that no one plays. There are thousands and thousands of developers out there making games. The vast majority of them never succeed. It’s just like trying to become a New York Times best selling author. Notice how Disney hasn’t cracked the novel as a medium. That’s why they spend all their money on big budget Star Wars and Marvel movies and TV shows.
indie games that no one plays
Well yeah, most indie games suck. If I pick a random game from Steam, the chance of it sucking is pretty high. Indie games fight an uphill battle of marketing and standing out from the crowd.
Some indie games rock, the problem is finding them. AAA solves this with massive marketing budgets.
Notice how Disney hasn’t cracked the novel as a medium.
I guess the point was that if you have a very low performance ceiling it acts as an equalizer of sorts. An indie developer doesn’t need to be as much concerned with competing with big AAA publisher if the end product will not differ that much in graphics and graphics, for better or worse, sell games.
Says the company with a legal team 100x larger than their development teams.
"This is one of the new software distribution methods we have introduced to accommodate the larger game data sizes on Switch 2 compared to Switch," he explained.
"Software can be released in various formats, and we will continue to work closely with software publishers on many fronts to ensure that they actively support our platform."
Planned to deal with 'larger' games, yeah, that's why Bravely Default used it. It's so big.
Make smaller, cheaper Carts available to publishers.
When I can go and get a 1TB MicroSD card for under 100 bucks; I can't fathom a Switch 2 cartridge is in any way nearing it's max on game size.
Switch 2 carts are reportedly only 64GB in size and cost $16 USD per unit.
Nintendo only makes one size and then game key cards. It's an artificial cap, as there's already larger SD Express cards too.
"You're all buying it regardless."
Right, if people didn't pay the exorbitant prices then they wouldn't charge it. It's pretty simple.