The machine of the house of Kyoto celebrates its third year in the market with excellent figures and a promising future
Never underestimate Nintendo. The Kyoto house celebrates the third anniversary of Nintendo Switch in a sweet moment, knowing that it uses its own strength, talent and creativity to maintain a prominent and essential place in the world of videogames. Away from the winds of the new generation that is coming or technological trends such as streaming game or virtual reality, Mario's house remains solid in its foundations, only allowing some controlled incursions – and fruitful – on land such as the game for mobile phones, but without losing sight of that essential balance between software and hardware that in the best times has allowed it to surpass its rivals and in the worst times has allowed it to remain firm in its convictions despite the songs of shareholders and analyst advisors several, convinced that they would make more money as a home exclusively for software.
A new triumph in the face of adversity
Prior to the birth of Switch, the company lived one of those "turbulent" moments. Wii U had been a commercial failure, clearly unable to reproduce the Wii phenomenon and selling just 13 million units in four years – Wii sold 26 million, in 2009 alone. Again the old demons present practically from the time of Nintendo 64 appeared: the “loneliness” of the company, the lack of support from the largest software houses, the fierce competition of two much larger multinationals such as Sony and, especially, Microsoft …
In the middle of the usual “runrun”, in 2016 the name of NX begins to sound like the company's new hardware project and there is talk of a portable console, or with some kind of portability. It was already more than evident that the two-line parallel console model was unsustainable and the company's great concern, as well as that of the always remembered Satoru Iwata, was that the real threat to the future was neither Sony nor Microsoft, but the mobiles; a world that doesn't need dedicated consoles to play away from home. That was the place that had to be defended at all costs, and in order to do so, certain luxuries could no longer be allowed, everything had to be bet on a single machine, announced to everyone as Nintendo Switch on October 20, 2016.
The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild is the GOTY in #TheGameAwards #MeriTGAhttps: //t.co/oXJsWpcJr1#MeriTGA
– FreeGameTips.com (@FreeGameTips) December 8, 2017
A console that could be played on television and that, with the same ease, could be taken to the bus to continue playing where you left off, an intelligent, agile and versatile design that promised the best of both worlds, armed with the unique catalog of the company as a differential point compared to the other alternatives of the present game. The communication was impeccable this time, undoing the awkwardness of the beginnings of Wii U and making clear what it offered, and how. Of course there were voices of disbelief about its viability, there are always around Nintendo, but from the first moment you could see that the bet was adequate, and you had to be very blind to not see the potential of a console that would bring everything together the potential of the company's software departments and their associates as the Pokémon Company.
In addition, there was no need to wait long to verify that strength. Breath of the Wild appeared next to the console and with it came one of the best games of the last decade, raising the console from the first moment and driving the three million units sold the first month, above the most optimistic forecasts of two million. In less than a year it had already sold 14 million, surpassing total Wii U sales, and in three years it has managed to sell more than 52 million units.
A “Nindie” catalog
The sequel to Breath of The Wild, an essential part of the console's future
Despite the long-awaited and expected apathy of the largest software houses such as EA or Activision, Nintendo has pulled two main weapons, an old one and a new one. On the one hand, his usual strength playing his own games has been manifested with special strength in these three years: Breath of the Wild was the spearhead, but the console accumulates a rather remarkable amount of outstanding exclusives in these three years. 22 of the games analyzed by Meristation for the console are above 9, including 10 that qualify as "masterpiece" to Breath of the Wild, 9.7 to the excellent Super Mario Odyssey or 9.5 to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which despite being an expanded version of the Wii U game, is the best-selling console with an impressive 22.96 million units worldwide. The high level of titles such as Luigi’s Mansion 3, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, plus some strategic exclusives such as Astral Chain, form a prestigious vanguard.
The novel weapon of the Switch catalog is in an unprecedented support of independent studies, from the most notorious to the smallest. Faced with the moments of greatest weakness in the calendar of releases of the console, the constant dripping of independent productions and ports, some of several years' games, has avoided the feeling of emptiness that was lived with previous platforms and has nurtured users of great alternatives at all times. The notorious sales that many of these ports have achieved, some of the games with several years behind them, have also turned the platform into a must-see pilgrimage that some larger houses like Bethesda and its solvent ports have not resisted either of games like Skyrim or the last Wolfenstein; or CD Projekt that, in association with Saber Interactive, has achieved an amazing version of The Witcher III on the platform, benefiting from access to a very active market and hungry for games specifically on this platform.
Not without problems
Although the three years of the console are a cause for celebration for the video game fan in general, it would be little receipt that they also did not reflect on some of the shadows of the console. On the one hand, the generalized defect and officially recognized with the synchronization of the left joycon has become a blur within a virtually flawless historical trajectory in terms of reliability and solidity of the hardware, the kind of slip that Nintendo is not usually allowed and that it must keep it vigilant in times of massification of the production chains.
On the other hand, the Kyoto house is still absurdly clumsy with all the management of the console's online ecosystem. More than the technical difference between rival consoles (present and future), what should be of concern is the abyssal difference when presenting a service according to what is expected today. The four euros per month that he charges for an access by pulling the regular online game – in the few games that use it – and the very poor collection of titles included in the classic line make him wonder if anyone on Nintendo has an Xbox or a PS4 to see what They are doing their direct rivals. Everyone knows that the company is a romantic convinced face-to-face multiplayer, and we hope that does not change, but that does not take away so that they have to make a giant leap in this section, urgently.
A hopeful future
The console is presented with unbeatable expectations and without fear of the future or arrival of PS5 or Xbox Series X. Recently it has launched an exclusively portable review cheaper and smaller to not neglect part of its traditional audience and the list of future releases is more How promising. Animal Crossing, a regular bestseller, is a few weeks away from appearing, which will be joined by less conventional bets such as the controversial expansion of Pokémon Shield and Sword in summer, the arrival of early ports of recent games such as The Outer Worlds or Doom Eternal or the promise of exclusives like Bravely Default II, the remaster of Xenoblade Chronicles or No More Heroes III. And in the undetermined future, the great heavyweights: the sequel to Breath of the Wild, a new Metroid Prime or Bayonetta 3, plus the surprises we can expect from a company that has never stopped offering them. Along with the constant dripping of launches and the strength of a powerful user base, it is clear that we will have Switch for a few more years.
