Games Inbox: Will the Nintendo Switch 2 be a hit

Cliff Notes – Games Inbox: Will the Nintendo Switch 2 be a hit

• The response to the Switch 2 Direct has been lukewarm, with concerns over the lack of detailed information and difficulties in pre-ordering, raising doubts about Nintendo’s communication strategy.
• Despite these issues, there is a strong belief that the Switch 2 will ultimately succeed due to consumer readiness for an upgrade and growing dissatisfaction with competitors like Xbox and PlayStation.
• The ongoing conversation around console generations suggests a shift towards a model where exclusivity may diminish, with future consoles potentially offering similar games across multiple formats, impacting consumer expectations.

Games Inbox: Will the Nintendo Switch 2 be a hit?

Is it destined for success? (Nintendo)

The Thursday letters page thinks that the concept of console generations is coming to an end, as a reader is surprised there aren’t more Fallout games.

Despite it all
I don’t think Nintendo can be all that happy with the response to the Switch 2 Direct. The thing itself was fine, I think, but the lack of details and the way all the most important information has trickled out since has made them look bad, in my opinion.

We’re two weeks later now and we still don’t know most of the UK prices for anything, including the upgrades. Pre-orders are also very hard to come by for a console they said was not going to have stock problems. I know Trump’s tariffs have put a spanner in the works but that shouldn’t be a problem for anyone outside of the US.

The lack of big budget IP or news on other first party games was also a disappointment, although that’s pretty normal for Nintendo and I’m not so worried about that. Even though I’m still surprised there wasn’t a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Deluxe.

So, quite a few problems but despite it all I really can’t see the Switch 2 not being a success. We probably won’t be able to tell this year anyway, because it’ll sell out whatever, but I still feel people are ready for an upgrade and there’s so much more negativity around Xbox and PlayStation at the moment that people that wouldn’t normally buy Nintendo may be more interested than usual.
Grackle

Resident Evil Ultimate
I really can’t see the point of remaking Resident Evil 2 for a second time, after such a short period. There’s an argument for doing 3 again, because it’s so different from the original, but then the original was always the weakest of the early games anyway, so I’m not sure it’s really worth it.

I know we don’t know what Resident Evil 9 is yet but my hope for a long time now is that it’ll be more like Resident Evil 2, which I thought was almost the perfect Resi game. It’s a bit limited by being based on such an old game, but if they made a brand new game in the same general style it could be the ultimate Resident Evil.

I would play up the horror element more though, as that’s one thing we haven’t had from any of these remakes. None of them are scary or even really trying to be, and that’s a shame. Resident Evil 1 one would be though, presumably, so that’s one reason why I’m also in favour of a remake of that.
Pr0metheus

Sticking to the plan
I really feel that Phil Spencer has outstayed his welcome at Xbox. People were saying that a year or more ago but now it’s got to the point where I forget he’s still there and for a moment I can’t believe it. As usual, he gave a non-answer as to why no Xbox games have been announced for Switch 2 yet and it’s impossible to tell whether they’re waiting for something or they were just lying about support in the first place.

It certainly doesn’t make any sense to me, for them not to have been at the Switch 2 Direct. That would’ve made a very clear statement but instead I suspect they’re going to sneak out the annoucement in some blog somewhere, because they’re embarrassed about their own business plan. If this whole multiformat thing is going to work they really need to go all in on it or just stick to PC. There’s no point doing it half-hearted.
Gibson

Exclusive ending
Watching the second season of The Last Of Us, I’m still not sure I really see the point. Finding out about Abby early is different but I don’t see how that makes things better or worse. It’s a well made show but the problem, I feel, is that the games are already so much like a movie that it really makes little difference making it live action.

I also don’t like the idea that they’re going to invent a new twist to replace the one they’re not doing with Abby. That already sounds super contrived and I really hope that isn’t what happens.

The best thing I would suggest is that if they make the final season of the show The Last Of Us Part 3 and finish the story that way. I like the games but at the same time I don’t want Naughty Dog to spend another six years on a third one. Some of these people will be hitting retirement age before they ever get to do something new.
Tiger Balm

Source material
I’ll probably pick up Indiana Jones And The Great Circle when it’s on cheap, no doubt by Black Friday at least. I’m not really sure why it wasn’t multiformat from the start though, as that would surely have increased its impact, rather than just slipping out unnoticed in April.

What interested me about your review was the idea that many younger gamers don’t realise that Tomb Raider and Uncharted are both knock-offs. Many probably don’t even know who Indiana Jones is, given how few people watched the last movie.

Uncharted is particularly funny because it’s a knock-off of Tomb Raider, which is basically an unofficial Indiana Jones game but with different characters. It makes me wonder what other games people don’t realise are not what they think.

People always seem to forget that Wolfenstein 3D was the first successful first person shooter, not Doom, although even then I think many modern gamers don’t realise the significance of either franchise, given they’re much lower profile than they were 30 years or so ago (which isn’t surprising, I guess).
Tacle

Slow expansion
All this talk of Fallout remasters seems pointless to me. The one everyone wants is New Vegas and that needs a full remake, not just a remake. But given how much effort Bethesda puts into ignoring it all the time I don’t see that happening.

The sensible thing to do, considering we’ll all have died of old age or World War 3 by the time Fallout 5 is out, is to get someone else to make another spin-off and I have no idea why Obsidian (who made New Vegas) have not been told to do this. I mean, compared to that or The Outer Worlds 2, who wouldn’t want a new Fallout?

A lot of people seem to think Bethesda resent New Vegas being so popular but the only Fallout games that Bethesda has ever made are 3 and 4, plus 76. It’s actually a really small franchise, even if you include the pre-Bethesda stuff, and I’m not sure why.

You would’ve thought that Microsoft would’ve have put their foot down and told Bethesda to make more, especially after the TV show, but if they have they’re being strangely quiet about it. If they do anything it probably will just be another remaster, which just doesn’t feel like enough to me. The franchise is spinning its wheels and it really shouldn’t be.
Zeiss

Not all gamers
In Korbie’s last paragraph in the 16th April Inbox, he said ‘scalpers might be being locked out with the console, to a degree, but I bet all those physical copies of games are going to go for a fortune on eBay.’

If gamers are up in arms about Nintendo potentially selling games for £75 now, why the pixel would anyone then buy said games for double or more?
LeighDappa

End of line
Now we have rumours that the next PlayStation will be either a traditional console or a portable depending on what the user prefers, it has me wondering is the end of console generations, at least in the traditional sense.

If the portable version of the PlayStation 6 is roughly able to achieve similar levels of performance as the current PlayStation 5 does this essentially mean that the PlayStation 6 won’t have exclusive games and instead all titles will be available across all formats, whether you have the PlayStation 6, PlayStation 6 portable, PlayStation 5 or PS5 Pro, albeit with varying levels of performance.

And given that this is already the case with Xbox, since pretty much all games release day one on Xbox Series X, Series S, and on PC it could be the all the same is true for the next Xbox generation, in that it won’t have exclusives.

Perhaps, given that we are only seeing incremental changes with each passing console generation, and judging by recent price increases and the cost of living, it does pose the question of whether the next generation of consoles will appeal to a broad audience. Will they provide new experiences in terms of games that can only be run on new hardware or will they target a more specific player that is happy to play titles that are available on multiple systems but wants to have the best possible experience in terms of frame rate/resolution/ray-tracing, etc.
Matc7884

GC: We’d assume it’d be that the portable would play downgraded versions of PlayStation 6 games, much as the Switch 2 already has a few current gen ports announced for it. Although that’s assuming the rumours are in any way accurate.

Inbox also-rans
I’m a bit confused as to the need for the Switch 2 magnets. I don’t remember ever having trouble with the rails on the Switch 1 or having heard anyone complain about them. Sounds like a classic case of if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Aldo

I really hope that Star Wars strategy game is good, because I need more XCOM, but that artwork they released is so boring. It looks like someone carefully designed the least interesting group of generic Star Wars characters possible.