Nintendo Switch

NPD April 2019 Data: Switch best selling platform in the US for the month and 2019 YTD; Mortal Kombat 11 best selling game as a whole and on all platforms; rounding out the top 5 for Switch are Smash, Yoshi, Mario Kart, and NSMBUDX.

Edited by tclittle on May 21st 2019 at 6:04:13 AM

Mortal Kombat did really well it seems. Hint hint publishers.

And BotW is still chugging along in the top 10 after being on the market for over two years.

I can't believe MK 11 did that well. I never had any hands on experience with it but the difference between the Switch port & everything else was so bad that at most it would make up on what budget they had for it. I never imagine it would being profitable, I guess people are more flexible than I thought.

Who knew?

Jesus, BOTW is still doing that well over 2 years?

I don't remember Zelda games doing that incredible, was that always the case?

I think Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess sold very well.

BOTW is by far the bestselling in the series, but the series does tend to have good legs. I remember copies of Twilight Princess being consistently available from the time it came out to about 2010-2011.

Considering the game has already been heavily discounted, I think Mortal Kombat 11 only did that well in its initial launch.

the various controversies surrounding the game since then have probably caused a drop off.

It wouldn't surprise me if it falls hard in the next NPD report.

Edited by Demongodofchaos2 on May 22nd 2019 at 10:12:49 AM

Kontroversies?

Lootboxes, grindy microtransactions, Horrific working conditions, etc.

You’d be surprised how few people know about any of that, and how little it matters to most of those who do.

The internet is an echo chamber.

Most games that aren't 1st party Nintendo titles get discounted quickly nowadays.

Mortal Kombat 11 is the best selling game in the series so far, controversies or otherwise, and X before it did exceptionally well for a fighting game, so that's nothing to sneeze at.

I don't agree that that's a good thing, but like Wolf said, your average consumer doesn't care about any of the drama, crunch, or other issues concerning how a game got made. They just want their video game.

Edited by Hashil on May 22nd 2019 at 10:18:34 AM

Bah, should've known that WW & SS wouldn't be part of that. Nonetheless, this is still great to know.

Pretty sure lootboxes bs is well known at this point.

I doubt the average person knows about drama about NRS lately.

Edited by agent-trunks on May 22nd 2019 at 3:51:04 AM

The Switch has a lot of mascot racers but it could really use more standard driving games. It's one of the mainstream genres that the console doesn't have much of, especially physically. The U lacked them too.

It's because racing gamers trend towards simulations, and Nintendo is still being the curve in graphical realism.

I haven’t played many racing games, but from what I hear using the triggers as pedals is pretty standard and that doesn’t work so hot with the digital buttons Nintendo uses for their triggers.

Racing games don't need hyper-realistic graphics. Previous generations did fine without them.

DC Universe Online coming to Switch this Summer

Realistic racing games may not need hyper realistic graphics to do well, but these days it would be hard to get the hype going for those people if the graphics were toned down for a Switch release/port

Well. The thing with the Switch is that you sacrifice graphical fidelity for the ability to play the game on the go. Yeah, Doom 2016 looks objectively better on any other platform but the Switch, but the ability to kill demons in the comfort of my bed is very enticing. And considering that Doom, Skyrim and Wolfenstein all did pretty well on Switch, there's definitely a market for "graphix concerned [hardcore] gamer" who are willing to eschew fidelity and horsepower for portability.

I bet there are fans of "realistic" racing games who would love to see a Forza or Gran Turismo esque game on the Switch for it's portability function. Yes, there's Mario Kart (among other Mascot Racers), but "realistic" Racing Games and Mascot Racers have very different install bases despite some overlap.

Besides, having more genres on the system is never a bad thing. So there's definitely a market for more traditional/non Mascot Racing Games on Switch.

Edited by PippingFool on May 24th 2019 at 12:54:36 AM

Codemasters should consider bringing Grid to Switch.

EDIT: Huh. Turns out they are, later this year. Go figure.

Edited by BadWolf21 on May 23rd 2019 at 10:06:04 AM

So I guess this means Ninendo should make a new F-Zero game for the Switch. F-Zero GX, interestingly, used A for acceleration and the analogue triggers for leaning, so it's definitely possible to make a pure racing game without analogue speed control.

Thing is though, F-Zero is dead as a dodo and has been that way ever since I think the GBA. There's no believable reason why Nintendo would decide to resurrect that franchise.

They could always take a different approach with the franchise. Given how Captain Falcon is more known nowadays for showing his moves, perhaps he could get his own game in a Yakuza- or GTA-style urban brawler, where he takes up bounty hunting jobs in locations like Mute City and Port Town outside of the F-Zero race tracks. I could see him using the Falcon Flyer as his base of operations, where he accepts missions and tunes up and upgrades his vehicle(s).

Edited by TheHeroHartmut on May 23rd 2019 at 6:29:17 PM

That's assuming Miyamoto actually gets off his ass and uses those ideas. The reason why we had no new F-Zero games in over a decade is due to him having no ideas on how to do the next game without it being just a repeat of the last ones.

I mean, Pokemon’s main series, for as fun as those games can be, are repeats of the same formula. I don’t think “the same formula” is the main issue.

I think it’s just that F-Zero hasn’t sold very well, so they’re hesitant to invest in another game. I mean, Fire Emblem was on its last legs due to low sales until Awakening (meant to be the final game in the series) was a smash hit and revived it, now we’re getting Three Houses.

Falcon is remembered far more for being memetic in Smash, which changes his entire personality and character pretty much, than his games are remembered.