Nintendo Switch console

[Dream of Omnimaga]

The 2016 price is the original launch price after inflation. Also yeah in Quebec it launched at close to $300 but it sold so poorly that they slashed the price to $140 after just a year.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Online gameplay will be paid like Xbox Live and PS Plus on the Switch, although about 2.5x cheaper and the monthly free game will only be keepable for the month, not forever like on other consoles. The service will be free until Fall 2017, tho.

I'm sad but it was kinda expected. At least Nintendo still makes games that are offline co-op friendly so we might not miss that much

[tr1p1ea]

The Switch is a month out and we don't really know a lot about it.

Sucks that you get a game for a month ... kind of like a rental service so I suppose if they call it that then it will be ok with customers.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

I bet most free games willbe indie, Lego, Adventure Time and old games like on the Xbone, tho

[JosJuice]

I think they said that the free games will be NES and SNES games.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Ah I see. I got or played many of them on the original console so yeah . Also they showed the Switch and WIi U gamepads side by side and I'm glad the Switch one is much smaller while still having the same screen width. I hope it's true when they say that the console is much more powerful than the Wii U, though.

[p2]

I pretty much hate the "rent a game" model...
I can imagine its really cool to try a game out at first but there should still be a second "permanent buy" option, else the entire console is worthless once they shut down their game stores... 

[Dream of Omnimaga]

I also dislike digital purchases. I still hope some company releases physical versions of some of the lower-end titles, even if in limited run. It sucks when you lose everything due to the online service being discontinued.

[p2]

jup. I fear in future there wont be any "retro gamers" as the hardware would be easy to simulate but the software will be missing, for both online-games and rent-a-game models... :/

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Yeah it already happened with various MMORPGs. The servers shut down and they are now unplayable. Ys Online comes to mind. Granted, there are at least very big companies like Steam that are likely to stay around in the long terms, but who knows what can happen? After all, even Walmart had some financial issues a few years ago and had to close down stores.

[p2]

exactly. The current path will lead to online-stores only for games, not even having a "play offline" mode. And once the servers shut down in far future, all the old gamess will be worthless//useless as the server-sided software will be lost forever. 
What good is a WorldOfTanks client without a server to play on... 

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Yeah it reminds me of Battleborn. I wish there weren't copyright issues about archiving such old games nor physical issues about running alternate servers for all games that were previously shut down.


That said, many old servers were ran by third-parties. For example, Battle.net 1.0 servers are provided by AT&T and Nintendo Wii/DS was provided by Gamespy Arcade. The day AT&T goes under or decides to pull the plug from their servers, Starcraft Anthology, Warcraft II BNE and Warcraft III will become offline-only, just like Wii/DS games when Gamespy was shut down. Original Xbox games also suffered from the same fate, but for a different reasons: Keeping the old Xbox Live running forced Microsoft to keep a 100 friends limit in place for Xbox 360, which they wanted to remove. I doubt Wii U eshop will close down anytime soon unless it's ran by a third-party company.

I'm still hoping that Limited Run Games will be able to reach an agreement with Nintendo to release physical versions of niche games.

[p2]

jup, no more retro games for the next generation... 
the financial aspect for third partie run servers as well as the administrative stuff is a big problem, making many of the third party admins growi tired//unwilling to continue their services, which then means the end for more and more old game servers...

there were predictions that there would be no more oldtimer cars from the current generation of cars as the electronic parts would fail for sure, but I think the problem about the gaming world is much more serious...   

[Dream of Omnimaga]

To be fair, we will at least have the Wii U and other consoles becoming retro in a decade or so. By then I hope at least that they will find a way to bring back the other digital games so that they are preserved. I still miss some of the Videoway games

[tr1p1ea]

Are those with a Wii U going to get a Switch for Zelda or just the Wii U version of the game instead?