Concerns for the Nintendo Switch

As much as I love the Wii U, I cannot deny the fact that the system was a huge bomb, barely selling over 13 million units in the span of four years. Nintendo had probably hoped to recapture the success that it had with the Wii, but the company's poor marketing left many confused as to what the console was, often mistaking it for an add on for the Wii, when in reality, the Wii U was a new system entirely. While I am excited about the Nintendo Switch, there are a number of things that have caused me to a bit cautious about the upcoming system.

It sucks that Nintendo has adopted the pay to play online deal, but it isn't really surprising. However, it is downright insulting that Nintendo is going to "give" those that pay to play online a free virtual console game every month for one month. And once the month is over, they are going to take the game away. Yeah, Nintendo's version of giving you a free game for paying to play online is essentially letting you borrow a digital game. You don't even get to keep the sucker. At least Sony throws some free games your way on PlayStation Plus. Granted, they may not be the greatest, but hey, at least the games are free. Not even the most die hard Nintendo fan can defend such an appalling method of giving Switch online subscribers "free" games. With Nintendo's massive catalog of retro games they could really upstage Sony with by giving out actual free games, but no, like so many other things, Nintendo had to go and screw that up.

Now that we actually have to pay to play online, Nintendo's servers better have some pretty darn awesome connections. I played some Super Smash Bros. for Wii U online a week ago and my experience was a lag filled mess. My Splatoon matches last week were also bogged down by lag. Nothing like knowing you were out of range of a Inkzooka blast or a Kraken only to get splatted because the dang game is chugging along. I'll take lag free matches in Splatoon 2, thank you very much.

Don't sweat it if you can't get a Switch to play Breath of the Wild.
It will also be available on the Wii U.

Getting your hands on a Switch is already an uphill battle. 2 million pre-orders are already sold out and this is after Nintendo said they would have enough supply to meet demand. We've got another NES Classic Edition on our hands and I can already see scalpers scooping up the Switch and selling it for far more money than the original asking price. If you think $300 is a lot of money to drop on a Switch wait until you see those greedy scalper prices. I'm actually amazed Nintendo managed to sell over 200,000 NES Classic Editions, since finding one of the blasted things is freaking impossible. That would mean, Nintendo had to actually produce 200,000 units. And yet Nintendo can fill 2 million Switch pre-orders but cannot get an ample supply of NES Classic Edition consoles in stores? Huh. I have to admit that it is impressive that Switch pre-orders are sold out, which shows there are plenty of people out there that want the system, but Nintendo has done a terrible job with NES Classic Edition restocks so I have little reason to believe they'll keep the Switch in steady supply. After the Wii launched in 2006, consumers had a difficult time getting their hands on one. Demand for the system was high, but if we've learned anything from initial amiibo waves and the NES Classic Edition its that Nintendo is not above trickling out a small amount of product to increase demand.

I suppose I could also mention the Switch launch line up. 1,2 Switch has novelty that could get old really fast and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is also releasing on the Wii U on the same day as the Switch. Obviously Breath of the Wild will run better on the Switch but paying $300 to play a smoother running game is a bit too rich for my blood. Super Bomberman R looks and sounds like it will be really good and the Switch will be the only place to blow up friends and strangers in Bomberman's comeback game. While the Switch launch isn't spectacular by any means, it is in no way shape or form, a system killer. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and didn't have launches worth writing home about either.

We've seen the list of third party support for the Switch but how much do you wanna bet that EA will give the system two or three games and then bail as they did on the Wii U? We're seeing a beevy of ports that were already successful in past console generations as well. But again, in the Switch's defense, PS4 and XBO is high res port city of previous gen games.

I love the games Nintendo makes and I'll be getting a Switch eventually so I can play the games for it. But I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge mistakes that could potentially hurt the system. Nintendo is often they're own worst enemy, stabbing themselves and then twisting the knife.