Will The Nintendo Switch Be A Repeat Of The Wii U?
The Wii U was released five years ago now, and by most standards, it was an unmitigated disaster; promises from Nintendo went unfulfilled, players had to wait much longer than originally thought in order for new games to be released, and overall, the Wii U was pretty much a sub-par console. It’s why Nintendo hasn’t been a factor in the console wars between the PlayStation and Xbox. Now, however, the company is looking to try change that with the Nintendo Switch.
If you’re looking to bet on whether or not the Switch will succeed as a console – and possibly bring the company back into the fray when it comes to the console wars between Sony and Microsoft – then you don’t have to look back much farther than the Wii U. So far, things aren’t looking great when it comes to how the release, and subsequent months, will pan out. According to a number of reports, almost everything that the Wii U lacked upon its release, the Switch is lacking with not long before its launch. One of the biggest among these is the upcoming consoles online functionality, namely; we don’t know much about it, similar to how we didn’t know much about the Wii U’s online functionality before it was released.
As Polygon‘s Christopher Grant notes when comparing the two consoles and Nintendo’s quietness about online functionality:
“The most obvious answer as to why Nintendo is being so cagey about its online functionality or, really, the entire software platform outside of the games that run on it, is because … it isn’t done yet. You may not recall, but when the Wii U launched it required a massive day one patch that took, for many, literal hours to download and install. That patch included all of the console’s online functionality which, even when delivered, wasn’t competitive with its peers from Microsoft and Sony. That patch came in so hot, reviewers were waiting until it was made available on launch day to test the Wii U’s online functionality.”
However, things might be looking up for the Switch in this department; when the Switch was first announced (and codenamed NX), Nintendo announced that one of the main things that they would be focusing on with the consoles development was, in fact, online functionality. At the time, they announced that they would be working with Japanese mobile gaming giant DeNA in order to create the service. At the time, they said:
“Nintendo, together with DeNA, will jointly develop a new membership service which encompasses the existing Nintendo 3DS and Wii U systems, the new hardware system with a brand-new concept, NX, and smart devices and PCs, and Nintendo will be the primary party to operate this new membership service.”
However, based on the Wii U’s terrible launch, you’d think that the company would try to put peoples’ fears at ease ahead of the Switch‘s release; so far, they’ve pretty much kept quiet about the console, other than to say something along the lines of ‘Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.’ You’d also think that Nintendo would have learned from the Wii U; granted, the game sold 13.5 million units, but that’s a far cry from the company’s estimate that it’d sell 100 million. Part of the reason why that was the case was because of the fact that Nintendo failed to convince people to buy the console. The other main reason was because that, if people did actually buy the thing, the quickly regretted it and told everyone they could to avoid it.
And five years later, it looks like they’re repeating the same mistake all over again, except this time, the problem is confounded by the fact that potential buyers remember how bad the last console Nintendo released was, and nobody is too excited by it. And why would they? From a lot of perspectives, it looks like the company is planning on going through Groundhog Day and re-do all of the mistakes they made the first time round. And since it’s getting online functionality – it was even developed with this in mind – there should be some added benefits that come with that, right? After all, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One both have apps such as Youtube and Netflix (as well as a host of others), so it makes sense that Nintendo would want to do the same with the Switch in order to compete.
Except, no. The Switch is totally not going to have any of that at launch. At it’s not even guaranteed to get them down the line. Speaking to Time magazine fairly recently, Nintendo president and CEO Tatsumi Kimishima said that there aren’t any plans for major app development for the Switch, inclusive of Netflix etc. At the time, Kimishima said:
“Since all of our efforts have gone toward making Switch an amazing dedicated video game platform, it will not support it, at least at launch.”
The rest of his interview went pretty much along the same lines; there seemed to be more about what the Switch wouldn’t have that what it would have. However, this mightn’t actually be the company’s fault; according to a vast number of reports, it looks like many app developers just simply won’t develop for the console, or at least, they’ll develop for the console in tandem with other consoles, so it doesn’t look like it’ll have anything that helps make it stand out.
And what about free games? Both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have them, and the vast majority are actually pretty decent. Well, the Switch will have free games, but there’s a major catch; where the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One free games are free for life, the Switch’s won’t be. As per Nintendo:
“Subscribers will get to download and play a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) or Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super NES) game (with newly-added online play) for free for a month.” [Emphasis added]
There’s also the fact that much of it will be managed not on the console but rather a smartphone app and, lastly, while some multiplayer functionality will roll out in the spring, it won’t be fully ready until this fall. Sounds like way too much effort on the part of players in order to get just a months worth of free gaming for a game that may not even be worth it; hell that’s what demo versions are for. Maybe it’s just people like me, the cynical press, who want to only see the worst in absences like this, Nintendo’s unwillingness to be transparent about the realities of its products, but I’m honestly having a hard time seeing anything else.
The absence of clarity on myriad facets of the Nintendo Switch platform, and notably the online components, is overwhelming. It’s deafening. The awkward missteps taken in avoiding it have me legitimately worried about the company’s judgment. A robust online strategy was the one thing Nintendo had to come clean with to convince me it understood its current failure because this entire situation is familiar. We’ve been here before. And if Nintendo doesn’t have its platform figured out this time, it may find itself repeating a history it would rather forget. So, if you’re betting on whether or not the Switch will succeed as a console, I’d bet in the negative and buy some Xbox One games with my winnings.