Nintendo has certainly made the unexpected turn around, going from the lowest of lows with the failure of the Wii U to now having the fastest selling console in America at 4.8 million. They have even surpassed the seemingly unsurpassable number of Nintendo’s most successful home console, the Wii, which sat at 4 million in the same amount of time.
As a Nintendo fan, I’m happy the worry of another failure is practically gone and people can enjoy more portable content and creators on the small console have some job security. Now, we can only hope Microsoft can make a turn around too and we have to congratulate Sony on their enormous success.
With the announcement they have sold over 10 million consoles, I think their hope of selling 20 million more is a conservative number. Still, we can expect more third party support as Nintendo has reaffirmed that EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Capcom, SEGA, Take 2 and Bethesda will release content on the console.
Ubisoft has released two Just Dance games and the successful exclusive Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. Perhaps we can get a sequel to their turn-based tactical role-playing and see other games come over like their South Park series or Rainbow Six Siege.
Capcom has brought over both of the wonderful Resident Evil Revelations games and an updated Street Fighter 2, with plans to bring the 30th anniversary collection and a bunch of Mega Man collections/games over in 2018. There have been rumors of the critically acclaimed Resident Evil 7: Biohazard running on the console so perhaps we’ll get an announcement or a sign that Resident Evil 2: Remake will come to the console.
Bethesda brought two, with a third releasing this year, well received games to Nintendo’s hybrid console. The first time the company’s games have been on their console. Arguably the best, or at least one of the best, RPG’s ever in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim made it to the console. The massive game runs spectacularly on Nintendo’s tiny hardware and better than other versions. The 2016 reboot of Doom, an iconic fast paced FPS, made it over as well. This year we get Wolfenstein 2. Bethesda has shown they believe in the console and I hope we can get the other Wolfensteins on the console (to have the complete series on one platform) and I hope we get the Dishonored franchise as well. Let’s not forget their was interest in bringing the Evil Within 2 to Switch from the developer, Tango Gameworks.
Activision and EA are the more curious ones. EA has had trouble lately with their Anti consumer practices and they’ve not been convinced on the console since the beginning, releasing a watered down version of FIFA that lacked modes and content. Hopefully they can find some success and recoup their losses by releasing older titles on Switch. The Mass Effect series (Yes, I’m still salty over the whole Wii U release) and the Dead Space franchise. As for Activision, I’d wager a guess that we’ll see the next Call Of Duty release on the console and some more Skylanders. Hopefully it’s Overwatch for Switch.
Take-Two had only released, that I know of, the broken WWE 2K18, NBA 2K18, and L.A. Noire. I’d expect a port of GTA V and follow ups to their sports releases. With SEGA, the two Sonic games have show Nintendo fans are over the rivalry from the 90s and adore their franchises, so I’m sure they’ll bring over whatever they have in development.
All in all, regardless of platform, it’s going to be a good year for gamers and I’m sure we’ll get a lot of surprises.
