memes

The switch was a giant hit though.

Yakuza and innovation don't mix. Yakuza and rent-seeking however...

Nintendo is doing and will continue to do gangbusters. They’re the Apple of video games. They aren’t screwing themselves, just you.

Isn't Pokemon like... The biggest IP ever? Way bigger than Star wars or marvel or pretty much anything else? Not sure they're actually hurting. At all.

Thats me. Pokopia looks so fun, but I can barely afford a PC, which I can use for other things, no way in hell that I am buying a switch.

Microsoft (and Sony) have done a terrible job of understanding the console market.

They sell consoles so they can loss-leader you into making it up on licensed games.

You buy a console so you can get a canned consistent experience for less than a PC. In the past, it was also for bespoke hardware that could do something a random PC couldn't easily and exclusive titles.

In 2026, these advantages are gone. Since Xbone/PS4, you're just looking at a standard AMD desktop in a funny box. It comes in too many flavours with real performance differences. Only a few titles are still exclusive. You can spend $500 and still not have the Best Console Experience, so why not spend $700 for a PC?

Of course Xbox and PS are flailing in that market.

Nintendo hardware avoids those pitfalls. There's no "Switch 2 Pro" scenario where some games are meaningfully jankier. The hardware is profitable, and it's still comfortably less than a basic dGPU computer. So there's still a niche for it below the full gaming PC buyer.

They've also been more willing to exploit "we control the hardware and software together" opportunities for only-here experiences. Since the Kinect died, has there been a major gameplay paradigm that required an Xbox or PS to deliver?

Nintendo could port games to the PC but they won't exploit the detachable controllers or portable aspects of a Switch, so many of the ports would be lesser.

I usually detest exclusive releases, as it feels anticonsumer to make people use a console/UI that they don't like in order to have a chance of buying/playing a game they might like, but I've recently thought about a good copiumcoded excuse for it: Exclusives incentivise me to not keep all my games with one supplier, so when one corporation inevitably crosses a moral line that I cannot accept, I don't have to sacrifice all my purchased ~~games~~ licences.

That and I honestly believe that owning games developed initially for x platform, on that platform, usually results in the best experience. Usually.

A handheld and highly integrated device where games released for are basically guaranteed to run still has some appeal over the wide sea of PC s. Especially since the share of handheld PCs like the Steam Deck is still comparably small.

I'd also argue that one can get more customers by supporting PC due to those who wouldn't buy a console anyway. It sounds reasonable though that the incentive for buying a console is gone if you already have a sufficient PC where you can play the game on.

But I wonder whether this is really the case. Do we have actual numbers from market studies or alike on this?

I think it's silly to think that this has nothing to do with pokemon. Palworld basically came out of nowhere and made the pokemon game a lot of people have been asking for. I haven't played a Pokémon game in years because they felt held back from modern game design.

I'll admit it has similarities to Ark, but it's a lot more PvE and approachable, not to mention the creature design and capture mechanics.

Many of the designs are blatant ripoffs of specific pokemon. Here are a few examples

Nintendo went after patent angle in court because it's easier than proving the ripoffs are a copyright violation. But make no mistake, the ripoffs are the primary reason for the legal action. They really got under Nintendo's skin.

I sold my Switch and switched to emulation when they went after Yuzu and Ryujinx. Nintendo will never get another penny from me and I get to play all their games for free now. Stupid dumbfucks. Can't wait for the inevitable Switch 2 emulator.

Will never happen until people stop buying the games. And no it’s not the fault of adult Nintendo fans. The vast majority of buyers are just parents buying games for their kids who don’t read reviews and just buy the game because their kid nagged for it. Palworld doesn’t even really compete in that market.

Pokemon is in the merch and nostalgia business, not the gaming business.

Maybe, but I don't really see them as competitors. They're both monster raising, yeah, but that's honestly where the similarities stop. That said, I haven't played Legends or ZA (whatever they're called) which both seem closer to what Palworld is (still very different though)

Imagine the sales they'd get if they ported older Game Boy/DS/3DS games to Android/ios phones and tablets.

Palworld is basically live action pokemon with guns and crafting/survival mechanics, and just launched 1.0 a couple of days ago. Nintendo sued Palworld's dev's over IP infringement during early access for the capture mechanism used in the game (throwing spheres at pals). Here's a quick summary of the lawsuit and where it stood about a month ago. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/palworld-lawsuit-nears-end-with-nintendo-reportedly-poised-to-gain-almost-nothing/

The intent of this post is to show that Nintendo's policy of not releasing 1st party games on other consoles/PC has hurt them in the long run, as shown by the player count of Palworld right now.

Btw, Zelda on PC when?

Any time you want, if you float in the right ~~seas~~...uh...circles. Or so I've heard.

https://www.shipofharkinian.com/