Nintendo Switch

[Andromeda Stardust]

Unless you can toggle the language within the game it will likely default the language to the region you're in if they do 1 pressing of the game. If they do multiple by region, it will likely just be in that language unless they code many into it anyway.

Well we don't yet know what language will be available in what region. If the Japanese release is Japanese only (no English text or audio), it would be useless. But the fact they're making it region free means they could add English subtitles to the Japanese release or Japanese audio to the English release. Then again the DS was region free and the Japanese releases were not in English for the most part. My Feel The Magic (DS) cart had a black silhouette of a girl on the title screen, with silhouette bra and panties. When you selected Japanese language from the menu, it removed the Bra. Uncensorship built into the language menu...

[D.Daniels]

Well we don't yet know what language will be available in what region. If the Japanese release is Japanese only (no English text or audio), it would be useless. But the fact they're making it region free means they could add English subtitles to the Japanese release or Japanese audio to the English release. Then again the DS was region free and the Japanese releases were not in English for the most part. My Feel The Magic (DS) cart had a black silhouette of a girl on the title screen, with silhouette bra and panties. When you selected Japanese language from the menu, it removed the Bra.

 

so the we are child friendly thing was bullocks all along, also some one in a earlier post said about whether GTA would be on the Switch, GTA has been on the Gameboy, so its possible, even given Nintendo's child friendliness

Edited February 7, 2017 by D.Daniels

[bojay1997]

I mean, if the releases are region free and the consoles are region free, do you think we'll have access to all languages in every region? I couldseect Russian or Japanese audio with English subtitle and pretend it's Hyrilian.

 

What you mention about Genesis is true to an extent. Some (JU) or (World) Megadrive releases use the region code on the console to select the cartridge language. Other games ban out of region consoles but it was left to the publisher. I have thought of adding a NA/JP toggle switch to my Genesis Model 1 but never got around to it.

 

PS4 and PSVita are both region free and there are lots of non-US releases that don't have English options. Even certain games released in certain parts of Europe don't necessarily have English options. It's unlikely the Switch will be any different.

[Flojomojo]

If they include all regions in Zelda, I hope it doesn't add much to the file size. There's voice acting throughout, right?

[Tanooki]

 

so the we are child friendly thing was bullocks all along, also some one in a earlier post said about whether GTA would be on the Switch, GTA has been on the Gameboy, so its possible, even given Nintendo's child friendliness

Good point on that. Rockstar were huge hypocrites back in the day with Nintendo. They toed the line that Nintendo consoles were just for kids. Yet you got GTA2 on GBC, and GTAA (basically GTA3 in overhead 3D mode with 2D sprites) on the GBA, and finally Chinatown Stories on the DS. I never got that at all as the hardware was definitely there for it with the GC for the old titles PS2 got, and even the Wii could have handled the stuff the PSP was given too.

[BillLoguidice]

Good point on that. Rockstar were huge hypocrites back in the day with Nintendo. They toed the line that Nintendo consoles were just for kids. Yet you got GTA2 on GBC, and GTAA (basically GTA3 in overhead 3D mode with 2D sprites) on the GBA, and finally Chinatown Stories on the DS. I never got that at all as the hardware was definitely there for it with the GC for the old titles PS2 got, and even the Wii could have handled the stuff the PSP was given too.

 

In terms of ports to GameCube, it's important to keep in mind that the available storage space on the mini-discs was considerably less than it was on the DVDs for both PS2 and Xbox. That would have meant multi-disc games on GameCube when on the other platforms it was a single disc, or even more discs when there were multi-disc games on PS2 and Xbox.

[Lost Dragon]

@Bill: I see the point your making but, the Dreamcast had Wild Metal and GTA II published by Rockstar and those were on 1 GB discs..Game Cube Optical disc held 1.5 GB did it not?.

 

Plus GTA 5 on Xbox 360 was on 2 discs, yet PS3 had luxury of Blu ray storage, so only 1 disc...

 

So putting product out on more limited storage space hasn't prevented them in the past.

 

 

And lets not forget, they did put Bully:Scholarship Edition,along with Table Tennis out on the Wii, so they have supported Nintendo Home Consoles when it suits....

 

 

I think it's more a case of them thinking the GTA market is more likely to be found on the Sony/MS platforms, along with PC.

[carlsson]

The Swedish Nintendo importer Bergsala had an event for the general audience (or perhaps you needed to be invited?) last Saturday. The premise was to stand in line for what probably exceeded two hours in gloomy winter weather around 0 C, just to get a chance to try the new Switch for as short time as they would allow before you had to move over for the next visitor. It puts the bread queues in Moscow to shame, and unlike a loaf of bread, the Switch is not something you might need to survive.

 

 

https://twitter.com/GunnarJohansson/status/827820745266954241

[Flojomojo]

The Swedish Nintendo importer Bergsala had an event for the general audience (or perhaps you needed to be invited?) last Saturday.

I'm going to a similar "event" this weekend. I figure at the very least, I'll get a lot of Street Passes.

[Atariboy]

@Bill: I see the point your making but, the Dreamcast had Wild Metal and GTA II published by Rockstar and those were on 1 GB discs..Game Cube Optical disc held 1.5 GB did it not?.

 

Not only was GTA II a 2D game instead of a 3D game with a large soundtrack, but GTA II was also originally built at a time when CD's were the common gaming medium. The storage capacity of a Dreamcast disc thus was a significant step up from that and they didn't have any storage constraints to concern themselves with as they converted it that would've called for downgrades.

 

Completely different situation on the GameCube slightly later. DVD had become the dominant medium and even a single layer full size DVD was around three times the capacity of what the GameCube's mini-DVD derived format allowed. Vice City on the PS2 for instance was around 2 gigs. Something would've had to have changed to cram that into several hundred MB's less space, like more efficient coding or compromises like cut content or downgraded assets (They could hardly go multiple discs for such a non-linear game, which often killed that option even if the publisher was willing to take on the extra production cost).

 

That said, I think disc capacity was often just an excuse. 1.5 gigs was usually plenty and by the time it would've been problematic, the GameCube was already dying out anyways. A few publishers like Take Two just didn't want to support Nintendo even when the GameCube was succeeding for a good couple of years there with healthy 3rd party support.

Edited February 7, 2017 by Atariboy

[Lost Dragon]

GTA 3 was indeed 3D but then so was GTA 5 and as stated, came on 2 DVD's on 360, though I have no idea if it arrived after the update that allowed developers to put more data on a DVD than normal, a la Gears Of War 3.

 

The point here was purely to state that if Rockstar wanted to put something from their catalogue out on GameCube, they could of, that's why I mentioned Wild Metal also on Dreamcast.

 

Ok, poor conversion etc and maybe not ideally suited to Dreamcast market, but they risked it.

 

They've moaned in the past about limited storage on existing optical discs, but I'm not personally aware if them never releasing anything because a platform used a lower storage medium than it's rivals, but then i've not been a fan of their output since GTA V.C.

 

 

360 L.A Noire..originally on 5 discs for 360, Rockstar used compression to reduce it, but still a 3 DVD game on 360..

 

 

So, it seems they are willing to do multi-disc versions of games as long as they feel there is a viable market, as I said in the earlier post.

Edited February 7, 2017 by Lost Dragon

[BillLoguidice]

360 L.A Noire..originally on 5 discs for 360, Rockstar used compression to reduce it, but still a 3 DVD game on 360..

 

 

So, it seems they are willing to do multi-disc versions of games as long as they feel there is a viable market, as I said in the earlier post.

 

Perhaps, but I recall statements at the time about games not being ported to the GameCube for two major reasons. One being the small disc storage space (relative to the other two systems), and the other being the unusual layout/configuration of the controller (again in relation to the other two systems). The biggest reason though was probably that the GameCube just wasn't popular enough and Nintendo just wasn't interested in funding/offsetting development costs (which I believe Microsoft at the time was not shy about). Certainly, at least at its sales heights, the Wii would get special versions of multi-platform games that would take into consideration its limitations (and relative special features), so, I suppose we do have an example of where extra effort was put in. Naturally, that's something the Switch will need to replicate, particularly in light of what happened with the Wii U after its launch window.

[Tanooki]

The disc size from my experience then was mostly an excuse. The controller was a more reasonable one if a game tapped all buttons.

 

At Midway I think I recall the GC could use double layer discs as a possibility which means upwards of 3GB space. Dreamcast with the GDROM was a double layer normal CD so they held a little over 1GB hence the name.

 

Some people just hated Nintendo as fanboy as it may come off. Look into old developer quotes back then some like Epic's mark rein wishing they go under swearing never an epic game would be on their hardware which had lots of fan fury. Gaming media and makers both run irrational and immature streaks.

[carlsson]

Bergsala had room indoors for 60 people playing the console, another 20 people waiting indoors, another 100 people waiting in a tent outside, another 50 people waiting in a line under roof. The 231th person and onwards had to fight weather conditions on their own. Due to the queue, they limited game play to 1 hour per person.

 

The event ran Saturday 9 AM - 6 PM and same hours on Sunday.

 

On Saturday 5:00 AM, the first persons put themselves in the queue.

At 7:50 AM, they estimated the last person in the queue would get to play at 11:00 AM.

At 8:30 AM (30 mins before opening!), the estimate was that the last person would get to play at 12:00 PM, thus a nice 3.5 hour wait.

At 9:30 AM, they warned about not everyone would get to play the same day.

At 2:30 PM, the queue would exceed 11 hours and they stated that you were welcome back Sunday.

On Saturday 6:00 PM when they closed for the day, anyone with queuing number 400 or below had a good chance of entering on Sunday.

On Sunday 1:00 AM (!!) the first persons would form a new queue, in parallel with those who had queuing tickets left from Saturday.

On Sunday 1:30 PM the queue was starting to clear, only 80 people left.

On Sunday 5:00 PM the last persons in line were let in.

 

Their FB event had about 800 people who signed up plus another 950 who were interested. Since their maximum capacity was 2 * 7 hours * 60 people at a time = 840 people, I suppose the total number of visitors was pretty close to the FB stats.

Edited February 7, 2017 by carlsson

[BillLoguidice]

Some people just hated Nintendo as fanboy as it may come off. Look into old developer quotes back then some like Epic's mark rein wishing they go under swearing never an epic game would be on their hardware which had lots of fan fury. Gaming media and makers both run irrational and immature streaks.

 

While I agree about regular people hating on Nintendo for no good reason (and, on the other, there being rabid fanboys), I've always had trouble buying the idea that there's some conspiracy with developers and publishers against Nintendo. Money talks for every business, and if there's a viable platform (meaning reasonable user base/risk/reward and reasonable technological match), then I can't see any company not supporting a Nintendo platform out of "spite." That's just not the way things work. Individual people may have a preference, but not whole companies.

[Andromeda Stardust]

If they include all regions in Zelda, I hope it doesn't add much to the file size. There's voice acting throughout, right?

I'm not 100%, but I think the voice acting is mostly reserved for dramatic cut scenes. When you talk to shop owners and NPCs, I believe it's plain text, which IMO is the way it should be. Imagine if the original Zelda had voice acting. How many times do you have to hear "Buy something will ya", "It's Dangerous to go alone", and "it's a secret to Everyone" before it grates your nerves? And yeah I'm sure Zelda has his classic grunts just like every Zelda and Mario since the 64.

[Lost Dragon]

Getting off topic, but the disc storage issue of GameCube didn't stop Capcom making Resident Evil 4 did it?.

 

There has always been an excuse why Game X isn't appearing on platform Y..

 

The amount of uproar here in the UK at the time when Core Design annouced Saturn wouldn't be getting Tomb Raider 2 as hardware couldn't handle it sticks in my mind.

 

Developers at start of PS3 era moaned about slow drive speeds then by end of the era were moaning about limited space available on 360 DVD.

 

Valve at time of Orange Box hated PS3 hardware yet were singing it's praises by the time of Portal 2.

 

It's the usual industry tactic..

 

1 moment they are delighted to support a platform or won't touch it at all and by the end of it's commercial life they've embraced it or moved on and they never seem to he asked about their earlier statements. :-))

 

Switch will be treated no differently, if inital sales go through the roof, publishers will jump on board, if they drop off sharply afterwards, they will abandon it.

 

And there will be no shortage of reasons given, i'm sure as to why they have now supported it or canned projects.

[Andromeda Stardust]

The Swedish Nintendo importer Bergsala had an event for the general audience (or perhaps you needed to be invited?) last Saturday. The premise was to stand in line for what probably exceeded two hours in gloomy winter weather around 0 C, just to get a chance to try the new Switch for as short time as they would allow before you had to move over for the next visitor. It puts the bread queues in Moscow to shame, and unlike a loaf of bread, the Switch is not something you might need to survive.

 

 

https://twitter.com/GunnarJohansson/status/827820745266954241

Sorry I'm getting it on day one anyway. I'd rather not stand in line to spoil the exerience!

 

And soon enough we'll be able to walk in stores and try out the kiosk, no lines necessary...

[Andromeda Stardust]

The disc size from my experience then was mostly an excuse. The controller was a more reasonable one if a game tapped all buttons.

 

At Midway I think I recall the GC could use double layer discs as a possibility which means upwards of 3GB space. Dreamcast with the GDROM was a double layer normal CD so they held a little over 1GB hence the name.

 

Some people just hated Nintendo as fanboy as it may come off. Look into old developer quotes back then some like Epic's mark rein wishing they go under swearing never an epic game would be on their hardware which had lots of fan fury. Gaming media and makers both run irrational and immature streaks.

 

The disc storage for Game Cube was never an issue for first party titles because Nintendo is a master at reusing assets. Oftentimes the simply alter the colors between environments with the same texture maps. And like N64 vs PS1, the Gamecube had better texture filtering and antialiasing compared to PS2 so many games looked better on Game Cube.

 

Even Wii library had very few dual layer discs. Smash Bros Brawl and Metroid Prime Trilogy are two of the few games I recall offhand that made use of dual layer discs. And the Xbox360 was limited to 8.7Gb dual layer DVD same as the Wii when PS3 had 50Gb BluRay. Had Xbox 360 been released in 2006, it would have likely shipped with a 30Gb HDDVD drive, and the HDDVD vs BluRay format war would have drug out much longer than it ultimately did.

 

And aside from clickable sticks, only Select and ZL were missing on the Game Cube controller compared to PS2. The Z-button kind of made up for the lack of Select, and the analog triggers were sweet. I don't think most games it will be an issue for Switch VC games though. They've got dual triggers so one shoulder button could map half mast and the other maps full click. R and ZR would let you walk or run as Mario with the FLUDD pack, and Z trigger could be mapped to Select. Other games like Sonic DX might be a problem though as the analog controller how fast you ran.

[cybercylon]

I'm not 100%, but I think the voice acting is mostly reserved for dramatic cut scenes. When you talk to shop owners and NPCs, I believe it's plain text, which IMO is the way it should be. Imagine if the original Zelda had voice acting. How many times do you have to hear "Buy something will ya", "It's Dangerous to go alone", and "it's a secret to Everyone" before it grates your nerves? And yeah I'm sure Zelda has his classic grunts just like every Zelda and Mario since the 64.

 

The second game should have had some voice acting. Hearing a digitized "I am Error" would have been priceless.

[adamchevy]

I've been thinking about finding a line to stand in so that I can have a switch at launch, but I'm feeling to old for that crap. Waiting another week or month to get one off of amazon shipped to my door will be fine. By then their will probably be limited edition joycon colors available, or a special Breath of the wild pair. I'm really hoping for a clear indigo purple set of joy cons. The idea of playing GameCube games on the go really tickles my coccyx.

Edited February 7, 2017 by adamchevy

[carlsson]

Not to mention waiting a month or two might iron out the last firmware bugs that may not have been detected during beta testing. Actually I think a lot of those people standing in line to get a glimpse of the system one month prior to the release are doing it just to have something to tell their grandchildren, not that they're really overly curious about the system.

 

By the way the handheld, detachable parts were bolted to the main consoles at the demo, so visitors only got a partial experience of the system. I suppose they didn't want to risk theft or damage and thus made sure to display it in non-detachable form. Indoors they also had separate lines for each launch game. For some reason, I understand that all spots to try the new Zelda game were prebooked, so none or very few of the visitors ever got a chance to try that particular game. Also the Splatoon game was hard to come by, the other titles easier to get to play.

[Schizophretard]

360 L.A Noire..originally on 5 discs for 360, Rockstar used compression to reduce it, but still a 3 DVD game on 360..

 

This makes me wonder if devs would often go the other way around by making sure that a game is one disc for both the XBOX 360 and PS3 and, therefore, the size of the game being limited. In other words, I'm wondering if the XBOX 360 prevented devs from making much bigger games for the PS4 compared to if both consoles were to use Blu-ray.

[Flojomojo]

Do games really *need* to weigh in at 25+ GB?

[Schizophretard]

Do games really *need* to weigh in at 25+ GB?

 

No.