It is an understatement to say that no one expected the Nintendo Switch to be such a huge success. Even those who thought the console would do well didn’t expect the success to be this massive. One of those who weren’t expecting much is the CEO of Pokemon, Tsunekazu Ishihara. He revealed in an interview with Bloomberg that he told Nintendo that the Switch just wouldn’t be a success. The conversation happened before its March launch, but he felt that the Switch would fail because “in the age of the smartphone, no one would carry out a game console”. He did admit, however, that he was wrong. Here’s what Ishihara had to say:
I told Nintendo that Switch wouldn’t be a success before it went on sale, because I thought that in the age of the smartphone, no one would carry out a game console. It’s obvious I was wrong. I came to realize the key to a successful game is quite simple: software with absolute quality leads sales of hardware. Playing style can be flexible if the software is attractive enough. Currently, it’s popular among the early adopters, but there needs to be one more step to attract a wider audience. I see more potential in Switch, but one shouldn’t overestimate its potential.
If only the Nintendo haters would admit they were wrong like this guy did…. 😅
That would be nice if they admitted how wrong they are
The world would be a better place and Hurricanes will cease to exist!
I’m not a hater altough I haven’t been happy with Nintendo since the WII even to the point that I quit buying there consoles entirely. That said sales don’t mean everything for me and allot of people I know as a Core gamer. Playstation (and xbox for others) offers me 30-50 high rated games (for what its worth but it is a indication of solid games) each generation. Nintendo offers me 10-15 at best.
The WII had great sales but even people that never touched a gaming console in there live bought that so that doesn’t mean much to me as a person that has been playing nintendo since the 8-bit and gameboy era.
The Snes for Example had 50 to 100+ amazing games just check this list for a small portion of its greatness:
http://www.ign.com/lists/top-100-snes-games
I understand it’s way harder these days to make games but all the amazing third party back than are The Witcher, Metal Gear, GTA, Call of Duty and so on and so on of that Era. Back than a Nintendo console offered all the amazing first and third party , wich they havent been able to do since after the gamecube. And thats what I and everyone I know that grew up with Nintendo is looking for in a console.
And than we have the issue that they have never been fully able to evolve series like Star Fox, Donkey Kong Country , Kirby , Yoshi , Kid Icarus , F-zero and so on like they have done with Metroid Prime, Zelda and Mario/Kart or add completely new IP’s of this caliber to there roster. Even Metroid has been pretty much death since the release of prime 3 and one could argue that Zelda Breath of the Wild style gameplay could have already exsisted in the place of Skyward Sword wich didn’t feel modern when you looked at Camera controlls from other games and big open world from games like Witcher , Fallout and Skyrim.
Skyward Sword was amazing btw but the camera controlls really bothered me , and the big open world and graphics from other games like Witcher made me feel like it was as modern as it could be eather. I might even find it the best Zelda game since the Snes and n64 wich is probally the best Zelda ever made after Majora’s mask in my humble opinion. I just had the feeling while playing it that it could have been even better greater if it was modern and had better graphics.
That’s cool. Opinions are opinions. At least you’re not a blind hater that dislikes Nintendo due to misinformation.
There’s a small thing about what you said that’s kind of picking at me (everything else I do agree on and actively share with other people). You said sales don’t mean everything to you, but when you start talking about the Wii, you mention the sales and also mention the demographic of the people buying the Wii. Why? Does it matter to you who buys a certain product? Does it make you want it less? These are honest questions.
Dude, Switch has been out for 6 months. It’s approaching SNES level 3rd party support. Wii’s third party games didn’t sell well because everybody was hyped for HD gaming. Wii U didn’t have any kind of user base to make ports worth the investment. Switch has the power necessary to run current generation games unlike Wii (and WIi U really) and actually has a strong install base.
You can’t expect Switch to have 50 top tier games when it’s 6 months old, dev kits have only been out for just over a year (with most games taking far longer than that to develop) and it wasn’t known if it was going to be a hit or a flop. Patience.
@ kidriku and Jay Garvens
I mentiont that cause the Wii was a huge succes sale wise , but me and other people I know who grew up with Nintendo where dissapointed by the lack of games mainly triple A titles that other consoles did offer. Just because it’s a commercial succes doesn’t mean its a better console than the 8-bit, snes , n64 , gamecube to me atleast and I know allot of people think the same way.
@ Jay Garvens
I know the console sells well but i’m not intrested in the kind of third party cause I would like to play 90% of the industry leading games on it like I could back in the days. The list of third party games that already skipped the switch is endless I doubt I need to right it down for you? For me personally this is another console I would buy for 5-8 Nintendo first party games and 5-7 third party games that might be intresting. Same as the WII U and the WII.
“have never been fully able to evolve series like Star Fox, Donkey Kong Country…” you clearly haven’t played Tropical Freeze, it is my favorite Wii U game surpassing even Super Smash. Another great platformer that nintendo really evolved as you may put it is Yoshi’s Woolly World. apart from the amazing visual appeal, this game has a solid gameplay and is tough like a mofo unlike other Yoshi games.
You i havn’t played BoTW myself, but you are the first one i hear to describe it as mediocre and last-gen.
You need to read dude first off all I said Skyward sword should have been like botw already BOTW is modern Skyward sword was not and Breath of the wild style games already excisted back than.
Second of all Yoshi and DK tropical freeze wich i fully played aren’t evolved at all cause they are still 2d games like they where on the snes.
THEY WILL ALWAYS BE WRONG AND THEW SHIT THEY COME OUT WITH IS PLAIN MWENTAL ILLNESS
a stick beats a 3d gyro the fact thats imposible scientifically DOESNT STOP THEM SAYING IT
MWENTAL ILLNESS. I’m pretty sure you are afflicted with this.
People STILL think it will fail in the longrun even with all of these sales. There’s delusional and then there’s this.
Surprising to hear such doubt from the Pokémon company. Glad he turned out to be wrong though. And it’s nice that he admits that he was wrong
“…one shouldn’t overestimate it’s potential?”
…dude, Nintendo has proven “there’s nothing more exciting than a -on the go Dedicated Gaming Console- which can freelance as a television gamimg console at home. Just add that web browser, Netflix, Hulu Plus as well as other apps & we’re all set.
As far as gaming goes Im like totally satisfied. The whole AAA 3rd party support on all fronts, to me, isn’t necessary. Im not worried about C.O.D., Battlefield, Mass Effect, Assassins Creed, or the brilliant GTA series on the Switch. Or should I say, “NOT YET”.
What Nintendo is gonna have to do is solve this micro sd card mess. Because a system with only 32 gb is ridiculous.
I mean, you can get SD cards way bigger than 32GB even today, (you might already have one) and even bigger ones are made all the time.
But that would jack up the price of the system, that’s why Nintendo went with 32GB instead of say 128GB or even 250GB, it’s using Flash Memory which is similar to an SSD (slightly slower) which is pretty expensive to buy and manufacture.
Flash Memory is SSD. It doesn’t spin like the normal HDD and It’s faster. MacBooks sport 250gb of those things… See how expensive they are (OK… I know apple sell everything expensive).
Point is, No smartphone or tablet boasts up to 128gb except the ipads and the top of the line android tablets…. and in terms of graphical specs, they can’t touch the Switch. There had to be a compromise somewhere and Nintendo chose storage…
Why, you ask? Because it’s the only thing in the console that can be expanded externally. Game consoles don’t exactly use external Graphics cards.
Cubits12x
You do know Games take up a thing called DATA…. so the more data being used requires more storage and with Flash Memory (Which is indeed different from SSD) which is featured in devices like the Vita, 3DS, Smartphones and tablets but notice how depending on the storage size, the price is jacked up.
Storage in a non-disc form is going to be more expensive to produce, so if you want to pay $350 or even $400 for a Switch with 250GB, then be my guest. You know consoles have more than just data inside them.
Well shit I was scared for the switch when it was announced too. Thought it would be too gimmicky, but it really has shaped out to be a solid console.
HOW IS NATURAL GAMING EVOLUTION A GIMMICK DUDE YOUR PLAIN ASS WRONG
3D GYRO MOUSE IS NOT A GIMMICK HAVING A CONSOLE HANDHELD AS ONE ISNT A GIMMICK ITS A NATURAL EVOLUTION OF THE CONCEPT
IS A SMART PHONE A GIMMICK TO YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MY MIND WONDERS IT TRULLY DOES A LIGHTBULB ON A DUALSHOCK IS A GIMMICK A FINGER PAD THAT DOES NOTHING ONA DUALSHOCK IS A GIMMICK
ADMITTEDLY AMIIBOS ARE GIMMICKS
SWITCH IS NOT A GIMMICK ITS A NATURAL EVOLUTION CURV OF A GAMING SYSTEM
“I thought that in the age of the smartphone, no one would carry out a game console.”
THEN WHY THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN MAKING THE LATEST POKEMON GAMES ON HANDHELD CONSOLES.
“Hey team, no one wants to carry around a gaming device and Pokemon fans have been begging us to make a game on a home console….. so lets ignore everything I just said and make a new Pokemon game on the 3DS.”
I fucking hate game companies.
Did 3DS not show them anything? If you are disappointed with how Pokemon is performing innovate it rather than churning it out every year with little change.
You want him to innovate, instead of “little” changes?
And you think he might be dissapointed with how Pokémon is performing?
What?
I think he is quite happy with how Pokemon performs. XY and SM are on its way to sell the same as DP(on the best selling handheld ever)
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This proabbaly explains why pokemon go is still horrible to play (yes I know it’s made by the different company) I’m getting a little bit tired of smart phone games there like partial price dlc, majority of people who play it are casuals and act like pokemon go should be on the switch (lol and I’m not lying noobs like to talk about it all the time)
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||This world’s IQ is decreasing by the month…||
Off topic. How goes school? I have this semester and the Spring and then I’m done with my bachelor’s. Can’t wait to finally finish.
||My puppet was forced to change program, the circumstances after getting a degree was not positive, fortunately he doesn’t need to start from the beginning…||
||My puppet was forced to change program since the Astronomy one does not give a dark future unless you are committed of taking a PhD which he has no time for, instead he switched to Meteorology so he doesn’t have to start completely from scratch as some courses are the same at the first 1.5 years and job opportunities are far higher, especially in his area of residence…||
Either way, very interesting fields. Space is very interesting stuff. Unfortunately like you said, not always the best for job opportunities. But if you can get one, that’s awesome.
||Yes fortunately it was his second favourite program…||
||What do you study? I don’t think I’ve asked before…||
Any interesting space facts they’ve taught thus far? I’m doing accounting. I love math, so I figured it would be a good career field. Lot of word problems, which I don’t love, but I’m almost done, so I survived.
||The last thing humans might have found was that entropy and dark energy might have a relation…||
||Mathematics, probably the widest field to get jobs, excellent choice…||
I’ve heard very little about entropy and dark matter. But I think I’ll Google them now since you mentioned them. Sounds intriguing.
Smart Man.
At least he admitted to being wrong, that alone makes me respect him.
NOT GOOD ENOUGH HE IS A CO OF THE POKEMON COMPANY IF HE DOESNT NO SHIT WHY IS HE THE CO OF THE POKEMON COMPANY
SO THE CO OF A COMPANY THAT MADE ITS WEALTH ON NINTENDO HANDHELDS AND NOWHERE ELSE SOMEHOW THOUGHT THAT SWITCH WOULD FAIL
SO IM GUESSING HE ALSO THOUGHT POKEMON WOULD FAIL TO ON SWITCH WHEN EVERYONE ELSE ON THE PLANET KNEW POKEMON ON SWITCH WOULD BE A SUPER HIT
SOMEONE FIRE THIS IDIOT
Hello everyone, what I’m going to write will probably not liked from some of you but I don’t like Pokemon since I was a kid and personally the Nintendo Switch is going great without this game. We already have some games (released and announced) that is basically selling the system at a fast rate. Just think about it, we have
– Super Mario Odyssey
– The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild
– Kirby (2018)
– Yoshi (2018)
– Sonic Mania
– Sonic Forces
– Bomberman
– Dragon Ball Xenoverse
– Shovel Knight
– Shantae
– Yooka-Laylee (Sure we will see him)
– Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
– Mighty Gunvolt Burst (I love this game)
– Metroid Prime 4 (How can I forget this, but still we don’t know the release date)
– ARMS
– Fire Emblem Warriors
And I don’t remeber all the games, but anyway we have so many titles that the system is selling well.
Even without the Pokemon, Nintendo can still do it.
Everyone underestimated Zelda, not the Switch. If Zelda had not been a Switch launch title, we would be in an alternate universe where Nintendo is not regaining it’s influence.
As thing’s stand, it DID launch with Zelda, and the Switch was propelled into popularity. And we now live in a world where Switch will be around a while.
all I see it’s another Nintendo wii
Wii U was off to a great start, too, and we all know how that went. And I’ll leave my comment at that.