Is Nintendo Switch in trouble?

After a slight E3 showcase, investors and analysts are concerned over Switch sales. But are they right?

[PhoenixUp]

“Another concern centres on the Switch's recent performance. After dominating 2017 with numerous blockbusters, this year has been quieter for Nintendo.”

A large reason Switch’s first year library was so seemingly packed was because Nintendo prematurely axed Wii U’s lifecycle, moving various titles from it to Switch. The first half of its second year was largely bolstered by ports with only Kirby Star Allies & Mario Tennis Aces being the only notable original titles.

“But there's no need to do anything yet”

Indeed. Even without a lot of major releases in the first half of the year Switch has still performed admirably and 3DS is still hanging in there.

VGC estimates that each major platform so has sold this well during the first five months of 2018

PS4 sold 5,863,216 units
NS sold 4,261,030 units
XO sold 1,937,158 units
3DS sold 1,299,329 units
PSV sold 126,675 units

[Neonridr]

well we all know how the holiday season is going to go for Nintendo with the Pokemon games and Smash alone.

[superchiller]

The Pokemon games are trash and Smash is a port, not much to be excited about there.

[TheFirstClassic]

^wrong on both accounts. I do wish that ultimate was more different than 4 but let's not get crazy.

[Shiken]

superchiller

Pokemon is a remake of yellow, it will do fine. I wish it did not have the GO mechanics added, but it will still sell well.

Smash is confirmed not to be a port, get over it.

[ShadowWolf712]

Smash is a port with an expanded roster, wheter folks wanna admit it or not.

Those Pokemon games are an insult to Pokemon games though. Actual garbage, and a JOKE at $60.

[Zeldafan64]

superchiller is in pain. I feel SOOO bad for him/her.

[Prince_TFK]

@superchiller

Smash is a port?

*looked up the entire web*

Well. I didn’t see Smash Ultimate on the NES, SNES, Gamecube, Wii, Wii U, Gameboy, DS, 3DS, Game&Watch....

[3-4-5]

@Superchiller. It's not a port, they've even stated many times it's a new game built from the ground up.

Just because all the content from Smash 4 is in this doesn't make it a port. They re-did the character models and animations from scratch and yea some of the move sets carry over but are tweaked because of new game mechanics and gameplay speed.

It literally has all the content of every smash game ever.

You are jealous and it's obvious.

[Dragonscale]

Smash alone is pretty bad lol.

[Neonridr]

Smash is maybe on the surface a port. But when you see that it has every character, tons of stages, new movesets, new final smashes, new modes, new mechanics, plus more I am probably leaving out, it's quick to see that it's not the same game at all.

[OneLove]

Pokemon trash? Your in the minority on this. They could make a game called pokemon fart and it would still move millions.

[FancyMudkip]

@ShadowWolf712
Fans: We want Super Smash Bros and we do not care if its a port.
Nintendo: Here is Super Smash Bros, coming in 2018.
Fans: It's a port.
Nintendo at E3: Super Smash Bros will have every characters even Ridley.
Fans: Yep they spent that much time on a port.
Nintendo: This is a NEW game built from the ground up.
Fans: Yep it's a port
Me: But they said is new.
Fans: Nope it's a port and no one can tell me otherwise.

[Protagonist]

What?? Why are you making this stuff up on N4G?? On this very same thread you got the hardcore nintendo fans that says it is not a port.

Maybe you are living in a parallel universe? cause I do not see the usual nintendo fans on N4G saying it is a port.

[Gemmol]

Believe it being a port if you want.......everyone else with eyes can see difference

[Gemmol]

Vgc numbers not correct beside Japan numbers which they take from mediacreate

It's crazy how wen Wii was winning everyone on here who only had Sony systems say get these fake estimates out of here, now they look at these numbers like they accurate but forget its still same old estimating they did from.back then

I guess people only choose to accept things when it goes with their agenda or favorite console

But beside these vgc estimates i do agree with you all systems are doing well this year it was expected....monster hunter far cry god of war,and other games i missed that were huge also kept ps4 going

I expected Xbox to have second place because even without god of war it still got monster hunter far cry and other big multi plat games that ps4 got

Switch I expected 3rd place no big hitters, they basically just coasted for the first half of the year.......im still shocked it sold so much and erase all leads Sony got from big games in Japan and basically tells me no matter what big game Sony get for ps4 in Japan the switch will keep on winning and keep on getting more Japanese developers because they can't ignore the sales

It's crazy switch FIFA out sell ps4 FIFA in Japan so now EA have to make more FIFA games for switch.......bandai xenoverse sold better on switch vs ps4 in shorter time so now they have to make more games for us and its paying off

Hero acadmey Valkyrie chronicles tales of vesperia dragon ball fighterz all of these would not come to Wii U, but its all possible on switch

[FlyingFoxy]

There was a lack of first party, nevermind third party games, at E3.

I was hoping for a proper Starfox, Pilotwings too. So yea a little disappointed. A Conker game would be nice on the Switch, or maybe Playtonic can make a similar game for the adults.

[Neonridr]

not sure, Rare might own the rights to Conker.

[ShadowWolf712]

Rare does own Conker, it's why he was gonna wind up in Project Spark.

[MuddyWaters]

Every generation Nintendo shows their incompetence to get content out in a timely fashion. Once they let the 3DS die things will slowly change and E3 didn't show any 3DS as far as I know so things are looking up for 2019 and beyond.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

That Mech game they showed at the start of Nintendo's Direct looked pretty damned good, and I hear a LOT of people are glad that Super Mario Party is going back to the none-cart method of movement, plus it will have online play.

As for Star Fox, I'd love that too, but Starlink looks like Rogue Squadron so I'll take that. [plus you can get all the stuff from the toys through digital, so no need to have all the toys if you don't want them.]

[strayanalog]

Nope. A lot can happen between now and the holiday season. Besides, we no doubt have plenty of Directs and other announcements to get to yet.

[The 10th Rider]

I mean, Smash, Mario Party, and Pokemon all typically sell more than Zelda. Smash and Pokemon typically outsell 3D Mario. Commercially they have a strong lineup this year, so I don't think there's really much of anything else for the holidays. A few smaller titles, most likely.

[Zeldafan64]

Mario Party doesn't outsell Zelda

[The 10th Rider]

@Zeldafan64,

I guess "typically" isn't really the right word to use for Mario Party. It fluctuates. People tend to conflate Zelda's critical success with its commercial success. In actuality, Zelda four real breakout hits are the original, Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and now Breath of the Wild. Mario Party has had two: Mario Party DS and Mario Party Wii. Outside of that Mario Party sells less, but it's also a far more saturated series. For instance, using the Gamecube as an example, it's much harder to sell four Mario Party games to an individual than it is to sell two very different Zelda games. It's also a bit more difficult of a comparison as three of the top selling Zelda games released before Mario Party had even started as a series. On the Gamecube, Wii, Wii U, DS, and 3DS, Mario Party sold more on the Wii and on the DS while Zelda sold more on the other consoles . . . however the 3DS Mario Party games were utter trash while the 3DS Zelda's contained a remake of one of the most acclaimed games of all time and the massive critical success, A Link Between Worlds.

On 3DS the Mario Party series has struggled to find it's footing while Legend of Zelda has successfully repositioned itself as a major series now with BOTW. However, Super Mario Party is going back to the beloved game-board style of play that was popular in the earlier Mario Party games, something that fans have been clamoring for ever since they ditched it. I think it's highly likely that this time around we will see Mario Party sales similar to the Wii and DS games.

[Moonman]

Smash Bros. Ultimate looks like it's going to be awesome though. I am not even a huge Smash fan and I'm really excited for it. It should be massive this holiday.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

Not gonna lie; I don't plan to play as Daisy but I couldn't help smiling when she was announced.

[StormLegend]

I know I’ve been disappointed lately. Smash bros doesn’t excite me and I was hoping for a new Zelda spin off or virtual console. I haven’t touched it since Mario Odyssey and I would love to have more 3rd party games. If the drought continues into 2019 like it did this year then I’ll be selling my switch.

[Neonridr]

well you will get a virtual console of sorts if you sign up for the online services this fall. What sorts of games do you like to play? Tons of lesser known titles that are pure gems on the system.

[ShadowWolf712]

I'd love to know where, cuz I sure can't find any.

[Neonridr]

@Shadow - go look at the eshop. Full of amazing titles.

[EddieNX]

Pokemon and smash will explode sales and there some really good stuff coming between now and then ! Should be fine

[Prince_TFK]

Beside the heavy hitters in Pokemon and Smash, they still have Octopath Traveller, Mario Tennis, Monster Hunter, Captain Toad, Mario Party, plus games that might be released this year such as No More Heroes.

Those are all exclusives mind you. They still have third parties games such as Dark Soul, Wolfenstein 2, and DBZ. So I think they are gonna be just fine.

[Blu3_Berry]

I would say no, they just announced some of their games way too early and had no update for them this e3.

-No Pikmin 4
-No Metroid Prime 4
-No Bayonetta 3
-No Mario Odyssey DLC (We expected a new kingdom to be shown off)
-No footage for the CORE Pokemon game, just a spinoff GO series nobody asked for
-No Yoshi footage & delayed to 2019

All of these were pretty much announced last year, yet there was no updates on them at all. Nintendo announced these too early. I don't mind games being announced early, but at least give us an update for e3 on them. We saw none of this here.

[Rippcity]

Agreed. Why show Metroid Prime 4 at the last e3 if even a year later they weren't even going to have a trailer to show. At least mention it or something. I haven't really had any intention of buying Switch anyways since I was able to play Zelda on the Wii U (which it turned out was not my favorite Zelda game to say the least). And considering Smash Ultimate is just an updated version of Smash U, they really didn't bring anything enticing to win me over as a Wii U owner. As far as I'm concerned, until there is a new Metroid, I have no reason to buy one.

[Blu3_Berry]

That's perfectly understandable and I can somewhat agree with you. There's not too much reason to buy a Switch at the moment for those who do not own one. Zelda BOTW can be played on WiiU, Smash Ultimate is more or less all the Smash games together (which is cool, but I wanted more new content for it), Mario Kart 8 Deluxe just has a battle mode and is on WiiU, Splatoon 2 is nice but didn't feel like a true sequel. Only game that may be worth is Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Mario Odyssey in terms of system sellers you can't get anywhere else.

[Gemmol]

They already said why they won't show footage because it's not coming out in 6 months, other companies like to show games far out but Nintendo do not, they will tell you its in development and that's it, once they know it will finish in same year then they show more footage........

Business insider just had an article on that praising Nintendo for not following others showing gameplay of games far off

[GameBoyColor]

CDPR literally did the same thing with 2077 in 2013 yet nobody gave them shit.

[Italiano1234567]

Yeah last month ps4 sold more then both switch and xbox combined...Switch sales have slowed big time and all they really showed at e3 was smash. There gonna continue to slow

[yeahright2]

last month, was that worldwide or just NPD?

impressive either way, but more so if we're only talking NA

[Gemmol]

Na and Europe

Switch had 1st in Japan and switch was second in Na and Europe

[Italiano1234567]

It was both ps4 sold over a mill i think switch was at 500000 and some worldwide

[Prince_TFK]

Switch had no heavy hitter while the PS4 had GOW. So that is nothing strange tbh.

[Kumakai]

Switch will be a fad.

[G3ng4r]

Like ps vr? Nah. Anyway fads die well before their first year. Shame your opinion hasn't.

[superchiller]

As expected, once the excitement of a new Nintendo handheld wore off, and people realized that the portable is unable to run multiplatform games well, sales are dropping off. The fad is fizzling out, time for Nintendo to work on a new system.

[TallonIV]

Is this writer just looking for clicks?

[Gemmol]

Click bait as usual

[Officialxandr]

Only trouble Switch has is their crappy online.

[wheatley]

E3 isn't what it used to be with announcements happening throughout the year, but they shouldn't have concentrated SO MUCH on Smash Bros. I mean... I expected them to end with "and it's out...NOW!" the amount the larked on about it. But no, December. After the little seen Pokemon game.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

December? Jesus, that's a bit late. If people are buying their kids Switches you'd hope that it would be at least out by November.

[Gunstar75]

I've just sold my switch. I might buy a second itterition of it in the future but after finishing Zelda, mario and many hours on mario kart there was nothing coming that really spiked my interest.
Having games like Doom and Wolfenstein is great, but for me the switch was a secondary console and I am not gonna spend £50 on a game I own already and can buy on PS4 or Xbox for £20

[SuperSonic91]

Knew this will happen eventually.

[PhantomS42]

Sales are great, has great games already, just had more great games announced, and there are years of more great games coming.

But somehow Nintendo is doomed? That would be like saying Sony is a trouble with the PS4 sales and library of great first party titles.

[yeahright2]

For me, it is but only for the time being. I have no desire to ever play Mario or any of their other mascot titles with the exception of Zelda which I bought on Wii U. And if you're a Wii U owner that doesn't care about Mario, Nintendo hasn't given you any real reason to buy the switch. enter E3 where I learned about xenoblade chronicles 2, and fire emblem and I'm at least looking in Nintendo's direction. have them announce a couple more like a new bayonetta or bring back something like Pandora's tower or fatal frame and I'll snag a switch.

[ShadowWolf712]

Might be. So far the only games on the horizon I care about are the PROPER games out next year and Fire Emblem which... is also out next year.

[Prince_TFK]

So that mean this year it is “doomed” ?

[ShadowWolf712]

It means that it's in trouble. No one said anything about "doom". Sales might take a spike downward though.

[Prince_TFK]

So how about Monster Hunter, Pokemon, and Smash at the end of the year? Will those games make sales to take a spike downward?

[ShadowWolf712]

Proper Pokemon games*

dang phone

[SR38813]

No they not in trouble don't be silly.
They still have games to show this year... Metroid will be shown by end of year in some way shape or form... Smash is not a port! It brand new... You might as well say all COD games are ports lol

[Foraoise]

Uh no? Stupid article. It's doing REALLY well. Smh. This site is full of idiots who only want to bash the Switch because of their childish and nonsensical biases.

[paintedgamer1984]

The switch is def having a drought year. 2019 will prob be the year to rival 2017. Sorry nintendo fans. When the best you have for 2018 is a port and a tennis game theres a big issue.

[GameBoyColor]

how is it a port? it was built up from the ground up in unreal 4, it has so many returning characters we haven't seen in 10 years, they changed a bunch of designs, voice acting, tech, and balancing. If this is a port then so is every mortal kombat, street fighter, marvel v capcom, guilty gear, blazblue etc.

[TallonIV]

Port? Lol keep reaching there buddy. If you actually watched impressions from E3 everyone is saying it's a brand new game and feels different. By your logic is TLoU2 a port of TLoU1 because it looks the same?

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

Nope, not in trouble.
There's a very large, and still growing, list of games coming to the platform, far more than the Wii U saw during its first couple of years.
Many third party games are seeing new popularity on the system, indies are making bank left and right, and aside from the minority of mainstreamers that only touch third party games made by specific devs, most Switch owners have a healthy variety of none-first party titles in their collections, and aren't feeling any sort of drout in terms of games to play.

[Broomfondle]

No.

[pandehz]

Poor showing from the Nintendo camp.

[superchiller]

As usual.

[Segata]

If one lame E3 showing killed a console Wii would have died in 2008. It kept going for another 4 years.

[GameBoyColor]

xbox would also be out of the water for disappointing for the past 4 years in a row lol

[riibhu]

It's funny how Microsoft is downplayed over halo,forza,gears. But Nintendo is praised over Zelda,Mario,smash, Pokemon... I'll never understand this fanboy mentality where the same thing is praised or downplayed just because a different brand in involved.

[AK91]

No