Digital Foundry: We've been mulling over Nintendo Switch 2 leaks since June 2021 (!) and now, finally, we're able to confirm them - and to add a lot more background detail.
Ubisoft announced its financial results for the fiscal year 2024-2025, and they're not good, but Assassin's Creed Shadows is doing well.
Three companies keep showing their true faces and telling us who they are but for some weird reason we refuse to believe them. Even when everything they show just makes their greediness even stands out more
Keep messing with the consumers and keep being greedy. Keep telling your consumers to get comfortable now owning your games and we will. You only have few IP's that gamers care about anyways so
"soon enough tencent will buy you out. They already own 49%. Keep deleting games from gamers libraries and getting sued over it instead of making offline play possible for the crew" it's sad that I believe in 10 cents more than UBI because atleast tencent knows how to run a proper business
These executives can taking millions and bonuses and stock options yet they fire those actually making the games without thinking twice. Gaming has become so greedy that their own greed will be their downfall. Companies like Capcom have realized making good quality games and treat gamers with respect
AC series started with a soul but now it's just a soulless empty option world with icons filling the game map. They make their own games so grindy so that they can see the XP boosters to even the odds. As a gamer in my 40's all I want to know is when did gaming just stop being about Fun and all about greed. Double XP weekends selling cosmetics and dances. I use to be a big sports game guy when I was in my 20's the other day I wanted to play NBA 2k and after doing some deep research I realized the best NBA game was 2k17 and NBA 2k25 at $9.79 I couldn't pull the trigger on that 2k25 for how egregious the micro transactions were. So much of the fun is behind a pay wall
True words, buddy.
Q: "So how many units did Shadows sell?"
Ubisoft: "Well, look, we ... it's been a busy week."
For over a decade, the price of video games remained steady. We paid $50, then $60 for full, content-rich experiences. Developers found creative ways to deliver incredible games without charging more. From the PS2 era through the PS4/Xbox One, pricing consistency gave players a sense of value and trust.
But then came the jump to $70 during the PS5 and Xbox Series X launches—justified by "rising development costs." And now, barely four years later, we’re seeing $80 price tags becoming more common for standard editions. At this pace, by the time the next generation of consoles launches around 2027, $90 games could be the norm. And with a behemoth like GTA 6 on the horizon, a $99.99 base price wouldn’t be shocking at all.
Yet we’ve also seen proof that this kind of pricing isn’t necessary for success. Look at the recent launches of Expedition 33 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered. Both released at $49.99 and have been met with strong sales and positive reception. These games show that there’s still plenty of room for high-quality, mid-budget (AA) titles that offer great value—and gamers are more than willing to support them at fair prices.
But here’s the problem: the big publishers don’t care. If we as consumers keep paying for deluxe editions, early access, and overpriced base games, they’ll keep pushing the limits. They’re not going to back down unless we speak with our wallets—because that’s the only language they listen to. If they see record sales, they’ll take it as validation.
It’s frustrating when these same companies report record-breaking revenue and profits—yet still complain about tariffs, still find excuses to raise prices, and still hand out bigger bonuses to their CEOs. If they’re doing so well financially, why are they passing more of the burden onto players?
It’s because gaming has become the second biggest entertainment market in the world. And with that comes attention from hedge funds, investors, and boardrooms focused on short-term profit, not long-term player trust. To them, your passion is just a revenue stream. They care about quarterly numbers, not the health of the industry or the joy of the experience.
And unless we—as players—take a stand, the greed won’t stop. The monetization will grow, the price hikes will continue, and the soul of gaming will keep slipping away. The choice is ours. We can either keep paying more for less, or we can push back. One purchase—or one refusal to purchase—at a time
"And unless we—as players—take a stand, the greed won’t stop."
And that's the tough part about it.
Look at those annual figures showing billions and billions of money being spent on the most ridiculous add-ons, DLCs, pre-release accesses, even pre-orders, digital deluxe crap, etc.
I mean - we've stood together at times. I don't say it didn't happen before.
But within all of our communities there's so much passive aggressive defensiveness.
Look at the debates regarding physical vs digital.
Publishers can't keep a straight face reading our discussions in which many people abandon physical.
Playing straight into the cards of publishers out there.
Like I said gamers are the biggest issue with gaming. We may united on a issue but as soon as our favorite gaming franchise gets a release we will support it. If there any doubt Mario kart will be one of the best selling games on switch 2?
Things we use to unlock by simply playing a game has not be sold to us as extra content
I think people arebgetting tired of the formula. We see it in sales. People just want fun again.
Even the $130 ultimate editions of UBI games are only a bit less grindy and they still beg people to buy helix coins throughout the whole experience.
It's a travesty what 2K did to NBA 2K.
It really is because NBA 2K is simply unplayable without spending money and you can't even respec for a new my player you are required to spend again
When you don't disclose units sold... and your stock goes down... how is this doing well?
"According to the company, Assassin’s Creed Shadows achieved the second-highest Day 1 sales revenue in franchise history, following Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. It actually had the best Day 1 performance of Ubisoft’s history on the PlayStation Store."
Ubishit burned so many bridges with fans, releasing filler dreck that was purposefully designed to push you towards micro-trash-actions. It didn't have to be this way, they could have respected us players more, instead of making players waste countless hours of their life just to see stupid "experience points and resources numbers go up" and attempt to profit off us in such a disrespectful way. I stopped supporting them a long time ago. Keep burning bridges, and keep burning your company from within.
Digital Foundry: The Switch 2's main processor has been analysed - and its design is older than you might imagine.
The reason Nintendo took this long to release the switch 2 was due to the yen being so low. They rode that train for as long as they could.
Bingo they were waiting for better market conditions. The Japan launch is the first time in the history of Nintendo's console they are selling a unit at a loss.
I don't believe the switch 2 was the switch pro though u think that was something else still running hardware closer to the original Tegra architecture as you can see there's comparability issues with the t239 chip so I think it was something else as you'd need 100 percentage comparability for a pro model.
A classic epic RPG brings a remaster and some new tricks for Nintendo's Switch 2
1.0 tf handheld and 3.0 tf's docked, very good, just like a series s. This will be series s's lifeline for ports.
There are several factors against the Switch 2 that will make it a modest hit at best i feel.
1. People are past the novelty of modern games running on a handheld and now everyone knows all the 3rd party ports will be the worst versions.
2. £75 games means even first party titles will struggle to sell. This will mean less risk taking which will mean endless rehashes of 1st party franchises.
3. If the console isn't going to be the phenomenon that the original Switch was then 3rd party support will dry up and a doom spiral will start.
Indies could save it but we will see. Hopefully Nintendo are giving them the dev kits because they are certainly going to need strong indie support.
Me personally, for the first time since the virtual boy, i will not be getting a new Nintendo console at launch. Drop the game prices and i'll jump onboard.
3GB seems like a lot of memory reserved for the OS though.
Does this really shock people? I mean, the price for what you’re getting is far more shocking to me.
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