Nintendo Thursday announced that sales of new games in Pokemon’s newest mainline entries, Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet, for the Switch console had surpassed 10 million in three days since their global launch on November 18. That’s the highest figure for a game’s debut in Nintendo’s history, setting a new record for the Kyoto-based Japanese gaming giant.
At a time when fears of recession and a slowing global economy have cautioned consumers to tighten their purse strings, Nintendo’s smash success with Pokémon games for the Switch has shocked Wall Street and analysts. We explain how Nintendo’s focus on nostalgia and original IPs brought back families to gaming and helped cement Switch’s position as the number-one game console in the world.
No one cashes in on nostalgia better than Nintendo, tapping into both older users and young demographics at the same time. The decision to launch two new Pokemon games for the Switch ahead of the busy holiday season is not only well-timed but also a demonstration of Nintendo’s confidence in the Pokemon franchise, which has grown into a $100 billion media empire.
Pokemon is Nintendo’s longest-running game franchise, first introduced with Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue in 1996. Since its debut, Pokemon has been a mainstay in pop culture through video games, movies, TV series, clothing and other merchandise. Pokemon games are available exclusively on Nintendo systems, making its consoles the only place to enjoy these titles. Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet are once again Switch exclusives, which is the reason why Nintendo typically charges more for a game than Microsoft and Sony.
The strong sales of new Pokemon games for the Switch show that consumers are willing to pay $60 (or approx Rs 4,900) for each game or $120 (or approx Rs 9,800) for the double pack. Nintendo’s unique strategy of developing innovative hardware and then leveraging it to create memorable experiences through first-party games has made the company seemingly recession-proof.
The launch of Switch five years ago was a turning point for Nintendo, which had seen a historic low due to the failure of Wii U. Nobody had an idea what Nintendo was up to, with some anticipating the company might even stop making the hardware, but the Switch changed everything. Instead of taking on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One directly, Nintendo turned the market upside down with a hybrid console that looked like a tablet but had detachable controllers.
Five years on, competitors are still thinking about how to make a gaming device as brilliant as the Switch. All this indicates that Switch has set a benchmark when it comes to turning a traditional home console into a hand-held machine. There is no muscle flexing processor under the hood, but that hasn’t diminished the market potential of the Switch, with Nintendo shipping millions of units each quarter despite global chip shortage and cooling down of the gaming market as the pandemic wanes.
Phil Spencer has announced on Twitter that Microsoft will be committed to bringing Call of Duty to Nintendo consoles if the Activision Blizzard acquisition goes through. Hardcore Call of Duty fans might recall that the series did come to Nintendo consoles in the past, back in the days of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Call of Duty: Ghosts. Titles were released on the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Wii U, and the Nintendo DS. These games were usually reviewed poorly compared to the other consoles, and we shudder to think about how bad the frame rate might get on the Nintendo Switch.
Of course, this news comes after Phil Spencer offered the same deal to Sony, which they find unacceptable because the franchise will then come to Microsoft’s Gamepass service, which will most likely undercut sales of the games on PlayStation consoles. It is unlikely that the battle against the upcoming acquisition will end any time soon.
A new update, which was announced in the tweet above, will be coming today to Elden Ring. The Colosseum update will be free for all players, and it will open up the Colosseums for some epic PVP battles, so feel free to go all out in your battles against your fellow tarnished. The update is the only DLC to be released for the game, even though it has been extremely popular since the release of the game earlier this year, and it is unknown whether there will be any paid DLC in the future. This new update comes right before The Game Awards, where it will undoubtedly pick up an award or two.
In an interview with Video Games FN, David Harbour let it slip that he will be starring in a horror game that should be released in 2023. He was being asked about his role in the upcoming Gran Turismo movie, loosely based on the PlayStation franchise of video games when he was asked if he wanted to star in a video game, to which he replied, “I actually have one coming out. Me and Jodie Comer did a video game.”
So the Stranger Things and Violent Night star will be appearing in a video game alongside Comer who you probably know from Killing Eve or Free Guy. It’s unknown when the game will actually be released or if it is a part of an existing franchise. Fans seem to think that they could be the stars of the next installment of The Dark Pictures Anthology. Honestly, it would be good to see him come to Dead by Daylight with his Stranger Things character, but it does not seem like that is what he was referring to. We will just have to wait and see; who knows, the game might be announced at The Game Awards.
You might remember the horrific launch of Cyberpunk 2077 and how it led to PlayStation taking the game off of its store after players bombarded them with refund requests. For most of the players who attempted to play it on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, the game was a buggy mess and for those who requested refunds, it was unplayable. Well, it turns out that this led CD Projekt Red to cancel their standalone multiplayer game based on the Cyberpunk franchise.
In an interview with Eurogamer, Philipp Weber, the acting narrative director on one of their upcoming games in The Witcher franchise, detailed how a pivot to focus on improving the game led to the cancellation of the multiplayer title. This is not surprising in the least, but it has to make you wonder if CD Projekt Red spreading themselves too thin might be why Cyberpunk 2077 was released in that state, to begin with, but we should know more about that when they release their next game.
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