Yeah I saw. There were a lot of complaints from consumers about the features that existed in the 3DS/other DS’s that didn’t exist in the switch including this one. Pretty sure they started rethinking the idea that they were only marketing to kids after that. And even then I think those people have to be your actual friends on the switch 2 rather than just random people.
I can definitely understand why not selling a game on the most popular marketplace would detrimentally affect a studios ability to make money.
But a lot of the reason games aren’t successful has as much to do with the quality of the game and the amount of money spent developing it as it does with marketing. And plenty of developers/small indie studios assume that they can ouvert over-stretch themselves monetarily and with other resources like time, and still come out on top because Indies are becoming more popular.
But what it often comes down to is if what you’re selling is worth it to the consumer and they know about it. On steam an indie game is just as likely to get caught up in the influx of games and lost in the noise as it is to get noticed.
I believe it was their attempt to protect children from unknown people online. I have the app and one of the features is that you can talk to people online in certain games (Animal Crossing, Splatoon, SSB’s, Mario Kart, and I think Mario Party).
Edit: I’d also like to point out that those accessory mics didn’t work with first party games to my knowledge.
There was some public outcry about it specifically from parents who had to download said app and let their kids use it for games. You could later use accessories that would add a mic but it was limited.
Haven’t you heard. Indie games have to launch on steam or they fail miserably.
Seriously though. This is why I roll my eyes at people who claim steam makes it breaks these games. Humble bundle? Runs sales events where these games get showcased. Itch.io’s whole schtick is selling indie games.
It’s nice that Valve gives studios a platform to help market their games and all that, and yes, by dint of being one of the largest gaming sale platforms out there launching on steam helps their chances. But most of them weren’t ever gonna reach the success of AAA titles regardless and we pretend that that’s Valve’s fault for reasons I have never understood.
It’s the same problem with each of the online stores including the Nintendo E-Shop. Your game still has to be decent and be marketed to the people who want to play it.
Additionally they have to have time to play it. Which means you’re fighting every other game in the category in order to claim each players time.
There’s a whole lot to making and marketing a successful game at literally every level and not every studio can be a Team Cherry.
Switch OG doesn’t have a mic and that’s the reason they included the phone app. There were a fair number of aftermarket accessories that had mics though but I can’t say any of them were implemented to use first party games.
I tried to make sure it got quoted but my app doesn’t do well with copying the user so I did it this way so people would know it certainly wasn’t me who saw the flaw.
If it helps UFD tech on YouTube also reported off the Tom’s Guide article, spouting the same flawed data as the headline.