Opinion: A Smaller Nintendo Switch launch lineup may be better long term

Since Nintendo’s Switch Presentation last month, a good number of people have been doubting if the games that are coming to the new system at launch are enough.

“How in the world is anyone going to want to buy a Switch when the only ‘good game’ at launch is Zelda?”

These concerns are valid. 100%. However, you know what? I think things are going to be a-okay. I think the Switch is going to be fine, and I think any of you who might be buying a Switch on day one are going to be alright. Hopefully!

So, hear me out. Yeah, it definitely seems weird that there’s only going to be around 10 games on launch day, with 7 of them being ports (and not all of them available physically). It looks bad. Look at the Playstation 4 and Xbox One. They’ve got so many games now, How in the world does the Switch even hold a candle to that?

Firstly, I want you, the reader, to think about how many games you might buy a month. How many games do you buy at once whenever you visit your local EB Games or Big W? Chances are probably not too many, right? When 4 or 5 games I really want come out in the same week, that destroys me. I can’t handle it at all. I spend hours staying awake in the dead of night wondering which one to go for. I can’t afford all of these! When it comes down to it, that’s the thing. For a lot of early adopters of the Switch, they’ll probably buy Zelda. People love Zelda. After buying a $470 system, there’s not going to be much breathing room to grab much else.

Now, I want you to think back to the Wii U’s launch. The Wii U’s launch had a lot of games. In PAL regions, 31 games were on store shelves the day that system hit the market. 31! With that many games, why in the world does the Wii U have a reputation of being this lame console with no games on it? Simple reason. After this massive wave of releases, not too much happened afterwards. There was a drought, almost a whole year of nothing.

None of the other games sold well on day one. They suffered bad. I truly believe this is because there were too many games at launch. There was no breathing room. In the end, this just led to all these third party developers to believe that their games just weren’t meant for the Wii U when that just wasn’t true. People just couldn’t afford many other games, so they’d stick to just a small handful, while the other games were all forgotten and overshadowed.

With that in mind, let’s get back to talking about the Switch’s launch. So, 10 games.  That’s Zelda, 1-2-Switch, The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth+, Skylanders Imaginators, Super Bomberman R, Just Dance 2017, I Am Setsuna, World of Goo, Little Inferno and Human Resource Machine. That’s not all, though.

Let’s look at this release schedule. After the initial launch, we have Snipperclips, Fast RMX, Has-Been Heroes and Shovel Knight later in the same month, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Constructor in April, Rime and Puyopuyo Tetris in May, Disgaea 5, Snake Pass and Cube Life: Island Survival around the same time, Splatoon 2 in Winter, Fire Emblem Warriors sometime after that, and Super Mario Odyssey in time for the end of year break. On top of those, there’s roughly 40 other games I haven’t mentioned here to avoid making this a ridiculously long and hard to read paragraph. Insane.

I’m feeling really positive about 2017 when it comes to Nintendo. I think it’s going to be a great year. With all these games spread out throughout the year, each and every one is going to get the attention they all deserve. The pessimism and concern is all understandable. I totally get it. However, I don’t think there’s any need for alarm. The Switch is going to be great and 2017 is going to be a good one for Nintendo fans!