My games of the year 2020 (GOTY 2020)

Best Action game

The Last of Us Part II (PS4)

With Ellie as official heroine of The Last of Us II, a dream came true. So I took the time to go through the anticipated title between my usual Japanese games. Those were incredibly intense days, proportionally to the quality of this outstanding adventure. Even though I thought the story was very plain, the sequence of events, the action parts and especially the ending were really stellar.

Runner-up : none

Best Shooter

Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War (PS5)

I came back to Call of Duty after a downright horrible Black Ops 4, and I was pleasantly surprised. Black Ops Cold War reintegrates the solo campaign with great effort. Innovative, varied, non linear, it’s the best solo play since Black Ops II. The multiplayer mode being still enjoyable, I’d say the mission is accomplished for COD this year.

Runner-up : none

Best RPG

Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4)

Obvious to say that Final Fantasy VII Remake was much awaited. FFVII is the reverse of FFXV. SquareEnix then had to choose if they wanted to release a JRPG, or a FFXV-like RPG. Fortunately, Final Fantasy VII Remake keeps the original spirit while adding very good hybrid gameplay and state of the art graphics.

Runner-up : Persona 5 Strikers (PS4)

Best Design

Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4)

Final Fantasy VII Remake beautifully revives the original game, its locations and its characters. The charisma of the protagonists is incredible, this is Advent Children in real time! In terms of locations, you re-discover a Midgar of fresh and real look. In other words, the backgrounds have turned into a really immersive megalopolis. SquareEnix has further improved the greatness of the FFVII universe thanks to limitless efforts and creativity.

Runner-up : Atelier Ryza 2 (PS5)

Best graphics

The Last of Us Part II (PS4)

It’s hard to decide between The Last of Us Part II and Final Fantasy VII Remake, but the former seems slightly above in terms of graphics and animation. The extreme realism given to Ellie, the other characters or the places you go into are just mindblowing.

Runner-up : Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4)

Most disappointing

Atelier Ryza 2 (PS5)

I will write a big review about this, but I now really think that the Ryza series is downright killing Atelier. Aside the pure alchemy system, everything just became horribly commonplace. Characters, story, dialog, artwork… all that has reached concerning levels of mediocrity. Gust now must choose either to restore former Atelier glory or pursue the content breakage to seduce mainstream audience, in which case the Atelier we know will just disappear.

Runner-up : Death end re;Quest 2 (PS4)

Game of the Year

Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4)

Like I said, discovering Final Fantasy VII Remake has been the most heartwarming moment of 2020. Yes, we got to experience a great JRPG again with great characters, great side content, great atmosphere… in even better thanks to stellar technics and direction! The return of FFVII is an astounding success and SquareEnix is officially great again.

Persona 5 Strikers (PS4)

The Last of Us Part II (PS4)

Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War (PS5)

My games of the year 2019 (GoTY 2019)

Best Action game

Devil May Cry 5 (PS4)

After leaving the series for many years, Devil May Cry 5 has been a great pleasure because it is modern and quite nostalgic at the same time. Graphics and animation are splendid, it revives good old memories while improving the gameplay with three fantastic characters and tons of great boss fights.

Runner-up : none

Best Racing game

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (PS4)

True gem of the first Playstation, Crash Team Racing is back to teach a lesson to Mario Kart on how karting is to be made for core gamers. Modern graphics don’t mean the gameplay is changed : it’s as technical, intense and fun as it was 20 years ago.

Runner-up : none

Best Fighting game

Dead or Alive 6 (PS4)

Dead or Alive 6 doesn’t revolutionize anything but by simply keeping unmatched qualities (fair-play, high-precision gameplay, lots of counters), it stays the best one and brings an enjoyable story mode.

Runner-up : none

Best RPG

Ys IX Monstrum Nox (PS4)

With Ys IX Monstrum Nox, Falcom proves once more that they know the true spirit of JRPG. Delightful by its tremendous wealth of characters, Ys IX also conducts is narrative in an efficient way, and eventually concludes on a beautiful epilogue. The action-RPG gameplay is still one of the best in the field, and you can enjoy it through countless boss battles.

Runner-up : Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! Kibô no Meikyu to Tsudoishi Bôkenshatachi (PSVita)

Best Strategy/Puzzle game

Fire Emblem 3 Houses (Switch)

With Fire Emblem Three Houses, the series proves again its mastery in building a enjoyable gameplay architecture and an intense challenge. The changes made to “help” the mainstream audience don’t negatively affect the game, but rather make the though missions even more delighting. Fire Emblem Three Houses takes the genre to new heights.

Runner-up : Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists

Best music

Shin Sakura Taisen (PS4)

While Shin Sakura Taisen kinda fails as an action-RPG, such is not the case of its lovely soundtrack. Character themes are so remarkable that I can never have enough of it. The rest of the tracklist is very good too, especially the few songs by top Japanese idols.

Runner-up : 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim (PS4) & Ys IX Monstrum Nox (PS4)

Best narrative

13 Sentinels Aegis Rim (PS4)

13 Sentinels Aegis Rim has by far the most complex story I’ve seen this year (and I’m not even done with it). The mix between time travel, alien invasion, conspiracy and betrayal make it a truly fascinating and enjoyable narrative. The way it is told is also innovative since you can choose the order in which you see it.

Runner-up : Ys IX Monstrum Nox (PS4) & Fire Emblem 3 Houses (Switch)

Best design

GRIS (PS4)

GRIS is my indy gem of the year. The use of geometrical form is groundbreaking, the symetry is harmonious, the zooming in/zooming is clever and the quest for primary colors give the impression of an interactive art gallery.

Runner-up : 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim (PS4) & Ys IX Monstrum Nox (PS4)

Best graphics

Devil May Cry 5 (PS4)

Devil May Cry 5 is a technical prowess in its intense fighting (especially with V) and in its greater universe : Capcom has given is breathtaking sceneries and a great post-apocalyptic world. Shin Sakura Taisen deserves praise as well, Sega having delivered a truly modern visual novel full of adorable character reactions and impressive mecha scenes.

Runner-up : Shin Sakura Taisen (PS4)

Most disappointing

Atelier Lulua (PS4)

To be honest, Atelier Lulua feels like the con of the year. The “return to Arland” was nothing but a smokescreen. Beloved characters were left out or transformed into late DLC, the Arland lore turned into a few anecdotes while a soporific tale was taking place among shallow protagonists. Let’s hope that Gust has learned all the lesson from this disgrace.

Runner-up : Crystar (PS4)

Game of the Year

Fire Emblem 3 Houses (Switch)

The greatest series take the time before delivering their latest installment, in order to maximize the game experience. Fire Emblem is one of those series and it is no coincidence if Fire Emblem Three Houses becomes my GOTY 2019 after Fire Emblem Fates in 2015. Great and rich narrative, wild maps, tons of lovable characters, relevant gameplay tweaks… this new game brings JRPG players to nirvana level of enjoyment.

Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists

Ys IX Monstrum Nox

13 Sentinels Aegis Rim

Press Round-up – Spring 2019

Reviews posted on VGchartz from April to June 2019. Click on the titles to access the reviews.

Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists (PSVita)

When Atelier goes the Sim City route, it gives the best installment in the series since Atelier Firis. Very long, gifted with deep management gameplay and hella lot of possibilities, it’s a straight hit for those who like to use their head. Countless characters from the present and the past are part of the adventure and voice-acting is pretty cool. One of the absolute best titles of the year already.

Super Neptunia RPG (PS4)

Long after the disastrous Cyberdimension Neptune, Compile Heart seeks a new deal for the series. For that, the publisher asked Canadian developer Artisan to make a 2D RPG focused on the main goddesses. The narrative was cool as it recaptures the initial spirit of the series : event and jokes were fun and entertaining. It was much less so in terms of gameplay, as it’s crippled by shoddy controls, awkward balance and uninspired level design.

Atelier Lulua (PS4)

With so much hyped built around it, Atelier Lulua was some hard disappointment. The whole “return to Arland” story faded quickly in this “sequel” which takes very little from the original trilogy. Glorious characters are left out and replaced by shallow protagonists, and former heroines Totori and Meruru were locked behind a DLC that took two months to be released. That’s the exact sort of development policy and direction that mustn’t be conducted again if Gust wants fans to stay.

Sony’s censorship is neither rational nor legitimate

My first big opinion piece on VGChartz. I wanted to think seriously the right and the wrong from what surfaced about Sony’s obnoxious policy. My conclusion is that it doesn’t need to happen, and ultimately will damage the niche market beyond repair if pushed too far. I think Sony and devs realized that what has been happening since October 2018 makes no sense, and that they can even out the situation together.

Observation (PS4)

Random indy title released on PS4 during a calm Spring, Observation was actually a lot more fascinating than your average indy game. Thriller taking place in outer space, it puts you in control of SAM, a artificial intelligence that has to solve the problems of a ailing station. Great writing and great puzzle parts in this original game. We definitely need more of that and less generic shooters/platformers/strategy.

E3 2018 Sony – Game Stranding

Mid-2018, Sony is still a lot ahead of the competition, even despite the rapid rise of the Switch. God of War gets praised from everywhere and topped 5 million sales in no time, Detroit Become Human has become millionnaire in about 2 weeks. Along the first party power, the vast majority of third parties back the PS4. In Japan as well, PS4 and Vita have a grip on the third party market. The consensus is very clear that the industry leader has little to do in this E3.

Sony’s financial statements also show a bright picture. In the balance sheet, you can spot a meaningful rise if the current assets (+18%), partially reintegrated in capital. The earning report is even better since the operation result has doubled to 734 billlion yens, the net result having been multiplied by five! Nearly very line of product shows some progress, except smartphones still on the wane.Generally speaking, Sony is benefiting from the global economic rally.

Expectedly, the game division is incredibly healthy : 19 millions of PS4 sold this year again, operating result up 30%, PS+ still growing and a digital ratio reaching the insane figure of 32% over the entire fiscal year ! In the first quarter of 2018, 43% of players purchased their games on the Playstation Store. A massive success for Sony and great news for commercial margins. Third parties are thrilled, PS4 is they key to success.

But with such a lead over the competition, what I feared actually happened : Sony gave a short show, without taking much initiative, in a badly paced conference. They barely applied the agenda they’ve been talking about over and over. True, The Last of Us Part II displayed impressive gameplay, Ghost of Tsushima blew everything with Kurosawa-esque atmosphere, and Death Stranding keeps being intriguing about its narrative. But announcements lack some impact compared to Microsoft the day before, and we did not see any guest. Resident Evil 2 Remake was highly anticipated, but it’s not a new game. Niô 2 and Control are true surprises, but we got next to no details about them.

It was downright lame to exclude Deracine from the showcase. First VR experience from From Software, this puzzle game has you retrace the story and psychology of students in some old-fashioned school. This is definitely a whole new kind of experience that deserves more spotlight than Spiderman for example. Still, neither the volume of content nor the pacing can make the difference, Microsoft had more and more surprises. I would have been helpful to gather games like Ace Combat 7, Soulcalibur VI, 13 Sentinels, or the now officially lost FFVII Remake. That gave the impression that Sony is increasing less open to third parties, while Microsoft is constantly improving ties with them.

Not much answer to Switch in terms of hardware either. But is all that even necessary ? 99% of the games here at E3 run best on PS4, and most of the games shown at Microsoft’s conference will automatically sell better on Sony’s console. As for Switch, it represents a mere 30% of games currently in development, mostly A or AA titles by the way. But the new hybrid is no less a potential threat that Sony isn’t really facing, unsettling the market for Japanese games.

Eventually, we shouldn’t forget that in this beginning of end of generation, the E3 battle is more symbolic than really effective in business terms. It has already become more a question of preparing the next generation, and Sony probably wanted to bolster its exclusive line-up in that intend, taking the risk to appear less influential on the international scene. Future will tell if that strategy was wise or not.

E3 2017 Sony – The World is not Enough

The task was a lot more complicated for the industry leader this year. Indeed since 2016, the competition brings stronger offer and Sony must face the raw power of Xbox One X and fast-selling Switch. This year, there would be no default victory.

The manufacturer can boast a renewed financial health. Despite lower revenues (-6%), the operating result stabilizes around 300 billion yens, a respectable level. However, the net profit halved, Sony not being able to avoid non deductible amortization. Sony also posted a lesser financial result than last year, but it also means purer profitability. Amortizations widely affect some lines of product : semi-conductors, components, TV & Cinema are on the wane. Unfavorable currency rates were a factor too. On the other hand, the mobile sector improved a lot, and some other keep making nice profits : photo, audio & video, banking & insurance and of course, gaming.

PS4 is unstoppable, the growth in sales is so massive that the department registers a 50% progression in operating result, reaching 135 billions. That is roughly five times Nintendo’s ! 20 million PS4 were sold. The home console has topped 60 million install base worldwide and should overtake 3DS in the next term despite being… a lot more expensive ! In consumer value, Nintendo’s handheld has been beaten since a while. Moreover, let’s notice that given the gap in Japan (18 million in favor of the 3DS), PS4 has already reach a bigger install base than 3DS in the West. Currently, ¾ of 3^rd party games to come are either for PS4 or PSVita. Sony’s line up has a hammering strength and got more key titles during pre-show : Dissidia Final Fantasy NT, Far Cry 5, Little Witch Academia, Need for Speed Payback or Darksiders III. Games that won’t be seen on Switch… Ni no Kuni II Revenant Kingdom, Ace Combat Skies Unknown and Gran Turismo Sport also come back with attractive trailers.

With such a pre-show, what the hell was going to be in the conference ? Well, like last year, nothing… IF memory serves, we’ve probably never seen such a boring show from Sony at E3 : the rhythm was slack, the long list of VR games we don’t even recall the more of was pitiful, there was zero surprise announcement and the gameplay shown was horribly generic (Days Gone of War, etc.). After what seemed to be less than 55 minutes, “disastrous” is the only word that comes to mind. But where the fu** are Atlus, Sega, KoeiTecmo, Rockstar, SCEJ, BandaiNamco (well for the latter we know : at Microsoft’s) ? SquareEnix had no better to show than a fishing mini-game in the (dumb) FFXV universe. Don’t those guys have better to bring in the biggest show of the planet !? No creators invited on stage either, which made the conference lack human passion, whereas Ubisoft delivered it brilliantly : Sony had no friends that night… With such a presentation, why send all those big games on the back in pre-show ? Why give the rendezvous at 3 a.m. if the major stuff starts airing at 2 ? The organisation, even more still than the lackluster content, has been a gigantic failure.

Only point to its credit, Sony puts an ends to 5 years of Monster Hunter exclusivity on Nintendo platform by welcoming Monster Hunter World on PS4. This announcement has a considerable impact in terms of brand, especially at home. With splendid 4K screenshots immediately shared everywhere in the world, Monster Hunter World on PS4Pro obliterates Monster Hunter XX Switch on the technical side, and offer the first true evolution of the series in 10 years. Japanese forums caught fire. Still, Monster Hunter World is not a portable game. When Monster Hunter 3^rd was ported to PS3, it had sold roughly 10% of its PSP counterpart. Monster Hunter fans are used to enjoy hunting experience on the go, so there’s a natural limit to Monster Hunter World’s success on PS4. Without the game being ported on a hypothetical PS4 mini portable, PS4 will only marginally resist to future Monster Hunter titles on Switch.

It remains that Sony’s advantage only grows after this E3. EA, Bethesda, BandaiNamco, Activision and Ubisoft aren’t keen on using their Switch dev kits : every third party title of the show was running on PS4, while Switch had at best a dozen of games (some of which being late ports). Even with the snooziest conference, Sony isn’t threatened one second by an isolated Switch.

The conclusion is still a terrible E3 for Sony whose offering has declined over the years. In its communication, the manufacturer clearly failed to give a clear view of what kind of “greatness” awaits for Playstation players. The bright future turned into a grey mist. Microsoft caught up on the technology, Nintendo went one step ahead in terms of innovation, but Sony doesn’t gather its strength to respond and remains passive. Its hold on the market is strong, but inaction is the greatest danger.

Sony, the total supremacy

 

It’s over. Nintendo bought as much time as it could. The entire gaming world had hold its breath for months, but now everybody has shown his hand. The situation is clear, there is no doubt on the current status of the gaming market : Sony has achieved crushing dominance over its rivals. Nintendo Switch is weak, its line-up even more so and its so-called partners are doing nothing but lip-service. How did we get to that, and where are we going?

To find some answers, let’s first have a look to Famitsu’s top 100 chart, published in a recent issue. How can Switch seem so feeble when top ten rankings show Nintendo owning Japan? It’s very trivial : developers and publishers, unlike journalists don’t simply look at top ten. So let’s borrow their point of view and observe the top 50 (49 actually because of the title line) of combined SKUs. As usual, the sources are GAF, Vgchartz’s digital sales thread and Dengeki’s weekly rankings.

The first thing to notice besides the (deserved) domination of the superb Pokemon Sun&Moon, is that Sony now has a majority of games here : 29 PSV/PS3/PS4 games against 20 on 3DS/WiiU. If you look in detail, you’ll also notice that 9 out of 20 games on Nintendo systems are from Nintendo itself, whereas there’s only one first party game (Uncharted 4) in the Playstation best-sellers. Third parties have therefore a lot more business opportunities on PSVita or PS4 (knowing that PS3 is almost phased out). Another parameter of growing importance : the digital purchase rate is quite higher on Playstation platforms, around 10% (22% for The Division!). Digital reduces variable costs and improves the margin. Publishers love that.

Japanese publishers came to be wary of the 3DS/WiiU audience, hungry for kiddy games which is rarely what 3^rd party developers want to do. A major part of the 3DS/WiiU best-sellers is aimed at children (but also at adults in the case of Pokemon) so Japanese 3^rd parties naturally prefer addressing and older and more core audience, and that audience plays on Playstation. Best proof of that is Level-5 : hugely successful on 3DS with Yôkai Watch, the company didn’t go as far as announcing Ni no Kuni Revenant Kingdom for Nintendo Switch. As a side-note, observe that both Dragon Quest Heroes II and Dragon Quest Builders sold more than Dragon Quest Monster Joker 3 : Nintendo consoles are no longer the home of SquareEnix’s famous series.

So what happened on 1/13? Everyone was hoping/expecting Nintendo to turn the tides with a flurry of powerful exclusives. That failed to happen, and it’s the direct consequence of what we’ve seen above. Big games are still pretty far away : Xenoblade 2 (splendid character design this time around) gets a vague 2017 and Fire Emblem Warriors looks like development has barely started (EDIT : it’s confirmed for fall, so things are looking up slightly). The launch line-up is downright ridiculous : besides Zelda Breath of the Wild and 1 2 Switch, some party game looking like the despicable Wii Sports, all games are ports from PS4. Nintendo has lost the initiative, they’re completely out of the race.

The third party part of the conference is ice cold. Atlus quickly mentions a new Shin Megami Tensei project for Switch, but also confirms a 3DS one, just in case… As a consequence, the exciting Project ReFantasy must be for PS4. Many wondered what Nippon Ichi Software (whose clients have been Playstation players for years of not decades) could do on Switch, and the publisher answered by saying they were providing «serious» support. It so happens that the only thing NIS has in store for Switch is a Disgaea 5 port, that is to say their biggest commercial failure. Switch is not getting NIS’s brand new games The Witch and the 100 Knights 2 (PS4) or Exile Election(‘PS4/PSVita). Far from being serious in its support, NIS actually seriously makes a fool of Nintendo.

SquareEnix has more in the works. Dragon Quest XI for Switch is briefly talked about, and Dragon Quest Heroes I&II are confirmed as launch games. Then comes Octopath Traveler, a 2D JRPG very much like Grand Kingdom and made by the developer of Bravely Default (which confirms the latter as deceased). However, nowhere in the Famitsu article it is mentioned to be exclusive. A PS4 or PSVita port could come quickly. No other JRPG is scheduled for Switch, and that won’t come as a surprise if you look at the chart. In the top 50, major 3DS JRPGs (Shin Megami Tensei IV Final, Etrian Odyssey) are flattened by numerous competitors on Playstation platforms, including the disappointing Star Ocean 5 and the discreet World of Final Fantasy. The big names of JRPGs sell better on Playstation and 2016 showed that again : Persona 5 beats the series’ record and Tales of Berseria is more or less flat compared to Tales of Zestiria.

But the most embarrassing moment is when Toshihiro Nagoshi comes on stage. The director of Yakuza games faces the public, speaks a couple of gentle words on Switch and, probably too busy counting the hefty profits made from Yakuza 6 in Asia, goes back without any confirmation he’s working on Switch at all. Suda 51, columnist extraordinaire at Dengeki, doesn’t really ease the worries : Let it Die’s creator shows a random artwork of No More Heroes while speaking some strange monologue. All this sets the eerie impression that nothing is ready, that maybe nothing is really decided for Switch. Capcom, Nintendo’s most faithful ally, is a no-show. What happens to Monster Hunter 5 and Great Ace Attorney 2? Will Switch even get them? KoeiTecmo, besides working closely with Nintendo on Fire Emblem Warriors, has Nobunaga’s Ambition Power up kit and Romance of the 3 Kingdoms Power up kit (it weakest software) for Switch. Games like Ni-Ô, Dynasty Warriors 9, Blue Reflection, Musô Stars and Nights of Azure 2 stay as Playstation exclusives. Skittish Japanese publishers are actually avoiding Nintendo as much as possible, and it’s a complete disaster for Switch : as it is now, it wouldn’t even take one customer from Vita.

The West is the biggest question mark and a huge stake for Switch. Bethesda confirms Skyrim Switch, but the game is far from ready despite being out for PS4 and XboxOne. Comes Electronic Arts, whose representative looked like at a burial : FIFA Switch is announced, but we won’t see anything of it. Despite its continuous praise for Switch, Ubisoft is not at the event Still, it has some oldies to port on Switch : Rayman Legends (remember, that WiiU exclusive), Just Dance and Steep. Pathetic is the word, Nintendo’s new system is going to be smashed into pieces on Western markets.

Nintendo mentions more than 80 titles in development for Switch, BandaiNamco promised a Tales of at some point… Sure. Crysis 3, Ghost Recon Online and Alien Colonial Marines were to be released on WiiU too. Such titles had seen their development stopped the second their publishers realized the audience didn’t fit. At least this time, Ubisoft doesn’t go as far as announcing Ghost Recon Wildlands for Switch : history shows that it would have little success on that platform, provided it could run on it. You also have to consider the issue of a new console that is coming right in the middle of a generation, which had never happened before. How should developers react? They’re already working on install bases of dozens of millions systems where the business is flourishing. Why would they make extra effort, let alone exclusives for an underpowered system that has zero install base? From a third party point of view, it’s just money thrown by the window.

Switch’s other problem is itself. The open world (although we’re not sure of that yet) in Super Mario Odyssey is ugly and full of aliasing. It looks terrible compared to Watchdogs, a nearly three-year old PS4 game, and it so happens that precise tech specs have not been made public. Surely are they as bad as the leak published by Digital Foundry. We can now be certain that the most ambitious PS4 games cannot be be ported on Switch : forget Battlefield, Read Dead Redemption or Mass Effect Andromeda. The share button exists, but the official site already tells us that some games will block the feature. Anyone who’s tried to save a screenshot in Pokemon Sun&Moon knows how much you can trust Nintendo on that subject. The manufacturer also indicates that game «generally» won’t be region-locked. I translate that by « some games will be region-locked and you won’t be able to play them on your EU system ». So in fact region free doesn’t really exist and all this looks like a mere PR stunt. The most striking point is the total lack of trophies : why would today’s gamers even want to play their games without a centralized achievement system?

But Nintendo might actually be targeting another audience with Switch. The conference, for most part, was focusing on Switch’s biggest innovation : playing without screen. Switch players will be invited to face each other in party games in which the screen is accessory. Table tennis, Rock/Paper/Scissors game, boxing… Switch aims at local communities rather than at solo players. In the same way, Splatoon players will be able to gather anytime, anywhere to face each other in multiplayer. In other words, Nintendo is asking casual gamers to open their wallets again to avoid facing Sony directly. Future will tell if this audience embraces the concept and if it’s large enough to make a difference. Nintendo still believes in the miraculous game/idea that sells loads of system, but nothing proves that can still happen. Rare exceptions aside, whole librairies of games sell systems, and nothing else.

What about Microsoft then? The American recently made the brilliant decision to cancel its most hyped exclusive. From that, it’s clear that Redmond’s firm lost its will to fight : they timidly recommend Sea of Thieves and Halo Wars 2 in replacement. At best Microsoft can cling to the second place and do business in Sony’s shadow.

Miracles exist, but Nintendo Switch will need a really big one to avoid critical failure after that poor reveal conference. Sony has now more than 50 exclusives and welcomes all the commercially huge multiplatform games that Switch won’t have. Sony succeeded in taking market shares while building a win-win situation with 3^rd parties, something that Nintendo is unable to do. The Kyoto-based company hence ends up totally isolated and powerless to compete. The concept of an hybrid system is really attractive, Xenoblade 2 looks awesome but Switch won’t achieve much without a strong library of games. And as a matter of fact, Nintendo has no real ally at the moment. As it is, it can just satisfy Nintendo loyalists and casual gamers not yet addicted to Super Mario Run. What is at stake for the Big N now is whether it can keep its “big” for long or if it become a regular publisher, light years behind a leader even more hegemonic than in the PS2 era.