Shuhei Yoshida on the Switch 2 Direct: 'Underwhelming Until FromSoftware Showed Up'

Shu said what everyone was thinking.
My hype went back down to a 5 after finding out that the game is a multiplayer game.

Based and true.

I wouldn’t say it’s underwhelming. The lack of first party titles was disappointing, but for Nintendo it was impressive as a whole. 4k, 1080p, 120fps, Mario Kart World, the new Donkey Kong, GameCube games being added, Metroid Prime 4, and a slew of other games that finally showcase something more powerful than what Nintendo typically does.

I’m not saying I was blown away or anything like that, but I think it’s far from underwhelming.

The whole thing was underwhelming, what planet are people living on if they didn’t find that terrible?

It was basically all ports, 2 major first party game reveals and a fromsoft game that looked questionable but it’s still FromSoft.

At the PS5 reveal show they revealed about 6-7 new first party games. There was over 10 indies featured(including Stray annd Kena) and like a dozen third party games(no ports)and some were big reveals like RE:Village, Ghostwire Tokyo, Hitman 3 and Deathloop. Overall there were over 20 games revealed for the first time I’d guess.

The Xbox series X/S was basically comparable, the only downside being all of the first party games were eventually delayed, and some were years away to begin with(but if you didn’t know that then it looked pretty good)

The big saving grace is that Nintendo probably have a big fall game they’ve not shown yet.

Nintendo is always overrated in my opinion. The fact that most gamers grew up on them helps them out in a way that nostalgia sells their consoles. We all have fond memories with Nintendo and we pass that down to our kids. Most of us don't have "childlike" memories for PlayStation and XBOX because the systems were never geared toward younger gamers. And we all know no part of our lives are remembered as fondly as our adolescence.

Not securing Concord 2.0 as an exclusive will kill the Switch 2. Mark my words.

The console itself seems decent in my opinion, but I agree it was an underwhelming show. The only game which got me interested were Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut, which has a high chance of coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, and the Duskbloods. Otherwise, I did not find anything else to be good or interesting, and this includes the $80 Mario Kart World.

Well everyone wanted a more powerful system that can do 4K and run modern games and all that jazz. We've been banging on about it for years apparently. Funny how it turns out that might in fact be expensive.

Everyone wanted built in voice chat and now will just "stick with Discord". Ok, then WHY ASK FOR IT?

Consumers are some of the dumbest creatures in existence, banging on and on about how they want one thing, get it and then realise "Actually nah".

Virtual console was bad, it should be a subscription. Actually we want Virtual Console subscriptions are bad. We want a more powerful Switch that can do 4K. What do you mean its expensive?

Always assume the end user is an idiot, and remember they dont know what they want.

Nintendo just went insane charging $80 for digital and $90 for physical, very few people will buy games at those prices, at this rate i strongly beleive a video game crash is coming very soon

@Randinator123 Maybe the amount of people who buy at launch will remain 80-90% the same so it will actually be good for the industry. We have to wait and see.

@Haruki_NLI

Consumers are some of the dumbest creatures in existence, banging on and on about how they want one thing, get it and then realise "Actually nah".

You’re being completely disingenuous. Wanting something and being excited about something is not the same at all. I want Oxygen but if someone made a video showing me the new amazing oxygen they’re selling I’d be pretty disappointed.

People want voice chat as a baseline. Not something that will be marketed as a special feature that excites you(it’s also paywalled i believe). Being able to play modern games is good as a bonus but who cares about ports of Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 that haven’t already played those games? If you are a person that buys Nintendo consoles and absolutely nothing else then great, the show was probably really exciting for you. For anyone that owns any other piece of hardware already it is was beyond mediocre.

Comment like this just make them look ‘dumb’ we all have different criteria we’re looking for, I personally think many will be impressed with the switch 2 from hdr,vrr,120fps and virtual carts. Few nice game plus some great ports from ff 7 remake, cyberpunk, Elden ring etc.

Little disappointed with game pricing at £75 but overall to say one random game was your saving grace seems like a pointless comment go and by a rog ally and move on then.

I think there was as few first party new games announced and possible some being left hidden, Nintendo usually have a steady stream of new game each year so I’m not too worried about this point just yet.

Until pricing reared its ugly head i thought it was absolutely banging, pure 10/10.

Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, Metroid Prime 4, Fast Fusion, Survival Kids, Silksong, Daemonj X Machina: Titanic Scion, Drag x Drive, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, Kirby Air Riders, Enter the Gungeon 2, Starseeker Astroneer, Duskbloods, Marvel Cosmic Invasion, Witchbrook, Pokemon ZA, Borderlands 4.

Yeah. There was no new games announced coming to Switch 2, it was all remakes and old ports. C'mon now I know they're not all going to be exclusives but neither was everything at the PS5 launch...and we're still waiting for Little Devil Inside.

They might not all be games you're interested in, and that's ok. But the idea that there was nothing new is just silly. I wasn't interested in half of the PS5 reveal line up but it was still crazy impressive!

@ChrisDeku Yeah, with a few exceptions they haven't shown any games beyond the first few months. I think the latest date was July.

@Haruki_NLI Everyone loved Virtual Console. I never heard people clamor for it to be a subscription service. You're conflating what maybe one person on the internet said.

It was a mediocre showing, but who cares? Looks like there's enough coming to the console to be excited about for me.

(I see this with the State of Play a lot too. People will make a big thing about an underwhelming State of Play, but in the next article you'll see them complain games are too long and they have an enormous backlog.)

I liked what I saw just not the game prices. There's a lot to look forward to this year on Switch 2, there's Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bonanza, new Hyrule Warriors, Pokémon Legends Z-A, Metroid Prime 4, Rune Factory Guardians of Azuma, Hades 2, new Daemon X machina which looks amazing btw.

I was excited for fromsoftwares gane too until i heard it has a multiplayer focus

@Cry_Zero Starting to worry with FromSoft focusing so much on multiplayer recently.

Never been a FromSoft fan and never will be.. something had me hopeful for Odyssey 2 or literally any first party RPG.. when that last trailer came I was pegged as 100% disappointed.. I had $750 saved back for preorder.. not gonna buy a whole new system for a Kart Racer.. and a $90 one at that.. DK looked just weird and the preview looked boring.. far cry from DK 64 which actually had heart and soul smh

As a handheld, I would have liked to see it graphically (while docked) look better than my OG ROG Ally. And with those crazy physical price games, they should have just called this the Switch U......

@Ogbert

Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, Metroid Prime 4, Fast Fusion, Survival Kids, Silksong, Daemonj X Machina: Titanic Scion, Drag x Drive, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, Kirby Air Riders, Enter the Gungeon 2, Starseeker Astroneer, Duskbloods, Marvel Cosmic Invasion, Witchbrook, Pokemon ZA, Borderlands 4.

Something like 4 of those games were actual reveals. Including something like Silksong shows you’re a troll.

Underwhelming until FromSoft, decent, and then underwhelming again learning game was multi-player.

They did a great job of showing off the new features of the console. It actually looks like a pretty beefy step up especially from Switch 1.

The games were a bit more so-so. Mario Kart does look great even if the $80 price tag hurts. Donkey Kong looks okay though I would have preferred another Country game instead. That wheelchair basketball ball game looks pretty bad from what was shown sorry to say. The Welcome Tour thing should be free. Period. Finally Fromsoft was a big deal initially but after hearing a bit more about the style of it has dampened the excitement considerably around it.

They probably should have just shortened the C button segment dramatically and used some of that time for other game announcements.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Direct and am extremely excited for Switch 2. Also currently enjoying my PS5 Pro.

Imagine the excitement now if Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was delayed and announced yesterday with a 4K, 60fps version. My hype meter would change from a 4 to a 10.

@Ogbert little devil inside and dont forget Pragmata. The fancy looking exclusive that Capcom forgot they were making!

The hardware is exactly what I thought it would be, the games were underwhelming to say the least.

lol like as ex Sony executive will say anything other then the competition is boring.. The system is pretty solid actually and it supported ray tracing and uses DLSS. For the price it’s a good system.
Games are impressive, DK looks brilliant and Metroid Prime 4 looks stunning in 4K 60.

Yeah man that blew me away. Then we found out it’s live service lmao

@Athrum
There's a freaking new Donkey Kong and Mario Kart game good lord. not even speaking of metroid prime 4....

@Nei okay....

Oddly enough I feel the opposite. I thought it was great until from software showed up. I hate their games and this looked like more of the same. Drab, dark, and dull.

Mostly agree. Just swap From with Donkey Kong. And '6 to 7' to '6 to 8,' mostly because Donkey Kong.

I didn't watch the direct nor have any expectation. But there's nothing from what they showed gave me the urge to buy Switch 2.

@ChrisDeku Not trolling at all. We all knew Miles Morales was coming so we going to discount that from the PS5 reveal? Solar Ash had also been shown. Kena had been teased. There was a bunch of not entirely new stuff mixed with surprises. Little Devil Inside had been a kickstarter for years beforehand.

Fact is Silksong is a highly anticipated game and there was deep confusion after Nintendo initially announced it as a timed exclusive and then Xbox announced it was day one of GamePass as an exclusive. So the confirmation that it's both actually coming to Switch 2 still and that it's finally coming this year was a big deal.

And if you wanted purely surprise new games we still have 9 games there (being generous and not counting MKW as it was semi-shown earlier):
Donkey Kong Bananza
Fast Fusion
Survival Kids
Daemonj X Machina: Titanic Scion
Drag x Drive
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment
Kirby Air Riders
Enter the Gungeon 2
Starseeker Astroneer
Duskbloods

The console wars are dead. Xbox gave up and Nintendo never really got involved anyway. Just enjoy some games, it doesn't matter where or which ones have fun and don't worry about what others are doing.

@Oram77 same here but i just hope this is just a sideproject, like nightreign

@Ogbert

We all knew Miles Morales was coming so we going to discount that from the PS5 reveal?

Literally no one knew that game was coming unless you worked for Insomniac games. I stopped reading there.

lol surely it would be underwhelming for someone who only cares about one or two games. There were a ton of game announcements and it was a great hardware showcase, which is what I think it was really about.

That direct was weak. I'm glad a lot of people are speaking up about it.

Why are so many comments in here so salty? There's cherrypicking, then there's whatever these comments are. If you're not interested, you're not interested. But don't discount the entire console and direct because it doesn't interest you. It makes you look petty, and tiny. Though I will say: with the length of some of these hate comments, I would argue that some of you are just jealous.

Something tells me Yoshida didn't see the fine print concerning the Japanese price (namely, that particular price is for a model that only supports the Japanese language--of course, what if somebody who gets that model wants to play something like "Vagrus - The Riven Realms", a game whose Japanese-region release is English-only, on it?)...

People have to keep in mind that those ports are games that won’t run or weren’t released on switch so we missed out when they dropped. For a switch owner this means we get more current games (plus all the stuff from the direct last week since S2 is backward compatible). I lost it when I saw SF6 and I already own the game on series x. Will be migrating to S2. No different than PS5 getting Forza or Indiana Jones.

Nintendo is cleaning out their current Pipeline of games that have been on the docket for years (Metroid 4) while still producing new, never announced games (DK, Hyrule Warriors 3, Kirby) plus enhancements for system seller evergreens (zelda, kirby). As a multiplatform gamer that prefers Nintendo, it means I can migrate more from other platforms (which saves me money), still be hyped about games that were announced in the last 6-12 months and have new S2 only games to look forward to. The more multiplats Nintendo gets the less they are a supplement system especially for Nintendo only gamers.

If this was a wiiu to switch situation I would agree (because that library started from scratch), but since the massive existing AND upcoming (with many upcoming games getting S2 versions) switch library is on deck plus exclusive Switch 2 games. Yeah, this was a great direct.

He missed THPS 3+4 announcement.

I thought the show was very good… I never expected many first party titles to show up cause Nintendo is still dropping bangers for the Switch, and will probably continue to do so for a while since there probably still a ton of games in development. They’re not like Sony or Microsoft who needs to over promise on delivering first party cause Nintendo game don’t take 6-8 years to develop… Nintendo has released 72 first party titles on the Switch. I can count all of the PS5 first party titles on my hands.

What Nintendo did need to prove with the Switch 2 is that 3rd party developers will still develop games for their new platforms… and that what this show accomplished.

@cedarhyped and you sound wildly insecure & defensive. If you're so happy with the direct just go back to the echo chamber with the rest of them. You literally created a PS account to complian. You haven't added anything to the community. A lot of people think the reveal was mid. You need to look outside of the echo chamber to see it though kiddo.

As someone that was actually looking forward to the Nintendo Direct to see how they might zag left, instead of right - I have to admit that I actually didn't vibe with much of what they were doing. I also felt the heavy dependence on 3rd party really under-whelmed (because many of the games had either already come out, or were coming out, in a better format).

I have to agree with Shu - the only thing that really woke me up (at about 12:50am) was the From Soft game. The rest I felt was pretty derivative - but perhaps that's coming from someone that never needed 4K Switch games... better frame-rates yes - but resolution no.

I am sure it will sell well enough - but for our family - I don't see any real reason to buy one anytime soon. If I was still in Japan, that would be a different story... because it's a helluva lot cheaper.

Also - does anyone here actually think that DragXDrive looks interesting, fun, or a good gaming experience? Why would you use a game that literally has you doing Wii-Sports energetics - for the ENTIRE GAME? I'm not having a go at wheel-chair sports - but this looks like the literal least fun game they could have made for dual "mouse" support.

I get they were trying to find something - but I can think of a couple off the top of my head: skiing; surfing; tennis; skating; ten-pin bowling; DJ'ing (actually I think that would have been fun); a tactical FPS (I think there's something to be said for a two mice game that can't easily be played on anything else).

Madly struggling with manually moving/rotating two wheels sounds entirely un-fun (espeically when it's combined with a totally nerfed shoot-mechanic).

Edit - and to be clear - I think it's great that they introduce a physically-impaired/challenged game - that is good representation. This game however, looks like the sort of game that is a tech demo that you put down after 5 minutes (if I'm being honest). I think that community deserved a bit better than a tech demo.

To give an Australian perspective on the game pricing - when I jump online today, the price of Mario Kart World (pre-order) is AUD114 (compared to a standard full-price PS5 game of about AUD125). So I don't know if the $80 was a US-only thing. To be honest, AUD114 does not seem good either from a Switch 1 game price perspective (which are now mostly in the AUD 50-70 price bracket).

It actually doesn't cost more money to develop a 4K texture pack - because most game devs down-scale from hi-res to the platform-res. So why they extra cost? How are they justifying an 60+% increase in games price?

@Kraven so Switch 1 was based on 8+ year old technology... so you're saying that 4k is such an improvement? Upscaling a low-res game to 4k is now industry standard... but up-scaling a low-poly game (which Nintendo games tend to be) isn't exactly earth-shattering. I am actually really happy with most Switch games on my 4k (65") TV.... i don't need higher resolution for the games they (1st party) make.

Of course - any improvement is great - but after 8 years, and at greater cost... I'm not actually convinced this was a great advancement. Playing the games may be a different story, and we should start hearing the hands-on soon. So maybe we should all hold off on the judgement until we get more info (including me)

Yo he's right annnd I'm kinda over the soulish games but that duskbloods was the best part of Nintendo's event

@ChrisDeku Perhaps I'm misremembering, but I distinctly remembering the DLC for the first Spider-man leading into it. And I thought we had seen teasers. Perhaps I am wrong there, in which case I apologise.

Anyway, maybe read the rest of my comment (I mean, you probably did anyway and are using this part as an excuse to not acknowledge the rest of it). I'm not trying to rile you up or get you angry, I'm trying to be reasonable. If you're strict and don't count MKW as it was teased briefly early this year, there are still 9 new games announced in the Direct for 2025. That's pretty good, especially as Nintendo is known for having multiple directs throughout the year and not announcing big titles too far in advance (again, Metroid being the exception and the example of why they don't do that).

Again, you don't have to like them, you don't have to play them. But saying there are only 4 new titles is a lie. I mean c'mon you claim to have stopped reading my comment because of a mistake regarding Miles Morales but you're straight up spreading false numbers all over. Don't be a hypocrite. Just chill, it wasn't for you and that's ok, but there was undeniably a lot of games announced.

I’m hyped about the switch 2 with the exception of its games price, forget sony $70, nintendo goes straight to $80 🙈

But yeah, I’m gonna buy the $500 bundle so I can play mario kart world at $50 compared to buying it straight, and since I have nintendo subs expansion I guess I don’t have to pay $10 for zelda botw (and hopefully other games). And getting other games upgrade free is nice too, like zelda link awakening.

From Software's game was at least NEW. But I don't care for it honestly. But for those that do by all means it stood out in it's own way.

Gameplay view was choppy and small so eh, second screen like cough phone would have been better.

So what 1 game from Switch 1 I care about and the Switch 2 games of recognisable of Kirby Airriders aka Air Ride 2 is cool and new DK 3D platformer (with fair level design mechanics) after the last one on N64, Mario Kart World don't care for and ok third parties of ports and ok sequels/odd new games. Oh and wheelchair robot basketball that is cool even if a bit DS football description of top/bottom screen like and just Arms but probably just as barely supported.

New Daemon X Machina is ok (tried 1st game's demo and it's alright), Duskbloods sure, the rest were ok of series sequels or Drag n Drive but it's arcade basketball that will be like Arms barely supported by Nintendo (also not a fan of the mouse use, it mimics a wheelchair sure but I still find it awkward to use I can tell, I'd be up for 3D use of the laser, almost like the Wii party game with the ghost to move the ghost on the screen but other ideas, but oh well, not big on the laser on the side or IR on the end and barely used), or Director's Cuts and things.

Ports made sense so understandable, games to another platform always has that though for sales for those going, I have to buy something for the system so why not these and publishers go sweet new audience/same audience buying on a new platform.

Camera better be better then Wii Speak. XD No interest but at least 3rd party ones exist for that sort of thing. IR is just eh of placement still. C button was sigh voice chat, moving on, could rant about it. Demos just like DS/PSP did, cool it's continued I guess.

Digital or physical and the Switch launch lineup was pretty eh too but people bought it for BOTW (I did on Wii U in 2018 anyway so hah). Snipper Clips was nice and the other Indies were just ports/fair to have besides Skylanders, Just Dance and Bomberman R. Yeah not a great lineup but it was obvious people got it to have BOTW or just have a new system.

Switch 2 lineup who knows what is at launch and what is this year but just whenever ready really.

I don't care for most if any of them. The Switch 1 direct was more appealing of games.

Switch 2 had to unveil things of course so it makes sense but the OS with additional buttons is eh, it's very Xbox One/Series it's a copy paste for familiarity/laziness and a few additional features.

Games were ports and a few recognisable series but I don't care still.

Wii U sure they were late releases and Gamepad support/minor CPU issues. But it had a large lineup there even if ports.

But Switch 2 the immediate ports made sense even if not that interesting.

DK/Kirby were cool, Mario Kart World seems ok.

Rhythm Heaven Groove to me was the highlight from the Switch 1 direct, the system itself of gimmicks for Switch 2 mouse like use (not impressed and C button was even more who cares, will never use), prices (high and not interested other then discounted or niche games to support like Switch 1), game handling of physical/virtual cards as well was a bit eh to me honestly.

Part 2:

Hmm PS5 with Astro for $667 (ok $604 now for digital console, $724 for disk one but the disk one was lower then that JB Hifi prices, Target has it $689, EB $699), or Switch 2 for $699, Mario Kart World bundle $769 hmm. I think pass on both thanks.

$104 or $114 Switch 2 editions of Switch 1 games, pass I didn't even buy the Switch 1 versions of many of those listed in the direct or on stores. XD I bough the niche games, not the major ones so I don't have any that would be compatible or 'yet' but I doubt many will be upgraded if they weren't already listed so goodbye Metroid Dread, Another Code, Fire Emblem Engage, Pikmin 4, Emio Famicom Detective Club, yeah the niche stuff, Prime 4 will but I haven't pre ordered I'll wait on it and no interest in upgrade paths anyway, (don't own any Xenoblades on Switch only X on Wii U, but I don't remember seeing them listed when they should be for performance increase for those games).

Happy with old gen games to add to backlog or PS4/Xbox One/Switch 1 releases instead.

So to me there isn't a lot here to care about and From Soft didn't impress me either. I couldn't care less about their current games. I'll stick to Enchanted Arms or others from them in the past.