Save for one genuine surprise (Mario Odyssey), the re-appearance/release date of Zelda for those that are interested in that, and the actual presentation itself (save for the stupid Sega cameo aside). The Switch conference (as well as the new contents of press information) was absolutely disappointing to me. Dare I even say atrocious, with the fact that they killed free online play on consoles. Even going in with low expectations, I still wanted to give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt that they might do something competent for once and give me a reason to root for this platform. Instead I feel Nintendo still managed to even under-deliver below that threshold.
Startling lack of first-party titles coming during the game's launch period, and the few games that are coming are mostly games that look like they could be (or in some cases are) ports from existing Wii U software, rather than genuinely new material. Even though this is a platform that supposedly has all of Nintendo's developers on board and not being split up like they were with the 3DS and Wii U. Considering the large amount of people telling those that were skeptical that they would actually get their stuff together and avoid such instances this time around...um, vindication much for the naysayers much?
Third-party titles seemed to mostly amount to "announcement of announcements"--very few projects were actually shown to have anything tangible projects in development outside of concept art or video teasers (at least in terms of Western devs). The appearance of the Sega and EA reps only to talk about having/planning games in development while actually showing nothing concrete would be outright obnoxious if it wasn't also so laughable. Though given how Nintendo hardware has been held back compared to MS and Sony's consoles, it's not too much of a shock, so I can't really blame them. I will say it doesn't really paint a positive picture of what support the Switch will be have from after its first year.
A high price point for both the system itself and its accessories that, when directly compared with those of the competition, demand a much higher value proposition that what they actually offer. When you have in the current market $250 PS4 and Xbox One bundles that come with pack-in games and a already-developed ecosystem of a library of games and online infrastructure, one would think Nintendo would had tried pricing them on-par with or below the competition with a new platform starting from scratch. It is especially odd high price points / costly hardware were both significant factors as to why the 3DS struggled until the fall price cut and why the Wii U struggled for virtually its entire life, to the point that it ended up being sold at a loss--that of which Nintendo actually is on record for having wanting to avoid with the Switch. But I don't they will.
Online play locked behind a paying subscription. This was, to me, the absolute worst thing to come out of the conference and cost them a lot of the remaining respect I had for them. Bad enough that they were the last champion of free online console multiplayer, but in light of how their online infrastructure has always lagged behind what people usually expect from modern services like XBL, PS Plus, and Steam (which is free, no less!), I'd argue it's outright disgusting they're having the gall to charge for it. Especially considering that by their own admission, the service won't even be complete (paid service doesn't start until fall, and when it does it will only be available in NA) or the features listed so far sound incredibly barebones (the vaguespeak about possibly needing a smartphone app to use the service's features? And only having one free NES or SNES game for one month?)
I really don't see this platform even doing modest numbers in the long term. It might do better than the Wii U LTD numbers; but aside from that not saying much, I also wouldn't be surprised if it cratered even harder than that did. And if it did, I wouldn't blame audiences for doing so. Really feels that Nintendo has no intention of responding to longstanding complaints, fan feedback, or even basic communication in a way that doesn't ascribe to (ham-fisted) lip service. That's not to say they don't make good games--in spite of everything I've criticized about the Switch so far, I think Mario Odyssey looks incredible and Zelda BOTW still looks great, and in other circumstances, I would had been happy to pick up a Switch just for the former title alone.
But in light of everything else above, I feel Nintendo is approaching Sega levels of tone deafness / arrogance. And speaking as someone who has observed (and in the case of Sonic, has put up with) a lot of the crap that has spewed from that company at their lowest ebbs, while also having grew up with Nintendo consoles/games since the N64, that's saying a lot. On my questioning views of the company as of late, I'm really saddened to say the Switch has sealed the deal for me in the worst of ways.
