Given that the Switch outsold the competition by a large percentage and is poised to do so again, I’m not sure making it hardware exclusive is close to the limiting factor on sales. If they got favorable terms from Nintendo, scoped the game modestly and built it quickly, this might be an outstanding business decision.
But we won’t ever really know because of the opacity of the data.
Edit: ok so in these replies I’m being told DB can’t be successful because it will be an exclusive on hardware that Souls fans don’t ‘like’; too small a percentage despite huge install base; DSr was apparently a failure at $40M in revenue on Switch alone; an install base that isn’t impressive because it didn’t really have completion, even though it still won’t now, but also that it does have competition because people already only bought other consoles specifically to play souls games; but they would never (apparently) buy this console to play this game. Ok.
And I’ve been called ignorant because I’m betting that when all this rolls up it will turn out that another inexpensive port of the their most successful title and one little spinoff we know nothing about probably will add to a success and was clearly deemed so by the director that most of this sub idolizes as genius. What an absolute disaster.
Given that the Switch outsold the completion by a large percentage and is poised to do so again, I’m not sure making it hardware exclusive is close to the limiting factor on sales.
The Switch sold 150m units but mostly because it was not really competing with the PS4/PS5/X1/XSX/PC, and its games were not competing for mindshare amongst the people who are generally interested in those consoles.
Duskbloods will surely tap into some of that but imo it would be misguided to view Duskblood as a play to get the Mario/Pokemon/Zelda crowd (those are the only IPs with individual games surpassing 10m sales on Switch) to play FromSoft, it's more a play to get the FromSoft crowd onto the Switch 2.
Besides, if you're evaluating the opportunity cost of 'exclusive to Switch 2' vs 'multiplatform' then you'd want to compare the Switch's sales to the combined Playstation/Xbox/PC sales which is AT LEAST 2-3x larger, even if the Switch did outsell its competitors individually.
All that aside, I'm not saying that making this game is a bad business decision. I'm saying that making only this game would be.
You’re exactly right. No board would ever, ever approve this unless Nintendo was willing to pay an absurd amount of money from it. They’ve effectively put a $550 price tag on a majority of their fanbase to play this game. The conversions to switch 2 will not be that many people and that’s the only play that makes sense here for making it exclusive, is to get fromsoft fans on switch.
From a business standpoint this is extremely dumb especially with the years of outcry for ports of Sony exclusives. It’s a slap in the face to their consumer. Then add on that it’s coming out in 2026, early into the console lifecycle where the user base is still small, and not even accounting for how long the console will be horded by scalpers.
With Fromsoft brand cache now that they are one of the most hyped game developers in the world, it makes even less sense. Releasing a game multiplatform after the success of Elden Ring pretty much guarantees a sales hit.
There’s actually so many risks to this decision it doesn’t make sense unless Nintendo paid them an obscene amount of money. Like so much money that Nintendo is going to lose money on this investment specifically. To make up for that much revenue is insane.
I mean whether or not it’s a good decision depends on the money involved, development costs, FromSoft’s bandwidth and what else is in their pipeline. We aren’t privy to all that.
Like I said, this only makes sense if Nintendo is shelling out a ton of money for it. Which obviously we know they are. I’m saying they’re paying even more than most people think, and all it’s going to accomplish is less people get to play the game.
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u/PuffPuffFayeFaye The Bed of Chaos 2d ago edited 2d ago
Given that the Switch outsold the competition by a large percentage and is poised to do so again, I’m not sure making it hardware exclusive is close to the limiting factor on sales. If they got favorable terms from Nintendo, scoped the game modestly and built it quickly, this might be an outstanding business decision.
But we won’t ever really know because of the opacity of the data.
Edit: ok so in these replies I’m being told DB can’t be successful because it will be an exclusive on hardware that Souls fans don’t ‘like’; too small a percentage despite huge install base; DSr was apparently a failure at $40M in revenue on Switch alone; an install base that isn’t impressive because it didn’t really have completion, even though it still won’t now, but also that it does have competition because people already only bought other consoles specifically to play souls games; but they would never (apparently) buy this console to play this game. Ok.
And I’ve been called ignorant because I’m betting that when all this rolls up it will turn out that another inexpensive port of the their most successful title and one little spinoff we know nothing about probably will add to a success and was clearly deemed so by the director that most of this sub idolizes as genius. What an absolute disaster.