You and I remember the press for the Wii very, very differently. Just look at the Wikipedia article listing all the awards it won before or around it’s launch. Game Critics, Spike TV, Golden Joystick, Popular Science, IGN, GameSpot, the Guardian, and much more. including awards and praise for the innovative controls.
Was there negativity? Sure, but it was a miniscule minority. The kind of thing only an extremely defensive Nintendo fan would notice. The Wii sold out instantly and was impossible to find for the first year or two, similar the PS5 except without the excuse of a global pandemic disrupting supply chains.
It’s not some anti-Nintendo bias. The press was pretty mixed on the Xbox One for example, with some outlets pointing out it was a bit overpriced, and of course the whole debacle about being always-online and the Kinect being mandatory caused a lot of backlash. The PS3 was seen as overpriced at launch and got a 6/10 from IGN.
And another important factor is that conditions change after launch. (The 360 probably would have had worse reviews if the press knew about the red ring of death before launch. The PS3 saw price reductions and eventually outsold the 360 despite having a worse launch. The 3DS floundered for its first few months until Nintendo dropped the price.
The press is neither monolithic nor perfect. I guarantee you can find some outlet somewhere with the exact take you are looking for, but to just dismiss the entire industry because you don’t agree with most of them on the Switch 2 seems like coping.
Call it coping all you want. We are talking about an event that happened more than 2 decades ago. I was there, and I clearly remember a lot of negative press for every Nintendo console.
Fun fact by the way, I am not even necessarily a Nintendo fan. I loved the SNES and all their handhelds, but I really hated the N64 and seriously disliked the Wii U, and I was never all that much in love with the Wii. But I recognize that every console iteration the gaming press spells doom for Nintendo. It’s almost a meme at this point.
Also, it’s not only for Nintendo, I do lump the vast majority of gaming press in the “trash” category. I completely ignore professional reviews for a reason. Gaming press is just marketing and PR.
You and I remember the press for the Wii very, very differently. Just look at the Wikipedia article listing all the awards it won before or around it’s launch. Game Critics, Spike TV, Golden Joystick, Popular Science, IGN, GameSpot, the Guardian, and much more. including awards and praise for the innovative controls.
Was there negativity? Sure, but it was a miniscule minority. The kind of thing only an extremely defensive Nintendo fan would notice. The Wii sold out instantly and was impossible to find for the first year or two, similar the PS5 except without the excuse of a global pandemic disrupting supply chains.
It’s not some anti-Nintendo bias. The press was pretty mixed on the Xbox One for example, with some outlets pointing out it was a bit overpriced, and of course the whole debacle about being always-online and the Kinect being mandatory caused a lot of backlash. The PS3 was seen as overpriced at launch and got a 6/10 from IGN.
And another important factor is that conditions change after launch. (The 360 probably would have had worse reviews if the press knew about the red ring of death before launch. The PS3 saw price reductions and eventually outsold the 360 despite having a worse launch. The 3DS floundered for its first few months until Nintendo dropped the price.
The press is neither monolithic nor perfect. I guarantee you can find some outlet somewhere with the exact take you are looking for, but to just dismiss the entire industry because you don’t agree with most of them on the Switch 2 seems like coping.
Call it coping all you want. We are talking about an event that happened more than 2 decades ago. I was there, and I clearly remember a lot of negative press for every Nintendo console.
Fun fact by the way, I am not even necessarily a Nintendo fan. I loved the SNES and all their handhelds, but I really hated the N64 and seriously disliked the Wii U, and I was never all that much in love with the Wii. But I recognize that every console iteration the gaming press spells doom for Nintendo. It’s almost a meme at this point.
Also, it’s not only for Nintendo, I do lump the vast majority of gaming press in the “trash” category. I completely ignore professional reviews for a reason. Gaming press is just marketing and PR.