PATRIK JOHANSSON TALKS NINTENDO SWITCH LAUNCH

Behind the Coastline

You are reading an independently published interview-series published and carefully curated by Swedish pop-culture journalist Daniel John. Ever since its start in 2015, the core curiosity remains the same, surfing the creative currents of music, film, fashion and everything else on the pop-radar, catching the waves of culture as creative

Culture Coast TalksDaniel John

When did you start working at Nintendo Sweden?

That was in 2001, actually before we got the Game Boy Advance, so we were still doing quite a bit with the Game Boy Color back then.

What kind of relationship did you have with Nintendo video games before that?

I have always been a hardcore Nintendo player so I started way back with Game & Watch. My dad came home with one of those games and after that I was hooked, since then I’ve been a collector of everything Nintendo and have saved everything I’ve received and bought. I’ve always tried to buy all the stuff at launch, whenever I’ve had the time.

Any particular rarity?

Yeah, I have a 'The Legend of Zelda' shirt that Shigeru Miyamoto personally signed for me. I value that one pretty highly actually, a 'The Wind Waker' t-shirt. Quite a rare one. One that I think they only handed out at a single event. So I’ll probably never sell it! (laughs)

How often does it happen that you meet the people from Nintendo in Japan?

I’ve met them many times. I even got to meet Iwata-san too, before he passed away some time ago. Nintendo has always been very open and flexible, of course there’s a lot of bureaucracy and stuff with them, but they’re always very friendly and open. They communicate with us often. But it’s especially during trade shows, that’s when you meet them. It’s pretty rare for them to come here, it’s pretty rare for them to come to Kungsbacka! (laughs)

How has your job changed since you first started working here?

The market has changed quite a lot but above all it’s the online side of it that's changed. And e-sports games becoming more and more important. Back then we had Nintendo Championships and stuff, but today the competition format often looks completely different, and then there’s the fact that we work much more with social media. Back then there was almost nothing like that. Today you not only have to manage your own channels, but we also have to stay in contact with others who manage theirs.

What has been the most memorable thing during all these years?

Well, it’s probably been all the big console launches, really, they all looked a little different. I remember with the Wii, we were out demoing 'Wii Sports', it was a game that everyone understood in just a few seconds. It was pretty incredible to see. You met people of all ages and everyone got it immediately, that definitely did not happen with the other consoles I can tell you that. That was probably the easiest game to demo ever, you could see people’s smiles just growing and growing, so that one was pretty fantastic.

It seems like Nintendo Switch pre–orders sold out very quickly. I heard, among other things, that many retailers here in Sweden currently got more pre-orders for it than they had for PlayStation 4?

Yeah, even GameStop has come out and said they’ll run out of the gray-colored units, there’s a very high demand but luckily we’re getting quite a lot of units from Nintendo so it feels like things will go pretty well. We know we’ll get continuous deliveries afterward, so even if the entire first shipment sells out, we’ll restock. We’re hoping to get deliveries every week, or every other week at least, so there will be a steady flow! And it really feels like there will be if you believe in Nintendo. It feels promising.

What do you think is attracting so many people to the Nintendo Switch?

I think the flexibility attracts players, if we set aside the obvious fact that there are lots of people who just want the next 'The Legend of Zelda' and 'Super Mario' games, I think it’s precisely the fact that you have a portable device that’s amazing. It has really great graphics for a handheld, truly packed with power, and then you can come home and use it as a home console there as well. It feels like you get two consoles in one, in a way. I think a lot of people will like that it’s a hybrid console. Then it’s always the case that Nintendo fans buy mostly because it’s Nintendo, and Nintendo’s games are always a little special. They’re a genre in themselves in the sense that they focus heavily on local multiplayer, interaction is very important even though they obviously also have the online aspect. They have something that suits every group. Even for solo players.

In a way it is both the successor to the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U, but there is talk that the 3DS will stick around?

Yeah, they’ve apparently even talked about a successor to the Nintendo 3DS, I saw! But here I think we’ll have to wait and see how the Switch performs, “How will players who have handheld consoles view this product?” and, “Will these players be okay with it replacing the Nintendo 3DS?” Because we do not really know that yet. So I think Nintendo will try to pick up on what consumers feel and then act accordingly.

If the Nintendo Switch becomes really successful it could be like when they also said the Game Boy would continue alongside the Nintendo DS?

Exactly. And Nintendo has also started releasing games for mobile phones now, which means they have a portable segment competing there too. But you can also see that as a gateway for people who don’t own a game console to become more curious! We noticed that with 'Pokémon Go' this summer, that suddenly sales went up for all the old 'Pokémon' games, the inventory sold out immediately, so you really notice the effect it can have. I think it may have been a lot of old nostalgics who maybe hadn’t played in a while who got that wonderful feeling of returning to that game world again.

Will old retro games also be released for Switch?

Yes but very little has been said about Virtual Console overall, they’ve only mentioned that it will exist, but not much more than that. But we know it’s coming, they just haven’t said anything about games or release dates. Generally they always announce things like that pretty late when it comes to “Virtual Console”. And it’s always been that way! Even on Wii U, it could happen that Nintendo only announced what they were releasing next just one week beforehand. It’ll probably be like that now too, and we’ll find out pretty late. But it’s coming, it definitely is. And the eShop will exist from day one too.

It seems some retro games will become playable online, in multiplayer. What is some old games you would want to play again with others?

Hmm, I think the new 'Bomberman' game looks pretty cool but I also love the classic 'Bomberman' games so it would be fun if you could play those older ones online as well, now when I play online, I mostly play 'Mario Kart 8', and in those games you return to old tracks, where you can play a track from 'Mario Kart 64' but with new modern graphics. So that’s kind of cool, even though that is a different thing, that is something they did really well in the 3DS game, that it had old tracks but in 3D.

Have anything been said about discounts on games for people who subscribe to Nintendo's online service?

Nothing but maybe you will be able to use your Nintendo Coins. You would think they might use that as a discount system. Where you show that you’ve done well in games. And then can get different discounts because of that.

This Nintendo-online service will initially be free, but it will start cost money in the fall. What do one get when it does?

You’ll get to borrow old games, I don’t remember if it’s one or two games per month. At the beginning it’ll probably be NES and SNES games! And then you can play online on Nintendo’s premium servers. Then I don’t know if Nintendo will also have some lower tier of online play that doesn’t cost anything. But absolutely all games that are online will work from the day they’re released. There’ll also be an app where you can invite your friends online, send out different meetup requests and use voice chat for certain games, for example, you can send requests to your friends to play on Saturday at 1:00 PM, and then you just send a message to all your friends who might reply that they can play at that time or maybe they’ll suggest another time.

Will these app-functions also exist if you do not have access to a mobile device?

I do not know if you’ll also be able to do it through the console itself. That’s very possible but it’s pretty smart because if you don’t have your console with you, you can still do certain things through your mobile phone. So I think that’s how they’ve thought about it, that there should be a sort of flexibility for the players. I actually don’t know if they’ve set a release date for the app yet or if it’ll arrive when the online service really launches. Meaning later this fall.

Maybe a dumb and meaningless question to ask a Nintendo PR-person but how hyped are you for the Switch?

I’m super hyped for the Switch! (laughs) Partly I am really looking forward to 'The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild'. It’s releasing for Wii U too, of course, but it’ll be interesting to see what improvements they’ve made on the Switch. But that’s the game we’ve known about for a very long time and have been longing for, it’s been a few years now, and then there’s 'Super Mario Odyssey', which looks absolutely magical. You really want to play that right now. But I know that it’s a holiday release, so it’s still pretty far away. But you still can’t help longing for it. You have seen the trailer and it looks absolutely fantastic. I know my kids are going to love that game.

Have you had time to test all the launch games for Switch?

Yeah I started playing the day before yesterday and yesterday as well.

Is the new ‘The Legend of Zelda’ game still your favourite?

I had already tried the new Zelda game at GamesCom before, though the Wii U-version. So I already knew it pretty well. So I actually haven’t played it that much now. It looks fantastic, but that’s the kind of game where you want to sit alone in a room, and not have all the sound drowned out by surrounding noise. I really like '1-2 Switch' because it’s a party game and I know there are going to be a lot of mini-games packed into it, they’ve been very creatively innovative, it’s really a great party game! You always want to have a game like that at home so you can invite over people who aren’t already familiar with the console and show what it can actually do technically. I’m looking forward to having it at home and inviting friends and family over to play the game together with them.

Will '1-2 Switch' just as 'Wii Sports' on Wii and 'Nintendo Land' on the Wii U be included when you get the Switch?

The hardware itself is bought without games, Nintendo hasn’t said anything about whether there might be some tech demo included in the console like there was in the Nintendo 3DS, I actually don’t know. But there won’t be a full game included. If it’s “bundled”, then it’s the retailers themselves who have put together their own packages but there is no official bundle like that. '1-2 Switch' is its own game that will be released both digitally and at retail.

It does feel like Nintendo wants the Switch to be a return to more social gaming together with friends?

During their presentation of the console, Nintendo said they tried to include something from all previous consoles in the machine and you really get that feeling when you sit and play on it, also because of the fact that you can use it to play multiplayer in three completely different ways is something that makes it pretty exciting from an innovation perspective.

Another example of this multiplayer ambition is 'Splatoon 2'?

'Splatoon' is a pretty new brand for us where quite a lot of players have still flocked in. It feels exciting to follow that brand’s success, the first game sold really well, it was actually one of the best-performing games on the Wii U together with 'Mario Kart 8'.

'Mario Kart 8' is also coming to Nintendo Switch as a Deluxe edition, what have been added there?

They’ve added some new characters, but above all it’s the new Battle Mode. Nintendo received a lot of criticism there because it felt kind of poorly done and because they’d spent too little time on that part of the game. So that’s something they have really focused on now! Now they have added more tracks and made it a more classic Battle Mode. So, we’ll see how players react now, whether it becomes something like, “This is how you should have done it from the beginning!” or not. Otherwise it’s prettier, you can play it on a bigger TV than before. I don’t know if the framerate is higher, maybe it isn’t, but the resolution is 1080p. Then maybe they’ve also added some sound effects too, since the Switch has the capacity to handle more realistic sound than the Wii U. In 'The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild', for example, the orchestration also has more realistic sound, but what they’re saying is that it’s a “Deluxe”-edition so it feels like it’s an expanded version. All the DLC from the Wii U–version is included too, so you get much more 'Mario Kart 8' on Switch than with the original. Personally I’m hoping they release even more DLC for this version.

Have they used the new HD rumble function?

They almost have to. It feels made for it. But they actually haven’t said anything about it! But it feels pretty logical?

Do you think Nintendo maybe is planning to re-release 'Super Smash Bros. For Wii U' on Switch as well, or what’s happening with that?

There have been a lot of rumors about it, so we’ll see. I do not think they want to rush the big franchises too much. They want to spread them out a little so there’s a nice flow of releases, one big problem with the Wii U was that there were long gaps between games sometimes. So they’ll probably release it when they feel that, “There mustn’t be any major gap here”.

Even though the launch of the console is pretty close now, there still seem to be a lot of question marks surrounding different functionality and things like that, even for you?

Yeah, there’s a lot Nintendo hasn’t given any information about at all. We don’t even know if the interface will look like it did in the trailer. Most likely they’re simply not completely finished with everything yet. And, I think they are working right up until the very end on this before launch.

Let's try some more. Can you transfer an existing Nintendo account?

I do believe so because the idea when Nintendo first created Nintendo accounts was that you would be able to use it across all different devices, and you can already use it on mobile phones now too, in things like 'Super Mario Run'. So I can’t imagine anything else. I’m assuming that. I’m assuming it’ll work.

Will you be able to use old controllers?

It’s been said that some things will be compatible and that there’ll be a system update that makes some accessories usable again. There’s been talk that older games will be playable again, if they come to Virtual Console, for example, or if they make new versions of the games, then you’d obviously have to be able to use the old controllers, though the new Joy-Con controllers do already have motion sensitivity too, so most of that is already there. Technically speaking, you could play most games with the new controllers. But as I said they have not gone into which ones specifically, but some will work. Certain older controllers will still be usable.

Overall, it seems like it may take some time before Nintendo adds stuff that are not game-related?

Exactly, there won’t be anything like that from the start, because it’s not supposed to be a “multimedia”-machine but a machine for gamers. But they are planning to add some things later. And they’ve already mentioned Netflix. Like I said before, I think Nintendo is working on the entire interface right up until the final second, so they’ll gradually check off more things over time. They will add more things going forward and it’ll simply take the time that it takes.

Many players seem to think the console comes with too little built in memory to buy and store many games on it?

First and foremost Nintendo points to using SD–cards. But they’ll try to make sure a certain type of external hard drive will work. But that probably won’t come at launch either. Instead that’ll also be part of a somewhat larger future system update.

Something Nintendo have had for several years that was quite unique but are now removing and replacing with the usual social media platforms is Miiverse? How will that work. Considering Nintendo is usually quite strict about how and what people share things...

There’s a “capture” button that lets you, for example, share pictures on social media, and eventually it will also support videos being posted. What has been said is that Nintendo will focus on that! But they do have a somewhat special policy, like on YouTube where they take part of the advertising revenue from Nintendo-related videos. And I don’t know if they’ll change that now. It is possible they will change. That they will change that strategy, but we’ll have to see about that!

Thanks for taking your time to talk a bit like this before the big console–launch, even though again so much seemingly is still uncertain …

Thank you, it was nice!