Tag Archives: Switch 2

Reprising a good idea

An idea just struck me (Ouch). I was remembering an old game and it wasn’t through graphics. They were the words ‘shy gypsy slyly shyly tryst by my crypt’ and ‘two sticks and two stones, the rest is just icing’, they are still in my brain after 33 years. The game the 7th guest had an impact. And the puzzle with that many ‘Y’ included was impossible for me (as an original Dutchman) to solve. I wasn’t angry, I was delighted and there were a several more puzzles, but the idea formed into my mind. 

What happens when you upgrade these video streams to 1080p? The graphics can be transferred to 4K almost too easily. The idea of a sequel where after a few puzzles you get the option to recap the original game completely and now there is the option to give a sepia view (for the recap) or go into the game completely in 1080p. The original preserved as it was a game changer in 1993 and now we get a new story with attachments to the original and the world has almost thousands of puzzles, so what stops the owner of that IP (originally Virgin Interactive Entertainment/Broderbund) to do this? I have no idea where the IP lies, with them or with Electronic Arts. And if the IP is no longer protected, buying the original 7th Guest might be a cheap option to get a totally new IP rolling. It could be a new gaming consortium, it could be an indie developer or another path could be open. 

The original puzzles could spark part of the new sequel. I had a partial idea in the past as a game like 7th Guest could be a streaming game, as such now the Tencent handheld might be the next option. What matters is that all these ‘wannabe’ innovators and they set aside original ideas and this took me less then an hour to consider. It could be set to the summer cottage (or beach dwelling) to Henry Stauf (the original protagonist) and this mansion is also full of puzzles and solving them gives us the next stage in whatever setting we see and these puzzles form a totally new storyline (which is for the designer to figure out). That sequel would lead to even more puzzles through the stories of Brian Dutton, Hamilton Temple, Julia Heine and Martine Burden. All DLC’s that can be added and they will add a whole new range of puzzles, first through the storyline and as you complete puzzles and get past the storyline, they unlock these puzzles and alterations of that in the main screen as the separate option is revealed. There is no denying that people are partially obsessed wit puzzles and they might not like all puzzles, but there is enough to entice the biggest puzzle fan. All unlicked through game and that sets up a whole new IP for the designer. Consider the Sudoku or Nonogram. Once the puzzle is completed that part of the designer comes online and you can have thousands of puzzles in that style. All out in the open, but never combined in one game, In one challenge that boggles the puzzler in all of us. 

So why didn’t the other ‘gaming greats’ consider this? It is not innovative enough? The best ideas are not in front of you, they are behind you and that setting gave me the idea I am typing now. I leave it up to the makers of actual games to make something new and enticing and the 7th Guest gave us that in the style of a game (by those times ‘hi res gaming’) we know better now and even as the graphics are surpassed the idea never was and it is out for anyone now to capture the minds of all. I still advice to own the 7th Guest to design past that but there you have it, a novel idea. Not new but novel enough to capture the minds of thousands of gamers, because when you are on a bus or a train, you can look out the window the entire 40 minutes, or solve a puzzle and get those grey cells exercised. I think the second option has a lot more appeal and consider that this could also be added to your desires of a Sony playstation portable, Tencent Handheld or a Nintendo Switch 2. It is up to you to decide but as I see it, this game could entertain all three systems. 

So where are the others? Where are their innovative ideas for a new gaming world? I am merely asking. Have a great day and entertain the idea of gaming the evening away on the couch, or on the bus/tram/metro/train to work and home. 

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The Nintendo Charge

Nintendo makes another blitz record, it is not the first one, but this one is one for the record books. The story (at https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/nintendo-has-sold-6-million-switch-2-consoles-and-almost-the-same-number-of-mario-kart-world/) gives us ‘Nintendo has sold 6 million Switch 2 consoles and almost the same number of Mario Kart World’ as for my excuse not being part of that cluster is simple. I just don’t have the money at present. Nintendo played a near perfect awareness game. They went global with the teaser, they followed up with YouTube video’s and gave online presence. When Zero-hour was here. The streets were aligned around shops who sold it with people. We all wanted one, even the ones that couldn’t afford one. And there was a lot of interest. The expanded memory, larger screen, higher resolution, snap click controllers with magnets and the controller was also used as a mouse. 256GB against the 32GB of the original Switch. Basically everything was stronger. One exception, the battery life seemingly is not. I run my Switch on the TV, so I won’t ever see this one issue. And on the TV, you now get 4K. Cheaper than either Xbox or PS5 (not by that much) Nintendo made the record books yet again. In the first 7 weeks the Nintendo sold 6 million Switch 2 consoles and the real screamer is that nearly all of them got Mario Kart World, it sold 5.63 million copies. That is huge. I saw the videos and I would get that as my first game too. 

So when we se all this we tend to think, what is next? But that is it, this setting will hurt Sony as well as Microsoft to some degree. People can no longer afford it all and when they get a Switch 2, their coffers are nearly empty as such, no direct sales for either Sony or Microsoft. Microsoft with its Game Pass will have an advantage over Sony (for the first time) and it will not be as hindered by Nintendo as Sony is, but they too will feel the pain. I reckon that this will continue straight through Christmas 2025. Because those who can not afford it at present, will work harder to get one before or at this Christmas (hopefully me too). 

So whilst we get the quote “Despite being a launch title and being constrained by its user base, Mario Kart World is the series’ second biggest launch behind Mario Kart Wii.” And that makes sense. I see the improvements and the plusses that Mario Kart World is bringing and I reckon that this game alone is the largest push to get the Nintendo Camera as well. It goes further, As of June 30, 2025, the Nintendo Switch has sold a total of 153.10 million units worldwide. This makes it the third best-selling video game console of all time and now add the 6 million Switch 2 systems and we see that Nintendo is overtaking Microsoft by storm. Consider that at present Xbox Series X/S (2020): Estimated over 28 million units as of June 2024. This implies that Switch 2 is already at 21% of Xbox Series X/S lifetime sales. And the Switch already surpassed that. This sets the  Microsoft systems in third position and should Amazon agree to my terms Microsoft becomes the 4th player. Not bad after spending Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. That was money well spend wasn’t it? And should Amazon agree to surpass Microsoft too, that 68 billion dollar anchor will weigh harshly on their actions. The funny part is that neither Sony or Nintendo had to pay that much for anything they bought (as far as I know). And there is more (there always is) Nintendo is should of breaking its own record of the Nintendo DS which sold 154 million consoles. The Switch is now less then a million away from that record. It is anyones guess how far the Switch 2 will make it, but as I see it the numbers are in favor of Switch replacing a lot of systems within the next year. Nintendo said there were no changes to its financial forecast for this fiscal year, which is to sell 15 million consoles by March 2026. I tend to think that this number will be broken in several ways by Christmas 2024. That is before we consider the pleasing notions of all the Harry Potter fans who will be driven to this game on the Switch 2 as well. Yes, Nintendo is about to break record and this is the first time that I am saying this, but Nintendo is now approaching the pole position that Sony holds, as such they will have to up their game considerably if they do not want to be taken over by Nintendo, because that is no longer impossible. I don’t think Sony was ready to see the Switch family as a threat to their number one position, but that is the setting that they face in 2026, as such I wonder what Sony will come up with next. 

The armistice race on consoles tends to be a fulfilling one and there is the second step. When Nintendo get that done, it will find more gamers switching to their side. Although I have always stated that the Nintendo is the system you get next to your usual console, I still believe that and as such Nintendo tends to have great options. I merely wonder when Hogwarts Legacy 2 is released will it be released on day one for Switch 2 too? You might think that this doesn’t matter, but it does. It will be the first moment when Nintendo will have surpassed Sony and that is the kind of news that is massive in its own right. Sony released its PlayStation on December 3, 1994, it went straight to the top from the start and it will have taken Nintendo 32 years to overtake Sony and that is not something to think lightly of. I certainly am not. 

So, I merely have this to say “Well done Nintendo”

Have a great day today 

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Yesterday’s IP served tomorrow

Yes, that is the bad ground of the story, but it is not all it is set to be. You see, I have ‘seen’ different settings through all kinds of sources (who claim to have been whispered to by those who are in the know), basically it is almost impossible to get any kind of information that is decently reliable. Now, if there is nothing to report, fine. If they have nothing to say, don’t say anything. I am fine with that, but ‘the powers that are’ basically the marketing divisions of those who I don’t care about are of the mind that if we aren’t postulating or speculating on what might be, the game no longer matters. They basically started this by announcing a new game four years before the pre production is finished. As such (as I personally see it) we will not see a new Mass Effect before 2027/2028. Basically 7 years AFTER the announcement. It is worse than the media monster being fed. As I personally see it (and I might be wrong) these developers start the rumor to see if they are on the right track, if there will be investors before the hype gets out of control. This I not the way to do gaming. It is bad enough that Microsoft doesn’t have a clue on what they are doing, but when the developers do a similar game, gaming is close to finished. We can set the exception to Sony and Nintendo, but some of their games are in a similar setting (example Mass Effect) and now we see that Bethesda has a ‘stellar’ surprise coming to us in October. This is fine, it is a mere 4 months away, so this could be done for several reasons and when it is within 10 months, I think it is an acceptable timeline for any game of ‘rerelease’. There are all kinds of people claiming that Morrowind is coming, Fallout 3 is coming to PS5 and Xbox series X, whatever the reason we know that ‘influencers’ need time to get traction and it is easy to block all their material instantly. So fine, if they want to chance that approach. This is THEIR right (and mine to block them). 

Of course I am curious to news games like Horizon Speculated Game 3. I loved the first two and these games are awesome. The same could be said for Bethesda games. I get that everyone wants to see something on The Elder Scrolls 6, but I think Todd Howard made a mistake mentioning it in 2018 and that gets the ‘fans’ riled. It is 2025 now and the last thing we heard (two weeks ago) was “we can count on is that Fallout 5 is set to come after the Elder Scrolls 6” and that has a speculative release date 2026, but there is nothin official, as such it ight not happen before 2027, so 9 years after the announcement. So, how clueless were the people at Bethesda? Was it because they needed to cash in on the $7,500,000,000? I actually do not know, but I can speculate just as well as anyone else. The setting is laced into the field of not getting updated on information and the fact that announcements were made at least 8 years too soon. 

It is anyones guess at this point. The funny side of this was the fact that I had created a storyline for Elder Scrolls 6 11 years ago. This doesn’t mean it was accepted or even read by Bethesda, but the simple setting that there was something out there that long ago and I also placed it later on this blog. I ever created a new setting making the new game a multi game setting with optional new stages overall.  Game that would test the RPG lover is new and never before seen ways. The idea came to me when I revamped IP by Vinton Cerf in new and never contemplated before ways. And in the setting I created gives the new IP a setting of Patent of Addition and as it shows new novelty it should stand. 

This is the setting that was out there for close to a decade. A setting I offered (before they were bought by Microsoft) and as I do not allow Microsoft near my IP, I set it to a new game setting (also published here) and making it published Microsoft cannot make claim to it (unless they pay me a truckload of money). 

So whilst that played, I also though of IP’s I created a few years ago and that would hand this who hide in the shelters of TEMU some disease where they might find more stuff. So we have that allegedly game designers spout ‘silent’ hints to influencers and see where they get and on the other hand there are people like me (I doubt that I am the only one) who spout IP settings for any non-Microsoft developer are freeware. In between these two fronts we get developers who announce games 2550 days before current non-release. We get all sorts on the internet and I reckon that gamers are starting to get fed up with that setting. Well, I have an excuse, I offer it to game makers and I don’t claim that it is coming. 

So what do gamers have to look out for? That is the setting and that is where the people on the Nintendo Switch 2 and the Sony Playstation 5 get to reek in the profits. Nintendo got 5 million Switch 2 consoles sold in 26 days, Microsoft never ever did this well (as I personally see it). Isn’t is weird that Microsoft only shows some sales figures consisting of the aggregation of series S and series X? I personally believe that this is as series X has no traction. I could be wrong in this. 

Oh and the setting that I give away ‘free’ ideas is shown on April 5th 2025 in ‘A political game’ (at  https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/04/05/a-political-game/) where I offered the idea (a revamp of Frogger) to any Canadian software developer to release on any system. I made sure it was feasible on mobile, so that CANADIAN developers would have some means to counter American tariffs and at the same time make fun of these Americans. It was my way of aiding my Canadian brethren (sisters too). I am not just creative, I can be a sneaky scoundrel too.

So when you get this, consider why it takes these developers this long to get going? They just fired thousands in this field and as such you get to wonder why. As such you might start to wonder if this is what the big boys are now reduced to. Merely rereleasing old hits? If that is so the next best idea is at least a year away when a ‘revamped’ version of Skyrim hits the shelves for Switch 2 and PS6. And that was before I gave the idea to Kingdom Holding giving them the inner track to 50 million gamers and the setting for a close to 1000 games. So do you feel that the gaming world is good, or is it now riddled with Business graduates who rely on Excel to make their paycheck? Considering that gaming is a form of art, I wonder how many developers made their business graduate supply a drawing that required personal art created and submitted during their interview. 

Just asking.

Have a great day today. It is almost 18:30 in Vancouver. I wonder if anyone has taken a picture today of all the traffic going into America via Peace Arch Border Crossing. It seems that I like to ruffle feathers today.

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A political game

You know the setting for President Trump with his tariffs are out there. As only 4 hours ago we got word (via Reuters) that another $5 trillion has been wiped of the markets (at https://www.reuters.com/markets/global-markets-stress-graphic-pix-2025-04-04) we saw another piece of news at NBC (at https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nintendo-switch-2-pre-orders-us-delayed-trumps-tariffs-rcna199729) giving us ‘Nintendo Switch 2 preorders in U.S. delayed because of Trump’s tariffs’ and my cogs started to think. The population of Seattle is around 4,018,762. Now if only 10% wants to get a Nintendo Switch 2 (I reckon that number is much higher) we end up with 400,000 Washingtons wanting that novel contraption and as such the option for Vancouver to get an additional 2 billion in revenue seems clear. And a smuggling game emerged from my brain. The setting is around the interstate bridge ad connect that to a classical game named Frogger and the setting is near complete.

In this setting we get the frog to make it to the other side. Now we change the setting to:

Here we see the interstate bridge, like frogger (now in a north south setting) we move from truck/car to truck/car, the slow vehicles get its there and the fast vehicles get us there faster. And there seems no real challenge and the blue rectangle is the part we see in the game, so the game scrolls. 

Now we get to the border, the guards move from left to right (the don’t care about the Canadian side), if the guard spots you you are royally screwed and you are out $800, if not you pass and you gain $1500. Now on the way back you get by taxi, but here you can skip from taxi to taxi as they pass, if there is a Maga cap in that taxi, it is yours and when you wear the cap for a second trip the border patrol ignores you when you wear a Maga cap. The task is to smuggle as many as Switch 2 consoles as possible. And you can team up, each their own game, but the scores are shown I reckon 2 (or 4 in true Switch 2 mode). In higher levels the guard move faster and the gaps between cars/trucks increase a little. So, we should thank President Trump to give us a lovely smuggle game. We can improve the game in many ways, like adding fentanyl shipments, which gives us a bonus bump (like times 5), so that the profit goes to $7500, however if you are caught you are stopped for 30 seconds and that is where the opponents get 30 seconds of optional gains. There are a few other things you can do, but I leave that to you. I hand over this idea to the clever Canadian with programming skills. It is an Australian ‘Gudday’ to our Canadian brothers and sisters (the she-form of the male can program just as good as the man can). 

How life can throw you a bonus? Well here you have it and there is not a Trump in sight to stop you. And as I go to enjoy the weekend now, I dream of desperate traders throwing themselves off buildings as their fortunes melted away among the trillions in market value. Trump might have stated ““Hang tough,” he urged his followers on social media. “We can’t lose.”” (Source: BBC), but the desperate and greed driven never hang tough, when the reaper comes reaping, the greed driven become suicidal. A simple lesson from life (1929 to 1939, the great depression where 7% committed suicide). 

So have a great day and when the stocks bite, pray you have a Canadian son/daughter who can program. This me having a spell of additional dark humor.

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