I do really think they fumbled the bag here with “Welcome Tour”. Could’ve been a cool pack in, would’ve been reminiscent of Wii Sports, and apparently it’s a decent quality package that probably would’ve been well received, and helped build hype for the console.
Instead, they charged a pittance for it. No way are they getting many sales, and they gave us an easy narrative that they’re greedy and have lost their way since Reggie and the Wii, just as they launch a hella expensive console with big price increases and don’t need that kind of PR.
They turned an easy PR win that might have helped move units into a PR disaster in a touchy time, for chump change next to their profit margins on the console + games like Mario Kart World. Also lost a chance to advertise and show off what the new hardware can really do, the whole thing looks like a big advertisement anyways. Hell, it even looks pretty neat, but there’s not a snowballs chance in hell of me paying for it.
From what I recall reading, Nintendo’s point of view is that they don’t give away anything for free, and Reggie had to work hard to get Wii Sports included with the console.
Now we don’t have Reggie for that, so Nintendo did what they want.
And Wii Sports wasn’t even really free with the Wii! The added the price of Wii Sports to that of the Wii, but because every Wii came with Wii Sports, nobody noticed.
Ahan, interesting. Didn’t know about that.
I did pay for it, and you are correct. It’s decent for what it is, but it should really have been a pack-in game.
Copy/pasting my comment from the other thread that got deleted:
Welcome Tour should have been a free bundled game with every system, like Astro’s Playroom on PS5.
Drag x Drive should have been the “exclusive Switch 2 upgrade content” for Nintendo Switch Sports.
I’m not sure it would make much sense to put Drag x Drive into Nintendo Switch Sports. That game is all real-world sports and is meant to be more grounded, whereas this is trying to be a more experimental fantasy sport.
I’ve not really looked into it, but my impression was it was just wheelchair basketball with a weird pseudo sci-fi aesthetic. Is that not the case?
Wheelchair basketball is a real sport, at least. It didn’t need the punk veneer, but they could have easily turned the core mechanics of Drag x Drive into a standard wheelchair basketball game mode, complete with Miis and a more wholesome aesthetic that probably would have been received more warmly as a creative and inclusive addition to the game.
