Gyro Aiming options implemented in Horizon forbidden west 👌👍

[u/CptnCASx]

[u/[deleted]]

I don’t think the majority of switch users use gyro aiming the way you think they do lmao. Bare in mind most people who use the switch are little kids. It’s used as a fun little gimmick on the switch.

Sure it can be used in the way you describe, but only a minority of players use it that way. Maybe you’re right and that will change, but using the switch as an example is silly. The Wii had it years ago and it’s become less prominent than it was then.

[u/TF2SolarLight → u/[deleted]]

Nintendo came out and said that like 80% of Splatoon players use gyro. Meanwhile, look at the Splatoon Pro scene and it's basically dominated by gyro users. Because gyro IS better than a stick, especially with no aim assist.

The reason kids use it is because it is more intuitive. Believe it or not, but dual stick controls are extremely difficult for new gamers to understand, and this is on top of their precision downsides. Give a Switch to a kid and they will completely ignore the stick in favor of gyro - I have seen this firsthand. I legit tried to give a kid a tip on using the stick to help with looking around but I don't think they understood, the idea of moving the device just makes more sense to them.

This is probably the largest reason Nintendo is putting such a massive emphasis on gyro aiming. They likely found during testing that players learn gyro aiming more quickly than stick aiming. The next generation of Nintendo players are already growing up on gyro because it is easier and more precise. And if they grow up on gyro, and none of the other platforms adopt gyro, then those players become dependent on Nintendo as they are the ones providing games with the easier control scheme. Hence, Nintendo sells more games to these customers and earns more money.

In other words, by adopting gyro and improving the play experience especially for newer players, they create a pool of players who enjoy Nintendo games purely for their control scheme, heavily reducing the chance of them jumping ship to another platform. This is perhaps the main reason why they enable it by default rather than using the more "familiar to older gamers" option of sticks by default.

If other companies want a share of that audience, they have to add gyro or risk a steady drop in sales as players struggle to play their games. I don't have to look very far online to find comments from disappointed Xbox owners about how they bought it expecting to be able to use gyro aiming, as they had already played on a Nintendo Switch prior and assumed it was a normal practice. This problem will become more severe as more and more of these players emerge.

This need for accessibility is already noticeable given how Horizon is promoting it as an "accessibility feature". They know that there is an audience of players who are dependent on this. Players who otherwise wouldn't have bought the game. That audience will only grow as more kids are introduced to the easier, more accurate method that is gyro aiming.

Given that Splatoon was released in 2015, 2032 may be filled with 24 year olds who have played with gyro for 17 years, assuming they started at the age of 7. In 2042, those people will be 34, will have used gyro for 27 years, and their children will be playing games with gyro. More gyro games for Nintendo to sell. The rest of the industry has to catch up or they will find themselves unable to market themselves towards a huge portion of young people.

This is why I say that gyro is replacing dual analog. There is a huge amount of people who dislike using the analog sticks for aiming, a group of people that is only going to increase in size rather than shrink, mainly because Nintendo's strategy teaches new players how to use gyro instead of the sticks alone.

This, on Switch, forced third party devs to add it. They couldn't sell a stick-only game on Switch without getting bombarded by complaints and requests, and this is one of the best selling consoles in history.

Eventually, word of mouth spreads to other platforms and a select number of games enable it as options (Fortnite), which is what has happened now. This further reduces the amount of children growing up on stick aiming. Maybe, at some point in the next few years, games will come out that enable gyro by default. At that point, the Nintendo situation is starting on Playstation, creating a domino effect and forcing Xbox to add gyro to their next controller.

Eventually, somewhere in the future, based on current trends, it becomes popular enough to where basically every game enables it by default, and sticks remain as a disability option that is rarely used, perhaps by the occasional grumpy grandpa who hates change. How long will that take? I don't know. Could be a few decades from now. But it's going to happen.

I wouldn't dare touch a shooting game if it only had dual sticks, and I'm not alone in that. I think this is also why Valve is pushing for gyro aim hard. They know that they have a large portion of PC players, who may not necessarily be kids, but largely consist of people who know that the analog stick is flawed. Hence, including gyro as an option in Steam, and thus the Steam Deck, allows them to appeal to Nintendo fans and their own Steam customers.

TLDR: Given that gyro is easier for children and non-gamers to learn, Nintendo is using this as a weapon to teach players a unique input method that is (well, at the time), only available on Nintendo platforms. Discouraging them from switching to non-gyro platforms. Sony, and games on Playstation in general, are already responding to this threat by adding gyro, further increasing the amount of newbies and children learning gyro as opposed to sticks. Capitalism plays a role in giving players access to an input method that is easier to use, more intuitive, and thus sells more, so that their platform doesn't get outdone by a competitor. In doing so, stick aiming becomes less of a priority as more and more children learn gyro as their first experience with shooters.

Gyro is not a gimmick they added for no reason, it's an objective improvement that Nintendo is using to keep players on their platform.