Miyamotoo said:
Nvidia CEO said that relationship with Nintendo "will likely last two decades". It's obvious that Nvidia and Nintendo look at long time partnership, so in that on mind hardly that Nvidia will screw Nintendo if they relly want long time partnership. Its most likely that Nvidia will provide chips for Switch revisions and future Nintendo hardwares for few generations. Nintendo software prices were premium even with Wii, also Nintendo does has Nintendo Selects line where they selling older games for $20. Switch just won Avgust in US again and its still selling great in Japan, actually shipments were bigger in late July and August compared to previous months and there are still shortages, and soon holiday season will come. So obviously, Switch sales are not slowing down and it won't be slow down anytime soon (because holiday season). If you look VGC numbers, 5.4m is without August and September sales. Switch with shipments in last quarter (July, August and September) will be closer to 7m than to 6m. |
We shall see, perhaps there is a change in culture at Nvidia but many companies of the past including Microsoft and Sony had a somewhat toxic relationship with them. Stating 2 decades means little, not ramping up royalties means a lot. I doubt if both Nintendo and Nvidia have locked down their future commercial relationship at this point in time.
As for software prices clearly the value on many other formats is much higher than Nintendo formats. Sometimes the same games on android or ios can be pence compared to pounds on Nintendo hardware. I really don't think this is debatable, the cost of cartridges is keeping Switch game prices high often higher than the same games on more capable hardware. I'm just saying its a factor that works against Nintendo. Many people are happy to pay premium prices for content especially exclusive Switch games of course. However for those who are looking for content at lower prices they may well look elsewhere. Pricing is always a factor and the less the deposable income is per country the more likely they resist high pricing. The poorer countries of Europe have had quite low interest in Switch often with available stock pretty much from day one. It's an important factor in selling the Switch worldwide.
I don't know the long term sales of the Switch but I'm certainly not estimating low sales its more a debate about what level of success the Switch will have. It always felt from day one Switch was perfect for Japan and the US is a very strong territory for Nintendo. I guess the real battle is elsewhere around the world. Success can be localised. Xbox was almost limited to its best success in english speaking countries. Switch currently may be more limited to countries with higher disposable incomes. Again the picture will become clearer once we have gone through Christmas and satisified core demand for the product. I personally think the ps4 will continue to be the dominant format and hardware seller around the world this Christmas with the exception of Japan and possibly US. Whatever happens it will be interesting to see how it all unfolds, the high's the low's etc.
Strangely the retail presence here in the UK for Switch is still very low. Often with no demo consoles available and only a small section for Switch games and accessories. This may change dramatically as more Switch stock becomes available but still seems strange. Even when PS4 stock was low at the beginning you could happily play on PS4 demo units in various shops. The same shops push the big PS4 and Xbox titles. It almost feels like there is some retail resistance to Switch here. Online shopping means this isn't as critical as it once was I guess though. Maybe the huge range of software on ps4 and xbox and them relying on reselling old games is part of the reason. Their business model may simply work better with ps4 and xbox.
