bonzobanana said:
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. |
Many things changed from 2005. also there are not too many potential buyers of Nvidia mobile tech, in that way Nvidia stays present in console market, while Nintendo talked about how want to stick to one tech/architecture because they had huge problems when they had new tech/architecture with evre new generation (basically they were starting from 0 with every new generation and only expectations was going from GC to Wii) and Nvidia Tegra chips are almost perfect for what Nintendo needs. Also, you don't bring "2 decades of relationship" if you dont have some huge plans, I am pretty sure they already made some deals for some future chips.
My point was simple, even Wii that sold over 100m had "premium price" for Nintendo games, and Nintendo have discounts, Wii, DS, Wii U, and 3DS all had "Nintendo Selects" line of games for $20. If we talk about 3rd party games, many people are will to pay even more for some multiplatform game compared to same game on PS4/XB1 because on Switch you can play that game in full handheld mode also, alongside full home console play. Price factor was always important for hardware itself, for games not so important, especially when Nintendo games are what selling Switch on first place (not multiplatform games). Poor countries in Europe are weak markets for any console.
We will know real Switch strength when Switch became regulary available all over the world and after holiday season, so some time next year. But fact is that Switch sales currently are not slowing down and it will not slow down any time soon, Switch still didnt meat demand and its still suply constrained. Switch could easily kill this holiday season if Nintendo has enough stocks to ship. Also I don't see any reason why would sales slowdown next year, Switch will still have great concept, good marketing and it will have new big system seller games, next year too, and it seems that Switch is more and more popular how is more time on market.
We also recently had info that this year Switch is selling less than PS4 but better than XB1 in UK, so that's good for UK that's actually one of weakest Nintendo market in Europe (if we talk about big European countres).
