Delay the NX to the Holiday season?

[zorg1000]

Shadow1980 said:
March is fine if the system is ready to go and it has the games to support it. It's an unusual month to launch, but that is during tax season which is a good time for hardware sales. Q1 system launches might be uncommon, but they're not unheard of. Granted, it's usually handhelds launching in Q2, but in Japan the PS2 & PS4 were both Q1 launches. Here's each month by system launches in the U.S.:

Jan.:
Feb.: Vita
Mar.: PSP, 3DS, NX
April:
May: Atari 7800, Saturn
June: GBA
July: Game Boy
Aug.: Genesis, TG-16, SNES
Sept.: NES, PS1, N64, Dreamcast
Oct.: Master System, PS2
Nov.: GameCube, Xbox, 360, Wii, PS3, DS, Wii U, PS4, XBO
Dec.:

And now Japan:

Jan.:
Feb.: Xbox, PS4, 3DS
Mar.: PS2, GBA, NX
April: Game Boy
May:
June: N64
July: Famicom, SG-1000,
Aug.:
Sept.: GameCube, XBO
Oct.: Sega Mark-III, PC Engine, Mega Drive
Nov.: Super Famicom, Saturn, Dreamcast, PS3
Dec.: PS1, 360, Wii, DS, PSP, Wii U, Vita

The first home consoles to launch in November in the U.S. were the GameCube and Xbox, so it's actually a more recent phenomenon for the U.S. market. Every other system launched earlier in the year. While first-month sales weren't super high, many of them still had good sales. The N64 sold about 325k its first week and went on to become the fastest-selling system ever at the time in the U.S. until the PS1 rebounded in Sept. '97. The Dreamcast sold 569k in just three weeks in Sept. '99. The PS2 sold 391k in its first 3-4 days. Launching in November, meanwhile, has yielded mixed results. The Xbox, GameCube, PS4, and XBO had strong November launches, pulling in 722k, 663k, 1140k, and 909k respectively. However, the PS3, 360, Wii, and Wii U sold only 197k, 326k, 476k, and 425k in their respective launch months, not especially strong. Granted, that may be because of supply shortages, but that may have also been the case with the PS2 as well.

In Japan a system launching outside the holidays seems to have minimal impact on launch sales as well. The PS2, a March release itself, sold over 630k launch week, a record that stands to this day, while the GBA sold 611k its first week, the 3DS nearly 375k, and the PS4 over 309k. Those are all just as good if not better than many Nov. or Dec. launches.

Launching in March will likely have no negative impact on the NX's sales. It may be the first home console to launch in the U.S. in Q1, but I doubt that will hurt it any more than launching in the summer or early fall did to other systems in the past. And we know Japanese gamers have absolutely no problems turning out in droves for system launches regardless of what time of the year it is.

If the NX sells 300-400k first week in Japan and 500k first month in the U.S. and maintains a fairly healthy baseline throughout the April to October period, then we can say that the system is off to a good start.

Great post, like I said, the month it launches really isn't important and things like hardware features, software quality/output, price point, marketing/advertising are going to decide how well it does regardless of launch month.