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teigaga on 04 October 2016
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foxtail said:
teigaga said:

This is interesting but doesn't change the point. Why didn't people buy both systems since the Gamecube was so cheap? The truth is once people have one gaming system they're quite content with that for the rest of the generation. Even if an NX undercuts the PS4 in price, it'll likely be a similar position to the gamecube but even worse considering PS2 only had 1 year advantage instead of 3.

The PS2 sold ~81.89 Million units after it had a price cut to $149 (about half it's sales), so it was cheap in its own right.  It also had a lot of games and capabilities to satisfy most.  That generation likely had the least multi-console owners just by looking at the dominance of the PS2, but when both the Wii and PS3/X360 all succeeded multi-console ownership probably increased a lot too.

The introduction of intermittent consoles like PS4 pro and looming Scorpio is likely shake up the traditional console cycle anyways and might influence a change in buying patterns.  If the NX can somehow entice people with something compelling when people are looking at new hardware then they might have a chance.

I understand the PS2 wasn't that expensive, but that doesn't explain why people didn't also buy a Gamecube which was $99. We can't pretend PS4 hasn't already sold 40m and counting. Before the NX even hits stores around 80m PS4/XboxOnes will be sold to consumers and neither system has even hit $249 yet. They will have hundreds of games out versus the NX's 20-30, peoples friends will already own them. We'd have to be delusional to imagine Nintendo bringing an instant stop to momentum created over the last 3 years. So the assumption must be that many gamers will pick up an NX alongside their existing consoles, which is why I ask why people didn't buy gamecube as a secondary console.

Similar to the PS2, PS4 has "a lot of games and capabilities to satisfy most", so I'm struggling to how such a scenario would be different?

Regarding last gen, PS3/Xbox 360's audience could really be seen as a split of the PS2's audience, its not like they both sold 150m each. There isn't evidence of a lot of multi console ownership where the HD consoles are conerned athough there is to some degree. Overall logic points towards Wii being the primary culprit of multi console ownership last gen, it had a very distinct USP/Gimmick which made it appealing as a secondary console, or even your primary system if you weren't a traditional gamer. The point several of us has made is that undercutting the PS4's price with a slightly more powerful console is not much of a USP, its pretty much what the gamecube done.

The introduction of the 4TFLOP Neo (launching 5months and a holiday before the NX) and the 6Tflop Scorpio only makes it more diffcult for 2.5Tflop, $199 NX to find releveance. Me and several others are simply reaffirming Nintendo's need to differentiate themselves when entering 3+ after their "competition".