Does It Really Matter How Much Switch Sells?

[Peh]

zippy said:

Soundwave said:

What does it matter if Nintendo still makes money? I mean they're making good money right now off a 3DS that's shipping like 8 million a year, a dead Wii U, and just mobile. 

So even in a "bad case scenario" of say 40 million Switches ... they'd probably still make a lot of money as long as they don't sell at a loss, sell plenty of software, and will have other revenue sources like mobile and movies and theme parks to buoy them. 

I mean yeah obviously higher sales can be better, I'm just saying as an actual Nintendo gamer what's the real benefit here? The Wii and 3DS had solid to great hardware sales and still have relatively shit for developer support in both cases, so the whole idea that user base automatically equals great developer isn't true. 

So the second thing then I guess is we should feel bad because Nintendo isn't making money ... except Nintendo has shown themselves to be able to make lots of money even with less successful hardware. 

 

Oh I fully agree, I was just wondering how people would perceive it if Switch was to sell considerably less than Wii U/3DS combo. Nintendo have shown us during an underperforming gen that they can still generate a profit, but the gaming press will find a way to put a negative spin on things if Switch were to sell less but still make great profits. Its obviously crossed Nintendo's mind if there are mutterings of a possible 3DS successor.

They definitely sold 100 millions of WII's to the customer. But most of the customers just bought it for WII Sports. They never bought any other software for it. It was something different for them and tried it out and that's it. Expecting those customers moving over to the WII U was a mistake.