Mummelmann said:
I'd like to add one more significant potential factor; consumers who never bought a Wii U due to pricing or not being a fan of the concept itself. This could be a decent chunk of customers when all is said and done and I think that quite a few sales, especially in Europe, can also be attributed to consumers who have been waiting for something from Nintendo they really like. I'm one such customer, and after having played the Switch myself in docked mode and tried one of the best games ever made on it, I can safely say that I'm eager to buy one of my own when the price goes down somewhat, launch hick-up's are fixed and the library more expansive (I typically wait at least one year with new consoles). I have no interest in the portable aspect but it works well enough as a home console. I'm still not convinced it'll be a mass market hit though or that 3rd parties will put in a real effort, but among nerds it seems quite popular and will probably remain so, and we can't be unerestimated! |
These factors are an interesting boon the the Switch. It's hard to judge the exact number of consumers of dedicated gaming hardware there are due to overlap, replacements, revisions, etc. but I think 100+ million is a rather safe bet. So that's over 80 million potential customers who never owned a Wii U. And for those people, Zelda and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe are much more of a reason to buy than for those who do own a Wii U. And even Splatoon 2, since Splatoon isn't built on a story really, could be a big incentive for those who didn't have a Wii U because they obviously can't play Splatoon 1 but can see how well it was received and Splatoon 2 looks bigger and better so yeah. The failure of the Wii U could actually help Nintendo a bit.
