Mummelmann said:
Can you both tell me why and how it won't be seen as a tablet by the mass market? It's basically "you're wrong because we say so" and I don't find it very compelling. None of you can dictate how different market segments will perceive a product, not any more than I can ay any rate. But we know that the mass market follows fairly simple rules; trends, convenience, pricing and design being chief among these. It's not very trendy with dedicated gaming devices in handhelds form, as evidenced by the actual handheld market having shrunk to about 1/3 of its 7th gen peak, making the Switch so lacking in multifunctions may have been a huge mistake for this reason, it exists almost solely for games. Convenience; how convenient is it to to try to convince the smart device demographics that they want yet another device with the same for factor and that requires you to carry actual cartridges with you for games and that can't really be used for anything else than games? How is it priced? It falls in the same price range as an iPad Mini, or a PS4, about double that of a 3DS, there isn't much incentive in sheer price so it's mostly down to perceived value, which brings us to the last bit. Design; it looks like a tablet, it doesn't matter what it tries to be, it was the same with the Wii U and the ghastly Gamepad, it looked like a tablet and was misunderstood and judged on those premises. As far as the mass market is concerned; it's pretty much a tablet, one without a camera, even the most basic apps and a fairly high price and it uses cartridges, another super hit in design and trends in the mass market, as evidenced by all the movies, music and games for other platforms that arrive on these all the time. Seriously; even if we nerds like a product, there's very little incentive for mass market consumers to do the same, what is it that appeals to them? HD rumble in controllers that cost 70-80 a pop, the same franchises that Nintendo have relied on since the 80's to sell their hardware? Fitness games (yes, some actually believe these will make a comeback)? Brain Age like titles or quiz stuff that phones have long since monopolized? I find it staggering that you can't see it, there are no flags coming up to signal that this will be a mass market hit, which it will need to be to sell the wildly claimed 100 million some are hoping for. The Switch is more likely to fall victim to the break-neck pace of the consumer electronics market than traditional consoles since it mimmicks their form factor, and it will likely find itself in dire need of frequent revisions to keep a certain level of interest in the long run, much like dedicated handhelds in the 8th gen showed us. The price will also have to be lowered within a fairly short amount of time if they want to keep momentum going. Personally, I think we'll see a price cut, albeit a small one, withing the first 12 months of its life and a revision/added SKU within about 18 months. The Switch is designed just like a tablet in form factor and uses a similar touchscreen, even slide-on controllers can be bought for other tablets. I find it insanely unreasonable to assume that mass market consumers will be interested in a dedicated gaming machine with a small screen that costs 300$ and does a lot less than both their smart devices and other consoles at the same or even lower price points. Will they go bonkers because it connects to your TV? It's ludicrous to think that this market segment will purchase the Switch in droves, there is literally zero indication that this will be the case. Look, I'm not one of those eggheads who thinks it will sell like the Wii U, but I find it just as silly to think it will sell like the Wii, the odds of both happening are more or less the same from where I'm sitting. Hey, I could be wrong, but there's not much proper material to indicate that right now. A great launch month and stories of shortages have surely not caused you both to fall for the hype? Nintendo doubling their production for the fiscal year? They grossly overshot their projections in the 8th gen, even after lowering them several times. |
There's nothing wrong with just selling to gamers. Gamers can see the appeal of the Switch, even hardcore players (maybe even more specifically -- especially hardcore players). The versatilty of the machine and being able to play epic core experiences anywhere is enough to set the system apart.
If casuals don't want it because they want to play Clash of Clans and need to use Facebook or whatever .... meh. Fuck 'em.
Nintendo has bent over backwards for that audience several times and they are flakey, flakey, flakey. There's plenty of serious gamers who could be enticed to buy a Switch if Nintendo handles it correctly, gets enough good games out for it, and iterates upon the initial model in appealling ways.
For apps it should be easy though to port apps since the Nvidia Shield (same processor) has many of them. I'd be fine with a web browser, Netflix/Hulu, Facebook, Twitter, and a Video Player.
