Finacial Times: Nintendo to produce 18M Switch units in FY18

[Nautilus]

spemanig said:

Nautilus said:

Well, no.It was the combination of a good concept and execution( hardware) with one excellent software(Zelda) that sold the system.The hardware alone would have never sold this much.

It obviously would have sold less, Zelda is a massive killer app, but it still would have sold a lot without it. Like you said, the concept and execution was there. Zelda was just the gateway, but it could have been a much smaller franchise like F-Zero or something, and it would have still done exceptionally at launch. Same with the PS4. At launch, there weren't a lot of worthwhile games, but people wanted PS4's, so they just dealt with it. Same with the 360.

Most people at launch didn't buy the Switch because they wanted to play Zelda. They wanted to play on the Switch, and got to play Zelda because of it. IMO, if you're buying the Switch in the first 6 months, you just want a Switch, and are using whatever game you get as an excuse to get one. It's not exactly bursting with software yet.

Depends on what you consider a lot.If it didnt have a game of the same (or close) caliber like BOTW, it would still have sold well, but I dont think it would have reached Nintendo sales expectations.

And your comparison with the PS4 is wrong.While the hardware itself was desirable, it compensated the lack of a high quality game or games with sheer quantity.Switch didnt had this, but it wasnt a problem because it had that one extremely high quality game.And people bought the Switch because it was a desirable product AND it had a desirable game.A gaming device sells based on its software.If it didnt have games worth buying for, it wouldnt have sold this well.The same can be said with the hardware.If it has a horrible design behind it, people will be hesitant to buy it.See Wii U as a clear example of it.In the end, it had excellent games, but since the hardware itself was faulty, it didnt do well.For the software side, look at the 3DS.The 3DS was( at the very least at the time) a compelling piece of hardware, but since it launched with shitty software, it sales only picked up when compelling software appeared(3D Land and Mario Kart 7, if Im not mistaken).

Its not a either this or that scenario.The videogame industry, in this regard, is very different from everything else.You cant have a 0 on one side(hardware) and a 10 on the other side(software) or vice versa.One side can be stronger than the other, but ultimetely you need to have a balance of both, even though the software side is more important in the end.And yes, people mostly bought(at least early on) because of Zelda.Just look at the insane attach rate for BOTW on Switch in march for proof.If people just wanted the hardware that wouldnt happen.You are subestimmating the appeal that BOTW had and has.