| RolStoppable said: It only looks like a tall order if you ignore the self-inflicted damage. What I am talking about are things that are under Nintendo's control. Switch doesn't carry the burden of the 3DS (the stereoscopic 3D feature that fell flat in video games, TVs and cinemas), neither does it carry the burden of the Wii U (the stupid standard controller). Better yet, Switch's hardware doesn't merely avoid being bad hardware like the 3DS and Wii U, Switch's hardware goes beyond neutral perception and actually achieves positive recognition. The basis for high sales is significantly better for Switch than it was for 3DS and Wii U. The same logic should be applied to your home console and handheld market gen over gen comparisons. 3DS - Burdened with 3D. PS4 - No major negatives. That's why the home console market has been in better shape. There's more to it, because the above only covers hardware. A disheartening situation is when you know you did your best and still failed in a big way. But both the 3DS and Wii U were plagued by errors that could be easily rectified, and Nintendo did rectify them. That's why success for Switch is not shocking to me, although I am surprised that the demand is as high as it is. Despite the things holding them back, the 3DS and Wii U combined will finish at ~85m combined. That's why 100m aren't an insurmountable bar for a console that is much better executed. 100m isn't even lofty because it's only slightly better than what 3DS and Wii U did. |
I think the WiiU is much-maligned, despite being a much better system than the revisionist history says it was. The Switch success should not be shocking, because of the WiiU contraction and expected regression to the mean, coupled with Nintendo gearing the system to their market (They've owned the handheld sector for ages.), means that it it was well-positioned to capitalize on their strengths. I love my 3DS, but the Switch is so much better of a handheld option, frankly speaking. My primary concern is overall market contraction and how that would affect and seems to be affecting the 3 major players. It seems far too coincidental to not correlate the rise of smart devices with the fall of gen-to-gen console sales. I refuse to predict doom (partially because this has been my lifetime hobby), but I have to expect market shifts.
Granted, I am not accounting for the impacts of AR/VR and emerging markets: the former innovation and China (alone) could cause a videogame boom.
