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Nuvendil on 19 October 2017
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DonFerrari said:
Nuvendil said:

*facepalm*

The PS4 being the barometer is 1) technically irrelevant and 2) an inevitably since WE DON'T HAVE NUMBERS.  It's no different than people say the PS4 is killing it because it is ahead of the PS2 (can't remember if it still is but it was once).  No one saying that was expecting a domination of the PS2, like 200m sales.  But rather the PS2 being a huge success meant matching or beating it was also a huge success.

The PS4 is a sales machine and is in it's peak year.  The Switch matching or beating it is a huge deal.  Therefore, "killing it".  You just flat don't understand the phrase.  Or are digging your heals in and being intentionally contrarian.

If technically irrelevant you can just say "Switch have been winning several NPDs. It is doing great", no need to bring PS4 namely to it to then say it have nothing to do with it.

PS4 is brought up for two obvious reasons.  First, in order to win the NPD it beat the PS4 since the PS4 is consistently first otherwise so might as well bring it up as the statement "won an NPD" obviously includes the statement "beat the PS4".  

Second, the PS4 is the only system in the NPD that frankly matters for the comparison.  The Vita and Wii U are long dead in the States, the Xbox One is in the pits right now, and the 3DS is on the fade.  The Switch beating them is not significant.  The Switch beating the PS4, trending to be one of the best selling systems of all time, actually matters.  It's the same as why people stopped paying any attention to Switch vs Wii U launch alined.  The Wii U was a sales disaster.  The Switch beating the Wii U launch aligned or the Xbone even by a significant margin would be a pretty bad metric for saying the Switch is doing well.  

To go back to my boxing analogy, you have 2 fighters.  One has 10 straight KOs.  The other goes 8 and 2, 8 won by unanimous decision and 2 lost by split decision.  HOWEVER the first guy fought 10 tomato cans, dudes with terrible win-loss ratios.  The second guy fought the top 10 boxers in the division.  The second guy is more arguably killing it, the first guy is just beating up people who barely know what they're doing.  It's not about the severity of your wins, it's about how good you are doing at what you are doing.  It's about consistent excellence.  It's just excellence is always somewhat relative, hence why competition is brought up.

That's why the PS4 brought up NOT as a put down on the PS4, but BECAUSE it is so successful.  Winning the NPD is all good but the fact is the PS4 is the only system that matters as a metric.  When a system is trending to sell over 100mil, of course it will get brought up as the main point of comparison in threads like this as beating or matching it is an accomplishment.  Beating the other systems in NPD right now is not an accomplishment.  

So stop looking for a put down of the PS4 because it being *the* competitor is the reason it's brought up.