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Miyamotoo on 16 November 2017
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Intrinsic said:
quickrick said:

OMG the stupid holiday excuse ps4 was sold within 24 hours in north america, the holiday didnt help it, because it had no stock. just like the wii, just like the 360. people forget that these consoles with out the holidays would sell 1.5 million in 2 months just based on launch demand.  example if super nes classic launched during the holidays, it would have made 0 difference, because it sold out right away.

And thats the thing about all this that irritates me. But I see people have it stuck in their heads.

In its first 4 months on the market the NS sold/shipped (conflicting info) 4.7M consoles. And through that period it was supply constrained. So even if it released in November it simply wouldn't have been able to make enough consoles to meet demand. Launch consoles have a way of selling out.

In the first 2 and a half months on the market the PS4 sold 4.1/4.3M (can't remember). And it too was supply constrained. Hell, in its first two weks it sold 2.1M consoles. Then absolutely nothing for the week after that. No stock.

So i really don't get the whole holiday argument. Its not like there is an infinite amount of stock available.

Oh and then there is this.... as of October Nintendo has plans to ramp up production of the switch to 2M per month. Lets say they even really push it and can manage 2.5M/month for November and December. Will that be enough to meet demand? Absolutely not. They will sell out in minutes. To put things into pespective over the same  period last year the PS4 sold around 8M consoles. And this year its tracking better than last year.

You missing key point, when console makers launching console outside Holiday season they are preparing less consoles for launch than they would if launch is during Holiday season, from obvious reasons of course. Nintendo prepared only 2m Switch consoles for launch in March they quickly outsold everything and they even shipped buy planes 700k more but that again wasn't enough, if they were launching console in Holiday season they would prepare at least around 4m because they know during Holiday season consoles are selling much better in any case and regardless launch. I mean there is reason why Nintendo said they planning to ship 7m Switch consoles during this quarter.

From that reason, and point that most of time during year Switch was completely sold out and still is in Japan, it's pointless to compare PS4 first year and Switch first year, but comparing second hole FY year on market (from 1. April 2014. to 31. March of 2015. in case of PS4 and from 1. April 2018. to 31. March 2019. in case of Switch, or just from January to December) would be much more accurate.

But in any case, Switch sales are great with point that most of time had/has huge stock problems.