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Zekkyou on 30 November 2017
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OTBWY said:
Zekkyou said:

While the Switch is a hybrid (and should be treated as such, both when it's to its advantages and when it makes it look bad), it's fair to say that they're currently competing more like home console vs handheld than home console vs home console. Despite the Switch's significant success, it's had little visible effect on the PS4's global sales. That makes sense too. The Switch's biggest hardware selling point over the PS4 is portability, and the handheld market has a big vacuum to fill.

Things might change over time, but at least for now the PS4 and Switch are doing a good job of being successful without stepping on each others toes much.

Disagree. The Switch is most certainly competing with the PS4. The form factor (which is hybrid, so it is also a home console) doesn't mean anything since there are games that are the type of games you could find also on the PS4. What do I mean by that, it means that when for example Dragon Quest comes out for both consoles, they are in competition from a consumer standpoint. Besides, we don't know if the Switch is eating into the PS4's sales up or down. According to Nintendo themselves, people who have a switch play docked as much as portable, so it doesn't make sense to look at it as a handheld only.

The only reason that someone like Megiddo says that it's just a handheld, is to make it seems that Nintendo lost the home console war. He is willing to concede that Sony lost the handheld market, because the home console market is more important to him. It's console warz 101. I have heard similar nonsense about it recently, such as the Switch not counting as competition to PS4 and Xbox One, because it's 9th gen. It's ridiculous.

I didn't say they weren't competing, i said that saying they're currently doing so in a fashion more comparable to handheld vs home console is a fair position. It could end up being wrong, but it's not unreasonable based on what's currently visible. Even if we assume the Switch's effect on the home and handheld markets is evenly distributed, that would still mean it's competing with the PS4 to a much less significant degree than a comparably successful home console. I personally think the currently available evidence implies a bias towards handhelds though, which includes the usage data you mention (Nintendo themselves have shown that Switch owners are 50%+ more likley to use it primarily as a handheld than docked). The end result being i consider 'more comparable to handheld vs home console than the alternative' a reasonable position.

It is worth noting that the "Switch is a handheld" narrative isn't specific to other fanbases. That same argument has been used against me when I've compared the Switch and PS4's specs (which is already a compromised comparison; i could compare it to the X1X, another 2017 system). Sony, Nintendo, and MS all have fans that are willing to be flexible on what the Switch is depending on the argument :p