"The Nintendo Switch Is Selling Exactly As Fast As Sony's PS4" - Forbes

[Bofferbrauer2]

pokoko said:

mZuzek said:

How the hell does the launch being aligned have anything to do with anything, really? The Switch launched in March of all things, so it shouldn't really make much of a difference, if anything it gives the PS4 the advantage since it had a holiday season much closer to launch.

I don't want to get involved in this argument but I would like to point out that the quarter a console launches in is basically irrelevant when demand clearly exceeds supply.  For example, the Switch would not have sold more if it launched in November and the PS4 had shortages into the next year despite a staggered release.  There is little value in that differentiation unless you're talking about software sales.  Overall (and I said this before the Switch launch) I think it's better to release in the early part of the year if you know that you're going to have production issues because you're not going into the Holidays with nothing to sell.  

Really, "launch" has always been a terrible comparison for consoles.  It's not until supply exceeds demand consistently that we can really see what's going on.  

Mostly true

However, since the Holiday season is the biggest selling season anyway, console manufacturers generally keep a higher stock at hand when launching during this season. I'm sure Nintendo would have had 2.5-3.5M planned for a launch during early December compared to the 2M for the March launch window. So does have an effect, but not directly on the sales, but rather more on the planning and preparation of a launch.