Miyamotoo said:
He is wrong, sales of smartphones didnt effect or lower price point of consoles, actualy it made worse for handhelds, why would someone pay $250-300 for gaming handheld when they can buy smartphone/tablet that offers so much more outside only gaming even for less money or even for free through subscription. Phones/tablets made things worse for handhelds and Switch, not better. There is valid point of inflation, but when we comparing $170 from 2012. and $300 in 2018. we again talking about huge difference in any case, with adjusted inflation make difference maybe is around $20 for 3DS price point. That really depending from price point of device itself, 3DS had price point of $250 and now you have 2DS for $80, some Switch revision will defiantly at one point have price point of around $150. People that buying secondary consoles will waiting for lower price point, not to mention families that plans to have multiply Switch units per family (device per person instead device per family). Simple, 3DS had huge price cut because didnt sell well enough, it's simple like that, they wouldn't make huge price cut if they were satisfied with sales. So point is about sales, if Switch had bad or if Nintendo wasn't satisfied with Switch sales you can bet that Switch would have also price cut. You need that huge majority of people buying console for what consoles is offering currently not because what console will offer in year or two. I am not assuming anything, fact is that handhelds are much popular in Japan than they are home consoles in any case. Even Wii that sold 102m in Japan sold less than 13m in Japan while 3DS sold almost 25m in Japan alone from 73m combined world wide. So yeah its very safe that in Japan huge majority see Switch on first place like handheld only. How Nintendo is marketing Switch is totally different thing, we talking about very specific market that very difrent compared to others markets. Might!? Fact is that 3DS had huge price point advantage for same time period, just for record, Switch with price point of $300 was selling better than 3DS was selling with price of $250, 3DS start selling better in same time period only after huge price cut. Switch has own advantages, but still dont have appealing and popularity like Nintendo handheld usual have in Japan because still have high price point for handheld. Are you serious!? Even $200 Switch would destroy 3DS sales in same time period, fact is that handhelds were always much more device per person not per family, and $300 is still high price point for that appealing. Also, maybe you dont realise, but 3DS had incredible strong sales first few years in Japan, 3DS become 3rd best selling handheld/console ever in Japan, only DS and GB/GBA sold better than 3DS. |
"He is wrong, sales of smartphones didnt effect or lower price point of consoles"
It's not about directly affecting prices, but more how prices are perceived.
Example: if your most expensive item was a 300$ console, other stuff under that price was, in comparison, cheaper. Now, that people are used to buying items for double that price or more, those 300$ don't look that expensive anymore.
Perceptions of prices change based on the stuff you buy.
"some Switch revision will defiantly at one point have price point of around $150"
Why should this happen? Not even MS is cutting in half their prices. And their biggest price cut came from removing Kinect and not a regular price cut.
Do you really expect Nintendo to lower their price by that much when they see their competition (PS4) making a killing at 299? Only if they want to make less money.
What the market has been telling since last gen, is that lower price tags aren't that relevant anymore. If there's a good reason to buy it at a higher price, they'll buy it - specially because they (the market) have realised that pricing won't change as before.
"I am not assuming anything, fact is that handhelds are much popular in Japan than they are home consoles in any case."
It's not about what system sells the most in Japan.
Your assumption was this: people perceive it as a handheld because they play it as a handheld the most.
I didn't even question where you got this data from. What i said is that that doesn't mean it's perceived as a handheld. Which means that they can accept price being higher as it is a different device.
"not to mention families that plans to have multiply Switch units per family (device per person instead device per family)."
Aren't you confusing this with Nintendo's desire to have families own more than one system?
"3DS had huge price cut because didnt sell well enough, it's simple like that,"
So, the lack of system sellers for a long time and lack of a vibrant release schedule, meant nothing when people considered buying a 3DS? It was just the price?
Of course Switch is selling better than 3DS at 250. It's not hard to see why.
Again, of course Switch would sell better than 3DS at 200$. But that's not the point: you are assuming that price is what's stopping Switch sales from exploding. And what i showed you is to not take that for granted.
Why? Becasue price isn't the end all be all of system sales: value perception, system sellers, hybrid concept. All these things are already decreasing the 130$ gap.
