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colafitte on 16 December 2018
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duduspace1 said:
colafitte said:

I still don't understand this notion about some posters here saying that Switch is tracking way better than 3DS at the moment....

3DS at the end of 2011 -> 13'2M
NS at the end of 2017 -> 13'1M

3DS at the end of 2012 -> 14'1M -> 27'3M LT
NS at the end of 2018 -> around 16M -> around 29M LT (30M if you want to be optimistic)

Why people keep saying Switch is doing much better when the data says otherwise??. Is doing better, yes, but not that better. And we're talking sales, not talking about price or price cuts, because then, PS4 and XBO were way more expensive than Switch.

For example, 3DS did 5'5M during 2012 in Japan. The real difference with Switch is that Switch is doing better in the west than 3DS but Switch is doing worse in Japan.

I think this mentality has spread because Switch is doing way better in USA than 3DS and the american-centric focus in the press and in the media gives Switch way more representation. But the numbers are there.

And by the way, 3DS, sold 13'2M in 2011, 14'1M in 2012 and 14'3M in 2013. And after that, it never reached 10M in a year again....(and this despite Pokemon X/Y launching at the end of 2013 and Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire and Smash Bros 3DS launching a year later).

Neglecting the early price cut the 3DS had in comparing its sales to the other consoles is not a fair way to assess sales particularly with respect to the Switch. None of the other 2 consoles you mention have Hand Held attributes like the Switch and the 3DS. Cost is an important factor for handheld sales. It is extremely likely (almost guaranteed) that the full sales potential of the Switch as a handheld is yet to be seen at its present sales price.

I promised i will not talk anymore about WW sales for Switch but i want to clear out that i was discussing just TOTAL NUMBER SALES OF 3DS AGAINST NINTENDO SWITCH NOT BEING SO DIFFERENT. That's it. I added too that i prefered talking about asbolute succeses like total sales, because if we start talking about relative success like price points or discounts, then people have subjective opinions on the matter. You can say 3DS had a price cut and that's why it sold so much, so that's why you find Switch surprising and i can say that maybe, even if Nintendo cut the price of the Switch like the 3DS, the console would still selling about the same because Nintendo would not produce more, or as much more to compensate (this is not a thing that actually think, i was just proving a point) or that Switch did so good avoiding cut prices because its 1st party software was so good (and that won't last). You and I can't prove any of those things to be correct or not, but the number of sales are facts, that can't be discussed, and nobody here can deny the fact that at the end of the last quarter, official numbers for Switch and 3DS showed similar number of sales.

So my original post is still true: "I still don't know why people keep saying Switch is tracking way better than 3DS at the moment". What is true though, is that this is a NPD thread and Switch is indeed tracking better than 3ds in the same period of time in USA, but my post was directed to the discussion there was before about Switch lifetime sales worldwide and the comparison with previous Nintendo hardware, specifically 3DS.

Last edited by colafitte - on 16 December 2018