November NPD 2018 Thread

[zorg1000]

Intrinsic said:

zorg1000 said:

I agree about GBC, it honestly should have been a different generation due to the huge amount of exclusives it had but New 3DS was just a few so I would argue strongly against it being a separate generation.

I dont see why they wouldnt support both a $199 Switch Mini & $299 Switch Plus at the same time.

They supported a $129 2DS & $199 New 3DS XL at the same time.

Sony is supporting a $299 PS4 Slim & $399 PS4 Pro at the same time.

Microsoft is supporting a $299 Xbox One S & $499 Xbox One X at the same time.

Well you have a point there. They have also supported multiple platforms before.

I think my main concern is that I dont see them being able to drop the price of the NS by too much. There is just a lot going on in that package. And the only thing they can really realistically price reduce is the cost of the processor. Believe it or not at some point it will actually cost them more having 4GB of ram than opting for say 6GB/8GB being that its currently using 2 x 2GB modules and probably in that configuration to take advantage of the dual channel bandwidth gains.

The overall NS form factor is one of those rare things that it would be actually cheaper (aka keeping the price the same) to make it more powerful at the same price than try and make a cheaper version. Like at some point sourcing 2GB LPDDR4 modules will be much harder than just getting 3GB/4GB modules. And don't forget.... Nvidia. They also can't do much abut the screen or the joycons r reduce the available storage..etc.

Dnt see what they are going to cut out to make it cheaper.

All these make me lean towards a more powerful NS to replace the existing model. The kinda just have to do it. There are obvious design choices that were made when making the NS, unfortunately those choices doesn't leave much wiggle room for price reductions.

I recall during the Q&A of an investor meeting someone mentioned how Wii U barely had any price reductions over its lifespan and if that would happen with Switch. I believe they responded that it was due to the low sales volume that prevented price reductions for Wii U and Switch was designed to come down in price over time.

I'm no tech expert so I cant really go into detail about what they will do to get costs down but I am positive they will get it down somehow.

NES launched at $149, it came down to $89

Gameboy launched at $89, it came down to $49

SNES launched at $199, it came down to $79

N64 launched at $199, it came down to $99

GC launched at $199, it came down to $99

DS launch at $149, it came down to $99

Wii launched at $249, it came down to $99

3DS launched at $249, it came down to $79

 

With the exception of GBA & Wii U, all of Nintendo's handheld & home consoles have on average reduced their price by half over their lives so I fully expect Switch to get down to $199 in the next couple years and possibly as low as $149 near the end of its run.