Global Hardware 15 December 2018

[Bofferbrauer2]

DonFerrari said:

Bofferbrauer2 said:

Xbox 360 launched a year before the PS3, but the 360 sales in the first full year after the PS3 launch went up also, so by your own conclusion Playstation isn't competing with Xbox either. Nobody is competing with nobody, folks, just got the proof here!

It doesn't matter if a console makes record sales the year a competitor launches, they still share the same market. Most probably even more would have bought a PS4 by now if the Switch hadn't launched, so Switch is giving some competition and share the same market. What they don't share is the same angle unlike the Xbox One. Even apart from the portability, Games on the Switch tend to be different to those on the PS4, which allows for some cohabitation between the two (hence why Nintendo is often called a "secondary" console) - but someone who wants to buy a console still has to decide which one they want to buy between those available. And when someone has both a Switch and another console, they have to decide for which platform they'll buy games.

Also, just look here on the forums and you'll find plenty of threads and posts of people who prefer some game on a platform over another - and most of the recent ones are about Switch version instead of PS4 or XBO. That alone shows that they are all in on the same market and compete all with each other. Also how many posts and threads are there from people who bought a Switch and then their former main console suddly became mostly a dust collector? I don't know, but there were plenty in the last year and a half.

To not go on lenght with your reach argument (as before this gen most consoles have launched in different years) PS2+Xbox close to PS3+X360 close to PS4+X1, which show that if one of they dropped from the market the other would greatly gain.

Do you think PS4 would have sold 35M this year if Switch didn't launch? Or Perhaps Xbox would sell 25M? Or what split would PS4 and X1 receive from Switch not launching?

And sorry to open your eyes, but forum aren't a representation of reality.

@bolded: That's a fallacy, because while it works on a global scale and in Europe, in the US there's quite some difference (PS360 sold almost exactly as much as PS2+XB+GC combined in the US - and GC sold over 12M there, too much to leave out) and in Japan you'll flat out have to include the Nintendo console for this to even just work (otherwise PS2=PS3+PS4+360+XBO; and that's without factoring even the OG Xbox); future will also tell us how far the PS4+X1 works regionally. In other words, it's a false positive. Even worse, If PS4+XBO only reach around last gen's numbers, that in practice would mean a net decrease due to the all the people who upgraded mid-gen.

@underlined: Did you not read or just didn't understand (or didn't want to understand) what I wrote? PS4 and XBO would probably have sold one or 2 million more from customers who were interested before but choose to buy a Switch instead since then, not that the entirety of Switch buyers would have bought a PS4 or XBO instead. Most of the other Switch buyers either have another console already, play non-Nintendo games on PC or got bought for kids from their parents.

@italic: So PS4 outselling Xbox as told on the forum is a hoax? I never said that everybody who bought a Switch left their other console int he dust afterwards, and neither did I imply that everybody who got a Switch buys their third party games there, just that some people do - and sorry to open your eyes, but that's the definition of direct competition. What you just don't seem to grasp is that the Switch isn't a big competition when it comes to third party games (at least not yet, but I also doubt it ever seriously will, though technically it's not impossible) and thus people who want to buy those most of the time will buy Xbox, Playstation or a PC instead, not because the Switch isn't competition, but because it's (and really Nintendo) not known for those kind of games.