Global Hardware 15 December 2018

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Biggerboat1 said:

I'd say the usage is as good a gauge as any in determining what Switch should be categorised as.

This report shows that the split is pretty even with just under 20% using it primarily as a home console, 30% using it primarily as a hendheld (or in tabletop) & the majority using it in both modes.

So saying that it doesn't compete with PS4 & XB is silly as 70% of Switch owners are using it, at least in part, as a home console...

It'll be interesting so see whether those that are being so evangelical about what does and doesn't constitute a 'true home console' are so stringent when the stream-only XB launches (which if successful, will likely be followed by it's PS equivalent) - will those sales not count? Because those systems will have way more in common with a Steam Link than a console...

In which case you'd be arguing that a streaming device is more of a home console than the Switch...

 

It's not a good gauge. My iPhone is still a phone but I barely use it for calling.

Of course it's a smartphone, so it's not exactly like the old phones.

So Nintendo's created a handheld that connects to TV and it's not the same as a handheld and not the same as a home console. For sure, that's why they call it hybrid, it's a new thing, yes, but still, it's not a true current gen home console at all, it's more like a smarthandheld.

 

RolStoppable said:

Intrinsic said:

The market that matters?

Wait.... so to me the NS is a handheld in every sense of the word that plugs to a TV and me saying this somehow is backhanded? I accept that its a hybrid, but I see it as more of a handhled (and an expensive one at that) and I have been anything the same thin since before the NS launched. But for me to say that now while saying the NS has sld well or whatever is downplaying?

Whats going on here lol.....

I was talking about CrazyGPU, not you.

It's the nature of such a discussion that people who don't have the same sinister intentions as the person who got everything rolling land on the same side, because they sympathize with one or the other individual point, but not the whole list. Subsequently, the simplified distinction between only two sides leads to people infering that they were addressed by posts that were actually not directed at them.

Intrinsic said:
Just to be clear..... my only stake in this debate was saying that nintendo is not in the "home console" business and how the NS is not a "Home console".

I didnt say its only selling or selling well because its a handheld or that its not performing well.

I also did say that its an indirect competitor with the PS4/XB1 not t downplay its sales but to point out that it can coexist with either platform and it doing well will not affect the others adversely and vice versa because it offers something totally different from what the others offer.

Felt I needed to say this because all of a sudden the debate I was in is being called all manner of strange things.

While I don't think that you have the same motivation as CrazyGPU, your statement that Nintendo is not in the home console business is misguided, because for the average person any dedicated gaming device that connects to a TV and provides generally expected functionality such as local multiplayer is a home console. Switch as a hybrid serves both the home console and handheld console side, so Nintendo is still in both businesses even once the 3DS is gone. Every customer is free to decide how much usage as home console or handheld console their Switch gets, and the only new thing Switch brings as a hybrid console is that any given user can decide how the console is used. However, that doesn't create a new hybrid console business.

If your interpretation is that Switch is only in the handheld business, you have to explain how and why a $300 handheld with $60 games sells so well after the previous generation had two $250 handhelds with $40 games that both had significant problems to get a foothold in the market.

That fact that it sells so well has other explanations. It doesn't make it a home console.

Other explanations for selling so well: NSW has almost all Nintendo franchises released + it's Smash month + it's got Pokemon and will get a Pokemon mainline game + it's late on this generation + most gamers have already bought a PS4/X1 so they have time and money to invest on a NSW + it's clearly peaking earlier than most systems + Japan like portable gaming and are fully invested on NSW.

 

Intrinsic said:

RolStoppable said:

 

While I don't think that you have the same motivation as CrazyGPU, your statement that Nintendo is not in the home console business is misguided, because for the average person any dedicated gaming device that connects to a TV and provides generally expected functionality such as local multiplayer is a home console. Switch as a hybrid serves both the home console and handheld console side, so Nintendo is still in both businesses even once the 3DS is gone. Every customer is free to decide how much usage as home console or handheld console their Switch gets, and the only new thing Switch brings as a hybrid console is that any given user can decide how the console is used. However, that doesn't create a new hybrid console business.

If your interpretation is that Switch is only in the handheld business, you have to explain how and why a $300 handheld with $60 games sells so well after the previous generation had two $250 handhelds with $40 games that both had significant problems to get a foothold in the market.

Well first off... you are right. My opinion could very well be misguided especially considering the extremist nature of my qualification.

But you will be wrong to assume that I am saying that because the NS is not in the home console business anymore it means I am saying they are in the handheld business. I am not, cause I don't think the NS is a handheld either. 

I think its a hybrid.

Now as I have explained, while its a hybrid I feel it has more in common with a handheld than a hme console, I feel it was built from the round up as a handheld albeit one built for 2017 but it is by all means a hybrid.

Now that could explain why it sells for what it sells, that could be one of the home console thins it has inherited too. So the same way I will argue that nintend has pulled out of the traditional home console market is the same way I would argue that they have pulled out of the traditional handheld market. Its a hybrid. 

It's so clear. The entire hardware is inside a portable device that looks like tablet, and it has a tablet CPU.