I see now what Nintendo's plan was when they entered Switch mid console cycle for PS4XBONE

[The_Liquid_Laser]

thismeintiel said:

RolStoppable said:

They are competing, it's just that people want to turn a blind eye to anything below the layer of AAA third party support. Sony and Microsoft act quite oblivious to it too, hence why they are going ahead and will launch consoles that will likely cost $499. There are similarities to the seventh gen where Nintendo was written off and then won the generation with ease. The major difference this time around is that Switch is established as a strong console for single-player games, so there won't be a shortage of such content. There's now a lot of overlap in the game releases for Nintendo, PS and Xbox when the entirety of the software market is taken into account. Switch has an advantage due to its hybrid nature as people begin to realize that Switch allows them to finish more of the games they buy.

I wasn't talking about Switch vs. PS4, but overall. Nintendo sold the most consoles during each of the past two fiscal year and will sell the most during each of the following two fiscal years. This means that during the fiscal year ending March 2021 Switch will outdo the PS4 and PS5 combined.

Yea, except they really aren't.  Do you honestly think people who chose the PS4 or XBO as their main console are going to not get one next gen in favor of the Switch?  A much less powerful console than they had the previous gen?  The answer is hell no.  Those people want an upgrade in power when selecting a new console.  Sure, they may choose Switch as a secondary console.  Of course, that still goes in favor of my argument of them not truly competing.  And next gen, we are going to see the support for Switch begin to drop, as well, as devs move on to MUCH more powerful HW and try to get the most out of it.  A AAA game is just not going to run on a Switch unless it is incredibly pared back to barely being the same game.  A simple resolution drop and/or drop in asset quality isn't going to solve the discrepancy in the CPUs/GPUs.  And the Switch being a hybrid isn't necessarily going to lead to people finishing more of their games.  Especially for many who never travel with it.

And I figured you were going to use some strange reasoning to try to make Nintendo #1.  Sony must have been doing great against Nintendo last gen, then, since we can combine PSP, PS3, and PS2 sales for those early years.  Still doesn't change the fact that Nintendo ended #1 that gen, just like Sony did this one.  Both in sales numbers and profit.

Most people really don't care too much about a power upgrade.  Instead they care more about price.  They only thing that consumers care about more than price is game library.  Every generation, just look at the console that launches at a reasonable price and has a large game library.  That is the winner.  This time Switch is the console that fits that description.

Power upgrade doesn't matter to so many people.  And even if they want a power upgrade, their parents may not want to buy that console (for gamers who are 17 and under, which is a huge chunk gamers).  A big "power upgrade" leads to failure much more often than it leads to success.