RolStoppable said:
There have been no restrictions on online stores as far as I know, so it's very probable that people who are used to going to brick and mortar retailers will choose to purchase a console online over not purchasing a console. Due to the increased time at home, people have to figure out how to pass the time, so these are favorable circumstances for increased video game sales because the means to purchase hardware and software despite the current restrictions already existed before governments issued their measures. In regards to fewer sales-driving software releases, Nintendo uses a strategy of high quality releases that remain relevant for years after their release. I am sure you remember the prolonged stretches in Switch's life where the release schedule was very light on sales-driving software releases, but the hardware sales didn't collapse and the flagship Switch console still costs the same three years after its launch. On top of that, Animal Crossing released only a week ago. It's pretty absurd that you worry about not enough sales-driving software at a time when one of the biggest games of the year has just released. If you are concerned about delays of future game releases, the delays attributable to corona measures won't be more than two months, a period of time that Switch has already proved to be able to handle. Life will return to normal because it has to; the wealth of nations depends on it. More than 90% of corona infections have only mild to moderate symptoms that go away within 7-10 days, and like with other illnesses, once the human body has handled it, it's close to 100% resistent to another infection of the same type for a prolonged period of time. The vast majority of the population does not need a vaccine to combat corona. You have to understand that the restrictions to limit the spread are in place to take care of the under 10% who will have serious conditions. Hospitals don't have enough personnel and material to handle a huge wave, so the measures to limit the spread can also be viewed as measures to spread the spread over a longer period of time, allowing currently infected people to recover in hospitals and open up those spots for people who get infected later down the line. The world won't be in an artificial coma for 12-18 months because it won't be long from now that the financial well-being of the population will take priority over the lives of the few. Going forward, restrictions will be adjusted so that only the people who are at risk will be urged to stay at home and depend on delivery services and/or people who go shopping for them. The rest of the population will be allowed to go back to work. If those people who are more or less back to normal life get infected by corona, they'll take a week or two off from work, sit out their illness and then return. Corona isn't a super deadly virus. It's the uncertainties about it and the lack of a vaccine that have led to all these drastic measures. But the more data is collected, the clearer it becomes how small the percentage of people at risk of serious conditions is. Unemployment numbers have been rising at around ten times the speed of the numbers of infections. Politics commonly are a choice of the lesser evil because many situations have no option that is inherently good, and it's better for re-election to aim to please the largest number of people possible. That's why the questions of employment and economy will soon dictate how this crisis will be handled, because it will become clear that upholding the current restrictions will do more harm than good to the population at large. |
My suggestion was never that sales would fall drastically, just that I don't think this will be Switch's peak year.
And I think you may be underestimating COVID-19, it may not be Ebola or Smallpox in terms of deadliness but there's enough people in high-risk categories like older people, people with chronic illness and pre-existing conditions, etc that life's not going to go back to normal within this year,
