New Nintendo Switch Hardware Model Codename Suggests Completely New Form Factor

[DonFerrari]

Mar1217 said:

vivster said:

How is physical more popular than ever when the percentage of digital sales has been rising steadily for the past decade?

Just look at the total sales of physical copies in certain medium like here, with video games, in a good chunk of cases physical sales alone are sufficent to surpass previous sales numbers that were solely physical at some point.

You just looking at this whole thing from the ratio perspective alone while it certainly doesn't give the whole picture. Digital sales have been more acting like an aditive to the total of potential sales. They're not mutually exclusive. 

That would only show that gaming became more popular not that physical became more popular.

Starting this gen we had about 20/80 division between digital and physical, nowadays we have crossed 50/50 and are nearing 66/33 and that talking about retail games that have both versions. If you were to look at total sales of games it certainly is over 50% now and next gen will be much higher.

The biggest complain about digital is also a strenght, you can pre-order and pre-load the game and start playing at 0s after lockdown time for the game versus physical that you need to buy after release (you can try pre-order on delivery store and be lucky to receive before release, but can also only start playing 1 week after due to long shipment time) and drive, take line, instal, etc.

Mar1217 said:

DonFerrari said:
It was going to happen one day or another. From the reveal I was expecting a hybrid, console only and hh only both cheaper than hybrid to make people that don't need flexibility more likely to buy (or as extra console).

Info from datamining doesn't always end up in full fledged projects though. It's just like those patents  released that end up going nowhere most of the time.

Don't know what you are trying to reply on my post. Your answer doesn't change that I have said we would have 3 models (already have 2 released) of Switch and this leak seems to indicate we will have all 3.

Mar1217 said:

vivster said:

Good points, but it completely ignores a whole section of gamers, namely young people. These habits only come from people who grew up with physical games. Every child that was born in the past decade will already be accustomed to digital sales, both for games and any other media. Basically all of the "worries" posted can be overcome by technological advancement or the changing of habits. There is no rational need to buy physical very soon and suddenly convenience will overtake.

As for the convenience of downloading, having to juggle many games is a fringe case. Consoles have ample space for a number of games to be there at the same time. Even the biggest games can be loaded in less than a day for most people, which is faster than having it delivered and sometimes even faster than going to a store. Not to mention just downloading a game and having them directly there to access is so much more convenient than actually having to physically acquire something and then still having to install it for quite some time. I mean, please show me single person who constantly has to redownload their old games because they had to delete them constantly because they were downloading new games to play. That's not how most people consume games.

Maybe you shouldn't just look at the increased sales of mega blockbusters and instead recognize that a good portion of consumed games today doesn't even have physical options anymore. There are way more games these days downloaded digitally than purchased physically.

If you want to go with the mobile/PC market angle which is almost a 100% share that sure seems a fair way of comparaison. To make this analysis clearer you need games that are available in more than one medium cuz I certainly won't refute the newfound digital market that came with the surge of Indies and digital only software.

Then, we're also at a point where these previously only digital titles can also be sold on a physical medium which shows flexibility in the other range as well.

Like I said, this will paint more as an aditive in the future.

See my first reply to you. It changed from 20/80 to over 50/50 so digital have increased popularity while physical decreased.