Not even halfway through this generation, Japan's home console market clinches growth

[Shiken]

Sogreblute said:

Shiken said:

Not necessarily, as he did not include Switch LITE sales in that 14 mil.  Since this is about console and not handheld, he took it out for obvious reasons and the 3DS is not part of the equation.

If we include 3DS, then Switch numbers would be counted at north of 17 mil as LITE would then need to be included as well.

However when it comes to direct comparisons, things are complicated anyway because the Switch alone accounts for both markets.  That said, software is a much better medium to look at.  Overall hardware will look lower, because many people who had a console and a handheld will just buy a Switch this time.  However the total number of software sales should be comparable to what it was when two separate devices were needed for home console and portable gaming.

Shouldn't the Switch be considered the 3DS successor since those leaked documents confirm that it was?

Even if that was the original intent, that means nothing because intentions obviously changed leading up to the actual release of the console.  It gets games that typically are seen as console games and sold at 60 bucks, as well as games that you would see on a handheld.  It is a successor to both the 3DS and the WiiU, as it is designed to replace both devices.  It also behaves differently based on whether the device is docked or undocked, with different clock speeds and settings for the games being run.  Even if it did not start that way, that is what was given to us.

Early conceptual ideas mean nothing when classifying what a final product is.  A perdect example would be Halo Combat Evolved.  The game was originally intended to be a Real Time Strategy game, but during its development it changed to a FPS instead.  Would you still consider it a RTS game just because that is what the original concept was, or would you base it on what the final product and call it a FPS?