Switch Sales Top 100 Million - Global Hardware Dec 11 to 18

[zorg1000]

curl-6 said:

Dulfite said:

I've been wanting 2023 for a while. I initially thought Spring, 6 years after Switch launched March 2017, but pushing back to fall would be fine. People argue against 2023 because Nintendo says they are still in the mid life of Switch, but just because the Switch will still be around and selling in some form doesn't mean the successor won't also be out. Plenty of replacement consoles also had their predecessors out selling new games simultaneously.

2023 is the soonest I think I personally would feel ready to move on from Switch, and the soonest that I think makes sense in terms of not cutting Switch short prematurely and flushing millions more sales down the toilet.

Switch could easily do another 40 million, but that could be cut drastically if they rush out a successor too soon, and people who would've bought both a Switch 1 and a Switch 2 will just buy 2, meaning lost sales and lost money.

If they put it out too soon they'll also be limiting themselves to worse tech for Switch 2 that will limit the games they can get.

The more I think about it, the more I think holiday 2023 is the sweet spot.

I know some will probably say Spring 2024 works just as well since Switch launched then and had great sales but I think if you announce Switch 2 in the mid-late part of the year than you are asking for a lackluster holiday 2023.

It really didn’t matter for Switch because Wii U was dead and 3DS was just kinda limping along so it’s not like 2016 was going to be have a killer holiday regardless.

As for other devices that launched in Spring, it wasn’t as big of a deal because the announcement of a new handheld wouldn’t affect the sales of their home console market and vice versa. Like if the 3DS announcement caused DS sales to plummet for the rest of 2010, it would have been fine because Wii was still selling well.

With that said, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if they launch in Spring but I think a Spring 2023 announcement with a Holiday 2023 launch is the way to go.