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Slownenberg on 08 January 2023
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javi741 said:

Tbh even if the Switch doesn't end up becoming the greatest-selling console of all time. I still easily consider it the most truly successful gaming platform of all time. It is by far the most profitable console of all time, even the DS and Wii combined couldn't attain Switch-like profits. None of Sony's consoles never had profits as high as the Switch right now, even the PS2.

Also, I consider the Switch to be the most truly successful gaming platform because it was able to sell so many units without needing any sort of price cut despite being at a premium price of 300$. The PS2 and DS needed to be impulse buy cheap at around ~99$ for much of its life to sell as much as they did, by the time the PS2 and DS reached 120M they were already priced at around 99$(~140$ In 2023). The Switch is approaching 120M sold STILL at its same launch price at 300$ with the 300-350$ models of the switch being by far the most appealing, that really goes to show you just how much of a strong appeal there is with the Switch for such a large consumer base since there is still such a large market for the Switch despite already selling 120M and still being priced at 300-350$.

The Switch also sold this much at this high of a price without needing to rely on an essential non-gaming feature like the PS2 where a good portion of consumers purchased the PS2 with the main intent of using it as a DVD player, didn't need to rely on multiple completely different and cheap iterations like what we saw with the DS,DS Lite,DSi, and the Switch is viewed as more of a home console by consumers rather than a handheld as proven by the much higher sales of the Switch & Switch Oled despite the much higher price, which also shows that Switch sales are nowhere near as inflated as the DS since the Switch isn't purchased as much per person and is purchased more per household since many players are electing to pay extra get the TV version of the Switch, which is the version that's far more likely to be shared amongst the household than a DS. When it comes to the shear amount of users who purchase and utilize a gaming platform with the main intent of playing games, Switch could be considered #1 despite being #3 in the console sales ranking

I think you pretty much nailed it.

For sure DS and PS2 needed that super low $100 price tag to get up to 150+ million, and PS2 kept selling a long time after PS3 came out and it probably helped that Sony royally screwed up with the PS3 at $600 I'm sure that helped PS2 keep selling well into its post-life, and it helped that plenty of PS2's broke (though not nearly as bad as PS1, PS2 was still a fairly poorly put together system and many people needed to buy a replacement) so people had to buy a second one for that, and of course lots of people bought PS2 because to use as a DVD player because somehow it was cheap even just for a DVD player.

Switch has a little bit of the DS handheld extra sales for sure in which there are multiple models and different graphics on models so some people buy more than one just to collect, and no doubt some parents buy multiple Lite's for their children or maybe have a hybrid model for the family and then a Lite(s) specifically for children. But once Switch gets over 140m I'd say, given the points you pointed out, that'll be more impressive than both DS and PS2's numbers. Though it sure would be nice for Switch to top PS2 and leave no argument at all that it is the most successful system ever, especially since it without a doubt will end up selling the most software ever.

Like, imagine if instead of launching Switch 2 in 2024 Nintendo dropped the Lite to $140, the original to $200 and the OLED to $250, or something like that at the beginning of 2024. And on top of that dropped a ton of first party games to $30. And then launched Switch 2 in 2025 but kept making the Switch for a few years and did another small price cut after the Switch 2 launch. That's the sort of aggressive competitive moves that would put it close to on par with the type of stuff DS and PS2 did, and Switch would probably end up selling like >170m doing that stuff.

Anyway, at this point I doubt Switch will hit 160m, but 150m is definitely doable. I think it'll likely just barely pass 150m and fall shy of the DS. If Switch 2 launches holiday 2024 I bet Switch could be in the 146-148m range by end of 2024 and maybe just pass 150m. Only question is, since Switch is unlikely to get a price cut, and Switch 2 will presumably probably come out at OLED's price point, will Nintendo just completely shut down Switch production (except for maybe the lower priced Lite) when Switch 2 launches? Or will they actually do a price cut on all the Switch models so that they can keep selling Switch HW for a while to the very late comers who are looking for cheap gaming?