Doctor_MG said:
Bold 1: That's the point. Clearly a power advantage is not enough to make up for whatever other disadvantages that a system has. This is consistent across almost every single generation. In addition, there are several disadvantages that popular consoles had, yet they still ended up being the best selling console. For example, the SNES launched two years after the Genesis/Mega Drive (and was not more powerful in every metric). The PS2 launched a year and a half after the Dreamcast. The Wii launched a year after the 360. The PS4 launched a year after the Wii U. The Switch launched almost FOUR years after the PS4 (and is still notably weaker). Bold 2: Past trends are absolutely relevant as predictors of future trends. You shouldn't look at things in a vacuum. Bold 3: No it doesn't, it lacks a disc drive. More to the point, the disc version of the PS5 is also outselling the discless version because, again, it's feature complete. Comparing the Series S to the PS5 is more apples to oranges anyway. You should be comparing the Series X to the PS5, but you're not because this doesn't help your point. Bold 4: They do come at added cost, but not necessarily better hardware. What's in the Switch Lite is the exact same as what's in the OLED. The differences are: Screen size, screen type, ability to dock, and removable controllers. That's pretty much it. Same with PS5 vs. PS5 Discless, same exact hardware minus the disc drive. Bold 5: While I don't doubt this, I don't think that Nintendo would be successful selling a system for $499 like their contemporaries. Unless the console had very similar third party support and was feature complete. Even then, the past has shown us that three manufacturers competing in the exact same market doesn't bode well (Sega). |
1. Power and "high" price are not inherently bad or good decisions, the system you listed losing had nothing to do with being more powerful. When all other aspects are equalized, specs/features are an important advantage. If more power comes at the cost of late arrival and/or "too" high a price point, then yes, it may not be worth it. I hope you're not mistaking my argument to mean specs are more important than games, or brand power, or timing. Playstation and Nintendo primarily dominate due to their strong libraries and brand recognition. As long as they don't make serious blunders, their hardware are gonna sell well.
2. Distant past trends don't matter nearly as much as more recent trends which had PS4 and PS5 dominating Wii U and Xbox. Switch sold extremely well, but it was neither underpowered nor cheap. Had Nintendo cheapen out on the hardware, it would not have been as successful. Yes, it's not as powerful as the PS4 or X1, but it's a handheld that covers a massive market which those two have no access to. Playstation is no longer Nintendo's direct competition.
PS4 Pro and the ONE X were late midgen upgrades with higher resolutions and little else, it's surprising enough that the ONE X seemed to perform similarly and often better than base Xbox 1 despite costing many times more (overpriced for what it was). Midgen upgrades shouldn't have as much appeal as fresh new consoles.
3. Series S's lack of a disk drive is an excuse. Series X is treated as a secondary platform by Microsoft and has been in limited production for well over 2 years, otherwise it's obviously more popular than the Series S. If its demand start to fall, that would be due to its potential consumers giving up and going for PS5 or a PC (digital only) instead.
PS5DE does outrank the standard PS5 whenever available. Like the Series X, its availability is limited (because it cost Sony more losses per unit sold, and the standard PS5 was selling out instantly everywhere for 2 years), so you're not really seeing its true potential. This isn't to say that it'd necessarily be more popular with higher availability than the disk model. After all, Playstation's playerbase is more physical biased than Xbox's.
4. The lack of dock means Switch Lite operates at lower maximum power. But yes, the lack of a feature in this case is the main reason and I didn't state the opposite. Regardless, spec and features both factor into pricing. So my main point still stands.
5. For the Switch 2, $500 (for the expensive model) should be the ceiling. The floor should be $300 (cheap model) and $400 (expensive model). Most people will gravitate towards the expensive model because, again, the average consumer is willing to spend more for more hardware compared to the old days, be it specs or features. As long as the extra specs/features are smart and justify the extra price, that's where most fans will go.
Last edited by Kyuu - on 30 April 2023
