Alternate history: Switch a generation earlier

[RolStoppable]

zorg1000 said:

Assuming that 2011 Switch sold similar numbers as 2017 Switch, I’m curious if the perception of success would be different.

2017 Switch will sell 150+ million after 3DS/Wii U sold ~90 million but 2011 Switch would be coming after DS/Wii which sold ~255 million.

I wonder if that would have caused people to view it as underperforming.

As for 3rd party support, if 2011 Switch had similar power as Vita than I wonder if that would have caused both platforms to have better support. 3DS & Vita had some multiplat titles but for the most part games were either 3DS or Vita.

It's certain that the perception would be different, but that's because there are plenty of people who don't understand business properly. I mean, there are even people who believe that the PS3 was successful, because the only thing they look at is unit sales. Also, in our reality it has been repeatedly brought up that Switch, despite all its success, will fall far short of the combined DS+Wii unit sales. But this line of argument doesn't work against Switch when the sales of software units is in the same ballpark as DS+Wii combined and Nintendo's profits are also in the same league. The logical conclusion here is that much of the decline in hardware units was caused by the elimination of the need to buy two separate systems.

Regarding third party support, it's probable that there would have been more multiplatform games, but at the same time doubtful that that would have moved the needle much for either system, because the number of big third party sellers that the actual 3DS and Vita got was pretty small.

And the major other point regarding perception of success would be the elimination of Sony from the handheld market. So in the hypothetical scenario we would be looking at something like half as many Switch units sold as DS+Wii combined, but with a bright future outlook for third party support. Not only because of the lack of a Sony handheld, but also because third parties as a whole were realizing that smartphone gaming doesn't work as replacement for handheld gaming.