| spurgeonryan said: I think maybe it was a risk in part because the Wii U was also tablet based. But when they threw in the portability aspect of the system, that turned it all around. The games and everything else...of course helped a lot as well |
Portable systems tend to be more price-sensitive than home consoles, (3DS sold poorly out of the gate at $250 while Vita at the same price was DOA) so Switch launching at $300 was risky; it's easy to look back now and say it's clearly worth it, but hindsight is 20/20. A lot of folks including experienced industry analysts thought Switch was doomed when its price was announced.
Their handheld line had kept them going through flops like Gamecube and Wii U; to abandon their proven strategy of a cheap handheld in favour of a more powerful and expensive hybrid device was a considerable gamble.
