XtremeBG said:
It will certainly be a big success for the Switch, no doubt, however, when you think it's not so mind blowing since it's simply the handheld market selling more than a home console market. Yes Switch is hybrid, but most of the people use it and sees it primary as a handheld device. And for example 7th gen handhelds had sales of close to 240M combined (DS + PSP). So whatever Switch numbers finish, it simply means that the handheld market is around the number of the Switch, or very close to it (if you remove some units for the people that may use and got it to primary play it as a home console). So when you look it generally the handheld market is drastically smaller than what it was back in the 7th gen. It is simply meaning this. And because when you leave a console for longer than normal on the market as your major product, it will sell more consoles (of course it needs to be somewhat successful too). Like if you left the PS2 to be SONY major console with no competition for 8 years (no PS3, no 360) it would sell more for these 2 years, than actually was, and therefore it would reach even higher number. Same goes for PS4, DS, Gameboy if you want, PS1 too. It's not something new, the handheld market to be bigger than the hardcore home consoles. In the 7th gen handhelds sold almost 240M and the HD twins sold 173M. So even though the handheld market is not as big as it was back then, it is still powerful. Other thing is the inflation and the higher than normal prices for the new SKUs of the other consoles, and therefore the chances that Nintendo will launch Switch 2 for let's say 500$ instead of 400$ or 450$ instead of 350$ are bigger now. This will also greatly help the Switch sales in it's later years. |
There's isn't evidence that most people who own a Switch primarily view it as a handheld device. If that were the case we should see Switch Lite sales much higher than they actually are because if most people would view the Switch as primarily a handheld I'm sure many would rather prefer to get the cheaper option, but they don't. A huge majority of Switch sales come from the 300$/350$ Switch's because many people want and view the Switch as a console experience as well. Even research has shown that around 20% of people play the Switch nearly exclusively in docked mode, 50% play evenly on both modes, while only 30% play nearly exclusively in handheld mode. Most people don't primarily view the Switch as a handheld, they view it as a hybrid like the Switch is marketed to be. If anything people view it more as a console If a vast majority of people are willing to spend 300/350$ (near PS5/ Xbox Series S prices) just for the option to play on the TV.
Also, a console lasting longer in the market without a successor is a byproduct of high sales numbers that encourage the console to stick around longer, the Switch shouldn't be discredited for having a time advantage since it was successful enough for it to earn more extra years on the market, and Switch is the system this late in the game to be able to sell this well, showing it's mass appeal more than any other console.
Also, competition is stronger now than it was back then. Smartphone gaming is huge and evidently took a large chunk of sales from the handheld market with the 3DS selling only half of what the DS sold. The home console market competition has stayed about the same past few years with the combined sales of PS/Xbox each gen always hovering around 170M. While yes Nintendo created their own market for the Switch making sales very high, competition is still stronger than ever right now, I'll still give Nintendo credit for finding a way to stand out enough to potentially outsell their home console counterparts combined when many people didn't even expect to exceed 100M sold in the first place, the Switch even exceeded Nintendo's own high expectation of 100M.
