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javi741 3 days ago
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XtremeBG said:
javi741 said:

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.

I already discussed that. My point wasn't about what portion of the people uses Switch for what, but that everyone who want handheld console buys Switch, and Switch is the only true option. And no Switch does not have competition since the gaming on phone is nothing like on consoles with buttons and games that are optimized and specially designed for a console. So no Switch does not have competition, there is no other handheld console that most of the Switch games comes out on too. The smartphone gaming was like a gimmick that blew around 2010 and many said it would kill all of the consoles and everyone would play on their phones but here we are years later with most of the people playing on their Switches. The serious gamer who wants to play outside picks up Switch. And also this research was done years ago about the percentage. Also the system units sold, are those, because first the original model was already at 40M when the Lite released, second of course there will be many people buying the original and the OLED model, because many people can afford it since the difference is only 50$ and it's the original and OLED are better machines overall than the Lite models. The Lite models is simply for those who want something budget and can't afford more. There is iphone that is selling for so much more than a phone for 200$ but many people buys iphones because it's better and they can afford them. For the difference it offers, the original or the OLED is much better deal than the Lite. But this is out of the topic now. It's not so important.

Yes you are right about the lasting lifetime, but this does not change the fact either. DS was also selling very well, better than Switch even in it's peak years, but Nintendo cut it short. So it's not necessary to stick long because you were selling good. However the success of the system does not change the fact that the longer than normal lifetime is only helping. It's not discredited, it's simply stating one of the reasons.

The original point I made was that if you look it from handheld market perspective it's not so mind blowing since the handheld market has been more healthier before with sales of almost 240M.

Smartphones are definitely a huge competition to the handheld market even still. I mean, total dedicated handheld sales from the PSP/DS gen to PS Vita/3DS gen went from selling around 235 Million Total to 93 Million, the obvious reason for that was cause many people who brought the DS moved on to smartphone gaming by the time the 3DS came out. Yes I agree smartphone gaming & handheld console gaming are completely different experiences, but for people who primarily care about casual games, smartphone games for many people get the job done to the point where those same DS owners didn't feel the need to upgrade to a 3DS, so yes smartphone gaming is still a big threat to the handheld market.

Also I'm not sure why you're using a handheld generation from 15-20 years ago instead of a more recent, accurate representation of the handheld market today. The most recent handheld generation sold a combined 93 million, which the Switch blew past where it's gonna reach 150M+ in its lifetime. So even if you wanna use the argument that people are buying the Switch primarily as a handheld, the Switch alone blew expectations of what was capable of the handheld market in this day and age where the previous handheld generation only sold 93 Million total while the Switch sold 150+ Million.

The 235 Million handhelds sold in the PSP/DS era isn't an accurate representation of the total handheld market today, smartphone gaming didn't exist and those were the only real platforms available to play games on the go. The Switch has to deal with strong competition from smartphones but was able to stand out enough due to its hybrid nature. You have to remember as well that before the Switch launched many people doubted it's success because many people moved to smartphone gaming, proving smartphones were at the very least a threat to the handheld market at the time.