BraLoD said:
Sony and Nintendo don't compete since the PS2 days.
Nintendo lost so bad in their game once Sony got in that they got sidelined by the developers that once made them so successful, thus aiming at gimmicks and heavily focusing on their own first party games.
The one that was still trying to compete with Sony was Microsoft, but they also keep losing so badly that they are completely changing as well.
If it wasn't obvious enough, just look at the system sales.
Sega tried to compete with Nintendo, they got moderate success on it, making the SNES sales drop considerably from the NES sales, but still leading the market, while the Mega Drive sales went up a lot from the Master System.
Sony tried to compete with Nintendo, they got massive success on it, the PS1 and PS2 made the Nintendo 64 and the Gamecube sales keep dropping even further, while Playstation were smashing sales records, so Nintendo just stopped trying to compete since the Wii. Which helped them a lot.
Microsoft tried to compete with Sony, they achieved big success during the 360 era, thus halving the sales Sony had from the PS2 to the PS3 era (this was also when Sony started getting a stronger first party success), but then they kept losing and the Xbox sales declined proportionally to how the Playstation sales went back up.
Now look at the Wii U and Switch sales for example, the sales exploded between those and yet it didn't affect Playstation sales in the slightest, PS4 and PS5 have basically the same performance sales wise. Why? Because the Switch did not compete with either. Most people were not making a decision whether to buy a Switch or a PS4/PS5, the sales clearly show that, but the reason was always crystal clear: the games, the games selling on both platforms were not the same. Unlike between Sony and Microsoft.
If the Switch 2 starts getting all the new big game releases that come for the PS5, then they could start having a competition again, and a possible Switch 2 success could tank the PS5 sales. But since 2006, there is simply no competition between both for customer sales, only for ego and between the fanbases.
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I feel what you’re saying is that Nintendo and PlayStation provide different offerings, which — while this is very relevant to the original question — doesn’t address the whole picture. Consider these examples: [1] PS5 sales (WW) would drop during May & June 2023 in response to NSW getting boosted up by Zelda TotK demand; [ii] NSW sales would slump temporarily at the start of 2023 in response to PS5 shortage ending; [iii] NSW sales saw a substantial boost in response to PS5 out-pricing consumers in JP starting in August last year. So, while Nintendo and Sony do provide different offerings, they do still compete for the money of consumers looking to play some video games. It’s not very common for a consumer to choose both at any single time; usually, they will opt for one system at one point in time, and the other system at another point (if they do ever feel they want to scratch this additional “gaming itch”.)
What would be an interesting question is how much gaming systems complement each other’s sales? For instance, as somebody who was introduced to gaming with NSW during 2017, I would go on to purchase a PS4 and PS5 in the coming years. Had I not purchased a NSW, and thereby remained disinterested in gaming as a whole, I may have never purchased a PS4/PS5.
Last edited by firebush03 - 2 days ago
Essay Pro