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Fight-the-Streets on 17 December 2025
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Norion said:
Fight-the-Streets said:

There is the pure business side, and then there is brand awareness. Don’t forget that a brand’s function is not only to make as much money as possible; it is also meant to be imprinted in people’s minds as a lifestyle product (or whatever “style” it is supposed to represent), creating brand awareness that lasts many years into the future.

Besides the product itself, there are many elements—both small and large—that contribute to this desired brand awareness. Being the brand that sold the most consoles worldwide would be one such element. Why would you let that opportunity slip when it can be achieved relatively easily with just a small push (price cuts, bundles, etc.)?

Another factor is ego. Don’t believe for a second that Nintendo’s management has no ego. Even if the title of “most sold console” isn’t economically crucial, it certainly matters to ego. If you work day in, day out in the video game console (and software) business, you naturally want your console to be the best-selling one ever—on top of being the most profitable. Just think about it: if we fanboys have an ego tied to our beloved console (or console manufacturer), then executives at these companies surely do as well—an ego multiplied by 10, 100, or even 1,000.

Nintendo has also just expanded into Southeast Asia, a market with many low-income households. Many people in this region simply cannot afford a Switch 2. The Switch 1, however, surely still has some steam left for those consumers.

They let the opportunity slip before with the DS when they could've just pushed it somewhat more to overtake the PS2. Perhaps the current leadership feels differently about it this time but in general they don't care as much about this sort of thing nearly as much as us nerds online do. If they wanted to make sure the Switch beats the PS2 they wouldn't have increased its price in the US a few months ago.

  1. I love the DS, but it’s a toy—who would care if a toy sold more units than the "mature" PS2? Let’s say the DS had sold 180 million units; most people would have said, "Well, it’s a cheap toy—of course it has the potential to outsell a "mature" home console."

  2. The handheld market has always been separate from the home console market. Yes, it drew some attention when the PS2 and DS were neck and neck in sales, but ultimately it was meaningless. For Nintendo, there was no added value in giving the DS a final push to overtake the PS2—there was nothing to gain and nothing meaningful to compare, because these were two fundamentally different markets.

    The situation with the Switch and the PS2 would be the same if Nintendo still had a proper home console in its lineup. In that case, the comparison would again be meaningless. However, since the Switch is the one and only Nintendo console of the ninth generation (or the eighth, depending on how you define it), and since it is a hybrid console, it is competing directly in the home console market. Therefore, the sales comparison with the PS2 makes complete sense—and the sales record actually matters to Nintendo.

As for the recent price increase of the Switch: this is largely due to tariffs, which are being used to partially offset the price increase the Switch 2 would otherwise have faced. Tariffs are a higher-level issue and outside of Nintendo’s direct control. There will still be opportunities in the future to lower the price of the Switch or to offer attractive bundles.