The Road to 160m+ for Nintendo Switch (EDIT: See mod note in first post for new rule).

[Fight-the-Streets]

Zippy6 said:

Fight-the-Streets said:

Furthermore, percentage price increases can be deceptive. If I raise the price of an item from USD 2 to 4, that’s a massive 100% increase, yet it’s still not a lot of money. If, on the other hand, I increase a USD 1,000 item by 20%, that’s a substantial USD 200!

The same logic applies to more affordable consoles like the Switch family. Their price increases in Japan might be higher in percentage terms than those of the PS5/XSX. However, that doesn't change the fact that the Switch family remains significantly cheaper in hard currency.

Percentage wise is exactly how you should look at price changes. An entry level GPU increasing from $299 to $399 would be a massive deal, a high-end GPU going from $1199 to $1299 hardly matters by comparison.

Looking from the opposite direction it's the same. If a $299 product goes on sale for $199 that's a great deal and people will be flocking to the stores for it, if a $999 product goes on sale for $899 that's barely a saving and will attract much less interest.

Looking at flat numbers isn't the way to do it. The base price of the product matters.

A cheap product increasing by $100 is going to have a far bigger negative effect on sales than an expensive product going up by $100. It's all about percentage.

I don’t believe the average consumer knows what the original prices were. We gaming enthusiasts know everything, of course, so you can't really compare the two. But for products you aren't as close to—do you really always know the original prices? Certainly not. When an average consumer is interested in a product, they look at the price, and if the price feels right to them, they might buy it. They don’t go and research the product's price history first. At the moment of purchase, they might not even realize they’re paying more than they would have in the past. But that doesn’t matter because, first, they don’t know, and second, they’ve already decided for themselves that the price is acceptable.

What would the alternative be for families anyway? Instead of a Switch, buy an expensive Switch 2, PS5 or Xbox Series S/X, or maybe a gaming PC or laptop? Probably not. The fact remains that the Switch is still the only somewhat affordable console. We don't even need to mention smartphones; they have been the main driver of growth in the gaming industry for many years.

Despite everything, the Switch Lite still sells worse than the expensive OLED model. Perhaps that will change in the future.