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Kyuu on 18 May 2026
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curl-6 said:
Kyuu said:

Trying to spin Switch's access to a much larger market as some sort of disadvantage is peak comedy. And COVID econimics objectively benefited Nintendo and hindered Sony which had 3 years of severe production challenges and more price hikes.

Covid economics benefitted Switch in the short term by driving up demand for entertainment during lockdown, but in the long term the downturn followed the boom and the inflation that followed forced a price hike and reduced people's disposable income during Switch 1's closing years.

The long term ramifications affected everyone but Switch benefited overall.

The current economics seem to favor Sony's approach because they're not in as much need to sell you new hardware.

HebrewGamer said:
Kyuu said:

It's not just MTX. Correct me if I'm wrong (I can't find the latest revenue breakdown for Sony gaming and Nintendo), but Sony's digital sales (minus MTX and services) are around as big as Nintendo's physical + digital + services + MTX. The two aren't comparable. Playstation's spending is on a completely different level.

curl-6 said:

The competition Switch faced in the portable space was the fact that pretty much everyone has a phone/tablet with an endless array of very cheap/free to play software available.

Convincing people to buy a portable console is a much harder task in the post-smartphone era, as we saw when the market collapsed from over 230 DS/PSPs in the 7th gen to less than 90 million 3DS/Vitas in the 8th.

Mobile phones aren't yet replacing consoles. In general, they appeal to a very different crowd and play different games. Nintendo has dominated dedicated handhelds since the GameBoy. It's a huge selling point and I don't understand why some people pretend that it isn't.

Doubling as a handheld is a big and real Switch advantage regardless of mobile phones domination. It adds more than it subtracts.

You would need to clarify what you mean by "digital sales" If you're not including in-game purchases of any kind. I would also need to see that data.

We can't make the determination if mobile gaming has or has not replaced consoles due to how well the Switch did(due almost exclusively to the success of Animal Crossing New Horizons). Microsoft is out of the running and Sony got a huge boost this past holiday due to a major price cut to $400. Point being, when people talk about how the pandemic brought in more gamers, Mobile gaming is where they went. COD mobile and Genshin Impact were smash hits in 2020.

Being a handheld is indeed a selling point, but they're offering you a significantly weaker system where many major 3rd party titles are either missing or run like $%@# on the system. You can't beat Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon though. The last 3rd party game to carry a Nintendo platform was Tetris for the Gameboy. The Switch has 21 games that sold 10 million or more(soon to be 22 with SMPJ at 9.96). ALL of them are Nintendo's games. The only thing the Switch does is play games and without compelling game titles, there's no reason for people to buy a substantially weaker and less capable system where most major 3rd party titles aren't on the platform, even if you can play on the go.

BTW, someone mentioned how the original Xbox had a DVD player. It did. The problem is you needed an add-on accessory to use it which was sold separately. 

I can't do a like for like comparison because these platforms peak in different periods.

Nintendo FY 2020 (their all time peak year thanks to COVID + AC New Horizons):
https://x.com/ZhugeEX/status/1390210514102403073
1.76 trillion yen x 0.46 (Digital Software + Physical + Add-on + Services %) = 0.809 trillion yen.


Playstation FY 2024:
https://tech4gamers.com/playstation-hardware-revenue-driver/
4.67 x 0.2 (Digital Software %) = 0.934 trillion yen.

Physical + Add-on (MTX, DLC, etc) + Services add 46%
4.67 x 0.46 = 2.1482
Sony's total software = 3.0822

Totals:
Nintendo 2020 = 0.809 trillion yen
Playstation 2024 = 3.082 trillion yen

And now I have a severe headache!


The yen was much stronger in 2020/2021, so converting to USD favors Nintendo 2020, but it's not going to move the needle enough to make it much less lopsided. I couldn't find Nintendo's revenue breakdowns beyond FY 2020.


Your 3rd paragraph is mostly correct. The Switch isn't as popular as Playstation in some metrics because its overall library isn't as compelling to the masses. Most 3rd party fans are divided between Playstation, Steam, and Xbox and will remain there for a long long time. I'm not telling you that Playstation "shouldn't" be more popular in software, of course it too has its unique selling points (especially vs Nintendo) that explain its domination in some metrics. Playstation is the go to console brand for 3rd party games, and this will probably remain true throughout Switch 2's life and beyond.

But the Switch, with its inherent compromises, was the perfect console for Nintendo. Sacrificing portability for higher specs and better 3rd party support would have been a terrible decision. So the move to go hybrid was in no way shape or form a mistake limiting its success or potential! Some of you make it sound like choosing to have too many "competitors" is a mistake of sorts! The Switch 1 was a unique platform thanks to its form factor and 1st party exclusives aided by decent 3rd party support (it in fact has more 3rd party games than PS4 or PS5... but a fewer so called "must haves" that appeal to the masses, and of course its versions of notable multiplats are typically inferior and late ports).