Nuvendil said:
The temperature of the press with regards to price I think will heavily depend on 1) how seamless the switching is and 2) performance. Also, it the Scorpio - the other new hotness of 2017 - will also help if it's priced rather high. It's all relative afterall. I think 300 would be ideal but I think 350 could work, assuming it has the specs and works as well as the trailer shows. I think $250 is unrealistically low, given Nvidia's involvement. Nvidia isn't going to want to power something very weak, their rep is all about that premium idea. And while I think they would give Nintendo a good deal, I doubt they would give them THAT good a deal :P .
Another question is whether Nintendo will willingly take a loss to keep the price low.
Also, I think the marketing so heavily emphasizing the home consoleness of the Switch - home console orriented games in the trailer, calling it home console over and over - is a good indicator that it won't land in a handheld-esque price range in 2017. Which is another reason I would say 300 is the bottom possible price.
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I don't think the press will be too pressedkillme about the performance because their expectations seem so low when it comes to how poweful it will be. Most people are expecting it to be above the Wii U and below the XBO, so I don't think there will be any bad press in terms of power. It will either be just what they expected, or pleasantly and suprisingly stronger than they expected. I'm betting on the former.
I don't think the price of the Scorpio will be a factor at all since it's not replacing the XBO. It's just a higher end XBO, which means the price of comparison will still be the XBO S at $300 and the PS4 Slim at $300. I think $350 is unrealistically high, given Nintendo's involvement. Like I said, I absolutely see $300 as the most likely scenario, but I see $250 as far more likely than $350 because Nintendo is going to go for the cheaper consumer device.
The Wii was a home console and it was $250. The GCN was a home console and it was $200 at launch. (I think) $250 is not a "handheld-esque" price range at all. $200 and lower is. Only the 3DS launched at $250, and it's price had to be dropped $70 8 months because it was too expensive. (and a bunch of other factors that would only complicate my argument so I won't mention them hehehe) $250 is the sweet spot here, and even with the X2, it's still going to have unfavorable specs to the competition, so appearing weak to hit $250 shouldn't concern Nvidia. It won't matter if it's powerful if no one buys it because they think it should have been cheaper. Having price parity with beefier consoles is not a position they want to be in. That $50 will make a serious psychological difference when it comes to perception. $250 will make it a run away success, and that will probably make Nvidia all the money back and more that they may have lost cuting Nintendo such a sweet deal in the first place.