No one is going to answer that they bought a PS4 because good marketing worked on them or that bad PR from the competition only gave them one console alternative. People thought the PS2 was the most powerful and the 360 was the most powerful. People still think the PS1 was the most powerful and that the GCN was the weakest. The mass market doesn't actually care. They care about what's most popular, and that's dictated by marketing and good PR.

DF's video had over 100,000 hits inside of a day, and that's just the attached video, not the article.

Almost all DF videos get that kind of viewership. Unless you think that DF's "Final Fantasy 15 PS4 vs PS4 Pro Gameplay Framerate Test" had a huge impact on FFXV's sales at 200K viewas, 100k is an insignificant number. DF is a place where an extremely focused niche of entusiasts obsess over this stuff.

Do you have a study that counters it?

Graphics matter. The study shows it. PS4 trouncing Wii U and Xbox One shows it. The fact that multi-billion dollar corporations sink fortunes into chasing pretty visuals shows it. We'd still be gaming on Atari 2600 if graphics didn't matter.

All of those were powerful systems though. PR only goes so far, in the end the machine has to speak for itself.

DF isn't niche. Niche stuff doesn't get that many views.

No, but like I said, a survey that doesnt quantify anything is pretty useless. If it was a survey of like 1000 people and over 3/4 of them are 18-24 year old males than that doesnt really respresent the market as a whole since every non 18-24 male is under represented.

PS4 trouncing XBO/Wii U is proof of nothing since both those devices had a plethora of other things going against them. Thats like me saying 3DS dominating Vita is proof that people love glasses free 3D. Correlation vs causation.

The "everybody would still be playing Atari or NES if power didnt matter" is one of the dumbest arguments ever because it completely takes things out of context.

Nobody is saying graphics should stop evolving, it means graphics are not the be all, end all of gaming.

Of course it does. The Wii spoke for itself. The weakest PS1+2 spoke for themselves. They weren't shitty machines that happened to do well. They were good machines that took advantage of good marketing and good PR to get where they were. They didn't need to be the most powerful machines to be desired.

Wii was what? 20x weaker than PS3 or something? Compared to Switch being allegedly 1/3 an XBO at the weakest? It just has to get the games. If it get's multiplats, power won't matter to the mass market. People buy Apple devices at a premium knowing that Microsoft and Android devices have better hardware for less money. Why? More popular, more accessible, more convenient. (maybe not so much the last bit now, but I digress)

Nintendo just has to nail those three things. Power won't be a factor. Not to the mass market.

Of course it does. The Wii spoke for itself. The weakest PS1+2 spoke for themselves. They weren't shitty machines that happened to do well. They were good machines that took advantage of good marketing and good PR to get where they were. They didn't need to be the most powerful machines to be desired.

Wii was what? 20x weaker than PS3 or something? Compared to Switch being allegedly 1/3 an XBO at the weakest? It just has to get the games. If it get's multiplats, power won't matter to the mass market. People buy Apple devices at a premium knowing that Microsoft and Android devices have better hardware for less money. Why? More popular, more accessible, more convenient. (maybe not so much the last bit now, but I digress)

Nintendo just has to nail those three things. Power won't be a factor. Not to the mass market.

DF isn't niche. Niche stuff doesn't get that many views.