Imagine a console selling faster than its antecessor and even the best-selling console from its manufacturer; a console which sells out everywhere even before launch, solely on pre-orders, and goes for hundreds of dollars on eBay. Now, weeks after its launch, coming across one is still a hard task - it might take months for supply to even out with demand. The manufacturer has high expectations - millions of consoles sold on its launch year, and dozens of millions more yet to follow in the upcoming years. You think I'm talking about the Switch? Nope buddy, that was the overall feeling back when the Wii U launched in 2012... and to some extent, albeit a lesser one, the same happened to the PS Vita before it.

Nintendo's Wii U off to sold-out start

Wii U preorders selling out? How about a $900 console on eBay?

Nintendo Wii U will sell out, sell faster than Wii

Nintendo's Wii U sells out after launch despite some supply hiccups

Nintendo Wii U Forecast calls for heavy sales, easing later

Now, you may think the Wii U, or the PS Vita, had issues which from the beginning made it clear those consoles weren't going to succeed, but do consider that hindsight is 20/20, and the Switch isn't really exempt of flaws and certain dissatisfaction, justified or not, from its owners or prospective buyers. The console has been called underpowered; there is the possilibity of flawed pixels screen or desynchronized controllers, it is somewhat prone to scratches, and the question of third party support still has a giant question mark.

The cost of Nintendo Switch cartridges could hurt third-party support

Nintendo Switch: plays Zelda great, doesn't do much else

Nintendo tells Switch users dead pixels are their problem

The Nintendo Switch sounds woefully underpowered

Nintendo Switch JoyCon problems caused by manufacturing error

Now, of course the console could end up selling great - personally I think it is a better design than the Wii U and I doubt it will end below the N64; it could have almost as much success as a handheld in Japan, for instance, a market which I see as particularly receptive for a piece of hardware like the Switch. However, it might still be a little bit early to pop the champagne based on the post-launch evidence and Nintendo's own expectations of future, uncertain success. So, what does VCGhartz think?

Bonus Playstation Vita link: Sony sells 300,000 PS Vita consoles in two days

Okay.

I think that, from where I live, it is doing much better than the wiiU. I know there were articles and etc of it being sold out and $900 nonsense on ebay but where I lived, I could easily buy one after a week since it launched. It has been nearly a month for the switch and I can't find even a single one except the ones from scalpers.

Now the biggest difference of course is Zelda. We all saw the crazyness that was at e3 so it certainly could be too early to tell but one thing is for sure, it will 110% outsell the wiiU considering how well it's launch has been going.

The VGChartz thinks exactly as you do seeing as how this same sentiment has been posted all over it.

Well i am considering buying one, damn impulsive behaviour.

Switch will outsell ps4, we all know its happening soon ;)

Well not totally meaningless but since it's a Nintendo console it's not really an indicator of much.

For a lot people I think who bought the wii u, the realisation was it was very poor and there was a lot of negativity about the console but the Switch launches with an amazing game and at least for sometime it will be seen in a very positive light.

It's possible the only difference is the cliff edge where sales drop dramatically is just delayed with the Switch. It seems to me though with April Mario Kart that cliff edge is more likely around May/June. There is also the online charging to come and a greater understanding by a wider audience the very low performance level of the Switch. The wii u had a lot of multiformat games reviewed that basically criticised the wii u as the weakest which probably did a lot of damage to wii u sales. Such Switch reviews haven't really started yet. I think generally people don't want to buy the weakest versions of games even if it gives them portability. The realisation of the wii u's very low performance level seemed to have been a similar time to the huge drop in sales.

It does seem to be for me at least the wii situation. I was amazed when it sold well being basically just a gamecube with a motion sensing controller and games having a very limited performance level but the wii sold far higher than you'd think based on the sum of its parts and the same seems to be true of Switch. It maybe took me 2 years to get a wii possibly more and I only bought a cheap japanese model that was £45. I thought it was pretty awful and was mainly playing my gamecube games on it. At the time most of the games were dire and a throw back to the last generation in performance. I know its often claimed the failure of wii u is based on consumer confusion about whether it was a separate home console or an accessory for wii but I think low satisfaction levels with the wii was also a factor. At the time the wii was criticised as a dust collector.

Wii U took months to sell through its 1st month shipments and Vita took a month to sell through its day 1 shipments, not sure what you are talking about.

It's not meaningless, but NiN's success may not simply be determined by how many Switch units they sell. They could sell 75 million and it may not matter overall. This is because of the Switch's hybrid design.

It's totally possible that based on these record breaking Switch sales so far, that this has/will lead to some, if not many of their handheld customers becoming hybrid customers instead.

If NiN ends up with 75 million Switch customers, but "loses" 50 million handheld customers because they bought into the hybrid concept, well then NiN isn't really that much better off. They may make more money overall do to having one main type of hardware and software, but that still doesn't make Switch itself a massive success. Sure it may look that way at 75 million sales, but that won't be the truth behind the scenes.

It wouldn't be much different than taking any PS customers and having them all buy a PS4 or having PC users who play XB games all buying a XB1. The sales of those consoles would be much higher, but the user base wouldn't be any larger and PS/XB income wouldn't be all that much higher either.

Holiday 2017 Switch sales will be the main indicator of how well the system will continue to sell going forward. If it can take its place amongst the PS4, Pro, XB1S, Scorpio, then its future is bright. If it fails to secure a position, then its future is bleak.