This is unfair and difficult to compare. Spring is a much more dead part of the year than the holidays, so advantage HD twins in that regard. Also, we know Nintendo had supply shortages for a looooong time after launch, so unless Xbox/PS5 have similar constraints that is another reason this is difficult to compare.

If all three devices releases in the same month and all had 5 million units on shelves during that time, then we could compare sales fairly. But what if Nintendo didn't have supply constraints? Would they have sold 4, 5, 6, etc. million then? Who knows?

Didn't realised we still used HD twins since Nintendo is HD as has been for 8 years aha.

PS4 Was supply constrained for up to a year, when I bought one in July the year after launch there was only 1 type of edition available. So chances are at least the PS5 will be constrained too.

But if not, why should Sony be punished in the sales comparison for being better prepared?

Yes, I'm sure if they could have had 2 million Switches (the number they anticipated having shipped by end of launch month) ready by holiday 2016, they would have released then.  But that was obviously not the case.  The system was still going by its codename "NX" up until October 20, 2016.  They released it as soon as it was feasible to do so.  Also, remember the launch window software was also sparse for March 2017 as it was.  Launching 4 months earlier, had it been possible from a hardware perspective, would likely have adversely affected the software pacing of 1 big title releasing just about every month:  Breath of the Wild (March 2017), Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (April 2017), Arms (June 2017), Splatoon 2 (July 2017), Fire Emblem Warriors (September 2017), Super Mario Odyssey (October 2017), Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (December 2017).

Fine, what should we call them then? 4k twins? Then next gen 8k? Or HDR twins? Lol

Yeah but we need more specifics. How much supply constraints? If their constraint meant they could have moved three million more units, and Nintendo only 1 million more if they weren't constrained, then we'd have hard numbers. This is all just a guessing game.

And I'd argue Nintendo isn't not prepared. They have designed their games to be evergreen titles, why should they treat their console any differently? They are less concerned with initial sales than they are the long game. I'm one of the people that believes Nintendo, and maybe others but especially them, intentionally supply constraints themselves in order to increase demand so much that people that wouldn't have purchased their device at all suddenly buy it. You create demand from people that wouldn't have had it by manufacturing shortages. 

I don't see the problem with comparing the sales still, if they're intentionally supply constraining then again, that's down to them and their strategy. We've never tried to differentiate that before. Most launch consoles have supply issues, artificial or not. 

You can't have it twice, claim Spring is much more dead and supply constraints. Because we know that if it was on Holidays it wouldn't sell a single console more because it was already supply constrained. So the real limitator was constraints, and that is on Nintendo plan. So I don't see any unfairness on it. And I just made the thread because Nintendo fans were complaining that Switch should be included on the discussion of who would have the biggest launch window this holiday.

Your what if scenario is kinda pointless, PS4 was also supply constrained and the discussion would be just on opinion or speculation on their sales curve and PS4 and Switch have been fairly similar.

Totally agree with you. But just for exercise pick the Switch launch+holiday versus PS4 launch+march and april and will be quite evident that PS4 didn't really benefit from holiday, it was supply constrained and would likely have sold the same number if was released outside of holiday, same for switch (due to lack of inventory) it could have sold even more on launch if more inventory was available and wouldn't sell more on holiday if the inventory was the same of the original launch.

If that's the case, and it's that easy to build up artificial demand, why didn't they supply constrain the Wii U after the initial allotment sold out?  Why didn't they supply constrain the Gamecube for that matter?  On the contrary, Nintendo actually delayed the original release date of the Gamecube in North America by 2 weeks so that they would have more units available at launch, not less.  The Wii and the Switch both suffered stock issues because the excitement and demand for the product was there from the get go.  The demand created the stock shortages, not vice versa.  The Wii sold 600,000 consoles in it's first 8 days on the market in the Americas.  It sold 372,000 consoles in Japan in 2 days.  It also sold 325,000 consoles in Europe in 2 days as well.  In the first half of 2007, the Wii sold more consoles than both the XBox 360 and PS3 combined.  And as far as the Switch goes, Nintendo debunked that theory by spending more to expensively air ship new units as they were selling out in the launch period rather than proceed with the cheaper and longer mode of transportation by sea.  That's demand creating stock shortages.  Not the other way around.

PS5 does not have a so so launch line up. It has Spiderman, the best selling PS4 exclusive ever. The social media metrics off PS5 suggest a record breaking launch.

Sony have supposeldy placed 10 million units for shipment till March, which would make PS5 the best console launch ever.

Well, there were people on this site that claimed that Nintendo consoles are "only bought as Christmas presents for children".  If that was the case, a March release would have been a handicap, since not many people buy their high ticket holiday items 10 months in advance.  (I don't believe this at all mind you, and I have countered it whenever I have seen it mentioned)

We can't deny that Nintendo seems to have the biggest boost for Xmas and is more child friendly so good gift for Xmas, but yep Switch is doing great all around the year for anyone to make the claim that it is only sold in Holidays.

About the post of artificial constraints, I totally agree with you, it wasn't in purpose, It was just that Nintendo didn't correct project the sales (after all they were quite massive and unexpected by almost everyone).