NPD is tracking digital sales for some publishers. Unless digital sales can cover the spread Halo 5 sold less than Halo 4, which sold less than Halo Reach. AAA titles have seen a significant decrease in sales on consoles. 1st party titles specifically.
You went on a tangent on how PS4/XB1 are dust collectors in your household. When provided with great hardware sales, per console game attach rates and exclusive titles those consoles have had in the last 3 years, you went off citing total industry software sales for consoles using NDP, which we know doesn't track digital sales well.
Report: Worldwide Digital Game Sales Increase 13% in November to $6.7 Billion - News
The console market saw the biggest increase as sales grew 35 percent.
http://www.vgchartz.com/article/266...-sales-increase-13-in-november-to-67-billion/
The fact that some big titles like Halo 5, Watch Dogs 2, Deus Ex Mankind Divided and Infinite Warfare or Gears of War 4, etc. didn't meet expectations is irrelevant to what's being discussed. It's not the fault of MS/Sony that those games' sales flopped or that we didn't have Assassin's Creed game this year that usually sells well.
Most console gamers do not own a high-end PC nor do they buy 2-3 consoles in the same generation. Any gamer that buys nearly every Nintendo console will likely buy the Switch -- those sales are easy. Before we knew some key info about the Switch, many were wondering for 3-4 years how was Nintendo going to fix the major issues that plagued the Wii U? What was Nintendo going to do to bring back traditional home console gamers back? What was Nintendo going to do to get new gamers interested in PS4/XB1 to reconsider those consoles? How was Nintendo going to fix the lack of 3rd party support of the N64/GameCube/Wii/Wii U?
This new console appears to make all the same mistakes of the Wii U, except now it's a portable hybrid instead of just a home console. Nintendo just decided to compete in a different space than MS/Sony. In 2017-2019, new console buyers will have the choice between the most powerful upscaled/4K MS/Sony consoles, PS4 Slim with its exclusives and existing gaming library, 4K bluray of the XB1S with its exclusives and existing gaming library, and a portable Nintendo console that also can connect to the HDTV.
If specs don't matter, then why did 3rd parties and Nintendo abandon the Wii U so quickly? If specs don't matter, why is the Wii considered to be one of the worst modern consoles of all time?
The new generation of console gamers who grew up in the Internet age do pay more attention to what they are purchasing. With Digital Foundry, reddit, tech forums, Neo Gaf, negative perceptions can be magnified. Nintendo continues to assume that consumers don't pay attention or care when they see Big N abandoning their consoles so quickly compared to MS/Sony. 1-2 years before the Big N has a new console, they send the previous gen right into the graveyard. Sooner or later consumers will get fed up and just decide to buy a new Nintendo console 3-4 years after release when they get to see all the titles released on the console, instead of broken hyped promises.
2 biggest concerns I have are: (1) the longer Nintendo is out of the traditional home console space, the harder it will be to get back in and convert consumers who will no longer trust Big N, (2) the partnership with NV and Nintendo's renewed focus on mobile form factor will relegate Big N consoles into a perpetual cycle of underpowered/obsolete tech. With Sony seeing massive success of PS4 and trying to replicate this with PS5 and so on, and MS realizing their mistake of releasing an underpowered console, both of those companies seem to be treating consoles far more seriously than Big N is. Big N seems to be just happy picking up the rest of the market, selling hardware for profit, and moving on to the next console gen every 4-5 years.
Just like their $10 price for Super Mario Run and its annoying DRM, they seem to operate in their own reality nowadays. Instead of removing DRM, adding more content/levels to the game, they are just going to move onto something else it seems. It's this attitude and lack of commitment that's starting to hurt their brand image imo. As a result, the consumer is constantly asked to put their faith into a new Big N console based on promises Big N failed to meet in the last 3 console generations!