I usually agree with your posts RS but why on earth are you trying to pass off buying a switch plus 2 extra controllers for a total of 3+ controllers to a ps4/xb1 with 1 controller. That is completely flawed.
Secondly, there's demand for it. The pre-orders, at least here locally, are completely sold out.
Success is a relative term as well. Will this generate an acceptable level of profit for Nintendo? That's the only metric at the end of the day. We don't have a BoM atm but looking at what is included it's not a lot. Software attach rates for first party titles on Nintendo consoles is high. This console's marketing isn't directed at the 15-30 CoD playerbase like ps4/xb1. It's clear they have no desire with competing with Sony/MS.
Frankly all this negativity about the Switch is akin to someone complaining they can't buy pizza at a taco place. You aren't the target audience.
I am not comparing the Switch with 2-3 controllers to a PS4/XB1 with 1 controller. I am saying when purchasing multiple controllers for local co-op, the all-in price keeps increasing - i.e., the more controllers you need, the more the price increases over PS4/XB1. That's not the position a firm wants to be in when tagetting home console users. The Switch costs more but is the least powerful console, has the smallest gaming library, the worst online game perks for online subscription. Don't forget that games on Nintendo consoles take longer to drop in price than on the competing consoles. The overall cost of ownership is higher. Some of PS4's popular games like Ratcher & Clank, Uncharted Collection, Killzone Shadow Fall, Infamous games, God of War 3, The Last of Us, etc. can be purchased for $10-20 (same applied for hundreds of 3rd party titles). Nintendo games are $60 since the console is new. Gamers buying their only console this generation or a 2nd console care about these things.
Some gamers may be comfortable playing 3 hours on the Switch but what if you want to play longer? You pretty much need the Pro Controller. Not everyone wants to use a 9-10 foot charging cable instead of using the wireless Pro controller. As it stands, I would have to shell out $90 Canadian for a Pro Controller when using it in the docked mode. Therefore, for me the console would cost $490 Canadian.
Your other comment about me not being a target market is Nintendo's own fault. I think some of you guys forget why NES/SNES were so popular. Those consoles had a wide variety of 3rd party titles, including mature games too. I am the target audience for Nintendo and owned NES/SNES and N64, but they refuse to cater to consumers who grew up with them. They just care about targeting parents, new generation of 5-18 year olds, and the most hardcore Nintendo loyalists who even bought the Wii/U consoles. With the Switch, they will get decent sales from those gamers who want a handheld.
My point is Nintendo isn't making a console for many of us who enjoyed NES/SNES and N64. They simply don't care about the core market that used to buy their consoles. None of my friends who owned NES->N64 bought GameCube/Wii or Wii U. They aren't interested in the Switch or haven't followed Nintendo and moved to PC/XB/PS eco-system. It's Nintendo who lives in a bubble. They abandoned the home console market 1.5 decades ago and now their excuse is no one buys mature FPS, racing, 3rd person-action adventure, open world or racing games on their consoles. No **** Sherlock! As a gaming company you literally couldn't care less about gamers who grew up with you so what you do is double down on the portable gaming market after Sony leaves the market and hope for the best!
Please tell me why did Nintendo have portable consoles and home consoles in the past, but now it's suddenly not worth it to them to release a traditional home console? Do you honestly believe the target market for a $349-399 Nintendo home console with an RX480/x86 APU is too small? How can MS manage to sell almost 30 million XB1 consoles in barely over 3 years despite a rather weak line-up of 1st party exclusives? Even N64 sold > 30M consoles and it was hampered by expensive and data constrained cartridges.
Everything that's happening to Nintendo is 100% their own fault. How did Nintendo manage to oversee one of the worst selling console generations where 3rd parties abandoned their console, and then they release a 2017 $299 console that for many of us needs a $70 pro controller, but it cannot easily do straight 2013 XB1/PS4 ports since it's again too underpowered?!
Let me put it another way. If Sony/MS, or anyone else released a console 3.5 years after their main competition and it was this expensive and underpowered, it would have gotten obliterated by gamers and the gaming media. Somehow Nintendo gets defended. Nintendo is marketing this primarily as a home console, but how do they expect to compete with PS5/XB2 in what 2-2.5 years from now?
Some of the guys in this thread keep making statements like stop living in a bubble and how you have a need for a portable console. That's great and no one is telling you not to buy the console. It suits your needs fine. But what about 75-80M of XB1/PS4 owners who don't care about handhelds? Should Nintendo simply concede this market? Over the lifetime of XB1/PS4 sales we may see 150M+ in sales from those consoles. That's a huge market of gamers to just ignore. The longer Nintendo stays out of this market, the more they will be viewed as a console for kids and parents. It's going to be even harder to convert XB/PS gamers in 5 years from now since it would mean Nintendo not taking the home console market seriously since that Wii! New generation of teens who never grew up with NES/SNES/N64/GC will go straight towards XB2/PS5/PC.
Nintendo could have easily released the Switch as a 3DS successor and also released a $400 powerful Maxwell/Pascal-based home console and sell games on both systems. The more powerful home console would have a shot of getting 3rd party titles. Even if the home console just sold 20-30M units, it wouldn't directly compete with the Switch. The 1st party development costs of games would be spread across 2 consoles and the profits from game sales would be higher.
Some on you guys aren't seeing this point of view and refuse to even acknowledge it. Nintendo isn't getting the money from many home console gamers not because these gamers aren't the target market, but because Nintendo continues to alienate them with their business strategy. Nintendo is just abandoning this target market. What's going to be after the Switch? Switch 2?
The part about the Switch not needing to sell many units as long as it is profitable is not going to help Nintendo grow its userbase. The new generation of kids are more interested in PC gaming than ever. What happens when the 5-18 years olds gaming on Switch grow up and want more mature gaming experiences and 3rd party games? Nintendo doesn't have a console for them. It's amazing how many of you don't think this matters as long as Nintendo sells you a 3DS successor that hooks up to a TV.
The reasons N64 and GameCube didn't sell that well had a lot to do with Nintendo's decisions of using cartridges and mini-DVDs. The former were costly and both formats were space constrained. With game sizes ballooning to well over 100GB, it's going to be very difficult to do straight XB1/PS4 ports. It means 3rd parties must sell expensive 128GB game cartridges or cut down on game assets or even use older/less advanced generation game engines (say sports games).
As I said already, a lot of gamers on here own multiple consoles and often a PC. There will always be gamers on this forum who don't care one bit for 3rd party games on Nintendo consoles. There will also be gamers who want a portable and the Switch is exactly what they want. There will also be gamers who will buy every Nintendo console for its 1st party games. The problem is that Nintendo is hardly reaching out for more gamers. They are just content on getting these groups and that's it.
But clearly, these gamers must have forgotten or never owned NES/SNES or even N64. Without Rare, N64 would have been a shadow of itself. Even if we stick to the Switch's portability advantage, why shouldn't a gamer want to have a choice to buy 3rd party games to play on the go? Nintendo isn't making it easy to get AAA games like Red Dead Redemption 2, etc. Why should 3rd party developers have to again fight cartridge space limitations and underpowered hardware that makes easy ports unnecessarily difficult and more expensive than they should be? Trying to negatively paint the majority of PS4/XB1 owners as COD and FIFA drones is a weak counter-point. Lots of gamers buy PS4/XB1 and have no interest in COD. Would NES/SNES/N64 even sold as many consoles without 3rd party games? Also, I remember how many of my friends loved Goldeneye on N64 and spent weekends playing it in high school. But I guess now Nintendo is "too cool" for FPS, sports games and racing games? Let's just keep making Mario and Zelda. For someone who loved Goldeneye/Perfect Dark, Mortal Kombat, Streets of Rage/Double Dragon, Conker's Bad Fur Day, and even bought Resident Evil 2 on N64, etc. does it look like I want to play Splatoon 2? Here is Splatoon and Skylanders for 5-17 years olds and if you want Resident Evil 7, sorry, go buy the other consoles or a PC. We don't want you as a customer even though when you were under 18, we loved you hurting our consoles and games! Brilliant strategy!!!
Almost everyone on here defending the Switch was going to buy one anyway. 3DS owners were probably going to buy one as well. Those customers are easy for Nintendo, but given how the Wii U flopped and the sales of New 3DS are nowhere near 3DS's sales, the number of gamers who keep buying Nintendo consoles is getting smaller and smaller. That is very worrying for the console industry as we get even closer to having just 2 major players and an "also ran."
Nintendo is out of touch with the average gamer. Gamers continue to get older and will be gaming for a long time after their early 20s and mid-30s.
"
Super Mario Run has been downloaded 90 million times but only 3 million have bought it"
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.vg2...-times-but-only-3-million-have-bought-it/amp/
The fact that the Switch is sold out means nothing from the demand side. Nintendo underproduced. They cannot even get that right or it's another Nintendo moment of making it seem that the demand is high. After the first 12 months of the Switch on the market, we will see just how many gamers want this console.
And now that Nintendo has a partnership with NV, it's going to be very difficult to create a true home console in 2022 with Zen and AMD GPUs, and not piss off NV. So what are we getting after the Switch? Another ARM+NV underpowered Switch 2?
If specs don't matter, how come Scalebound was cancelled on XB1? How come the Wii U died a painful death? Specs 100% matter in the 2nd part of the console's life. Nintendo isn't large enough to release 20-30 AAA 1st party games.