The question is this, was the success of the 360 a byproduct of Sony making some terrible decisions with the PS3? For example, if the PS3 had released the same year as the 360 with a price of $399 would Microsoft's success been significantly reduced? Price of entry being $200 more and releasing a year after the 360 was a pretty big disadvantage to have. So I am not confident that Microsoft making a few corrections with the Xbox One would have made a drastic difference. I think Sony has the more attractive branding in the majority of territories. The Xbox brand is strong in the US and UK, but far less successful in Europe and completely non existent in Japan.
Nintendo Switch sales numbers
- Thread starter mpg1
- Start date
The question is this, was the success of the 360 a byproduct of Sony making some terrible decisions with the PS3? For example, if the PS3 had released the same year as the 360 with a price of $399 would Microsoft's success been significantly reduced? Price of entry being $200 more and releasing a year after the 360 was a pretty big disadvantage to have. So I am not confident that Microsoft making a few corrections with the Xbox One would have made a drastic difference. I think Sony has the more attractive branding in the majority of territories. The Xbox brand is strong in the US and UK, but far less successful in Europe and completely non existent in Japan.
Ok, you made a good point and i agree with you.
However, after the 360, Microsoft was in a much better situation to compete with Sony.
So yes, the 360 was a great success because Sony made a lot of mistakes, but the XB1 failed because MS made a lot of mistakes.
Switch is doing great but Nintendo can't take their foot off the gas so to speak. They need to become more aggressive on pricing when it comes to both hardware and games.
At minimum they need to start bundling in a game with Switch for $299 but preferably a $50 price cut on the console sometime in 2018.
At minimum they need to start bundling in a game with Switch for $299 but preferably a $50 price cut on the console sometime in 2018.
I think Nintendo will drop the price to $249 as soon as demand starts to drop. Right now they are on pace to sell as many Switch units in its first 12 months as the PS4 did. I would have to think the increased production will speed up the process in reducing the manufacturing cost of the Switch, so perhaps by the end of 2018 they will be in a good position to reduce the MSRP while still making a good margin.
Sigfried1977
Legend
Pretty sure they'll do just that should the need arise. Doesn't seem like it at the moment, though.
Nintendo has always been more conservative in terms of sales strategies, though. A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush has always been the way they're conducting business.
Sigfried1977
Legend
Not betting the farm served them pretty well too, or so it seems. They survived hardware sales ranging from pretty mediocre to outright miserable that way.
14.86M Switch's sold as of Dec 31:
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/index.html
Not even at a full year yet...
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/index.html
Not even at a full year yet...
tongue_of_colicab
Veteran
And 850 million euros in profit. Now if only they'd put some of that towards making sure we get a steady stream of great hames. I don't think Nintendo has announced much for 2018 yet?
Sigfried1977
Legend
Mostly WiiU rereleases at this point. As someone who didn't own a WiiU that's generally fine by me. Problem is they packed at least 2 or 3 years worth of flagship titles into 2017 alone. The holy trinity of Nintendo pillars which are a big new Mario game, a Mario Kart game and a big new Zelda game are already out, and they usually only do one of each per generation. I wouldn't mind a Majora's Mask kinda take on Breath of the Wild myself, i.e. a game for which Nintendo can repurpose al lot of what they already created for Breath of the Wild, but with a drastic chamge to gameplay systems.
Isn't that less than PS4? Doing about 20m a year (granted, peak years) is PS4 right? Sure Switch didn't come out until March but Jan/Feb/March aren't huge.
The more shocking stat was Switch has already surpassed Wii U (which ended at 13 some million sold).
Silent_Buddha
Legend
OK, so launch aligned the Switch just beat the pants off of the PS4. It took PS4 ~1 year to sell 14.4 million units. Switch still has a bit more than 2 months of console sales for its first year.
Also means that it took less than 8 months for the Switch to catch up and pass Wii-U's lifetime sales.
Regards,
SB
They were very loose pants and PS4 was looking the other way?
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
Yup. And Switch was way more supply constrained than PS4 was.
Switch is selling great indeed.
But consumers buy much less third party games on Switch than on PS4 or XB1. NPD numbers show us that every months.
Last NPD:
PlayStation 4
- Call of Duty: WWII
- Star Wars: Battlefront II 2017
- NBA 2K18
- Madden NFL 18
- Assassin’s Creed: Origins
- Grand Theft Auto V
- FIFA 18
- Need for Speed: Payback
- Destiny 2
- Horizon Zero Dawn
- Super Mario Odyssey
- Mario Kart 8
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Splatoon 2
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2
- Mario & Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
- Pokken Tournament DX
- Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- ARMS
- Just Dance 2018
That’s one way of looking at it. Another is to note that software sells well on the platform, and Nintendo has some very strong first party titles.
Western AAA publishers might have been able to do something about the relative sales distribution, but - they have chosen to offer nothing or a very narrow selection. So far.
Switch is ahead of where PS4 was after 10 months by ~3M units:
http://www.vgchartz.com/article/272381/switch-vs-ps4vgchartz-gap-chartsdecember-2017-update/
http://www.vgchartz.com/article/272381/switch-vs-ps4vgchartz-gap-chartsdecember-2017-update/
On the other hand, who wants to really play Doom on Switch ?
If the Switch was more powerful, we may see more people buying third party games on this platform.
tongue_of_colicab
Veteran
Ahhh the never ending if only it had more power comment.
The problem for 3rd party devs is they need to battle Nintendo's own very strong games and often decide to do so with poor original games or by trying to shoehorn existing games released on half a dozen platforms already to a Nintendo console.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out those games won't sell, just as they wouldn't sell on any other platform.
They need to make good games playing to switch'' strength, if they do I'm sure those games will sell.
A straight COD or DOOM port with everything dialed back to minus three isn't going to work.
The problem for 3rd party devs is they need to battle Nintendo's own very strong games and often decide to do so with poor original games or by trying to shoehorn existing games released on half a dozen platforms already to a Nintendo console.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out those games won't sell, just as they wouldn't sell on any other platform.
They need to make good games playing to switch'' strength, if they do I'm sure those games will sell.
A straight COD or DOOM port with everything dialed back to minus three isn't going to work.
