Topic: Is The Switch 2 Worth It???

How is it slowing momentum for the holidays with this tho

@darkfenrir Leading the hardware market for this year doesn't really say much when it's a down year in general due to the cost of living crisis. Furthermore, the PS5 outsold it in November, and the Switch 2 being beaten by a 5 year old console that some say also does not have enough games and its developer has already announced a successor is coming does not inspire confidence that it's doing well.

@Bolt_Strike Didn't we already have shown that in general consoles sell better when they get older

Also these 2 posts too I suppose:

Edit: dang it only wants to show one post

@darkfenrir I'd have to do more research on that but from what I've seen video game sales tend to be front-loaded, they sell better early when they're the hot new thing (maybe peaking around Year 2 or 3 at best due to not having a sufficient lineup before then) and momentum gradually slows down over time. So no, you would not typically expect the PS5 to be outselling the Switch 2.

Also a fast start doesn't necessarily mean it'll outsell the other platforms in the long run. That's why momentum is important. If it sells 4 million this year but only 1 million next year, it'll lose ground on the other consoles and eventually lag behind them.

Historically the peak has been between 1 and 5 years for Nintendo consoles.

Going by fiscal year, Switch sales had:

2018 < 2019 < 2020 <2021 and then sales went down after that. So 4 years to peak. (Note: Switch barely had a 2017 fiscal year so I didn't include it)

Wii had 2007 < 2008 < 2009 and down after that.

GameCube was 2002 < 2003 and then down.

Nintendo 64 was 1997 < 1998 and then down.

3DS was 2012 < 2013 and then down except with a slight resurgence in 2017 instead of going down monotonically.

DS was 2005 < 2006 < 2007 < 2008 < 2009. It just kept going up for 5 years.

So there is some variance but the more popular (not shockingly...) tend to peak later in life. And most of them go up monotonically and then down monotonically but there are exceptions

Wii U is the biggest outlier because it was kind of close to the same number of sales 2013 to 2016. 2013 was the max so in some sense it peaked instantly, but 2016 was barely less.

@FishyS So I'm not entirely wrong really. The popular consoles are the only ones that defied that, the others peaked around Year 2 or 3. The question is then, is the Switch 2 going to be popular? Possibly, but if the game lineup issues continue into that range I could see sales decline as people decide around that time the Switch 2 isn't really getting much better and it just is what it is by that point.

Considering it started with such a big lead, it is basically guaranteed to pass the Nintendo lower performers such as N64. But, depending what prices do, it may get some economic-related slowdown like 3DS did.

That's independent of game releases of course, but hopefully we'll know more about games in February. Pokemon gen X will certainly spur a lot of sales but I'm sure Nintendo isn't relying solely on it. I suspect Nintendo is also pretty paranoid about how to keep momentum and has a plan which they at least think will work.

@Bolt_Strike "Leading the hardware market doesn't really say much when it was a down year".

The US video game industry grew YoY

Half an hour or so of AC:NH a day with the free handheld res update is currently all I use my S2 for. I really hope Monolith Software has something up their sleeves in the next major direct. I also would love for a handheld resolution update to the Xenoblade games, they look a lot worse stretched out on the S2 display, and the hardware can definitely run these at docked res at least.

Is this cost of living crisis affecting the entire world? Gaming consoles are sold outside the US too, you know.

@Polvasti Most of the western world yes. Europe is not doing good. Japan is also struggling, just as an aside. Practically any country where people have the luxury to buy games is struggling with some form of cost of living crisis on some level. Here in Norway it's not as bad as the rest of Europe yet, but our food prices and inflation are still squeezing people hard. And because of import taxes and value added tax, something like a Switch 2 costs a lot more here, while our average wage don't match it.

@OmnitronVariant
Wait, I thought you have sold your Switch 2?
But when you mentioned about playing ACNH Switch 2 edition...

@OmnitronVariant has shared that they considered selling it, but chose to keep it.

I think all of the talk about momentum, not winning in November, is not important yet - while it is still the fastest selling console of all time. Let’s see where we are at in 6-12 months, and if 3rd party support continues to grow, because where the SW2 sits today, it’s looking like a massive success. That could very well change, but it’s hard to poke at the launch success. What I’m not following in the discourse is how any of the focus on sales matters to if it’s worth it to you, or not. If support for the system goes the way of the WiiU, then sure, that could make it less worth it. But based on what we have gotten, and what’s coming out in the next several months (what we know), things look pretty great.
The things we don’t know, but are sure things (Mario, Zelda, 1st party games ) are going to come. With a direct likely coming soon, it should be a good indicator for those on the fence whether it’s going to be worth it to jump on board in 2026.

@Anti-Matter I put it up for sale at the time yes, but there were so many on sale on the second-hand marketplaces that I could only get offers for less than half of what I paid for it at launch. So I decided not to because I still assume that eventually there'll be games that I will want and enjoy, and there's no way re-buying the console at that time will cost less than $400 converted from regional price, console cost ~$800 new here. So I'd just be losing even more money then.

@Haruki_NLI Where are you getting that? Everything's been saying video game hardware is DOWN YoY and the industry suffered its worst November in 30 years.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/video-game-hardware-sales-ar...

@Bolt_Strike
For the millionth time, Sony ran insane deals on the PS5 during the holidays. Like 100+ bucks knocked off some of the models.

Pretty sure the Switch 2 would have done quite well if Nintendo ran the same deals.

But hey, whatever, doesn't seem like an important piece of info, eh?

@Bolt_Strike Merry Christmas, hope you find this useful.

Now sit down.

@Haruki_NLI Notice how those statistics talk about the amount of money spent by consumers a.k.a. revenue for the companies, not the number of sales. That could just be a reflection of price increases due to RAM shortages, not an increase in number of sales or profit.