Topic: Will Switch out do Wii?

I’ve been seeing articles about this. Looks like it’s very possible.

I think back to how groundbreaking the Wii was, the countless nights playing Wii Bowling with my friends, and plenty of other games. Super happy for Nintendo to do it again so to speak with Switch. For about a year now I’ve been Nintendo-only (Switch & 3DS). I traded in my Xbox and my PS4 just sits. Part of it is because I have a daughter now and I don’t get the TV as much so I go handheld on Switch a lot, the other is simply because of the incredible game library and my variety of a collection I have. 👍🏻

The Switch will pass the 3DS's lifetime sales of 85m, no question. But the Wii's 100m? Maybe. The Switch will be at 50m by the end of year three (March 2020). The Switch would need several more years of strong sales figures to reach 100m.

Can the Switch do that with the PS5 and Xbox Scarlett arriving around this time next year?

Not as far as retro gaming is concerned. Wii had Virtual console and backward compatability. Switch's online deal with the Nes and snes apps has already been abandoned. I mean they won't even let us buy the damn games. Just rent them with some subscription bs. Wii wins!

@Magician It's certainly going to be a slippery slope. The PS5 appears to be set to hit the ground running this fall like a freight train, as does the Scarlett. I think it's necessary for Nintendo to get some more heavy hitting games, or a Pro version of their console (unlikely), on the market by the time the holiday shopping season rolls around. The Switch has been the new kid on the block for the past couple of years, and it needs to be able to go toe-to-toe with the next wave of consoles to keep its momentum going.

Yes and no. They’ll keep adding console additions (I think). If/When GameCube & N64 come. Oooh boy. 😀

I agree though, I’ve contemplated deleting my NES and SNES channels from my Switch to give me more storage space even though I have a 128GB card. I just don’t ever play them. 🤷‍♂️ @Zeldafan79

I think it will go toe to toe by the flow of games. I think brand new games, more ports and remasters will flow like a river of releases for a long time. Just my 2 cents. We’ll see. @WaffleKnight

This will depend alot on Xmas in the NA market and around the world how it's marketed and what is released. But if rates goes as they are it can reach it but considering it's only been ~3 years going this is far better then expected.

Problem is those consoles are only good as the power that powers them aka battery making portable gaming more possible for more players. Portable is the nature of gaming now and Developers are now seeing this as a good selling point to get more of their games to Gamers and Indie developers are seeing this as platform to start from. That is how you make sales not a ps5 or xbox XX without the games the console is meaningless. One can't exist without the other.

Current lifetime sales are at 75m, and sales have very much plateaued. With its diminishing retail presence and stagnant library, it is certainly on its way out. I'm sure Nintendo would be content in selling whatever units remain at full price, and games are frequently available in clearance bins at dirt-cheap prices.

I strongly doubt that the Switch will sell quite as well as the Wii in our smartphone-driven world, especially as the Switch doesn't have the casual library that have captured the public's imaginations and enticed non-gamers to the Wii en masse.

I am absolutely baffled that we still don't have a Wii Sports successor on the platform yet (even a port of Wii Sports Club would do). It's madness.

Switch lifetime sales to date at the end of September 2019 were 41.6m. By March 2020 Nintendo will be hoping that figure is above 50m, and it probably will be. Just keeping a steady ship should see sales surpass 3DS numbers.

But Nintendo still has the following major options to leverage over the next 3-5 years:

• Hardware price cuts
• Switch 'Pro' model (whatever that would look like)
• Breath of the Wild 2
• Mario Odyssey/Galaxy sequel
• Pokemon
• The Wii Sports/Fitness market (currently relatively untapped)
• Mario Kart sequel

All the above are just the major bombs Nintendo can drop to stimulate and extend the interest in Switch. Assuming Sony doesn't release another portable, Switch will have a decent window of opportunity and so hopefully Nintendo will maintain full software support for 3+ more years (not something they've really managed before, but now they've consolidated portable and home hardware into one basket is a reasonable expectation).

Come December 2021 or 2022, imagine an official price drop on Switch Lite, retailers selling it for £99-125 - I think that will move units and the Wii target could be surpassed easily, provided Nintendo manages to maintain interest in the meantime via software support.

Hmm quite right, I thought the 3DS had sold better than that. Oh well.
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/index.html

As an aside, I still find it hilarious that Nintendo doesn't provide sales figures for the Virtua Boy.

Forgive me if I've got this really wrong but whenever i see this discussion I always think does it really matter?

Everyone sees the wii's sales as this benchmark of greatness but the attach rate on the games was really poor. I seemed to know loads of people who would never class themselves as nintendo players who owned a Wii just for Wii sports and Wiifit.

Surely the switch must have been more profitable already with the amount of games that have done well? And really if we want Nintendo to thrive as a company this has to be more important

Note: this is all based on my opinion/feel, I haven't looked at official figures

EDIT: @Magician Thanks for that link on the sales figures I can see I'm wrong about the attach rate on the Wii games. Guess I should have checked it out before posting.

It's certainly on pace to, and it combines Nintendo's home console and handheld audiences. But launching midway through the other home console's lifespans puts it at an interesting place. I know PlayStation 5 and Xbox Scarlett are a much different breed of competitor, but they will have some influence on Switch's sales.

If the Switch matches the Wii in sales, it will just barely manage it. I say the 80-85 million range is the most likely lifetime sales for the Switch.

I think it is definitely a possibility. Yes, the Switch will have to compete with new, next-gen consoles before we know it, but I do believe Nintendo is ready. With new games still on the way (Metroid Prime 4, BOTW2, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and more!), I do believe that Nintendo will strategically release new titles around the new console releases.

Why do people disparage the Switch for. Example Smart phone isn't a Gaming Device.
1. Battery
2. Graphics Power isn't up to snuff - no heat ventilation meltdown for smart phone and battery.
3. Drop it and pay up to $600usd unlike $299usd.
4. Gaming library isn't like the Switch inventory.
5. Support level isn't the same.
6. Guess one is out of the Switch loop to make such comments.

Just love how people want to make up myths.

I wasn't "disparaging" anything. I was pointing out (briefly) how the market has changed since the release of the Wii/DS when compared to where the Switch stands, which is a different market to what existed back then. A lot of the types of software that were commonplace on prior systems are no longer being released at retail as their niche has been filled by downloadable apps on smart devices (especially the DS), and we have yet to see the sorts of mass-appealing software that had captured the imaginations of the masses like Wii Sports and Wii Fit, and while the likes of Ring Fit Adventure hark back to that era, it lacks the broader appeal that made the former so much more successful.

Almost everybody has a smartphone and feels that they need a phone to function in our workaday world (and for many, the sorts of games on such devices is sufficient for them), and not everybody is going to feel the need to lug around an additional device to keep themselves occupied while they're out and about.

That isn't criticism. That's just reality. And I say this as somebody with THREE Switch consoles, so despite my bias in favour of the Switch, I am not so blind that I cannot perceive that I am evidently not in the majority, nor are the masses going to flock to a dedicated gaming device after smartphones have replaced so much of what made the DS (and its library) so unique (the likes of which, perhaps, we may never see again), and the Wii so appealing to people who ordinarily do not play or have an interest in video games. Incidentally, I am somebody that rarely uses their phone except for emergencies, which again, places me out of the majority of modern consumers, but I can still distinguish my needs from the wants/needs of the majority.

Rationalising $300 for a gaming device is quite different to rationalising $600 for a device that does so much more and many people need in their daily lives in order to keep in touch with family/friends/clients etc., and to suggest otherwise is delusional and out of touch with how the majority in the developed world conduct their lives nowadays.

The DS had practically everything in terms of breadth of genre/niche coverage. Dictionary software, eBook software, cooking software, language software, "quit smoking" software etc., and to top it off, these were all full-priced retail releases (and you would almost certainly never anything like that nowadays). Such software has since been replaced by apps on smartphones/tablets. I remember seeing middle-aged/elderly women in the DS aisle looking for the new installment in the Professor Layton series, something that I would never see today as they would have since moved on to smart devices or had simply given up gaming altogether. Likewise, many Wii owners have yet to upgrade to the Wii U or the Switch (due to latter two being more appealing to "gamers"), and I strongly suspect, as I said before, that it is due to Nintendo's hardware not having successfully captured the collective imagination of the masses, hence why the Switch is unlikely tor reach the sales heights of its predecessors (specifically the DS/Wii), not unless Nintendo make a more concerted effort to appeal to "non-gamers".

During the Wii era, many "gamers" turned their noses at the Wii as it was perceived as a "casual", "unpowered" console that lacked the AAA blockbusters of its contemporaries. Meanwhile, the Switch has attracted much of this audience due to the convenience of being able to play such blockbusters while out and about (affording a distinct and unmatched value proposition to many game-lovers). It is undoubtedly successful, but it has appealed to a different audience to the Wii/DS, and we are yet to see whether the Switch will succeed in attracting non-gamers en masse as the DS/Wii had over a decade ago. In terms of where the Switch currently stands in the market, it will not be quite as successful as its predecessors, but anything can change between now and the time that Nintendo decide to reveal the Switch's successor.

If you were at all perceptive, you would not have drawn incorrect conclusions from points that I hadn't even addressed in my original comment (laced with thinly-veiled insults), so I would appreciate it if you would have the decency not to put words in my mouth. Cheers.

Just bear in mind, if they're not at all perceptive, they may not realise that this is a buuuurrrrnnnnn!

People attempt to use such comparison as Switch to Smart Phone of which the two can't be so different in Performance and Gaming Library but still grasping for Straws. When something so small can make such waves and keep on making waves.

Between not having competition from a second Nintendo system and that the Wii's relevancy dropped off the face of the Earth towards the end of its run, I think its actually fairly likely.

My Wii has been quite relevent since i recently got into modding! Plus it's perfectly safe to do so considering it won't be getting anymore updates that would wipe out everything you do!

The Switch will never go toe-to-toe with home consoles, and it was never intended to. It's its own thing.