Switch OLED Model Arrives In China Soon, Following Success Of Original Model

Despite the fact that China is an enormous market with billions, why this device does not sell millions?

What if, Tencent is in our switch models! 👀

It's great to see Nintendo have a whole new demographic to sell their games to, and that Chinese players have a way to officially experience Nintendo's legacy games that defined my childhood and continue to have a huge impact on my daily life. Which is why what I'm going to say next is going to sound incredibly selfish, but man. I can't help but wince a little knowing Nintendo is pushing unit sales in the largest country in the world when we're already in the middle of a massive chip shortage. I'm worried they're going to spread their resources too thin, and it's gonna make it that much harder for us in the West to get our hands on systems.

@nkarafo Because consoles aren't as popular in China as mobile and PC games.

@Not_Soos I think Nintendo knows that the current sales (although still good) won't have the exponential surprise to satisfy the shareholders. I can easily find a new Switch in my country, they are in piles everywhere. But PS5 I still need to see one in real life.

It's great to see Nintendo doing decently in China, even if I'm not a fan of Tencent (although I get why they teamed up with them).

Just wonder how the law on a limited amount of playtime for underage kids in China will affect the Switch.

@nkarafo

Because China makes it a pain to release there with long approval processes that sometimes get suspended indefinitely and often require a lot of alteration/censorship to be releaseable.

Also because gaming tastes are different in China and the import and knockoff markets are strong there.

It’s sad that the government in China limits the amount of entertainment products in the country where every game and movie has to go through a long approval along with allowing piracy causing just a fraction of games to be released compared to Japan and the West. The iQue player (N64) only got 14 games, iQue GBA 8 games, iQue DS a similar number to GBA and iQue 3DS only 2 games. Breath of the Wild, Pokémon Sword and Shield, Zelda Link’s Awakening and Luigi’s Mansion 3 still are not released in China yet. China wants to be number one in the world yet people living there have limited access to official entertainment products, live under extreme work and school stress and family pressure. It’s a shame the iQue failed there. Chinese gamers missed out on a lot of good games from past and current consoles.

I think it’s just a question of when Chinese customers learn the advantages of Switch gaming (tailored controls, tailored graphics, optimal access, portability). And because Nintendo games are often totally unpolitical and use a very restrictive online system, Nintendo has a much better position than Sony and Microsoft (and PC, in fact). Switch 2 has great chances to sell millions over millions of SKUs in China, with China becoming a major market.

@Blakeava1821,

Thanks for the info, knew the system would top 100 million at least by January 2022.

@Blakeava1821 #FACTS

@hakjie11 haha the Switch sold more then 25 million consoles in 2021. Ps5 over 11 million. You are talking without any facts.

Communism is a big thing in China I heard. Well done to Nintendo.

@GayusGayer
China’s not Communist. If it’s really communist, Western companies would not be trying like crazy to get into the Chinese market to make a profit. China is capitalist without democracy.

@Don oh. Isn't it run by the CCP?

@nkarafo China is all about PC and mobile. Similar to S Korea

10 million for all "others" lifetime? That's not
that much. So what if it's the fastest selling console in China, that doesn't say anything, that only tells you the official console market there is just terrible, as many things in that country, Nintendo and Tencent is a concerning partnership, and one of the reasons I don't trust Furukawa, the man seems to focus only on the money, unlike Nintendo's historical philosophy in the last 40 years.

Taxing the heck outta China was one of the few right things orange-face did, more needs to be done against them.

@HenHiro
The tariffs were paid by customers in countries China exported to. China didn’t pay any tax.

@GayusGayer
It is but just saying the economic system is the same as other capitalist countries. I don’t feel communism is the right word to describe the country.

Imagine upgrading to the oled model when the entire library of games allowed in your country is limited to two titles.

@robr
The funny thing is Nintendo released 3DS and 3DS XL in China years ago under iQue brand. Only two games were officially released in the country, Super Mario 3D World and Mario Kart 7. I can’t imagine how upset gamers there got spending a fortune on a brand new gaming device only to get access to two games.

Check out this article on the detailed history of iQue, the brand that the Nintendo 64 in China was launched under:

https://iquehistoria.neocities.org/articletl/RecordiQueChina/article.html

Oled is a failure. They enlarged the screen but kept the resolution the same? Same mistake they made with the XL 3Ds....sigh. you can see the pixels. Trash.

@Don maybe the state mandated censorship, politicial dictatorship, prosecution of dissidents and mass incanceration of minorities and supression of free enterprise might make you think of communism. But maybe not.

The main reason Nintendo rarely has much "official" success in China is because the Chinese government oscillates between trying to grow the market for video games and creating a hostile environment.

Right now the official Xi Jinping Thought line still seems to be that video games are "spiritual opium" and buying or selling them will adversely affect your social credit score. That could change, but Nintendo aren't going to commit huge amounts of money and resources to "operation corner the Chinese market" under these circumstances.

Nintendo still does have a big following there, thanks to generations raised on Famiclones, but it's hard for them to capitalise on it the way they'd want.

@GayusGayer

I believe we have a “define ‘communism’ “ scenario. Do they operate a fascist oligarchy where undesirables are ‘disappeared’, everyone is spying on each other, citizens are blasted with state run media propaganda, corruption runs wild and power makes you above the law just like the USSR and North Korea? Yes.

@robr oh it's hard to say! On the one hand Nintendo is allowed to sell a small selection of their catalogue, but on the other there is this lovely disney movie about a bear who loves honey.

We need more research.

@Don the tax is applied to chinese products, they become more expensive and brands like Huawei which had competitive pricing as a big sellin-point, lose their strength, which is good, because China is evil.