Of course Nintendo can delay Switch 2 beyond March 2025, it just hurts their FY3/2025 performance. If a delay absolutely needs to happen then it will happen, but I think the pressure to launch in March 2025 is greatly increased now that the preceding 2024 holiday looks to be very weak in terms of major tentpole releases for Switch.
Nikkei: Nintendo Switch's successor will launch in March 2025
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Once the rumors starting flowing that the Switch 2 was being pushed to 2025, I picked up a Series S on sale a few weeks ago. I'm kind of "done" with the Switch even if it is one of my favorite platforms ever. The Series S will be my main platform for the next year or two.
Not sure why Nintendo can't stick the landing with their console transitions. Seems like they are always 1-2 years later than they should be.
Why not just price drop the Switch for the last year though to really juice those sales and catch PS2? At this point they should be able to do $150 Lite, $200-$250 Base, $300 OLED.
Not sure why Nintendo can't stick the landing with their console transitions. Seems like they are always 1-2 years later than they should be.
Why not just price drop the Switch for the last year though to really juice those sales and catch PS2? At this point they should be able to do $150 Lite, $200-$250 Base, $300 OLED.
Tialo
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Derail over multiple posts, misinformation, bad faith arguing, long prior history
If Nintendo cuts the price, then their revenue and profit per units will also decrease. I think its more profitable for them to keep the higher prices and sell maybe a few lesser units then doing a price drop. Selling 10M Switches for 300 Dollar is better for them than selling 11M Switches for 250 Dollar. The Switch is successfull and has great software sales anyway, so there is no need to increase the excisting huge hardwarebase by a small margin by doing a price cut
I'm of the opposite opinion, I think many previous Nintendo platforms launch way too early and end up struggling with lack of compelling software at launch.
Obviously Switch 2 launching 8 years after Switch obviously makes the idea of "launching too early" quite laughable but I'm sure the supposed internal delay was done for a good reason.
You should wait for actual stumbling before saying they stumbled. There's no sign of that yet
What makes Nintendo fail console transitions is easy to answer: They have too few developers to make games both for the current system and the future system at the same time. And they fact that they can't seemingly rely on third party support to help sell their new systems means that they depend on their own first party games to sell the new hardware.
Neither the Wii nor the Switch were wrapped up too soon. The Wii went on 1-2 years longer than it should. This year is basically going to be wash for Nintendo with the Switch.
You don't consider the last 1-2 years of the Wii a stumble? Or even looking at the next year with Switch having a barren release schedule and declining sales? I'm not even going to get into the WiiU...
Hopefully they can use their massive war chest to get a few more studios.
Are you really comparing the last 2 years of the Wii vs the last 2 years of the Switch!? Have you even looked at the data for those two periods before posting that?
The difference can't be greater, it's comparing apples to oranges.
this ain't the wii though. and it's still february. we don't know the rest of the schedule. declining sales is a given, given age.
The active users base of the Switch is VERY big, increasing over last year
The sales are still VERY good for hardware, not even just being an old console, are GOOD on an absolute level
The software sales are VERY GOOD, mini Marios os there testifying
And Nintendo always announce games with short lead times , aside longer wait like for this recent Pokemon Legends, so we could totally see a couple of meaningful (commercial wise) games in June/September for November/February release
The sales are still VERY good for hardware, not even just being an old console, are GOOD on an absolute level
The software sales are VERY GOOD, mini Marios os there testifying
And Nintendo always announce games with short lead times , aside longer wait like for this recent Pokemon Legends, so we could totally see a couple of meaningful (commercial wise) games in June/September for November/February release
The Wii U should have absolutely been pushed back to ensure a stronger launch lineup and more consistent early release schedule, even if that meant extending the Wii's lifespan. Similarly, the 3DS should have been pushed back as well.
(Of course this would not have "saved" the Wii U as it was plagued by other big issues that would have greatly hundered any success, but it would at least sold better than the measly 13M it ended up selling.)
Also, I feel that any comparisons between the Wii's later years vs the Switch's later years are very disingenuous given how much bigger the Switch has been in terms of HW/SW sales and player engagement.
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Tialo
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Derail over multiple posts, misinformation, bad faith arguing, long prior history
Yes I agree. The WiiU had a lot of problems, but one of these was definetly release timing and release lineup. If Nintendo would have delayed WiiU to spring 2023, then schedule would have looked a bit better because time gaps between launch titles and the following titles (Pikmin 3 etc) would have been shorter. But this would have not solved the appealing of the software itself. NSMBU was a good game, but not a good launchgame in my opinion. Mario 3D World was also a good game, but NOT the 3D Mario that a lot of players expected and wanted to see at that time. So an adjusted release timing would have fixed only one of many issues
The issue was that Wii was already done in 2010 for most of its userbase. It was a Wii Sports/Mario machine and not much more. This was shown by the sales of many more core games such as Zelda. So Wii U launched without much traction from Wii in a context where handhelds could cover the needs of Nintendo fanbase.
I thnk this is pretty meaningful
I think we have a more updated one but can't find it
From the most recent financial report:I thnk this is pretty meaningful
I think we have a more updated one but can't find it
From the most recent financial report:
thank you! I was looking for that without success
growth slowed down but is still there, these are very meaningful data imho
You can always find their most recent financial reports here:
Nintendo Co., Ltd. : Investor Relations Information
www.nintendo.co.jp
The traction the DS had before the 3DS completely dwarfs the traction the 3DS had when the Switch launched (and let's not mention Wii U's). 3DS was their least successful handheld and Switch was their most successful one.
Playstation had no traction before it beat the N64 handly, PS2 had amazing traction and so did the PS3, and yet the later...
Having a constant flow of games people want to play at an overall price they're willing to pay is the most important part to be successful.
Splitting resources between 3DS and Wii U screw their launch line up and trying to recover the 3DS screw Wii U's further. If they had planned the Wii U for 2014, IMO, both of them would have sold better even if the Wii was completely dead.
Traction from previous platforms is just one factor that, alongside price, line-up, form factor, marketing and so on, might affect the launch of a product.
DS traction was fading a lot in 2010-2011 and 3DS was seen as a new DS rather than a new platform. Games and price didn't help. Switch was successful at the beginning but general public was still skeptical initially; form factor and games helped it. PS1 didn't have an explosive start, it started selling thanks to a constant flow of games. PS3 would have likely sold much less without PS2 popularity.
OP
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DS remained very competitive until the 3DS price drops.
Holiday 2010 was good for it, despite the 3DS being announced and it even manage to outsell multiple times its successor in several markets.
Traction is one, kinda importante, but we can safely asume that WiiU, PS3, 3DS, Vita and XboxOne had other much bigger problems.
1. PS3? Terrible price, anemic launch and too late compared to the 360, when sony announced the price, 360 was already on the market and much cheaper with a vast amount of software to support it.
2. 3DS? Comparable situation to the PS3, the price and launch software BUT there was also marketing (which also leads to WiiU), the 3D was a super gimmick (that just like their TV counterpart) it never really took off, so it was an expensive machine that had a cool gimmick and that's about it.
3. WiiU? Marketing, it was all about the marketing in that one, it was terrible, a total disaster, that and that the Wii was dead like 3-4 years ago and the Nintendo brand wasn't the strongest.
4. Vita? I'm not sure why the vita failed so badly besides the stupid memory card prices.
5. Xbox One? PS3 all over again, terrible price (more expensive than the PS4, quite a wide margin) and we can't forget the disaster that was the presentation. That presentation alone killed it (And Kinect).
Software is super important, and traction can help you get a dedicated fanbase, but i think it was mostly down to pricing and marketing, especially the later.
1. PS3? Terrible price, anemic launch and too late compared to the 360, when sony announced the price, 360 was already on the market and much cheaper with a vast amount of software to support it.
2. 3DS? Comparable situation to the PS3, the price and launch software BUT there was also marketing (which also leads to WiiU), the 3D was a super gimmick (that just like their TV counterpart) it never really took off, so it was an expensive machine that had a cool gimmick and that's about it.
3. WiiU? Marketing, it was all about the marketing in that one, it was terrible, a total disaster, that and that the Wii was dead like 3-4 years ago and the Nintendo brand wasn't the strongest.
4. Vita? I'm not sure why the vita failed so badly besides the stupid memory card prices.
5. Xbox One? PS3 all over again, terrible price (more expensive than the PS4, quite a wide margin) and we can't forget the disaster that was the presentation. That presentation alone killed it (And Kinect).
Software is super important, and traction can help you get a dedicated fanbase, but i think it was mostly down to pricing and marketing, especially the later.
I agree. What Im saying is that it's not nearly as important as the other you mentioned and it's worth to lose traction if that means you can get the others right.
In the Fiscal Year ending March 2010, the DS sold over 27M (Switch was the only other console to ever sell as much and did it only once) and 150M software.
The reason it "faded a lot" in 2010 is because Nintendo announced the 3DS in March 2010. And in the FY2011 leading to the 3DS launch, it sold over 17M hardware and 120M software, significantly more than 3DS's peak and over twice what the 3DS did in the FY2017.
I don't buy that "people didn't know it was a successor" due to the decline you yourself pointed out. And even assuming that happened, anyone who wanted to play a 3DS game would figure it out, so it takes complete disinterest on the launch line up for that to happen. And if they had zero interest in 3DS games, would they buy a 3DS either way?
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The WiiU should have never been released. Doesn't matter what lineup it had it was always going to be a failure. The Gamepad was clunky and un-fun to play with and became an obstacle to players instead of something that empowered players. The marketing of what the WiiU was was also muddled. Delaying it would have only dragged out the pain, and Nintendo's red quarters, longer.
Instead, the Wii2 should have had the Wii's form factor but with better specs. Skyward Sword should have been the cross gen title that released both on Wii and Wii2, which means the Wii2 launch would have been about 1 year earlier than when the WiiU launched.
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I'd argue without the Wii U as a basis Nintendo wouldn't be on track to have the best selling console ever with the Switch. The Wii U "shouldn't" have happened, I agree. But I think it was the necessary failure to bring the company to where they are now and no longer be trying to manage two systems.
I agree that the only way to ensure the Wii U could have actually succeeded is to be a completely different product. However, if the Wii U was to remain the same fundamental product, then i think the best way to salvage it would have been to push its release date back to launch it with more compelling software.
Anyways, the point of my original post was not specifically talking about the Wii U, as I think most Nintendo platforms could have benefitted from a delay to ensure better software in their respective launch years. Whether this would have completely salvaged the platform from failure was not my point.
Why exactly? Nintendo business will completely colapse if they don’t launch a new system 5 months in advance?
Of course not, but even fall 2024 would be already a little late for me, push another holiday with the old Switch looks a bit excessive.
Switch did amazing, it was an incredible successful cycle, but if the successor was coming next month it would be spot on.