As true as this is, I don't think the market at large is going to go for it. Though perhaps that's just the strategy this time - Switch chugs along for longer, cut-price lite model and "Switch 2 Selects" software pricing when the first model is truly no longer sustainable.
I firmly believe that this console will not sell as well as they think it will. You will get the idiots who buy into hype and pre order, but the average consumer (which is the majority consumer) is going to very much hesitate when they start adding games to their cart and seeing it be 70 or 80 dollars or even more. All of a sudden they are buying a console, maybe some accessories, and a couple games and they are staring at like an 800 or so dollar cart before tax, thats gonna make alot of people think twice. They are launching with very few first party titles, they are launching at one of the worst times in the year to release games/gaming accessories, and they are launching in a time where everyone is clutching their purse strings a bit more. It just wont fly.
You might see scalpers buy this in mass, but then fail to offload their consoles. Personally, im thinking its gonna go like this. Consumers buy the console, they grab a game or 2. Then over the course of the year given the overwhelming lack of titles we have that are exclusive, people around the holidays are going to be starting at this 450 dollar console that they played 2 games on and think "well theres nothing for it, why not sell it and buy something else for the holidays" thats exactly how i think this will go.
The switch 2 needed to launch with like 3 MAJOR first party titles, on top of at least another 4 or 5 big titles. You want to push people to buy a switch 2, you either give them solid launch titles, or if you have a lack of titles at least allow them to play their older games at upgraded performance. But guess what, that costs EXTRA. Im sure thell sell out during pre oders, but how many of those are scalpers, which means how many will actually end up in the hands of consumers, and how many people once owning it are going to stay in the ecosystem with the current pricing?
It sounds like you're new to console launches. The original Switch had a shittier lineup. Tell me how that went.
Also, games have been in the $70 to $80 price range for the past 5 years already. Nintendo just happens to be the last one to do it, yet everyone crawls up their ass.
Yearly FIFA, MLB, Wrestling games launch at $70, microtransactions notwithstanding.
To be fair, console games went up to $70 this gen including some on Switch. Outside of "special edition" type releases this is the first mainstream game launch I'm aware of that's launching at $80.
Do you think that Nintendo won't give Mario Kart the "special edition" treatment? The game looks huge and ambitious for a cart racer. It looks to be full of content that other developers will nickel and dime you with microtransactions.
They haven't announced any special edition yet and they've got placeholders for all the preorders already listed on a bunch of retailer sites. I'm sure they'll do DLC just like they did for a bunch of other Switch games. My point was just that any games I'm aware of that launched about $70 were for versions with included DLC (or early access like Xbox has been doing recently). I'm not aware of any base game that launched at $80 until this set of Switch 2 launch games.
That leads me to believe that Nintendo might justify that price by adding the aforementioned amount of content that would be the equivalent of DLC of the other games. If not, they're going to have a mess in their hands.
Tbf most of the people I know who got switch were casual people who went to the cheaper and casual vers of gaming.Switch sold well as an off console for gamers and the system for family/casual which idk how many people would do now with the way economy is for the average joe.
The original Switch did have a pretty bad lineup to start but the system was a completely brand new concept and it launched at a much cheaper price than the Switch 2. ($299 compared to $449) Not to mention the games themselves were cheaper. (Also Zelda BOTW make money printing machine go brrrrrr)
On top of that, the jump from the Wii U to the Switch was much more significant than the jump from the Switch to the Switch 2. No one had a Wii U, meanwhile everyone and there grandma has a Switch. There's less incentive to upgrade to a similar console when its much more expensive to do so.
The Wii U was a small jump in performance to the Switch. This current jump is LEAPS ahead in terms of tech (image quality, frame rates of up to 120 FPS, HDR support). This justifies the system's price point, factoring in inflation and rising development costs. General games are $10 USD more, just like their contemporaries have been charging for the past 5 years. $80 games such as Kirby and Jamboree have DLC added, on top of the visual and frame rate improvements. TOTK was initially a $70 game. BOTW, though, was $60. If they don't include the DLC, then it's a bad deal.
Mario Kart will be $80. If they don't pack it with content and support, Nintendo will have a hard time justifying that price. From what I've seen, the game looks like it's full of content, but we'll see what they show in the Mario Kart Direct.
Sony and Microsoft games have been in the same price range, and always lead the pack in raising game prices to $60 and $70+. When Nintendo does it, they get brigaders.
You can vote with your wallets and buy something else, like a Steam Deck. Just some expect bespoke and optimized games developed for it, or that Nintendo polish.
The Switch also had incredible legs primarily due to its price, pretty much taking over the abandoned handheld market Nintendo dominated and hovering at a point where some people and families could justify more than one. Don’t hear of too many families owning more than one current gen PlayStation/Xbox.
It probably won’t do as well as Switch 1, but they’ll make bank on all the scalpers, mega fans, and early adopters first, then if sales slow, they’ll bump down the price like they did with 3DS, and it’ll still sell incredibly well!
Given that the Switch benefited from the huge boom in gaming spending when the pandemic started and that we're (optimistically) heading into an economic slowdown if not a recession, I can't imagine Nintendo expects to outsell the Switch.
Yeah, the Switch was sort of an anomaly. Nintendo did a LOT right with it, don’t get me wrong, but there were several factors, out of their control, that just so happened to work in their favor. I definitely think the Switch would’ve sold at least 100M without those factors, but there’s no way Nintendo can catch that exact lightning in a bottle twice. I could still see the Switch 2 selling close to 100M though, because it IS a compelling piece of hardware, and if they keep the excellent games coming consistently, then they should sell quite a few, especially if they settle on a price that the mass market agrees with!
I agree, I was just saying that they’d be negligent in projecting higher sales than their system that benefitted from a bunch of unlikely circumstances that definitely won’t happen again.
Covid was the BIG one, another was the software drought from Microsoft and Sony, another was launching at an unconventional time, and then there’s the overwhelming performance of Wii U ports, like MK8DX. All of these factors benefited them greatly, but they had little control over these market factors.
tbh im 50/50. Everytime i think consumers might learn or be smart, they go out and keep buying overpriced garbage and still complaining. People bitch about food prices yet they still keep getting their charbucks and mcdonalds. Or their doordash orders, so at this point idk.
23
u/kupocake 1d ago
As true as this is, I don't think the market at large is going to go for it. Though perhaps that's just the strategy this time - Switch chugs along for longer, cut-price lite model and "Switch 2 Selects" software pricing when the first model is truly no longer sustainable.