Nintendo's consoles vs. Nintendo's handhelds?

[CastletonSnob]

Why are Nintendo's handhelds so much more successful than their home consoles? Most of Nintendo's handhelds have sold over 100 million units, while only 2 of Nintendo's home consoles have sold that much.

[Zenfoldor]

Lack of relevant competition in the space.

[Djuntas]

Because handheld makes more sense, they dominate that. Also its just easy for kids and grown ups alike. Much like how, despite my own dread about it, mobile gaming dominating. I dont want a switch either, I want a handheld if I was gonna buy one, but still no good pokemon game has been made for switch so im not in a hurry.

[Zenfoldor]

Because handheld makes more sense, they dominate that. Also its just easy for kids and grown ups alike. Much like how, despite my own dread about it, mobile gaming dominating. I dont want a switch either, I want a handheld if I was gonna buy one, but still no good pokemon game has been made for switch so im not in a hurry.

Switch is a hybrid. Great console. I don't care about(or defend) Pokemon, but the actual 1st party games are solid. Most recently Kirby Forgotten Land and Metroid Dread have both been really good. I particularly loved the difficulty curve and last bosses in Dread, such an awesome game that really surprised me as not really a Metroid fan(before, I certainly am now).

[The Stormbringer]

I wish they would release another handheld instead of a hybrid. My Switch Lite works as a handheld, but I don't know, it hasn't grabbed me like the DS and 3DS did.

[CastletonSnob]

Is Nintendo bad at making consoles?

Would you say Nintendo had exited to home console market?

[Zenfoldor]

Is Nintendo bad at making consoles?

Would you say Nintendo had exited to home console market?

Question 1: No, imo.
Question 2: Do you classify the Switch as a home console? If so, how do you classify success in that market? If you are going by userbase, Switch....probably will win the home console market if you want to compare it to last gen or this one.

If you want to go by the premise that Switch isn't a home console and is instead a handheld, well, that premise just doesn't hold water. It isn't "only" a handheld anymore than it is "only" a home console.

The best I can give you is that the Switch is a hybrid and they are very, very good at selling hybrids.

Why is that relevant? Do you believe that you are somehow marginalizing the Switch by not referring to it as a "home console"? No, you can't marginalize the Switch. It has sold about 108 million units and will probably(imo) go on to outsell every dedicated gaming device that came before it, but PS2 and Nintendo DS, by a significant margin. Switch is a huge success story for Nintendo(whom many were worried about after the Wii-U) it is impossible to spin it as anything but an absolutely success story for Nintendo as a business and a game developer.

[Calfredd]

Is Nintendo bad at making consoles?

Would you say Nintendo had exited to home console market?

Counter question: Why are you so hyper focused on Nintendo?

[CastletonSnob]

Counter question: Why are you so hyper focused on Nintendo?

I've been a Nintendo fan since I was a kid.

[Ausr]

Counter question: Why are you so hyper focused on Nintendo?

Better question: why not post this in the fucking Nintendo Switch thread?

[Calfredd]

Better question: why not post this in the fucking Nintendo Switch thread?

Think I already asked that in one of his many Nintendo threads but he never responded.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Is Nintendo bad at making consoles?

Eh. The ultimate problem was that they were bad at acquiring a library of games that people wanted to play. The NES and SNES ruled by default due to how bad the rest of the market was, but once you reached the N64 generation there was serious competition that just had straight up far more titles that people wanted to play (mainly because the N64 didn't have a disc drive so devs jumped ship to Sony). Going into the Gamecube era, Nintendo had learned their lesson but it was too late, 3rd parties were already established on Playstation. It wasn't until the Wii that Nintendo had a home console that was able to rope people back in, with it's motion controls gimmick and a humongous amount of games designed for it. The Wii U suffered because it didn't have a strong gimmick or library of 3rd parties. The Switch became king this generation because Nintendo was finally able to get 3rd party devs to switch from Playstation back to Nintendo, giving the Switch the largest library of the most desirable games, though it has to be noted that this wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for Sony's screwups which antagonized their 3rd parties.

As aforementioned, Nintendo handhelds did better because of less competition, and as far as Americans were concerned, was the only handheld console around. The PSP was poorly marketed in the West but did very well in Japan.

- - - Updated - - -

I've been a Nintendo fan since I was a kid.

Don't worship companies.

[LordVargK]

They are cheaper.

[Zenfoldor]

They are cheaper.

Like gamepass? I was told that an appeal to value is supposed to be a good thing for the industry.

But you are right, this cheaper price point, brought on by modest hardware even at the time of development, allowed Nintendo to run the table during the pandemic, barely running out of supply while the competitors continue to struggle. Allowing gamers to continue to buy gaming hardware even when the competition could not. The "cheapness" in this case was a brilliant business move that caused Nintendo to go from marginalized wii-u devs to hyper-relevant, even spawning direct copies like the Steamdeck. It was a 2 way swing.

I'd personally say the only questionable thing about Nintendo lately is the pricing strategy on some of their games. Mainly the timed availability of the mario collection. I mainly play with the Split Pad Pro or the Pro controller, so I have limited experience with joycon drift.

Lately, Metroid Dread and Kirby forgotten lands have been my favorite games on there as of late, but Xenoblade Chronicles(both games, and the new one coming out) are super awesome/hype for me. I also played Hades and Hollow Knight for the first time on Switch when it launched, and those are two of my favorite gaming memories. Fire Emblem 3 Houses is absolutely one of my favorite games ever. SM3DWorld+Bowsers is also my favorite Mario game ever. So for me, the Switch has definitely had its moments and I'm pretty happy with the system's library. Metroid Dread is so, so good. System is an awesome packed little jrpg player too, most recently for me FFXII Zodiac Age is really great on the console.

They just need to port Persona 4 Golden to Switch.