Nintendo Manages to Move 2.47M Switch Consoles in One Month

Megalith

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Nintendo’s latest effort is an easy target for ridicule, as there was seemingly wave after wave of problems ranging from bent units to connectivity issues, but from a sales perspective, it appears to be a raging success. The company forecasted 2M units shipped, but that number has turned out to be considerably greater. Is this just the new car smell, or does Nintendo have a real hit here?

Nintendo Switch is off to a strong start, with more than 2.74m consoles shipped during its first month of release. The company had previously made a fairly conservative estimate of 2m Switch consoles shipped within the same timeframe - an estimate that it has definitely been beating. Perhaps more impressive is the attach rate of Nintendo Switch hardware to copies of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. 2.76m Switch copies of the game have been sold - more than the number of Switch units currently out in the wild. (There are a couple of possible reasons for this - people buying Zelda while Switch itself is out of stock, or picking up copies of the special edition to keep/sell on eBay.)
 
just curious how strong is it graphics wise compared to a Wii U? the few I have seen show the Wii U in better light
 
Somehow, I just don't see a bunch of perky, highschool girls being the primary audience here.

Now, on the serious side of things, this is units shipped. Globally. It means nothing. Most of them could all be rotting on store shelves for all we know.
 
In other news, eBay has seen a massive stock increase of Switches. They say the numbers available are around 2mil.

Would actually be interesting to see these numbers. Certainly no shortage of these systems on eBay, craigslist, et al.
 
It should be interesting to see if now there is a flood of third party announcements. I got the feeling a lot of developers where holding off till they saw some sales numbers. Reminds me of the Wii launch where it was laughed at and developers stayed away until people started snatching them up. The wii didn't have a ton of great titles or support at launch either. At least with the switch people have one of the best zelda games ever made instead of Wii sports. I have a feeling we will see the same flood of semi rushed games hit the switch, as hit the Wii after Nintendo managed to sell a ton fast.
 
just curious how strong is it graphics wise compared to a Wii U? the few I have seen show the Wii U in better light

I dont know have Switch but if I compare experiences people have with the Switch version of the Breath Of The Wild and compare them to my experiences with the WiiU version it should be quite a bit better. The WiiU version is running at 720p and it is at a times a stuttery mess, slowdowns everywhere. No wonder the game was delayed year after year, the console can barely handle the game and developers had their hands full to make it work. Switch in portable mode is also 720 and apparently it has next to no slowdows even though the graphics are exactly the same otherwise. When you switch (ba dum tsshh) to the desktop version the resolution is increased and slowdowns start, but apparently even that comes from OS bugging out with the Wifi chipset because I heard the slowdowns are reduced when you turn on the aeroplane mode.

So while Switch is still not as powerful as Xbox One it should be considerably more powerful than WiiU and thats a lot from console that deepdown is a glorified tablet.
 
It should be interesting to see if now there is a flood of third party announcements. I got the feeling a lot of developers where holding off till they saw some sales numbers. Reminds me of the Wii launch where it was laughed at and developers stayed away until people started snatching them up. The wii didn't have a ton of great titles or support at launch either. At least with the switch people have one of the best zelda games ever made instead of Wii sports. I have a feeling we will see the same flood of semi rushed games hit the switch, as hit the Wii after Nintendo managed to sell a ton fast.
Doubt it. 3 Million is really not much. Also in the past 3rd party games typically failed sales wise. No one wants to buy inferior versions of games they can get on better platforms. People buy Nintendo system for Nintendo games. The Wii was also a flop with 3rd party devs. It became a shovel ware system.
 
Nintendo platforms exist for one reason and one reason only. To provide a platform for Nintendo IPs: Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Pikmin, etc.. The Switch is having a successful launch because their best IP was actually available at launch. I wouldn't hold my breath on seeing much third party support, it hasn't been there for a long time.
 
Doubt it. 3 Million is really not much. Also in the past 3rd party games typically failed sales wise. No one wants to buy inferior versions of games they can get on better platforms. People buy Nintendo system for Nintendo games. The Wii was also a flop with 3rd party devs. It became a shovel ware system.


Call of Duty (can't remember which one) was absolute shit on the Wii. Mario/Zelda/Metroid, etc., are all top notch. So was Raving Rabbids (Non-First Party game).

So much shit on the Wii that wasn't a Nintendo game. The few Nintendo games on the Switch will get me to buy it eventually (waiting for price drop and a few more available games). I see no sense in paying full price for the dozen games I'd eventually own on the system. I said the same with the Wii U. Great games from Nintendo, very remarkable games. Just not worth the entry fee for me at full price.
 
The question is: Will Nintendo be able to produce enough Switch consoles to satisfy consumer demand before a fully functional Switch emulator is developed?

Will be interesting to see.
 
Somehow, I just don't see a bunch of perky, highschool girls being the primary audience here.

Now, on the serious side of things, this is units shipped. Globally. It means nothing. Most of them could all be rotting on store shelves for all we know.

Yeah, that's not the case with the Switch. I've been trying to get my hands on one and no store seems to be able to carry the damn thing long enough for me to get out of work and pick it up.

The demand is so high there is no time for these units to 'rot on the shelf'.
 
Nintendo would probably have sold triple that amount in the same timeframe if they actually kept up with demand instead of creating artificial shortages. But apparently Nintendo isn't in the business of wanting to print money anymore.
 
i still dont have a reason to buy it... BotW I bought it for the Wii U and yes it sucks bad at frame rate, it has improved a bit in a recent patch, and there are less slowdowns, but still.... then Mario Kart Deluxe? is the same MK8 with a big DLC included. No new race tracks, just some new items, characters and a new battle mode, and still for 60 bucks. Still not worith it.
 
Nintendo would probably have sold triple that amount in the same timeframe if they actually kept up with demand instead of creating artificial shortages. But apparently Nintendo isn't in the business of wanting to print money anymore.

Why release hardware when the 10 games due out for the system are still years away?
 
The Kyoto-based game giant, in announcing its Fiscal 2016 earnings, said the Switch has sold 2.74 million hardware units worldwide since its launch.

"The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" sold 2.76 million copies worldwide for the Switch.

I guess roughly 20,000 people bought BotW in hopes of eventually getting a Switch? That, or someone's numbers are off.

We'll see what happens with the Switch. I have hopes that we will see a Monster Hunter title as well as some others that I'd love to see be both portable and at a much higher resolution than the 3DS.
 
I guess roughly 20,000 people bought BotW in hopes of eventually getting a Switch? That, or someone's numbers are off.

We'll see what happens with the Switch. I have hopes that we will see a Monster Hunter title as well as some others that I'd love to see be both portable and at a much higher resolution than the 3DS.

I saw an article a while back that stated the same thing. Zelda for the Switch sold more than the Switch itself. My best guess is that people pre-ordered both and then retailers began to cancel Switch pre-orders due to stock issues and people went ahead and bought the game realizing they'd eventually get a Switch.

That or there are a lot of 'good faith' people emulating the game.......naaaah.
 
just curious how strong is it graphics wise compared to a Wii U? the few I have seen show the Wii U in better light
Well the new zelda dips down in the 20-30 fps range at times, so not great. Its marginally better than the WiiU
 
Well the new zelda dips down in the 20-30 fps range at times, so not great. Its marginally better than the WiiU

It's designed for 30 FPS max so if you're getting 30, that's good. Anything above that messes up the game speed/physics in some places.
 
It's actually a really fun console, my sister nabbed one at launch and I've been trying to find one since then. Forecasting another 10 mil sold over the next year, I can totally see that happening.
 
The question is: Will Nintendo be able to produce enough Switch consoles to satisfy consumer demand before a fully functional Switch emulator is developed?

Will be interesting to see.

I'm interested to see this as well. Since it's an ARM system, it seems like it should be much easier to emulate than the Wii and others. Then again, Denver cores do seem to require a particular style of code to fully utilize them so code that runs cleanly on the Switch might look like an awful mess on other hardware.
 
I can get a Nintendo Switch easily on this side of the Pacific. I cannot find a single PS4 pro over this side of the pacific though, and it's F-ing rare for something to be so hard to get. Even hard to get high end stuff (like the Maxwell nVidia cards) were really easy to get for me.

For comparison, I can STILL get Famicom and NES Classic for $100 each, and those are pretty much the prices they were available for at launch.
 
"Units shipped" is what companies reference to artificially inflate the numbers. How many units have actually been powered on and run Zelda or any game for that matter? This device, like every internet-connected device, obviously phones home tons of telemetry/data.

Nintendo has an exact sales figure and it is not the same as "units shipped".
 
My Nintendo stock has appreciated about 15% since January. Their price took a hit today upon the revelation that their profits didn't see much improvement, which is to be expected since the Switch's library is rather anemic at the moment.​
 
"Units shipped" is what companies reference to artificially inflate the numbers. How many units have actually been powered on and run Zelda or any game for that matter? This device, like every internet-connected device, obviously phones home tons of telemetry/data.

Nintendo has an exact sales figure and it is not the same as "units shipped".

Walk into a store and try to find one...
 
Walk into a store and try to find one...
Might not be an accurate figure on a global scale, I can, for example (on this side of the Pacific) walk in get a Switch pretty easily.

PS4 Pro OTOH is a completely different matter, which to the best of my knowledge your side has no supply issues.
 
I guess roughly 20,000 people bought BotW in hopes of eventually getting a Switch? That, or someone's numbers are off.

We'll see what happens with the Switch. I have hopes that we will see a Monster Hunter title as well as some others that I'd love to see be both portable and at a much higher resolution than the 3DS.

You have to remember collectors. Some will buy the game, just to hold onto it, in hopes it'll be worth more in like 4-5 years. You also will have Switch owners who will buy one to play and buy one for safe keeping.
 
My kneejerk assessment is that everyone wanted to play BOTW, so it sold a bunch of units, but since there's not much a game ecosystem beyond that, it doesn't have a robust future ahead of it.
 
My kneejerk assessment is that everyone wanted to play BOTW, so it sold a bunch of units, but since there's not much a game ecosystem beyond that, it doesn't have a robust future ahead of it.

I'll cop to that. I own a Switch and got it just to play Zelda (I don't have WiiU).

Total cost so far:
Gamestop Family Friendly Bundle - $459.99
- Switch Console
- Zelda: BoTW Deluxe (cart)
- Lego City: Undercover (cart)
- Has Been Heroes (digital)
Switch Pro Controller - $69.99
Carrying Case - $34.99
Then my wife demands that I find a way to make this console last years after I'm finished with Zelda....

SnipperClips - $19.99 (digital)
Human Resources Machine - $9.99 (digital)
PuyoPuyo Tetris - $8 (cart) (traded in the lego game)
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - $47.99 (cart) (Amazon prime)
Extra Set of JoyCon controllers - $79.99
Charging Grip - $29.99

Total cost to play the new Zelda... $760.92 + tax

And zero games on the horizon that I'm interested in, other than the new Mario.
 
First many said its no going to sell. Now its either its not really selling or selling but not because anybody wants it... So many are weird... We want change and different, when it happens.... Oh no give another me too console with call of duty #87 pre loaded
 
You have to remember collectors. Some will buy the game, just to hold onto it, in hopes it'll be worth more in like 4-5 years. You also will have Switch owners who will buy one to play and buy one for safe keeping.
Zelda is the worst game for a game collector to in hopes to turn a profit. Games made on a large scale never hold any value in the future. Their will probably 10 mil+ carts out there after it is all said and done. Just look at the NES Zelda games. The are worth shit. Even the rare grey carts are not worth much.
 
Zelda is the worst game for a game collector to in hopes to turn a profit. Games made on a large scale never hold any value in the future. Their will probably 10 mil+ carts out there after it is all said and done. Just look at the NES Zelda games. The are worth shit. Even the rare grey carts are not worth much.

Rocky Rodent for the SNES goes for like $3 bucks at used game store while Super Mario World goes for somewhere between $30-50.

Super Smash Bros. for the GameCube still goes for $50 and in rare cases I've seen local stores charge about $70 for it.

Those aren't necessarily profits but they do seem to hold most their value. There's a market for it but I think that people willing to wait that long for any kind of return are "nicher" than niche.
 
Im looking forward to finding my future switch in a pawnshop or on a local used site for half the retail price like I did with my xbox 360, xbox one and ps4. Granted I had to wait about 1-2 years after console launch but by then the game catalog is way better anyways lol
 
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