Rev wrote:Honestly, I'm wondering if Nintendo is going to try and build hype by having small quantities of consoles available. They have done this with amiibos and the nes classic, it wouldn't surprise me if they pulled this tactic on their console to try and build hype and demand...
That's exactly what they'll do. They are launching in all regions at once. There's no way they can meet demand of a single territory by spreading out a million consoles between multiple regions.
However, and this is the kicker, this thing is going to flounder after it initially sells out.
$300 as a portable is too much. And if you want it as a console, well, you'll want to add a second controller which is either $80 or $70 depending on what you're getting. And even if it's the $80 2 joy-cons, do you have to also buy the $15 joy-pad holder thing? So, does that actually make adding an extra controller $95?
That's freaking nuts.
As for the online side of things, why would anyone pay for online play when there are no games other than Bomberman that will be online? Am I missing something? And the ability to get a SNES game to play for a month is certainly not worth $60 a year. That's nuts.
This thing is dead before it starts.
If one does the math on the docking station ($90) plus ($80) for the controller that's $170, which makes the tablet $130. So...someone is making a huge profit on the docking station or the tablet is really cheap and could be sold by itself without the controllers...
In my humble opinion Nintendo is pricing themselves out of the very market that they really need. They've stayed profitable by offering portables to families for their kids. At $300 that seems a wee bit of a stretch. Although, what do I know. I see tons of kids with iPads at $500 a pop so maybe I'm just an old fuddy duddy and a cheap one at that.
5 games at launch smells like the Sega Saturn launch 20 years ago. The games aren't ready which is crazy considering they've had years to work on it.
It's going to be interesting to see if they'll drop anchor on the 3DS and go full bore on this one or continue to split their teams to focus on 3DS and Switch at the same time.
Looking at the numbers one last time. If they were to offer a Switch/Controller only option at $210 ($130 estimated Switch + $80 controller) they'd do great. But that ain't going to happen as the $130 isn't the real cost/price of the Switch itself.