Last year, due to supply chain crises, unstable demand and other factors, Nintendo's Swtich sales fell to a certain extent. But with the beginning of 2023 and the release of first-party IP game masterpieces such as "Pokémon Vermilion" and "Tears of the Kingdom", Switch's sales have begun to pick up. According to Nintendo's financial report, the Switch has sold a total of 125.62 million units until the Q1 quarter of 2023, which is not easy for a product that has been on sale for more than seven years.
At present, the Switch can create about 3 million sales per quarter, and although it is difficult to challenge the Nintendo DS with 154 million sales at such a growth rate, it can now stand third in the console sales list. (The figure below is as of the end of 2022)
The Nintendo Switch can be said to be a very successful console. On the one hand, it has been listed for nearly seven years, and sales can still go high; On the other hand, the next generation of Nintendo consoles (tentatively named Switch 2) is expected to be announced after April next year, and Switch sales have not declined significantly when the old and new are alternating. So people can't help but ask, can the successful model of Nintendo Switch be copied by other handhelds?
The game handheld enters the fight
In the past two years, many game handheld products have been born in the digital circle, in addition to the well-known Steam Deck, there is also the new ROG handheld. As the product of the cross-border combination of handheld game consoles and game books, these handheld products are not only much more radical than Switch, but also can seamlessly connect with players' existing PC game libraries, and can even be compatible with community content such as mods and mods, modifiers, etc., and putting Steam games in your pocket is no longer just talk.
However, at the moment, neither the Steam Deck nor the ROG handheld is too successful, because they cannot escape one fate: being rolled up by latecomers. For example, after the release of the ROG handheld, the hardware level of Steam Deck was comprehensively compared, although the price of the ROG handheld is also an indisputable fact, but for gamers who are not bad money, it is obviously a new choice, which also affects the sales of Steam Deck.
If there is no accident, the subsequent ROG handheld will also fall into the fate of being rolled. According to the revelations, Lenovo Savior and Nubia Red Devils also have plans to develop handhelds. The handheld products behind must have stronger hardware performance and more fragrant prices, and they can only be popular for ROG handhelds. As the saying goes, "three monks have no water to eat", when the market falls into involution, even if the major brands can share the cake, they will take it very hard.
The outbreak of the handheld market will not hit the Switch
Although it is also a handheld, the release of Steam Deck and other game handheld phones has not significantly affected the sales of Switch. The reason is that the Switch and other handheld machines are two different tracks. First of all, the games currently supported by Windows handheld are mainly derived from Steam, and the number of games completely crushes the Switch. But Windows handheld can be played, PC computers can also play, not to mention 3A masterpieces such as "Red Dead Redemption" and "GTA5", the picture quality itself is also part of the fun of the game, only on PC can be played more enjoyable.
On the contrary, Switch has exclusive first-party masterpieces, and if you want to play "Pokémon", "Zelda", "Mario", etc., you can only obediently start Switch. And the old Ren's game, not paying attention to the picture quality at all, is basically cartoon style, compared to the PC side of their game fun mainly comes from the gameplay.
Another point is that the PC handheld cannot balance the three iron triangles of performance, portability and price. Like the ROG handheld, the performance is top, but the price of 4999 yuan is about to catch up with an RTX3060 all-rounder. Like the Steam Deck, the performance is a little weaker, but the price also starts at 3199 yuan. Looking at the Switch side, the OLED version is probably less than 2,000 yuan to start.
epilogue
In general, in the current handheld market, Switch is still a monopoly. Other manufacturers, if they do not have exclusive resources, will inevitably fall into the track of rolling hardware, what do you say?