And that came with a choice of a free game if people still remember.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Nintendo Switch Was the Best-Selling Video Game System in April; Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- Thread starter ggx2ac
- Start date
And that came with a choice of a free game if people still remember.
That's very impressive. In Japan MK8D's also hot on the heels of MK8, very impressive.
Little Monser
Banned
Obliterator
Member
Not great to be honest.
ThatRandomCliff
Member
Good for MK8
. Hopefully they can start pumping out more systems.
. Hopefully they can start pumping out more systems.
why did MK8 come with a free game?
Skittzo0413
Member
Because they wanted people to buy it (and the Wii U itself). And it worked pretty well.
Not as well as actual desirable hardware though.
No. No, no, no, no.
If Nintendo wants to go all-out with their new console, they need to manufacture enough of them to fill market demand. Whether their previous console flopped or not is irrelevant.
THE most important thing for a console is to sell as many of them as possible, as early as possible, in order to create a market for the software.
According to Wikipedia:
- the Wii sold 600k in its first 8 days, in the Americas only.
- the Wii sold 3.19 million worldwide in its first 6 weeks (11/19/2006 to 12/31/2006).
- the Wii sold 5.84 million worldwide by the end of 1Q 2007.
- the Wii sold 20.13 million worldwide by the end of 2007.
THAT is what created the insane market for Wii software. And while Wii shortages seemed to be everywhere back then, look at these numbers of units! They were obviously cranking out as many as they could...over 20 million shipped and sold in the first 14 months of release.
This would not have happened if Nintendo lacked the confidence in their product to produce over 20 million of them in that first year. Now, I'm not going to pretend that the console market of 2017 is the same as that of 2007. But seeing that demand is strong worldwide, why should the Nintendo of today have significantly less confidence in Switch than they had in Wii?
Your numbers presented here are pretty useless, since Reggie said Switch outpaced the Wii in the Americas, and Switch will be currently around 3.5 million after 2 months, which compared favourable with the 5.84 million after 5 months for the Wii. It's what comes after the current numbers that is important.
Switch has had great shipments during its first month, and much less impressive shipments during its second month. We know that they sped up shipments during March, and most likely that hurt numbers for April to some degree too. At this point, the numbers need to go up from this result in order to be considered good, but at this point I don't think you can say they are fucking up completely, though I wouldn't call it completely up to snuff either.
That isnt that far off of what they will ship for Switch for the first 14 months. The Wii was sold out for several months if not years. They cranked up the production gradually. Their forcast for Switxh is already at 10 million for the coming 12 months and that is a conservative estimate. They will produce more and with how the sales are going they will surely ship more then 10 million.
460k physical, 90k digital, so >5 : 1. What's not reasonable about that?
Proof of this?
Kageshinzo
Member
Maybe you should send them your resume. You seem to be an expert on magically increasing supplies.
Lol, no you won't. But your "concern" has been noted.
GifGafIsTheBestGaf
Member
please port the super mario bros, 3d and mario maker. thank you
JrBaconCheeseburger
Member
Do they not want to capitalize on the good press and momentum they have?
Why not have enough?
Why not have enough?
WhatWeLeftBehind
Member
It's quite baffling to see so many people say that 280k is bad, especially since this the first time in SIX YEARS that a platform has been able to reach those numbers in the U.S.
3DS, Vita, Wii U, PS4, Xbox One. None of those have reached sales of 280k in April. Add in to this that Switch is supply constrained and this is a pretty good number. (whilst at the same time showing how much Nintendo needs to work to let supply catch up to the demand)
Get ready folks, come later this summer we'll be seeing the Switch take off in a way that the PS4 could only dream off.
3DS, Vita, Wii U, PS4, Xbox One. None of those have reached sales of 280k in April. Add in to this that Switch is supply constrained and this is a pretty good number. (whilst at the same time showing how much Nintendo needs to work to let supply catch up to the demand)
Get ready folks, come later this summer we'll be seeing the Switch take off in a way that the PS4 could only dream off.
Skittzo0413
Member
The Switch is (EDIT: I think? I thought I saw someone earlier in this thread show those numbers) actually outpacing the Wii in the US, and it's likely on par or doing a fair bit better worldwide too. That Wii number by the end of 2007 has the benefit of having two holiday seasons, so I don't see the Switch getting to those numbers, but launch aligned by the end of 2017 I could see the Switch having sold more than the Wii after its first 10 months.
That does put it in perspective a bit, though it is the second month of a console's lifetime so you'd expect higher than average shipments.
There could have been more if they didn't airlift the shipments that came from the March launch.
Its not magic it's a manufactured product. Nintendo is directly responsible for how many are ordered to be made and shipped.
Zee Giesbrecht
Member
I need it to go sell badly so I get a price drop :/ Then it can sell millions again!
There's no middle ground on these switch threads. Either its going to fail, or it's going to put Wii to shame.
Kageshinzo
Member
Nintendo already made an order to the manufacturer/s for X number of products before the launch. The problem was that they severely underestimated the demand which, if you consider what they did with its predecessor, was understandable (simple explanation: there was an overstock of Wii U just festering in shelves right after launch). They already said they are ramping up production but as anyone who remotely has any idea of how manufacturing works knows, this won't be evident at least until the summer months or even the holidays.
Welfare
Member
Switch First Two Months: 1186K
March: 906K
April: 280K
3DS First Two months: 592K
March: 398K
April: 194K
3DS First 6 months: 1175K
Wii U First 2 Months: 885K
Wii U First 6 Months: 1187K
Wii First 2 Months: 1080K
DS First 2 Months: 1225K
If you're going to steal this to put on Twitter please credit!
March: 906K
April: 280K
3DS First Two months: 592K
March: 398K
April: 194K
3DS First 6 months: 1175K
Wii U First 2 Months: 885K
Wii U First 6 Months: 1187K
Wii First 2 Months: 1080K
DS First 2 Months: 1225K
If you're going to steal this to put on Twitter please credit!
Schattendorfer
Neo Member
Skittzo0413
Member
I mean, it's very likely that they are holding back (or will begin to) a small amount of stock to allow them to ship much higher numbers during the holiday season. But that's probably happening exactly because of the reason you said- it's not possible to massively ramp up production immediately or just for a 2 month period.
7DollarHagane
Banned
Get used to hearing this for a while.
As I said on the last page:
So before launch they didn't expect to break records like this. And no one really did (there are threads full of crow that show that). So when they said they would increase production, they probably did but it takes a few months until you will see the results of that.
Don't know where you are looking but in Belgium it's still sold out in most places (coolblue, bol.com, game mania). So is Amazon in DE, FR, UK and ES.
amazon.it has them in stock but they don't ship here (don't know what countries they do ship to).
Chill Penguin
Member
Great news, switch is well on its way to being a runaway success. And what a beast Mario Kart is, unstoppable franchise.
Context for anyone reading this, this is the best comparison to make because other console launches were in the holidays.
Plus, 1.32 million 3DS units were shipped to the Americas on launch month. Probably 1 million were just for the US. That shows how badly overstocked the 3DS was.
That is basically the point I was making. I was refuting the comment that said "they should be conservative because the Wii U flopped." No, no they shouldn't. Seeing this high demand, they need to double down, just as they did with Wii.
Days like these...
Have a Blessed Day
I don't believe Nintendo is hiding back stock. What would be the point in holding back stock for the holiday season? Isn't it more important to build up a base?
kitchenmotors
Banned
Not this shit again.
They're not a toy company, that's just trying to label them something while acting like the other two are above it all.
And the shortages aren't artificial. Educate yourself.
Version 3.0
Member
No reason not to go big with predictions. It's not as if they ever come up later. I mean, from time to time, someone will say "I called it", myself included. And no one cares. So might as well go big and be wrong.
Anyway, these numbers are fine. The launch was a huge home run, and Mario Kart has kept interest high. They need more units, obviously, but they still have time to provide them without risking interest falling much.
The only bad thing about these numbers is that they're going to feed the "artificial demand" trolls and idiots.
Skittzo0413
Member
Huh? No one's telling them to continue with low shipments now, we're just saying they were understandably conservative during the leadup to launch due to the issues with the Wii U. Also they likely have doubled down (literally) according to that WSJ article. And they're still outpacing the Wii in the US, with a March launch nonetheless.
I would think all console makers do this to an extent. It's probably far cheaper and easier to hold back a percentage of all produced stock (1-2%?) over the year in order to have far higher shipments for the holidays than it is to just temporarily ramp up production in the months leading up to the holidays. That's just my speculation though, I don't know for sure.
Alright, I agree with that. But I don't think most of the people here were referring to right now when they said Nintendo would be conservative, but rather to before the launch. As many have said, ramping up production takes time, so even if they recognise the demand is there, it'll take some months before a higher steady supply line has been established. It all depends on when exactly they decided to up production, which is something we don't know unfortunately (though we do know that they are increasing production, as Kimishima said so to investors).
They don't need to do that, when orders from retailers slow down then they end up with stock to put into inventory because their production is independent of retail orders.
They don't need to hold back stock when it's in their best interests to fulfill demand now.
Watching too much Jim Sterling I see.
nextgeneration
Member
There is no apple to apple comparisons here, so I'll just list out the 2nd month's sales and the first April's sales for these systems. Unfortunately, I only have numbers for these systems. Maybe someone else can fill in the others that I'm missing?
2nd month sales
Xbox - 690,817 (December)
Wii - 604,200 (December)
GC - 558,200 (December)
PS3 - 490,700 (December)
360 - 281,441 (December)
Switch - 280,000+ (April)
PS2 - 187,554 (November)
Note that all these other systems' 2nd month sales were during the holidays, the biggest selling months of the year. Switch's 2nd month was April.
1st April Sales
Wii - 360,000
PS2 - 326,014
360 - 295,000
Switch - 280,000+
PS3 - 82,000
GC - 81,195
Xbox - 77,457
These numbers are from my own spreadsheet, when NPD actually reported numbers.
2nd month sales
Xbox - 690,817 (December)
Wii - 604,200 (December)
GC - 558,200 (December)
PS3 - 490,700 (December)
360 - 281,441 (December)
Switch - 280,000+ (April)
PS2 - 187,554 (November)
Note that all these other systems' 2nd month sales were during the holidays, the biggest selling months of the year. Switch's 2nd month was April.
1st April Sales
Wii - 360,000
PS2 - 326,014
360 - 295,000
Switch - 280,000+
PS3 - 82,000
GC - 81,195
Xbox - 77,457
These numbers are from my own spreadsheet, when NPD actually reported numbers.
Kageshinzo
Member
There's no sense holding back stock for the holidays when it's still 8 months away, especially it the product is currently selling like hot cake.