• 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.

UK: Nintendo Switch sales currently above XB1 for the year, but way below PS4

Maledict

Member
Its consistently Nintendo weakest marker, though.

Not at all. DS and Wii both sold insanely well over here. I think the DS even holds the weekly sales record or something.

The Uk is a very flexible market - one generation it might be Nintendo, then ms, then Sony. Price factors a lot into decision making more than brand loyalty I'd say.
 

Instro

Member
Interesting that it is ahead this year and launch aligned. The latter statement is pretty significant for Nintendo, particularly considering shortages are a problem even in that market.
 

Zedark

Member
I think it's time for Nintendo to try to cater British gamers. The mainstream British gamers are into serious and mature games, colorful and cheerful nature of Nintendo games are not exactly their thing. Maybe Nintendo should create their own sports line? They have the support of a very talented sports game dev, Next Level Games, and a great racing game dev, Monster. They should make use of their talents but they need to do that without being a direct competitor of EA. People would ignore a third yearly soccer game and a NFS wannabe. Their offerings must be different but yet attractive to English fans.

If I were them, I'd make a licensed Fifa Soccer style extreme soccer game and a licensed Burnout/Flatout style racing game. Realistic games but still have a touch of Nintendo magic.

Since they are likely going to get FIFA for a while longer (unless it bombs to high heavens, god forbid), their focus, in pleasing the British crowd, should be on gathering shooters for the Switch. Maybe they can position Metroid Prime 4 just right for this, kind of like how Microsoft did with Halo. That said, third party shooter support is most important: they need to get games like Ghost Recon Wildlands, Farcry etc. on their system somehow, otherwise they will have already lost.
 

oti

Banned
Xbox one x was announced over a year ago, not surprised at the slow down amongst gaming fwns. Switch is a new console that had a console launch this year. should be beating the ps4 at this point

No.

UK is Nintendo's most difficult market.
The PS4 had some of the most successful video games of this year so far. Both Horizon and Crash are PS4 exclusives and Ghost Recon Wildlands is on PS4 too.
 

EmiPrime

Member
Xbox one x was announced over a year ago, not surprised at the slow down amongst gaming fwns. Switch is a new console that had a console launch this year. should be beating the ps4 at this point

Most One X sales are going to be from upgraders, not new owners.

Switch has had constant shortages while the PS4 has a massive retail presence and has established itself as the mainstream console purchase. Also has had promotions of £200 with a game.
 
Its consistently Nintendo weakest marker, though.
Not really. The UK is probably the most flexible of all the markets, it's very fluid. If Nintendo released the right console and got the right support it would be the best seller there.

Anywho i was talking ps v xbox.
 
Seems decent considering how tough of a market the UK has been for Nintendo really since the DS/Wii days. And yes, UK is a strong Sony market. Maybe not that much last generation, but certainly now (then again, just about every market is really strong for PS4).
 

Renna Hazel

Member
Xbox one x was announced over a year ago, not surprised at the slow down amongst gaming fwns. Switch is a new console that had a console launch this year. should be beating the ps4 at this point
I don't think any console's best year has ever been it's first one. Launch year isn't an advantage here.
 
Doesn't look like switch is going to have an impact on PS4 sales. They're very different in terms of software so it shouldn't be a surprise.
 

cw_sasuke

If all DLC came tied to $13 figurines, I'd consider all DLC to be free
For main consoles anyway - we're a sucker for handhelds though, which may be working in Switch's favour.

Erm no....even portable market wise that market is smaller in relative numbers compared to Nintendos other strong markets like US;JPN, France and Germany.
 

Jezbollah

Member
It's not.

UK is (normally) MS' 2nd best territory afaik, and is generally just a very price sensitive / FIFA sensitive territory.

In the 360 days UK was massive for MS I believe.

I'd disagree with that. UKers tend to go with the value option.

PS2 was clearly the console of choice - then the 360 came around, was seen as a better value console vs the £425 PS3 - and now PS4 has retaken the "crown".

It seems this country looks at value and what other gamers friends gravitate to - between console generations it really is a toss up here.
 
No.

UK is Nintendo's most difficult market.
The PS4 had some of the most successful video games of this year so far. Both Horizon and Crash are PS4 exclusives and Ghost Recon Wildlands is on PS4 too.
Wii amd ds both did wonderful in the uk. That is not true
 

timberger

Member
Fancy that... and there was me getting all kinds of abuse not too long ago for daring to suggest Switch could kick XB1 into last place this gen.
 

Lonely1

Unconfirmed Member
Not at all. DS and Wii both sold insanely well over here. I think the DS even holds the weekly sales record or something.

The Uk is a very flexible market - one generation it might be Nintendo, then ms, then Sony. Price factors a lot into decision making more than brand loyalty I'd say.

But the DS&Wii did that everywhere. ;)
 

Loudninja

Member
PS4 did have a two month head start, and no stock issues.

That said, Switch is fully in stock now in the UK - even discounted today. So the week-to-week sales numbers will be more interesting at this point. Not that we get any.

The biggest issue Switch faces in the UK is the lack of retail exposure. After Wii U completely bombed to Atari Lynx levels in the UK, the Nintendo shelf space in supermarkets and other retail stores dramatically reduced, almost becoming on-existent in many stores. And Switch hasn't changed that much.

Eh? Except the entirety of last gen when Sony was behind both Nintendo and Microsoft.
No stock issues?
 

zelas

Member
Not at all. DS and Wii both sold insanely well over here. I think the DS even holds the weekly sales record or something.

The Uk is a very flexible market - one generation it might be Nintendo, then ms, then Sony. Price factors a lot into decision making more than brand loyalty I'd say.
People always seem to forget those for some reason.
 

Celine

Member
I guess XB1 isn't much more successful in the UK than in Japan, so this statement doesn't really tell us anything.
lol you do realize XB1 is the worst selling console in two decades and struggling to hit a LTD of 100K in Japan.
UK is XB1 second strongest market.
 
Not at all. DS and Wii both sold insanely well over here. I think the DS even holds the weekly sales record or something.

The Uk is a very flexible market - one generation it might be Nintendo, then ms, then Sony. Price factors a lot into decision making more than brand loyalty I'd say.

Yup.

2010: DS and Wii shatter Euro records

2009: DS breaks UK games console sales record


2008: DS breaks UK hardware sales record

2007: DS smashes UK hardware record (again)

2007: DS sets new UK sales record
 
It's on the shelves at most stores I have visited. It's even in stock at Amazon and has been for some months now. They even had a price slash on it recently, hardly an indicator of bumper sales.
Hasn't been months looking on Amazon - have seen it consistently sold out with delivery dates later into the month.

But even so, readily available.
 
I'd disagree with that. UKers tend to go with the value option.

PS2 was clearly the console of choice - then the 360 came around, was seen as a better value console vs the £425 PS3 - and now PS4 has retaken the "crown".

It seems this country looks at value and what other gamers friends gravitate to - between console generations it really is a toss up here.

I feel like that's true in every market. Hell the Switch being above the Xbox One and below the PS4 is probably true in every market except for maybe Japan.
 
MS just don't "get it". Or they don't care and are sacrificing Xbox for Windows. Almost every decision was made with the mindset of "how can this benefit Windows 8, then 10.
 
Switch won't be a replacement for PS4 in anyone's mind as long as the third party offerings are not available on it. Only once that starts to happen can we start to think about the Switch impacting PS4 sales imo.

And why would the Switch has the edge over the PS4?
 

ianpm31

Member
Yeah, as long as third parties don't come to Switch PS4 will continue to sell like it does.

Won't make a difference. PS brand is stronger than Nintendo on the console front and always have been (Wii is the exception. Only nintendo console to cross 100 million).
 
Wii and DS both did wonderfully ABSOLUETELY EVERYWHERE.

Besides, what is your point anyway? It's the year 2017, not 2007.

You were implying that because DS and Wii were a global success, that success in the UK was guaranteed. This isn't true at all - Nintendo invested much more heavily in Europe that generation. There are interviews with bosses of NoE, back in 2005, which indicated that Nintendo would finally take Europe seriously. They also invested heavily on UK-centric marketing that generation for games like Mario Kart Wii, 42 All Time Classics, Hotel Dusk, Dragon Quest IX and so on.
 
Top Bottom