• mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    You wanna look at sales numbers and say that again?

    The Switch may have sold more units last month than the Steam Deck sold last year.

    That said, Nintendo would not lose any money porting their games to other platforms. Their whole deal is pursuing “incomparable advantages.” Which from 2017 until 2022 included being a handheld gaming console, like a tablet with buttons. Still not sure how they were alone in that market.

    The big reason their gizmo flies off shelves is that it’s a generic compiler target for existing multiplatform games. There’s some hardware-specific cheats involved, but it’s generic smartphone hardware, so ehhh. Wolfenstein looked awful until Panic Button googled “ASTC,” but now it’s as good as 720p can manage, on $200 worth of neon plastic.

    The PS5 and Xbox Whatever are not in that market. They are not competing. And despite being in competition with each other, Microsoft knows they can make a shitload of money selling their games on the other generic AMD laptop, because even with a horrific 30% cut as the standard, 70% > 30%.

    What Nintendo’s going to make another zillion dollars on is some wacky bullshit that makes everyone go ‘why the fuck would they do that?!’ and categorically does not work on anyone else’s hardware. Sony had the chance to do that with VR and whiffed. Microsoft, AR, same deal. Nintendo themselves screw it up about half the time. But they’re sitting on a pile of money you could mistake for Mount Fuji, and honestly, Steam’s biggest advantage is that all their direct competitors are incompetent.

    • stardust@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      I do wonder how sales would be impacted if they ported on PC, since tech savvy people are already jailbreaking the switch or emulating the games. Would they make more or less money if they decided to start offering their games to people who will buy them, but don’t want to get a Nintendo console.

      I’m guessing most Nintendo users are ones who prefer the simplicity of Nintendo devices. So wouldn’t expect a large percentage of PC and Nintendo console owners to make up their overall userbase.