111
New report suggests third-party Switch 2 game sales are "below estimates"
(www.gamesindustry.biz)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2025
111 points (100.0% liked)
Games
39818 readers
793 users here now
Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.
Rules
1. Submissions have to be related to games
Video games, tabletop, or otherwise. Posts not related to games will be deleted.
This community is focused on games, of all kinds. Any news item or discussion should be related to gaming in some way.
2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil
No bigotry, hardline stance. Try not to get too heated when entering into a discussion or debate.
We are here to talk and discuss about one of our passions, not fight or be exposed to hate. Posts or responses that are hateful will be deleted to keep the atmosphere good. If repeatedly violated, not only will the comment be deleted but a ban will be handed out as well. We judge each case individually.
3. No excessive self-promotion
Try to keep it to 10% self-promotion / 90% other stuff in your post history.
This is to prevent people from posting for the sole purpose of promoting their own website or social media account.
4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts
This community is mostly for discussion and news. Remember to search for the thing you're submitting before posting to see if it's already been posted.
We want to keep the quality of posts high. Therefore, memes, funny videos, low-effort posts and reposts are not allowed. We prohibit giveaways because we cannot be sure that the person holding the giveaway will actually do what they promise.
5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW
Make sure to mark your stuff or it may be removed.
No one wants to be spoiled. Therefore, always mark spoilers. Similarly mark NSFW, in case anyone is browsing in a public space or at work.
6. No linking to piracy
Don't share it here, there are other places to find it. Discussion of piracy is fine.
We don't want us moderators or the admins of lemmy.world to get in trouble for linking to piracy. Therefore, any link to piracy will be removed. Discussion of it is of course allowed.
Authorized Regular Threads
Related communities
PM a mod to add your own
Video games
Generic
- !gaming@Lemmy.world: Our sister community, focused on PC and console gaming. Meme are allowed.
- !photomode@feddit.uk: For all your screenshots needs, to share your love for games graphics.
- !vgmusic@lemmy.world: A community to share your love for video games music
Help and suggestions
By platform
By type
- !AutomationGames@lemmy.zip
- !Incremental_Games@incremental.social
- !LifeSimulation@lemmy.world
- !CityBuilders@sh.itjust.works
- !CozyGames@Lemmy.world
- !CRPG@lemmy.world
- !OtomeGames@ani.social
- !Shmups@lemmus.org
- !VisualNovels@ani.social
By games
- !Baldurs_Gate_3@lemmy.world
- !Cities_Skylines@lemmy.world
- !CassetteBeasts@Lemmy.world
- !Fallout@lemmy.world
- !FinalFantasyXIV@lemmy.world
- !Minecraft@Lemmy.world
- !NoMansSky@lemmy.world
- !Palia@Lemmy.world
- !Pokemon@lemm.ee
- !Skyrim@lemmy.world
- !StardewValley@lemm.ee
- !Subnautica2@Lemmy.world
- !WorkersAndResources@lemmy.world
Language specific
- !JeuxVideo@jlai.lu: French
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
It's really too early to extract much of anything out of this.
Why? The console just launched. One would expect the initial sales numbers - both consoles and games - to be incredibly valuable information at this stage. Opening weeks are measured for like…every product launch
As the article says, the numbers especially matter in the context of the consoles sales numbers, which are incredibly high.
It's too early to draw any conclusions. Take it from Mat Piscatella, who's forgotten more about video game market research than I ever learned myself.
Hardware launches are not like game releases, anyway. It's the establishment of a new product market, and early game releases on consoles have an ebb and flow to them that later blockbusters do not. It's about building growth, not first-week sales.
Nintendo
Switch
“New product market”? Only in the most literal sense of the term. Functionally those rules do not apply at all. I mean come on, it’s called “Switch 2,” the sequel to a must-buy system.
This is a company that has been dropping consoles for almost half a century and still ends up in millions of homes when they fail. “Nintendo” is synonymous with “video games.” The switch Is literally one of the most successful video game hardware releases in history. When it comes to Nintendo, conventional wisdom does not apply. As evidenced by the unbelievable abuse their fans will endure sometimes.
Nintendo gets all these caveats and generous interpretations. If this was a new Xbox (definitely) or PlayStation (maybe) we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. People would just assume Microsoft or Sony fucked up. We’d be pointing and laughing and cheering on their demise.
All the more reason why it's far too early to draw any conclusions.
It depends on why it doesn’t apply. You can’t just throw out some little flippant answer like that and act like you made a point of any substance.
There are sales expectations during product launches, and in the video game world when you’re selling a console there is a ratio of console to games that is expected. A notable example where people saw the same trend was the PS3, because people were buying it as an (at the time) affordable Blu-ray player with little to no intention of buying games. So in that case conventional wisdom did not apply, and this wasn’t apparent at first, so they had to figure out what was going on.
The point is nobody is saying Nintendo is doomed, but they’re saying that third-party sales are pretty far south of where they expected, which is concerning. That could always change, but as of now, it is clearly a note worthy data point. I don’t know why you feel this need to downplay it but it’s unwarranted and kind of strange. If I were Nintendo I would at least start lightly probing as to what is going on and at the very least keep close eyes on it in the coming weeks to see if the trend doesn’t reverse.
Just like “the fastest selling video game console launch in history“ matters, “lagging third-party title sales” matters too. Unless Nintendo is not allowed to brag about how many units they’ve sold initially because that data point, apparently, is not meaningful to you/too early? I would certainly disagree with that, but it’s pretty consistent with what you’ve argued so far.
It will be valuable information when we have more data points to compare it against later. The console's high initial sales may very well have little to do with anything except how many Nintendo had available, for instance. It could do Wii U numbers (unlikely), or it could be a mega success, or anything in between. The third party sales might be reflective of the fact that the games are all older and available on other platforms, or it could be that customers are strapped for cash after a higher console purchase price, or any of a number of other reasons. I would just encourage people not to make a narrative out of this yet.
It will be valuable then, and what we have is valuable now. I don’t understand why you’re acting like it’s some sort of either/or situation.