The hybrid console has elapsed more than 100 million copies since 2017. These sales are still far from the records of the DS and Playstation 2.
Le Monde
While the switch is preparing to celebrate its fifth anniversary, the demand for the hybrid console does not run out of steam. Nintendo announced, Thursday, February 3, that the number of sales of its last console had just exceeded that of the Wii , marketed between 2006 and 2013, with just over 103 million copies sold – more than 6 million on the French market.
The detachable controlled console is thus on the third place of the best sellers of the Japanese firm, behind the Gameboy and the DS, who have elapsed at 118 million and 154 million copies. It is also far from the best-selling console title from the market, still held by PlayStation 2 (155 million copies between 2000 and 2012).
Nintendo took care to lengthen the life of the switch by adding to its range a new model with an OLED screen in October. The console, however, knows a number of technical limitations because of its age, for example the absence of a resolution 4K when connected to a TV and a processor that starts to date. It has also been criticized because of its controllers that can be defective in the long term, some indicator appear an anomaly in the operation of a joystick nicknamed “Joycon Drift”.
No studio buyback planned
Far from being diedardized by the new generation machines that are the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series, this console will still remain in the foreground in this year 2022 because of its rich ludography and promising productions. Legends Pokémon: Arceus, available since January 28, offers a new breath at this appreciated franchise. As for Zelda’s continuation: Breath of the Wild (2017), a title that has sold more than 25 million copies, this is one of the most anticipated video games of the year 2022.
While the videoludic industry is experiencing unprecedented consolidation after the redemption of the Microsoft Activision Blizzard (Xbox) publisher for almost $ 70 billion or that of Bungie by Sony (PlayStation) for 3.6 billion Dollars, Nintendo does not intend to follow the path of its rivals. Its President, Shuntaro Furukawa, thus meant in a press conference , Thursday, February 3, that it was not in its plans of “suddenly integrate [to His company] people who have not integrated the way of thinking of Nintendo “. An amazing positioning so much it is true to the Nintendo edition strategy for several decades, which consists in keeping a strong control over its exclusive licenses.