Well the NES and SNES were a different bag. In those gens, Nintendo had a good, affordable console with a solid library of games. Back then, that alone was revolutionary, so they essentially created the market out of thin air and then reaped those benefits. I guess the Switch is the same in the sense that Nintendo struck when the iron was hottest - 2017 was the perfect time to make and release a handheld/TV hybrid console. The tech was just strong enough and just affordable enough to make the concept work, but there weren’t really any competitors yet. Fast forward to 2024 and now we have the Steam Deck and all of its copycats eating that lunch a little, but when the Switch came out, there was nothing else quite like it.
I’m not sure the NES was affordable per se. On release, it cost about $500 in today’s money. And then you had to buy games at extra cost. In a world where you could go to an arcade with your pocket money and have a decent amount of fun, I don’t think it was a great value proposition in the eyes of many.
Well the NES and SNES were a different bag. In those gens, Nintendo had a good, affordable console with a solid library of games. Back then, that alone was revolutionary, so they essentially created the market out of thin air and then reaped those benefits. I guess the Switch is the same in the sense that Nintendo struck when the iron was hottest - 2017 was the perfect time to make and release a handheld/TV hybrid console. The tech was just strong enough and just affordable enough to make the concept work, but there weren’t really any competitors yet. Fast forward to 2024 and now we have the Steam Deck and all of its copycats eating that lunch a little, but when the Switch came out, there was nothing else quite like it.
I’m not sure the NES was affordable per se. On release, it cost about $500 in today’s money. And then you had to buy games at extra cost. In a world where you could go to an arcade with your pocket money and have a decent amount of fun, I don’t think it was a great value proposition in the eyes of many.