A bold claim, I know but I have my reason as to why I believe that Nintendo, the game company that no one wants to consider a threat, is the biggest competition to Sony’s Playstation and not Xbox.
There is no denying that the Nintendo Switch has been performing exceptionally well, outperforming all expectations and more. Everyday, whether it be indie or triple A title, there’s always new games available on their ever expanding library. Especially the indie titles, which has been reported to sell significantly better on the Switch than on the Steam/PC platform. Which makes sense, as playing these indies just feels more natural on a handheld than it does on PC.
Not only that, Nintendo has dominated the Japanese market, a place where most people aren’t staying at home very long period of time and are accustomed to traveling and moving about via public transport. Of course, the Switch also has a strong market place in the Western world, which only serves to boost their influences. And with their recent policy attitude when it comes to mature games, Nintendo seems to be making all the right moves to appeal to a more hard-core demographic. Nintendo has stated that they’re letting the ERSB handle all of that stuff when it comes to how a game should be rated, and have already provided parents with tools to ensure that their kids don’t play the games that they don’t won’t them to play.
Basically, Nintendo is saying to parents to take some fucking responsibility! Which I appreciate a lot. They don’t want the creative freedom of their developers and indie partners to be stifled by them.
Meanwhile, Sony on the other hand has had a change of heart when it comes to mature contents, especially on the anime side of things. Now don’t get me wrong here, games that depict small anime girls that are clearly kids should be removed. But they’re attempting to censor all mature stuff that show boobs or other explicit content seems a bit extreme. What’s even funnier is that, they still have no problem when it comes to violence in game. Their decision seems to be influenced by fear legal and social action. If you ask me, it sound like Sony is actually afraid of these social outrages we’ve been seeing a lot of, while Nintendo seems to not give two fucks about it.
And added to the fact that Sony has come out and said that they don’t consider Nintendo a threat because they appeal to young kids, is quite foolish considering the appeal that the Switch has on grown adults is undeniably strong. And to say that Xbox is their only threat is a bit short-sighted. Nintendo has proven that they can release top quality games that are fun to play and compelling, proving that you don’t necceassry need the most powerful hardware to create the best gaming experience. If that were to be the case, people would just people PC. It’s the games that sell the console, so I’d be careful if I were Sony.