NPD Group analyst, Mat Piscatella, has revealed that the company’s PlayerPulse surveys found that over 40 percent of Nintendo Switch owners in the US also own a PlayStation 4 and/or Xbox One. According to Piscatella, this indicates that the Switch is “supplemental” to Sony and Microsoft’s consoles.
In a tweet (that has since been deleted, for some reason), Piscatella wrote:
According to our PlayerPulse surveys, over 40% of Switch owners in the US also own a PS4 and/or an Xbox One. Switch isn’t a substitute to PS or Xbox, it’s supplemental. I don’t see next gen hardware launches having a meaningful direct cannibalistic impact on Switch sales in ’20.
For clarity, supplemental in this context means supplemental purchase (additive/incremental). This term does not refer to player preference.
Piscatella’s comments are echoed by various industry analysts. In a recent Games Industry article, several analysts predicted that the Switch will continue its run as the best-selling console of the year well into 2020 (it’s the best-selling console of 2019 in the US). Dr. Serkan Toto of Kantan Games predicts that Nintendo will launch some kind of a “pro” model of the console in fall 2020, and that Microsoft may add some of its big titles to the Switch.
“I predict 4K support, bigger cartridge sizes, and of course beefed-up components,” said Toto. “I also think the device will launch after the summer holidays to counter the roll-out of the PS5 and next-gen Xbox later in the year – along with a first-party, system-seller game.”
What do our readers think?
[Source: Mat Piscatella, Games Industry]
