Gaming Console War : Nintendo or Sony ?

The Gaming consoles are currently in their 9th ninth generation with the early launch of Nintendo Switch in 2017 and the launch of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in November 2020 by Sony & Microsoft respectively.

Nintendo Switch is a hybrid console that can be used either as a home console or a portable device. The concept of Switch came about as Nintendo's reaction to several quarters of financial losses into 2014,attributed to poor sales of its previous console, the Wii U and market competition from mobile gaming(Source : Wikipedia).

The launch of Nintendo Switch is considered as Blue Ocean Strategy similar to its launch of Wii in 2006 which instead of directly competing with Sony and Microsoft's traditional consoles introduced an innovative gameplay incorporating the use of motion controls.

In this analysis I have compared the handheld console and home gaming consoles units sold world over of both Sony and Nintendo(no data of Microsoft Xbox was available) and see the impact of mobile gaming as a threat to the handheld and home consoles.

In the handheld gaming console segment Nintendo has always dominated with its DS and 3DS models but with stiff competition from mobile games since 2008 they are losing their ground where they had a strong foothold.

Although Sony has discontinued its PSP Vita in 2019,Nintendo is still trying to be relevant in the handheld/portable segment with Switch(hybrid, launched 2017 and Switch Lite(launched 2019).

From below area chart one can see a slump post 2008 in the units sold for both Sony & Nintendo.

In the below chart I have plotted timelines with the launch of major home game consoles and one can clearly see a sharp spike in sales on Nintendo Wii (2006) which offered a complete different experience in terms of gaming but could not sustain for long; partly because of the financial crisis of 2009 and partly because of the "casual gamers" phenomena. As per reports it was stated that Nintendo Wii did not appeal to the hardcore gaming community and rather it was something for "casual gamers" to hook on to with its motion sensors.

We see the same spike post 2017 with Nintendo Switch, although it is to be seen how long can it sustain its run with new launches by both Sony & Microsoft in 2020.

Some trivia:

PS2 remains the all time most selling console with more than 155 mil; followed by PS4 at 112 mil.