Sony Congratulates Nintendo On Switch Success, Admits That They Are Watching Nintendo "Very Carefully"

The story of the year has been Nintendo's remarkable resurgence. After spending four years languishing with the mediocre Wii U, losing sales, marketshare, relevance, and third party support, Nintendo has shot back into a position of prominence with the superlative Switch, which has gotten them back all the things they lost, and more.

The Switch's sales have been fantastic, and they show no sign of slowing down any time soon, not least because of Nintendo's great cadence of games for the system, with at least one major title planned for it every month. This does, however, beg the question as to how their competition feels about their revival- especially Sony, who have the highest selling console this generation. How do they feel upon Nintendo's return?

“It’s still very early. Many things Nintendo does are so disruptive and different that it takes quite a long time to understand them, and I don’t think we’re at that stage yet with Switch. Like I say, it’s great that they’re back, it’s great to see them doing so well,” Sony's Jim Ryan said in an interview with EDGE, noting that a resurgent Nintendo is great for the industry. He also admitted that Sony watches what Nintendo does "very carefully".

Whether or not this means a PlayStation take on the Switch concept any time soon remains to be soon- but one thing is true, and that is that the industry is revitalized thanks to a resurgent Nintendo. Hopefully, this time around, Nintendo can maintain the early momentum that they have generated.

JAPAN NUMBER ONE

No news here. Every market leader watches the moves of the competition. That's how you keep the lead.

Are they going to do the same when the Xbox One X sells out.

Switch is awesome. Going to be a great holiday. But the real question is, why isn't charizard playing Persona right now?

They are trying to push microsoft out

@charizard1605: Good, now for the next console scrap the gimmicky shit, give us hardware that's comparable to everyone else, and lure the 3rd party devs back!

MS can fade into obscurity, and we'll be back to 2 major players just like the Nintendo/Sega days. Except it will be Sony/Nintendo.

Well that's something that they should be doing, they should always pay attention to their competition.

Japan is completely destroying the competition. Good on Nintendo. If this keeps up, I might actually buy a Switch eventually. I'm still not sold on the games front yet, though.

I hate to tell the Xbox hater idiots is that if that happens the Videogame market will crash. This Industry is set up to support at least 3 major players. If one goes down it will trigger a crash.

No no no, the Switch is perfect for Nintendo. They need to stay the course.

I am working :(

@appariti0n: Let it go, man.

sony can watch all they want....

they have no answer for the switch.

their answer to the DS? power! (psp)

their answer to the 3DS? power! (vita)

their answer to the switch tegra nvdia x1? ummm... an tegra x2? lol good luck making that affordable.

they cant copy this gimmick like the move controller in wii days and vita remote play in wiiU days.\
they cant copy the switch gimmick because guess what? it is not a gimmick! lol
i mean they do fine with their 3rd party deals and consoles....but they can't copy or do anything to 1up the switch. no matter how hard they watch.

The video game market was doing fine in the PS1/N64/Saturn generation.

Which is fine, Sony does excellently with traditional consoles and that is what it should stick to. Nintendo does well doing its own thing, and that is what it should stick to.

Okay, count how many consoles there were in the generation you just named, re-read the post you responded to, and then think about why your response is dumb.

@xhawk27: So why didn't the market crash when Sega made it's exit? Or when Nintendo almost faded into obscurity with the underwhelming Wii U?

Nothing at all would happen to the market. The remaining players would compete for the share of the loser.

Japan Domination Continuation.....

@charizard1605: There is no reason why they could not do both.

The gameboy, GBC, GBA, ds, 3ds, have all co-existed with Nintendo's more traditional consoles perfectly fine. The 3ds can go bye bye, and the switch can take it's place.

No, that is exactly going to be the problem here. Modern game development for consoles and handhelds is intensive enough that it is impossible for a company to support two platforms simultaneously, one will always suffer- we saw this for Nintendo with 3DS and Wii U (3DS won), and Sony with PS Vita and PS4 (PS4 won).

For Nintendo to consolidate all their lineup on to one device is the very point of the Switch- and it is succeeding marvelously at that, that's why it has had such an incredible cadence of games.

This is without getting into the fact that the Switch is an amazing machine, wonderfully well suited for what Nintendo does, and that it is literally the perfect Nintendo system. The Switch, and expanding and iterating on it, is what Nintendo should focus on- not create more hardware and splinter their support needlessly again.

Meh. Nintendo is always in their own world. What they do does little to MS or Sony's ability to sell consoles. They have always been great for the industry and find ways to innovate. It sparked the Move & Kinect, which were interesting in their own right. Hopefully they can maintain that momentum and keep pumping out strong first party titles. I do think the Pokemon Switch game will be what makes me spend some money.

I would hardly call three DAN's suffering

@charizard1605: My point is, they could certainly make a move within the next 5 years if they chose to.

Whenever the supply issues get solved for the switch, and perhaps after a thinner/lighter version releases, I predict 3ds sales slowing dramatically. I can't see many "new" 3ds purchases after this point, once the switch has a decent library of games built up.

Who knows? The next console could still be another handheld, but priced the same as whatever Sony/MS are offering, and closer in performance next time.

Absolutely, and I expect them to have multiple Switch form factors to fill in the role- think iPad, iPhone, and iPad.

I think as far as the power race inasmuch as it is defined by PlayStation and/or Xbox is concerned, Nintendo is out, and out for good. Thankfully, hardware power has, even for Switch, reached the point where scalability is possible, and visuals are past the point of diminishing returns.

@charizard1605: I don't see them winning the power race either. What I do see is them making the next console capable of playing the same 3rd party games as the ps5 and whatever MS comes up with (If they're even still in the console market), but at 720p - 1080p rather than 4K.

Yeah, I can definitely see that, especially at the pace mobile tech seems to be advancing. Plus, they also patented something called a supplemental computing device, which apparently is a discrete chip that plugs into and charges up your existing computing setup- I could easily see that taking the form of some docks in the future, for example.

...From the bushes.

nvidia is already working on tegra 3

switch 2 anyone? :P

Congrats Nintendo!. :P hybrid was the only way they could go...now to just drop 3DS off completely & better have enough stock of Switchy for Mario Odyssey release. :P

Nah, you won't buy a Switch just like you won't buy an X1X, you've openly admitted to only ever owning Sony consoles, yet you're trying to act like you're neutral lol.

@Mercenary848: that's what I thought. They are trying to push Microsoft out, because they know that it is a weaker link then Nintendo.

@superbuuman: "better have enough stock" is the key phrase. Having things in stock has not been one of Nintendo's strong points lately.

Goes to show how media push has such a big influence on sales. The switch isn't all that different from the wiiu. All these switch games were already in development for wiiu. Things were shifted to a new product because the wiiu lost relevance in the market, with a low, stagnant installed base.

Odyssey. That was a wiiu game. It baffles me how the view towards the wiiu and switch is so polar.

Wonder if Sony will attempt something like the Switch down the line, it amazes me how dead the Vita seems yet Japanese publishers are still releasing games for it like it's the hottest thing on the market. I was almost certain the Switch was going to get all that action from Japanese third parties, but no, Sony's Vita still gets a crazy amount of support I'd actually not think it a dumb move at all for Sony to consider getting back into the handheld scene, with maybe their only barrier being their potentially precarious finances.

@heirren: to each his own. If you are good with a WiiU, and know the games...system...apps....and everything else that comes with the WiiU, then don't let anyone dissuade you from enjoying the system.

lol vita is dead even in japan now...ever since switch lauched.

vita is selling 4k a week compared to the 20k it used to. no games in the top 20 for months... and the ones that charted were visual novels...

oh and a couple ps4 ports.

the persona dancing games is the first announced game in months. where have you been?

If I were Sony, I would. They've nearly 100% successfully integrated their mobile/console market, in an incredibly appealing bundle. The Switch is nigh on seamless in switching between handheld/console mode, and handhelds are something Sony has never truly succeeded with. Not that i'm knocking the PSP/Vita, as both were appealing in their own right, but they've never touched Nintendo in terms of handhelds.

@outworld222:

That wasn't the point. The switch is more or less the same console. The critical praise, etc. There isn't much of a reason for there to be such polarizing views between the two products.

PSVita pretty much outsold the Wii U in Japan, hence why games are made for it. PS4 is just barely outselling the Vita now. The Switch is selling like hotcakes and may outsell both Vita and PS4 by next spring. Expect more games to be made on the Switch over the Vita.

bro... before it was either buy a wiiu for 300 or a 3DS for 150..... 3Ds had more games so people bought that and skipped the wiiu

this gen there is no competing platform for switch... all of nintendos games will be on 1 system...the switch...pokemon/monster hunter.animal crossing..everything...its the only one you need for your nintendo games..... thats what makes it attractive over the wiiU

Huh? There's a massive difference. Just because both have a handheld component don't make them even remotely the same.

Lots of luck taking a Wii U controller further than your own house and still using it.

A controller that can be used to stream the game? That's gimmicky. And it's been done before.

Having the entire console be handheld, and increase in power when docked? That's fricking useful.

I barely got my WiiU pad to the next room, and the IQ was garbage. Switch is an evolution in every sense of the word. I'll chill in my living room and play Zelda whilst watching TV... With my WiiU, it wasn't even a possibility.

@KBFloYd:

That remains to be seen. My point is the wiiu was a means to get Nintendo, and switch continues this. Switch is just a portable wiiu. I'd be willing to bet that more people would take a console by nintendo in the realm of modern spec VS the portable hybrid that is switch. It's the polarizing views, switch VS wiiu, that don't make sense.

Don't watch Nintendo.

lol you're funny.

the only thing the switch has in common with wiiU is that when docked and used as a console it is very underpowered to the competition. thats it. ..............thisresults in a similar 3rd party situation...but it wont be identical..see my point #5
oh and the 30GB storage space.

everything else will be different.

1-harddrive solution is more elegant. its an sd card inside the system....wiiU needed a external hardrive witha power adapter..
2-the switch has a 720p hd screen...wiiu was 480p SD
3-switch can be taken anywhere....wiiU could only be moved about 20 feet.
4-switch has normal controls/normal controllers....wiiU had mandatory gamepad usage for most stuff
5-gameswise switch will have triple to quadruple the amount of games compared to wiiU(this year alone shits on wiiU's first year) this is because every game coming to nintendo will go to switch. there are not 2 competing systems by nintendo. nintendo doesnt have to support two platforms. in terms of 3rd party indie/japanese games will come to the system in much bigger quantities than wiiU as well.

They've been watching Nintendo since day 1.

Anyone conflating the switch with the wii u is either wilfully disingenuous or just ignorant.

@charizard1605: How is that a dumb response when there is Steambox, Shield, and a much stronger gaming presence with PC? There are plenty of platforms to coagulate into the next Third Pillar. Don't be silly.