Despite the early success of the Switch, Sony isn’t that excited about it. Company boss Andrew House recently spoke about the Switch and said that there isn’t a huge market for a “hybrid device” like the Switch.
He cited Sony’s own Vita console, which failed in the marketplace where most people play on smartphones.
Here’s what he told Bloomberg:
“The Nintendo device (Switch) is a hybrid device and that’s a different approach and strategy. We have not seen that as being a huge market opportunity.
The Vita experience was that outside of Japan and Asia, there was not a huge demand. The lifestyle shift toward the dominance of smartphones as the single key device that is always with you, was the determining factor.”
Technically, he’s right — most people play on smartphones. But he forgot one important point: Nintendo’s software.
While a company like Sony probably would have failed with a device like the Switch, Nintendo made it work because of the games they offered. The Switch has been out for just over six months, and already it has an incredible games library — including one of the best games of all time: Zelda Breath of the Wild.
And Andrew House’s comments are a bit odd, because other Sony executives have praised the Switch: another Sony exec said called the Switch a “great success”, and Sony’s UK boss said that “it’s great to see Nintendo back and doing well.”
