Xbox consoles and games are becoming rare finds at major retailers. Workers confirm that Walmart and Target locations are clearing out inventories and have no plans to restock the products. Repeated Xbox price increases have made the brand less desirable for businesses and consumers.
It’s just that people order online mostly these days. Sony are also doing this with their PlayStation.
Honestly though, consoles are dying breed.
Console exclusives are dying because there’s more money to be made by selling on all platforms than isolating to just one. It’s not like first party peripherals are superior to 3rd party ones anymore.
It’s just a matter of time until Nintendo breaks and starts releasing on PC. Money is their #1, and their consoles don’t traditionally make money, the software licenses sold do. Just a matter of time until their ownership demands it in the pursuit of more profits.
I think Nintendo will survive the longest, the Switch is a handheld with gimmicky features which appeals to kids and families. They have strong IPs, people will buy literally anything that says Pokemon on it. They are very anti-consumer, but that doesn’t matter to most unfortunately.
Xbox and PlayStation are essentially just heavily restricted PCs, so they don’t really hold the same value as a Switch might.
Like with the Wii, I’d be with you and the Wii motes were super gimmicky. Also if the Wii u had panned out.
But the switch is not particularly uniquely gimmicky. Pretty conventional controls, with maybe the residual gimmick of those NFC figures…
It’s handheld, which is already a major difference to the other consoles, along with the little Wii style control options.
They aren’t selling it because of processing power, or necessarily the gimmick aspect, but on portability and “affordability”. That makes it a more compelling product than gimped PCs that cost twice as much.
But the Steam Deck has started to carve into that market, with many other lower quality ‘PC’ handhelds appearing too.
Right, that Steam Deck and myriad of PC handhelds I think is why I don’t consider the Switch quite so uniquely gimmicky… It’s a recognition that normal controller games can be played in a ‘tablet’ with better controls more than a particularly unique, possibly patent protected thing like the wiimotes, or the Wii-U tablet+main display, or the DS dual screens…
In short, if they made their low-spec games ported to PC it’s quite likely to be a nice additional revenue stream without having to compromise the game to be workable on PC. If the Wii-Motes were still a big thing, then Nintendo would have a hard time trying to make PC ports without screwing up their console.