Microsoft (and Sony) have done a terrible job of understanding the console market.

They sell consoles so they can loss-leader you into making it up on licensed games.

You buy a console so you can get a canned consistent experience for less than a PC. In the past, it was also for bespoke hardware that could do something a random PC couldn't easily and exclusive titles.

In 2026, these advantages are gone. Since Xbone/PS4, you're just looking at a standard AMD desktop in a funny box. It comes in too many flavours with real performance differences. Only a few titles are still exclusive. You can spend $500 and still not have the Best Console Experience, so why not spend $700 for a PC?

Of course Xbox and PS are flailing in that market.

Nintendo hardware avoids those pitfalls. There's no "Switch 2 Pro" scenario where some games are meaningfully jankier. The hardware is profitable, and it's still comfortably less than a basic dGPU computer. So there's still a niche for it below the full gaming PC buyer.

They've also been more willing to exploit "we control the hardware and software together" opportunities for only-here experiences. Since the Kinect died, has there been a major gameplay paradigm that required an Xbox or PS to deliver?

Nintendo could port games to the PC but they won't exploit the detachable controllers or portable aspects of a Switch, so many of the ports would be lesser.

I usually detest exclusive releases, as it feels anticonsumer to make people use a console/UI that they don't like in order to have a chance of buying/playing a game they might like, but I've recently thought about a good copiumcoded excuse for it: Exclusives incentivise me to not keep all my games with one supplier, so when one corporation inevitably crosses a moral line that I cannot accept, I don't have to sacrifice all my purchased ~~games~~ licences.

That and I honestly believe that owning games developed initially for x platform, on that platform, usually results in the best experience. Usually.

A handheld and highly integrated device where games released for are basically guaranteed to run still has some appeal over the wide sea of PC s. Especially since the share of handheld PCs like the Steam Deck is still comparably small.

I'd also argue that one can get more customers by supporting PC due to those who wouldn't buy a console anyway. It sounds reasonable though that the incentive for buying a console is gone if you already have a sufficient PC where you can play the game on.

But I wonder whether this is really the case. Do we have actual numbers from market studies or alike on this?

It’s one of the biggest reasons Xbox is on life support right now.

The series of terrible decisions began with the X1: "You can watch netflix! You can watch youtube! You can't share or sell your games! Kinect is mandatory for us to monitor you 24/7!" - M$ made the perfect advertisement for the PS4. Their complete lack of creativity with console naming didn't help either, it was worse than Wii -> WiiU. Xbox One ~> Xbox One S/X -> Xbox Series S/X

Then there's M$ buying several big studios and having no fucking clue how to best use them. Everyone who saw how they treated Rare knew that was coming.

Alos, because they're a corporate first company, everything that "works" for M$Office ends up being applied to everything else. No more ownership, only subscription renting! Going all in on subs (xbox live) meant they had to widen their market, so increasing reach to PC and other consoles was the best option for increasing subscribers. That they didn't care at all about how that'd hurt their own fucking specialized gaming hardware was no surprise.

What I'm actually surprised is that they haven't rammed Copilot into any of their games or Xbox subscriptions yet.

People who like handhelds will buy handhelds. People who like consoles and people who like PCs will buy PC. It is stupid to lock software to one specific type of hardware.

I sold my Switch and switched to emulation when they went after Yuzu and Ryujinx. Nintendo will never get another penny from me and I get to play all their games for free now. Stupid dumbfucks. Can't wait for the inevitable Switch 2 emulator.

Will never happen until people stop buying the games. And no it’s not the fault of adult Nintendo fans. The vast majority of buyers are just parents buying games for their kids who don’t read reviews and just buy the game because their kid nagged for it. Palworld doesn’t even really compete in that market.

Pokemon fans are like fifa fans. They buy ecery game no matter how shit it is. There is absolutely no reason for them to even try to make a playable game.

Pokemon is in the merch and nostalgia business, not the gaming business.

It's not one-to-one but Pokopia exists and sold extremely well.

Btw, Zelda on PC when?

Any time you want, if you float in the right ~~seas~~...uh...circles. Or so I've heard.