Despite fans of the three big console manufacturers usually being at each others throats, demeaning the other side and acting like they really don’t want to play Zelda, Uncharted, and Halo, the companies usually have a polite rivalry. This is no more evident than when one launches a new console. We saw some of this earlier with the official PlayStation account sending congrats toward Nintendo on the launch of the Nintendo Switch, and now Xbox’s Phil Spencer has done the same.
“Nintendo of America, Congrats on your launch of another great Nintendo console. Always great when Nintendo innovates in gaming,” said Spencer on Twitter, responding to a tweet of the very first Switch sold in New York City.
Nintendo usually stands apart from the more contentious rivalry that we’ve seen between Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox. This is likely because Nintendo largely utilizes unique elements of their consoles and their own first party titles to create a separate audience than the other two consoles are going for.
PlayStation and Xbox have exclusives for sure, but they also rely heavily on multi-platform and third party games to supply their consumers with a large selection of AAA content. This makes them more of a toss up for a lot of gamers, who have to decide which offers the right exclusives and/or features to make that the console for them.
The Nintendo Switch seems to be off to a great start, with sales almost assuredly outpacing the failed Wii U. That system had Nintendo fans excited at launch, but few others. This is mostly attributed to a poor marketing campaign that left all but the most well informed confused about what the console was. The Switch has definitely fixed this problem, with a fantastic ad campaign that made the system’s features very clear, and Nintendo should benefit for it.
