Nintendo Has Proven a Number of Times That Console Wars Are Not Won by Teraflops

When Sony revealed the PlayStation 4 Pro a generation ago, fans were talking about how many teraflops the console had. That 4.2 teraflop machine was a popular choice among gamers. It even sold better than the Xbox One X, which was a 6-teraflop machine. And then came a console that outputs 0.5 teraflops when docked – the Nintendo Switch.

Years later, it turns out this little console defeated all those powerful machines to become the third-best-selling console of all time. And surprisingly, this was not the first time Nintendo had managed this feat; they did it years ago too!

Nintendo has proved that teraflops do not matter when it comes to console sales!

In November 2006, Nintendo and Sony released their respective consoles to the public. At the time, Sony had been talking about their console’s unmatched power, which was made possible through a collaborative effort between Sony and IBM. The Xbox 360 had also already launched and was the most powerful of the three. The only console with the power of Microsoft’s Direct X backing it.

And then, the floodgates broke open. Nintendo’s underpowered console, a console that was, according to some, an overclocked GameCube with motion controls, won an entire generation over. Within a year of its launch, the Wii became the best-selling seventh-generation console. By 2013, it had surpassed over 100 million units in sales.

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This console was eventually surpassed by a number of other consoles. But winning against the PS3 and Xbox 360 proves one small thing: power does not matter. A console can be successful only if it has a good library.

That’s exactly what the Nintendo Switch has been doing since 2017. The surprising thing is, even with consoles capable of 4K visuals and ray tracing appearing on shelves, such as the PS5 and Xbox Series X, the Switch is still going strong.

Games are a big part of this too. Consoles win or lose based on the variety of games they have. They also depend on the reputation the console has with the gaming crowd.

The biggest example of this is Nintendo’s Wii U. Fans did not even know what it was, some thought it was a fancy Wii, while others remained confused. A lack of strong third-party support did not help the Wii U’s case either. The console failed pretty hard, but Nintendo’s dedication and games have made the Switch a success.

There’s no doubt Switch’s successor will be similarly successful, even while being underpowered when compared to titans like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

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