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The story
On 5ch’s Hardware/Industry (Geha) board, users debated whether Switch 2’s software sales are following the same slump that once hit the Wii U. The discussion kicked off with claims that big-budget Western titles are underperforming in Japan — the latest Call of Duty reportedly sold just 2,400 copies domestically, and the new Like a Dragon (Yakuza) entry hasn’t fared much better either. Plenty of posters pushed back on the “slump” framing, pointing out that Pokémon Legends Z-A has sold 4.35 million copies in Japan, with its spin-off Poko a Pokémon adding another 1.59 million — so opinions split over whether to weigh third-party struggles or the strength of Nintendo’s own titles more heavily. Weekly hardware figures were also cited showing Switch 2 and PS5 running almost neck-and-neck, at 20,000 and 16,000 units respectively.
What people said
And it wasn't just home consoles — handhelds too, since the 3DS was also losing steam in its later years.
It's gross that you're calling it 'piracy demand' when it's really GTA (Grand Theft Auto) demand — Switch 2 gets pirated too, you know.
Hard to imagine now, but it's true.
Pokémon Legends Z-A sold 4.35 million copies in Japan, and the spin-off title Poko a Pokémon sold another 1.59 million — calling that a 'slump' is hilarious.
During the Yo-kai Watch bubble, the 3DS software market was on such a scale that even all the PlayStation platforms combined couldn't compete.
That was also the era when Animal Crossing — just one entry, on one piece of hardware — started outselling the mainline numbered Pokémon games by itself.
It was a genuinely pivotal turning point. By contrast, the market structure from Switch's mid-life onward looks like it's calcified.
A big-budget Western game, pulling numbers like that.
Exact same pattern as the Wii U.
That line only flies if it's selling like crazy on PS5. How well is it actually doing there?
Global sales are down from the last entry too — isn't COD itself just washed up?
'Beauty,' huh — are you channeling IKKO? (IKKO is a Japanese TV personality/makeup artist famous for gushing about beauty)
Nintendo urgently needs to rethink its software.
They need to raise the quality and actually build these games properly.
There are first-party games out there that don't even sell a tenth as much as that 'raw garbage.'
What?
Palworld is the knockoff version of Poko a Pokémon, not the other way around.
Western games — big flop.
Switch 2 is following the exact same pattern as the Wii U.
That's just the reverse of what happened with Yo-kai Watch 4 — 300,000 copies on Switch versus 3,000 on PS4.
Compared to that example, where PS's share was under 1%, Like a Dragon's numbers on Switch 2 actually count as doing well.
That's a Wii U/3DS-era story, isn't it? Yo-kai Watch was at its peak back then, and Pokémon was in a bit of a slump with Sun/Moon and Ultra Sun/Moon.
Pokémon Sun/Moon shipped 10 million units worldwide on its initial run, so it wasn't really a slump even in the 3DS era.
'The latest Pokémon games, Pokémon Sun and Moon, set a new record for the 3DS series — initial worldwide shipments surpass 10 million units! 20 years since its birth, Pokémon keeps evolving.'
https://files.corporate.pokemon.co.jp/v=1768364438/files/topics/234_ext_3_0.pdf
Has your hatred for Palworld cooled off yet, lol?
So? Has your grudge cleared up now that the 'almighty legal department (lol)' — a sarcastic 5ch nickname for Nintendo's famously aggressive legal team — got embarrassed by a SLAPP suit, lol?
which path do you 'Nintendo pigs' ('豚,' a derogatory 5ch term for Nintendo fanboys) think Switch 2 is on instead?
Go on, name a past Nintendo console.
Wait, you're saying that from a Minecraft ripoff game?
Could you quit it already with the 'knockoff Poko a Pokémon, knockoff ARK' insults?
And on top of that, it's a second-rate rehash of Dragon Quest Builders, with development outsourced wholesale to the folks at 'Biru,' lol.
I'm almost jealous of the thick skin it takes to strut around proud of that.
Ultimate Game of the Year
007 First Light
Big Walk
CONTROL Resonant
Crimson Desert
Dispatch
Forza Horizon 6
Phantom Blade Zero
Poko a Pokémon
PRAGMATA
Resident Evil Requiem
Star Wars: Galactic Racer
The Blood of Dawnwalker
Well of course the Metascore-79 'crab stick' (カニカマ, slang for a cheap imitation) — aka knockoff Poko a Pokémon — isn't getting a GOTY nomination, lol
😁 Gyahaha lol
If you're gonna call something a knockoff, it should be ARK.
Apparently even Poko a Pokémon, despite its huge sales, isn't something anyone's actually playing seriously — so all people can do is spam off-base jabs… cut them some slack.
Losing backward compatibility with the PS3 — and with it their whole software library — was a big part of that too.
Though the anime-otaku crowd disappearing was also partly because of PlayStation's own excessive in-house content restrictions.
And that's with it launched right in November, prime sales season.
Hitting 500,000 between November and the fiscal year-end in March should've been a given a long time ago — pretty pathetic.
Weekly sales are 20,000 for Switch 2 and 16,000 for PS5 — barely any difference, lol lol
😂 Gyahahahaha
The 19th of next month counts as 'right before'? Are you the type who packs for a school field trip a full month in advance?
Background and Key Points of the Debate
The Wii U struggled to gain traction as a home console, and the fact that major third-party titles couldn’t drive hardware sales was part of what led to its early replacement. That memory makes it easy to jump to “here comes the Wii U all over again” whenever talk comes up that Western or other publishers’ big titles aren’t selling well on Switch 2. That said, as pointed out in the thread itself, series like Call of Duty have seen sales decline worldwide compared to their previous entries, so it’s worth separating out whether Japan’s soft numbers are a Switch 2-specific problem or just that particular series losing steam globally. Weekly sales figures are also only a one-week snapshot that can swing heavily depending on the sales season or new release timing, so it would be premature to judge the console’s momentum from that alone. Whether strong sales of Nintendo’s own titles can offset weakness from third parties is a separate question entirely — and that’s exactly where the disagreement within the thread comes from.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry [Geha]) thread “Switch 2 Is on the Wii U Path, Gimme Gimme (5ch slang for someone fishing for agreement)“.
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