Modern Console Sales Pitch

I would do the Nintendo Switch. I'd focus on the great games that are available for it, and how you can play them on the go unlike everything, even the PC games. I'd also highlight the indi market on the Switch allowing for tons of gaming experiences if the Nintendo library is too small for you.

 

Based on sellings, Playstation would be the best choice. But idk anything sbout the games on this console so I would go for 3Ds Switch. The best selling-points would be Mario Odyssey, Smash Bros. Ultimate, the upcoming Pokémon games and you can even use the Switch outside, because gamers LOVE to go outside. (I wouldn't mention the online service btw)

 

I think (at least in my experience) PlayStation just has a wider audience. This thread showed up a while ago and so I started googling between Xbox and PS to see which is the clear winner. It seems like it's much closer than you'd think and it seems that people felt PlayStation just clinched it though it was still close.

One big factor for me personally to push people towards PS over Xbox is the exclusive games. It seems like they've just done a better job (Spiderman for instance) and that's paid off. Though, Xbox has Forza which is pretty dang popular as an Xbox only game. Cool thread Wizard.

 

It's going to be between PS4 and Switch, I think...most people who want an Xbone know they want an Xbone and they wouldn't be asking me about it...and if they were I would pitch the PS4 over it each and every time because it has a wider variety of games and better exclusives.

I'd want to know what they'd seen thus far out and about, and what they were interested in based on this. What's important to them, and whether they think certain games on the platform sound like they'd be enjoyable to them. Do they care about visuals? Gameplay? Story? Playing with others? How seriously are they going to take the games they play? Variety, or specific genres? Do they want a challenge? It's difficult to really gauge how the conversation would go, because what I'd ask next would depend on the answers I received. If they cared about the narrative I'd want to know what kind of narrative they were interested in. If they wanted to play with others, I'd want to know if they wanted to play co-operatively, competitively, or a mixture of both, etc.

When I recommend things, I try to recommend based on the other person's tastes rather than my own: I mean, I'm the person who hates Breath of the Wild, likes English dubs in Japanese titles, is thoroughly disinterested in PvP in general, and is draw to more niche/grindy titles that either don't get reviewed at all or get lousy scores because the reviewer doesn't know how to play them properly. It's rare for me to find someone who actually shares my tastes. What I like/dislike doesn't matter to someone else, because the experience is different for everyone and I can be pretty sure that the majority of people won't have the same experience I do. The reality is that people don't want to know my honest opinion, because they never agree with it.

If I had to go in blind it'd be the Playstation 4 for now though, simply because the game library is bigger and, in my opinion at least, better. Much easier to find something someone will enjoy when there is more to choose from. Whilst the Switch has portability, it's not going to mean much if there are no games someone is going to enjoy, and whilst Nintendo are very proud of the Switch having over 1000 titles now, I'd say less than 5% of those are actually worth playing, and a lot of the better indie titles you can get on the PS4 anyway...and none of the games that aren't are essential, unforgettable or incomparable experiences.

You don't need to play BOTW when you can play Horizon: Zero Dawn and Assassin's Creed Odyssey...both of which are better. You don't need Xenoblade Chronicles 2 or Octopath Traveler when you can play Tales of Berseria, NieR Automata, and Persona 5...which are all better. Honestly I think the Switch sells itself well enough without my input, because it offers things that the PS4 doesn't...and if the Switch's portable niche in the market doesn't appeal to you, then you don't really have a reason to get one over a PS4, unless you really like Nintendo games...and if you do, why are you asking me what I think?

Plus...well, honestly, Nintendo aren't very newcomer-friendly. Which sounds like an absurd thing to say, but the Joy-cons rank high amongst the worst controllers I have ever handled undocked and I would definitely not want those to be my first time experience. Nintendo's idea of being newcomer-friendly is to make their games ridiculously easy, and whilst that is by no means a bad thing, Nintendo likes to do things its own way, and that way doesn't appeal to everyone...it definitely annoys enough of the people it DOES appeal to, too. A lot of Nintendo's games are not accessible because of their insistence on doing things their own way: I would not recommend Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee because of the control scheme. I wouldn't recommend Super Mario Odyssey because of the intrusive motion control prompts which I imagine, for someone who has never played video games before, would be very off-putting and make them feel that they HAVE to do this.

I definitely wouldn't recommend Nintendo Labo over PSVR because you have to assemble the damn thing first. Then there are the games that gate content off behind Amiibo. The dreadful value of NSO. The lack of built-in features and functions that the PS4 has had since Day 1 and the Switch will probably never get. I think you need to build up a tolerance of Nintendo's quirks before you go all-in with them, and I wouldn't recommend doing that right now with the Switch when the game library just isn't good enough to justify it, unless you want a very specific, mostly PvP, experience.

I don't think I would even try to factor the Xbone into the conversation unless I was told "I want PvP FPS titles and that's mostly what I'll play" and I wouldn't talk about gaming PCs/laptops unless someone had a very big budget and wanted a more long-term machine than a console. The 3DS might pop up in the conversation if they were going to play almost entirely out of the house - I would be more likely to recommend a 3DS than a Switch honestly - and they didn't want to commit to a big purchase, but I think I would probably be angling towards recommending a PS4 unless I got very strong hints to suggest otherwise.