Of course this is ultimately a definitional issue, but there is IMHO clearly a difference. I think rather than "mobile" the distinction might be "touchscreen only" gaming; contra some of the wild predictions I recall on HN about a decade ago, "touchscreen only" has failed to displace all other input mechanisms, because it's honestly not all that good. It works, and can be better than nothing, but I think it's hard for touchscreen to ever attain that transparent "flow" state where controls just disappear, and is table stakes for being a 'core gaming' platform.
Someone better go tell the rest of the game industry they're really misallocating their resources.
Dunno about Octopath Traveller, but I have no idea why your kids are playing Captain Toad without the controller, unless you just don't trust them with the controller or something. Camera controls are clearly better with the controllers. Deemo or something like that would be a better example, but it's also clearly an exception.
Which could just as easily be fulfilled with a tablet or a phone.
And in the case of valve deck, it even has to compete with the switch in the mobile space. It's a miserable position right out the gate.
The numbers are 13 million lite vs 85 million non-lite sales.
The mobile part is a meme, it's subsidized by the people who just want play Nintendo games (and the switch is the only/best way to do it)
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/10/nintendo_gamers_pr...
I can't take your post seriously, but just for posterity:
- The lifetime-to-date sales figure now stands at 84.59 million Switch units shipped worldwide since its launch in 2017
- Game sales for the year also spiked by 37 percent, selling 230.88 million units compared to 168.72 million units in the previous fiscal year
https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/6/22422451/nintendo-annual-e...
The switch sells well because its where you have to go to play Nintendo games, but you just go on about sales figures. If it had no exclusives, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now.
The reason why the switch is popular is the same reason why a long line of absolutely craptastic Nintendo hardware is popular: exclusive Nintendo software, which this platform will obviously not have.
This is a portable PC with a built-in screen and game controls. It's much closer to a laptop than a "gaming thing".