Switch Close to Passing Sales of N64 (UPDATE: Now Passed!)

[The_Liquid_Laser]

RolStoppable said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:

It's not that I think the Wii U is great.  It's that I put the Wii U and N64 in the same category.  Other posters in this thread see the N64 as great and the Wii U as a total flop.  I see them as more or less the same.  Both represent Nintendo in mediocre fail-ish type of mode.  Neither is a blunder like the Virtual Boy.  Neither is really great either. 

When you look at the style of games that Nintendo has made on their home consoles you can basically lump them into 3 categories:

NES/SNES style (i.e. 2D)

N64/Gamecube/Wii U style (i.e. 3D with analogue stick)

Wii style (i.e. 3D with motion controls)


When you look at these types of games, there is only one style where Nintendo's business consistently does poorly: 3D with analogue stick.  The N64 set Nintendo on this path.  These type of games on the N64 are largely what you see on the Gamecube and Wii U as well.  I do see N64 as influential to Nintendo, but the influence was all bad.  It set them on the path to repeated failure.  Sony can consistently be successful making 3D-analogue stick type of consoles.  This has not been a good path for Nintendo and it started with the N64.

The thing about the Nintendo 64 is that there was no sales data that indicated that it will be a bad direction. On the other hand, the Wii U had more than enough sales data available to never greenlight the console in the first place.

It's also wrong to blame the Nintendo 64 for a path of repeated failure when each new generation is free to have its own decisions. What you convey is that the N64 should be considered a mitigating factor for the Wii U blunder, but it's actually the opposite. Because of the N64 and GC, Nintendo could have predicted that Wii U will fail. But they made the Wii U anyway.

Sony has not been consistently successful. Once again, you only put on the business hat when it suits your argument, but completely dismiss the financial side when it's not convenient.

You're right.  With the N64 they didn't know better, and with the Wii U they should have known better.  And yet the lesson they should have learned with the Wii U was "Don't be like the N64."