thismeintiel said:
Like I said in another thread, I'll wait to see how the holidays treat both consoles to make a final decision. However, I'm pretty much giving up hope that the Wii U will stay 2nd. Nintendo could have made it a decent battle for 2nd, but decided not to fight aggressively, which will most likely be their downfall. What they should have done was dropped the price to $249 when MK8 came out, with plenty of bundles for either the same price or $269-$279. They should have also made SSB Wii U take priority over the 3DS version, that way it would have released first and not be affected by the 3DS release. And finally, they should really be pushing for their games to get finished sooner, since they don't have the same 3rd party support in between exclusive releases. |
A price-drop would have killed Nintendo, they can't keep losing money on the WiiU in vast quantities. Price drop may raise sales but at the cost of more money flushed down the drain (each sale costs money if you are selling at a loss). Nintendo isn't looking to sink billions into sales like Sony did with the PS3 on a salvage operation, that's a fools gambit and Nintendo doesn't have other divisions to cover such a thing. They will ride out the 10 million console backlog on the gamepad deal, and that's it. Whatever they sell after that they will sell at a profit and recoup as much losses as possible on the WiiU and software while streamlining their HD development and getting new developers trained with their Garage program. Cutting prices will only come once that backlog of consoles is cleared and/or the gamepad backlog is cleared through refurbs or replacements. Once the WiiU is at a comfortable profit margin on a sale, they will cut prices to spur on more software purchases of that has developed into the console's catalog, and try to repair as much of the loss as possible from the console.
And, no, 3DS >>>>>>>>>>>> WiiU for Smash priority. 45 million users vs. a struggling 7 million is an obvious choice, and we've seen the benefits of it already with over a million sold in two days. The returns on that are massive, and its free marketting for the WiiU HD version. The 3DS version coming out before or after is the same detriment in the end just that one way you get a huge sum of bonus handheld sales. It also gives the N3DS even more relevance with its controls, upgraded processing and memory capabilities, and general +s that can be exploited by Smash. It helps them make the N3DS look like a good upgrade, and will help curb market saturation by boosting sales on upgrades. The 3DS is profitable, is a leading platform, and the Vita is all but dead and abandoned by Sony and VitaTV is a flop and will flop. They have every reason to make their handheld as enticing and library packed as possible, WiiU be damned.
Nintendo could not push games out "sooner" even if they wanted, they got hit with the HD-development hurdle. These next couple of years before their fusion stuff hits the market will be a time of streamlining and learning to HD. If they do it right, they may whether the storm of imploding AAA development and be able to produce games at low budgets that still look fantastic and appeal to wide audiences without having to sink multi-tens of millions into nonsense.
