potato_hamster said:
Just look at how Nintendo's grip on the gaming industry has faded over the years. They went from powerhouse to an after thought. We now have a generation that has grown up Their fanbase is dwindling. Before the release of the playstation, there were over 150 million people playing Super Nintendos and Game Boys. Today the Wii U and 3DS have sold less than 75 million combined. Nintendo is trying to catch lightning in a bottle twice with the Nintendo Switch and is hoping beyond hope that the Switch becomes a fad like the Wii did. Because if it doesn't. If the Switch only sells Wii U to Gamecube levels, I would be shocked if Nintendo's shareholders allow them to make another console, and that would be a shame.
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http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=701305
You might want to go over your numbers again, as of March 1995 (PS1 launched in late 94 in Japan & late 95 in the West) SNES+Gameboy had shipped roughly 80 million units. SNES was about 4 years old and Gameboy about 6 years old so basically the same age as Wii U & 3DS currently.
Here are the hardware totals every 5 years since FY90 (when they started the April-March setup)
April 1990 to March 1995-99.57 million
April 1995 to March 2000-97.06 million
April 2000 to March 2005-118.07 million
April 2005 to March 2010-209.60 million
April 2010 to March 2015-117.30 million
April 2015 to March 2017-18.96 million (based on current fiscal year projections)
Nintendo has been incredibly consistent for the last 25 years with the exception of a 5 year period of massive growth, a period which you just called a fad.
They have had a few rough years recently with Wii U failing to take off and 3DS sales declining but thats really no different than the rough patch they had in the mid-90s when GB & SNES were declining and N64 & Pokemon hadn't released yet to boost annual hardware sales.