Was Nintendo's 2008 flop of a lineup merely an issue with perception?

[mike_intellivision]

Nintendo can be faulted for:

1. Underestimating hardware sales potential

2. Overestimating third-party willingness to accept the Wii

3. Front-loading its first-party release schedule

4. Having essentially a year-long period of limited first-party releases

Looking at this, no one expected #1 -- not even Nintendo. That is probably why #3 occurred.

Then when promises (Red Steel) turned into reality (Imagine Petz), the problem with #2 arose. And #2 -- along with the development cycle delay for WM+ -- led almost directly to #4 (the time for third parties to shine).

Let's revisit E3 last year -- what did Nintendo lead with -- a salute to its third party games. Everyone talks about how terrible it is for third parties and Nintendo and it leads the (one of its most) important trade show presentation of the season with the software of other companies (remember Shaun White). I would not doubt that when it started to contemplate this presentation months before that it was hoping/thinking/feeling/guessing that there would be much more impressive things to show than SW:CW.

(And all Animal Crossing has done is get played like crazy. And all Wii Music has done is outsold every version of Rock Band, all but six versions of Guitar Hero (GH III on PS2, 360, Wii, GH II on PS2, GH on DS, and GH WT on Wii).

Mike from Morgantown

I don't mean to shoot fish in a barrel complaining about Ubisoft. Except for its reluctance to do a Wii version of BG&E II, I cannot complain too much about them. The Imagine and Petz games are niche -- and help the company make money. That's what business is about. Unfortunately, too many "hardsnobcore" gamers see games not meant for them and think they should not be on the shelf.