| RolStoppable said: The common trait of all market leading consoles is a big and varied games library, including valuable exclusives. In the fifth generation Sony did their best to attract third party developers while Nintendo's attitude towards third parties was basically: "We are boss, so you do as we say." The result was incredibly lopsided distribution of third party support which made the PS1 the more attractive purchase for the majority of gamers at the time. |
I completely agree with this. Factors that turned 3rd parties off, we know them, are the cartidge-based format, high royalty fees, a poor and difficult to use API, no moneyhatting (which Nintendo was too proud to extend), horrible branding (3rd parties work on confidence, the mildest sense of misstepping is a turn off). The misstep tolerance is proportionate to the harmony/resentment level between the 3rd parties and the manufacturer. Nintendo was also bullish and difficult to partner with on SW projects. Missing important features disk-based media offered, of which 3rd parties were aware (space for FMVs and music tracks, even pop music, the possibility of distributing multi-disk games).
This is a key Red Ocean failure.
| The reason why I called the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube abominations is because both consoles' lineups didn't really resemble the lineups of the previous two consoles anymore (therefore Nintendo didn't continue their tradition). For example, there were millions of fans who were looking forward to the next Super Mario Bros., so Nintendo not making such a game was a detestable action. If Sony stopped making Gran Turismo or Microsoft stopped making Halo, there would be backlash too. Backlash that will show up in a lack of hardware sales. |
Super Mario Bros. was not a launch title for the Famicom. Yet, until 2005, the Famicom had no Super Mario bros. They had lots of other titles that made the NES a hit. The Famicom moved as many units in Japan as the PS did.
Compare the total sales of the NES versus the N64 in Japan.
| Pos | Platform | North America | Europe | Japan | Rest of World | Global |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) | 33.49 | 8.30 | 19.35 | 0.77 | 61.91 |
| 12 | Nintendo 64 (N64) | 20.11 | 6.35 | 5.54 | 0.93 | 32.93 |
| NES/N64 ratio | 1.7 | 1.3 | 3.5 | .83 | 1.9 |
Now compare the sales of Super Mario Bros. 3 to Super Mario 64 in Japan.
| Pos | Game | Platform | Year | Genre | Publisher | North America | Europe | Japan | Rest of World | Global |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Super Mario Bros. 3 | NES | 1988 | Platform | Nintendo | 9.54 | 3.44 | 3.84 | 0.46 | 17.28 |
| 7 | Super Mario 64 | N64 | 1996 | Platform | Nintendo | 6.91 | 2.85 | 1.91 | 0.23 | 11.89 |
| SMB3/SM64 ratio | 1.4 | 1.2 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 1.5 |
Data Results (Japan): So, Mario 3 outsold SM64 by a factor of 2, despite the fact that there were 3.5 times as many famicoms sold as N64s, and the fact that Mario 64 was a launch title. Id's say Mario 64 did rather well in japan. Imagine if they had the leading console.
Below is another metric. The relative strenght of SMB3 and SM64 against their platform userbase.
| Metric | North America | Europe | Japan | Rest of World |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SMB3/NES tie ratio | 28.5% | 41.4% | 19.8% | 59.7% |
| SM64/N64 tie ratio | 34.4% | 44.9% | 34.5% | 24.7% |
In america, SM64 performed better than SMB3 did, by tie ratio. Now you will tell me that, had SM64 the strength of SMB3, it would have moved consoles, but it's easy to say that after the NES and Famicom were already insanely popular for multiple other reasons than Mario, and SMB 1 as well. The combination of factors helped SMB3 sell as much as it did on a solid platform. N64 didn't have that advantage.
Having said that, since SMB 1 sold this much (table below). A bundled game in NA, of course, it remains the 2nd best-selling game of all time.
| Pos | Game | Platform | Year | Genre | Publisher | North America | Europe | Japan | Rest of World | Global |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Super Mario Bros. | NES | 1985 | Platform | Nintendo | 29.08 | 3.58 | 6.81 | 0.77 | 40.24 |
Nostalgia dictates that celebrating that game in a completely new IP branded as the "New Super Mario Bros.", Nintendo is bound to turn heads. Sadly, they only realised this in hindsight, after the NSMB experiment. Some would call it blue ocean, I would call it a successful experiment. When the marketshare was obtained, some liked to call it Blue Ocean. But it wasn't a Blue Ocean strategy.
I have more, but I'll keep it for later.
