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happydolphin on 04 April 2012
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justinian said:

How can selling almost 100m consoles and whipping the competition be considered as "lacking in foresight"?

I know you are making a point about more than sales but as money talks I would almost make it the no. 1 pointer to success.

You do however ask a good question with the wii U around the corner and talk of it's graphical power - or lack off.

I can only answer your question with two questions.

1) I believe if Nintendo had gone with the HD option with the wii-remote it would have been still successful but would it have sold as many consoles being more expensive?

I think it would have still won.

2) Would a more power console have brought more third-party devs onboard?

I don't know but I like to think yes.

Remember nintendo tried something new (moving away from graphical power to promote innovation) with the controller and was taking a risk. Better to take a less expensive risk by keeping the console cheap.

In a nutshell:
Nintendo made a lot of money with wii sales and in-house software with a cheap low powered system.
Nintendo missed out on a lot of money lacking good third-party support because of a cheap low powered system.
Could they have had the best of both world's with decent hardware? I like to think yes.

So maybe they were lacking on foresight but it would be harsh to hold it against them considering what they acccomplished with a cheap low powered system.

1. One is a good question because as Viper mentioned, the Wii was priced cheap in Japan (212$), and in the states came bundled with Wii Sports at 250$. But to think that Wii Sports was a refined demo, couldn't they throw it in for free with a more high-end console at 250$ in the states. Japan's pricepoint is more sensitive in the topic I think though. Raising the price up for HD capability would have been tough, because Japan was laregely favoring Sony while coming into gen 7, it wasn't as bad stateside.

2. I really, really think so. Remember, the Wii wasn't just a risk for Nintendo, it was a risk for everyone partnering with them. It was a huge paradigm shift that involved a reformation of business processes within the partner organizations. Way too much to ask from the clear loser in the home console space coming into gen 7. Since they were all getting HD ready for the PS3 entering the gen, had Nintendo been HD ready, they would have been in MS's shoes from a red ocean standpoint, or at least sharing it 50-50 with MS or 3-way with MS and Sony, and would have been still printing money on the blue ocean front. I think that's what they're trying to achieve with the WiiU, but had they believed in themselves they could have done it a gen sooner when the golden opportunity (the PS3's flop launch) was there for the taking!