| gameheart said: I may not agree with #1 on the OP's point but there are some truth to it. Being first to the market can help you in some areas like 1) in terms of sales 2) in terms of securing games from 3rd party in order to build foundation on time before their competitor's next console release (in reality, this is what help microsoft greatly with their 360 even the RRoD didn't kill them because they were the only one in the market with nextgen console for year and had time to correct their errors). Though there is one fact that has been occuring since generations back that being 1st on market, having install base of 10 million and above before the other competitor's release, have always won the console race. |
Two things;
1: It is quite unlikely that the Wii U will manage to sell 10 million and more before the next PS and xbox release. In fact; I dare guarantee that it doesn't. The 360 managed about 6 million or so when it had the HD market all to itself. The Wii U is not the Wii nor is it the PS2, there's no reason to think it will sell zounds, the incentive to purchase a Wii U is fairly small for most when the other HD console offer better versions of the same games and for a lower hardware price and they will also have superior online and services.
2: Again, I don't know where people get this notion that the Wii U will have the market to itself, it isn't jumping one generation ahead and sailing a sea on it's own, it is jumping into the same sea that the PS360 has been sailing for years and actually catiching up, not leaving them behind. The P360 will recieve all the same 3rd party benefits along the way with the added bonus of ensuring the same support for their coming consoles on the basis of having moved tremendous amounts of 3rd party software in the 7th gen. The Wii U is effectively entering a market with 140 million consoles and a highly established userbase and developer culture to boot, this is not an advantage for them, it could very well be a huge problem. The Wii U will not gain a 5-10 million head start, the PS360 already has a 140 million head start.
I remember when people laughed at the notion that HD consoles were "future proof". Perhaps they were all along.
