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JWeinCom on 01 December 2012
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Jay520 said:
JWeinCom said:
Jay520 said:
JWeinCom said:
Jay520 said:
cusman said:

Many of these million+ sellers are still considered financial failures due to how much they cost to produce

So while PS All-Stars Battle Royale will enjoy healthy sales for long time, it is still pretty shocking to me that a game that gives both PS3 and PSV version with single purchase didn't rally the PS3 fanbase behind it.

It just shows the Sony fans are not as dedicated to supporting new IP games on Sony platforms as the Nintendo fans are on Nintendo platforms where new experimental games like Smash Bros, Animal Crossing, Brain Age, Professor Layton, etc start out and end up as 5+ million sellers... even 10+ million sellers.

Do the same thing you did for Sony new IPs for Nintendo new IPs and you will see the Nintendo fans just support their platform heck of a lot better.


Nintendo fans pretty much have no choice. If you're on a Nintendo console, you have to buy Nintendo games because that's virtually all there is. I'd say Nintendo fans are just buying what they can rather than showing dedication.


Ugh.  For argument's sakes, lets agree that there is nothing but Nintendo games on a Nintendo console.  If that's true, then why are people buying Nintendo consoles?  To play Nintendo games.  How is this anything BUT devotion?


I'd argue people bought the Wii primarily because of the console's features rather than its software (If it were software, then how would you degrading sales of every Nintendo console pre-Wii). After people bought the Wii for features, they only could only buy Nintendo software.


I don't know what "how would you degrading sales of every Nintendo console pre-wii" means.  I'm not trying to be an *** I just think you typed that wrong or something

As for the features, how does that explain the success of games like Brain Age, Layton, Nintendogs, and Animal Crossing?  Was touch screen technology really that new and exciting on its own?  No.  But the software that used it was appealing.  Same with the Wii.  


I didn't know you were talking about handhelds. I was talking about home consoles. NES to SNES to N64 to GC all saw lower sales. It wasn't until the Wii where sales increased. How would you explain that?

As for handhelds, there is definitely dedication there, I'll admit to that. Pokemon itself probably has one of the most dedicated communities around.

I was using the DS as an example because it goes against the idea that people bought a system just for a gimmick.  It's hard to argue that a touch screen was very exciting tech, even in 2004. Despite this, Nintendo's software on the DS performed very well.   People didn't buy the console because it was like "OMG IT HAS A TOUCH SCREEN" they bought it because they saw software that looked fun. Same thing with the Wii.  

Wii sales increased because the Wii had games that were more appealing to a broader audience.  Those people bought the Wii because they wanted to play the games they had for it, for instance games like Wii Sports or Wii Fit.  Once they had the system, they bought games like Mario Kart, Mario Party 8, New Super Mario Bros Wii, Animal Crossing, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Wario Ware Smooth Moves, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Brawl, and so on so forth, because they thought they looked like fun.  

You could argue that those people just bought the games just to shove something in the Wii, but I don't think the kind of audience the Wii has is the type of audience that has a compulsive need to buy games just to play them.  Besides saying that "Nintendo fans buy Nintendo games because they have no choice" doesn't nearly account for the staggering sales of games like Mario Kart, NSMB, Pokemon, Mario Galaxy, Nintendogs, Wii Sports Resort, and so on.  When we're talking about sales of 10-20 million, "there's nothing else on the system" hardly seems like an adequete explanation.  

And of course, there are TONS of loyal Nintendo fans who followed Nintendo throughout the years.  For a game like Brawl or Skyward Sword, you'd have to think that the lion's share of sales are from devoted fans.

Fact of the matter is that Nintendo games sell very well because Nintendo is very good at producing games that people feel are worth $50 (Nintendo games generally take a long time to drop from that price).  Sony's games don't sell as well because Sony does not make games that a large amount of people think are worth 60 dollars.  Sure, third party competition would make some difference, but it's not nearly enough to explain the large discrepancy.