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thismeintiel on 04 February 2013
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CCFanboy said:
thismeintiel said:

The whole industry is in a decline, which will be even worse for the PS4/NeXbox.  While the industry is in a decline, it has to do more with the current systems turning 7 years old (8 for the 360) this year.  That doesn't necessarily mean that next gen will continue this decline.  It also implies that Nintendo has always been on top, so the other consoles will always fare worse than Nintendo's console.  I think a lot of this comes from some Nintendo fans only coming into gaming recently, so are ignorant, willingly or not, of what happened with the N64 and Gamecube.  Personally, I think the Wii U is going to end up with sales similar to those consoles.

That is the argument I've used and it is actually very valid. I wouldn't say the industry is in decline but people are spending less. Look at 3ds and vita. 3ds came out at £230 and people didn't pay it. People swore they would do it with vita though and look what happened. It seems the specs didn't lure consumers in.

Wii u has launched at a fairly mainstream price for gamers and it is yet again struggling. If you actually think more power (which would mean more expensive consoles and games as well) will fair any better then you are probably in for a rude awakening. In fact this time next year I think we will see the same excuses vita got when that came out "oh but wii u launched without any competition so it isn't fair to compare to that". It depends how sales go but I highly doubt the others aren't going to struggle.

The handheld market is slightly different to the home console market.  Considering most games are played on the go and for small amounts of time, casuals buy them in greater numbers than the core gamers do.  Having said that, I think the Vita would have fared better if Nintendo had kept the price the same, as it woud hav been more bang for your buck.  I think Nintendo knew this, which is why they reduced the price before its first holiday.  But that's all said and done, so there's no point in speculating it anymore.

I think the Wii U just isn't very appealing to people outside of the hardcore Nintendo fanbase.  The price is fine, as its only $30 more than the PS3 currently, which makes me believe a price cut of less than $80 wouldn't do much for sales.  I think next gen is going to be a return to core gaming.  Sure, there will still be casuals, but they won't be the ones that drive the direction of the industry, unlike the previous one.  So, basically the market Nintendo is going to be going after is the market that already owns a PS3 or 360.  Those people are not going to be satisfied with a slight upgrade in graphics and a tablet controller.  They are going to either go with the PS4 or NeXbox (if the rumors that they are pushing Kinect 2 in a large way are false), when they demonstrate a much larger leap in power.