Nintendo's unrealistic pricing for old-school platformers et al.

[milkyjoe]

happydolphin said:

milkyjoe said:
If this is all based on the fact that the recent games aren't matching the sales curve of NSMBWii then I think I might have to go bang my head against a wall.

NSMBWii was the perfect game at the perfect time. It was the first 2D Mario game on a Nintendo home console in nearly two decades, released when the Wii was still close to its peak, and it coincided with the first official price cut the console received, all of which combined to drive record breaking sales for the year end period.

A game launching outside of a holiday period, on a handheld that still hasn't hit its peak, and a game launching with a console would never, ever be able to match that performance.

NSMBU has a 59% attach rate by VGC numbers, or a 66% attach rate by Nintendo shipment numbers. That's without any bundling, and I'd say that's pretty impressive. If you're going to respond by saying it's an anomaly helped by a low userbase, then I'd ask you why doesn't the Vita, which also has a low userbase, have anything with an attach rate higher than 21%?

I'd honestly say, it seems like instead of doing the usual thing of analysing the data to help you come to a conclusion, you've come to a conclusion and then tried to make the data fit.

If I'm not mistaken Golden Abyss had a 50% attach rate during the launch window here in the US.

Other than that I understand that the Wii was the right game at the right time but doesn't that kind of support my point, that the times are changing and that NSMB at the price it's at may not be the answer in the future and that there is a risk of meeting a similar fate to Nintendogs and Brain Age?

Have you stopped to consider that it's entirely possible and entirely natural for something like Nintendogs to be a one hit wonder? Meaning that it's not necessarily the kind of game that could see massively successful sequels for decades to come? And that if that is the case, it doesn't automatically mean there's any correlation to the 2D Mario series.

Think about what could be added to a 2D Mario game. New worlds, new levels, new characters (friends or enemies), new powerups, new modes, new music, better graphics. Now think what could be added to Nintendogs. A new dog, cats (this is what Nintendo actually added)... When you think about it, Nintendogs is a modern Tamagotchi, which was a craze for all of five minutes. New Tamagotchi's didn't help to sustain initial sales levels.

One franchise declining doesn't have to lead to all franchises declining, especially when they aren't even in the same genre. The problem they have is finding another new franchise that can see such huge success to suplement their games that are capable of having sustained success, 2D Mario being one of them.

RolStoppable said:

milkyjoe said:
If this is all based on the fact that the recent games aren't matching the sales curve of NSMBWii then I think I might have to go bang my head against a wall.

So are you going to do it?

Ouch.