Mummelmann said:
The Wii U is designed completely wrong, it has no broad appeal to neither casuals nor core gamers. Games cannot atone for this, the controller will still be a bad idea, storage will be lackluster, services won't beat the competition and 3rd parties still won't care and shower it with support. The 3DS' strong performance is already headed downwards (and its starting to lag behind the DS, much like the Wii started lagging behind the PS2, only the 3DS has started this decline even sooner) and it is bound to end up way behind the DS, likely somewhere around 60-70% of the DS' total lifetime sales, meanwhile, the Vita will contribute absolutely nothing to the handheld markets sustainability. Let's not forget that the PSP and DS have accounted for over 230 million sales thus far, something Vita/3DS will never get close to (in fact; it will likely end up around half total or even less), there is nothing to suggest that I am wrong in my theory here, a year or so from now it will be even more obvious. Dedicated handheld devices are going away in the near future. If the equation were as simple as; 3DS selling quite well now = handhelds are guaranteed a bright future, doesn't that mean that; Wii was breaking records right and left = it easily outsold the PS2 and has about 150-160 million sales now? Do you believe that the 3DS will sell over 200 million consoles? Perhaps 210-220 million that it would need in order for the handheld market to grow? No, its shrinking and its shrinking fast. Hardware development cycles are being forced into turbo mode, for portable devices in particular and tablets and phones are taking over fast. The dedicated handheld gaming device is soon a thing of the past, just like traditional home consoles are damn near extinct, they're more about media capability, connectivity and multi-functionality than games at this point, all this to remain competitive, the handheld is going the same way and Nintendo and Sony aren't keeping up, not even close. I think it was superchunk, the astute member in here, who said that Vita should have been a phone, even before the thing was released. Guess what? He was completely right. Its not that simple. One more thing, before the accusation arrives, I'm not an advocate for smartphones and tablets and certainly not their "games" (in fact; I abhorr everything they stand for), but they will inevitably take over the casual market and thus a sizeable chunk of customers who could otherwise be swayed into purchasing other things. |
Twilight Princess was a system seller for the Wii. The fact that it began as a Gamecube game, and later came to that system didn't change that, people wanted to play a (relatively) dark epic Zelda, and they wanted to play it with the hyped new system with its hyped new controls. (And after waiting so long for the game, people didn't want to wait even longer for the late GCN version) And NSMBWii's nostalgia factor for the core is overestimated, its not that similar to older games, the core know this by now thanks to NSMBWii and NSMB2. It's main draw is the casual crowd, and being willing to spend upwards of $300 on a conole and spending a similar amount on a tablet are two very different things. Also, the PS3 was riding a much bigger hype wave than Wii U.
The dedicated handheld market has shrunk, that's undeniable, but they're not on the brink of extinction. People are still willing to fork out the cash for the handheld that plays Nintendo games, and there's a whole segment of the audience that aren't satisfied with the kinds of games that phones bring to the table.
