Did Nintendo drop the ball this gen?! *Video*

[DanneSandin]

RolStoppable said:

DanneSandin said:

Yeah, I can only agree with what you said here. The only chance for Nintendo to become a hardcore console would be to get all the multiplat, which means more powerful HW, which means more costs, which means losing money...

But considering the success of the Wii and the acceptability of Kinect, isn't there a possibility that 720 will be selling gangbusters?

Wii U ain't no Wii 2...

There's no chance for Nintendo to make a sustainable hardcore console. More powerful hardware will lead to a high price (even when sold at a loss) and the ensuing lack of sales will result in third parties abandoning the platform. Nintendo will always be screwed if they attempt such a direction.

Kinect has fizzled out despite Microsoft trying to support it. There's not much real interest in Kinect on its own, because controller-less gaming is greatly limited in versatility. I don't expect an improved version of Kinect to drive hardware sales because of this. A more extreme example would be THQ's uDraw. It was a hit for one holiday season, but once consumers became aware of its limitations, it died a quick death. Kinect has at least a couple of genres going for it, but I don't think it's enough to make people buy a new console. Similarly, Wii Fit U and Wii Sports 3 alone won't make the Wii U successful. But to Nintendo's benefit, the Wii U is capable of much more than that (just like the Wii was).

Additionally, Microsoft needs to come up with a plan to really sell in mainland Europe and Japan, if they ever want to achieve huge sales. Their Xbox brand is a double-edged sword. It's beneficial in the USA and the UK, but detrimental pretty much everywhere else.

Why would a "hard core" Nintendo system sell less? Is it because people expect a certain price point on Nintendo systems? And why wouldn't a Nintendo console that was on par with its competition get less 3rd party support? Because 3rd party games sell less on Nintendo systems? I know that a great deal of Wii owners also has a PS360 just for the 3rd parties, so it wouldn't make any sense to NOT put games on a Nintendo console if it was capable. (And let's not drag in the 6th gen into this; back then exclusivity were much more common)

Fundamentally I agrre that Kinect2 probably won't drive much sale - unless they greatly improve it, and not simply make it more sensitive.

What do you think MS needs to do to drive sales in EU then? I think we can forget them ever being big in Japan. And what does Nintendo have to do to sell well in EU and US?