Nintendo's down, but not out.

[Dodece]

The core gaming drought on the Wii is no kind of exaggeration, and no kind of myth. Nintendo getting its shit together later in the life of that console. Doesn't change the fact that they basically starved their most loyal fans for months, and effectively for years. On a console with next to no third party support. The most loyal bought the platform to play the consoles core franchises. Read this thread every explanation for why a rebound will happen revolves around those same games getting new installments.

So what affect do you think not getting a good, or anywhere near consistent supply of those games had on that player base. Yes they got pissed as they watched helplessly as Nintendo churned out one casual game after another. It might not have been so bad for them if they had bought in later in the generation when they might have had a backlog of games to play, but loyalists are among the earliest of adopters.

Betrayal is exactly what Nintendo did. It didn't take Nintendo to make casual party games, but it would take Nintendo to make new installments in those most beloved franchises. The reason that Nintendo did it was, because it was easy cash. They could spend a pittance on those games, and sells tens of millions of copies. Whereas a core game might cost them much more, and sell maybe five or six million.

It was pure unadulterated greed. They eschewed quality development in favor or quick and dirty, and laughed their asses off, as their loyalists begged and pleaded. It became a running gag on these forums. As the Nintendo faithful got their hopes up for a big core game unveil, and had those hopes repeatedly dashed as Nintendo announced another casual party game. Fans of the brand were already living at their limits anyway without third party support. Nintendo pulling that rug out from under them was just plain murder.

Most of them revolted and switched brands, and yes the other manufacturers do have their answers. It isn't about offering up clones of Nintendo games. It is about having games of the same quality. Yes a game like Halo can be a substitute for a platforming game like Mario. A Uncharted can be a substitute for a Zelda game. Their not being exact parallels doesn't mean they cannot offer up the same level of enjoyment.

Believe it or not gamers can actually adapt to change, and find the good in that change. The point I am driving home is this. Nintendo forced them to change by not providing critical service, and now that they have changed and adapted. To their new surroundings. They probably aren't going to go back, because the platforms they switched to not only offer up the same number of quality exclusives, but they also offer up far superior third party support.

Just look at the members on these forums. Over half the people who actively support Nintendo don't even exclusively play on the platform. They couldn't survive on those scraps. So now for them they buy a Nintendo to play just a mere handful of games. While they spend most of their time playing elsewhere. These are really hardcore gamers that we are talking about. Most gamers can't afford to support multiple platforms. So when they have a choice to make picking up a Nintendo over a Sony or Microsoft console. Amounts to picking up a console that will have one, or maybe two good games a year. Over a console that might have ten in any given year.