GameCube Vs. Wii U (Month To Month In NA)

[Screamapillar]

Dodece said:
@tbone51

I hate to agree with him, but his point is entirely valid. While those titles sell exceedingly well to the brands loyalist core. They don't apparently increase the consoles install base. Consumers are simply buying the Nintendo package, and those titles are part of the package. There are a lot of good indicators for this being the case on the GameCube the sell through of titles like Mario Kart, Sunshine, Smash Brothers, and Zelda. All have similar sell through rates. Those rates in turn are exceedingly high. Showing a very atypical demand. Finally even with all of these titles the GameCube still performed poorly, and finished in a very distant third place. Even managing to lose to the original Xbox, and Microsoft was a relative newcomer with not much in the way of first party development.

These titles just don't have a wide enough appeal outside of a very small community of gamers. That isn't to say that it would be impossible for these games to appeal to a wider audience, but for that to happen. Nintendo would have to dramatically up the effort they put into each title. As it stands now they dial in a clone of the previous game, and even if you say that the core of the previous game was perfect. That still doesn't explain the absence of offering up more features, modes, options, and just increasing the quantity of content in the game.

The week that Mario Kart Wii came out in April 2008 (check 3rd May 2008), Wii hardware sales jumped over 300%.  So games like that do indeed increase the install base. 

If you need current evidence of it, look at the 3DS spike when Luigi's Mansion came out.  Headline first-party franchise sequels always spike hardware sales for Nintendo platforms.