Has Nintendo Lost Touch With North America?

[TK14]

Soundwave said:
Selling sub-130k after an $80 price drop, 3 major Mario games, Zelda: OoT 3D, Kid Icarus, Kingdom Hearts, Epic Mickey, Lego City, Resident Evil (x2), Monster Hunter Tri, Luigi's Mansion 2, Fire Emblem, Paper Mario, etc. etc. not to mention a new model revision.

Is problematic. It's a 2 year old platform, it should be a beast in its prime right now, instead its winded behind the 7 year old XBox 360 that's headed for the retirement home.

That's a big problem.

I disagree. Just because some other platforms have "peaked" at the two-year-old mark and then stayed there for a year or two before winding back down, does not mean that every subsequent platform has to follow the same pattern. The 3DS started slow, we can all admit that, and yes it's been trailing in NA and EU in comparison to Japan, but that doesn't mean it will stay that way. 3DS has notably picked up in the past few months with some more solid-to-great-selling releases in Fire Emblem, Luigi's Mansion, and Lego City. This month it has Donkey Kong, next month Animal Crossing, later this summer another Mario RPG, and then the BIG GUNS come out this holiday. If you think 3DS won't be holding it's own against all the BIG BOYS this coming holiday when it has the FIRST 3D Pokemon games in X/Y AND a 2D Zelda game coming in October/November, you're kidding yourself. Contrary to popular opinion, Pokemon, moreso than Mario, is the system seller for Nintendo's handhelds. 

Wii U is a different story. They've lost a lot of ground in the console market since the peak years of the Wii absolutely. But I still firmly believe with the right games the Wii U can be a moderate success for Nintendo. When I say "moderate," I mean N64 level sales or greater. At this point, people need to just realize and accept that Nintendo is NOT directly competing with Microsoft and Sony. The last time they did was the Gamecube, their lowest-selling home console. With the Wii they made a deliberate change in direction to court a different market. It worked. Now, however, that market has moved on to tablets and other things. Nintendo now has to focus on "gamers" again...and despite techies and the "hardcorez" saying that nobody is interested in Nintendo's style of software, it's simply not true. Give the Wii U this next holiday before we make any more "Doomed" threads. Let 3D Mario, Mario Kart, Pikmin 3, Wind Waker HD, Retro's Game, TW101, and the rest have a chance to change the momentum. I truly believe they will.