| venepe said: @NoirSon. I'm simply speculating. I am a Nintendo fanboy. I am trying to make sense of their strategies. I don't think is crazy to think that there is a divide between the Nintendo Board and Executives. Some may want to pull out of the console and dedicate on handhelds while the other group wants to keep up the tradition. We all know that a lot of analysts speculate or maybe even want Nintendo to get out of the console market, so why not think some Exec's within Nintendo want the same? |
It isn't crazy per say. There is no doubt that Nintendo is a Japanese company and within Japan the major money maker is indeed the portables. But given how much money is still within the home console market worldwide, I would be shocked if any of the so called handheld only supporters would have traction or backing to sabotage the company given the amount of money lost would destroy the company's international brand which is still vital to their success.
It pretty much comes down to a pride aspect IMO. Nintendo has always been somewhat slow to change with the curve if they are the ones making the change. Part of that is the economics as they don't have the same amount of money as their competitors and part of that is arrogance.
After the company's last President that lead them to prosperity and the gaming market decades before retired, the company wasn't in the best shape. The looming threat of the PSP threatened their normal dominance of the portable market and they had nearly been reduced to 3rd among the home console market world wide and only second in Japan due to xenophobia of the console's aesthetics and games. Whether it was all the newcomer Iwata's idea or Yamamuchi helped who knows (it seemed possible Yamamuchi put his name on the product as a precaution in case it failed) but they announced trying to put the DS system as the competitor for the PSP. It was more powerful then the GBA but less then the PSP, its only potential edge coming in the form of the second screen with touch capabilities. They were careful in marketing it not as the GBA successor but a "Third Pillar" to the current Nintendo portable and consoles and out the gate it didn't exactly set the world on fire until they found gold in non traditional games like Nintendogs and later the Brian Training series, opening up several other genre games to grow and expand. The rest we know is history.
With the successor of the Gamecube, it was a shock to many when Nintendo gambled and did something similar introducing motion controls and a new system called the Wii. Even more surprising was how quickly it caught on not due to the traditional heavyweights like Zelda or Mario but their pack in demo called Wii Sports. Their second gamble worked and as we all know history was made although the system seemed to stutter in its final years. So a successor was needed and once again, Nintendo gambled with a underpowered device with a unique feature, only this time they didn't have anything to grab the public within the first 6 months and are looking like a dead duck in the coming next generation war like the Dreamcast.
It isn't self sabotage as much as it is their luck in turning the tide has finally run out and now, Nintendo has to prove they are capable of either coming back or surviving another console era with a 3rd place console and little 3rd party support to come back later.
