S.T.A.G.E. said:
Gamerace said:
Wow. It's amazing how completely clusterf---ed the WiiU's launch is compared to others, especially Wii's as far as software support.
Wii greatly benefited from a lot of games pulled off the failing Gamecube's release schedule (LoZ:TP, DK:BB, FE:RD, Mario Strikers Charged, Super Paper Mario) but still there were a lot of dedicated Wii games ready for the first year.
WiiU in comparison.... WTF Nintendo?
It doesn't make sense to me, unless with market research Nintendo knew in advance WiiU would be a dud and knew the middling titles normally released in the summer wouldn't be nearly strong enough to save it so they pulled all that development resources for the (then) struggling 3DS so at least they'd have one strong leg to stand on. It's a bit of a conspiracy theory granted but looking at the lanches for all their other home consoles and then WiiU - it's a shockingly stark comparison. And I don't believe they underestimated HD development that badly. Now that 3DS is stable they've had time to prime major titles for WiiU and if they don't bring it to at least N64 levels, expect all further game development to be pulled for WiiU's replacement just like GC's was for Wii. |
The Gamecube never failed. Nintendo profited off of it even though they came in third. They never switched to DVD's so their hardware was a bit cheaper even though their graphics were second best. Sony used DVD's and the price of DVD's went down for Microsoft followed suit the year after.
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The GameCube did fail in the sense that it didn't hit the sales goal that Nintendo wanted (I believe they wanted 50 million for it, it didn't even get to half that). There was also a point in the GameCube's lifespan where they were forced to cease production of it and were stuck with unsold inventory, which I believe was a painfully embarrassing (and costly) experience for Nintendo.
It's part of the reason why the Wii was in such limited stock its first 12+ months ... Nintendo wasn't willing to manufacture over a certain amount and get stuck with unsold inventory again.
Microsoft entering the business screwed Nintendo IMO ... when it was just Sony-Nintendo and you had Sega fumbling around, Nintendo could make more mistakes with their consoles, but once people had two viable alternatives that weren't a trainwreck like Sega ... Nintendo lost a lot of their leeway.
