Sal.Paradise on 16 October 2013
| RolStoppable said: A lot of fuss about the PSV numbers. 60k looks impressive on the surface, but it's coming off of three atrocious weeks in a row. In the sum those sales match my prediction for a 45k week from a month ago, because I didn't expect the Vita to go from about 10k a week to about 5k a week. In the end, why would it matter though? The decisions for third party support have already been made quite a long time ago, so this boost doesn't change anything one way or the other. It was already clear before the price cut in March that third parties would keep making games for the system despite an awful first year. Speaking of low sales, the Wii U matches the pace of the Vita in a launch-aligned comparison. However, that doesn't matter either, because the decisions for third party support have already been made. The Wii U can keep posting sub-5k weeks, it's not going to hurt the system (there was nothing to lose already). It works the same way in the other direction: Even if the Wii U somehow rebounded to a baseline of 20-30k weekly, that wouldn't garner any meaningful third party support. Speaking of third party support, the 3DS has been the dominant platform in Japan for two years now. If a Nintendo handheld with such a commanding lead is unable to attract a clear majority of third party support, then what hope is there for a struggling Nintendo home console to gain anything at all? Absolutely none. Hence why there is no pressure on Wii U performance, other than Nintendo's bottom line. That makes it a purely business-oriented matter, because from a gamer's perspective it's pretty much irrelevant. Oh, and Pokémon sold 2m units. That's okay for a start. |
It's almost like HW sales and third party SW sales are not completely interdependent, and multiple other factors can affect a game's viability on any given platform! Madness!
Essay Pro