Salnax said:
Focusing on exclusives and new games... Well, the Wii is the best example. Armed at launch in 2006 with the twin killer apps of Wii Sports, which would go on to become the most popular retail game of all time, and Twilight Princess, a game with very high reviews that generally praised its unique controls. Other examples, though more arguable, include:
The 360, Vita, and PS3 admittedly lacked killer apps at launch, but having a killer app or at least a system seller at launch still seems to be the norm, if only because of new tech and awaited new entries in popular series.
In contrast, the PS4 apparently has virtually no high quality major exclusives at launch. A downloadable twin stick shooter is great, but I doubt that's what's moving hardware. The Xbox One, much as I hate to say it, at least seems to offer more unique major games. Bleh. Seriously though, Dead Rising 3, Forza 5, and even Ryse all have the potential to be system sellers at least. |
- Wii: Twilight Princess also being on the Gamecube, to be fair. Nobody foresaw the impact of the Wiimote at the time and were in no way obliged to get the Wii version instead. Wii Sports, I dunno, it demostrated that impact better than anoy other title, but I still think the Wii took off because it was the Wii, and it just so happened that Wii Sports was a pack in.
- PSP: Respectfully disagree, and yes, I'm aware of how popular Hot Shots Golf is in Japan.
- DS: Not sure about this one, it was a sufficient reason to buy the system, but sales were nothing out of the ordinary and didn't explode per se until NSMB (a game with almost zero emphasis on the touchscreen aside from the minigames, which weren't really advertised) + DS Lite. It's pretty much been just had strong legs ever since. You could argue that it's equivalent to what Uncharted has been on Vita.
- 3DS: I think that's because there was damn near nothing else for the system, with Nintendogs being the only identifyable DS-associated franchise, and I'm pretty sure SSF4 3D sold better intially.
- Wii U: Given the past NSMB games, I think it's fair to say it would've sold well over 5m+ by now if previous consumers perceived it as a true killer app. (although that's more down to Nintendo's non-elaborate advertising of the game)
Who knows, maybe my personal outlook on killer apps is a little demanding (Soul Calibur for the Dreamcast - nuking the Arcade version in every way thinkable and took 3D fighters to a whole new scale, Halo for the OG Xbox - a huge stepping stone for the fundamentals of multiplayer FPS on consoles today), and I'll admit, I don't strictly feel that way about all of those systems you mentioned, just rather why they weren't necessarily killer apps, but I wouldn't say it's some unprecedented sin for a system not to offer you exclusive-everything you ever wanted at launch and still did well, hell, the PS1 and PS2 got away with it. The PS3 had a more optimistic launch line-up at this point and was still portrayed as some agent of Satan by the media.
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