Current vs Last, a Console Sales Story (COMPLETE!)

[Osc89]

RolStoppable said:

Osc89 said:

With all the leaks the hardcore gamers would have known what Sony and MS were bringing pretty quickly. And things aren't equal if the Wii U is already out. You don't think they could have taken advantage of the mess of the XB1 reveal if they had the same powered box for $100-$150 less? There would be a lot more attention on the Wii U if it was considered even part of the same race. And given a big problem with the Wii U is people not knowing it exists, having it come up in every PS4/XB1 conversation would help.

I still don't understand why third parties would abandon Nintendo when they didn't for Sony and MS. If they are what saved the PS360, then why doesn't Nintendo create a similar situation for themselves?

 

I don't think Nintendo could have taken advantage of the Xbox One reveal for several reasons. Firstly, the amount of people who would jump the gun and buy another $400 console out of spite is low. Secondly, Microsoft was quick to address many of the issues and solve them. Thirdly, 360 owners would rather switch to the PS4 because Sony's first party offerings are closer to Microsoft's than Nintendo's.

Third parties pursue their own goals and while it's not clear why exactly they want Nintendo to be a non-factor, it's certainly clear that they want a marketplace where Nintendo is a non-factor. I point you again to the examples of Toukiden and God Eater 2 which are deliberate decisions against Nintendo, even though everything third parties should want from a system is actually there. Or to make it more specific for Nintendo home consoles: Numerous Japanese third parties opted for PSP exclusive games, even though they could have easily made graphically improved ports for the Wii to have a worldwide market to sell to (the PSP software market outside of Japan was in a dire state from 2008 onwards). The fact that all those PSP games exist means that all the arguments about the Wii lacking the horsepower and/or software sales to justify third party support don't hold water, because the PSP was the worse platform in both aspects and there wasn't a significant difference when it comes to development costs either.

So yeah, it's pretty clear that Nintendo cannot create a situation for themselves where third parties come to the rescue. Nintendo has already trouble to attract support when their systems sell far and above the competitors'. In Japan it's perfectly possible that there will be the same or a greater amount of Vita titles in development than for the 3DS in the coming years.

I think Nintendo being part of the next-gen discussion still would have helped, and would have done closer to 360 first year numbers just for being first out. Instead it completely stalled with everyone waiting for the next-gen to start. The 360 benefited from people who weren't loyal to any particular brand, and negativity elsewhere with things like the PS3s price. Nintendo could have done the same in the gap between XB1 reveal and E3, would have got all the good publicity the PS4 got instead, and even could have pushed the PS4 in the same "anti-consumer" box as the XB1 by talking about the loss of free online. They can't do any of this while people view them as last-gen though.

And there has to be some reason they don't want Nintendo around. If this reason is anything other than they don't want Nintendo first parties around (which would be more of an issue if they went third party no?) then there must be something they can do on their end to fix it. If it isn't the hardware (which they normally say it is) then maybe their policies or poor third party relations teams? What is it that Sony and MS can do, and they can't?

If you are right however, and third parties will not touch a Nintendo console for absolutely no reason, then there is no point in going for hardware parity. This is a hard scenario to swallow, as a business will generally act in their best interest.