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Soundwave on 18 November 2013
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RolStoppable said:
Osc89 said:

How can Nintendo survive then? If third parties want them out they won't ever have good support like the others. And Sony and MS are so similar in what they offer in terms of hardware they will focus on exclusive software to try and stand out. So Nintendo will have a very hard time standing out in the software space, especially as they will devote less time to new IPs as they have to maintain their successful old ones.

But coming up with something special in terms of hardware is even harder. Could they really come up with another Wii again? Especially as many more companies are trying to get a box in the living room. On top of Sony and MS, it looks like Valve, Apple, Google (+ other Android boxes) are all going for this area. Will they all have ignored what the Wii did? Many of them will be looking to pick up the ball Nintendo dropped, and if Nintendo didn't even realise what they did with the Wii why would it be them.

Nintendo will survive by selling affordable hardware at a profit and having plenty of high selling software on their machine, plus accessory sales. If all components are profitable, the company will stay profitable. The Wii is the most profitable video game system ever made and it didn't have good third party support. There is also nothing that prevents Nintendo from continually expanding their workforce and as long as those additional development studios make profitable games, it's all good. With enough studios around, both new and old IPs can be created/continued without either one getting the short end of the stick.

And yes, Nintendo could come up with another Wii again. In fact, Nintendo is the only company who can. In order to make something like the Wii, you need top development teams that back the system. Sony and Microsoft would never go that route, because they need third parties, thus they can't take a radically different route. Valve, Apple and Google also need third parties to make their boxes have the slightest chance, because they have no first party developers to speak of (Valve hasn't really made a game in years). Apple and Google can throw all the multimedia functions they want at their box, but that's not what a video game system is about.

Unlike superchunk, I don't believe that Nintendo has to add any non-gaming functions to their systems, simply because in this day and age (and in the future) almost everyone will own other devices that do those things already. So it's pointless for Nintendo to add that stuff, because those features have next to no value to the consumer. What people care about though are games, so that's all that a Nintendo system has to do. A box that plays games and does it well. There is a big potential market that doesn't care about what qualifies as hardcore gaming today and neither sees iOS and Android gaming as something they would do on their TV. Nintendo just has to go where nobody else can or wants to go.


Yeah people want a game console. But Nintendo doesn't have some "magic" formula. Quite honestly 2 of the previous 3 console generations they've gotten spanked quite handedly by Sony and it looks the Wii U is going to make it 3/4. 

People are quite happy to buy a 360/PS3 (cheap, for parents, kids love it) or a PS4/XB1 too. 

I actually think the XBox One is the actual realization of a good console that is both casual and hardcore at the same time, it's something everyone in the household would use IMO and it integrates with the lifestyle of a "normal person" by integating well with the television. 

MS' problem right now is that it's about $100 more expensive than where it needs to be, but in console cycle likely to last 6 years or more, that's a temporary issue.

I think X1 is actually going to be the console of choice for the "hipster adult" audience that drove the original Wii to success early on (it wasn't just kids) once it gets cheaper.