curl-6 said:
They were very much in touch with the Wii, hence it breaking the 100 million barrier. |
I don't see the Wii as a demonstration of market knowledge. It sold like crazy, but it didn't dominated the market in the long run and may even be passed by its competitors. They abandoned the core market, jumped in the casual bandwagon and just watches the smartphone and tablet market steal all their casual public with cheap games that run on a device you already has. Then the sales plummeted and they rushed a successor. The problem is that their market left them for the third party support, online mode and better graphics on the HD twins. The problem with Wii U is because of the Wii. They lost the casuals and lost the core, all they have is the Nintendo fan base, that is basically what the GameCube had.
For me, their latest great console was N64. Good exclusives, decent third party support and a balanced hardware with good price. If they hadn't put a cartridge slot it could have even had a good fight with the PS1. Wii U should be a powerful console with XB1/PS4 hardware using x86 processors and a regular controller selling for 400 bucks. With that and some talk with third party studios they would get support. The current Wii U is expensive. It delivers a low performance by its price. And while they will struggle to cut costs because not the gamepad, Sony and MS will get free price cuts riding on the increased APU fabrication for PCs downing their costs with mass production. It's unbelievable that Nintendo didn't saw it coming (and thrust me, they knew what the others were doing). The home console market is focused in a more expensive experience, with a nice and big HDTV and media features. The kid's market could be attacked only with 3DS. And when they grow, the natural choice would be a powerhouse Nintendo device. Like N64 was. It was THE 64 bits machine in the middle of the bit wars. It only suffered because of a very bad design choice.
