Soundwave on 09 December 2013
| Shadow1980 said: Nintendo isn't in the place to make another big risk. Sure, high risk can translate into high reward if it pays off. "If" being the operative word. The Wii had the right combination of price, games, and marketing to make it a sales juggernaut, plus unlike the GameCube it wasn't facing down a steamroller. Meanwhile, the Wii U, though it was still inexpensive (adjusted for inflation, anyway) and was first to market (which is usually very advantageous), was lacking in both games and marketing. Without all the key ingredients for success in place, it faltered after the end of its debut holiday. Nintendo had gotten comfortable with relying almost entirely on its first-party output to sell systems, and when those games failed to materialize, it suffered perhaps the biggest loss in sales momentum of any major system ever. Instead of trying to go the Wii route of "less powerful but less expensive and with an innovative controller" a third time, they should play it safe and go back to the pre-Wii days of having a system that can match its competitors in terms of horsepower. It should be as powerful as they can make it without having to take a huge loss on a $400 MSRP (which by 2018-19 will make it roughly on par with the Wii U Deluxe's launch price, assuming inflation remains constant). If it's sufficiently powerful, it could bring back all the major third-party devs and all their big titles. At the very least, they can regard those titles as an insurance policy should they end up being unprepared on the first-party front like they were with the Wii U. Considering that their next system will likely release a year or two before the PS5 and Xbox 3, having a good selection of third-party games will buffer any gaps between first-party titles and help maintain sales and build momentum. It worked with the 360, after all. Will such a system be innovative? Not really, but not everything needs to be innovative. Save the innovation for the games and don't take any big gambles with hardware unless you're in a position to do so, and Nintendo isn't in the position to take any big risks. If they try risky and innovative again and it doesn't pay off, then they'll yet again have to settle for third place. But if they tried something safe for the hardware, their brand alone, combined with solid third-party support, it could greatly expand their market share (Mario and GTA on the same console = Nintendomination). It might not set the world on fire, but it will sell. People will buy Nintendo systems if they have a good selection of games released at a steady pace. |
2018-19? That's way too far off. Launching against Sony/MS would be suicide for Nintendo in that scenario, they need a 2 year headstart minimum (judging from this generation).
A 4TFLOP GPU should be easy enough to put into a console casing and be sold for sub $400 by 2015/2016 anyway.
The Wii U is actually more expensive of a chip because Nintendo insisted on such a low power draw for the chip and an exotic hardware design (super small casing). If they used a more off-the-shelf solution, they could have gotten something much more powerful for not a whole lot more money. It's exactly what Sony did with the PS4.
