Soundwave said:
The Wii U is just Nintendo coming off the high of the Wii and returning back to the normal trend they were on where the SNES sold less than the NES, the N64 sold less than the SNES, and the GameCube sold even less than the N64. Throwing the same (by now) 20/30 year old Nintendo franchises at the problem over and over again isn't the solution. I think Nintendo basically conceeded the market for core gamer consoles a while ago, as PS3/360 basically took 100% ownership of that market with little/no resistance from Nintendo. The Wii was just a party machine with the occassional dash of Mario here and there for most people. |
The Gamecube was the strongest console on the market hardware wise, had alot of 3rd party support( Resident Evil, Soul Calibur, Exclusive Sonic Games, All the EA titles, Splinter Cell) and a controller that alot of hardcore games still say is the greatest ever and it blew up in their face. If it wasnt for Smash Bros and Mario Kart, It may not have even sold 10 million. The entire lineup was aimed towards hardcore gamer, males, from the ages of 14 to 28. The NES sold the way it did because of Super Mario Bros 1,2, and 3, Duck Hunt, and a few other titles like Zelda, Tetris, Excitebike, and Dr. Mario, pretty much all of which are more on the casual side. SNES was carried by Super Mario World, Super Mario All Stars DKC 1,2,3, and Street Fighter, all of which were very casual. SF II, was like the modern Call of Duty, huge 3rd party game that looked and played hardcore, but was also loved by the casual market. SNES also had Final Fantasy,Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Killer Instinct and was being much more hardcore. N64 went down that path even more by taking everything all of their franchises and making them 3D instead of 2D. Alot of DKC fans rejected DK64, Mario 64 did well, but not nearly as amazing as SMW and SMB. Ocatina of Time was a hit, but Ocarina and Majoras combined had the same sales of Zelda 1 and 2 on the NES. The console was a radical shift from the SNES and NES and it turned off alot of people. Gamecube went down that path even moreso. The Wii may have been the Party/Mario machine, but it also had 350 million 1st party game sales, and sold 100 million consoles. Sony and Microsoft would have killed for those numbers. Sony sold 80 million PS3's but only moved 95 million in 1st party software (where all the real money is it.)
So now we are at the Wii U, and once again Nintendo tried to make a console to cater to the hardcore base, and it blew up in their face (so far). Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, and Wind Waker HD exist because Nintendo once again is trying to cater to the hardcore gamer. They launched with NSMBU and Nintendo Land, and sold 2.3 million in the first 5 weeks. (Much more Casual). Nintendo launches SM3DW and Wii U jumps to 450k in November and 995k in December. I know this has been pretty long but by point is that catering to the hardcores is why they lost so many sales on N64 and Gamecube, and putting them on the backburner is why the Wii sold 100 million. I do think both can co-exist on one console (DS/PS2 proved this), but trying to build an install base on hardcore games doesnt work. PS4/Xbone have built their base on Call of Duty/ Battlefield / and FIFA, three of the games casuals ate up most last gen.
