| Mummelmann said: The PS3 was a major disappointment, could have been a flop if Sony had made the wrong choices and stayed the course, their aggressive price cuts and massive publisher support was detrimental to their bottom line but paramount to remaining a force on the market to be reckoned with. That's why I can't see any scenario where MS will simply let the One keep on flailing in open water, they will take action just like Sony did in the 7th gen. Nintendo have already taken some action but they have a couple of unique (funnily enough since that's their game) problems today; a terribly aimed product with no real chance of redemption, the one thing that really sets it apart is, by paradox, also the one thing causing them the most harm by far. They have terrible developer support and lack any kind of experience with HD development, causing the vital 1st party titles that need to fill the gaps to be delayed time and time again. They are also losing quite a bit of money which causes two main problems; little to no leverage for significant pricing adjustments and the most overlooked one; they have by far the least return on hardware investments, what they get for the manufacturing cost is less than impressive. I don't like the word "flop", not one bit, and I tend not to use it. But for expectations, actual grips and the impact of those, overall sales situation, support and future outlooks; it's really, really hard to find any other term that fits the Wii U. I continue to be amazed at those who keep saying that Nintendo are "clearly the ones best fit to lead the industry"; their current presence with a crashing handheld sector and zero understanding of market movements in general and their continued insistence on refusing to adopt standards and tech through the years having bitten them in the proverbial behind in the HD transition, more than ever, quite clearly shows that they are in fact not fit to lead the industry at present. |
Yes, One is in a similar position than PS3: it has a price problem. Probably they would have to drop Kinect to create a cheaper SKU, but that is pretty much feasible. They don't have big design failures (it's weaker than PS4, but not that much and can hold it's own in multiplats).
I think Nintendo screwed it up with Wii U. It is much weaker, but it isn't that much cheaper. PS3 was a US$ 500 machine, 360 was US$ 300 and both selling with big losses, while the Wii was a US$ 250 profitable machine. Now Wii U is at US$ 300 competing with machines costing US$ 400 and 500, with all selling close to price cost. I don't see it as a good project. I think Nintendo could have used similar specs and they would have a decent US$ 400 machine with similar power.
3rd parties wanted to support Wii U. They ported a lot of games, released new ones like AC, CoD and others, but the sales aren't coming. That's because the public that bought these franchises it the PS360 crowd that won't spend US$ 300 to get a new console that does barely better than the older ones. They want the jump to PS4/One where they can see a real difference. Wii U is an upgrade only for the Wii crowd and that market is long gone. Casuals are on tablets and smartphone now. What the Wii U is? A device that can't appeal to the core or the casual crowd, only to Nintend fans, like GameCube did.
