Nintendo needs new IPs now more than ever

[outlawauron]

seiya19 said:

outlawauron said:

There is no defined line, but I'm talking games that can do at least a million, push millions with advertising. Only reason I say that is because people recognize those games because they're not interested in them. Steel Diver (while also terrible) is something so that few people can enjoy, no one was excited about it.

I'm not dismissing smaller games (largely because I predominantly play and love niche games), but you can't expect those to satisfy the need for new IPs. It's like Sony fans saying that people weren't interested in new IPs because Hyperdimension Neptunia, Rain, Puppeteer, and Time and Eternity didn't sell well. Those games are not what people wanted. People want TitanFall, inFamous, Last of Us, Gears of War, LittleBigPlanet, etc. Those are new IPs aimed at larger audiences.

Rhythm Heaven (not a new IP from last gen, but mentioned on the post you replied to) sold over 3 million on DS and over 800k on a late Wii release. I'm pretty sure a 3DS game would be able to get to a million, probably more. And Xenoblade sales were clearly limited by being localized late in the US and distributed by Gamestop exclusively, as evidenced by how its price went through the roof afterwards. Assuming "X" has a similar reception, I can see it crossing the million mark at least, as NoA is now giving it their attention. There's certainly room for expansion there.

I understand the sales argument here of course, but it should be made clear that a new IP doesn't cease to exist or becomes irrelevant for not meeting a certain sales threshold, which is what some people seem to imply whenever this topic comes up. I'm glad to see that wasn't your intention then. Now, when it comes to popular new IPs, Nintendo did produce the Wii Series, Nintendogs, Style Saavy, Big Brain Academy, Tomodachi Collection and Brain Age last gen that are as popular or more than the examples you mentioned, with other IPs like Endless Ocean, Art Academy and Fossil Fighters being close to the million seller criteria. Could they do more ? Sure, but as I stated before, they already have a lot of popular IPs to take care of, so they don't need to create as much new ones as Sony or Microsoft. And the argument that new IPs have a better shot at attracting large audiences than old ones is flawed from the start as new IPs aren't inherently popular or even more original per se. IPs, both new and old, are as good as what you do with them.

I actually looked at Rhythm Heaven before I made my post. It was very lop-sided in Japan. It did well enough in the West, but it would be a fringe qualifier imo.

@ bolded, these sold to the casual audiences of the Wii and DS. Those audiences have moved to smartphones and tablets as evidenced by the much lower sales of the new iterations. Not sure why you'd bring them up when the picture was obviously portraying a more traditional gamer who wouldn't be interested in Nintendogs or Brain Age. Also, did tomodachi collection ever make it to the US? I never thought it did. 

Lastly, it's not that new IPs are more popular, it's that people want more balance out of the big franchises they love and new experiences to enjoy. There is no reason for Nintendo not to have the capabilities to produce more games. If they're unable to, they can use the million in reserves to contract out more games like Bayonetta 2 or purchases studios. That said, they do seem to mishandle some of their studios almost as bad as Sony does Team ICO (looking at you monolith soft).