padib said:
@bold. I don't remember saying the opposite. Right, the N64 didn't have the games, the GC sold poorly because it got streamrolled. You and I agree. But I do know that the people who bought metroid also bought Zelda and Castlevania. How do I know that, here is how. When a video game console is the leader in the industry, the video games bought generally follow a trend. For example, in the time of the PS Iand PS2, it seemed like the majority of high-profile games were japanese. Games like Ridge Racer, Tekken, Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy, Metal Gear. Most people who bought one game in that genre would receive more games because the market would congregate to cater to itself. The same happened in gen7, where shooters and gritty games were the norm. Games like Uncharted were more gritty than games like Jak and Daxter, and fit better with the better selling games of the gen such as Gears, Cod, AC, etc etc. That is why I'm arguing, reasonably, that the people who bought Nintendo games back in the day also bought games that catered to a similar audience. So a shooter like megaman would be also bought by people who liked Metroid, a sword game like Zelda would also be bought by a person who bought Final Fantasy. The market congregates to satisfy what is hot. However within a same market there could be two main trends, where on the NES you had more action shooter type games (Megaman, Metroid, Contra, Ikari Warriors, etc) and then you had family friendly games (like Mario, Clu clu land, Goonies, Mickey Mouse's Magical Kingdom). So my argument right now is that the N64 was focused on the former (action, dark) while the Wii focused on the latter (family, happy) and expanded on it. I personally believe that nowadays games like Megaman and Metroid are no longer part of the second group by virtue of the evolution of dark and gritty (the level has expanded and metroid is now mild in that range), however I still believe that it is per the older scale less able to catch a wide audience than the Wii/DS type library is able to target. And I think this isn't something that needs proof but that makes sense in light of the history of video games and the types of games that sold on the SNES and migrated to make the Playstation popular. |
we are just going to have to agree to disagree here. THe problem with your examples is the numbers just arent matching up. Metroid was NEVER that big to begin with so it makes no sense to say there is alot of overlap between that series and FF which was always pretty damn popular at least in Japan. Hell Castlevania is even less popular. The best selling one only did 1mil+ and that was on PS. Matter of fact most of those really popular games on SNES did even better on PS with the exception of a few like Street Fighter. Now that explains why PS did so well, but that doesnt explain why Wii did well when it still missed out on those games anyway. Now the casual stuff off set that which is fine. BUt i dont see how Wii U will get much better, because its still missing those games and it doesnt have the casuals to fall back on.
I do agree with what was mostly said, but i would have to say you are putting too much stock in the NES. That system itself had no competition, SNes has some. Ninty didnt really face a formitable foe till PS
