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gingergaymer on 22 August 2014
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flagstaad said:
gingergaymer said:

I disagree. 

Even with poor 3rd-party support the N64 and GC were commercially successful. They may have sold less than the competition in terms of numbers, but they made Nintendo a lot of money. The original Xbox out-sold the GC but the GC made Nintendo money while the Xbox lost Microsoft billions. The Wii didn't get much AAA third party support and mostly got cheap games and shovelware but still made Nintendo tons of money. 

Nintendo can be self-reliant and make money on selling its hardware and 1st & 2nd party software, while any 3rd party support that jumps on can just be a bonus. 

3rd party =/= success. The PS3 bled money for years and the Xbox division has not posted an overall profit. 

Are you sure about that? all those cheap games and shovelware paid to Nintendo a royalty fee, around 8-10 U$ for each copy they produced that is why all the other companies are willing to lose money building an install base of million of user, so 3rd parties put their games on their system and they get royalties, if they got a good balance between how much they are losing with the console and how much they are earning with the licenses. In the N64 and Gamecube era,Nintendo was losing a little on the hardware but they had enough loyalties and sales to compensate and actually make money, the Wii era was a win/win for Nintendo both the Hardware and software wasw making money for them. The Wii U era is a lose/lose situation, they were losing money on the hardware and the lack of 3rd party royalties is making them report loses every quarter, THEY NEED THE 3RD MORE THAN EVER.

Productions like DK:TF with less than 650k sales, The Viewtiful 101 with less than 250k and Ninja Gaiden 3 with less than 60k where all big loses for the company.


The 3rd parties on the Wii made Nintendo a lot of money, sure. But my point is that the Wii would still have been massively profitable without them. Nintendo can, and has, sustained profits off their consoles without good 3rd party support. 

The Wii U is not indicative of Nintendo's business model as a whole though. Losing money on one console (each unit is now sold at a profit I believe) and losing money overall for one generation (it's still possible the Wii U will eventually break even or post a small profit, it's too early to tell at this point) doesn't mean they can't return to profitability without good 3rd party support. 

Nintendo was largely self-sustaining on their consoles from the N64 to the Wii through a combination of hardware and software sales. If Nintendo can release a console next time that is either sold at a profit or not much of a loss initially and sell good software numbers, they will make money. The Wii U's financial problems are a combination of numerous screw-ups that are bigger than lack of 3rd party support.