Why did Nintendo turnaround ?

[Legend11]

HappySqurriel said:

Legend11 said:
As others have mentioned the turnaround was due to offering a new kind of gaming experience. Had the Wii not had motion controls and instead simply been a next gen machine with hardware specs similar to the 360 and PS3 is likely would have been slaughtered and done Gamecube numbers (possibly even worse).

I think the breakdown for the new the Wii installed base will be something like:

20 million Nintendo hardcore
10 million Hardcore attracted to it because of JRPGs and other hardcore titles
70 million Casuals only attracted to it because of motion controls and the very casual games and products being produced around them (Wii Sports, Wii Play, Carnival Games, Wii Fit, etc).

You can really see it already in the games being sold for the system. For example early adopters tend to be the system's hardcore but with the Wii we already know that many early adopters of it are in fact casuals (check Wii Fit's sales in Japan compared to Brawl's). So if there is already a high percentage of casuals this early in the system's lifecycle the percentage of them later on as prices come down will only increase.

I'm not too sure that had Nintendo build a console following the "Gamecube Strategy" (powerful yet cost-effective system) that they would have been "slaughtered" by the XBox 360 and PS3; you have to remember that most third party games would be ported due to the high risk of next generation development, and that would have resulted in a market where you had a $200 system that offered practically the same experience to its $400 and $600 competition. Certainly, it wouldn't have been as popular as the Wii but it would also be more popular than the Gamecube was ...

Beyond that I think it is practically impossible to create a decent breakdown for the Wii. About all I can say is that (practically) everyone I know who owns a PS3 or XBox 360 also owns a Wii, and the people who only own one system tend to own a Wii; personally, I suspect that the demographics that were likely to own all systems in previous generations will buy a Wii and the people who were likely to only own one system will probably buy a Wii ...

No I mean the system would have been priced similarly to the 360 and PS3 as well...  Likely in the $400 dollar range at launch.  At that price it would have had a harder time appealing to it's core base and because of it's online the non-Nintendo hardcore would have still flocked to other systems.  The casuals that are responsible for the Wii's current success because of it's unique motion controls and games wouldn't have bought one without those controls.