| padib said: It's also not like Nintendo hasn't shown an interest in doing the right thing in the past, morally speaking. When they were having trouble making profit for the past 3 years, the first thing they did was downgrade the higher-up paygrades. |
That's a Japanese thing and a response to pressure from investors. Sony has done the same thing. The Japanese are crazy about someone "taking responsibility". Means absolutely nothing in terms of morality.
Nintendo is a for-profit corporation. They don't take losses just because they're good guys. I have no doubt that they thought the Wii U would be bigger, Bayonetta 2 sales would be better, and that it would lead more consumers to buy a Wii U. No part of this was charity. This is the company that tried to screw consumers side-ways with the original price of the 3DS. They are in this for money.
What they were really after was the perception that the Wii U has a more diverse line-up than, say, the Wii. They wanted to attract Playstation/Xbox gamers. However, it was way, way too little and too late. A couple figure-head games aren't going to change that. They want into that market, they're going to have to do a LOT more and buy up rights to a few cancelled/postpones projects.
It's also possible that, not being familiar with third-party games, they over-estimated Bayonetta. I think a fair amout of hype about the original game had a lot to do with the over-the-top sexuality of it. It was a spectacle. People bought it to see something crazy. Now, though, I think the shock value is gone. We've seen the semi-nudity, we've seen the silly sexualized finishing moves. Personally, I got tired of that quickly in the first game. I really don't think it's the draw they expected it to be.
