Ka-pi96 said:
There is also software profits to take into account though. If Nintendo went handheld only then all their software would be on handheld and based on Smash Bros it may well sell better there than on console. I'd expect handheld development costs to be lower so that with potentially more sales is quite a bit of potential profit. Although, regardless I wouldn't be surprised if that original post you quoted was just a joke post... |
That is an opportunity cost though. Nintendo could ONLY make games for the handheld in that case. Say Nintendo makes four mario games. One on the home console and three on the handheld. They can no longer make four mario games that sell at their maximum, because of brand saturation. There would then only be three mario games. That is then a loss of an entry in a guaranteed profit-making series. Instead, Nintendo would have to invest in a different series that hasn't proven itself or release games on even more expensive consoles with vastly more costs involved (because they are a third party developer.) There is no guarantee that their games would sell well on those other consoles anyway, while with a Nintendo console there is an absolute guarantee that the fans will buy the console because they are by nature Nintendo fans. There is just no reason for Nintendo to stop participating in the console business. Not until the potential opportunity cost exceeds the profit, and that just won't happen in the foreseeable future.
