Global Hardware Up 6 December 2014

[DonFerrari]

zorg1000 said:

DonFerrari said:
On Nintendo going 3rd party... I don't want them to go 3rd but what would prevent them to make their on controller to some special games or as an alternative???

Ninty maybe would sell more SW by having more consoles available to sell... or would sell less by losing image and exclusivity, we will never now... but saying they would lose control over their IP or publishing rights is silly as Sony/MS don't order 3rd parties on what they must make or publish all the games.

More consoles to sell to doesn't necessarily mean more software sales for Nintendo's ip. If u compare N64/GC to Wii for many of Nintendo's ip, the sales are fairly similar. This is of course excluding the Wii series but we can safely say those won't sell very well on PS4/XB1.

Mario 64 & Mario Galaxy had very similar sales, same goes for Mario Sunshine vs Galaxy 2, Ocarina of Time vs Twilight Princess, Majora's Mask vs Skyward Sword, Donkey Kong 64 vs DKC Returns, Kirby 64 vs Return to Dreamland, Paper Mario TTYD vs Super Paper Mario, Battalion Wars vs Battalion Wars 2, Fire Emblem PoR vs Fire Emblem RD, Pokemon Colosseum vs Pokemon Battle Revolution, Mario sports titles sold about the same on Wii and GC, Metroid Prime/Prime 2 vs Prime 3/Other M, Animal Crossing vs Animal Crossing City Folk.

The only games to sell substantially better were games that focused on simultaneous, 4-player local multiplayer. Mario Kart & 2D Mario had extremely strong sales and Mario Party & Smash Bros sold much better than N64/GC versions. There is no guarantee that releasing games on Playstation/Xbox will increase software sales by a considerable margin. Even if they did sell better, it would need to be enough to counter the royalty fees they would have to pay to Sony/Microsoft and the royalty fees they would lose from 3rd parties, along with revenue earned from hardware sales and accessory sales.

So perhaps it would work out for Nintendo but it seems far too risky right now, considering that they are starting to post profits again. Yes they made some mistakes that caused them to lose money for a few years (3DS launch price too high which led to massive price cut, selling Wii U at a high price along with selling at a loss) but as long as they sell their hardware at a more reasonable price right off the bat while making a small profit on each unit sold then they shouldn't face the same problem. Also things like Amiibo & Quality of Life can be successful investments for them that bring in some extra profits for the company.

Totally agree with you, that there isn't much expectation that they would sell a lot better if 3rd party, but they would have the possibility. I preffer they stay as they are and I don't mind buying their HW for it, the only thing I don't like much is that SW holds the price a little too high for a little too long, but since I'm not their focus customer, Ninty is second console for my needs, I can't complain much.

Let's pray they learned their lesson with 3DS/WiiU and release something even better for gen 9th.