| Nuvendil said: Name me one genuinely successful microconsole. yeah I thought not. Honestly the whole "Nintendo should bow out of the main race" is kinda silly. There's nothing intrinsic to their company or their resources that makes them nonviable in the main market; quite the opposite, they have the resources available to be very heavy hitters. They just need to stop hamstringing themselves. Sales numbers taken in a vacuum without consideration to surrounding circumstances is not an indication of present or future potential for success. If anything, they should definitely stick it out because of the big three, they are the most consistently profitable company in this market. If they can stop doing the occasional stupid thing that shoots themselves in the foot (GameCube discs and marketing, Wii U marketing and early launch resulting in gimpy hardware) and they can stick it out and stay consistent, it will probably be just them and Sony not too long from now. The folks at the greater MS company who don't like the Xbox division are only getting more ammunition to use against them every quarter. People always talk like MS being filthy rich means they don't care about the losses but the truth is it's the opposite: MS cares a great deal about losses, that's *why* they are filthy rich, because they cut nonviable divisions. Also, just cause Google and others see the microconsole as a big market doesn't make it one. The reality is that they just want to capitalize even more on the enormous Play store and similar services but know full well the games there don't stand a snowball's chance in hell against the *real* big boys so they try to smuggle them into the console market via these cheap alternatives. And it just doesn't work. It brings the portable and home console markets together in a way that removes the very things that each demographic wants in their device. |
The first sentence is part of my point, there is a large potential audience for microconsoles yet none of them have broke out and shown that potential. I believe not having strong standout software is a large reason for that, which is exactly what Nintendo excels at. Nintendo in my opinion has a very strong chance of being the first company to make a truly successful microconsole.
I don't think Nintendo can't compete with PS/XB, I simply don't think they want to. Nintendo has always been about affordable, family-friendly appeal, a $300-400 device with mostly M-rated games like PS/XB doesn't really fit that philosophy. A $150 device with 100's of games designed for kids/casuals/families does fit that philosophy and in my opinion is a much safer, smarter route for Nintendo to take.
When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.
