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Soundwave on 09 February 2015
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zorg1000 said:
deskpro2k3 said:

I think Nintendo is getting out of touch with their fanbase. Then again, people on Youtube are signing up for the Nintendo Creator's Program even though they're not allowed to upload videos of Smashbros and stuff.

Nintendo learned something all right, I just don't know what it is.

It's not the core Nintendo fanbase that Nintendo is losing. As long as they continue to make high quality entries of 2D/3D Mario, Zelda, Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Metroid, Animal Crossing, Pokemon, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Yoshi, Xenoblade, Kid Icarus, Star Fox, Pikmin, Tomodachi, Fire Emblem, etc and make a handful of new ip each gen like Codename STEAM and Splatoon, core Nintendo fans aren't leaving.

The big mistake they made this gen was releasing hardware $100 more than they have in previous generations along with selling their devices at a loss, software droughts and mediocre advertising are big factors as well.

From April 1996-Mar 2001, Nintendo shipped about 90-95 million units of Gameboy+Nintendo 64 and from April 2001-March 2006 Nintendo shipped about the same amount for Gameboy Advance+Gamecube and they were very profitable during these times. So far this generation Nintendo has shipped about 60 million for 3DS+Wii U and by the time it hits the 5 year mark, they will have likely shipped 70-75 million units, down from the 5th/6th gen but not by a huge amount. Had they released more affordable devices sold at a profit, with more/better advertising than its very likely they could be seeing 5th/6th gen level sales/profits.

I don't think so. I think their main problem is that their two bread and butter audiences outside of their core fanbase -- kids and casuals are being taken away from Nintendo in droves by Apple/Android devices. 

A traditional game handheld will probably never sell 80+ million any more, who knows 3DS might very well be the last one that can even breach the 70 million barrier. 

Doesn't matter how cheap the device is, when people already have another device in their pocket that basically scratches their portable gaming itch already (on top of doing 100 other things), the need for a dedicated portable kinda flies out the window. That and the whole $1/free games vs. $40 games kinda seals the deal. 

The GBA really would've sold like 100+ million too had it not been cut short, but its yearly shipments prior to the DS releasing were more on pace for a system that finishes in the 100 million range. The amount of systems they were selling yearly in the GBA + GCN era is likely something they simply can't replicate in the modern market (forget Wii/DS obviously).