| Illusion said: I think worst-case, the new Zelda will release on both the NX and Wii U. There is no way that Nintendo would straight up cancel the Wii U version and port to NX. That would raise the ire of fans in terrifying ways especially since no proper Zelda has been released on the Wii U (unlike with the Gamecube).
I think the pressure is off Nintendo somewhat now. Moving into the mobile world almost guarantees them short-term profits and it's obvious that their shareholders are a lot less nervous now then they were 6 months ago. Mobile also guarantees Nintendo a way to stay relevant with the younger generation even if their home console isn't blazing trails. I agree that Nintendo needs to exit the Wii U, but that exit needs to be done gracefully. There are 10 million very dedicated fans who took a risk buying a Wii U (myself included) and it's extremely important for Nintendo's repubility that these fans feel satisfied at the end of the Wii U's life. The fact that the Wii U isn't getting 3rd party support makes it all the more important that Nintendo follows through on its 1st party commitments. |
I don't see Nintendo's current situation as anywhere near as dire as SEGA's was back in the day, this post is interesting in that regard:
http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=7178279
SEGA kept on making the same mistake over and over, if Nintendo were to pull another Wii U in the 9th gen and possibly yet another in the 10th gen (at which point consoles won't be what they are today, so that might be a pretty worthless imagined scenario) then they would have positioned themselves to be "sega'd" as people say. Nintendo were never in this grave a danger, they have also had the handheld division to lean on for decades, something SEGA never did and they made absurd amounts of money on the Wii and even made decent profits on the N64 and Gamecube despite low installed bases, another thing SEGA never accomplished.
Nothing about the Wii U, from launch and up until now has been graceful and I don't think having a graceful exit will make much of a difference when all is said and done. It really is important that Nintendo follow up their 1st party commitments but they have proven to be unable to do so with the 3DS - Wii U combo, which gives all the more reason to seek a solution where they can become more efficient to avoid the same problems in the future, and I believe that this is exactly what they're doing right now.
The way I see it; if they kept on pushing the Wii U up a futile hill, their head is more likely to end up on the chopping block than if they cut their losses and manage to jump into something profitable, viable from a developer standpoint and something that can regain the trust of consumers and their loyal fans. Is it a gamble? It it, I'm not denying that, but a gamble is better than maintaining a situation we know for a fact will end badly for all involed parties.
You can win at gambling; you cannot win with futility and displeasure from fans.
