| Scisca said: Personally I don't mind it. I only use Nintendo consoles to play exclusives at this point, as Nintendo made sure that multiplats suck on their platforms. The more Nintendo games I get on a single platform, the better for me then. It's a whole different thing though when you think what's better for Nintendo. One thing is certain, they have to change what they have been doing the last 10 years. At this point they are between a rock and a hard place. On one hand mobile is destroying their handheld market - I'm 100% sure their next handheld won't get anywhere near 3DS sales. On the other Sony and MS pretty much eliminated them from the home console market (though in reality it was Nintendo that made itself redundant). Now they somehow have to save themselves, they either need to pick up the glove of Sony/MS or do something different that will work this time. Making games for only one platform is a must if they keep on ditching 3rd parties. If I was them I'd just make a regular console that would get 3rd party support and a Vita-level handheld with easy porting, that would get all Nintendo software. Unfortunately I'm afraid they won't deliver on the power front due to this whole Fusion concept, which will forever force them to the role of "the second, less important console". |
Take this into account
NES-61 million, Game & Watch-43 million
SNES-49 million, Gameboy (89-96)-54 million
N64-33 million, Gameboy (97-03)-64 million
GC-22 million, GB Advance-81 million
So thru 4 generations, Nintendo was averaging about 100 million units of hardware with about 500 million units of software. The breakdown per region has also been pretty consistant, Americas-50m, Japan-25m, Others-25m, give or take a few million. The price point for each of these generations has always been pretty consistant.
1988, NES-$99.99, G&W-$19.99 each
1993, SNES-$129.99, Gameboy-$89.99
1998, N64-$129.99, Gameboy Color-$69.99
2003, GC-$99.99, GBA SP-$99.99
Adjusted for inflation, in each of these generations it was about $300 to get both pieces of Nintendo hardware. Now let's compare sales and price of these to 3DS/Wii U
Wii U-9 million (15m lifetime), 3DS-51 million (65m lifetime)
So currently they are about 60 million and will sell roughly 80 million lifetime, it will be something like 25-30 million per major region so Japan/Others in line with former generations but a pretty big decline in Americas.
New 3DS XL-$199.99, Wii U-$299.99, currently it's about $500 to get both pieces of Nintendo hardware. Is it a coincidence that in the Americas it costs about 40% more to get Nintendo hardware and that sales will be down about 40% as well? I think not.
A huge market for Nintendo has historically been American children so raising the cost of entry has significantly hurt sales among that demographic. Going forward, Nintendo needs to make it around $300 or so to get the full Nintendo experience.
When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.
