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Ljink96 on 22 April 2015
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MajorMalfunction said:
Ljink96 said:


While they have seemed inert to move in the past, you simply can't underestimate Nintendo. There's a reason why they've been the only game company to see the downfall of its powerful competitors and tell the tale. One bad generation and the world flips. You can't win them all. Do we think the Wii was the pinnacle of Nintendo's success? Any progressive thinker would know that this isn't true. Technology advances and so does the mind. Nintendo isn't sitting back, twittling their thumbs, worrying about Wii U. Who knows, their next console could blow our minds again. We can't write them off so soon. All it takes is for Nintendo to at least adopt the structure of new consoles, so at least there would be no excuse to not develop for them. If THAT fails, then yeah, Nintendohas no space in the console hardware market. The same cannot be said about the handheld market though.

Agreed, especially about the handheld market part. The thing that worries me is that Nintendo came into this generation completely unprepared for HD development, and that the last 2 years of the Wii's lifespan was pretty barren for 1st party content. 2007 - 2010 was great as a Wii owner (got it in 2007, when they were available again in Canada), but they didn't have much presence in the home console market in 2011 and 2012.

I don't blame Nintendo's current actions for everything though; the Wii U was a risky gambit from the get-go. It either succeeded like the Wii (revolutionized gaming and got away with being weaker, like the original Wii got away with being SD) or it failed as rendering technology advanced (partially resident textures/clipmapping/"MegaTextures", global illumination and physically-based rendering all come to mind). What worries me is that Nintendo is extremely successfun on their own terms, but when they are the ones in control, they're a fish out of water. If Nintendo isn't willing to stick it out with the Wii U, I don't see there being light at the end of the tunnel. It's not a PS3-like situation where all they have to do is cut the fat (Sony was losing a minimum of $300/sale of the launch SKU), cut the price and push out exculsives to recover their brand. It won't cost as much (say low $100 millions vs. billions), but the way forward isn't as clear. IMO, Nintendo either goes $249 companion console or they compete head-on with Sony and Microsoft. As the Wii U shows, there is no in-between.

The way I see it is, if Nintendo does decide to go head on in the home console market space, it better sell or their home consoles would be a lost cause.  Nintendo loves to make money, they aren't keen on losing it and that's how they've stayed afloat for so long. The guys know how to rake in the dough. But it's coming to a point where relevence is almost as important as sales. We're not at that point yet for Nintendo but I see us getting there soon. They need to make a console that fits the needs of ALL developers but with their own network, etc. ...I don't see it happening. Honestly, I think Nintendo going 3rd party for home consoles wouldn't be a half bad idea but Iwata knows best I guess.