Mummelmann said:
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I'm not sure if I believe Nintendo is really losing appeal, here's something I find interesting.
NES-61 million, Game & Watch-43 million
SNES-49 million, Gameboy (Apr 89-Mar 96)-54 million
N64-33 million, Gameboy (Apr 96-Mar 03)-64 million
GC-22 million, Gameboy Advance-81 million
Each of these generations added up to about 100 million and about 500 million in software, with a rather consistent breakdown per region as well, Americas-50 million, Japan-25 million, Others-25 million give or take a few million. Wii U+3DS in Japan+Others are on track to meet the previous generations baseline, it is literally only Americas that is tracking behind, probably around 30 million lifetime. I think price could be a big factor in this as American kids has historically been on of, if not the biggest demographic for Nintendo. Here are the prices of Nintendo hardware in the middle of each generation.
1988, NES-$99.99, Game & Watch-$19.99
1993, SNES-$129.99, Gameboy-$89.99
1998, N64-$129.99, Gameboy Color-$69.99
2003, GC-$99.99, Gameboy Advance SP-$99.99
Adjusted for inflation, each generation u could get both the handheld & console for about $300 give or take. For comparison, Wii U-$299.99, New 3DS XL-$199.99, it costs about $500 to get both this generation.
So America's is looking to be down about 40% (30m vs 50m) and costs about 40% more ($300 vs $500), maybe it's a coincidence or maybe price has a huge effect on this generations sales in the Americas.
When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.







