Hiku said:
Soundwave said:
I know everyone is raking Nintendo over the coals right now, but realistically how much can they be expected to support such a console? Did you really think those low sales weren't going to have a consequence down the line?
They are supporting the Wii U well considering how big of a disaster it is. You can't realistically ask them to throw away games like the next "real" Animal Crossing, which could sell 4 million in Japan alone on the next-gen Nintendo handheld just so a small Nintendo fanbase on the Wii U can be happy and then watch it sell maybe 750k-1 million. That's just not good business.
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There's something that's perhaps more important here than short term profits though. Some times you have to lose in order to start winning.
People are only looking at: what is more profitable now/short term = most logical course of action for Nintendo. I don't neccisarily agree, given the situation they are in.
The small fanbase they still have left will be very important for them going into their next generation console. Because if those people don't buy the NX early on, even if it potentially could be a great console, it'll never reach those heights if everyone, including the core base loyal fans that are still with them, take the wait and see approach to their next console. Then the same thing that happened with the WiiU could very well happen again, no matter how good the NX might be. People don't buy it because they're sceptical. Third parties see that no one wants to risk investing in it, so they take the same approach.
It's no doubt that they are in a very difficult situation right now. I don't think it would be the craziest business decision ever to try to make the fans at least a bit happier leading up to NX, with at least one or so new quality title announcement, after they went out and stated that they intend to continue supporting the WiiU. While Animal Crossing Party and Mario Tennis is indeed support, that's not exactly what people had in mind when they heard that.
I'll mention Sony as an example. When the PS3 was suffering due to their poor business decisions, they had to make a choice. Either let the consoel crash and burn, or spend a lot of money it would never earn them back, in order to make it an attractive console again, and regain consumer trust. They chose to go with the latter. And while they never got that money back, that decision is paying off for them now with the PS4.
Note that I'm not making a direct comparison of the situations here, and I'm not talking about Nintendo doing the same to save the WiiU. I'm simply showing this as an example of investing money for the future. Money that you won't neccisarily earn back now, but is still important for future relations with your customers.
Investing money in a quality game or two for the WiiU wouldn't cost nearly as much as what Sony spent to turn around the PS3. Especially if they did't bother making those weird titles that no one asked for, like Metroid Ball, Animal Crossing Party, and Zelda Four Swords 3, etc.
And in return, their loyal fans would at least feel a bit more at ease about supporting the next Nintendo console, even if it's doing badly. WiiU will only be 4 years old by the end of 2016 after all, so it's not like there's no compromise here, seeing as that's not the standard life cycle of a console. Also, there were basically no must have games for the WiiU during the first year, so what we have here right now is only two years of support with quality titles for the system.
I'd prefer if they made something liek a proper F-Zero rather than those titles showed us instead. Even if it won't make them as much money as it would on NX, or evebn if they'd lose some money. It may be very important for them to keep their current fanbase happy, going into NX.
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