| forethought14 said: NX may not even be what we think it is. I think we should just hold off a bit until they disclose more new information. And the bolded is important. I'm all for some cross-play games, but they need to also have exclusive titles that are only playable on a specific device. IF people already have the handheld and all the console does is play the same games in higher resolution, that's not gonna sell very well. They need differentiation. Major Nintendo fans will buy it, but I'm not sure about the rest of the public, which is where most of the sales of a console come from. What Nintendo needs to do, is show that certain games can be playable on both (or more) systems, but also show off something to attract people into buying the system they don't own. An open game like Zelda, or Xenoblade NX may have issues running on weaker hardware, so maybe try making games like those only on their console. They make more money off their hardware than software, so they need to maximize their sales potential, and without exclusives, it'll be difficult. |
Most Nintendo fans don't even buy Nintendo consoles as is. Both the GameCube and Wii U have like an 80% rate of Nintendo handheld buyer not bothering to touch the console. So really all you're doing is keep 80% of your audience locked out of games like Splatoon, Mario Maker, Legend of Zelda, Xenoblade X, etc. if you keep the libraries seperate.
I think this problem will get worse too as the Nintendo handheld becomes more and more powerful each gen because it can do a decent job of running pretty much most/any Nintendo franchise now so it becomes the issue for the consumer of "well I can already get Mario and Pokemon and Link and etc. on my DS/3DS, I'm not buying another $250-$300 console to play the same franchises plus a few extra ones".
Wii was able to break that trend only because it was able to corral tons of casuals through low-budget motion games, but this audience has been completely taken by free smartphone games.
It's just too bad Microsoft is in this industry to be honest. They don't need to be, they don't need the money, nor is Sony or Nintendo any threat to their Windows business (like they thought in 2000). It's not even like after 15 years they've really gained any ground on Sony either. But having to compete with both of them basically just shuts Nintendo entirely out of the traditional console market and makes them look like the "kids console" because of all their mascot IPs.
Without MS in the business, Nintendo could carve out a very comfortable no.2 spot at least, unfortunately it looks like they are sticking around (no offence to those that enjoy their consoles/games).
