The Nintendo Black Friday Deals are kind of freakin' amazing.

[zorg1000]

potato_hamster said:

After that you're moving the goalposts. The sales of an NX home doesn't really matter if the NX handheld sells about the same as the 3DS? Really? We don't even know if the NX is actuallty more than one device! We don't actually know if it is more than one device if the software is shared amongst every hardware platform! Just because this platform might have a shared library (which I doubt) suddenly the sales of one of these devices is less significant? What? Well let's say the software libraries aren't shared - what then? We're in a very similar boat to what we're in now with the Wii U and 3DS. Do Wii U sales suddenly not matter much at all? I guess Nintendo can wait to release the NX! If we combine 3DS and Wii U sales it's about twice as high as PS4 sales! Nintendo shouldn't have a care in the world right now by your logic.

Aside from that, you're right, not every game has to be a system seller. But if there aren't enough system sellers on your platform to you know, actually sell systems, then the other lesser, cheaper, "supporting" titles don't really matter much do they? Why do you keep pushing Nintendo's published titles as if it's impressive? As if it actually makes a different. Combine them all you want, it's not going to make the Wii U sell as well as the Wii or the 3DS sell as well as the DS is it? Nintendo is withdrawing back into its shell and trying to find a way to such every spare dime out of the ever decreasing hardcore Nintendo fans they have left.

 

How am moving goalposts? We have been discussing Nintendo making a theoretical unified platform for 3 days now, no goalposts have been changed. And yes, if Nintendo does indeed go for a unified concept where there are 2-3 form factors for the same platform that share the same  components and software library than the individual sales of the form factors is less of a concern than it currently is now. Let's say NX Console sells 15 million, NX Portable 55 million, NX Tablet 30 million for a total of 100 million, how is that any different than if NX Console sells 30 million, NX Portable 45 million, NX Tablet 25 million for a total of 100 million? Either way that's 100 million of the same components and an install base of 100 million to sell to. Ur right that if Nintendo doesn't go for a unified concept and instead has 2 completely separate platforms with completely different hardware and completely different software than they are in a similar position as 3DS/Wii U with those type of sales, but like I said our discussion has been about a theoretical unified platform for 3 days now so that is irrelevant to the discussion.

Obviously Nintendo has plenty of system sellers, otherwise they wouldn't have sold 65-70 million units of hardware between 3DS/Wii U thus far and on track to surpass 80 million by the time they are done selling. I'm pushing the amount of Nintendo IP per year because u said with a unified platform Nintendo would only have 5-6 releases per year, which the lists from 2013-2015 (each year that 3DS & Wii U have shared an entire year on the market together) show that Nintendo typically releases 20-25 games per year with a mix between small, medium and big releases.

Why do they need to sell like Wii/DS? U have said on multiple occasions that those devices were flukes and their success will never be replicated again. If those devices were in fact flukes than it makes no sense for them to be the threshold for what is considered a success or failure. The 3 previous generations before Wii/DS each sold about 100 million units, 3DS+Wii U are on track to sell about 80 million so not the massive decline that u make it out to be. The decline from 100 million to 80 million may not necessarily be simply because less people are interested in Nintendo. There are many potential factors such as marketing, both 3DS and Wii U had initial consumer confusion with many people thinking 3DS was just a DS revision along with many people thinking Wii U was just a Wii accessory.

Price is another potential issue, 3DS & Wii U are adjusted for inflation much higher priced than any other generation at this point in their lives. Back in 1993, NES cost $129.99 & Gameboy $59.99 for a total of $190, adjusted for inflation that's about $315. Back in 1998, N64 cost $129.99 and GBC $69.99 for a total of $200, adjusted for inflation that's about $290. Back in 2003, GC cost $99.99 and GBA SP $99.99 for a total of $200, adjusted for inflation that's about $260. So each of those 3 generations, it cost about $300 to own both a Nintendo console & handheld while it currently costs $500 to own a Wii U and N3DS XL.

A third potential issue is that Nintendo has a harder time supporting 2 separate platforms at a time than in the past with development time & costs increasing. This has led to both devices suffering from droughts at certain points in their lives. Marketing+price+software output are all legitimate potential reasons why they have had a decline this generation compared to previous ones, if Nintendo improves their marketing along with releasing less expensive devices and has a unified platform that can reduce the amount of droughts than Nintendo can potentially return to their 100 million baseline they had pre-Wii/DS.