zorg1000 said:
Hence why I said significantly NES+G&W, SNES+GB, N64+GBC, GC+GBA all did roughly 100 million units of hardware with 500 million units of software. 3DS+Wii U are on track to do 80 million units of hardware with 400 million units of software. That amount of decline can possibly be attributed to Nintendo making certain design and marketing mistakes rather than simply losing mainstream appeal. |
this.
the Wii U has been heralded pretty much universally as terribly marketed and conceptually put together badly. If you're not going to go for top of the line graphics then you either need a unique GIMMICK (think Wii with wii motion controls) OR at the very least a traditional format of controller
Nintendo did neither of those. they picked a large expensive controller with a huge screen that the majority of gamers just don't want. Players don't want to stare at their controller and a secondary screen
all Nintendo needs to do is make a more hardcore system that isn't about gimmicks and has regular controllers and the sales will go back to fairly normal
others have made good points though, even adjusted for inflation the Wii U / 3DS are priced MUCH higher than some other generations were. the Gamecube and GBA were at like 100$ and 70$ price points respectively after being out for a few years. the 3DS and Wii U are more than double that
in terms of dollar sales I don't suspect Nintendo is doing that much worse than the N64 / Gamecube eras. Obviously compared to the Wii / DS era (which was a record for combined sales of homeconsole + handheld) it looks bad, but its just not that big of a difference from some other generations in terms of dollar sales
the biggest thing that hurt Nintendo this generation was the development cost of the Wii U versus it performing poorly
they will do fine with the NX, the Wii U is an anamoly due to the poor decisions that have already mentioned many times
