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Miyamotoo on 13 January 2016
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Thunderbird77 said:
curl-6 said:
zorg1000 said:
curl-6 said:

Wii U and 3DS hardware sales are both down from GCN and GBA respectively, not to mention NES/SNES/N64 and Gameboy.

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.

GBC was not really a separate system, anymore than DS Lite or New 3DS. Gameboy covered both the SNES and N64 generations, but that's a whole other story.

Anyway, 100 million with GCN + GBA to 80 million with Wii U + 3DS is still a 20% decline, I wouldn't call that insignificant.

Both 3ds and Wii U were much more expensive and had way less 3rd party games than GBA and GC respectively, in a time with far more competition. I think those numbers are great, all things considered.

 

 

mountaindewslave said:
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

 

 

zorg1000 said:
curl-6 said:

Anyway, 100 million with GCN + GBA to 80 million with Wii U + 3DS is still a 20% decline, I wouldn't call that insignificant.

Like I said, a 20% decline can be explained by other reasons than simply "less mainstream"

What did a GC+GBA SP cost in 2003 onward? $200 total, what have the premium 3DS sku+Wii U cost for the majority of this generation? $500. Even adjusted for inflation, that's nearly double the cost to own both pieces of Nintendo hardware. Is a nearly 100% percent mark up on price a potential reason for a 20% decline?

As for marketing, many people initially thought 3DS was nothing more than a redesigned DS with a 3D screen and many people thought Wii U was nothing more than a tablet accessory for Wii, did either GBA or GC suffer from consumer confusion like 3DS/Wii U did?

 

Totataly agree.