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Soundwave on 24 January 2016
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Wyrdness said:
Soundwave said:

Yeah Tomodachi did well especially in Japan but it's similar to Animal Crossing in some ways. In NA/Europe it did so-so no where close to what like Brain Training did back in the day.

Animal Crossing and Tomodachi did well, specifically in Japan, but I think these were primarily just selling to the core audience Nintendo always had.

Brain Training 3DS, Nintendogs + cats, Nintendo Land, Wii Fit U, Style Savvy, Game & Wario, Sing Party, Mario & Sonic Olympics, were all sales disappointments some them being full on flops. Wii Sports Club also wasn't a big hit.

Nintendo bet hard on that audience coming back for them, when they didn't, they basically knew they were fucked especially with Wii U. 

The mistake was not that they bet on them the mistake was how they bet on them, 3DS for a start was priced well above what any of that crowd were willing to pay, in UK it was 250 quid where as the DS was 140 at launch, 110 quid difference. Then the was the consumer confusion over the name and thirdly they never fully catered and marketed to them like with the DS and 3DS.

Instead Nintendo focused on the core group thinking that by default the blue ocean would follow when it's actually the other way round like Rol pointed out, the core group are the ones who would follow by default as their favourite IPS will be present. 

Enough with the excuses. 

The 3DS was $169.99 when stuff like Brain Training came out ... still flopped. Nintendogs still underperformed. 

That audience would rather play on their smartphone, some people just don't want to admit it. 

They focused on the core so their main 3DS launch title is Nintendogs and their main Wii U launch titles are Nintendo Land and NSMBU. 

Yeah so hardcore. 

Nintendo got fucked banking heavily on this audience. Nintendogs was supposed to carry the 3DS like an evergreen title and NSMBU + Nintendo Land were supposed to do the same for Wii U. This audience left Nintendo out in the cold. 

Casuals got tired of Nintendo, it's that simple, it was already evident with the Wii's collapsing sales in the back end of its life cycle even despite plenty of casual games coming out for it (Just Dance for example). 

Look at the Wii U's first 12 months release schedule from Nintendo ...

NSMBU, Nintendo Land, Sing Party, Ninja Gaiden 3, The Wonderful 101, Pikmin 3, LEGO City, Game & Wario, Wii Fit U, Super Mario 3D World, Mario & Sonic Winter Olympics, Wii Sports Club

More than half the games are heavily geared towards the casual market ... this is a hardcore game machine? Really? Hardcore gamers were supposed to be impressed with a 8 month old port of a shitty Ninja Gaiden game?