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burninmylight on 03 February 2016
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bigtakilla said:
burninmylight said:

"Here I'll give you something more accurate, the last two Gens both headed by Iwata saw a handheld release before home console. GC was the worst selling yet Iwata still chose to release DS and replace GBA which was selling nearly ps2 levels"

You may not have been aware of this, but Iwata... isn't running things anymore...

I don't get what this has to do with anything, anyway. If the NX ends up being a hybrid system or a handheld that has a method to play games on a TV when at home, then does it matter that handhelds traditionally launch before consoles? The DS only replaced the GBA after it proved it could carry the torch as a viable handheld successor two years into it's life. Plenty of GBA games were releasing until that point. And the whole reason the DS even launched as early as it did was because Nintendo feared the PSP.

I have said before that it doesn't matter to me whether the NX launches this year or not. If I had my druthers, I probably would have it release next year. I have about 30-40 Wii U games still sitting in shrink wrap or downloaded but not yet played alone, on top of Star Fox Zero preordered and money set aside for both Zeldas and Genei Ibun Roku, not to mention the 30-40 3DS games I have yet to play, the 10 or so DS games I have yet to play, and the half-dozen GBA games I have yet to play. I am one of the proudest Wii U owners on this site, brah. If Nintendo didn't announce another new Wii U game between now and the NX launch, I wouldn't be displeased with the amount of content I have played or will eventually play on it.

If it were a handheld completely seperate from the home console, but shared the same library of games, I'd say the whole premise of releasing two devices would be redundant and would canabalize each other more so than any other gen of Nintendo home consoles and handhelds. They may as well kept the devices completely seperate.

Not really. Instead of seeing them as two distinct consoles, they'd pretty much be the same console with different SKUs. Normally, a handheld console and a home console hurt each other because a consumer may have to choose only one and be locked out of the other's library of games. When I was a broke ass college kid, I had to miss the entire DS generation because I chose the Wii. The Wii cannabalized the DS for me, because I couldn't afford both, so I missed out on DS software.

If they share the same library of games (and physical copies of games work on either console), then they don't hurt each other because the same copy is sold to the base of both groups of consumers. The console themselves matter less in this scenario because Nintendo now doesn't have to try to justify development for the less popular console. No more internal debates on "Do we try to salvage the weaker console, or do we cut our losses and go all out on the better seller?". Nintendo can just focus on making games. If one SKU proves to be more popular than the other, so what? Just adjust production accordingly. Software sales and peripherals are where the real money is made anyway.

It's like saying iPad cannabalizes the iPhone. Sure, it does in a way, because there are a demographic of customers that only buy one or the other. But Apple doesn't mind too much. You're buying the same software on whichever one you have, and it's cashing in either way.