naruball said:
I think the real danger is franchises like Mario and Zelda becoming ultra niche and the butt of the joke just because NInty hardware are perceived as bad. In other words, many Sony, MS, PC fans make fun of Ninty games as kiddie because they can't play them and their expressed opinion affects the image of Ninty games in general. So if Mario was on xb1, steam, and ps4 the franchise could grow instead of being dismissed by non Ninty fans. I used to be a fan of Mario games, but lately I'm not that into them. The longer Mario remains on Ninty consoles and is perceived as kiddie, the less likely it is that I'll care for the franchise eventually when/if Ninty runs out of options. As much as people hate to admit it, or even don't realise it, the public's opinion affects our own. Edit: And to answer your question, definitely Mario and Zalda. Not sure about the rest. |
I dont really see how those games run the risk of becoming niche, a mainline Mario platformer has never sold less than 5 million, there is only 1 mainline console Zelda title to sell less than 4 million.
This isnt even taking 3DS into account where 2D Mario, 3D Mario, Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Pokemon are all 10 million sellers, Smash Bros might pass that as well.
Point is that Nintendo's big franchises are far from niche even in their worst selling generation. Install base certainly grows a games potential but only if the audience is receptive towards those type of games.
Take Wii for example, huge install base but very few titles had massive growth over N64/GC installments because the increased audience wasnt all that interested in those games. Most Nintendo games dont really appeal to the shooter/sports/action audience on PS/XB so most games probably wont grow by much.
When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.
