Would Nintendo survive if they went 3rd party?

[zorg1000]

naruball said:

zorg1000 said:

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.

Take Mario Kart for example. Huge decline from wii to wiiu and from what I've read it's not because of quality.

You can't assume that people who buy ps/xb consoles are only into those genres. Whether people want to admit it or not, thanks to 3rd party support xb-ps consoles have a very diverse library. And you can't only look at the misleading top 10.

Make a poll and ask non ninty fans to vote. You'll see people would play ninty games if they were available on their consoles. Just because they like shooters, doesn't mean they won't also like Zelda.

Yes MK saw a decline from Wii to Wii U, thats not just becuase of install base but also because of the type of audience on Wii which is not the same audience thats on PS/XB.

Its not just the top 10, about 80% of retail sales on PS4/XB1 are shooter/sports/action. Of course there are people who like other genres on those consoles but for the most part they are pretty niche.

Polls on this site are a joke, most people just troll. Also people on this site are not indicative of the overall market. If somebody with no knowledge of gaming were to come to this site, they would assume that Call of Duty sells like shit and something like Dark Souls or Bloodborne would be a massive seller when in reality CoD sells 20 million while DS/BB sell 2 million.

Install base doesnt really make a huge difference when it comes to Zelda. Compare the NES/SNES installments to the N64/GC installments.

NES+SNES install base=110 million (61m & 49m)

Legend of Zelda-6.5m

Adventure of Link-4.4m

Link to the Past-4.6m

N64+GC install base=55 million (33m & 22m)

Ocarina of Time-7.6m

Majora's Mask-3.4m

The Wind Waker-4.6m

Half the install base but very similar sales.

If any Nintendo games did see a big increase on PS/XB than Zelda would probably be one of them but Nintendo would need more than just a few games to sell better for it to be worthwhile.