Take-Two “believers” in Nintendo, feeling “pretty enthusiastic” about NX

[DanneSandin]

RolStoppable said:

DanneSandin said:

Oh wow! From what I heard (didn't do much digging though, mind you) it was just a bump. I Was wrong. That's pretty... fantastic. But such a trend won't last long. Probably, I should add since I apparently don't know what I'm talking about here. Doubled in sales? Will be interesting to follow that turn of events.

Aaaw, that's not fair; I asked first ;) I think Nintendo will try something new, like they always does. The question is what. IF, and this is a pretty big if, they had a powerful console and good 3rd party backing they could outsell PS4, I'm sure of it. All the 3rd party games AND the 1st party line up... What could beat that?! The sad thing about Nintendo is that they're always digging their own grave. A quick look at N64, GC and Wii U tells you that. But I'm still doubtful they'll be able to bring back the casual market - even if they do try. That's a very fickle market. I'm not sure if I've answered your question, but neither did you ;)

GfK predicts higher sales for 3DS hardware and software in August, and they are the official tracker for European markets. They expect the Pokémon Go effect to last for a while and I do not disagree with them.

I asked the question because yours was unfair. If Wii-like sales are the bar for success, then it's hard to give a positive answer without casting much doubt on whether or not that can be achieved. The fair compromise is to alter the question to which kind of console would be more successful. My answer to that is clearly a system which emphasizes Nintendo's strengths as I just can't see a triplet having much appeal in the marketplace.

Like I said, it'll be interesting to follow the development in the aftermath of GO. Maybe it'll be a greater success for driving HW than I realize.

I think success is a difficult thing to measure. Having a successful console means it's profitable for the company, but also that it doesn't sell a whole lot less than the predecesor and how it fairs against the competition. Which makes the X1 and PS3 such interesting cases; I made two threads about these consoles a year or two ago, asking VGC if respective console were a success. Despite X1 selling more than the 360, people saw it as a failure (or close to it) while they saw the PS3 as a success, despite it selling less than PS2 and being a huge sink for Sony for many years. I don't think the NX has to sell Wii-like numbers to be successful, but that's partly because it doesn't follow the Wii directly - it comes after the huge failure of the Wii U. If it sells 50m copies it'll be deemed a success, but only because it will be compared to Wii U.

But how will the NX reach those numbers? To me it seems obvious that Nintendo should cater to both markets; the core and the casual gaming markets. Setting up maybe 3 Western studios that focus on Western styled games would create a market for the core gamers on the NX, thus helping 3rd parties to get a foot hold on the NX. The rest of Nintendo could (and should) focus on the kind of games they already make. Cheerful, colorful.

What's interesting to note is that it's 3DS numbers that rose after the launch of GO, and the NX being a home console might not benefit from this since we haven't seen a rising demand for Wii U (we haven't, right?). True, this could be due to a lot of reasons (such as form factor, name confusing or what have you), but this could also be taken as a confirmation that handheld consoles attract more casual gamers (such as those playing exclusively on mobile). Why not make the home console the place for more core titles, more "mature" games with a more 3rd party friendly enviroment, and let the handheld consoles be the stepping stone for casuals to get introduced to deeper game mechanics, then? This would be a 3 step program; attract people to Nintendo's IP's with the mobile market and using that, send them to the handheld console, easing them into a more gaming like enviroment and lastly sending them to Nintendo's "hardcore" console. That way Nintendo would cover all their bases. Or else, where will the people go after enjoying the handheld consoles? After they get accustomed with deeper game mechanics and want to move on to more core titles? If Nintendo doesn't offer that choice as well, they will loose a great portion of their market to Sony and MS that caters to that taste.