| Mummelmann said:
Is this even confirmed? They've refused the idea that Switch is a hybrid and they're not calling it a handheld either, it's specifically dubbed a "home gaming system" and there were tweets from Nintendo higher up's debunking the rumors that Switch was the successor to both Wii U and 3DS. And even if it is, which is quite likely (they won't want to compete against their own handheld offerings with a mobile hybrid device), even Nintendo handhelds have taken a sharp turn for the worse and the 3DS will end up well below half of the DS' lifetime sales. Not to mention the fact that 61 million 3DS users doesn't by default translate to 61 million more Switch owners, any more than 100 million Wii owners created 100 million Wii U owners. So, in actuality, as far as most developers are concerned, it's more black than white and has been for some time. With what will be a quite large installed base of Xbox One + PS4 + PC as well as mobile devices, options are many and a lot of developers can, and more than likely will, ignore the installed base of the 3DS and Wii U. The developer incentive for partnering with Nintendo and risking big budget titles, especially any kind of exclusive, is near to nothing right now due to market circumstances. Yes, Pokemon does brilliantly and Mario, Zelda and Smash Bros is always a sure hit, but that doesn't really benefit anyone other than Nintendo themselves. GC was a big letdown for sure, and the Wii had amazing sales, but how was its 3rd party support? Have people already forgotten the paltry support it had despite being the market leader almost from the very beginning? Even if the Switch should somehow manage fantastic sales (which I really don't think it will, but that's another story), great sales don't even mean great support, as the Wii clearly showed. |
It's a given it's a successor to 3DS it's as clear as day don't worry about what some higher up says because they previously said DS wouldn't replace GB or that Wii U has a lot more games on the way.
Half the sales of the DS is 70m that is in line with what handhelds normally sell and would still place a platform in the top 10 selling platforms of all time, DS is also the best selling platform in history selling half of its total is a huge success especially in the modern market, people should get over the notion that not selling DS numbers is bad because that platform was an anomaly even among successful platforms only other platform that compares to it is the PS2.
61m 3DS owners may not translate to that but then the is no other alternative for dedicated portable gaming, both Vita and 3DS owners have only one option so the is a very high likely hood of a high percentage migrating to Switch. Developer incentive here is simple they saw the Wii take off and many missed the boat and tried to get in on the success by releasing shovelware that got shotdown by consumers, now they see a potential success with another possible sizable userbase and want to be on board with legitimate efforts to try and tap into a userbase that is fresh for the picking, why do you think we have multiplatforms to begin with, they want as many options to sell on. A developer isn't looking at it like you are they're asking themselves one question what is the chance of a Nintendo portable device doing well, most of this userbase will be experiencing a new jump as the games will be all console like and that has the potential for good success for developers.
Wii was written off that's why it didn't have support equivalent to sales yet the success was hard to ignore hence why several tried jumping on board later on, many had commited already to PS3 only and later had to add 360 and PC into their plans, you'll have to have a short memory to not know the situation because for 2 years people were claiming Wii would stop selling as it's a fad and when it's success continued and increased a lot of people who wrote it off fell silent. No one saw it's success coming, this is why right now developers aren't going to risk missing an opportunity.
