By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
JWeinCom on 20 November 2017
Edit Thread
DonFerrari said:
JWeinCom said:

Maybe, but it becomes a chicken and egg situation.  If you look at the Gamecube vs PS2 or the Wii U it's obvious that sales were the main factor.  But with the Wii vs PS3, it's not that clear.  Wii sales obviously slowed down quicker, but it's a chicken and egg kind of situation.  What were Nintendo's major releases past 2010?  Skyward Sword was the only legitimate system seller.  Aside from that, you had Kirby Return to Dreamland (and I love Kirby but it's not a system seller), and Xenoblade which was not even supposed to be released in the west.  2012's biggest release was Mario Party 9 followed by Rythm heaven. 


If Nintendo kept releasing major games, and kept up advertising, I'd imagine they could have kept Wii sales at above 10 million for 2012.  But, there are reasons they might prefer to simply release  new console.  I could go into it, but basically they just have a different business model.

Well X1 and X360 had MS dropping support on the last years and even like that it took longer than Nintendo counterpart to drop, but sure that also have something to do with the transgen and 3rd party titles that Nintendo don't get.

And yes, I don't think he have enough knowledge to determine with certainty if is Nintendo that drops support and sales decrease or if Nintendo drops support because sales have dropped (I'm more inclined to the second because that is how the other companies have done to start new gen. When the SW sales start declining they announce a new gen that shall start in the next 6-12 months).

But the most relevant point is that Nintendo sales of consoles haven't carried to a new gen and even when they were leading it dropped fast after peaking.

 

The Wii's sales decline was pretty much in line with other consoles, until they stopped pushing software.  

I actually don't think sales of future consoles are all that relevant.  The PS2 and DS were massively successful and enjoyed lengthy support, but that didn't stop the PS3 and 3DS from having bad launches and less successful lifespans.  The Wii U was so conceptually flawed that it really is hard to make any judgments based on that.  It was going to fail.  Success of a previous console is not a strong predictor of a new console's success.  You think it would be, but it doesn't tend to turn out that way.

Also, bear in mind that keeping a console's lifespan long isn't necessarily Nintendo's priority.  The GBA was actually doing really well, but they cut its lifespan short to launch the DS.  Keeping a console going for a long time is not necessarily a good thing.  It is good for Microsoft and Sony who rely on third party support and typically incur big losses at launch, but Nintendo's business model is different.