RolStoppable said:
Yes, it is true that Switch had the best lineup ever for a console in year 1. Is that even in doubt? What history shows us is that it's difficult to support two consoles at the same time without having any glaring gaps of multimillion-selling software. But now Nintendo doesn't have to go back and forth between two consoles anymore. There is only Switch, so that makes it a lot more feasible that Nintendo alone can sustain momentum. I concede that having third party support is beneficial, but here it is important to focus on third party games that actually matter. You make the big mistake to assume that games that are big on PS and Xbox will be similarly important for Nintendo, but that's simply not the case based on historical sales data and the already available sales data for Switch. The reason why there is such a gap in importance is that third parties specifically tailor their software to gamers who avoid Nintendo, so on the flipside you get the result that people who buy Nintendo consoles aren't showing much interest in those third party games because they weren't made for them. An obvious example of this is that an M-rating is perceived as something valuable by PS and Xbox gamers while Nintendo gamers shrug their shoulders and tell you that a game is going to be good or bad regardless of its rating; in other words, glorification of violence is little to non-existent in the minds of Nintendo gamers. Most of the M-rated games don't offer much beyond violence, that's why they fail to gain traction on Nintendo consoles. The Resident Evil IP is one of the few M-rated series that manages to provide actual substance in its gameplay, that's why it is doing notably better than other M-rated games. Additionally, video game history shows us that during the times Nintendo pursued the third party support you ask for, Nintendo's sales levels were at their worst. Both the GameCube and Wii U flopped hard and that's no coincidence when you take the above paragraph into account. Nintendo put more emphasis on games that their customers don't care much for, so customers turned their backs on Nintendo. Should Nintendo pursue that path again, they'll inevitably rush out a Switch successor that will predictably fail, because the vast majority of Switch owners will not be interested in moving on. |
The thing is that - at least, so far - Nintendo's 1st party output is either equal to what they had on Wii U or less, on a 1st year context.
Last time i checked, for the first 10 months (Switch's 2017), Nintendo did not make more games for it than they did for Wii U, despite not really supporting both Wii U since 2015 (?) and 3DS (for some time; can't honestly say since when).
I was one of the few, alongside Soundwave and others, that praised that scenario. But so far, it's not really come into play. And if it happened once more, how sure can we be that it won't happen again in 4-5 years when Nintendo prepares for another console?
It's true that Nintendo consumers don't buy your usual 3rd party games. But shouldn't be read as "no buy = no interest". It could very well be that they prefer to buy on a different console.
On a side note, that's why i have been defending that Nintendo should make exclusives similar to 3rd party's ones as to create a userbase and really regain those consumers.
The data that we have about users age is only related to the US, so it could change a little, but it clearly shows that the biggest age group is in the 16-35 range. And 60% of the total being 16-45 and up.
If i'm not mistaken, in, there, is the core PS and Xbox consumer.
I have little doubts that people who own a Switch already have another console and could enjoy non-Nintendo games.
The only thing stopping that is Nintendo's ability to give them a reason to do so.
GC failed as much as XB (a direct competitor to PS2). 3rd party wasn't a reason for it's sales.
Wii U... well what worked there? XB360 and PS3 did very well with both devs and gamers. Nintendo tried to changed that, but it failed, and it wasn't just by not securing 3rd party games.
Why should have XB360 and PS3 owners had to opt for a Wii U? Or, why should they choose an inferior platform in pretty much every regard?
