Soundwave said:
It's a Nintendo system, that means it largely has to sell off the back of about 10 major IP. That's kind of how it goes. The problem with this set up is it doesn't allign with a 5-6 year product cycle which was intended for the NES/SNES (which had 100% 3rd party backing so Nintendo didn't have to carry the whole damn system on their shoulders). The issue with the current Nintendo setup is by about year 3 ... most of their franchises, they've already used on the system, and looking at the Switch this is true also -- 3D Mario, 3D Zelda, 2D Mario + Mario Maker, Pokemon x2, Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Splatoon, Fire Emblem, even Animal Crossing will launch in March. So sure you can release even a BOTW2 in 2020 say, but it's not going to sell systems like some new IP would, because by that point so many people who would buy a system for a Zelda game already own the Switch because the original BOTW already gave them more than enough reason to jump in. The 5-6 year cycle made sense when you had the NES/SNES and Nintendo didn't have to push so hard and had a lot more help from developers. But post NES-SNES ... look at every Nintendo system basically outside of the DS, every one (not just Wii) has very sizable declines after the 3rd full year on market. |
Past events aren't necessarily an indication of future ones; people said BOTW wouldn't pass 10 million cos no Zelda never had and look how that turned out. Switch's market situation is different from any of its predecessors.
At the end of the day, it's on track to pass 100 million and is reaping very healthy profits for Nintendo, there's simply no reason to cut that short with a premature successor. That would just be flushing money down the drain.
