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Soundwave on 28 November 2019
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Agente42 said:
Soundwave said:

3DS sold poorly for several years in its down cycle, Nintendo won't allow that again now that they're only a one platform (primarily) company. They had no choice but to ride the 3DS a bit even at decreased yearly shipments because the Wii U was selling even worse. That wasn't a situation they would want to be in. 

Game Boy was all but dead by 1995, that's the only reason an idea as crazy as the Virtual Boy was allowed to come to market. 

Pokemon came out of nowhere as a miracle game in Japan in 1996 and gave the Game Boy brand a second lease on life, otherwise they were working on a GB successor (Project: Atlantis) at that time. But you can't rely on pulling a new Pokemon out of your ass, that happens once every 20, maybe 30-40 years. 

disagree. Wii Sports in 2006, ten years.

Aways Nintendo's success is a fluke than Sony's success is not? 

Gameboy is not dead, it's the leader of the portable market. Nintendo NEVER LOSES IN Portable market, this is not a fluke. 

The idea of a hybrid system supports the system in the long run. Nintendo only has the Switch Successor in the long term. No more two consoles at the same time.

Portable Nintendo have a long lifespan. GB, DS, and 3DS. The switch will follow that rule. 

When you're relying on pulling a miracle out of your ass to sustain your hardware sales, yes that doesn't work on command. You can't just snap a finger and make one definitive system selling piece of software.

Sony's setup is basic, but it works, they get a constant stream of IP and lots of new IP as well all the time because hundreds of developers make their system their primary platform. 

Nintendo has never actually more than 4 1/2 years really without a new hardware platform ... the reason GB/DS/3DS could have extended product cycles is because Nintendo was ok with declining sales for those platforms in the later years because they had a secondary console platform that would boost hardware sales, and then a new handheld would do that and vice versa and vice versa. 

1996 - N64 

1998 - Game Boy Color

2001 - GameCube & GBA

2004 - DS

Nov. 2006 - Wii

Feb. 2011 - 3DS

Nov. 2012 - Wii U

Mar. 2017 - Switch

The longest time between a hardware platform for Nintendo has been 4 1/2 years in their modern history, so that offsets the effect of either the handheld or console platform declining, because they always had a new console or HH coming to provide a new "fresh boost" as it were fairly regularly. 

If Switch sales decline like 3DS did in the later half of its product cycle that's not going to be good for Nintendo as Switch is their only hardware line. Investors only care about the fiscal year in question they don't care that much about culminate hardware sales/online pissing matches, there's no magic cookie they get if Switch hits 90 mill versus 100 mill. So it will be interesting how Nintendo handles that because it's kind of unprecedented territory for them. 

Last edited by Soundwave - on 28 November 2019