Do you think Nintendo killed off the Wii too early

[curl-6]

Soundwave said:

curl-6 said:

Thank you.

The idea that the Wii userbase had moved on from the system simply isn't true, JD3 in 2011 was in fact not only the highest selling in the series but the highest selling third party game on any Nintendo system, ever. Nintendo abandoned the audience, not vice versa. They pulled the plug too early.

The problem with this logic is so what? OK so they could've maybe squeezed an extra year of selling Wii Party 4 for the Wii (things like Zelda: Skyward Sword and Sin & Punishment 2 even weren't putting up impressive sales towards the end). 

But then what? 

After 4-5 years of support, a system is what it is, you're not changing anything, but by extending support beyond that, especially with big titles it can harm the next system.

Especially Nintendo. They are so reliant on having a good start because they don't have the benefit of the developer support Sony gets, they have to have a great 1st 6-12 months for a system, it's absolutely critical.

Wasting big gun games in the twilight years of a console is a bad idea for Nintendo because it often leads to the next system having nothing great ready early on. The 3DS probably could've badly used one of those late release Pokemon games the DS got instead, the DS still would've ended up selling the same 150 million, but life probably would've been way easier for Nintendo. 

It's possible to strike a balance where you support a system until it's replacement and also give it's successor a good start; Nintendo just tend not to be very good at striking that balance, the Wii being perhaps the most obvious case in point.

Last edited by curl-6 - on 09 August 2020