| xMetroid said: Literally insane considering they had backlash during that period for releasing NO INFORMATION and very little software. |
This isn’t accurate. It would be correct to say Nintendo shifted priority away from distant future software, and placed it on existing software, updates, newly released, and upcoming titles. They’ve released information for these products on a daily basis, utilizing advertisements across various media, websites, YouTube, their official website, and the Switch’s built-in news channel to promote updates to existing users who are all potential by word of mouth advocates.
The people angry about “no news” were quite stubborn and frustrating, simply refusing to acknowledge information that that isn’t wrapped into some ultra-mega-super Direct about first party and AAA EA/Activision games coming out 2-5 years from now.
This isn’t so much a case of “Nintendo magically made sales with no information” so much as the fulfillment of the predictions that Nintendo’s current strategy of keeping eyes and promotional focus on current times rather than future times would result in healthier sales, as no one is being told to “wait and see! In 2-5 years we’ll have something for you!”
This is a bit of a longtime beef I’ve had with Nintendo. The shift to future games for Nintendo is also a major reason why PlayStation beat N64. Sony always kept focus on what they had to sell now, constantly talking about their current catalogue, while Nintendo kept focus on what their product would be in the future, some games years away. Goldeneye and Diddy Kong Racing weren’t promoted far in advance, Nintendo of that era was too dense to pay attention to their own learnings. Of course, Nintendo didn’t have much to sell on N64 at any given time; that was probably why they began shifting to the future rather than revealing the small trickle of releases they had to work with.
It’s clear, now, Nintendo has learned their lesson. Games are no longer promoted years in advance. Nintendo is not telling people to wait for the future, they’re saying: this is what we have now and what you see on the horizon is coming very soon. I expect new hardware won’t be announced until close to the time when we can actually buy it.
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
