| Dulfite said: Just looked into something: GBA 82 million DS 155 million (189% increase) 3DS 76 million (51% decline) Switch 100+ million (142%+ increase) *Not counting GB/GBC because they are tracked together even though GBC had Superior specs and hundreds of exclusive games that took advantage of the power.
On the handheld side, the DS and Switch have a average 166% increase whereas the 3ds, which inherits the name ds, saw a decrease of 51%. |
I don't think there is much to learn from the SNES that would really apply to todays market. The NES didn't really have much competition, the SNES did.
The GBA sold way more than both the GB and GBC separately in a very short time and the reasons for the 3DS selling less than the DS had nothing to do with it's name.
When the Wii U released the Wii brand had already significantly lost in mindshare and it's marketing together with the name lead to many people not realizing it's a new console. Was it called Wii 2 or Wii HD it would have definitely sold more, but a completely new name would not have helped that much because of all the other issues.
The mindshare of the Switch brand is massive and I don't see it tanking because I don't see it experiencing significant droughts the way the Wii had in 2011 and the Wii U had throughout it's life. It's successor's marketing will not be as terrible since they are learning from mistakes.
While yes, names matter, the declines mostly happened for different reasons. All Nintendo needs to do is not run into the same mistakes they ran into with the Wii U and 3DS and do what they did with the Switch and launch it with strong marketing support, a big system seller right at launch and a big lineup in the first year. Unless the hybrid concept for whatever reason turns out to be a fad and people loose interest. But I think if that was to happen there would already be signs of it going to happen, like big yoy drops.
