By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Soundwave on 08 November 2022
Edit Thread
curl-6 said:
Soundwave said:

The Switch shows it doesn't really need that type of software to drive its sales though, which was not the case with the Wii. It's a bonus, but not the main driver of the hardware. 

An unprecedented once in a century (literally) event in the pandemic that shut down every public gym on the planet made any kind of new home gym product skyrocket in sales that has a lot to do with it too. Peloton stock was through the roof during the pandemic, now it's way down because people can go back to the gym and get a proper work out. 

But fitness is not a bad play to make the occasional game for, there's always going to be fat people who want to lose weight or people who want to lose weight in general. Diet fads are never ending there's a new one every year for like what the last 50 years? You can always capitalize with some kind of new way to lose weight and market it. 

Ring Fit didn't just sell gangbusters during lockdown though, that time is long over yet it's still selling at a vigorous pace, so its success cannot be solely or even really primarily attributed to that.

With over 14 million sales and counting, it shows how important it is to make these kind of blue ocean titles, that's not the kind of money you'd want to miss out on, especially when they are less of an investment to make compared to a mainline Mario or Zelda.

The strong sales of Switch Sports also speaks to the value of making them alongside more "core" oriented blockbusters.

The problem with fitness games in particular is popular fads do fizzle fast. We saw this on the Wii too where things like Zumba games and EA Active sold great and then they tried to make a sequel and it didn't sell so great. By the time Wii U came out, Wii Fit was no longer a system driver. 

The issue really is a lot of people will use something for fitness for a short while and then give up on it and then they don't want that thing again. Two years later they'll discover some other product that is the new go-to fitness fad and they want to do that instead. So like we'll see how a Ring Fit 2 would do, probably enough juice there to do well, but these concepts are inherently more difficult to franchise and Nintendo's whole business model revolves around creating a hit game that can spawn sequels for years and decades even. People who are hardcore into fitness want to be in a gym, people who are more casual about fitness are open to home products but they lose interest in the product especially when they realize they don't want to keep using the product after some time has passed. 

Last edited by Soundwave - on 08 November 2022