curl-6 said:
It may seem like that in retrospect, but at the time, most people didn't even expect Switch to outsell the 3DS alone, much less 3DS and Wii U combined. |
Damage had certainly been done to the brand. The last major manufacturer to dip that low in sales was Sega with the Dreamcast. Granted, Nintendo isn’t Sega and we all know Nintendo has enough cash on hand to weather several WiiU level crashes, but the general population is more susceptible to negative word of mouth and lack of confidence. Case in point, WiiU.
So yes, while Nintendo combining the handheld and console market should on paper result in at least equal success, we’d also assume that a follow up to the Wii would at least not result in sales even lower than the revered, but failed, GameCube. The gaming community outperformed the normal disdain reserved for a manufacturer on a negative turn such as PlayStation 3 or XBox One.
I absolutely agree with everyone that we left ludicrous speed with the Switch long ago and not even our most astute prognosticators here would have predicted a future where we can rationally speculate about a world where the PS2 and the DS would no longer be the high water marks for console sales.
It’s still an improbable future but not an unlikely one.
