Nintendo's least successful era

[Wman1996]

TheMisterManGuy said:

It's tough to decide between the GBA/GCN era, and the 3DS/Wii U era. The Nintendo GameCube struggled to stand out in a now crowded console market with the dominant PlayStation 2 and savvy newcomer Xbox, but at the very least, the Game Boy Advance was a white hot platform to keep them afloat. The Wii U on the other hand, just felt like it had no purpose to a lot of people.

* An HD system that wasn't going to be as powerful or easy to develop for as the upcoming PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.
* A bizarre name and marketing strategy that didn't make it clear it was a new system.
* A giant tablet controller that even Nintendo couldn't find any practical use for through most of its life.
* A severe post launch drought that didn't end until August.
* Crappy versions of multi-platform games with missing features and worse performance

It was all a storm of bad decisions and poor planning. And unlike the GCN days, things weren't sunshine and rainbows on the handheld side either. The 3DS suffered a subpar launch with a high price that only recovered after a drastic price drop. And even then, it took Nintendo several years to turn it into a truly relevant platform after various re-designs, third party deals, and exclusive game releases in an era when Smartphone gaming was at its peak.

I have to agree. GCN was coming off of a console that was successful but a financial disappointment to Nintendo. Wii U came off of Nintendo's most successful home console to date (the same generation they had their most successful platform overall, DS). GBA would've cracked 100 million had DS flopped out the gate or not released until early 2006 or later. 

3DS and Wii U led to losses and were embarrassments in sales (namely Wii U) compared to their immediate predecessors. GBA and GCN didn't lose money any year when combined and GameCube might not have lost money at all on its own.