Famitsu Sales: Week 48, 2024 (Nov 25 - Dec 01)

[The_Liquid_Laser]

XtremeBG said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:

I rarely have difficulty figuring out Nintendo's reasoning. I do not think their decisions as bizarre. Mostly you just have to keep in mind they are a fiscally conservative company that focuses on profit. When you keep that in mind, most of their decisions make sense. Keeping the Switch alive for a long time makes sense for them, but they are going to do it in a low effort way.

Sony is actually acting more bizarre lately. For example, they try to kill off PS4 hardware in 2020, and yet keep releasing crossgen titles many years later. I find that bizarre. Are they trying to kill off PS4 or keep it going? There really isn't a consistent strategy there.

What do you think about the DS life after 2009/2010 ? and Nintendo's actions then ?

Nintendo had released almost all of the major software on the DS before 2009 (actually before 2007).  This is because Nintendo's thinking at the time was that development resources were scarce.  They would focus on DS titles for a few years, then Wii, then 3DS, then Wii U.  During 2009-2010, the Wii was getting the last of its major releases.  This meant internally new software development was focused on 3DS titles during 2009-2010.  (And in hindsight we can see that there were development delays that screwed up the launch of both the 3DS and Wii U, but I digress.)

So what did all of this mean for the DS?  Basically they let Gamefreak release the last of their titles, and then they killed the DS off quickly.  Four platforms were too many for Nintendo to support at once.  They didn't want to support the DS anymore after the 3DS released.  On top of that their momentum tanked.  Look at when the DS's major titles released.  Outside of Pokemon games, all of their other major titles released from 2004-2006.  After that Nintendo relied on Gamefreak and third parties to keep the DS going.  Once you get to 2010, the DS had actually been receiving minor first party support for several years.  It shouldn't be surprising that momentum on the DS died as quickly as it did there at the end.

The Switch's situation is the exact opposite of this.  Nintendo will only have two platforms to support in 2025-2026 (and maybe 2027+).  Almost all of their development resources are going to Switch 2.  However expect some minor efforts going to Switch for the next few years like ports or new low budget titles.  I also expect them to come up with some incentive for people to continue buying Switch, like at the very least software bundled in with hardware.  They are still making a ton of profit off of the Switch compared to the amount of investment they have to put into it at this point.  Those evergreens still make a ton of money.  Supporting two platforms during the transition years is a lot easier than supporting 4, so they are going to want to keep the Switch going for as long as it can make them good money.