Why do you think Nintendo has survived so long as a platform holder?

[Cerebralbore101]

JackHandy said:

Two reasons.

One, they make great games.

Two, they are extremely lucky.

The first one is easy to understand. They're just talented. The second is more complex. But basically, society has to agree with what you're doing, and at times, society almost put Nintendo out of business because they didn't want what Nintendo was creating. In that sense, Nintendo got lucky because without everyone suddenly wanting a Switch and their IPs again, there might not be a Nintendo anymore.

Luck didn't have anything to do with the Switch's success. You could have merged the Wii U and 3DS libraries into a single hybrid console and it would have sold gangbusters. Some people were willing to buy a Wii U almost exclusively for Mario Kart 8 and Super Mario 3D World. Some people were willing to buy a 3DS almost exclusively for Poke'mon and Animal Crossing. A boatload of people skipped Nintendo that generation but would have happily gotten a Nintendo 3D-U just to play Poke'mon, Animal Crossing, MK8, and 3D World. And if they had a ton of 3rd party devs would have responded to that by making 3rd party games for 3D-U, which would have snowballed it and caused even more people to buy a 3D-U. 

TL/DR: It wasn't luck but combining their handheld and home console libraries to win over fence sitters en' mass. 

Last edited by Cerebralbore101 - on 09 October 2025