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Forums - Nintendo - Prediction: Wii U will survive for five years off 3DS sales might, whether it sells gangbusters or not.

RicardJulianti on 25 March 2013

Prometheus20911 said:
I would think in the next 10-15yrs would be the time frame when nintendo goes software only.

Nintendo has enough money to be around for 40 years while losing a few hundred million a year. They are not going software only, at the very worst, handheld only for a while to amass billions upon billions.

They simply cannot compete on any level, anymore. Their hardware is lacking, complete dependence on first party with little to no third party support. What is the point of investing in a company like this? There is no point lol.

The 3DS is currently curb-stomping every other console in Japan, how is that not competing? The other two companies borrow ideas from Nintendo's hardware and their controllers are the most ergonomic in the business. The gamepad may be large, but it is comfortable as hell. They only depend on first party because that is what sells the best. Sony and MS 1st party games don't have the same pull that Nintendo franchises do, that's why they need 3rd parties. When they have first party exclusives that can literally carry the console, they won't need third parties. It's a smart investment because Nintendo profits, period. A company that has only posted 1 annual loss in its history is a very smart investment.

The market will deal with nintendo, that's what it comes down to. They have isolated themselves in such an archaic 20th century fashion.. it boggles the mind how they intend to exist in any meaningful way as part of the "gaming industry."

One could argue they are the only ones in the "gaming industry." Their number one focus is games, plain and simple. Microsoft has been trying to be the media center in the living room from the beginning. It's why they entered the gaming console business. Sony is trying to combine the two and trying to fulfill their vendetta against Nintendo.

Maybe if they fire their president or whoever the moron is making all of these stupid decisions. Until then it's going to be death spiral or irrelevance. Or both. Time will tell.

Yamauchi was far worse for Nintendo than Iwata. He would cancel a project immediately if he saw one thing he didn't like. He would make 3rd parties basically beg to get the games on the system, and ensure that even if the game failed, Nintendo would turn a profit. He would dictate how many copies of the game 3rd parties were allowed to sell...it was absurd and he is the reason 3rd parties jumped ship when they could. Iwata brought the DS and the Wii, hardly stupid decisions considering how insanely profitable they both were. He has a massive uphill battle ahead of him following all the damage Yamauchi did. The Wii U has been out 4 months and is facing very similar problems to the 3DS, which has been completely turned around...expect the same.

Now for my on topic response....

The Wii U will definitely survive for 5 years even if it barely sells more than the Gamecube. They supported that for 5 years, so there is no reason they wouldn't support the Wii U. They will likely profit from each Wii U sold by the end of the year, maybe even if they have a price cut in the fall. I could definitely see Nintendo providing a console/handheld hybrid, especially since they combined the two hardware divisions. The Wii U is most certainly a 5 year console while the PS4/720 are aiming for 8-10 minimum. 

Nintendo's next hardware will likely be slightly better than either, if not hands down more powerful. The hybrid would be able to play games on the big screen and be able to save the games to the handheld to be taken anywhere, anytime. No need for a separate purchase of either the game or hardware, reasonable price tag, no data cap problems for internet streaming....seems very likely to me.  If they were to utilize graphene....that would reduce costs dramatically, while exponentially improving power. I'm talking 100Tbps wireless transfer speeds, and able to be put on literally anything seeing as it is 1 atom thick, could be the next big thing in tech/gaming.



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_crazy_man_ on 25 March 2013
Prometheus20911 said:
_crazy_man_ said:
The curse of the double posts strikes twice!

Anyhow while I don't doubt consoles being phased out eventually I feel Nintendo will might make a console/handheld hybrid so they can focus on one market.


You either just described smartphones/tablets, or every fischer price learning toy lol.

 

I actually expect nintendo do go a very "Toys-R-US" route if it becomes obvious that they can't handle anymore dedicated market competition. Sony will stream to PlayStation.Mobile & microsoft will do the same with windows phones. Nintendo is odd man out.

I meant in the tradtional gaming sense.  Handheld gaming at its core was for gaming on the go with games that could be played in short sittings,  now with more powerful hardware we are getting more and more console like games from our handhelds.  It would seperate itself from smartphone/tablet gaming in the fact that it would actually have buttons/analog sticks.  Imagine a Wii U Gamepad with the console built in with only digital/streaming games. 

Nintendo is already possibly hinting at this with the merging of all their handheld/console divisions back in Feb. 



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skunkfish on 25 March 2013

I just had the insane thought of sticking my Wii U in my laptop bag powered by a battery and playing games on the gamepad on the tube on the way to work... At 35W, a decent laptop battery could keep the Wii U powered for almost as long as the gamepad :)



Rogerioandrade on 25 March 2013

I highly doubt that we will have any game consoles in that period.

We all know that Nintendo will go software only sometime, but when it happens you can be sure that it won´t be due to their fault, it will happen because the market won´t exist anymore. People will be playing on tablets and PCs

Most of those predictions people make here about Nintendo are flawed. Every major videogame company made mistakes when launching their consoles, it wasn´t different with the PS3 and Xbox360 as it was with Vita and WiiU. People assume Nintendo situation comparing directly with Sega, but Nintendo is very, very different from Sega and very, very different from its competitors today.



Cobretti2 on 25 March 2013
Otakumegane said:
One hardware to rule them all, One hardware to find them.
One hardware to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

Pretty sure it will be a Samsung+Google combo if it comes down that then.


Your not far of there.

 

It will be

 

            Nintendo

Samsung            Google

 

 

triforce.



 

 

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Galaki on 25 March 2013
skunkfish said:
I just had the insane thought of sticking my Wii U in my laptop bag powered by a battery and playing games on the gamepad on the tube on the way to work... At 35W, a decent laptop battery could keep the Wii U powered for almost as long as the gamepad :)

Do report back if it works for you.

Here's a 2 lbs portable battery. http://www.amazon.com/EnercellTM-90W-Portable-Power-Inverter/dp/B00629X6P4/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top



Pre-order limited edition Blue Slime Condoms

megaman79 on 25 March 2013
skunkfish said:
I just had the insane thought of sticking my Wii U in my laptop bag powered by a battery and playing games on the gamepad on the tube on the way to work... At 35W, a decent laptop battery could keep the Wii U powered for almost as long as the gamepad :)


But you know heres the thing about that market, and its quite evident given the first 4 months of Wii U sales, Nintendo does not exist in the tablet customer's mind. Given Nintendo's past history with hardware codevelopment though, and the bottom line squeeze, they may just have to zip it up and offer Samsung their console/system design asthetics.



“When we make some new announcement and if there is no positive initial reaction from the market, I try to think of it as a good sign because that can be interpreted as people reacting to something groundbreaking. ...if the employees were always minding themselves to do whatever the market is requiring at any moment, and if they were always focusing on something we can sell right now for the short term, it would be very limiting. We are trying to think outside the box.” - Satoru Iwata - This is why corporate multinationals will never truly understand, or risk doing, what Nintendo does.

DietSoap on 29 March 2013

Well no shit. They'll be making home consoles even when only 5 people are buying them.



NoirSon on 29 March 2013

If the Wii U continues at its current pace, it will be done in 3 years. Nintendo while rich, isn't going to leave a lame dog on the track while PS4 and the next MS console trample on it for that long. They would probably quit the home console market altogether before that and create a web based platform like Steam.

They probably could do it, but people seem to forget while the N64 and GC weren't the strongest sellers, they moved 3rd party software pretty well in some cases until the end. The Wii U isn't showing that same level of ability and is akin to the Wii's lackluster abilities outside of Skylanders and Just Dance. The Wii U even with some Nintendo blockbusters to propel it is likely to just be around 3 years before a successor is announced with a lame duck 4th year. But 5 is way too much time unless they do a massive restructuring of the company's hierarchy and need time for the new CEO/President/whatever to start their plans on saving the company.



JakDaSnack on 29 March 2013
NoirSon said:

If the Wii U continues at its current pace, it will be done in 3 years. Nintendo while rich, isn't going to leave a lame dog on the track while PS4 and the next MS console trample on it for that long. They would probably quit the home console market altogether before that and create a web based platform like Steam.

They probably could do it, but people seem to forget while the N64 and GC weren't the strongest sellers, they moved 3rd party software pretty well in some cases until the end. The Wii U isn't showing that same level of ability and is akin to the Wii's lackluster abilities outside of Skylanders and Just Dance. The Wii U even with some Nintendo blockbusters to propel it is likely to just be around 3 years before a successor is announced with a lame duck 4th year. But 5 is way too much time unless they do a massive restructuring of the company's hierarchy and need time for the new CEO/President/whatever to start their plans on saving the company.


You mean where the wiiU launches a couple mediocre new games(in terms of popularity) and the sales double?  At it's current pace, the wiiU will do just fine once the big games come out.

No, just no.

Or they could just continue to launch a lot of new games, and keep the wii U competitive for 5-6 years.  The wii was sold at a profit since day 1, the wiiU was sold at a loss, which is why they will need a couple extra years and also why they will continue to support it.



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