Alby_da_Wolf said:
Interesting, but this makes even more unexplainable how Ninty managed 3DS, if a Pokémon title can still make it outsell predictions and planned production and cause successive shortages. Maybe that first unplanned early price cut, lowering also the base price from which successive planned cuts would start, made HW lifetime profitability drop below the minimum that Ninty considered not just safe (3DS eventually became profitable also on HW alone, so the minimum safe level was reached), but also desirable, so, even if successful, Ninty couldn't wait for replacing it with a more profitable platform, and having to replace Wii U anyway, making its successor a hybrid was the perfect solution. Just a guess for a possible other reason besides the usual Ninty fear of overproduction that often causes temporary shortages when a very successful HW selling game is launched. |
You travel me six years ago... :O
Nintendo simply exaggerated with the price drop because they were panicked ( to imagine, Nintendo burned money for first time in their history* ) , 3DS was overshipped and was selling way under the expectations and trust me software isn't enough for an overpriced/expensive console ( see wii u or better first years of ps3 )... The huge boost ( 3DS sold 8.4m in its first holidays, more than 65% of its first full fiscal year sales) by Mario kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land release wouldn't be the same if 3DS was still pricey for what is...
*( Nintendo didn't profit on the 3DS hardware after the price reduction, even though 3ds retail price was still fairly higher than the manufacturing cost, 3d effect royalties are responsible, 3DS XL which was released after one year at 199$ reversed that )
As for the replacement, you have a good theory but you confuse something!
Nintendo couldn't wait to replace, only the wii u, because 3DS was already six years old ( a normal hardware LT cycle ) , wii u was just 4 years... Nintendo even killed wii u momentum in Japan after splatoon/super mario maker great boost on holidays , by not restocking sufficiently on purpose, they decided to curtail the production instead ( to cease it in the end of 2016, Nintendo didn't sold in any wii us in the past quarter, I don't know if they have a last bunch of units to be sold on holidays 2017 though ) and announced switch release date early, March 2017, not even letting wii u to reach its fifth year by releasing switch in November 2017!
Wii u was not just overshipped but also overproduced, WII/DS era blinded Nintendo, they should have follow their normal trends, instead of believing that they would repeat something that was an anomaly. This thing happens with companies that suddenly have irregular successes, it's the equivalent of sony PS2->-PS3, except that sony did not only sell it in the beggining a console at an exorbitant price but was also taking a whopping loss on every unit sold, they expected to sell 150m faster than PS2 ( I guess few people remember or knowledge that ), I could say that xbox one+kinect at 499$ is an equivalent too...
Nintendo could have made a lot of money from wii u overall ( 228$ manufacturing cost and 299$ retail price ) , but the clearance of the overshipped/overproduced undesirable white 8gb version ( discontinued in 2013 ) cost them money for two years. They would either have to accept returnings, or undergoing the loss from the store discounts ( albeit it wasn't a harmful money loss ). Also, the coveted wii u price of under 230$ was obviously prohibitive, it woulde be different if there was no tablet controller which cost 80$ to make, something that might even increased later for several reasons ( Nintendo never cut the price ) , that must made the wii u hardware profit margin quite smaller and that combined with commercial flopping, so...
Hence, the supply constrainment of switch is obviously a wise move but not so good for consumer, given how high is the demand for the system at least for now!
Anyway, if you wanna know, 3DS has currently a great profit margin, in the latest financial results 3ds accounted for the 43% of the profits while switch 28%...
Lastly, the recent situation regarding 3DS stock isn't just Pokemon game on it on holidays but a Pokemon game aided by a Pokemon mobile game ( something that Nintendo didn't expected and when it transpired they underestimated its duration ) , that started in July with the mobile game skyrocketing sales of titular ( and not only these ) evergreen games that have been released three and two years before and of course the hardware sales!
