Gimmick or not, I don’t think it’s a bad concept. It looks interesting and it’s cool to see something different than the typical gamer’s game. Nintendo has been known for this for years, decades even. This was developed by director Tsubasa Sakaguchi, the director of the original Splatoon, who wanted to do something different than the usual game development and this was what led to it.

i don’t see why we can’t be open minded of the various opportunities game development can provide for us beyond what we usually know.

Yeah, like you said, because it was a game based on an anime. So obviously the sales went up when the Japanese kids saw the anime. They thought "Oh, I want more of this anime, so the game seems great!". 

But there is nothing planned like an anime for Labo to remind everyone and make it seem cool and popular again. You can make a "marketing blitz", but it won't make it the "toy to have" all of a sudden for no other reason. If the kids don't care about it now, it's not another marketing campaign that will make them change their mind (the recent marketing campaign being already pretty massive). 

Not only is it a gimmick, but it is a bad gimmick. Even though the concept is not that bad, the product itself is bad. The game/games that come with it are really shallow and low quality (5-10$ if it would be on Steam), so even children get bored with it quickly. Which makes me wonder how they can charge 70-80$ for it. But for some it seems to be okay since it's aimed at children, who don't have concept of money and whose parents have to buy what the kids want ("And it comes with software." lol).

So lets stop this "sweet talk". LABO was/is really cheap to produce and was intended to make huge profits. Imagine that LABO was created by Activision/EA so maybe you could see it "more clearly".  

Well I'm glad you provided your hands-on analysis of Labo.

It doesn't really matter who made it to me, personally, its an interesting concept nevertheless. Of course, with EA, though, I think they would have done something to screw up the concept and all and maybe use microtransactions to screw consumers. I don't think you can compare that with what Nintendo is trying to do with this product.

Whether you think its "sweet talk" or not, I don't give a rats @$&. This is what someone from Nintendo wanted to do to show the capabilities of the Joy-Cons and such. We all give praise to Sony for nurturing it's first-party studios and allowing them to do whatever they want, what's wrong with praising Nintendo in allowing one of its most promising game developers in doing something like Labo, which appeared to be a project he wanted to do?

LABO isn't a flop.  It is a different animal. The only people who probably bought it at launch are spoiled rich kids, scalpers, or "gotta have everything" Nintendo gamers, so naturally it is going to taper off quickly.  This isn't for gamers who are going to pick up the next best thing.  It is for families, parents, and children.  Grade school aged children who would be more engaged with it.  LABO isn't a revolutionary gameplay enhancer, it is an exploratory tool, a learning kit, an imaginative creative activity.  Most of these kids are still in classes for the year. What parent is going to buy LABO for a child still going through final year tests?? It will sell better during summer months and in the Fall leading up to Holiday vacations.  It will sell best at Christmas time when kids have earned their $60-$400 gift for the year and parents have the time to build the sets with them.  It will really appeal to that "family time."  Summer months are better suited to outside activity.  We won't know how well LABO has done until the end of the year numbers.

Did Nintendo overestimate the initial shipment?  Maybe in that Nintendo made a mistake, but there is no way right now to tell if it is a flop.

So your saying kids can't have gaming products that are tailored towards them?

I disagree. Nintendo is unique in the way it promotes it's games. Nintendo is probably the best at advertising games that are "old". We will probably  see Nintendo advertise the hell out of Labo during the holiday like it just released. 

Most companies advertise it's games at launch and that's it, while Nintendo isn't afraid to promote their games years down the line. It probably one of the reasons why some of its games are so leggy. 

Labo did relatively poor. Its gonna be hard to spin that if yo uh want to be objective. Being a Nintendo product has allowed it to sell more than it really should have. And that's okay.