thismeinteil
Member
After the disappointing sales of the N64 and the poor sales of the Gamecube, Nintendo came to the conclusion that not only could they not compete when trying to aim for power, but also that their IPs alone could not push console sales. Ever since then they have been selling their consoles around HW gimmicks and trying better to court 3rd parties, with varying levels of success.
The first piece of HW to follow this new philosophy was the DS, based around two screens, one of which was a touch screen. This was a huge success, becoming one of the highest selling consoles ever, 2nd only to the PS2. This was followed shortly after by the Wii, based around motion controls, but with a power level not too far above the Gamecube's. This was a big hit initially, with 4 years of great sales, only for them to drop off of a cliff when the motion control craze died off. It still was able to pass 100M in sales, however, and can definitely be counted as a big success.
Then came the 3DS, which was based around the same gimmicks as the 3DS, only this time with a 3D screen. While this was successful (Nintendo did have to drop the price by $80 after just 6 months on the market because of disappointing sales and to better compete with the upcoming Vita's price), it failed to sell even half of the DS's numbers, ending at 76M. Next was the utter failure that was the Wii U, which was based around motion controls like the Wii, but adding gaming on a tablet, which had started to become a thing for casuals with Android and Apple tablets. Even though it followed the same basic principles as the Wii, not being much more powerful than the previous gen, which allowed it to launch much cheaper than the competition, it failed to draw in gamers like its predecessor. Ultimately, it failed to pass even 15M units sold.
After seeing the handheld market shrink (the PSP+DS was able to sell 230M+, while the 3DS+Vita only hit ~92M) and their failure with the Wii U, Nintendo did probably what they felt they had to do to survive, combine their two console markets into one, allowing all of their resources to go to one platform. This lead to the Switch, which was based around it's hybrid nature plus motion controls that were detachable/shareable. While many did doubt if a $299 Nintendo handheld/hybrid could succeed, especially after the 3DS at a $249 price point was met with mediocre sales, the Switch was a huge success. While it does seem it's sales have started to decline, with it already being at 89M, it's a no-brainer it will pass 100M, and, more than likely, hit at least 120M.
This leads me to my question, where does Nintendo go from here? They are now focusing on one console per gen. While this is a good thing in that they can focus fully on that one platform, it also means that they can't fall back on a handheld if their other console isn't received well. And with their HW seemingly needing appealing HW gimmicks to sell, what more could they do to interest gamers and casuals alike? Can they just coast by continuing to follow the hybrid/joycon path, or will that novelty have worn off by the time the Switch U comes out? We have already seen time and time again that having Mario or Zelda doesn't necessarily mean that their consoles will sell. So, what do you think?
The first piece of HW to follow this new philosophy was the DS, based around two screens, one of which was a touch screen. This was a huge success, becoming one of the highest selling consoles ever, 2nd only to the PS2. This was followed shortly after by the Wii, based around motion controls, but with a power level not too far above the Gamecube's. This was a big hit initially, with 4 years of great sales, only for them to drop off of a cliff when the motion control craze died off. It still was able to pass 100M in sales, however, and can definitely be counted as a big success.
Then came the 3DS, which was based around the same gimmicks as the 3DS, only this time with a 3D screen. While this was successful (Nintendo did have to drop the price by $80 after just 6 months on the market because of disappointing sales and to better compete with the upcoming Vita's price), it failed to sell even half of the DS's numbers, ending at 76M. Next was the utter failure that was the Wii U, which was based around motion controls like the Wii, but adding gaming on a tablet, which had started to become a thing for casuals with Android and Apple tablets. Even though it followed the same basic principles as the Wii, not being much more powerful than the previous gen, which allowed it to launch much cheaper than the competition, it failed to draw in gamers like its predecessor. Ultimately, it failed to pass even 15M units sold.
After seeing the handheld market shrink (the PSP+DS was able to sell 230M+, while the 3DS+Vita only hit ~92M) and their failure with the Wii U, Nintendo did probably what they felt they had to do to survive, combine their two console markets into one, allowing all of their resources to go to one platform. This lead to the Switch, which was based around it's hybrid nature plus motion controls that were detachable/shareable. While many did doubt if a $299 Nintendo handheld/hybrid could succeed, especially after the 3DS at a $249 price point was met with mediocre sales, the Switch was a huge success. While it does seem it's sales have started to decline, with it already being at 89M, it's a no-brainer it will pass 100M, and, more than likely, hit at least 120M.
This leads me to my question, where does Nintendo go from here? They are now focusing on one console per gen. While this is a good thing in that they can focus fully on that one platform, it also means that they can't fall back on a handheld if their other console isn't received well. And with their HW seemingly needing appealing HW gimmicks to sell, what more could they do to interest gamers and casuals alike? Can they just coast by continuing to follow the hybrid/joycon path, or will that novelty have worn off by the time the Switch U comes out? We have already seen time and time again that having Mario or Zelda doesn't necessarily mean that their consoles will sell. So, what do you think?