- Joined
- Jul 20, 2006
http://www.fool.com/investing/gener...ii-u-is-costing-it-billions.aspx#.Urk0mPRDuSo
I have, early-and-often over the past decade, made the claim that the worst thing Nintendo has going for them are they're own fans. They were Nintendo's worst enemies during the Wii generation... often giving them in a free pass in such important sectors as: "Securing 3rd Party Support," "Making quality games with Depth," (I'm still kinda angry about Punch-Out...), "Console shortages."
You can say all you want about their niche in the market... but, as pointed out in the article above, that only helps if they have a strong installed base. And the installed base of the Wii has pretty much evaporated with the Wii U.
But the problem is actually worse than that... The Wii was really less of a successful platform and more of a successful toy, A-la Guitar Hero. And like guitar hero... millions of people bought the Wii... played with it... and then let it collect dust in their closet next to their plastic guitars.
It was so long in-between releases of 1st party software (which were often pretty short to begin with) and the 3rd party software was generally so horrible that there was rarely any reason to keep it connected to the television while people were running out of places to plug other things in.
Now their biggest 1st party game struggled to reach 1 million sales... this time not due to its quality... but due to the small install base of the Wii U.
I don't think, even at this point, it's too late for Nintendo to turn the system around. I just know that they want. This is the same company that decided against going disc-based initially and wanted to hold onto cartridges for as long as they could. This is the company that decided against DVD playback even though many of their consoles would've been cable of it. This is the most stubborn video game company in the entire world, and they still have enough money in their coffers to remain so...
But if they weren't... They held onto the rights for Killer Instinct for two decades and did absolutely nothing with them until they finally relinquished them to Microsoft. But they still have dozens of other franchises that they haven't touched in 10-20 years. Nintendo's biggest success may have been Mario, but the NES was also strongly supported on sales of Metal Gear, Double Dragon, the Ninja Gaiden trilogy, Final Fantasy, and the support of many other third party licenses... almost all of whom Nintendo would later lose touch with.
They could reach out to these parties again and attempt to re-establish some sort of working relationship. Develop exclusive games for their unique platform. If they were able to establish ties with even one of the above franchises, and release a bona-fide hit that sold systems... then it may convince others that Nintendo is worth taking a chance on.
What WON'T convince anyone else to invest in Nintendo are the people that have already invested in Nintendo. The stalwarts. The faithful who Nintendo's been counting on since the N64 to get them over the hump. But if those gamers actually started demanding more from Nintendo, then they might finally be compelled to listen.
I have, early-and-often over the past decade, made the claim that the worst thing Nintendo has going for them are they're own fans. They were Nintendo's worst enemies during the Wii generation... often giving them in a free pass in such important sectors as: "Securing 3rd Party Support," "Making quality games with Depth," (I'm still kinda angry about Punch-Out...), "Console shortages."
You can say all you want about their niche in the market... but, as pointed out in the article above, that only helps if they have a strong installed base. And the installed base of the Wii has pretty much evaporated with the Wii U.
But the problem is actually worse than that... The Wii was really less of a successful platform and more of a successful toy, A-la Guitar Hero. And like guitar hero... millions of people bought the Wii... played with it... and then let it collect dust in their closet next to their plastic guitars.
It was so long in-between releases of 1st party software (which were often pretty short to begin with) and the 3rd party software was generally so horrible that there was rarely any reason to keep it connected to the television while people were running out of places to plug other things in.
Now their biggest 1st party game struggled to reach 1 million sales... this time not due to its quality... but due to the small install base of the Wii U.
I don't think, even at this point, it's too late for Nintendo to turn the system around. I just know that they want. This is the same company that decided against going disc-based initially and wanted to hold onto cartridges for as long as they could. This is the company that decided against DVD playback even though many of their consoles would've been cable of it. This is the most stubborn video game company in the entire world, and they still have enough money in their coffers to remain so...
But if they weren't... They held onto the rights for Killer Instinct for two decades and did absolutely nothing with them until they finally relinquished them to Microsoft. But they still have dozens of other franchises that they haven't touched in 10-20 years. Nintendo's biggest success may have been Mario, but the NES was also strongly supported on sales of Metal Gear, Double Dragon, the Ninja Gaiden trilogy, Final Fantasy, and the support of many other third party licenses... almost all of whom Nintendo would later lose touch with.
They could reach out to these parties again and attempt to re-establish some sort of working relationship. Develop exclusive games for their unique platform. If they were able to establish ties with even one of the above franchises, and release a bona-fide hit that sold systems... then it may convince others that Nintendo is worth taking a chance on.
What WON'T convince anyone else to invest in Nintendo are the people that have already invested in Nintendo. The stalwarts. The faithful who Nintendo's been counting on since the N64 to get them over the hump. But if those gamers actually started demanding more from Nintendo, then they might finally be compelled to listen.