5 ms·
I think there's a bit of a darker side as well. The Wii was so unbelievably successful, and profitable that it seems to have created a kind of corporate-level o
by M_Grey 10y ago
I think there's a bit of a darker side as well. The Wii was so unbelievably successful, and profitable that it seems to have created a kind of corporate-level of addiction, and subsequent profit-seeking behavior. The Wii was underpowered, quirky, but just happened to hit all of the notes that a ton of people who hadn't played games before (and would later move on to playing on phones and tablets) were looking for.
Most of all, they made a profit per unit sale of the Wii, when the standard at the time was (is?) to sell consoles at a loss and make it up on fees and sales of games. They made profit on the base Wii, then they profited from all of the other shit they made up to sell for it. When the time came to move on from that gold mine to something new, they predictably tried to strike gold a second time.
They didn't.
Now they're trying a third time, and I suspect it will end badly for them. They've increasingly lost sight of what made them great, blinded by the allure of unbelievably quick and vast quantities of hard cash.
- lotyrin 10y agoFrom what I understand, they can readily afford to make these bets though. If Switch turns out not to be another Wii, but rather a WiiU, that's no sweat to them and they can easily figure something else out.
- pidg 10y ago"Nintendo have $10.5 billion in the bank – enough for it to take a $257 million loss every year until 2052." http://nintendotoday.com/nintendo-not-doomed/ http://nintendotoday.com/nintendo-not-doomed/
- M_Grey 10y agoThem and Apple... two companies so swaddled in money that they can't even hear their consumers anymore.
- glhaynes 10y agoShareholders aren't impressed by "our quarterly losses only burned through a tiny portion of our stockpile", though. The pressure on Nintendo to deliver with the Switch is quite high.
- MAGZine 10y agoNintendo has a history of doing quirky things, in an effort to differentiate themselves. They've always been innovative. - Directional Pad (NES) - Shoulder buttons on controller (SNES) - third handle on a controller and controllers with expansion slots (N64) - portable gaming systems (starting with gameboy, which didn't even have a backlit screen) - subsequent iterations that included: folding designs (SP), Touch screens for interactivity (DS), game sharing (DS), 3D (3DS, designed before 3D was "a thing") - RFID out-of-game experiences (Amiibos) - Innovative nunchuck design where moving the controller is an axis of control (Wii) - A second-screen experience (Wii U) - ... and these are just the recent/well known innovations. I'm sure I'm missing many (link cable, anyone?) So, basically, Nintendo has always tried to push the envelope with their consoles. Nintendo isn't interested in making a boring "not-a-pc-i-swear" console. Nintendo hasn't lost sight of what made them great. In fact, I'd argue that they're still very much on that path. The day we see uninteresting hardware is the day Nintendo has strayed from what made them great.
- saltvedt 10y agoYou forgot the quirkiest thing of all, the Nintendo Power Glove [0] released in 1989. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Glove https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Glove