Well, if I never hear the phrase "gangbusters" again it will be too soon!
Honestly, I didn't get much value out of the Wii bar Sin and Punishment 2 and the Galaxies, nor am I particularly fond of the whole casual market Nintendo generated in the last decade, but I'll be damned if it doesn't seem like your imagination is being influenced by your distaste for the company. Allow me to set things straight for you absolute finality, so I need not have to ever do it again.
replayme wrote:
Apples and oranges... Both fruit. But not the same.
Let's be clear: You referenced Nintendo games, "Mario et al", as being on machines that no-one wants. You totally aren't then allowed to take handhelds out of the equation when the majority of the very titles you're referencing exist on those highly successful platforms. It's not apples and oranges, it's the gaming industry and all its various bells and whistles. Handheld gaming is just as lucrative and viable as home console gaming - you should know, you just bought a Vita.
However, it's even more befuddling that you seem to think Nintendo's entered a world of failure post Super Nintendo. It's like history has been rewritten and no-one told me.
Allow me to give you a more favourable post SNES timeline lesson based on fact, rather than one based on a passionate dislike for the poor old Wii U:
The Nintendo 64 lasted for seven years and sold 33 million units - that's 23 million more than the Sega Saturn. If there was a second place in a generation that included several consoles (PSX, 3DO, CDi, Jaguar) then the N64 had it. Meanwhile the GBA set the handheld world on fire shortly after the 64's departure and ended up shifting 80 million units - nearly as many as Sony's runaway PlayStation. Additionally, we all know not investing in CD technology saved the company a lot of expense and allowed them to trim more profit from the sales they did have.
The Gamecube was a failure, but certainly not for hardware reasons, which you cite several times as the underpinning factor. In-fact, the hardware was pretty damn impressive, outperforming both Dreamcast and PS2 in several respects. Just compare Resi 4's as an example.
At 22 million sales it sold twice as many as the Dreamcast, but came far too late to challenge the firmly established PS2, so there was really no opportunity to get in on the act. In spite of poor sales figures, thankfully every machine was sold at a profit, rather than the manufacturing loss the competitors were absorbing. The console's failure was a shame if you ask me, the Gamecube could have done with a second chance.
And then...
The Wii was inferior hardware in reference to the competition, no argument there. Nintendo took the Gamecube hardware they couldn't sell, reworked it into a gimmicky thing, and quietly shoved it back under everyone's noses. 100 million sales later with a console sold at profit from day one and the bank cashier is grinning ear to ear. As if that wasn't enough, the Nintendo DS surpasses the PS2 in sales to become the most successful console of all time with 154 million units sold.
Around this time they were named Japan's most successful company for several years running. That's not more successful than Sony - that's more successful than everyone.
The DS's successor, the 3DS and XL variants are closing on 50 million sales already, with an agreeable lifespan remaining.
Which brings us to the Wii U: a misstep with a silly interface, no third-party support and completely ill timing, sold at a loss (I assume?)
The ship seems to have sailed on the 'casual' Wii market Nintendo established, and they should have known better than to expect lightning to keep on striking with only mild to not very interesting innovation. Any criticism levelled at the current contender is due, to be honest, and I'm not arguing.
So, Wii U aside, from the N64 until now they've sold 439 million units of hardware across six platforms, all at profit from launch.
There's absolutely no chance that Nintendo is going to go third party, probably ever, if pride plays a part. They have enough capital to soak a failure or two, and the console isn't quite dead yet, despite your assumption. The fact that Japan has a soft spot for them means that there's more chance of working some new magic in the future and relighting their revenue than there is of them dissolving and making games for Microsoft and Sony.
And we haven't even started talking about the last ten years of cash-money made from Pokemon. Seriously.
