The original Wii the worst thing to happen to Nintendo
A few days ago an article showed up stating that it was Sony to blame for Nintendo failing to entice 3rd party developers to make games for the Wii U. That may or may not be the case but i believe that Nintendo is their own worst enemy in this matter & it all started with the original Wii.
Take a trip back in time with me, back to the end of the 6th generation of game consoles. The Sony PS2 soundly trounced the competition from the newcomer Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo's Gamecube who had the unfortunate distinction of finishing in 3rd place. That massive defeat in the eyes of Nintendo made they take a different approach in how to construct their next hardware.
Both Sony & Microsoft seemingly had control of the 'hardcore' gamer that Nintendo realize may be out of their reach. All they had that can rival the next consoles from the other 2 were their AAA first party games (Mario, Zelda, Pokemon etc.), though that may not be enough for them to regain market control.
This is where i believe Nintendo made their first steps into where they are now. Instead of catering to the 3rd party publishers & developers that are vital in having a long term successful console. Listening to what 3rd party developers need to make games on a console they turned their backs on them to go for the 'EASY' money.....the casual crowd. Thus the original Wii was born. Nintendo saw that neither Sony & Microsoft were enticing the 'casual' gamer, so Nintendo took advantage of that.
We all know the Wii became a financial gold mine for Nintendo (the Easy money) but once the original hype died down you need the 3rd party developed games to keep the hardcore gamers to come back. The casual gamer will eventually slowly lose interest so you need the hardcore gamer cause they will usually always be playing the console. Since there were little to next to none support from 3rd party the Wii slowly lost sales after the initial boom, while the other 2 stayed consistently strong throughout the generation.
The Wii's lost of momentum forced Nintendo to rush out a console to match (or Nintendo initially thought surpass) the current gen systems of Sony & Microsoft. Nintendo finally realized they needed the 3rd party help to safely maintain a healthy console life. Unfortunately the Wii U hasn't been able to gain 3rd party momentum cause it came out at a bad time when Sony & Microsoft were just about to reveal their next gen systems thus making the hardware of the Wii U be insignificant to 3rd party.
So we are now at the point where Nintendo is at now, at a crossroads. Do they scrap the Wii U & try to mitigate the damages of that by releasing another console to match the PS4 & XBone? Or do they stand pat & ride the potential losses & support the Wii U with their own AAA library. It's a touch decision for Nintendo no doubt. All of this troubling situation that Nintendo is in is thanks to the success of the original Wii.
The Wii as of right now is the 7th generation console leader (with over 100 million sales) & potential 'winner' but is it really? Did all that sales really help Nintendo?
My answer is no. It was the worst thing to ever happen to Nintendo cause that success has lead them to the situation they are in now. The Wii's success made Nintendo believe they didn't need 3rd party support to have a successful console in this day & age. That 'arrogance' or lack of respect of the 3rd party has soured many relationships with 3rd party & Nintendo may or may not be able to make amends.
I was a fan of Nintendo back in the NES/SNES days cause they cared for the gamer not only with their massive 1st party titles but they catered to the 3rd party as well. Somewhere down the line they forgot that 3rd party are vital for a console to have a successful life & that 1st party games can only take you so far.
In my heart i still have a place for Nintendo wishing them they can get out of their troubles. I really want them to do well but man do they REALLY need to change how they approach the industry.
Also Nintendo has spent less time developing its online infrastructure because of the Wii. The Wii U is behind because Sony and Microsoft have been testing and refining their online services for over 6 years. Nintendo hasnt had that luxury. The Wii made have sold a lot and made Nintendo money but it has had a really bad lasting impact on the company (which I feel may cancel those impressive sales)
Your take on online is a great point & another part of the moving industry that Nintendo either was reluctant to see or just plain oblivious to it.
This is what Nintendo needs to do. Not firing anyone. Not build a new console so soon. To embrace the industries direction it is headed & move with it not against it. Nintendo can still be that proud company they are but don't be afraid to change some aspect of the company.
Like many has said including Sony. The industry needs a healthy Nintendo, but it is Nintendo's decision if they wanna be apart of it.
Miyamoto said they wanted to make a cheap console that in case would flop they won't lose too much money.
Wii just prolonged the inevitable fate of Nintendo's home console business slow and painful death they brought upon themselves.
All the Wii's commercial success was brought to nothing by Wii U.
That and third party games often got a bad rap as being shovelware because of the mountains of other crap being released and people did not want to wade through the cesspool.
I, for one bought a gamecube first and a PS2 last. Throughout the entire lifecycle of the gamecube, I didn't feel the need to buy a PS2, but, as time passed by and the amount on content released in PS2 was overwhelming, I decided to get a PS2
The reason is because they didn't want to "directly" compete with Sony anymore. Sony battered them from pillar to post with the PS1 and PS2.
I keep telling everyone that Nintendo brought this upon themselves with the N64. THAT was their biggest mistake. Ignoring third party devs in favour of first party by opting for cartridge instead of CD.
No.
Nintendo would've given a tiny cut to Sony but, ultimately, they would've made it easier for third party devs to produce games on N64.
So ever since the Snes they have failed to properly read the market. Fail to see that gamers are no longer 10 year olds.
...Conker's Bad Fur Day?
FMV was beyond crap...
Your argument is now invalid.
What Nintendo also didn't take into account was the casual gamer. That market is incredibly fickle, it moves on and it was wrong to assume it would stay for the Wii U, so I think it was right for the likes of Sony to focus on the hardcore gamer.
Beware, I don't mean indies and such are less important, but it's the big names that make the industry and can support large events and so on, if you know what I mean.
Do you seriously think there isn't a problem with Nintendo? So explain to me why so many 3rd party games have been absent on the Wii U? Why is Nintendo struggling with the home console department? If it wasn't for the 3DS than Nintendo would be in much more serious trouble than you think. If you have the answer please enlighten us cause it sure heck that Nintendo is needing some answers.
Nintendo is going to be around for a long time but don't ignore that there isn't anything wrong cause if you keep thinking that the industry is going to be a lot smaller.
It's common thinking that "the casuals are fickle and they abandoned the Wii". I think that is completely false. Casuals aren't fickle. If you take care of them, they'll stick around (*cough*AppleProducts*cough*). Nintendo failed to create any more games for "teh casualz" and so they left Nintendo.
And then when the Wii-U came out and they thought they'd grab the same audience. They didn't. With Wii-U Nintendo thought that they could also grab the hardcore. It never happens. Ever.
I do have a 3DS (and DSXL) because I love Layton, however I never got the Wii because I wasn't too interested in most of its games.
However, WiiU has backward-compatibility.
If Nintendo were to release a new kind of bundle including a WiiU console + 2 standard controllers (not the WiiU large controller) for like 200/250$ I would buy it to play all those Wii and WiiU games that interest me with my buddy.
That would make it a sound investment (for a gamer like me that mostly plays on PS3/PS4 and PC) to play what I can only find on Nintendo's consoles.
Not sure something like this could happen, but I'd buy it.