[quote name='dschroll']What kills me about Nintendo is that every generation I feel like they say, "Yes, we've learned our lessons and promise this time will be different." And this time turns out to be not that different. For the 3DS, Nintendo knew online was important and also that having a steady stream of great titles was important. They said so over and over again. And here we are post 3DS launch with Zelda being the only decent title to come out in 5 months.
How many generations has Nintendo claimed that they've learned their lesson about 3rd party content being important (since the N64 days) and every generation it seems Nintendo still struggles with getting 3rd parties happy. How many times do they talk about the importance of a string of good titles and yet we have numerous droughts on their platforms. Look at the Wii with almost next to nothing worthwhile having been released on it in ages and Zelda being the only noteworthy game that's coming up.
I think the Wii U launch price/lineup/online offerings will truly tell us if Nintendo has actually learned anything this past generation.[/QUOTE]
The last two Nintendo platform launches, the Wii and the DS before it, were a total crapshoot. After diminishing sales of earlier systems, particularly in the home console market, they were trying something radically different that they had no idea whether or not it would catch on. The DS had a slow start itself, which people often forget, but eventually went on to become the highest-selling platform of all time. The Wii was hot right out of the gate and has become by far Nintendo's best-selling home console. I think part of the reason the 3DS has struggled is that Nintendo expected that the incredible success of the DS would carry its momentum forward to the 3DS and ensure healthy sales. They had a little bit of the David Reeves complex, thinking that consumers would flock to it no matter what it was or what the software lineup was like. They had attracted a lot of developer attention because of the success of the DS, but as everyone knows games take time to make and rushing a product to market can always backfire.
The market has changed a lot over the last several years, and Nintendo has clearly had difficulty keeping up with the times. The Japanese and North American markets are diverging ever further and the advent of smartphones and tablet computers have significantly altered the face of gaming. The choices that they made when designing the 3DS may have seemed revolutionary in concept, but are they what the mass market wants in practice? Nintendo themselves have backpedalled on a lot of the thinking, stating that they themselves may develop games that don't use 3D at all (a fine idea) and de-emphasizing some of the features that were initially much-lauded.
I do think that they will learn from their mistakes and try to rectify the issues that have arisen. The first part of that is making sure that the system gets into people's hands, hence the price cut. We're seeing a lot of potential support out of Japan for the 3DS, with a lot of titles announced for the upcoming Tokyo Game Show. This is a good sign, as many of the best handheld games (in my opinion, anyway) are from Japanese developers. I'm willing to give this a chance and hope for the best; maybe things will turn out great like they eventually did for the original DS. We'll just have to wait and see.
Also, it's not like there's
nothing but Zelda coming out for the Wii. Nintendo themselves have the new Kirby game (which looks awesome), Rhythm Heaven (which IS awesome) and Fortune Street (which could be interesting), and there's the usual batch of third-party multi-plats which may or may not be of quality (X-Men, Spiderman, Need for Speed, Call of Duty, WWE, Lego Harry Potter, Rayman) and a new Mario & Sonic Olympic game. And JUST DANCE 3.
This turned into quite the little editorial. Sorry.
