So do the "doom and gloom" crowd think this bundle will do anything for sales? I'm not sure it will be a success with the masses but I have a feeling a lot of Nintendo fans who have been on the fence will pick up the Zelda bundle if the console itself is unique in some way. That could provide a small surge for Nintendo in the face of the PS4/X1 launches.
I guess I'm somewhere near the top of the "Doom and Gloom" crowd list? Here's my answer: I don't know but probably not a lot. Here's my thinking, most people that want a Wii U at it's current price already bought one. Some people are waiting for specific games. Those folks that are waiting for Zelda will come and buy this console and be happy as hell that don't don't have to buy the Nintendoland bundle AND a Zelda game. I already played Wind Waker when I had a GameCube so the game hold little to no value for me. I wonder how many people that already played the game will buy the remake of it?
So yeah there's going to be a bump in sales when this comes out but will it be bigger than if this special console wasn't out and if so how much? Those we won't be able to answer. My guess is that the sales aren't going to bump as much as they're hoping for.
I honestly don't think there is actually a problem with Nintendo's current state. They are in a transition period, but their current position isn't nearly as precarious as most people seem to think.
Selling massive quantities of the Wii U right now would not actually be to Nintendo's advantage. The production costs for the system have not lowered to the point where Nintendo can sell it for a profit. Nintendo's strategy has always involved selling its hardware for a profit. It wouldn't surprise me if they are holding off on spending a lot on Wii U marketing until the production costs have dropped to that point. I don't think they want to start selling the Wii U in massive quantities until they can do so without accruing a massive loss.
Microsoft and Sony took huge losses on their hardware from the previous cycle, and are only just now starting to balance things out through software licensing. It took them the better part of six years to make up for their initial hardware losses. Nintendo sold the original Wii for a profit from day one, and are sitting on a mountain of cash reserves even now.
And at the end of the day, Nintendo has never needed 3rd-party support to the same degree that its competitors has. They weren't forced to lean on 3rd parties for the Wii, and can handle the Wii U well enough without sweeping 3rd party support as well.
Alright, I have issues with several things here so I'll take them one at a time:
I honestly don't think there is actually a problem with Nintendo's current state. They are in a transition period, but their current position isn't nearly as precarious as most people seem to think.
- Alright for this, no one thinks Nintendo is in a precarious state...in fact I haven't seen a single person so much as suggest that. It's the Wii U that's in the precarious state. Nintendo won't fail if the Wii U fails but that shouldn't be what matters. What should matter to gamers is if they bought a Wii U and it's support is aborted abruptly.
I don't think they want to start selling the Wii U in massive quantities until they can do so without accruing a massive loss.
- Nintendo is a business and they are there to make money. They never would have sold the Wii U at a loss if they didn't think they could make that up. With console sales in the toilet, they won't be able to sell enough software to break even for the console losses as well as cover the cost of development. Keep in mind that development has a high break even cost in the HD era. If you can only sell say 500,000 or 1,000,000 copies of Zelda for instance, you might not even break even on the game - let alone the hardware.
Nintendo sold the original Wii for a profit from day one, and are sitting on a mountain of cash reserves even now.
- I'm not quite sure what the point is here. MS is sitting on WAYYYYY more money than Nintendo. Sony isn't in great shape but they have a decent amount of cash none-the-less.
In fact, I just went back and checked the up to date info, Nintendo has 11 billion cash on hand while Microsoft has 76 billion.
And at the end of the day, Nintendo has never needed 3rd-party support to the same degree that its competitors has. They weren't forced to lean on 3rd parties for the Wii, and can handle the Wii U well enough without sweeping 3rd party support as well.
- I don't know about this. I used to own an N64 and not a PS1. In those "dark days" there were a shitload of games I wanted to play including many JRPG's that never showed up on the N64 (in fact, only one shitty JRPG showed up "Quest 64" and it wasn't even Japanese it was THQ made). I'm sure PLENTY of Nintendo fans want to play 3rd party games. In this day and age, there's a reason why Nintendo is losing so much of it's fanbase and that's because many adults want to play their 3rd party games so they buy the consoles that do that and then their kids play games on those consoles also. Most "normal" people don't buy a shit ton of consoles like we do.
. I could see it being a good thing for kids though. On the other hand, the folding nature of the DS/3DS protects it. I saw a kid drop her DS on the cement while I was at my son's soccer practice yesterday. Since it was closed, I think it was OK. This thing, though, I dunno... Anyway, not on topic here so I'll drop it. But man, just goes to show you can read gaming stuff every day and still miss things!