The Future Of Nintendo

Ah, Nintendo. The most darling of gaming companies to most any gamer, especially one born between about 1980 and 1995. Nintendo brought gaming back in the United States after the video game crash, and it never really went away. While I’ve, rather hilariously, had people in the past at places I’ve worked seem surprised to see that “they are still around” (not like the company isn’t already over 100 years old.) The fact that they smile when they see their games or consoles is enough to remind you that people who don’t even really play games anymore still think positively to the company.

Sure, this has its problems – there is the natural group of fanboys who you can’t dare say anything bad about Nintendo around, lest they rise to defend the big N like it’s their patron deity, but they aren’t the focus here.

Instead, I want to discuss what a Playstation 4 fanboy said about Nintendo (namely the Switch) back in June, on my personal Facebook page. Yes, this is another article that’s overdue, but with things going as well as they are for the company, I thought it the perfect time to finally get around to writing this one. This guy seriously thought he knew the future of Nintendo based on the most absurd claims I’ve ever heard anyone make about a company, a product, or just the general state of gaming.

The stupid claims.

I’m going to greatly summarize the persons statements here. While I have screenshots, the run-on paragraphs of idiocy really boil down to a few key points: He stated that:

• Regarding the Switch: “It sucks and is just another gimmick by Nintendo”
• No one buys the Switch, and when they do they return it constantly.
• The 3DS isn’t going anywhere – the switch will fail and they will continue with the 3DS
• The Switch is just another WiiU – it’s a failure.
• Them releasing the “New 2DS” is PROOF they aren’t giving up on the DS line ever.

This is just one half of the insanity I dealt with from this person, but we will stick to this since this is the Nintendo portion of the ramblings. With all that said, let’s begin. I’ll be addressing the above in no particular order.

My response to the above.

The Nintendo Switch is selling incredibly well. In my time at a major retailer which sold such, I saw only, I believe, one return, and that was only due to few games being available early on and people wanting to re-buy the console later down the line. As for being in the used game market, we have had only 2 be traded in, again for the same reason – they played, they enjoyed, then they went on and said “okay, nothing new to play, I’ll get it again later.”

The Switch was released early in the year to allow people who wanted the console to have a chance to buy it without the holiday rush making supplies even more scarce than they already would be, and indeed, it worked. Many people who wanted one have gotten one, and they have enjoyed it. Now, as we have the major games people have been waiting for like Super Mario Odyssey being released, the system is reaching a must-have status for Nintendo fans, and many other classes of gamers alike!

The Switch is hardly a gimmick. While, yes, it has gimmicky elements thrown in (namely damn motion controls STILL being in the joy-con) the core element of it – a gaming system that can be easily played on both the TV as well as as a portable – actually works, and is useful.  In fact, with Nintendo’s recent release of stats on just how people use their Switch consoles, there is a very healthy mix of people who play almost always in portable mode,  those who play with it always docked to a TV, and then a bulk of people play in both modes.

So, anyone want to explain to me just how a console that people have been playing heavily, in both gameplay modes, that sells quite well and has a very low return or trade in rate is at all a gimmick? Right, it’s not, and clearly this person was talking right out of their ass.

As mentioned above, it’s selling, and selling well. Last I checked the WiiU did terrible, so to compared the Switch to the WiiU, and try to call it a failure? Hardly an accurate statement.

But wait, there’s more. The 3DS (and 2DS) got brought up, as the Switch naturally takes a chunk out of the portable marker that Nintendo already dominates. Here’s the thing – the 3DS is already 6, almost 7 years old. The DS hardware lineage dates back to 2004 with the release of the original DS console. Much like the Game Boy brand name, it’s something that’s certainly run its course.

There is no reason for Nintendo to continue the DS line with the Switch out there. Why split up your market and force people to buy 2 systems which can do the same thing – play games on the go? It’s absurd, and not something a company as experienced as Nintendo would do.

Hell, part of the reason the Switch is what it is is due to that very fact – that portable gaming is as popular as it is, and that the DS line has sold at the rate it has. Why not make a portable home console? Blend the two together – done and done. Hell, I’ve been thinking that should happen since I was a child.

Now, where does that leave the DS line? I give it 2 years. 2 years at most before it’s over. Why? Because that’s the normal grace period for hardware when its successor is out in the market, about 2 years of some kind of support before things die off. That still brings us to the New 2DS.

Nintendo pushed out the “New 2DS” primarily to bring that console up to the same capabilities as the New 3DS – the improved processor and the little c stick being the key upgrades, as well as just some streamlining of the console. That’s all it is though – an update. An update to bring a machine from 2013 up to the same stats as its sister machine, produced in 2015. That’s putting it simply, too, as the Nintendo DS history is incredibly complex in its 13 years.

Now, sure, Nintendo hasn’t outright said they are ending the DS line. Why would they? What sense does that make? It’s business basics that you never announce you are ending hardware until well into the phase-out plan because, the moment you announce it’s dead most people won’t buy it. They will hold their money until something new comes about. I believe it’s an aspect of the Osbourn Effect, just kind of in reverse.

Regardless, this means minimal in the long run – 2 years is a decent time, and it would make sense for Nintendo to push out one last hardware version before the DS hardware line dies off – they did the same with the Wii in the “Wii mini” before it was finally left to die off.

The only reason Nintendo dropped the  Wii U as quickly as they did was to create a demand for the Switch, alongside saving costs by not trying to produce and push the effectively dead console that the WiiU was to the public for the Holiday season 2016. People didn’t want it, they didn’t understand it, and Nintendo decided it was better to let the DS carry the the holiday season, then push the Switch in March.

It worked, and it worked well. Damn well. Some could argue Nintendo is back on top, a spot they haven’t been in since the days of the Super Nintendo (while the Wii sold well, I consider the 360 to be the winner of that era for reasons I’ll get into in the future.)

It’s amazing how far into outright lies some people will go to bash on another company. I don’t get this, at all, and I had several friends chime in on the thread where the above statements were made to call out the person on their stupidity.

So, simply put, what is the future of Nintendo?

Simple. It’s the Switch. In about 2 years the DS line will end, and Nintendo will fully focus on the Switch. It’s already been announced that the next Pokemon games, games which have been a standard for Nintendo’s portable consoles, will be released on the Switch. What does that tell us? The Switch is the new portable console for Nintendo. Again, why compete against yourself with 2 consoles in the same demographic? The DS line is going to die, the Switch will be the new standard for anything Nintendo, and ya know what? Everyone is going to be happy.

To think otherwise is absurd, and to be as full of shit as the guy above is? That’s absolutely idiotic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_effect

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Switch

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Nintendo_3DS

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Nintendo_2DS_XL