Is Nintendo about to go the way of Sega?

[ro9ue]

Nintendo doesn't seem like it's doing so well anymore. Do you think we will see one of our old gaming Titans join the ranks of Sega in the city of the video game damned?

No NX @ E3?

[zEmini]

Not yet but they are on their way.

Nintendo refuses to adapt to the changing market place and to the customers that made them great. There just isn't enough games for the Wii U to justity a entire system. No Zelda, no Metroid, no third party support. The rabid fan boy's will disagree but eventually we will not be seeing Mario/Zelda/Metroid games any longer. The creators already said that if Nintendo dies, so do the franchises. They will sell out eventually though.

After last years horrible E3; I went from a Nintendo fan to a hater overnight. So I might be somewhat bias. I defended Nintendo for the longest time but now I turned a 180 on them. Pretty much dead too me. Maybe I just grew up.

[Jester Joe]

Not showing the NX at E3 is just a questionable move.

There's absolutely nothing to hint that they're about to go down like Sega did at all. Sure, the Wii U wasn't an extreme success, but it wasn't an extreme failure either like the Virtual Boy.

[RuneDK]

Not showing the NX at E3 is just a questionable move.

There's absolutely nothing to hint that they're about to go down like Sega did at all. Sure, the Wii U wasn't an extreme success, but it wasn't an extreme failure either like the Virtual Boy.

It's been out longer than xbox one and PS4 and isn't in the same ballpark of either system...The fact that the Wii sold over 100m consoles...and the wii u is probabl;y about 12-14m now and they are seizing production later this year on them on top of a new system coming out so soon after the wii u release is pretty much pointing at all signs of failure. It came out november 2012...so march 2017 is the expected NX release....so...not even 5 years....that's pretty shit...

[AwkwardSquirtle]

Pointing out the Virtual Boy is interesting. They've had higher profile failures and survived them. The 3DS is doing fine, the NX is releasing with Zelda U which will sell systems, they'll probably stick a Mario title on it because that sells systems. I can't see them failing. They've got too many franchises powerful enough to sell systems on the strength of a name.

[unholytestament]

I definitely think there is cause to be worried.

[Jester Joe]

It's been out longer than xbox one and PS4 and isn't in the same ballpark of either system...The fact that the Wii sold over 100m consoles...and the wii u is probabl;y about 12-14m now and they are seizing production later this year on them on top of a new system coming out so soon after the wii u release is pretty much pointing at all signs of failure. It came out november 2012...so march 2017 is the expected NX release....so...not even 5 years....that's pretty shit...

You're missing the point.

You're calling it a failure compared to other consoles, but I'm talking about in its own right.

There's no debating it failed in comparison to them, but that doesn't make the system a failure overall.

[unholytestament]

Pointing out the Virtual Boy is interesting. They've had higher profile failures and survived them. The 3DS is doing fine, the NX is releasing with Zelda U which will sell systems, they'll probably stick a Mario title on it because that sells systems. I can't see them failing. They've got too many franchises powerful enough to sell systems on the strength of a name.

Well, yeah. I don't think Nintendo could ever fail like Sega failed. But I don't think they're invincible. I think we'll see more drastic changes in Nintendo before they ever actually collapse.

Barring anything completely unexpected happening.

[Edge-]

There's no debating it failed in comparison to them, but that doesn't make the system a failure overall.

Haven't Nintendo been pretty open about the consoles pretty shitty hardware sales? I mean, they've managed some big wins with first party software, which has been fantastic (yay Splatoon!), but it's simply failing to move enough units to keep supporting it strongly. IIRC that was partially the reason why they were transitioning to the NX so quickly.

[monkmastaeq]

Another one of these threads. Nintendo is fine, You cite the 12.8 mil wii-u sales as a herald of doom, xbox one has only sold under 10 mil to date , original xbox only sold 24 million through its lifetime. With how wildy successful the Wii was they can weather a mediocre console release especially when you consider how well they do in handheld sales

[tankbug]

If NX becomes a huge flop, and I mean a lot worse than Wii U, they will probably not make another TV console again. Maybe they'll go all handheld/mobile.
Hopefully that will never happen. I rather them go down with pride, because it's painful to see Sega cling to life, a major fall from grace.

[Jester Joe]

Haven't Nintendo been pretty open about the consoles pretty shitty hardware sales? I mean, they've managed some big wins with first party software, which has been fantastic (yay Splatoon!), but it's simply failing to move enough units to keep supporting it strongly. IIRC that was partially the reason why they were transitioning to the NX so quickly.

Yes, but I believe it was about a year ago they even announced the Wii U was selling at a profit? And the 3DS basically printed money. That doesn't even address the massive amount they made from the Wii like pointed out also.

I'm not denying it wasn't a grand hit like Nintendo hoped, and they didn't get much 3rd party support on it (Hence the move to the NX yet again). I'm just saying none of this points to Nintendo shutting down if their next system fails.

[Edge-]

I'm not denying it wasn't a grand hit like Nintendo hoped, and they didn't get much 3rd party support on it (Hence the move to the NX yet again). I'm just saying none of this points to Nintendo shutting down if their next system fails.

Oh, totally agree. I don't think they're anywhere near the danger Sega was in when they got out of the hardware business.

[Aori]

NX better have backwards compatibility and a 'super' 3DS function. At this point in time that is all that matters to me.

[Shinzai]

I was talking to work colleagues about consoles the other day and mentioned the Wii U. I was amazed to find that 4 out of 6 of them legitimately still thought it was just an add-on or controller for the Wii. I think Nintendo's taking too long releasing the NX.

Nintendo may show off the NX in a stream separate to E3, as they some times have want to do.

However, I do not see Nintendo failing or going software only any time soon. They still have far too much heft and more importantly, pride. If they wanted to go the full route of releasing and cashing in hard on multi-platform software releases, they could have done at any given point in time. However, they believe too firmly in their own status as an industry symbol and simply won't give it up that easily.

We'll probably be cold and dead before they turn into the new SEGA.

[unholytestament]

NX better have backwards compatibility and a 'super' 3DS function. At this point in time that is all that matters to me.

I don't understand why the Wii U didn't. That giant game pad looks like it was made for playing 3DS games!

[dope_danny]

I think Nintendos in for a bad time but not so much the NX but for a lot of other reasons beyond the typcial "Wii U? moar leik Pii U!" stuff. The 3DS has reached market saturation to the point they are telling shareholders "dont worry, metroid federation force will reenergise it" which sounds pretty desperate and the new 3DS simply isnt selling anywhere near the 3DS numbers, because if you own a 3DS what do you need to replace it for? 3 games on average per players tastes? and thats before things like Miitomo which was big for about a week them almost completely died off again.
Nintendo doesnt make many bad first party games, but post gamecube they have pretty much been THE handheld company. The Wii was an unexpected hit but also kind of a fluke. But gameboy, gbc, gba, ds, dslite, 3ds? they are the people you buy handheld consoles from. And who doesnt own a 3DS that wants one still? not many. They are trying to bust into mobile games but we are all used to nintendo handheld games on a nintendo handheld and thats a level of deeply, deeply ingrained brand association stretching back almost 30 years. You can't unteach that so to speak.

I think they are going the konami route but much slower and much less evil i guess. They make good games but they are no longer the go to home console experience for the vast majority that ball is squarely in the court of the ps4 and pc and doesnt look like its changing anytime soon and with no huge 3ds numbers shipping they are fucked because how many upcoming games are YOU looking forward to from nintendo? 1? 2?
I think Miitomo and the constant decline of consoles and handhelds in their home market is going to see nintendo eventually no longer be profitable in the state they are, i mean shit they sell a skylanders imitation to make bank nowadays. Thats a good way to make some easy money, but its a bandaid to a big problem. People dont want the wii u, everyone and their mother owns a 3ds and doesnt need to buy another. How are they making money when theyve got no more big releases till the NX comes out?

I think if the mobile stuff continues to bomb after days then there will be big shakeups at nintendo, their current strategies dont work in the east, the NoA division is a worldwide joke pushing consumers away with bad translations and independent editing for personal reasons and the EU is much more firmly in Sonys corner and has been since the late 1990s. They havent got a big 'win' left unless some other huge shake up occurs.

I think the NX is another symptom of nintendos problems, not a root cause.

[johnhoftb]

There are three major differences between Nintendo and SEGA.

Currently, the Wii U is a singular flop, whereas, SEGA, before going third party, had several major flops going into the Dreamcast.

Secondly, Nintendo has a large number of IPs at this time, whereas, up until the Dreamcast, SEGA was heavily relying on Sonic.

Finally, Nintendo also has strong sales in the handheld department despite of the fact of mobile gaming becoming huge, whereas SEGA had nothing else to really fall back on, and don't say arcades, they aren't as big as they were back in the early 80s anymore.

[unholytestament]

Currently, the Wii U is a singular flop, whereas, SEGA, before going third party, had several major flops going into the Dreamcast.

How did the Sega Saturn and the Dreamcast compare, flop-wise?

[johnhoftb]

How did the Sega Saturn and the Dreamcast compare, flop-wise?

Going back to the Genesis/Megadrive:

Worldwide sales

Genesis/Megadrive: about 45 million
SEGA CD: 6 million
32X: 665,000
Saturn: 17 million
Dreamcast: 10.2 million

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Got those numbers from VG Sales Wiki.