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by oneoff786 1509 days ago
Nintendo has a lot of cash and is more of a toy company than a console company. I tend to think they will be fine.

Their weakest link is almost certainly their marketing team. The Wii U was really cool. Nintendo Land was insanely fun. The asymmetric local multiplayer was cool as shit. But nobody understood this. Most people didn’t know the Wii U was a different console.
3 comments
lots2learn 1509 days ago
Many many years later, my kids still get a ton of mileage out of the wii u. As one kids gets old enough to play, the others return to the games and get more out of the stellar multiplayer aspect. Nintendoland, Mario kart, Mario 3d world, new super Mario bros u, Wii party, Mario party - loads of fun.
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fartcannon 1509 days ago
I often think this has to do with the demographics of the current game buying population. Nintendo appeals to children, parents and people comfortable enough with their inner child to enjoy fun things.

There are a lot of people who are not like that. For example, there are huge popular mods for kerbal space program that add in military weapons and military vehicles. To some people that is cool as hell, to others its an abomination of the game. I think Nintendo's problem is also this same dichotomy and their popularity ebbs and flows with how the current game buying population leans. Population of gamers into safe and fun games like Mario? Nintendo does well and vice versa.

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hbn 1509 days ago
It's also wild how they flubbed the name so hard with the Wii U, right after they flubbed the name with the 3DS that had the same issue in early days, where people thought it was just another variant of the DS (which already had several variants previously)

Then once the 3DS had some success, they had to confuse everyone once again with the "new 3DS" which I suppose was at least less of an issue since it wasn't really a new console. But it sure as hell makes the used market confusing, when you don't know the difference between a new 3DS unit and a used "new 3DS" unit

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oneoff786 1509 days ago
Oh man I forgot about the new 3DS. I think they were going for a “New Super Mario Bros” vibe. But that was atrocious.
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