I may come off as a pretty big Nintendo fanboy in this thread and I am but I'm also not afraid to point out their flaws. With that said. The main reason the N64 suffered was because it didn't have strong 3rd party support. Like all Nintendo consoles the N64 had great exclusives and a handful of 3rd party exclusives but it didn't have depth. The PS1 was already out, already had a massive library, already had a huge market share and had discs that were not only much cheaper to develop for, they held 10 times more than the largest N64 cart. It really didn't make much sense for 3rd party devs to develop for the N64 at all considering it launched with only 2 games and was slow to pick up any momentum. So what did Nintendo learn about the N64's problems..
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Originally Posted by schu_22
Gamecube was a gimmick in itself with its tiny discs for no reason. (The tiny disc/cube/awkward handle thing - yes, that was a gimmick.) It also lacked the ability to do anything other than play those tiny discs. If the gamecube had larger discs, disc capacity would be no issue for developers, and including a DVD/CD playback feature would have been possible - a major seller for xbox/ps2.
This is 100% correct. They didn't learn anything. The GameCube was originally marketed as something you easily transport. The handle and small discs were a gimmick. The discs held 1.4gb compared to PS2 and XBox's 4.3gb. Multiplatform games often suffered on the GameCube because of the limitations. Most didn't even make it to the system, the GTA series being notable examples. So Nintendo were basically in the exact same place they were in the last generation and made the same mistakes. Once again, Sony had a huge library and market share and Nintendo was sitting there with proof that having DVD playback sold a console. At launch Sony were selling the PS2 at a loss but it was the cheapest DVD player on the market. It created a huge user base. I love the GameCube and think it has a great library but it could have had all that and more if Nintendo had learned from their previous mistakes and catered to not only 3rd parties but also market trend.
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I think we'd all agree that the Wii was a commercial success but not really a gaming success.
I'd call the Wii a gaming success. The Wii had a lot of crap that seemed to overshadow the good. In my opinion 2 of the best games ever made are on the Wii in SMG 2 and Skyward Sword. There is also a lot more great first and third party exlcusives on there as well. The Wii just ran out of steam only 2 years into its life cycle. There were a lot of great third party games that just didn't sell at all. The list of awesome games that sold horribly is pretty depressing. MadWorld, NMH2, TvC, Zack and Wiki etc. So third parties simply stopped putting any serious money into games and the Wii was left with a bunch of shovelware and 2 or 3 first party games a year. The Wii's biggest downfall was once again not tailoring to third parties. I'll be the first to say that graphics don't make a game but not making your console comparable to the competition especially when the competition already has a significant market share only means you're going to miss out on the majority of major third party releases.
That same problem is what's going to be the Wii U's biggest downfall. I love the console and think there's a ton of potential. I have no regrets buying it but that's because I also have a PC and I'm going to be buying a PS4. At this stage in Nintendo's life the vast majority of people buying their consoles often say "I bought it for the Nintendo exclusives." That's great for Nintendo franchises but terrible for the consoles life in the long run. Developers have confirmed that the Wii U is powerful but not any where near the level of PS4 and whatever the next xbox is called. So in a couple years they're pretty much going to be at the same place the Wii was at 2 years into it's life.
The marketing for the console has been the biggest problem so far though. Most people don't even know it exists and a lot of the ones that do though it was just a controller for the Wii. That's not to mention the insane decisions they made on the consoles actual design. The OS looks nice, but the way it runs is horribly bad. Every single function on the Wii U is a seperate executable. Not only that but some executables have to connect to Nintendo's servers. That is the reason for the long load times and even though they shortened them in the latest update, it's never going to be quick. The PS4 is going to have save states on all games, that already makes Wii U's OS look outdated. Digital triggers might seem minor but it's a pretty terrible decision. Not only does it restrict 3rd parties who use analog functions on other consoles when porting to the Wii U but it also hurts a lot of awesome GameCube games they could sell as HD remakes or on the Virtual Console.
Bottom line is that Nintendo have released a cool console to play Nintendo games on. Their biggest problem is that they cater to themselves and not to 3rd parties. The stupid thing is that Nintendo should already know that 3rd parties are what makes a platform a success. The NES and SNES dominated because they had the developer support. Sony and MS now have that support and Nintendo don't seem to be trying very hard to get it back. I do like their new approach to indie devs though but as good as indie games are, they're not selling consoles. I didn't intend to basically right an essay on Nintendo so sorry about the long post.
