Saying that the Wii wasn't a risk for Nintendo is absolutely ridiculous. The Wii could have been Nintendo's very last console. If it failed, Nintendo would be 3rd party now. Nintendo is known for taking tons of risks.
1. Saving the video game industry. This probably took a lot of effort and money. This could have killed the company and the gaming industry if Nintendo got one thing wrong.
2. Making TWO revolutionary console, the Nintendo 64 and the Wii. The Nintendo 64 didn't do as well as expected and it was revolutionary. We were lucky the same thing didn't befall the Wii.
And much, much more.
Just because Satoru Iwata was confident about the Wii succeeding doesn't mean that it wasn't a huge risk. The Wii was the console that could have put them out of the console manufacturing business if it didn't sell well. It was a huge risk. Solely motion control gaming has never been done before and we were lucky that Nintendo could pull it off.
I already went to lengths in my first post to show why revloutionary does
not equate to risk. You're making asinine assertions. Why was nintendo ''lucky'' to pull off motion controls? Why could they have been out the console manufacturing business if wii wasn't a success? What ''single thing'' could nintendo have got wrong to go out of business? Your N64 comparison misses the mark.
Nintendo is not a blind company. They develop several things that will never see the light of day. They keep going till they find something that works. They do things like market research and have access to statistics and numbers that you do not. When Iwata flatly stated one of his products will almost certainly outperform another, why wouldn't you believe him? You vastly underestimate this man's ability if you believe he would send his company to a situation that resulted in Nintendo leaving the business. Additionally, it's worth noting Nintendo had ~7billion dollars (I don't remember the exact number but it is
huge) sitting in the bank when Wii was released. Nintendo could have literally sold 1 console and they'd still stick around for another go.
Nintendo released a cheap console and sold it at a profit. They kept their key franchises, which were always going to be million+ sellers. They developed new titles that would appeal to new people. Nintendo covered all their bases. Just like they always have. The truth is that even in a worst case scenario, they were going to walk away with a healthy profit. There was no ''single thing'' that could have gone wrong to destroy this whole company because this company left no such opportunity for such an unthinkable thing to happen (unless we go into the realm of ridiculous possibilities...).
Not only that, but Nintendo aren't stupid enough to release a product with motion controls they are not confident in. Do you really think they would have given the go ahead for such a product when their WHOLE business rested on it functioning correctly? Companies know things will work before they release them, not the other way around. There was no ''luck'' involved in any of this process. They did their market research. They did their product development. They did their testing. They knew exactly what they were bringing to the table when they announced their Wii.
The N64 never sold poorly and suggesting so is simply false. It was, no doubt, a disappointment. But the thing still sold like gangbusters. How many N64 titles rank among best selling games of all time? Before Wii released, I think Iwata would have been proud for Wii to have equalled N64's success; of course nobody, including Iwata, expected what did happen.
REALLY do disagree with this. The Gamecube was IMO, the Nintendo console that took the least amount of risk. This was Nintendo's worst home console and for good reasons (I call it okay, but still). If it was Nintendo's biggest risk, it would have been revolutionary. But it's not and it was the most generic console ever made by Nintendo. There was good reasons why people preferred Sony over Nintendo that generation. I don't say Microsoft because I thought the original Xbox was medicore.
Therein laid the risk.
Elminating competition is a horrible idea. Competition keeps company solid and working for there consumer. Removing that reduce qualiity in produce and focus more on themself. It is also illegal to have monopolies in the USA, so therefore, Nintendo will have to deal with competitions, regardless of circumstances.
Dude, don't put words in my mouth. Nintendo are perfectly within their rights to legally stomp the opposition into the ground. Last time I checked, lack of meaningful competition didn't bother Nintendo on previous handhelds.
edit: Firus understood my point
