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It May Be Time For Nintendo To Make Games, Not Consoles

Roronoa Zoro

Gold Member
I think Switch was in a way their safest and most conservative console. After Wii U it seemed like all the Nintendo fans and pundits were saying Nintendo should make a console/handheld hybrid. It was surprising to see Nintendo give gamers exactly what they were asking for after many years of pushing gimmicks.


Ok? And what happens when the hardware sells like shit despite having a killer lineup of software? Wii U had Mario Kart, 2D Mario, 3D Mario, Smash Bros, Zelda, etc but it still only sold like 10m units.

Yeah it’s easy in 2025 to act like everything Nintendo touches turns to gold and their domination is inevitable, but things were pretty dire back in 2013-2016 timeframe. It’s a miracle they were able to turn things around.
Honestly now that their audience has matured to the age where they're all buying Nintendo for their kids and will always buy those franchises they're self sustaining. Sony should have stuck with franchises and committed to exclusivity instead of this PC crap and they'd eventually get the same thing. Their first mistake was back in the day not getting crash and Spyro for themselves. Sony as a whole was in great shape back then too so they could have
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
The narrative was that Nintendo was close to being bankrupt and should go 3rd party was floated around in 2013-14. I'm challenging that assertion. They were nowhere close to being bankrupt. They could weather the storm with another failed console. Could they do it forever, probably not. But this notion that they were close to being bankrupt was false.
Not true, all I ever heard was about how Nintendo had enough cash reserves where they could withstand Wii U era losses for 20 more years before they’d go bankrupt. Nobody was arguing they were close to bankruptcy.

The argument for them going third party was that they had a bunch of kickass games whose sales were severely limited by being stuck on a failed console that freaking nobody bought. It was that simple.
 
Xbox is dead as a console brand. These guys need to accept and get over it. Nintendo and Sony will carry on as they are. They would rather just be in denial and make shit up than just admit that Microsoft failed. It's pathetic. Multiplatform is the future of the industry guys! Before that it was gamepass. Before that it was the cloud! Shut the fuck up!
 
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Rudius

Member
Agree, having to buy a specific Nintendo hardware just to play Nintendo games sucks.
The thing is: you don't. You can buy the physical copies and keep for collection purposes, and to pay the developers, of course, but this notion that you need their hardware is denying reality.

All that would change from Nintendo releasing their games on PC is that you would need less power to run them and you would get more options to improve graphical quality.
 

LordOcidax

Member
The thing is: you don't. You can buy the physical copies and keep for collection purposes, and to pay the developers, of course, but this notion that you need their hardware is denying reality.

All that would change from Nintendo releasing their games on PC is that you would need less power to run them and you would get more options to improve graphical quality.
Agree with this… Some parents and casual users are dumb, they just need to buy the game cartridge (For moral reasons 😂), rip the game, buy a pc handheld (To maintain the same form factor, but probably more expensive) for their kids, install an emulator and done… EASY and better results.
 

Impotaku

Member
Just here to harvest another bach of delicious pony tears, nothing more fun than watching nintendo steamroll everyone with almost zero effort loool.
weeping-horse-eye.jpg
 

Juja

Neo Member
I'd love to see that updated.
That projection is hilarious. It will be funny if Mario Kart 9 is considered a failure if it ONLY sells 30ish million. I think that kind of already happened on 3DS with Mario Kart 7 selling under 20 million (still the best selling game on the platform). Those numbers are great for most franchises, but I guess it's disappointing when it comes to Mario Kart.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
Well, that was when they had just released their biggest flop ever the year before. At that time it did seem unclear whether they would survive as a console maker. Then they proved everyone wrong a few years later.
 

Rudius

Member
Agree with this… Some parents and casual users are dumb, they just need to buy the game cartridge (For moral reasons 😂), rip the game, buy a pc handheld (To maintain the same form factor, but probably more expensive) for their kids, install an emulator and done… EASY and better results.
The part of ripping the game yourself is just bullsh and you know that. Just pretend you did that yourself and keep the cartridge in the box. What matters is that the devs got paid. The other steps are easy with a video tutorial and take only minutes.
 

Rudius

Member
Certainly it would just be way more convenient if you could just buy the games on Steam. They could even keep the price always high like they do on Switch.

Again: if you have even a cheap laptop you can already play all their catalog, there is no denying the reality. It's the price they pay for outdated hardware.
 

HogIsland

Member
Do you people actually like buying completely redundant consoles and controllers that don't interoperate every generation? Do you like having digital libraries split across 4+ services?
 
😂This topic is hilarious being by posted here. Most of individuals on GAF believed the same thing before the Switch launched even after it was announced.
 

Boogybro

Member
I wish they would. I don't like their hardware at all. Underpowered, overpriced, and completely unergonomic. People buy their hardware to gain access to their games, not because they're thrilled with the hardware itself.
Ain't that why anyone buys any particular hardware, or do they do that just to look at them?
 

skneogaf

Member
I stopped buying nintendo consoles when Nintendo consoles became handhelds.

I'd buy pc versions of Nintendo switch 1 & 2 games so Nintendo would earn money that they would otherwise miss out on, I'll never buy handhelds even if they can plug into TVs I like Nintendo consoles to at least be in the ball park of current consoles.
 

Krathoon

Member
I always like Nintendo's weird little consoles. The always have some odd feature.

The latest is using the controller like a mouse.
 

REDRZA MWS

Member
It’s BEEEEEEN past time. Started with Wii. Always said nintendo has the best devs in the world. It’s a shame they have to work on 3 gen begins power wise hardware and eaggle and motion gimmicks, or toy hardware like portable switch.

If Mario, Zelda, donkey Kong and Samus came to ps;/pc they’d make a shit Ron more money.
 

Miyazaki’s Slave

Gold Member
The whole "exclusive games are bad...MMMMMKAY" just reeks of the same spin Microsoft has been on for the last 4 years. If people actually believe that the purchase of ABK and planning the release of games on multiplatforms (which is why Sony didn't put up much of fight) wasn't their plan post Xbox One's epic failure, everyone is an actual fool.
 
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Give me 3 AAA Zelda games on the Switch 2 with a art style similar to the unique dark fantasy style of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. That is all.
 

Vaquilla

Neo Member
I actually quite like their hardware, Switch is one of my favourite systems and one of the best $469 (AUD) I ever spent.
The hybrid design makes it so much easier for me to take my gaming with me when I travel for work, and I love that a lot of its games support gyro aiming.
 

CLW

Member
I mean how many IGNorant and other gaming outlet “journalists” proclaimed back as early as PS3 this would be the LAST GEN of consoles
 

darrylgorn

Member
I think Switch was in a way their safest and most conservative console. After Wii U it seemed like all the Nintendo fans and pundits were saying Nintendo should make a console/handheld hybrid.

The response at that time was generally reactive and doom and gloom. There weren't many saying that a successful strategy would be to evolve the Wii U, most were in the generalized 'make a good system with good games' camp.
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
Yes, let’s jack up cost of Nintendo games to $200-300 mil alongside everything else to meet the expectations of AAA on PS/PC.

Because clearly Nintendo games don’t sell on their own platform? 🤦‍♂️ Wtf am I even reading?🤡

The whole point of Nintendo’s ecosystem is integration between hardware and software. That’s where they make their $$.

It makes 0 sense for them to release games on PlayStation platform or even PC. A lot do their titles are Evergreen in sales.

Could they release some of the games that didn’t hit on PC/PS to recoup some cost? Maybe but they wouldn’t really move the needle. Say Nintendo published Astral Chain on Steam and it sold say 300K copies over couple years. It just dilutes overall proposition.

And I say this with PC as my main and own PS5, XSX and multiple Switches (kids and jail broken OG Switch). And I have ripped games to emulate them on PC. And still pursuing same strategy as Sony or MS makes no sense to me for Nintendo.
 
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VAVA Mk2

Member
Nintendo doesn't have to do anything. They practically print money right now with their current strategy.
 

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
Switch the easiest hack and emulated modern system
Still manages to be on its way to be the best hardware seller with virtually no price cuts
IIRC basically all high-selling systems except for the PS4 were very easy to hack though (emulate - not so much).
I think the lack of impact on software is more interesting.
 
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