LakeOf9
Member
Nintendo has had two major comebacks in their history, both times when they were driven to the brink of irrelevance and basically written off, and both times when they came out with a new spin on their previous, failed idea, reconceptualized the idea of a home console top to bottom, and launched it with a new cross-gen Zelda game.
There was the GameCube to Wii, of course; I wasn't paying attention to Nintendo at the time. I grew up a Sega and PS kid, so I had zero interest in Nintendo to begin with, and their bent towards motion control gimmicks and family gaming turned me off of them completely. But I do at the very least remember that after basically disappearing off the face of the market in the PS2 era, they came back out of nowhere with a system that was selling baffling amounts, appealing to an audience I'd never expected to care for games to begin with.
The Wii U to Switch transition I did pay attention to. It's why I am a Nintendo fan today. I remember when the Switch was revealed, I was actually instantly interested in it – I loved the whole concept of a hybrid console, I loved the idea of playing Skyrim on the go, and when I looked into Breath of the Wild, it looked amazing, so I was interested in that too. The Switch's success still took me aback – I expected it to sell a little bit to the core Nintendo base and then fizzle out. Or I expected it to be a fad like the Wii and burn out. But it kept going. It resulted in one of the most vibrant and active ecosystems on the market, and unlike the Wii, it sold to a core engaged audience that let Nintendo sustain this success and build on it.
Personally, if you were to ask me, the Wii U to Switch transition is the more impressive comeback between the two. The magnitude is larger (13.5 million to 155 million vs 22 million to 102 million), and qualitatively, the Switch's success was more sustainable and healthier, with Nintendo managing to actually create a base that buys games (unlike on the Wii), and coming up with a concept that actually revolutionized the industry – something the Wii promised but never did.
But that's my take, what do you think the more impressive comeback story was?
There was the GameCube to Wii, of course; I wasn't paying attention to Nintendo at the time. I grew up a Sega and PS kid, so I had zero interest in Nintendo to begin with, and their bent towards motion control gimmicks and family gaming turned me off of them completely. But I do at the very least remember that after basically disappearing off the face of the market in the PS2 era, they came back out of nowhere with a system that was selling baffling amounts, appealing to an audience I'd never expected to care for games to begin with.
The Wii U to Switch transition I did pay attention to. It's why I am a Nintendo fan today. I remember when the Switch was revealed, I was actually instantly interested in it – I loved the whole concept of a hybrid console, I loved the idea of playing Skyrim on the go, and when I looked into Breath of the Wild, it looked amazing, so I was interested in that too. The Switch's success still took me aback – I expected it to sell a little bit to the core Nintendo base and then fizzle out. Or I expected it to be a fad like the Wii and burn out. But it kept going. It resulted in one of the most vibrant and active ecosystems on the market, and unlike the Wii, it sold to a core engaged audience that let Nintendo sustain this success and build on it.
Personally, if you were to ask me, the Wii U to Switch transition is the more impressive comeback between the two. The magnitude is larger (13.5 million to 155 million vs 22 million to 102 million), and qualitatively, the Switch's success was more sustainable and healthier, with Nintendo managing to actually create a base that buys games (unlike on the Wii), and coming up with a concept that actually revolutionized the industry – something the Wii promised but never did.
But that's my take, what do you think the more impressive comeback story was?
