The Nes, the Snes, the Nintendo 64, the Gamecube, the Wii and the Wii U. Nintendo has had a very up and down history with their home consoles ranging from underdog strugglers to whirlwind success stories. Whilst the WiiU has seen an up turn in sales following the releases of the latest Smash Bros game and the acclaimed Mario Kart 8, it's become clear that the system will forever struggle. The latest update for its sales still have the system languishing in the same numbers range as the start of the year with a total worldwide sales figure of 7.29m units.
For the average system lifespan the third year on market represents it's mid life, for those that run shorter it can be the peak before a upcoming successor arrives to steal the limelight. With WiiU struggling to such a large extent it's hard to believe that it is going to have a long shelf life ahead of itself and with much of 2015's line up already positioned to woo gamers it currently leaves 2016 as the big question mark with no known titles rumoured or set post-the Zelda that is planned for next Xmas. Until we get near E3 it's likely that speculation will begin mounting of a new console, with Nintendo's undoubtedly the next console we'll see be released.
Though we're still obviously early on from seeing anything physical to evidence a new system, we've already reached the point where Miyamoto has felt comfortable enough to confirm Nintendo now has teams working on planning the new machine. His words from this weeks interview also suggesting the next time we see a Mario title will be on the new console as opposed to the WiiU receiving two platformers like its predecessor did.
For any speculation, reports or rumours I thought there might as well be a dedicated thread rather than the WiiU thread being brought off track regularly by chatter about where Nintendo needs to go next.
It is clear though, that the sales figures WiiU has and seems likely to end up on are well, well below what a company should reasonably expect or wish to see. Especially for one that has come off the figures the previous console made.
Taking Nintendo's ethos in mind, would you be happy to see their seventh console arrive in late 2016? How much do they need to break from their usual approaches to business and design philosophy?
For the average system lifespan the third year on market represents it's mid life, for those that run shorter it can be the peak before a upcoming successor arrives to steal the limelight. With WiiU struggling to such a large extent it's hard to believe that it is going to have a long shelf life ahead of itself and with much of 2015's line up already positioned to woo gamers it currently leaves 2016 as the big question mark with no known titles rumoured or set post-the Zelda that is planned for next Xmas. Until we get near E3 it's likely that speculation will begin mounting of a new console, with Nintendo's undoubtedly the next console we'll see be released.
Though we're still obviously early on from seeing anything physical to evidence a new system, we've already reached the point where Miyamoto has felt comfortable enough to confirm Nintendo now has teams working on planning the new machine. His words from this weeks interview also suggesting the next time we see a Mario title will be on the new console as opposed to the WiiU receiving two platformers like its predecessor did.
For any speculation, reports or rumours I thought there might as well be a dedicated thread rather than the WiiU thread being brought off track regularly by chatter about where Nintendo needs to go next.
It is clear though, that the sales figures WiiU has and seems likely to end up on are well, well below what a company should reasonably expect or wish to see. Especially for one that has come off the figures the previous console made.
Taking Nintendo's ethos in mind, would you be happy to see their seventh console arrive in late 2016? How much do they need to break from their usual approaches to business and design philosophy?
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