Poll: Should Nintendo Stop Making Consoles?

[F4LL3N]

SNIP

But if you look at the links I provided (Wiki, but still a decent source), the Wii still sold far more games than Microsoft and Sony. I doubt you'd ever get an exact figure, but it's a decent guideline I think.

Total Xbox 360 games sold as of December 2009: 353.8 million.
Total Wii games sold as of March 31, 2011: 716.09 million.
Total PlayStation 3 games sold as of June 30, 2010: 315.3 million.

Add ~100 million for the 360 and PS3 (maybe 150 for xbox). I'm too lazy to do the working out, but the Wii looks like it had a better ratio of consoles sold to games sold. I'd say on average 7-8 per console sold, possibly for all three consoles.

It's bad enough to use outdated numbers, but using numbers that aren't even from the same time period?

Using current numbers from VGChartz (not a perfect source, I'll admit, but at least their numbers are relatively current and all the same age):

Wii: 717.33 million games, 89.77 million consoles, tie ratio 7.99
XBox 360: 556.11 million games, 58.41 million consoles, tie ratio 9.52
PS3: 448.52 million games, 55.79 million consoles, tie ratio 8.04

And don't forget that Wii Sports' status as obligatory pack-in in most of the world means the Wii's tie ratio is inflated compared to the other consoles - there's no way of knowing from the data we have how many of it's 78.68 million copies sold were actually wanted.

Well I wasn't too far off. I did say add around 100 million for PS3 and around 150 million for Xbox. I was giving or taking ~20 million when I guessed. I wasn't too far off when I guessed 7-8 games on average per console either. Besides, I was giving Sony and Microsoft the benefit of the doubt that they've sold 60 million consoles each.

As far as I'm aware, the Xbox 360 was released one year earlier than the Wii and PS3. So take that into account, they all have roughly the same ratio of consoles to games sold.

You can't say the Wii's number is inflated due to any bundle packs. All three have bundle packs. I've seen all three on sale with 4-5 games included.

 

[Substitute Troll]

They shouldn't outright stop, but they should make some of their franchises available to other consoles, such as Zelda. Man, I would love a Zelda game for the PC...

 

[masticina]

As much as I don't like certain ways Nintendo works. Really their consoles still have a place, the DS is a running success. The 3ds might actually get people to follow to.. depending on the games. And this month has been a good 3ds month. By the way the pink one is so cute.

Ah that aside that Wii U? I can see how that might work out!

Not to mention yes as much as there is to ***** about the 3rd parties games... their own ones are usually darn good. I like Nintendo to stick around and well .. we seen what happens if a publisher ditches their console. Sega oh yes, losing the console market has caused Sonic to be in dire troubles.

Not saying a Zelda on another console wouldn't work. But Nintendo losing control over the hardware [controllers and playstyle] would definitely affect the series. Mario and Zelda work because they are bound to Nintendo.

 

[Iwata]

I bought every single Nintendo console since the NES. The Wii turned me off Nintendo forever.

Stick to making handhelds.

 

[Worgen]

Right now the one thing that consoles have over the pc is a simple used game market, once you get rid of that, there isn't much point in having a standard console anymore.

Sorry man, but from the perspective of developers (and the publishers who fund them), that is NOT "one thing that consoles have over the pc".

When you buy a used game, the developers get nothing. Zip, zero, nothing.
From their point of view, you might as well just pirate the game, it's has the same "effect".

That is their hang up and it will come back to bite them in the ass with new consoles that really push getting rid of that sort of thing, console sales will go way down, some stores will even refuse to carry the consoles, and it will become more difficult to market games since navigating a digital market space tends to be clumsy at best with only a controller.

 

[Orekoya]

I think Nintendo is facing the only real challenger it has ever seen in the handheld space and I think that Nintendo is going to lose.

*looks between his ds gathering dust and his iphone* Huh. Never paid attention to that there.

 

[PurpleLeafRave]

If they stop making consoles, they will stop making Zelda. So no.

 

[Captain Chemosh]

The wii is a gimmick, nintendo only keeps running on brand-loyalty (see pokemon, zelda, and mario, and overall, nintendo is out of it's league and refuses to admit it.

 

[Sampler]

Let's look at the history shall we:

NES - first control pad on a major console, before that it was all joysticks. Who uses a joystick now?
SNES - shoulder buttons, online multiplayer (granted in Japan)
N64 - analogue stick/d-pad combo and feedback vibration
Gamecube - proved game consoles didn't need to be the size of most AV equipment to be fun and useful.
Wii - motion controls - for as much as we may hate them, they pioneered something ape'd by other major consoles and Kinnect's crossover appeal wouldn't be realised without it.
WiiU - integrated screen, granted Sega did something similar with the DreamCast but the VMU's (visual memory units) weren't anywhere near the scale Ninty are aiming at here, a closer parallel would probably be a DS

So with the exception of one generation Nintendo have pioneered what 'hardcore' gamers come to expect as standard on a controller these days.

There recent developments may seem a little "out there" but similar things were said about the first controller by all the 'hardcore' gamers waggling their joysticks. Without Nintendo consoles we wouldn't have gaming as we know it so I for one hope they get to continue to manufacture consoles rather than pull a Sega.

 

[jyork89]

No they should not. The simple rule is if you don't like it, don't buy it. No one is forcing you to buy their consoles. Additionally, unlike Sony and Microsoft, the console is Nintendo's primary product. Without the console Nintendo would end up like Sega. And no console maker wants to end up like Sega.

Their console, the Wii, has been hugely successful. Nintendo is the only company that has made a good profit from their console and unlike the other two cannot afford to do otherwise. I don't own a Wii. I never will. Yet I have played one and it was decent good fun. And I know many people who will play them and own them.

Finally, I would say Microsoft and Sony are equal creators of gimmicks. The Wii was designed originally with motion control. While Microsoft and Sony just added theirs on later, with a hefty price tag to an already more expensive console nonetheless.

 

[Gadi Hidalgo]

i think they should just keep going as they are.

Wasn't it Nintendo who first used a thumbstick in their controllers. Now even portable consoles have (some version of) it. And as much as a lot of us might hate motion controls, we can't deny the huge amount of people that now play games because of this gimmick.

I think having all these crap games is a small price to pay for innovation that helps the industry as a whole. If Nintendo keeps making consoles they might end up making something cool again.

 

[Weslebear]

I don't think they should stop making consoles, from a business point of view it would be suicide, their hardware rakes in obscene amounts of money. I just think they should release their game series onto the PC, I doubt they would do it for rival consoles but what I would give to play the latest Zelda on my PC and not buy a console I would only use for 2 or 3 games.

 

[galdon2004]

It is not Nintendo's fault that third party game makers can't figure out how to incorporate motion controls without trying to make them gimmicky. The Wii was SO innovative, that it forced the PS3 and 360 to create peripherals to replicate the Wii's motion controls. That in it's self shows they are doing things right; even if the third party guys aren't on the ball when it comes to using motion controls.

 

[senobit]

....

Anyway rant over and on topic, I hope Nintendo continue to make consoles that are a bit different - if they started making consoles like Sony and MS what would be the point? There's relatively few exclusives on either consoles and on most of the cross platform titles you have to look at the controller to remember which one your playing, why would anyone want to see gaming homogenized more?

You mean, if Nintendo started making consoles that were powerful, instead of gimmicky, they would not be able to compete. Both the N64 and Gamecube were crippled due to storage space. The 3DS is using another gimmick to compete with the more powerful Vita.

Where did you get the idea I was saying Nintendo wouldn't be able to compete? I was saying what would be the point? We already have two very similar consoles why is a 3rd needed?

I don't understand why you think anything that deviates from the current norm as a "gimmick", is you gaming ideal for everyone to be playing the same games on the same sort of consoles with the same controls and the only difference being if you where a bigger fan of Halo, Uncharted or Zelda.

 

[Epona]

....

Anyway rant over and on topic, I hope Nintendo continue to make consoles that are a bit different - if they started making consoles like Sony and MS what would be the point? There's relatively few exclusives on either consoles and on most of the cross platform titles you have to look at the controller to remember which one your playing, why would anyone want to see gaming homogenized more?

You mean, if Nintendo started making consoles that were powerful, instead of gimmicky, they would not be able to compete. Both the N64 and Gamecube were crippled due to storage space. The 3DS is using another gimmick to compete with the more powerful Vita.

Where did you get the idea I was saying Nintendo wouldn't be able to compete? I was saying what would be the point? We already have two very similar consoles why is a 3rd needed?

I don't understand why you think anything that deviates from the current norm as a "gimmick", is you gaming ideal for everyone to be playing the same games on the same sort of consoles with the same controls and the only difference being if you where a bigger fan of Halo, Uncharted or Zelda.

If you haven't noticed, Nintendo's motion controls haven't gone over so well with alot of people.

 

[DarthFennec]

... so what, you think they should just stop making consoles altogether? What, am I just going to throw out my Wii whenever it gets around to breaking and start playing Zelda and Mario on the Xbox? Zelda RRoDing ... that's an interesting concept.

No, Nintendo should continue to make consoles. They should just try to approach their console design differently. You say they should stop making them, just because they're shitty? I think they should learn from their mistakes, change their direction, and start going somewhere else with it. They have the ability to come out with anything they want, why give that away when you can accomplish great things with it? Just because they've been failing at that recently doesn't mean they should stop trying. If you innovate, if you create new things, of course you're going to get a lot of duds, that's just the way the world works. But you keep trying until you make something brilliant.

And you can't say the Wii isn't brilliant. Say what you want about the terrible controls, I completely agree with you on that front. But think beyond that for a second. The Wii changed the game, it introduced a whole new and extremely large customer base to video games that just wasn't here before. You can't deny that the Wii has had a gigantic and wonderful impact on our community, and so what if that impact wasn't technological? The WiiU, as much as I dislike the thing (and I really really dislike that goddamn thing), seems to be the second step in the process: The Wii drew the non-gamers in, the WiiU starts to change them into hardcores. Think about it. Better graphics, more of a controller-like design, less focus on motion controls ... it's less of a `waggle stick' and more like a six-axis with a touchscreen. The one after the WiiU, then, will most likely look a lot more normal, if I'm interpreting this correctly. Also, the WiiU controller seems to me to be quite handheld-y or iPad-ish, which tells me that they're probably trying to draw in the people who play games strictly on their phones, and/or they're trying to get the casuals primed to enjoy their next handheld, and eventually get them into handheld gaming.

But I don't really know, this is just my theory. In the end, the market will decide. But yeah, so without Nintendo there wouldn't be that godforsaken wii controller. Without Apple there wouldn't be the damn iPad either ... although without Apple, only about two percent of us would probably be using computers at all, by this point, and the internet would be a very different place. Because the value of things depends on both the thing itself and the impact of the thing on society. And if anything, I think Nintendo has the latter one down.

 

[Nergy]

....

Anyway rant over and on topic, I hope Nintendo continue to make consoles that are a bit different - if they started making consoles like Sony and MS what would be the point? There's relatively few exclusives on either consoles and on most of the cross platform titles you have to look at the controller to remember which one your playing, why would anyone want to see gaming homogenized more?

You mean, if Nintendo started making consoles that were powerful, instead of gimmicky, they would not be able to compete. Both the N64 and Gamecube were crippled due to storage space. The 3DS is using another gimmick to compete with the more powerful Vita.

Where did you get the idea I was saying Nintendo wouldn't be able to compete? I was saying what would be the point? We already have two very similar consoles why is a 3rd needed?

I don't understand why you think anything that deviates from the current norm as a "gimmick", is you gaming ideal for everyone to be playing the same games on the same sort of consoles with the same controls and the only difference being if you where a bigger fan of Halo, Uncharted or Zelda.

If you haven't noticed, Nintendo's motion controls haven't gone over so well with alot of people.

And the majority of people don't care, because video games are fun.

 

[Epona]

....

Anyway rant over and on topic, I hope Nintendo continue to make consoles that are a bit different - if they started making consoles like Sony and MS what would be the point? There's relatively few exclusives on either consoles and on most of the cross platform titles you have to look at the controller to remember which one your playing, why would anyone want to see gaming homogenized more?

You mean, if Nintendo started making consoles that were powerful, instead of gimmicky, they would not be able to compete. Both the N64 and Gamecube were crippled due to storage space. The 3DS is using another gimmick to compete with the more powerful Vita.

Where did you get the idea I was saying Nintendo wouldn't be able to compete? I was saying what would be the point? We already have two very similar consoles why is a 3rd needed?

I don't understand why you think anything that deviates from the current norm as a "gimmick", is you gaming ideal for everyone to be playing the same games on the same sort of consoles with the same controls and the only difference being if you where a bigger fan of Halo, Uncharted or Zelda.

If you haven't noticed, Nintendo's motion controls haven't gone over so well with alot of people.

And the majority of people don't care, because video games are fun.

Prove it. Prove that MOST people don't care whether a game has motion controls or not.

 

[Nergy]

....

Anyway rant over and on topic, I hope Nintendo continue to make consoles that are a bit different - if they started making consoles like Sony and MS what would be the point? There's relatively few exclusives on either consoles and on most of the cross platform titles you have to look at the controller to remember which one your playing, why would anyone want to see gaming homogenized more?

You mean, if Nintendo started making consoles that were powerful, instead of gimmicky, they would not be able to compete. Both the N64 and Gamecube were crippled due to storage space. The 3DS is using another gimmick to compete with the more powerful Vita.

Where did you get the idea I was saying Nintendo wouldn't be able to compete? I was saying what would be the point? We already have two very similar consoles why is a 3rd needed?

I don't understand why you think anything that deviates from the current norm as a "gimmick", is you gaming ideal for everyone to be playing the same games on the same sort of consoles with the same controls and the only difference being if you where a bigger fan of Halo, Uncharted or Zelda.

If you haven't noticed, Nintendo's motion controls haven't gone over so well with alot of people.

And the majority of people don't care, because video games are fun.

Prove it. Prove that MOST people don't care whether a game has motion controls or not.

I could prove it the same way you would offer proof of the claim a lot of people dislike motion controls. It's simply what i hear from the majority of people i know. Unless of course you've conducted a fair test.

Motion Controls and the Wii are not the enemy, it's companies not using it correctly, because they know they don't have to try hard, look at the DS's early life, they made DS games with god awful touch screen controls. Nearly everyone I've spoken to has said they'd find it hard playing Zelda (and other games) with buttons alone any more, since the motion controls for Skyward Sword were so well done.