Would Nintendo Have Survived Without the Wii?

Looking back in history, these are the sales figures for Nintendo's consoles:

NES: 62m

SNES: 49m

N64: 33m

GC: 22m

Following this trend, Nintendo's next console, assuming nothing had changed (expanding audiance, significantly stronger than competition, etc., would have sold about 11m consoles. When SEGA left the console business after the Dreamcast, it had only sold 10.5m. This brings up the question, would Nintendo have survived, had they made a console that competes graphically with the PS3/360?

Just a note, I'm not looking for flames/ranting, I'm just curious as to the opinions of other people on this subject.

I happen to like the Wii.

1: Games are genuinely different to PS3/360 games. Stuff like Zack & Wiki.
2: The madness of developers competing with the Wii mote.
3: It seems to have a bright future ahead of it.

The DS still sells insanely well, so I think they'd be ok.gamefreakomega

yep

I happen to like the Wii.

1: Games are genuinely different to PS3/360 games. Stuff like Zack & Wiki.
2: The madness of developers competing with the Wii mote.
3: It seems to have a bright future ahead of it.

Tony-Harrison

Wrong thread?

[QUOTE="Tony-Harrison"]

I happen to like the Wii.

1: Games are genuinely different to PS3/360 games. Stuff like Zack & Wiki.
2: The madness of developers competing with the Wii mote.
3: It seems to have a bright future ahead of it.

stepat201

Wrong thread?

No. I'm just saying I'm glad with Nintendo's decision to be different.

I happen to like the Wii.

1: Games are genuinely different to PS3/360 games. Stuff like Zack & Wiki.
2: The madness of developers competing with the Wii mote.
3: It seems to have a bright future ahead of it.

Tony-Harrison

I like the Wii as well :P

I've liked every Nintendo console, and will like any future ones too. The Wii seems like it's one of the best things to happen to Nintendo in a while (aside from the DS :P) I'm glad to see that they'll be around for a long time.

Yes, but they would had become a strictly handheld company. Then again, would they had survived with out the DS as well? What if the DS was just a the GBA2? The PSP would had pummeled it and THEN nintendo would be dead.

The DS and the Wii's succes are one in the same...disruption.

The DS and the Wii's succes are one in the same...disruption.

goblaa

Yes!! I've read all sorts of articles about that, it's very interesting.

Yes. The Gamecube was highly profitable as is their handheld department.sneslover

gamecube made more money than any system last gen

[QUOTE="sneslover"]Yes. The Gamecube was highly profitable as is their handheld department.VendettaRed07

gamecube made more money than any system last gen

Except the PS2.

[QUOTE="VendettaRed07"]

[QUOTE="sneslover"]Yes. The Gamecube was highly profitable as is their handheld department.Tony-Harrison

gamecube made more money than any system last gen

Except the PS2.

i think the ps2 only made a 1% profit, while the gc made like 24%

i could be wrong though, but ive heard that a few times

[QUOTE="VendettaRed07"]

[QUOTE="sneslover"]Yes. The Gamecube was highly profitable as is their handheld department.Tony-Harrison

gamecube made more money than any system last gen

Except the PS2.

Well, if I'm not mistaken, Nintendo still profited more from the GC than Sony did from the PS2, even though The PS2 sold about 7 times as many consoles :p

Looking back in history, these are the sales figures for Nintendo's consoles:

NES: 62m

SNES: 49m

N64: 33m

GC: 22m

Following this trend, Nintendo's next console, assuming nothing had changed (expanding audiance, significantly stronger than competition, etc., would have sold about 11m consoles. When SEGA left the console business after the Dreamcast, it had only sold 10.5m. This brings up the question, would Nintendo have survived, had they made a console that competes graphically with the PS3/360?

Just a note, I'm not looking for flames/ranting, I'm just curious as to the opinions of other people on this subject.

bionisam

[QUOTE="Tony-Harrison"][QUOTE="VendettaRed07"]

[QUOTE="sneslover"]Yes. The Gamecube was highly profitable as is their handheld department.bionisam

gamecube made more money than any system last gen

Except the PS2.

Well, if I'm not mistaken, Nintendo still profited more from the GC than Sony did from the PS2, even though The PS2 sold about 7 times as many consoles :p

Since Nintendo doesn't have a whole giant company to support if it its game devision doesn't produce, in the console market its always do or die for nintendo. Sega was in the same situation and they died. Now the GCN era put nintendo on the sputtering and failing course, and it was widely thought that the next nintendo system after the GCN would make or break nintendo. Well, now there's the Wii and nintendo is back on top in the console field.

If nintendo had just released a Gamecube 2 they would have died in the console field.

Looking back in history, these are the sales figures for Nintendo's consoles:

NES: 62m

SNES: 49m

N64: 33m

GC: 22m

bionisam

Nintendo would have survived. Those numbers are crap but you didn't list the portables numbers. They could survive off of that alone. Worst comes to worst, Nintendo would just be 3rd party. I'd favor that since I like Mario games.

Yes they would have been just fine. Nintendo always tends to be in the black and makes a profit. Like said they don't lose any money on their hardware and their games always tend to sell really well even their lackluster ones. Sony and Microsoft tend to bleed money and stay in the red when they come out with a new console until towards the middle to end of it's life cycle. Not so with Nintendo.

So even if Nintendo had lost market share they still would have ended up making a profit, perhaps more so then the others. They were fine financially with the Game Cube. Which is why talk about how they were getting out of the console business made no sense at all. Out of the three (if you just take Sony and Microsoft's gaming divisions since Nintendo is a gaming only company for the most part though they spread in other things at times) Nintendo has always been the most profitable (even during the GC vs. PS2 vs. Xbox cycle).

In terms of portable gaming alone Nintendo could live off that quite well. They pretty much own that market and have taken all comers (GameGear (sigh I miss my GameGear), NeoGeo, PSP).

The DS is the biggest selling console and has been for a long time now. So they would be fine without the Wii.

Nintendo have always managed to make money even if it doesn't look like their consoles are popular. They are lucky with their handheld business in that they have always been able to fall back on it, secure in the knowledge they will constistantly have a good income from their handheld business.

Even now, not even Nintendo can be sure how long the Wii will stay as popular or whether it will wear off its appeal.

Here's a question, would they have taken a risk such as the Wii (it could have gone either way) if they didn't have the handheld business to fall back on financially?

Of course. Even without the DS my personal calculations are there are at least 11 million+ nintendo lover who will buy there console because they live and breath for Zelda and other first party game. Then over the consoles life span there will be at least % million + give or take that will but it for their children because they know about mario and all that jazz. Nintendo could sell at least 16 million+ systems every gen, and since they sell their consoles at a profit they will make good money. This is, of course, assuming they dont get overwhelmed by Sony like the Dreamcast did.TheGrat1

It being so easy to pirate games on the Dreamcast also didn't help it I think. Pirating in this case really harmed things. Had they had better protection or dvd format or the format the cube used things wouldn't have ended the way it did I think. Highsight I guess.

Like many users have mention the DS success alone will keep Nintendo alive. Now the real question is would Nintendo survive without the casual gamers?-DarthMaul-

Would any console-maker subdivision or company stay afloat without casual gamers?

Video games were pretty much on their way out in the early or mid 80's (can't remember which) until Miyamoto came in and spurred development.

No they wouldn't they would still be in here.