Home Gaming Nintendo is Doomed! Wait! No it’s not

Nintendo is Doomed! Wait! No it’s not

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doomandgloom

Ask any self-proclaimed hardcore gamer, and they will tell you two things about Nintendo; the company makes games for kids, and its decidedly last-generation systems are selling so badly that its sending Nintendo to the poorhouse.

Here’s the thing; neither of those is at all true. Yes, the ratio of cutesy, family friendly games to ones filled with blood, guts, gore and tits is decidedly skewed towards things people of all ages can enjoy, but that doesn’t make them games for kids. Games like the excellent Fire Emblem: Awakening, Shin Megami Tensei IV,Luigi’s Mansion 2 and hell, even..no wait, especially Animal Crossing have turned the 3DS’ fortunes on its head.

If you’ll recall, the 3DS initially sold so poorly that Nintendo was forced to slash the consoles price by over a third. that helped the system gain a little momentum, but it’s really started picking up a ton of steam thanks to regular releases of incredible games. In fact, the 3DS has, for the past two months, been the top selling system in US. It’s been top of the Japanese hardware charts since late in 2011, and was the top-selling console in the land of the rising sun for the whole of 2012.

Nintendo’s fortunes are indeed turning, and the company’s stock is now at its highest figure in two years thanks largely to the 3DS and Animal Crossing’s retail performance. And that’s in the face of smartphones and tablets, which analysts had predicted would herald the death of traditional handheld gaming.

Of course, this is all ignoring the very large elephant in the room, namely the Wii U – which Nintendo is still struggling to get people to give a damn about. Pikmin 3 was recently released in Japan, and it’s helped the console shift 20K units in a week in its home town, up from the usual 8K. It’s worth noting here that that’s based off of just two days of sales tracking, and we’ll only really see if Pikmin helps sell Wii U’s next week.

The point here is to realise that Nintendo is capable of, and quite to turn the Wii U situation around, just as its done with the 3DS. Not two years ago, it was nothing but doom and gloom for the 3DS and handheld gaming, and I think the same will happen for the Wii U, provided it keeps (or well, starts) delivering great games for the system. there’ll be at least one major Nintendo release for the Wii U every month for the rest of the year, starting with Pikmin 3 in august; The Wonderful 101 in September; The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD in October; Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze in November and Super Mario 3D world in time for the holidays.

And honestly, a price cut would really help too. 

Last Updated: July 22, 2013

19 Comments

  1. Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

    July 22, 2013 at 12:35

    If they can get the games made for it the console will sell. There is always a market for consoles like the Wii-U. But they need to get the right content first.

    Reply

  2. Admiral Chief Groot Wors

    July 22, 2013 at 12:40

    Glad to see they are turning this around!

    Reply

    • Vampyre Squirrel

      July 22, 2013 at 13:32

      Yeah, I’d hate to see them go the Sega route… except I wouldn’t mind playing Mario Galaxy, New Super Mario, and the like on my PC or Xbox.

      Reply

  3. Jannie Theron

    July 22, 2013 at 12:41

    ” price but over a third”
    ” the lad of the rising sun”

    Really guys, editor ? You can do better Geoff

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief Groot Wors

      July 22, 2013 at 12:42

      Now now, play nice 😉

      I’m sure Geoff missed them. That being said, BAD BAD GEOFF, off to the corner for you!

      One more spelling/grammar mistake and you will have to replay this:
      http://www.lazygamer.co/xbox-360/star-trek-review-worst-contact/

      Reply

      • RinceWind

        July 22, 2013 at 12:56

        Hahha! I always have fun reading Geoff’s articles. It’s like where’s Wally, only a lot easier trololol!

        Reply

  4. Kyratic

    July 22, 2013 at 12:47

    There are more kids/families and casuals in the world than hardcore gamers, also, casual players tend to make more money, due to not being focused on gaming. (my opinion)… so no I dont believe Nintendo is doomed, Hell to be honest, they may well feed off Xbox’s mishaps in the next gen arena as much as PS has. they have made some strange decisions on their products, but I still think their business idea is sound.

    Reply

  5. Troll Slayer

    July 22, 2013 at 13:22

    ??????????????

    Reply

    • Vampyre Squirrel

      July 22, 2013 at 13:36

      Lol… amazing how Google Translate makes that read like it’s something no one would ever say, Unless if they were either exceedingly drunk, or busy OD’ing on heroin.

      Reply

  6. Troll Slayer

    July 22, 2013 at 13:29

    Why would anyone want to cross animals?

    Reply

  7. OVG

    July 22, 2013 at 14:12

    We said this last year. Nintendo are going to kill off the Wii U like they did with the GameCube and will attck the handheld market with a full on Mario Stomp.

    After the Bone and FOUR release, the Wii U is dead. Since my Game Cube I never understood why Nintendo take so fcking long to make their 1st party games.

    Waiting for Zelda TP on the Game Cube was 5 years man ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz…….

    Reply

    • Troll Slayer

      July 22, 2013 at 14:18

      5 Years? 5 Years!!!!!!!!! The rage still burns within!!!

      Reply

      • OVG

        July 22, 2013 at 14:21

        But they then went and flipped the game around so that Link is right handed and canceled the Game Cube version and threw it onto the white Game Cube called the Wii and sold it for 3x the price.

        FCK U NINTENDO. I grew up a little that day 🙁

        Reply

  8. Skyblue

    July 22, 2013 at 14:45

    I’ll take DOOM, played it to death back in the day. The Wii U is way overpriced in SA, more firesales and I might consider one… nope, still not feeling it.

    Reply

  9. Evan OReilly

    July 23, 2013 at 13:40

    I’m a Hardcore gamer and I do not think any of them things, only fanboy’s think what’s written in this article. If anything sony have more problems then Nintendo. Sony have been losing money for ages. I have a PS3 and am not a Nintendo fanboy.

    Reply

  10. Alex Irish

    July 23, 2013 at 21:58

    Well, their fiscal report is coming up. hint hint

    Reply

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