Mario, Metroid and Zelda on the 360 and PS3?
The massive 3DS price cut two months after release revealed something about Nintendo: their magic wand is running low on power. Nintendo thought the system would sell itself, even without an impressive lineup of launch titles, but the market proved them horribly wrong: by now gamers want more than just another expensive gimmick: casual gamers are still happy with standard DS and core gamers want core titles... the games! The result? A large number of 3DS units remained unsold on the store shelves, which in turn led to software houses smelling failure and threatening to drop support for the system, forcing Nintendo to adopt drastic measures to save their day.
This happened before when Sega's hardware division went six feet under after the cold reception the Dreamcast got (again, due to lack of third party support). What happened to Sega, did it just die? No: they are now making quality software for other systems, like the Wii, DS, PS3, PSP and XBOX 360 (well, mostly quality software).
Now, I'm not saying Nintendo is in the same situation, but think about it: the value of Nintendo's shares has plummeted and shareholders are furious for their massive losses (Hiroshi yamauchi alone lost $300 million in one day!) should the Wii U receive the same cold treatment on the market as the 3DS it would most likely mean the end of Nintendo's hardware division like what happened with Sega.
Would this be the end of Nintendo? No! Like Sega they would still go on making quality games on other systems. The difference for us? None, except hardcore gamers would have to buy one less system and we'd be able to play Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Kirby and Donkey Kong on the same system as Halo, Gears of War, Uncharted, God of War and Killzone.
I'm not wishing disaster over Nintendo and I'm sure they'll stand back up after this 3DS mishap, but even if the worst should happen it wouldn't be all bad, all considered.
Your opinion on this?
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