Topic: Should Nintendo Stop Making Consoles?

@Grumblevolcano: I understand this, but honestly the past is the past. Mistakes were made, we shouldn't focus on the could've should've we need to look forward. if Nintendo holds off on their next hardware until the next consoles come out they would break this cycle. But how much would they lose in doing this.
This has made me wonder. what if whatever the NX is is but a skip in step to recover from a trip. what if the NX is cheap and a slight upgrade to the wii u just so they can hold off till the next hardware generation... that seems like a good option for the company though it may suck for us.

@iKhan: I would argue that the late Wii lifespan and the WiiU are very much counterpoints to your sentiment. I want what you said to be true, but Nintendo alone can't offer enough games for the consumers to buy there systems on mass.

no they should not stop making consoles. but they should stop making stupid mistakes

@smileyface97: Fair dos. You came back with a sensible reply Well, ok then. The way I see it is, Nintendo have some incredibly talented designers. They are in a position where they can conceive tech to meet their design aims of new ways to play. Look how 3rd party support fell out of favour with the Wii U because it was too limiting. By suggesting Nintendo just made games would put this limitation on Nintendo too. They would not be making the games to the same level of professionalism as they do now because they would be working within constraints of someone else's hardware that would not otherwise be there. Who knows, the NX might be a revolution but if you want them to stop at Wii U, then you are in danger of halting gaming progress. It is a shame though that with their last two machines the Wii brand has become synonymous with 'previous gen' because of their graphical clout as opposed to 'next gen' because of their playability. They need to resolve the logistics of offering current gen graphics whilst incorporating their own philosophies (like the snes era.)

No

Nintendo should keep making consoles until one of the following happen.

• They can't develop games anymore.
• They can't make a profit off of consoles anymore.

If Nintendo stopped making systems, it would probably kill off most of what's interesting about them. It'd limit their games to third party (more conservative hardware) and give them no real reason to make anything less popular than Mario, Zelda, Pokemon or other such franchises, with ones like Fire Emblem and Star Fox and Metroid and Wario and what not left in the dust.

It would be unwise for Nintendo to drop hardware. Being a platform holder has many benefits, such as collecting licensing/royalty fees from 3rd party software and a big stream of revenue that they can use to leverage software budgets. I'm absolutely positive than thorough analysis would show that Nintendo's earning potential is higher as a 1st party company.

Sega dropped hardware because they could no longer afford the entry cost. Nintendo can.

I don't think there's any reason for Nintendo to drop their handhelds. They've never had a true challenger in that market (the PSP was the closest and it still only sold half what the DS did) and currently have the monopoly on the biggest titles in that sector (Pokemon, Yokai Watch, Monster Hunter, etc). Even with the rise of mobile, the 3DS still managed to push 50 million+ units off the back of a great library. The next handheld could be just as or even more successful if it's made to compete with what gaming tablets and the Vita can do with a sweet price point and enticing launch titles. Dropping their handhelds would be one of the stupidest things they could do as a company and as someone who's a big fan of their handhelds, make me really unhappy.

As for their home console market? I don't think their current model of "not competing" is really sustainable. It worked with the Wii because Wii Sports/Fit/Party were the hot casual games to have at the time but now that's Angry Birds/Candy Crush Saga/Cut the Rope. I don't think they should throw in the towel yet, but they really need to find that happy balance between satisfying their hardcore fanbase and the wider dedicated gaming community, they can't count on Wii lightening in a bottle situation happening again.

No, Nintendo doesn't need to stop making consoles. Just because the Wii U isn't the greatest doesn't mean Nintendo doesn't have what it takes to make a great console again. They still make great games, but that's just my opinion.

@LoveSugoi: I Agree on both accounts. I just don't want Nintendo to stop making home consoles because Zelda is so good on a console. That said, I'm a believer that the next system (if not the fabled NX then whatever comes after) will be a handheld that can act as a console, not a console that can act as a handheld. This way they can get away with slightly downgraded graphics from the competition while having a good excuse. If they just make a handheld with slightly better than Wii U capabilities then suddenly people will be very interested as this would basically be a better Vita from somebody who can do handhelds. If they make the same system as a console, that's a problem.

@Ghost7: I strongly believe that Nintendo has what it takes to make a great console, but I'm losing hope in the consumer to purchase said console. In my opinion, right now, Nintendo has a better library than both the competitors, minus third parties. So if Nintendo could make a console to attract third parties that would be great. But the longer they spend releasing systems off cycle and thus underpowered to the competition, the deeper they dig their hole. "Eventually" making a competitively speced console won't be enough to bring third parties back after years of drought. Nintendo needs third parties for sales, but Nintendo needs sales for third parties, and their currently in a downward spiral.
That said, "do I think they can do it?", sure. But the above is why I'm worried. If Nintendo's consoles don't sell to the masses then Nintendos IP lose value; and that, more than anything, scares me.

Lets say nintendo was to make games for other consoles without having a console of their own. Then I guess we would have console exclusives - like a super mario game on xboxe and the new zelda adventure on Ps4 - ms and sony would pay to have some exclusive nintendo games and as fans we would need to buy both consoles... a horror scenario IMHO. I think I would totally give up then, even now I am not so sure about the NX, I mean I still lots of wii/ds games that I never really touched and of course wii/3ds games that I never played and now that I am in my thirites I dont really find the time to play that much, so not buying another console is not to farfetched to me. On the other hand if the NX will meet my expectations somehow I will buy it right away, provided there are games worth playing at launch, which is not a given...

Ho boy, it's one of THOSE threads...

This is basically what I would've responded with.

I like console gaming too much to say yes. To this day, I have no idea why both the PS4 and Xbox One need to both exist at the same time, other than to prevent a borderline monopoly.

@smileyface97

Well, many people loved Skyward Sword and Wii Sports Resort, same with NintendoLand, ZombiU, and Splatoon. I'd say regardless of system sales, that's enough to say Nintendo made a meaningful contribution by having a home console

I don't follow Sony news at all but it would be interesting to see whether Sony releases another dedicated handheld after the Vita.

Given Nintendo's history I'd be very surprised if it didn't go for another gen of handheld after the DS line.

@iKhan: I agree that the WiiU is a system with great games and I don't regret owning it. But I worry that Nintendo won't be able to sustain this kind of development cycle, without beginning to wear on customers. If Nintendo can't sell consoles to the masses then their IP begins to lose public mind-space and this will further wear down the console sales. It's one of many downward cycles that Nintendo risks on their current trajectory.
Also, why can't Nintendo continue to produce great games on somebody else's platform. I don't necessarily like the idea, but it's worth considering.

@NintendoFan64: Yes but I want Nintendo to produce games until the end of time. Nintendo making consoles has forced the hand of their developers to make the hardware look good rather than simply focusing on making good games. What if Nintendo making Consoles is actually hindering the quality of some of the games being produced. We can't know that either way, but (as I've said before) it's worth thinking about.
Also I do believe that Nintendo's Consoles have changed the industry in ways that would have never happened without Nintendo and that's perhaps one of the strongest arguments for them to continue making consoles.

Yes, i'm may get a lot of hate over this, but... i kinda wish for them to stop putting their attention on creating the next original, 'different' and gimmicky console (great as they might be), and just focus on making the games we all love. Cause that's their strong suit, really!