Nintendo NX reveal is set for 7AM PT and 10 AM ET, according to the official announcement made by the company. Expectations from NX are high and pressure is on Nintendo to bring something simple but unique.
Also See: Nintendo Believed Nintendo Wii U Sales Would Break 100 Million
Wii U was a failure due to which Nintendo lost developer support. However, we have seen many developers praising Nintendo’s new machine. Still, that doesn’t mean the community would feel the same.
For Nintendo NX to succeed, it not only needs third party support, it needs to be easy to develop for. If NX fails, Nintendo would be in a hole it may not be able to crawl out of. Spending millions in the console market would just not be viable for the company anymore.
In that moment, the best course of action for Nintendo would be to bring its first-party IPs to rival machines like PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. Nintendo can generate a significant amount of revenue by bringing its mainstream titles to other platforms.
According to Serkan Toto, a Tokyo-based game consultant, that is indeed the most viable option for Nintendo if NX fails or only sees moderate success.
Another flop in launching new hardware should be a sign that Nintendo is better off providing its rich game title franchises to smartphones, Sony and Microsoft.
Poor communication is what doomed Nintendo’s Wii U. The console allowed children to play video games on a TV and then move to a gamepad if their family wanted to watch TV. It was meant to keep families in the same living room space. But Nintendo consumer base took Wii U as a minor upgrade to Wii.
The success of Pokemon Go showed that Nintendo can successfully expand its user base beyond its own platforms.
Source: Wall Street Journal
