While the Xbox One and PS4 are busy endlessly patching their AAA titles, slashing prices on consoles and fueling a never-ending graphical arms race, Nintendo slowly chugs along. But as the old fable goes, slow and steady wins the race, and Nintendo is looking more and more like a winner this holiday season.
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Look, we all overlooked the Wii U. You did. I did. Even people who own Wii Us sometimes forget they have them. But Nintendo never stopped believing. They were content to let the bigger kids destroy themselves and then swoop in to pick up the pieces.
The Wii U launched a year ahead of both PS4 and Xbox One to little fanfare. Despite the enormous lead time, the system has only sold around 7.5 million units; compared to the Xbox One's 10 and PS4's 13 million. So, it is with great pleasure to hear that Nintendo is poised to move a lot of product this winter.
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Fortune magazine has a great write-up on the resurgence of the House That Mario Built.
"There hasn't been much good news to report regarding Nintendo's financial situation since the company's historic annual loss way back in the 2011 to 2012 period," Michael Pachter, a video game analyst for Wedbush Securities said. "That may be changing. Strong sales of new Wii U and 3DS software helped raise the company to a surprising quarterly profit of 24.2 billion yen (about $224 million) in net income for the three months ending September 2014. That's quite a turnaround after a loss of over eight billion yen (about $74.2 million) in the same period last year."
What's stunning is that Nintendo has accomplished this turnaround with barely any third party support (Bayonetta 2 is the only one the comes to mind as an exclusive AAA title for the system) and without having to resort to price cuts on the system. "Instead, the company has offered a variety of bundles to entice gamers to buy its console. Rival Microsoft has already resorted to price drops this year; unsurprisingly, Microsoft and Sony have introduced competing bundles for the holiday shopping season."
Instead, the games you grew up with - Mario and Zelda, for instance - are all leading the charge. Mario Kart 8 and New Super Mario Bros Wii U remain top sellers for the system. The Legend of Zelda, meanwhile, recently got an action title makeover with Hyrule Warriors.
It is only poised to sell more. The company released both Pokemon Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby and Super Smash Bros today. To say that both games were highly anticipated diminishes the term 'anticipated'. People were clambering for these, even lining up in the frigid NYC cold last night to get a copy first. The 3DS Smash Bros is one of the hottest games on the system, and shows no sign of slowing down.
Nintendo has also committed to DLC (they were averse to the practice last generation) and the steady stream of new content to Hyrule Warriors, Smash, Mario Kart will keep the game fresh and exciting for a long time.
That Nintendo takes their time to ensure smooth launches and minimal patches for their high profile games is just another example of their commitment to making quality games; not tech demos.
"The name of the game for Nintendo is games," said Scott Moffitt, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Nintendo. "When you have a great launch like Mario Kart 8, a single launch can change your momentum fairly quickly. Our Wii U hardware business is up 47 percent this year versus last year and our Wii U software is up 84 percent. Those are testaments to a strong launch like Mario Kart 8 that has universal appeal. And Super Smash Bros. Wii U will be the next catalyst for hardware sales."
The future is bright for Nintendo. 2015 is looking to be another big year for the Wii U. In addition to the DLC mentioned, next year will see the release of the unnamed Zelda title, there will also be Kirby And The Rainbow Curse, Yoshi's Woolly Word, Splatoon, Xenoblade Chronicles, Mario Maker and who knows what else.
Plus more Amiibos, more 3DS titles, more everything!
Nintendo always does this. They underperform, they shy away from the spotlight and we give up on them. But they never give up on us. At the end of the day, they know that it's not stunning Uncanny Valley-esque graphics that drive the majority of gamers; it's not uber-violence or action, it's fun. These are video GAMES.
We might sometimes forget that, but Nintendo never, ever does.