Nintendo’s Extra Lives
I’ve been wrong about Nintendo. So far. Happily.
Over
the past few years, I’ve been pretty bearish when it comes to
Nintendo’s long-term prospects as a standalone company. Okay, that’s
probably putting it mildly. Yes, I’ve said Nintendo shouldn’t be running Nintendo and called the rumors of their death greatly under-exaggerated.
Then I sit down with my Nintendo Switch to play Super Mario Odyssey and I feel foolish. The game is that good. So is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.¹ And I honestly haven’t even played Mario Kart 8 yet because I’ve been too busy with these two pieces of brilliance. And so on.
So, is Nintendo back?
The numbers suggest as much. The company just announced that the Switch is now the fastest selling console in the U.S. — ever:
The Switch has broken the US record for the fastest selling console ever, with 4.8 million units sold in just 10 months, Nintendo says. That shatters the previous record of 4 million US sales in the same time, also held by Nintendo with the Wii. Switch sales first opened on March 3rd, 2017, and it looks like strong holiday sales pushed the Switch over the top.
The story is similar worldwide, as the company’s profits have been boosted by strong demand for both the console and its games.
The company also managed to launch the SNES (Super Nintendo) Classic without the same disastrous results
as they had with the NES Classic a year prior. Yes, it was still hard
to get one throughout the holidays. But I was able to get one last week
at regular, retail cost. So that’s another win, in my book.
It’s not all sunshine in the land of Mario. The company had to push back the roll-out of its 64GB cards — vital
for large, third-party games — until next year. The reason why seems
curious, at best. But it’s also unclear how much it will matter with
their first-party titles being as good as they are right now. Nintendo
should be able to continue surging for a while on those titles alone.
But
it is still a hits-driven business. And the hits need to keep coming.
And that’s why both the Zelda and Mario titles were so key last year:
after the disastrous Wii U and the NES Classic fiasco, Nintendo needed
to prove they still had it. And they did. And so I was wrong, for now.
Something which I could not be happier about, honestly!
But
what’s next? Seemingly a good pipeline of games for the Switch, both
from a first and third party perspective. This should allow the console
to ride out a successful run for a few years, at least. But the reality
of our world is that Nintendo still needs to think about doing things
slightly differently than they have in the past.
Super Mario Run was a good step in this direction from a pure gameplay perspective — but they got the business model wrong. With the Switch firing on all cylinders, Nintendo has time to figure this out. And it seems like they’re taking steps to make that happen.
It’s unclear where the online/subscription component of the Switch is, but at least they’re saying the right things in terms of why it’s taking so long:
The reason we’ve delayed the full paid subscription, is we want to make sure that as we get all of our learnings, and we build all of the elements, that we launch something that is robust for the consumer. And as they consider a $20 price point, they say ‘This is a no-brainer. This is something that I absolutely need to participate in given the full range of features that it provides.’
That’s why we’re delaying it, and it really is consistent with the overall Nintendo development philosophy. We want, when we launch it, for it to be great for the consumer. And not to be something that isn’t fully-featured and fully-capable. That’s why we delayed Breath of the Wild — and look at what we were able to finally launch.’
Of course, that was in June. So yeah, I still have some logistics/execution concerns with the company, to say the least…
My only other thought that I’ll continue to harp on: don’t discount the power of retro gaming.
The company has now seen firsthand just how passionate fans will be
with systems like the NES and SNES Classics.² They’re going to attempt
to re-do the NES Classic screw-up, which is the right call.
I still think they should take this a step further, and make these consoles more than just one-off promotional gimmicks. I’d put resources into creating new games for these devices. One of the coolest aspects of the SNES Classic is that it comes with StarFox 2 — a game which had never been released before. More of this, please.
Better yet, open these systems up to third-party and indie game developers to turn them into retro gaming powerhouses.
This may seem somewhat counterintuitive, but that’s the space in which
Nintendo has always thrived. That, and their fantastic IP.
There
is so much low-hanging fruit here. That’s why I made those calls for
others to step in and save Nintendo. Could you imagine what Apple could
do with such IP?! But such paths always run the risk of the new body
rejecting the organ. Then again, have you seen what Disney has done with Lucasfilm?
Anyway, let’s all just hope this isn’t leading up to anagnorisis…
¹
At the risk of blasphemy, I must admit that I’m enjoying the Mario game
far more than the Zelda one. And I’m definitely Team Zelda (as opposed
to Team Mario). Don’t get me wrong, Zelda is a beautiful game. But it’s
complex. Mario is robust but pretty simple. It’s simply fun to play.
² We’ll see where Atari lands with their forthcoming “Ataribox” — I think the core concept is right, but at $249 or $299, I’m worried they’re shooting themselves in the foot…