Any chance the Nintendo Switch could fail at this point?

[burningdoom]

  "it's still in potentially Wii U territory." Is it even out of dreamcast territory yet?

Dreamcast was DOA.  Wii U was only slightly better.

It was the opposite. Dreamcast had the most successful launch of any console up to that point.

But then the looming shadow of the PS2 made sales drop more and more as time went on.

The announcement of the PS2 before the Dreamcast even released in the US had already started killing hype for the system.  The system was sold at a loss from the start and had little to no support from the big publishers.  Plus, Sega had already hurt their image enough with the Sega CD, 32X, and Saturn.

DC and Wii U life and support are very comparable.

Dreamcast launched in 1998 in Japan, 1999 (9/9/1999, Dreamcast day) in the U.S. PS2 wasn't announced until March 2000.

The Dreamcast had a HUGE launch with high sales numbers, tons of hype, and a very strong launch game line-up. Wii U never had that initial success, nor did it have a strong launch line-up. And it had the opposite of hype, people were confused about it.

And Dreamcast had PLENTY of third-party support. The best multiplatform titles between 1998 to early 2001 were Dreamcast games.

That's not to say it was successful, not saying that. Just saying it had a very strong start, and then trickled off from there

The first info about what would be the PS2 was announced in March 1999.

Dreamcast had 20-ish games on US release.  Wii U had 30-ish on release.

Wii U had third-party support at the beginning.  EA, Ubisoft, Activision, Namco, Sega, WB, THQ, and Square.  Plus, Wii U over any other platform was the most indie friendly at the time.

Also, stating that the best multi-platform games were one consoles games, doesn't make much sense.  They were multi-platform.  Plus, most multi-platform games reviewed higher on PS1.

Dreamcast launched during the internet age. Just Google about the Dreamcast launch and you will see article after article of how awesome it was doing out of the gate. The difference between it's launch and Wii U's launch is night-and-day. I can't even believe this is being debated right now.

Here's one right here:

https://www.twice.com/news/sega-dreamcast-first-day-sales-hit-100-million-25291

Sega killed it at their launch, then couldn't continue that success. Nintendo completely botched Wii U's launch in every conceivable way.

[burningdoom]

This awesome documentary series from G4 had an episode about Dreamcast that talks about the successful launch, then death of the Dreamcast. There's a part in particular about how Bernie Stolar led them to the promised land with all of his launch plans, then was fired right before the actual launch and wasn't able to participate, like Sega's own version of Moses:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMXlyzyyLlE

[bikingjahuty]

I suppose it could. The Dreamcast had a very strong first year, however it really took a hit after that, largely in part due to the PS2.

[marvelvscapcom2]

Depends what you consider a failure.  Are we talking an actual failure? or the Sony/Xbox fanboys polluted baised spec peasant interpetation of a failure?  Truth is Switch is a failure in almost every way in the minds of most already.  Spec wise it's inferior. Graphics wise it's inferior.  3rd party support is inferior.  Sales are so far still behind and it has gripes like No netflix and poor battery life along with manditory SD cards for large AAA titles.    It's a failure.  A collosal one at that.

But let's think realistically.  A Nintendo product has never failed before.   Wii U was a failure?  No.  It trailed PS4 and XB1 in sales.   That's not automatically grounds for being a failure. People confuse losing a console generation with being a failure. Just a console from a company that doesn't spend like 1/6th of it's revenue on ad marketing unlike sony.   Just a company that doesn't rely on the 3rd party heavy hitters like COD and Madden who take most of the profits for their developers anyway while Nintendo keeps most profits from their 1st party powerhouses for themselves.    Let's also not mention that Wii U spawned Amiibos which are one of the most lucrative and popular interactive collectible figures to ever exist.   An item not factored into total sales but Amiibo sales alone make Wii U a success.   A large one at that. 

But Wii U was a failure, a disaster. Everyone rallied around to kick dirt on it's corpse. Not that it didn't have 20 amazing 1st party exclusives or anything.  Quality and library doesn't matter in 2017.  It's about 4k and COD and what console has the most teraflops and which console had the most brainwashed consumer base to buy it's new console.  So for that Nintendo will never succeed. 

If failure to you is being an awful system with bad games (what a failure should mean) than the Switch will never come close to failing and already has enough catalog to define it as a success.    If failure to you is based on sales and specs, two categories in which the two competitors (Xbox and Sony) have manipulated and conquered the entire market and demographic to easily win every time.  And we'll sit around and stress how PS4 is a better selling console than Switch.    We will definitely see Nintendo as a big fat nothing.  A loser.  A company bound to death and mediocrity.

But the fact is.   Switch is a master class system.  An elementalist super beast with one of the best launch libraries in history.   And it's a success in the minds of most.   Just like the Wii U.  But the user base isn't as large and the Xbox/PS4 hate train is too toxic and strong for Nintendo's current legacy to be anything more than a failure.  It's sad but it's the state of gaming now





 

[soera]

God I hope it does. Im tired of seeing "Is this coming to Switch?" on every single freaking game release announcement.

[link3710]

To be fair, if you want to see people stop asking for Switch ports, you'd actually want it to succeed. Then they'll announce Switch side by side with the other consoles and people will stop asking. 

[soera]

I want Nintendo to drop out of the race honestly. 

[cirno]

I want Nintendo to drop out of the race honestly. 

I hate to break it to you man but that's probably never gonna happen