Freedom Gate Co.
Banned
THE BEGINNING
It all started in 2001, the PS2 was dominating, Sega was faltering and was soon to announce a well deserved retirement after years of incompetence, and Nintendo was the second biggest guy around.
Than Microsoft released the Xbox, a console that people were curious about but though wouldn't perform to well in the market. Instead the Xbox sold pretty well AND FAST. The biggest casualty to the Xbox? The Gamecube.
The Xbox took part of the market the PS2 had, while bringing in a whole new market by merging the console and PC markets together. Nintendo has a very small niche market to itself and would lose support as time went on. The sales collapsed so bad, that Nintendo has to stop making Gamecubes in 2003 and cut the price to $99 with some retailers selling it for $89. The Xbox was about 6-7 million units ahead not long after this.
When Microsoft launched the 360, they cut the Xbox off, and even then the GameCube with a bunch of new games and lower fire sale prices, couldn't catch it. Still being nearly 4 million behind. This was the start of the death of Nintendos home market.
The Wii fad
Nintendo lost a lot of profits with the Gamecube and the solution was to re-purpose it with motion controls to target a broader market. It worked for awhile the Wii was selling like hotcakes, and was a big deal in sales. But after a bit the gaming world abandoned the Wii to talk about the HD twins, which were the 360 and PS3. Microsoft had gotten leverage over the champion SONY and the two were competing for the gamers dollar. Everyone was focused on how the under dog was not tangling with the lion. While the Wii was talked about in retirement homes.
It got so bad, that Nintendo's only choice was to announce they were no longer in traditional competition with Xbox and PlayStation.
After 2010 Wii sales collapsed. A lot of speculation has occurred as to why, some say it was because of new titles not coming out, but games like Just Dance were still selling pretty well.
What really happened was Kinect. Kinect has made most of the Wii's active installbase LEAVE Nintendo for Microsoft, helping sell over 15 million in around 1 year. The Kinect was at the time the fastest selling consumer electronic product of all time. Without that audience the Wii ended up dying a fast and painful death.
The WII U disaster
To try and save the Wii brand, Nintendo quickly put together the Wii U, thinking the name would be enough. They added backwards compatibility, HD, more powerful graphical chips, and the gimmick they were betting on, the Wii U tablet, which one could debate may have been lazy.
The Wii U had a decent launch, launching one year before the Xbox One and PS4. But it ended up slowing down fast due to the Wii brand no longer being a household name and confusing messaging along with poor game support. Nintendo tried to rectify this and with the controversial DRM policies of the Xbox, some though Nintendo might be able to salvage it. But the reversal of the DRM policies erased that possibility.
Now the Wii U was up against an Xbox that was much stronger, and no longer had the controversial policy that would have allowed Nintendo to salvage the Wii U. Sales got some bad that it was hard for Nintendo to drop the price due to the low sales. Things like Smartglass which were temporary fads, worked to diminish the already lesser value of the gamepad gimmick. Nintendo discontinued the Wii U in shame, their home market in shambles.
The end of an era:
With the Xbox responsible for the destruction of 3 of its home consoles, and faltering portable sales, Nintendo has to make the touch chice to create a hybrid, fusing both the portable and home markets together, but primarily being a portable.
This ended Nintendos Home console business. A company that was once at the top, now reduced to nothing. A company that was incompetent, couldn't adapt, and depended on cheap gimmicks to try and find a market.
If anything came out of this, it's that the Switch, the hybrid console, is selling well, but it's starting to slow down. How long will the Hybrid console last? Could the next Xbox bring the final blow to Nintendo as a whole? Only time will tell.
(A mod put a gif here because he/she/they was jealous, and couldn't deny the events in this OP actually happened. This is real video game history and if you disagree please present proof that these events did not happen. Otherwise this is another victory for real gaming historians.)
It all started in 2001, the PS2 was dominating, Sega was faltering and was soon to announce a well deserved retirement after years of incompetence, and Nintendo was the second biggest guy around.
Than Microsoft released the Xbox, a console that people were curious about but though wouldn't perform to well in the market. Instead the Xbox sold pretty well AND FAST. The biggest casualty to the Xbox? The Gamecube.
The Xbox took part of the market the PS2 had, while bringing in a whole new market by merging the console and PC markets together. Nintendo has a very small niche market to itself and would lose support as time went on. The sales collapsed so bad, that Nintendo has to stop making Gamecubes in 2003 and cut the price to $99 with some retailers selling it for $89. The Xbox was about 6-7 million units ahead not long after this.
When Microsoft launched the 360, they cut the Xbox off, and even then the GameCube with a bunch of new games and lower fire sale prices, couldn't catch it. Still being nearly 4 million behind. This was the start of the death of Nintendos home market.
The Wii fad
Nintendo lost a lot of profits with the Gamecube and the solution was to re-purpose it with motion controls to target a broader market. It worked for awhile the Wii was selling like hotcakes, and was a big deal in sales. But after a bit the gaming world abandoned the Wii to talk about the HD twins, which were the 360 and PS3. Microsoft had gotten leverage over the champion SONY and the two were competing for the gamers dollar. Everyone was focused on how the under dog was not tangling with the lion. While the Wii was talked about in retirement homes.
It got so bad, that Nintendo's only choice was to announce they were no longer in traditional competition with Xbox and PlayStation.
After 2010 Wii sales collapsed. A lot of speculation has occurred as to why, some say it was because of new titles not coming out, but games like Just Dance were still selling pretty well.
What really happened was Kinect. Kinect has made most of the Wii's active installbase LEAVE Nintendo for Microsoft, helping sell over 15 million in around 1 year. The Kinect was at the time the fastest selling consumer electronic product of all time. Without that audience the Wii ended up dying a fast and painful death.
The WII U disaster
To try and save the Wii brand, Nintendo quickly put together the Wii U, thinking the name would be enough. They added backwards compatibility, HD, more powerful graphical chips, and the gimmick they were betting on, the Wii U tablet, which one could debate may have been lazy.
The Wii U had a decent launch, launching one year before the Xbox One and PS4. But it ended up slowing down fast due to the Wii brand no longer being a household name and confusing messaging along with poor game support. Nintendo tried to rectify this and with the controversial DRM policies of the Xbox, some though Nintendo might be able to salvage it. But the reversal of the DRM policies erased that possibility.
Now the Wii U was up against an Xbox that was much stronger, and no longer had the controversial policy that would have allowed Nintendo to salvage the Wii U. Sales got some bad that it was hard for Nintendo to drop the price due to the low sales. Things like Smartglass which were temporary fads, worked to diminish the already lesser value of the gamepad gimmick. Nintendo discontinued the Wii U in shame, their home market in shambles.
The end of an era:
With the Xbox responsible for the destruction of 3 of its home consoles, and faltering portable sales, Nintendo has to make the touch chice to create a hybrid, fusing both the portable and home markets together, but primarily being a portable.
This ended Nintendos Home console business. A company that was once at the top, now reduced to nothing. A company that was incompetent, couldn't adapt, and depended on cheap gimmicks to try and find a market.
If anything came out of this, it's that the Switch, the hybrid console, is selling well, but it's starting to slow down. How long will the Hybrid console last? Could the next Xbox bring the final blow to Nintendo as a whole? Only time will tell.
(A mod put a gif here because he/she/they was jealous, and couldn't deny the events in this OP actually happened. This is real video game history and if you disagree please present proof that these events did not happen. Otherwise this is another victory for real gaming historians.)
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