Nintendo has really been through the ringer this console generation, and it’s barely even started. Satoru Iwata has gone as far as to apologize for Nintendo’s performance over the past year. The Wii U is selling horribly, and not even the Killer App power of Mario could sell the console, which is a shame because Super Mario 3D World is actually pretty awesome. Nintendo has talked about all sorts of strategies to get back in the market, including mobile strategies, a renewed focus on games, and practically everything aside from a Wii U price cut. But we here at Cheat Code Central suggest another way of going about it. Nintendo? Stop making consoles all together.
Think about it for a second. When was the last time that a non-Nintendo game on a Nintendo console actually caught your eye? Don’t we all buy Wii U’s for the Nintendo exclusives? I mean, what got you to buy the original Wii? Was it Smash Bros. ? Super Mario Galaxy ? Metroid Prime 3 ? Zelda Twilight Princess ? Wii Sports ? Wii U owners, what drew you to the Wii U? Is it Super Mario 3D world? Game and Wario ? Smash Bros. ? Are people really buying Wii U’s for “ The Wonderful 101 ?”
If Nintendo gets out of the console market, they can become, like, ULTRA SEGA! I mean, really Sega’s only hit IP when they got out of the console race was Sonic the Hedgehog . They have created other great IPs since then and revived some old ones like Shining Force , but Sonic was really the only household name that was under Sega’s tent. Still, they survived off it easily by publishing him on other consoles, even though his games sucked in recent days.
Nintendo games explicitly do not suck. Mario, Metroid, and Zelda are still pretty awesome, and this is usually independent of Nintendo’s odd console gimmicks. Imagine if Mario could have a place on your PS4 right next to Little Big Planet . Imagine if you could play a first person Metroid game on the Xbox One! All of Nintendo’s IPs would be opened up to a much bigger gaming crowd, which is great because these aren’t bad games by any stretch of the word. Then they could also benefit from the online features of other systems, such as buddylists, streaming, and a more sane digital distribution system.
Consoles are just sort of a drain on Nintendo anyway. In fact, they are mostly a drain on any corporation. Most consoles are sold at a loss, or very close to even. This means that first party companies aren’t selling consoles to make money on the consoles themselves, they are selling them to make money off the games that come out on them afterward. Nintendo already has billions, yes, billions of dollars tucked away for a rainy day so the Wii U’s failure won’t kill them, but the Xbox One and PS4 already HAVE a huge market base. All that loss that they are spending on making the Wii U a console worth buying can go toward great games instead.
Heck, we don’t even have to give up on the Wii U GamePad. Third party developers added to the production of the PlayStation Move and Kinect. Why not just shack up with another first party company and sell your tablet controller to them. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind having an extra screen to manage my Call of Duty loadouts with a touch pad anyway.
The only thing you stand to lose is the 3DS if you go strictly into software, Nintendo. But trust us, you are probably a lot better off this way. Because at the end of the day, people aren’t looking fondly back at the Wiimote or the Wii U GamePad. They are looking back on Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Donkey Kong, Pikmin, and more, and these games play just as well on any other console.