With the news of Mario Kart 8 becoming the best-selling racing game of all time, and the Switch itself having reached its 28th consecutive month as the #1 selling console in the US, I thought it would be a good thought experiment to wonder... would this be happening if the Switch had followed a more-successful console?
So here's the scenario:
Nintendo releases the Wii U as it existed in our universe and, through a mixture of better marketing, pricing, a different name, etc it manages to sell decently. Not 'Wii' or 'DS' well, but somewhere in the 30-40m units range. Its games sell a fair amount better, with the likes of Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World and NSMBU becoming particularly-big hits for Nintendo.
It doesn't recieve that much in the way of major third-party support, but the likes of Ubisoft, Activision, and Capcom do port more of their titles than they did in our universe. Similarly, Nintendo's own schedule changes in a way that support is not mostly gone in the second half of the life-span. The console's gimmick is used more liberally than it ended up being used in our universe, with games like Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze and Breath of the Wild featuring better usage than they did. Because of these factors, the console's support does not completely die out by 2017.
The 3DS itself follows the same trajectory as it did in our universe.
Despite having a more successful home console to build on, Nintendo still pushes forward with their plan to make a hybrid console that merges both their handheld and home consoles into one. This console is exactly as it is in our universe. Of course this could be different, but for this thought experiment I wanted to make it simple by assuming that nothing would change hardware-wise.
So... how does this alt-Switch pan out? How would sales, games, strategy, and so on be impacted in this alternative universe? What other, less expected ramifications do you think would happen? What would happen with early-Switch titles like Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey? Go wild!
I'll provide one points myself to boost discussion at the start:
Wii U ports are nowhere near as prevelant
Much as Wii ports were not as prevalent on Wii U, and DS ports weren't that prevalent on the 3DS, the Switch's overall library in this alternative universe would simply not be filled with as many Wii U ports as it is in our universe. This is because, unlike with our Switch, a majority of the alt-Switch's userbase would likely have had experience, or at least the ability, to buy and play these Wii U titles. As such, there is no chance for Nintendo to truly place these titles as the 'new' games they have been for our Switch.
Mario Kart 8, for instance, would not be the first console MK game in 9 years for most people; it would, therefore, have little reason to be ported over in the fashion it did. As such I feel that we would have received a Mario Kart 9 within the first one-to-two years of the alt-Switch's lifespan. This is opposed to our current universe where it is looking less likely every day that we'll ever get an original Mario Kart on the platform, all due to the fact that MK8D is overwhelmingly a 'Switch' game now despite being a port at heart.
So, yeah. What say you, Era?
So here's the scenario:
Nintendo releases the Wii U as it existed in our universe and, through a mixture of better marketing, pricing, a different name, etc it manages to sell decently. Not 'Wii' or 'DS' well, but somewhere in the 30-40m units range. Its games sell a fair amount better, with the likes of Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World and NSMBU becoming particularly-big hits for Nintendo.
It doesn't recieve that much in the way of major third-party support, but the likes of Ubisoft, Activision, and Capcom do port more of their titles than they did in our universe. Similarly, Nintendo's own schedule changes in a way that support is not mostly gone in the second half of the life-span. The console's gimmick is used more liberally than it ended up being used in our universe, with games like Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze and Breath of the Wild featuring better usage than they did. Because of these factors, the console's support does not completely die out by 2017.
The 3DS itself follows the same trajectory as it did in our universe.
Despite having a more successful home console to build on, Nintendo still pushes forward with their plan to make a hybrid console that merges both their handheld and home consoles into one. This console is exactly as it is in our universe. Of course this could be different, but for this thought experiment I wanted to make it simple by assuming that nothing would change hardware-wise.
So... how does this alt-Switch pan out? How would sales, games, strategy, and so on be impacted in this alternative universe? What other, less expected ramifications do you think would happen? What would happen with early-Switch titles like Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey? Go wild!
I'll provide one points myself to boost discussion at the start:
Wii U ports are nowhere near as prevelant
Much as Wii ports were not as prevalent on Wii U, and DS ports weren't that prevalent on the 3DS, the Switch's overall library in this alternative universe would simply not be filled with as many Wii U ports as it is in our universe. This is because, unlike with our Switch, a majority of the alt-Switch's userbase would likely have had experience, or at least the ability, to buy and play these Wii U titles. As such, there is no chance for Nintendo to truly place these titles as the 'new' games they have been for our Switch.
Mario Kart 8, for instance, would not be the first console MK game in 9 years for most people; it would, therefore, have little reason to be ported over in the fashion it did. As such I feel that we would have received a Mario Kart 9 within the first one-to-two years of the alt-Switch's lifespan. This is opposed to our current universe where it is looking less likely every day that we'll ever get an original Mario Kart on the platform, all due to the fact that MK8D is overwhelmingly a 'Switch' game now despite being a port at heart.
So, yeah. What say you, Era?
