Sorry if I've already thrown this idea out, but the Switch sales are quite interesting. Same Zelda, same Mario Kart, same touchscreen controls, no backwards compat with the biggest console of all time and yet... more success?
May I offer an alternative explanation for console war developments? The aconomie. The Wii U was released in the middle of the Oh, bummer recession while the Switch was released at the start of an economic upturn, and of course we all know the Cube was 9/11'd (likely by Sony) and there's no need to beat that dead Goldeen. Sure we can blame the "complicated" touch screen controls for Wii U's sluggish sales, but it seems like the acom.. ecan.. ah, whatever should be considered a factor as well. The last time there were 3 straight quarters of 3%+ growth was in 04-05, the start of the highly successful DS.
Yeah yeah, they say the recession technically ended in mid-09, but come on.
Eurozone recession deepened at end of 2012
(14 February 2013)
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-21455423U.S. Economy Stumbled To End 2012: Q4 GDP Down 0.1%
(JAN 30, 2013)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2013/01/30/u-s-economy-stumbled-at-the-end-of-2012-q4-gdp-down-0-1/#2d4a4a6e656aJapan's economy slips into recession
(December 10, 2012)
http://money.cnn.com/2012/12/10/news/economy/japan-gdp-recession/index.htmlThis piece by The Russell Sage Foundation and The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality wonders whether a "decline in consumption may be partly driven by individual perceptions that prospects for employment and income have deteriorated." It concludes that "consumer expenditures still haven’t fully recovered" and, considering its publication date of October 2012, it's easy to see that a lack of optimism about work would cut into the potential excitement for the Wii U's launch the very next month. The article says the same thing happens on a larger scale:
The length and severity of the Great Recession are likely to make consumers less confident and more uncertain. We care about uncertainty because economic theory implies that, when consumers are uncertain, they will delay purchases of durable goods and save for precautionary reasons.
Nobody really needs to drop $250 for a console + games, so it's likely the first thing a family will put off for another day. Eventually they get distracted, their kids get a (much cheaper) 3DS, and they never get around to it.
the deterioration in consumer expenditures lasted longer than in any of the other recessions since the 1970s, and indeed consumer expenditures still haven’t fully recovered
The Oh, bummer years certainly lived up to their name but at least now we can play those games on-the-go with Karen!
Topic: Off-Topic Wise-Ass Comments About Other NWR Forum Threads And Also Other Stuff (Read 932803 times)
