Wedbush analyst and widely respected games market guru Michael Pachter, was speaking to IndustryGamers when he expressed disappointment in Nintendo’s lack of any console update. Mr Pachter has frequently said that early 2011 was the perfect time window for some kind of Wii 2 to launch, and the right time for Nintendo to make the leap up to the HD table and seriously start competing with the PS3 and 360 core markets.
“With as much respect for Nintendo management as I can muster, I think Nintendo’s completely blown it with their second generation Wii strategy,” he said. “I think they have the mentality that to launch a new [console] they have to retire the old, and I think that’s wrong.
“I think the right strategy would have been to get a second generation Wii out and keep the old Wii at the same time, and have the second generation be the natural progression upgrade model”. Pachter continued: “… They should let people start with the Wii and graduate to the Wii 2, and have online functionality and Call of Duty multiplayer on there and compete with the 360. Instead, they’re actually conceding that multiplayer market to Xbox 360 and PS3. They’ve always conceded it, but now with Kinect and Move, it’s a lot easier for people to make 360 or PS3 their starter console.”“I just think Nintendo’s blown it; I think by the time they launch [their next console] if it’s Christmas 2011, it’s two years too late, and for sure one year too late. So it’s over – I don’t think they can ever recover.”
Whether or not I agree that Nintendo have “blown it” I’m not sure, but I’ll concede that they have been a little too quiet about their console recently. Obviously the 3DS is coming out very soon, it will no doubt make them a shed load of cash, but perhaps if they don’t get a move on their hard fought console space will be all but forgotten.
Perhaps this is just one secret that Nintendo’s big boys just aren’t ready to share with us yet.
