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An overlooked issue in the gaming world right now is that current gaming machines are being phased out to rapidly. This sort of thing happens every few years. Game developers can only develop for game consoles for only so long before the technology advances and a new machine is put out on the market. This current generation is facing is the lack of a proper ‘death’.
The Xbox was dropped by Microsoft’s development teams the second the 360 was launched. The unfortunate Xbox owners who did not purchase a 360 last year are being treated to nothing but third party titles; most of which are licensed movie games, bargain titles, or multiplatform games. The next biggest game to hit the original Xbox will be Splinter Cell: Double Agent, and we need not kid ourselves about this game, the best version of this game will be running on next generation hardware.
Nintendo’s Gamecube is suffering a similar fate. The Gamecube has seen few releases within the last year; this is primarily due to Nintendo having its development teams shift to the DS system and Wii. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess will be the last Nintendo published title for the Gamecube. The title will also appear on Wii with a control scheme that takes advantage of the motion sensing controller. The Gamecube version will ship to retail a few weeks after the Wii version is released. This suggests that Nintendo will emphasize that players should buy the Wii version of Twilight Princess over the Gamecube version.
Nintendo had, quietly, announced at this year’s E3 that they would be publishing two more Gamecube games: Super Paper Mario and Donkey Kong Bongo Blast. However, in the months after E3 the company confirmed plans to move these titles to Wii. The rest of the Gamecube’s games will be that same batch of licensed movie tie-ins, budget games, and multiplatform games that the Xbox will be subjected too.
It would appear that Microsoft and Nintendo have indeed abandoned their consoles. It would be arguable that both companies see developing for their respective consoles as a waste of time. Neither console had a huge show presence at this past E3; Xbox and Gamecube titles were scarce. Nintendo did not even have floor space dedicated to the Gamecube; they showed two short trailers outside of the event. So, just why would these two companies drop support for these consoles so quickly? The answer, at least from my perspective, is that neither company thinks they can profit from continued development on these platforms.
If I was looking at the Gamecube sales charts I would that the best selling games on the system are titles that have been released several years ago. Super Smash Brothers Melee (2001) constantly appear on the charts, as well as Super Mario Sunshine (2002), and Mario Kart: Double Dash (2003). New titles appear for a short while and drop off. A Gamecube title has not graced the overall video games sales charts in months. If I was working at Nintendo, I probably would figure it would be useless to make new Gamecube games. But I don’t work for Nintendo and most gamers don’t. I have a Gamecube, and I would buy new titles if there were new, worthwhile games coming out for it. Nintendo just gave up to early and took a different route.
The route Nintendo is perusing is putting all of their support onto the DS. Most months see the release of two to three in-house Nintendo games. The DS is immensely popular worldwide, and it actually surpassed the Gamecube in total sales. So the Gamecube and DS user base are similar in size, roughly twenty million users. The Game Boy Advance, which has an installed user base of 100 million. That number is even on the rise as Game Boy Micros still move from retail shelves. So, Nintendo has abandoned two consoles here, the GBA and Gamecube, both which still have significant user bases. That suggests that there is still a market for both of those consoles, however, they have been both phased out in favor of the DS. There are still Gamecube and GBA owners, and they still buy games. Not everyone makes the jump to a new platform. In the case of Wii it would be an unrealistic assumption that new gamers and existing Gamecube owners to hop on the Wii wagon from the get go. There is still some life left in the Gamecube and Nintendo should be taking advantage of that by leaving the few games that were scheduled for release on the system on the system to satisfy the many who won’t be playing Wii this year.
Microsoft should have also taken this approach. Once again, Microsoft can not expect everyone to jump from the original Xbox to the 360, especially when the company can not even get enough units to the masses on launch day. Right now the Xbox 360 is sitting with roughly six million users, which isn’t even half of the total number of original Xbox owners. There are late adapters and these people still buy games.
Nintendo and Microsoft’s strategies are still logical, just a little ill-conceived. Both the DS and the 360 have sold quite well and to keep momentum going with those systems new software must be released on a regular basis. I will not disagree with that, it is how this industry operates. What these two companies are failing to see is that their older consoles still have users who are not upgrading to new machines, and who will still buy new games. Sony, on the other hand, is keeping its current generation console alive.
Sony has been catching a lot of negative criticism as of late when it comes to the Playstation 3 and the Playstation Portable and despite all that negative press, the company has a rather impressive line up for the Playstation 2 this holiday season. The line up includes some major first and, exclusive, third party titles. Games like Final Fantasy XII, Valkyrie Profile 2, Guitar Hero 2, God Hand, and God of War 2 (scheduled for March of 2007) will keep gamers who do not adapt to the Playstation 3 entertained. Neither Microsoft nor Nintendo could say that about their current generation systems. Sony has the non-adapters in mind, even if it is in direct relation to the systems selling well over 100 million units.
The next generation is approaching quickly, with each new console with a list of promising games; while the current generation systems fades away into nothing to early. By this time in those consoles lives developers have gotten used to programming and making games, I would think one last project for the remaining user base would not be such a hard thing to do, especially when the new consoles have (or mostly have) backward compatibility with this generation. I believe, and I think late adapters and gamers in general would agree, that it would be nice if the major companies in the gaming world supported fading consoles for a while into the next cycle of consoles; at least a half of a year.
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