Tweet
2015 was always going to be a trying year for Nintendo, a transition period that would see it winding down its faltering home console and ageing handheld while it geared up its preparations for a new generation of hardware quietly in the background. With the untimely passing in July of Satoru Iwata, a man who had shaped Nintendo's outlook and embodied its playful spirit, 2015 will likely go down as one of the toughest years in the company's 126-year history. It started so positively, too. The launch of the New Nintendo 3DS at the outset of the year saw a resounding modern success story for Nintendo enter its final chapter with style, fixing the legacy problems of the old hardware and backed up by stellar software such as Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and Majora's Mask. Since then it's been quiet on the 3DS front, though, with Happy Home Designer, Tri Force Heroes and Paper Mario pleasant if inessential additions to the handheld's broad library later in the year.
The New Nintendo 3DS' launch was a happy consolidation of what's become an incredible machine, overcoming its own difficult first steps upon launch in 2011 to sell in excess of 50 million units. The Wii U's own milestones, in comparison, look pitiful - although it certainly sold well in Japan, bolstered by the double punch of Splatoon and Super Mario Maker, perhaps the most significant achievement was it finally surpassing sales of the Dreamcast, the 10.7 million lifetime units announced in October seeing it sneak past the 10.6 million consoles Sega shifted. The problem was, the Dreamcast lived in the limelight for a mere 18 months; it took the Wii U almost three years to reach the same goal.
Read more…
More...