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Nintendo may have to consider bringing its first-party franchises to other platforms if the Wii U fails to build a strong user base, Baird Equity Research’s Colin Sebastian has suggested.
“We remain concerned that Nintendo’s innovative Wii-U console will lack broad appeal beyond the core Nintendo fan base,” warned Sebastian in a research note released to investors.
He added: “Following a somewhat lacklustre launch and holiday selling season, Nintendo will need to bring to market major first-party releases (Zelda) and retain the support of key third-party developers to reduce market share losses.
“In a negative scenario, Nintendo will be forced to prematurely lower the Wii-U price, and over the course of this cycle, we expect consideration will be given to extending first party franchises to other platforms.”
A situation where we’d see Super Mario on a Sony or Microsoft console seems unthinkable, but SEGA was once a platform holder and the idea of Sonic on a Nintendo console was laughed out of the playground. Things can change very rapidly in the games industry.
Source: Gamesindustry Internatinal
