Where would Nintendo be if the DS had failed?

Nintendo are definately on a high now. The DS Lite is selling like hot cakes, they're raking in the cash and the Wii is looking like an actual contender in the 'console war'.

But where would Nintendo be if the DS had sold just a fraction of the amount it actually has? Firstly, with the Cube as good as dead, profits would have minimal for the last 2 years or so. However, probably more worrying to Nintendo would be the fate of the Wii. Many people base their predictions of high Wii sales on the fact that the DS, something 'new' has done so well. And surely if both the Wii and the DS had failed Nintendo would be in some serious trouble.

Nintendo took a calculated risk with the DS, but what would have happened to the company if the risk hadn't paid off? I'm betting that the Wii would have been the last console that they made.

I think that Nintendo would need to keep on at it, and they would probably have thrown more focus into perhaps getting the Wii out a bit earlier. It's strange, I really can't imagine the DS not doing well after it's done so much better than everyone had expected!

I think the better question to ask is what would have happened if Nintendo didn't do the DS? They would have done what everyone else would have done. We would have another Gamecube with better graphics and another Gameboy with better graphics. The DS and the Wii may be some of the greatest things to ever happen to/from Nintendo.

If we look at the ds as a failure in the market then i believe Nintendo would have changed the Wii to be more inline with sony and MS. The thing to remember is that nintendo wouldnt have just developed th wii as we know it. There would have been a much more powerful version in dev as well. With the chipset nintendo have had ibm and ati dev lots of power bands and then decided on what they wanted from wii.

I would have really expected that if the ds had been a failure then nintendo would have put something on it to make it sell. We all know that pokemon shifts handhelds and so that would ahve been out earlier and we probably would have seen a huge focus on big franchises to shift it. there would be no risky brain training.

The problem is though that it is hard to not think of the ds as a seller and although i ont believe nintendo woul stop making consoles i think they would have made even more calculated moves in the industry. GC has been profitable for nintendo as is the gba. Nintendo structure their business to make sure that they make profit as soon as possible as this is what allows them to continue in the market. The ds is meant to be profitable out of the box and from what we know so is the wii and this is something and MS and Sony cannot do. But nintendo cant not be profitable as they dont have the resources to constantly rely on as gaming is their business.

also you have to remember that nintendo rely heavily on their fanbase. This was shown with the GC and at the begining of the DS' life and the same will be done on the wii. All the nintendo fans will go and buy the wii and once they've done that the machine should be saturated enough to be classed as a success after which profit comes from games like zelda and mario. But the fanbase is shrinking due to GC but hopefully the ds is countering this.

( Edited on 21.08.2006 11:49 by amtrid )

To be honest if Nintendo hadn't released it I think they would be going out of the business. I think the Wii will sell because of the DS fanbase. If the DS is beating the PSP people will think Nintendo is better and therefore buy a Wii. People will also buy it on how it works. The whole new Nintendo image of it's new ways to play has really brought a lot of sale for Nintendo and will surly help them in the future.

Crikey what a horrible thing to think. A Nintendo hand held failing! Shudder

It will never happen!!! (touch wood)

crazylurch said:
Crikey what a horrible thing to think. A Nintendo hand held failing! Shudder It will never happen!!! (touch wood)

Touching wood is for losers.

Seriously though, we would (I imagine) just get a new GB with better graphics and the lark. Maybe Nintendo would have gone more media orientated too (Hard Drives, HD Support, Video Playback, DVD, HDDVD, BD etc.)

Maybe Nintendo would have gone more media orientated too (Hard Drives, HD Support, Video Playback, DVD, HDDVD, BD etc.)

Nintendo have said that they are about gaming. They want to keep it simple so it is very unlikely they would do that.

Touching wood is for losers.

- Is such a loser thing to say.