2014: Will Nintendo Survive or Slump?

When Sony and Microsoft enjoys their new year with the success of their respective next-gen consoles, Nintendo had to brace themselves for a bad news. Just on the first week of January 2014, Nintendo has hit its lowest point in the stock market in its long history. Well, we all know that Nintendo's stock hasn't been that great in the last 5 years, but this year, it's rock bottom.

Does this mean it's the end of the road for Nintendo? Well, it depends on Nintendo itself. The fact is, Nintendo is the "king of comebacks" and also the "innovation initiator" in the gaming industry. Just to name a few, the D-Pad on the controller, gun controller, handheld portable console, analog stick, motion sensor control... Well, you can go on and still find "Nintendo" having the license for it.

Nintendo made its major breakthrough in the late 80's with its first home console, the Famicom or later it will be more known with its international name, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Although it was plotted to be the "next-generation" console at that time, people didn't really liked it as it was "too advanced". But after buying the license for the Mario franchise from Atari, NES became to be known as "the must have" console. Add Zelda and Final Fantasy franchises, NES became the dominant console of the time.

After succeeding in the home console market, Nintendo began producing probably the most dominant portable consoles of all time, the Game Boy. Game Boy and all of its variants is considered to be the best-selling portable consoles of all time, leaving the more advanced portables like the Game Gear and Lynx to slump. Not until the more powerful PSP came into the world and Game Boy began to die "die".


Going back to the home console industry, in the early 90's, Sega produced the 16-bit Megadrive/Genesis, which is more powerful than the NES. But soon after, Nintendo made a comeback which once again turned history into its favor with the waaaay more powerful Super Famicom/Super Nintendo. during the 16-bit era, the Genesis and Super Nintendo were the most dominant consoles. But market wise, Super Nintendo was the "must have console" just like its predecessor.

In the late 90's, Super Nintendo faced a major step back with the rise of the 32-bit console. Even when Nintendo tried to outmatch the dominance of Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation with Nintendo 64 (N64), Nintendo couldn't take back it's throne. Nintendo's decision to keep using cartridge instead of the more convenient CD proved that it was a failure. Nintendo's decision to sell Final Fantasy's right to Sony also proved to be a very bad move. Nintendo tried to come back with the Game Cube, but then again it was a big failure comparing to other 72-bit consoles, Sega Dreamcast and Sony PlayStation 2. Come along the Xbox from Microsoft in early 2000's, Nintendo couldn't keep up the fight. Even so, the N64 wasn't a real failure as it gave new standard to console's control system, the analog stick. The Game Cube also gave another standard to gaming graphics, the frame rate of 60 fps inspired other 72-bit consoles to step up their game with this new standard.

But Nintendo wasn't over. In late 2006, Nintendo came up with probably one of the most important innovations in gaming history, the motion control which now becomes a standard in console gaming. The Nintendo Wii was the pioneer for this new innovation and made the Wii very popular, even gave Nintendo a little air in the competition against PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Not only that, Nintendo also claimed back its throne for "king of portable console" with the 3DS, a "reboot" of the failed NDS. The 3DS became the most-selling portable console in both North America and Japan in 2013, leaving the more powerful PS Vita into smitherin.

After the success of Wii, Nintendo seemed so confident with the more innovative Wii U. With the remote play as its major feature and better graphics, the Wii U seems to be the "next-gen" console. But Nintendo's confident suddenly became a disaster as both Sony and Microsoft announced their "next-gen" consoles, PlayStation4 and Xbox One. Wii U became Nintendo's worst nightmare as it didnt' sell so good in the market, failing to fulfill the 9 million sales mark that Nintendo originally intended with only 3 million sales.

So, is this the end of Nintendo? Not really, if Nintendo can make a major come back by making more innovations. Nintendo just have to follow these simple steps.

First, Nintendo can port their major franchises to the mobile gaming market. The mobile market seems a great market for Nintendo to succeed. Especially with Nintendo's major franchises like Mario or Zelda, Nintendo can make lots of money from this. Who wouldn't want to see Mario on their mobile platforms? BUT, recently Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata has made it clear that Nintendo will never go into the mobile market. For me, that's a very bad decision.

Second, Nintendo can introduce a "real next-gen" console to replace the Wii U and they have to do it very soon. It can't be too late or it's just gonna be a failure like the Wii U.

Third, Nintendo can implement their old marketing strategy, that is porting its home console games into their portable consoles like they did in the 8-bit and 16-bit era. With this strategy, Nintendo can save up more money because they can develop two different games for two different platforms at the same time. This strategy can also boost sales for  both their home console and portable console.

Nintendo may look to be slumping at this time, but I believe that Nintendo can still survive. Remeber, Nintendo IS the King of Come Backs and the Innovation Initiator!