Michael Pachter is a polarizing figure in the game industry, as it’s his job to analyze the performance of various companies and predict whether or not their product announcements and subsequent releases will be successful. He’s long been a thorn in the side of die-hard Nintendo fans, as Pachter has had few good words to say about Nintendo’s performance over the last few years. In a recent interview with Game Informer, Pachter spoke briefly about Nintendo and the Wii U, though what he had to say was very stark.
The first point Pachter addresses is that he believes Nintendo’s executives are in denial about the Wii U’s failure to gain traction over the past three years.
I think that they are not a particularly introspective bunch. I think that they are still in denial about the Wii U failure. You keep seeing this stat so we’re up 82 percent – yeah, 40,000 units went to 70,000 units. Who cares? You’re still trailing the other guys by a mile.
While harsh, that statement is something that has been mirrored by someone who worked inside Nintendo for several years. Dan Adelman served as Nintendo of America’s contact point for indie developers before leaving the company earlier last year. Since then, he’s embraced indie developers on other platforms, but still talks freely about Nintendo and its policies now that he’s no longer muzzled by the company. One of the main points Adelman has hammered home in several interviews is that the Japanese board of directors is behind the times when it comes to game distribution.
Pachter’s own assessment is that Nintendo needs to move forward with a console that offers similar features to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, while mentioning that if the Xbox One is now priced at $349, the Nintendo Wii U should be dropped down to $249.
They need a new console that’s competitive with Xbox One and PlayStation 4. If Xbox can sell at $349 Nintendo could make it and sell for $249. They won’t because they still live in that old console world where they think they need to make a profit on the hardware. That means if they make a competitive console it would be more expensive.
Of course, Pachter still believes that Nintendo’s strained relationship with third-parties continues to hurt the company and at this point, it’s hard to disagree with him. Pachter believes the reputation is so damaged that if Nintendo were to create a new console that uses x86 architecture with games that were easy to port to the new system, some third parties would still be hesitant to support it.
The problem is I think they did a bad job with third parties with the Wii and they’ve done an abysmal job with third parties with the Wii U, so I don’t think third parties would come back for a new console. If they come out with a new console and it is essentially identical programming language with the Xbox so the cost to port a game is zero, I’m still skeptical that third parties would support it.
They possibly would, but only if the cost was so low. And that’s the problem. Ubisoft got really burned on the Wii U making dedicated titles like ZombiU. Activision stopped making Call of Duty for the Wii U, and EA hasn’t ever made a game for the Wii U. I don’t think they come back.
I find it hard to argue with any points that Pachter has made here, regardless of his past “predictions.” These statements are less predictions and more a general state of the industry for Nintendo, which is unfortunately at the bottom of this generation’s totem pole. Do you agree with what Pachter has said? Let us know in the comments.
