Let’s talk about Nintendo. The last time Nintendo held any sort of public relevance was the Christmas of 2006. It was the year of the Wii, that beloved system which gathered the whole family in the living room to watch grandma play virtual bowling. That was pretty fun, wasn’t it? The Wii certainly would not have sold 100 million units if it wasn’t fun.
But that was ten years ago. Since 2006, the iPhone has been released, Barack Obama has been sworn into office twice, four Olympic games have been held, and the generation of kids who got the Wii for Christmas are now entering college. And where has Nintendo been during this time? In 2011, they released the the next generation of the Nintendo DS handheld, the Nintendo 3DS. The 3DS which was moderately successful, selling 60 million units. My sister and I share one, and have loved it. However, this looks to be the last generation of Nintendo handhelds, with much of the mobile market being swallowed up by smartphones.
Yet, with the massive success of the Wii, Nintendo was confident it could once again convince non-gamers to buy a party-ready, mini-game collection machine. They were wrong. The Wii U has been an utter failure, selling only 12.80 million units. Our parents were satisfied with their iPad games, and hardcore gamers had their sights set on the powerful performance capabilities of new Playstation and Xbox. The Wii platform was a viral, hot-selling Christmas gift that captured the casual gaming market, but only for a season.
Flash forward to this week, and the only topic on my Twitter feed is Pokemon Go. An entertainment juggernaut that had forever been exclusive to Nintendo consoles was released to the App Store with society-altering success. 21 million people and counting have taken to the streets to catch and battle tiny monsters on their smartphones. With beloved software franchises like Pokemon, Nintendo can, and has already, become relevant again.
Nintendo has won the summer. Their company stock has risen 75% since the release of Pokemon GO, and augmented reality game is the most downloaded app ever. Nintendo didn’t need to create any more hype. But they did! Nintendo announced on July 14th that they would be releasing a new, $60 NES. Yeah, no kidding. The console our parents played in the 80’s is getting a 2016 remix with HDMI connectivity to your flat screen display and 30 classic games packed into the system’s hard drive. Every gaming nerd and middle aged dad will be getting it for Christmas.
These short term successes are fantastic wins for Nintendo. But what does the big picture look like going forward for the big N? Pokemon Go is terrific proof that people still care about Nintendo’s franchises. Could Mario, Zelda and other Nintendo favorites be heading to smart-devices? I would say with certainty that Nintendo is considering this option. In addition, Nintendo has a new console in the works. Codename “NX” is rumored to release sometime in 2017. But what form this new console will be and what kind of experiences it will offer is unknown at this time. There is certainly still a market for home consoles, as the Playstation 4 and Xbox One have sold over 40 million and 20 million units respectively. With renewed public interest in Nintendo franchises, this next year will be critical if Mario & Co wants to become the entertainment giant it was 20 years ago.
