Speaking of consoles that’ve been dumped in a corner and forgotten, this Christmas will be the Wii U’s sink-or-swim moment as well. With a new Smash Brothers release, it’s possible that the fighting game will be the coup de grace that convinces players who’ve been on the fence about new Mario titles or games like Hyrule Warriors to finally leap over and take the Wii U plunge.
It’s got to be what Nintendo is betting on — if new titles don’t finally send Wii U sales spiking, the company will be better off pursuing a fast replacement strategy and getting something on the market that consumers will actually want to buy.
Before you flame me for that, keep in mind that consoles take 18-24 months to develop — so a Wii U successor that was meant to bring Nintendo up to parity with Sony and Microsoft wouldn’t debut for several years yet. Given the weak sales of the RS Gold
to date, it’s not unreasonable to say that a failed recovery necesitates the need for a quicker replacement cycle than Nintendo might’ve otherwise preferred.