Nintendo
Who Has the Most to Prove For the Rest of 2018?
I alluded earlier to a resurgent Nintendo in the wake of the Switch’s fruitful year-one, and there’s still a palpable momentum to the console 18 months later. Nintendo’s new hardware has been successful on two fronts: the merit of its hybrid functionality, and quality games spanning both beloved hallmark franchises and new IPs. The combination has seen it already eclipse sales records for the Wii U after just a quarter of the time on the market, and Nintendo remains bullish that sales will continue trending positively. You wouldn’t bet against them.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t still questions yet to be answered moving forward, though. Although we’re definitely seeing a much-changed Nintendo, it still seems to have one foot firmly planted in the past with respect to online functionality. Later this year we’ll see the release of their much anticipated online service, and despite our many predictions as to what innovation might be at its forefront, the reveal back in May was somewhat underwhelming. It wasn’t dismal by any stretch, but it was rather bland –a cheaper version of PSN and Xbox Live, and minus any voice chat or interesting features to give it a point of difference. Nintendo might not be done yet, though, after the company alluded to having “a little more” to talk about. Whether that means additional functionality or is in reference to other free games included with the service, we’ll have to wait and see. It’s in these sorts of announcements that we’ll see whether Nintendo will continue to build on the notion that the era of the Switch is a new-leaf for the company.
Having enjoyed such a stellar year-one games lineup, there was never any great expectation that Switch would be able to keep that sort of blistering release schedule up for long. And there’s plenty to play on the console anyway thanks to the incredible amount of third-party indie titles, and increasingly, AAA third-party games, too. But that doesn’t mean we’re willing to wait too long for announcements forecasting the consoles roadmap over the next 12-18 months. There’s a slight danger things could dry up moving forward, and while that isn’t likely to impact the consoles commercial performance too much —there’s too much interest in its current library for that to happen— it’s in Nintendo’s interest to keep driving home the message that a substantial flow of significant new games is a policy moving forward rather than a one-off.
So Who Has the Most to Prove
Who Has the Most to Prove For the Rest of 2018?
Despite riding a wave of positivity after a great E3 presentation, there’s no question that Microsoft and the Xbox One brand is still under the most pressure to deliver for this generation. At the end of the day, a press conference boils down to a lot of flashy trailers and posturing. Without the substance to back it up, this potential left-turn in the fortunes of the Xbox One isn’t going to actually materialize. Is this likely to actually start happening in 2018? No, probably not in any significant capacity, but Microsoft can’t simply stay quiet for the rest of the year. It needs to do its very best to recover from what has been a lackluster last few years and an underwhelming first six months of 2018.
As for Sony’s PS4 and the Nintendo Switch, their trajectories remain firmly trending upward, albeit at completely totally different ends of their life-cycle. Both companies can remain confident that they’ve already showcased enough in the first half of the year that they aren’t in need of any major announcements or new agendas to push their brand forward. Operating in the same industry but targeting different markets, they hardly need to worry too much about competition from each other, either. How many PS4 owners will purchase a Switch to play games-on-the-go or Nintendo exclusives and then hop straight back on PS4 for their fix of major third-party AAA titles? Plenty, you’d have to wager.
The question is how Microsoft works its way into that equation. It is they with the most to prove, who desperately need to win-back some mind-share and maintain confidence amongst its audience that the Xbox One is a platform with a bright future.
