How has Nintendo survived making consoles past the Sixth Generation?

Like I said, after the PS 3, I don't see the need for another console with it. Besides, Blu-ray players on their own now are FAR cheaper than in the past.

Playing Blu Ray movies off the Gamepad would be pretty cool.

They still cost enough that it's a really good value to just buy a console with Blu-Ray though.

Give it a few more years, and maybe I'll agree with you (they'll have the holographic disc commercially feasible by then).

...I'm pretty sure one of the reasons Nintendo's offerings have been so much cheaper than the competition's is because they don't have to pay licensing fees for the necessary codecs to run DV Ds and Blurays.

Besides, isn't Bluray a Sony proprietary thing? How is Nintendo paying Sony twice (once for software, once for hardware) per console going to help them make money?

A decent Bluray player and a Wii U are still cheaper than, say, a PS 4.

edited 4th Mar '14 7:54:47 AM by CorrTerek

Microsoft Studios is apparently "paying" Sony to have Blu-Ray, and they don't have a problem with it.

And the X Bone is the most expensive console of this generation. Probably not selling at a profit, either (the Wii U probably isn't either, but there are other issues at work there). Thanks for proving my point.

Nintendo has been selling their consoles at a profit for quite some time, and paying extra licensing fees and buying proprietary hardware would make it more difficult to do that.

edited 4th Mar '14 8:24:52 AM by CorrTerek

The drive in the Wii is a dvd drive. Same for the Game Cube. Not having the codecs necessary to play dvd's is just penny pinching in my view. And before any one starts, the only home consoles from Ninty I haven't bought are the Wii and Wii2. I knoweth of what I speak.

Has someone actually tried to play DVDs in a Game Cube?

I really want to now but I don't wanna explode my DVD or something.

Datel made a disc that restored the ability to play dvds in the Game Cube. Freeloader is what they called it.

Say what you will, but that penny pinching (among other thrifty decisions) means that Nintendo sold the Wii at a profit, which made them tons of money. Which means that even if the Wii U explodes in a spectacular fashion Nintendo will continue to survive.

edited 4th Mar '14 10:51:31 AM by CorrTerek

Seven million fewer console units sold than Ninty were counting on selling seems to me to be a pretty spectacular failure.

They might turn this around, I hope they do, but they need to pull their finger out.

The Wii was not created with a proper DVD drive. It wears out the lens fast. Also, they have to license DVD playback. It's not free. It's really not worth the cost when everybody has a DVD(and Blu-Ray Players are pretty cheap nowadays too), so it's making up pay for things we already have or don't want.

They don't do it because they want the systems affordable for more people, not super high-priced.

It's not worth it for DVD-only anymore, but I insist that it's still worth it for Blu-Ray, since BR players aren't at the really inexpensive level yet.

That's why my PS 3 is for.

I also wanted games on it. Regardless, Nintendo has to pay way too much for these things, and let's be honest, it's not worth spending tons of money on that when they're not doing that great. I know some people don't like it, but they specifically make consoles to play games and rarely have the "extra stuff" to keep down costs. And seeing as how they can't seem to get out enough games to justify getting their systems alone, and the DVD/Blu-Ray stuff, well... isn't theirs either, it would not make them more money. They make enough money and get enough sales with the VC type stuff anyway. They just need to release more games, not add bonus stuff that would deplete their money flow.

What do you consider to be inexpensive? I picked up a combination Bluray and DVD player at Walmart for 60 bucks the other night. Supports a bunch of streaming-on-demand services too. A DVD player by itself appears to run about 20-30 bucks.

Maybe they just cost more elsewhere? I mean, 60 bucks seems pretty reasonable.

Yeah, they definitely need to get the game console part back together before worrying about bonus stuff like movie playback... I have a Wii U, but I hardly ever touch it except to use the Gamepad as a TV remote. There's just... nothing there. Nothing. Hell, even the original Wii's proven to be useful as a homebrew console, and I've found it to be a vital media center (and a good actual game console due to Project M) because of that. The U doesn't even have that because of Nintendo's... more-than-questionable morals^note The 3DS Terms and Conditions says, in Layman's Terms, that if anything they deem "unauthorized" is found, they will intentionally brick your console. Ouch.

I'll no doubt have a better opinion of it later on, but for now... I'm still waiting, and I'm kinda' tired of waiting.

(At least the PS 4 and XB1 are both somehow even worse. That'll save Nintendo this time around.)

edited 4th Mar '14 12:21:14 PM by BaffleBlend

The 20-30 range you identify for DVD-only players is what I think is the really inexpensive level.

edited 4th Mar '14 12:17:35 PM by WaxingName

...60 dollars is really cheap for a Blu-ray player.

They used to be much higher priced.

Yeah, buying it was actually cheaper than getting my PS 3 fixed and/or buying another one.

That 60 Dollar Blu Ray player sounds like an absolute bargain! I must be out of the loop, since I thought they still cost ten times that.

Well, besides the fact that getting a console with a Blu-Ray drive is still a great value, consoles that have the same online features as Blu-Ray players can execute them much more efficiently due to their increased power.

Alucard was right about Nintendo and their franchises. Here's what two Nintendo people say about the new IP, Splatoon.

I now have a Wii. Mind you, it was second-hand and didn't come with the Nunchuk, which doesn't really bother me as I have a Gamecube controller that plugs straight in and I'm far too old and have far too many knackered joints to go jigging round a room just to play a game.