Written by William Chandler, Jr., December 3, 2016, at 5:21 a.m.
I know Tony Luke’s as a restaurant that offers a variety of steak sandwich options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In Philadelphia, this is just the start of a love affair with a quality steak, and other items, on a long roll. This company, in recent years, expands. It is in other parts of Pennsylvania like Manayunk, Warminster, and Northeast Philadelphia. I have been able to visit each site, but Tony Luke’s has gone to other states and countries as well.
If life were simple, the Tony Luke’s cheesesteaks would sell in every region, the exact same way. Life would be easy. Manayunk has an air to it. The area is busy, has an interesting nightlife, with many food options. Warminster is a familiar area of Pennsylvania but also looks to acknowledge young people’s energetic sides. Northeast Philadelphia has its own share of cheesesteak makers. The other steak places compete with them.
The harsh reality is Tony Luke’s in every new place has to prove their worth repeatedly. This is how Nintendo should approach the release of Nintendo Switch. Before Nintendo’s Switch, there was the Wii U. The Gamecube preceded the Wii. In those three generations of consoles, what Nintendo is, and will be, depends on everything they have already done.
The hint of an article like at Itech, by Jonna Marcaida Calagui, can increase excitement for Nintendo’s new console, but stoke fears as well. If you visit Statistica, you discover Nintendo has a trend in place. From 2002-2006, Gamecube sold over 20 million units in its lifetime. The Wii was the ultimate success. From 2007-2015, The Wii sold over 100 million units. Nintendo follows this with the Wii U, from 2013-2016. It sold something closer to 13 million units. Before all of this, the N64 sold over 32 million units.
Clearly, Nintendo is in a strange place. In my opinion, games like WCW/ NWO Revenge, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter supported the N64 console with quality third-party support. Titles like Soul Caliber 2, The Spyro series and Resident Evil 4 excited owners of the Gamecube. Early third-party support brought games like Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition, and Need for Speed: Most Wanted to the console.
With games like Battlefield 1, Bloodborne, The Last of Us, Titanfall, the Grand Theft Auto series, and other games on other consoles, Nintendo needs to assert their ability to get a variety of games from other developers, and not produce multiple first-party titles. The Wii U is the one console with very little third-party variety. At Gamespot, in an article by Eddie Makuch, the Wii U’s top selling titles are Nintendo-only games. This is fine, but also addresses the lack of games like the Grand Theft Auto series, Destiny, The Witcher series, the Madden series, or even any of the Telltale episodic games.
How does Nintendo do it? I just believe it begins and ends with the treatment of the Nintendo Wii U. Get Telltale, Rockstar Games, Electronic Arts, 2K, and other developers to give the Nintendo Wii U, and cannot forget the 3DS, the finishes they need. They can all start a new relationship with the Nintendo Switch and grow with the intention of giving Nintendo the support it needs over the lifetime of this new console, and beyond.
This is the third-party support Nintendo had with N64. This similar support came with some limits during the life of Gamecube. This support was in overabundance during the life of the Wii. The Wii U did not get as much. Nintendo, your new console needs what it needs from beginning to end.
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