I wouldn't say Nintendo isn't relevant, could even say they're more relevant than PS3 or 360. The Wii easily surpasses the 360 and PS3 in total sales. It just has a different target audience, mostly a children's and family console.
And graphically they might not be innovative, but surely their controllers and some of their games have been. So much so that the PS3 and 360 followed and introduced Move and Kinect, because they realise how big that market is.
I personally think Nintendo had more vision than Microsoft and Sony. Microsoft and Sony just continued to do what they've always done, aimed at the same gamer's market. Nintendo made a clear choice for a different target audience, with great succes. Games like Wii Fit and Wii Sport are just genius, and have opened up the gaming market for a completely different audience. And it's the same with the Nintendo DS, by far the most sold handheld.
Sony really lost a huge chunk of their marketshare to Nintendo, and even to Microsoft who doubled their sales compared to the previous Xbox. And Nintendo are going to be the first to release a new console also next June.
Maybe irrelevant was a bit strong. Their system was innovative when it was introduced, but even then it was never really geared to the hard, wide market of "Gamers". With that being said, Nintendo's focus seems to be on Family and the C, E, E10 and T rated games. So that puts them in a different class of Gaming compared to Sony and Xbox who are primarily driven to expand the marketplace in wider areas.
Granted when Wii came out with the Motion controller Sony and Xbox played catchup to the whole "Motion" technology. The Wii sales are about 60% more than the 360 or PS3, but in the gaming world the Wii is not a "Hardcore" gamers machine. Its still considered a "Toy" where the Xbox ans PS3 are considered Media System and/or computers.
My main Issue with Nintendo is their lack of foresight, their laziness and apparent lack of creativity when it comes to their games. It just seems like they constantly tread on the same tired characters, instead of trying to start from scratch and make an attempt to bring new characters and breathe new life into the brand. Regardless if Nintendo bring out a new system next summer, it would need to be a real game changer to bring any pressure onto Xbox or Sony. Its there too, we saw it when Microsoft broke in. They had a solid piece of hardware, a solid library of games and developers and the foresight to take the crown from Sony. Nintendo need to shift back to making a hard core system and come out with a Nintendo specific game that everyone wants. When the first Playstation came out it was revolutionary and they had games like Tomb Raider then Metal Gear Solid which took a major chunk of Nintendo's and Sega's business, so much Sega never recovered. When the First Xbox came out they had HALO which was HUGE and Xbox has been a top seller since. Then 360 had Gears of War and everyone wanted it.
Games sell systems. It doesnt matter how good or bad the machine is, if you have a game everyone wants to play and you sell the only system to play that game, guess what? Your rich.
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