10 Things The Nintendo NX Must Do To Be Successful
Avoiding another Wii U disaster is only the tip of the iceberg.
Nintendo's Wii U hasn't quite broken the record for being the most ill-conceived console ever (the Sega Saturn and Ouya are still leagues ahead in that race), but it was a near-catastrophic mistake that Nintendo needs to ensure doesn't happen again with the NX.
But why did it fail, exactly? Everyone's got their own suspicions; confusing name, inaccessible gimmicks, inferior hardware and a poor selection of games are usually the most frequent criticisms that pop up, but no single one of those issues on its own would be enough to topple a Nintendo-brand console within a matter of months.
The reality is simply that Nintendo tried to 'pull a Wii' a second time to tap into a market that had already been mined, and in doing so, set itself up for a fall.
With the Nintendo NX now less than a year away, here are 10 crucial things that Ninty must do to ensure the console's success for years to come.
10. Be Significantly More Powerful Than The Wii U
One of the primary reasons the Wii U just didn't stick with consumers was because it simply didn't offer much of an upgrade in hardware over the original Wii.
Those who bought the Wii U's predecessor purely on the grounds of its motion gaming had no reason to upgrade and, likewise, anyone who was chasing the dream of a Nintendo console with hardware on the same level as the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One was left sorely disappointed too.
The NX absolutely must have considerably more power over the Wii U. Not because I'm foolish enough to believe that visual fidelity is the only bar in which a console's success should be measured, but because if it doesn't - overall performance will suffer.
You can already see what I'm talking about with the likes of Xenoblade Chronicles X - a fantastic and gorgeous JRPG that struggles to maintain its quality due to the outdated hardware it runs on. Consistency first, please.