Is Nintendo Really Disappearing?

What am I thinking about?

The future of Nintendo

I watched the ABC interview with Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, who predicts the Nintendo Wii U will finish a distant third in this year's game console war.  Patcher also thinks Nintendo's longevity looks bleak, referring to a dwindling amount of third-party game software support.

Pachter might be right in the short term, but then I looked at my old Wii.

Yeah, remember that system when it first came out?  It was almost seven years ago, November 2006, when the Wii grabbed the gaming world's attention with its revolutionary Wii remote (its appeal, which, quite honestly, still hasn't been matched by any other console IMO).  It was a HUGE hit at the time.  Even to this day, during the first quarter of last year, worldwide sales of the Wii continued to lead PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Then I looked at another box sitting in the corner.  Yup, here's a game I fondly played for hours on end.

Mario Kart is a cross-generational game franchise that anyone can play, from the little guys at home to the oldest of the old gamers.  It's truly an entertaining family-type game that everyone can play & watch.  To this day, I head home and play Mario Kart during the holidays with family.

In turn, I thought about what I saw at the Nintendo E3 booth last month in Los Angeles.

Nintendo was showing off their coming game titles, and of course, one of them is Mario Kart 8 out next spring.  The demos booths were jammed.

What's my point here?  Pachter is wrong & being a bit unfair.  Granted, Nintendo might not do all that well during the holidays because of the buzz behind Microsoft, Sony AND Google consoles (yup, can't forget about the Google-dee-goo), but when you're talking longevity, Nintendo isn't finished by any means.  Pachter thinks the end of third-party game support and development from the likes of Electronic Arts spell doom, but that's not how Nintendo got here.

They have some of the all-time giants in gaming:  Mario, Zelda, Metroid, to name a few.  Plus, their exclusive games are appealing to families with young kids at home; games that kids and adults can play and enjoy.  I think it was wise for Nintendo to keep quiet and let their games do the talking at E3.  THEY ARE looking at the future.  In particular, 2014, when I believe Nintendo is coming back with a vengeance.  And hey, the Wii U might surprise some folks come the holidays.

Bottom line:  How could we ever count these guys out?  There's a reason they've been around for three decades.

Don't count out a legend like Nintendo.  They're here to stay.

The B Gamer is a video game reviewer at 77 WABC in New York City

Twitter:  @thebgamerpd

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