Nintendo is hurting. The Wii U isn’t selling, it’s lacking mainstream publisher acceptance, and the core Nintendo titles don’t seem to be energizing the company’s base of fans. Product lines are being bifurcated in uncomfortable ways; the latest Smash Bros. is coming to the 3DS line of consoles first, and will then hit the Wii U console later.The business has turned stagnant, even if the company’s new releases remain highly-polished and fun. Sadly, that just isn't enough when you're fighting more powerful systems with better developer support, better outreach to press and fans and of course the mobile market chipping away at your market share.Sony and Microsoft at least attempt to tell their own story, even if they sometimes stumble, but Nintendo is drawing inward in a way that will only hurt it moving forward. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One emphasis downloading games, sharing your accomplishments, streaming your video, keeping your favorite moments and interacting with your friends in interesting ways.Microsoft is making a large bet on video, while Sony focused on power and price. The two companies are competing on multiple fronts, and players have already seen the rewards of that competitive space. Nintendo simply isn’t part of the discussion.Which is the problem; Nintendo gives us nothing to talk about. It says nothing. Nintendo releases a video every now and again that announces some aspect of a game that will likely be fun, but will also look very much like the last game in the series. Nintendo seems to have ditched any attempt to do novel things with the Wii U’s tablet-style controller, and is instead hoping that high definition graphics are going to be enough for its latest games.It watches us from behind their veil of carefully constructed silence as savvier companies like Sony pile on social media wins, including developers speaking up in the company’s defense. Nintendo is changing its strategy to deal with its downward trajectory, but the result is a company that’s even more guarded and impenetrable. We're asking each other if Microsoft is going to kill the cable box, while the conversation around Nintendo is whether it's going to kill itself.Nintendo has the cash reserves and IP needed to stay alive for a very long time, even if it continues to drown. We shouldn’t be worried about the company’s possible death, we should be worried that the closer it gets to that possibility the quieter it becomes.
http://www.polygon.c...truggling-death
