Other than online, can you name what else Nintendo is behind on?
I’m making the assumption that you mean they’ve fallen behind Microsoft and Sony in sales.
The reason for that isn’t technology, the Wii was very innovative, the Switch is a good product, none of their stuff is technologically deficient.
The reason for their decline in the marketplace is their product focus. They chose a long time ago to be a “family” gaming company. In the early 1990s when Mortal Kombat II was ported to consoles Nintendo’s version was a poor seller because they edited the blood so it would be green, which was seen as a shabby attempt to appease parents and convince them that their games were more wholesome.
Unfortunately for them, the overall trend went to more complex and violent games, which left them on the outside looking in. The only thing they had over the other consoles was Mario, which was able to keep sales reasonable but couldn’t overcome the endless selection available to Playstation and XBox.
As I said, the motion control on the Wii was very innovative, but it was almost impossible to play some games with any amount of fine control using the Wiimote, and it wasn’t a good standard controller at all so they fell behind in those games as well.
It’s all about the perception in the marketplace. Nintendo long ago ceased to be considered by “serious” gamers as a “serious” gaming company. That’s why they’re behind, and that’s why they probably will stay that way for the foreseeable future.
Mortal Kombat II only had green blood in the Japanese version. Every other version is uncensored.
And the Switch is doing very well in sales.
Well, if you know that then what’s the point in asking the question?
I was talking about being behind in stuff like third party support, not sales.
Define “behind”
They are doing well financially and tempted me into a console purchase when the other manufacturers couldn’t.
They’re way behind Chevy and Ford in car sales. They’re way behind Kellogs and General Mills in cereal sales. They’re way behind Maytag and Sears in washing machine sales. Why? Because they’re not in the business of making the same product as those companies.
Likewise, they’re behind Sony and Microsoft in the high-power gaming market. Why? Because that’s not the market they’re competing for. But they’re well ahead of all of those companies, including Sony and Microsoft, in the family-gaming market.
They lost ground when the Nintendo 64 was their main product. It was technically superior but more expensive than competing products (as did their cartridge-based games compared to the CDs on other consoles). Their lineup of games was pretty weak. They never retook the top spot as a home console since.
They’ve stayed dominant in the portable console market but that’s always been a pretty niche field and with smartphones becoming ubiquitous and becoming better for gaming that market has been shrinking even further.
Still they’ve hung in there and they outlasted Sega who was their main competition for many years, I don’t see them going away any time soon.