Analysts weigh in on Mario for Project Cafe
This information comes from Asif Khan of Panoptic Management Consultants…
“Miyamoto is a perfectionist and does not want to make a bad or mediocre Mario title. It is entirely possible that Project Cafe will launch without a Mario title. They can afford to do it as long as there are some titles to attract early adopters. Management has indicated that 3rd party releases will be more of a focus going forward. I would expect that we will hear about some Nintendo exclusives from the likes of Rockstar, Epic, or Valve going forward. This would draw in the hardcore gamer demographic that was MIA during the Wii console cycle. Nintendo has the cash hoard to secure such deals.”
This information comes from Billy Pidgeon of M2 Research…
“Mario is great IP, but there are no single game system sellers anymore — it will take a pipeline of great games for any system to gain significant share. Project Café may well launch without Mario. We won’t know more until next week, but a Mario launch title on its own won’t be sufficient to make or break a new system.”
This information comes from Jesse Divnich of EEDAR…
“I believe Nintendo’s strategy to release a Mario based title well after launch has to do with marketing sizing. With Mario being a key pillar for Nintendo, it may be best to launch a Mario title when enough of an install base exists. Typically, the first 12-month sales of any console is directly tied to the appeal of the key differentiating technology features and not necessarily the software. Software, however, drives the console sales long-term, hence why Nintendo has typically chosen to launch some of their key branded titles well after launch.
This information comes from Parks Associates analyst Pietro Macchiarella…
“In the case of the 3DS I think that they wanted to appeal to a more general customer base than the traditional Mario fan base by betting on more hardcore titles. Apparently that only partially worked. As for Project Café… If I were Nintendo I would not time Mario’s release too far off from the hardware launch. If they need to build momentum on the new platform, they might need their best IP.”
At the very least, I don’t think we’ll be seeing a 3D Mario adventure at launch. Because some of EAD Tokyo’s resources are being taken used for Super Mario 3DS, it’d be much more difficult to create a top-notch product. 2D is more likely if you ask me, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was no Mario platformer at launch.
