Whereas Sony and Nintendo have expanded their lead over Xbox, a darkish horse console had a really robust exhibiting in third place in November. The Nex Playground has emerged as a breakout hit, and CEO David Lee believes that one of many the explanation why its been so profitable is as a result of the console has solved the Wii “drawback.”
Practically 20 years in the past, the Wii powered Nintendo’s post-GameCube comeback with its movement controls and distinctive video games. Lee argues that the scope of Wii’s success made it tough to maintain in the long run. As an alternative of making an attempt to promote video games like Wii, Nex Playground is providing its titles as a part of a subscription service.
“Probably the most essential issues we should always do is be taught from historical past and take a look at to not commit the identical limitations, and that is why we now have a subscription mannequin,” Lee informed The Sport Enterprise. “Nintendo expanded the viewers with Wii. Whenever you broaden the viewers, they usually need various things, they usually solely purchase Wii Match, Wii Sports activities and never many others … that is a little bit of an issue.”
Lee was very complementary towards Nintendo in his follow-up remarks, however he added that the Wii’s mannequin of promoting only some video games to sure members of its set up base was “not sustainable.”
“It is crucial that we set ourselves as much as serve our buyer constantly with new improvements,” added Lee. “That’s how the entire system can maintain. However it began with Wii. We’re standing on an enormous’s shoulder.”
Nex Playground reportedly accounted for 14% of all console gross sales on Black Friday, ending forward of the Xbox household of methods.
