任天堂要玩完了吗？

    哈丁-罗尔斯补充说：“对于在市场上苦苦挣扎的平台来说，这些改进措施应当受到欢迎，但却显得有些零碎，不够全面。任天堂没有提到进一步投资营销的事宜，没有确切地告诉消费者Wii U是什么，究竟跟Wii有何不同。”

    尽管任天堂领先了竞争对手微软（Microsoft）和索尼（Sony）一年时间，后两家公司在去年11月才分别发布了次世代电视游戏主机，但是马里奥恐怕在短期内都不太可能出现在这两台主机中。

    市场调查机构DFC Intelligence的电视游戏分析师乔治•克洛尼斯对《财富》（Fortune）记者说：“对于任天堂而言，它的游戏专营权和硬件已经捆绑在了一起。任天堂是一家游戏厂商，而硬件则是出售自己游戏的媒介。这种理念与索尼和微软的截然不同。这两家公司出售硬件，然后开发自己的游戏，从而进一步提升自己的主机销量。”

    自任天堂于1995年发布“任天堂64”以来，它的战略就使它不必在高性能的硬件上投入过多资金。“跟索尼和微软竞争、开发尖端游戏主机，这种做法被视为浪费钱，”克洛尼斯补充道。“所以手握GameCube和Wii，任天堂能够以相对索尼和微软来说微不足道的研发和生产成本展开运作。在开发Wii过程中，任天堂决定利用易于上手的有趣游戏，吸引没有Xbox和PlayStation的主流消费者。由于运动控制技术的出现，用户感到非常新鲜。因此Wii获得了巨大的成功，并在上一轮竞争中获胜。”

    不过这样的成功也会起到误导作用。

    皮吉昂说：“问题取决于你如何定义成功。你需要看的是活跃的用户基数，他们是否正在购买各种游戏软件。Wii的情况显然不是这样。”

    软件销量的萎靡甚至导致第三方游戏厂商不再支持Wii U。美国电子艺界（Electronic Arts，EA）在针对Wii U推出大量知名游戏、却未能吸引玩家之后，已经非正式地停止了对Wii U的支持。没有了高知名度大作的支持，Wii U主机的销量持续低迷。

    皮吉昂说：“这是任天堂的另一个大问题，他们没有为第三方游戏厂商创造诱人的商机。”与此同时，任天堂出品的新版《明星大乱斗》（Smash Bros）和《马里奥赛车》（Mario Kart）正在开发中。

    哈丁-罗尔斯说：“这些新的举措不太可能立刻或明显地扭转财务状况，而且，他们还会迅速消耗掉公司的研发预算。”尽管如此，“要想长期在市场上保持竞争力、维护品牌价值，任天堂必须坚持创新，保持个性。”（财富中文网）

    译者：严匡正

    "These improvements are welcome for a platform struggling in the market, but appear 'bitty' or piecemeal and less than comprehensive," Harding-Rolls added. "There was no mention of significant further investment in marketing to actually tell consumers what the Wii U is, and to make it clear it is different to the Wii."

    While Nintendo had a year's lead over rivals Microsoft (MSFT) and Sony (SNE), which each respectively launched next-generation videogame systems last November, it isn't likely that Mario will show up on those systems anytime soon.

    "For Nintendo, its game franchises and hardware are joined at the hip. Nintendo is a game maker, and hardware is the vehicle to sell its own games," videogame analyst George Chronis of DFC Intelligence told Fortune. "That is a philosophy that is directly at odds with Sony and Microsoft which are in the business to sell hardware and create first-party games to further the selling of their consoles."

    Since the release of the Nintendo 64 in 1995, the company has taken a strategy that does not require it to invest heavily in high-performance hardware. "To compete with Sony and Microsoft in developing bleeding-edge consoles was seen as a costly waste of capital," Chronis added. "So with both the GameCube and the Wii, Nintendo could operate with negligible R&D and production costs compared to Sony and Microsoft. The decision taken during the development of the Wii was to target mainstream consumers that were not already Xbox or PlayStation owners with easily accessible games that were fun to play, and were novel thanks to the advent of motion control input. The Wii turned out to be a tremendous success and won the last cycle."

    But that success could be misleading.

    "It depends on how you define success," Pidgeon said. "What you need to look at is the active install base, and whether people are buying multiple software titles. This certainly wasn't the case with the Wii."

    The lack of software sales even resulted in some third-party publishers pulling back support. Electronic Arts (EA) has all but officially pulled support for the Wii U after releasing a number of high-profile launch titles for the system as it failed to catch on with gamers. Without high-profile titles in the pipeline, sales of the Wii U hardware continue to remain sluggish.

    "That is the other big issue for Nintendo," Pidgeon said. "They haven't created a compelling business opportunity for third party." Meanwhile, a new Smash Bros. and Mario Kart -- both Nintendo titles -- are under development.

    "These new initiatives are unlikely to provide an immediate or significant financial turnaround, but they will consume research and development budgets in quick time," Harding-Rolls said. Nonetheless, "this dependence on innovation and individuality is core to the company staying relevant beyond the short term and protecting the Nintendo brand value."