Nolan Bushnell says that Nintendo could be on the “path to irrelevance.”
Nolan Bushnell is a legendary gaming personality and founder of what was once one of the biggest and most influential companies in games: Atari. He recently spoke to the BBC, warning that Nintendo may be doomed to suffer the same fate as his own Atari did, a long trip down the path to irrelevance.
Bushnell said that the poor sales of the Wii U means the Japanese firm is left in a “very difficult position”. Indeed, industry analysts have drawn parallels between Atari’s doomed Jaguar console in 1993 and the struggling Wii U. Speaking on what happened to his own Atari, Bushnell said it had been “abused by corporate charlatans” after a “glorious beginning.”
Nintendo’s Wii U has repeatedly failed to meet its sales forecasts, and is actually being sold below cost. Despite this, a $50 price cut is inbound for the console, and a strong lineup of upcoming games including a new Mario platformer and a new Super Smash Bros. title could be just the kick in the pants the system needs.
Bushnell went on to say that of all the new inventions he’s seen in modern gaming, what excites him the most is the Occulus Rift, although he does still remain a little skeptic about it. “The problem with virtual reality has always been motion sickness,” he said. “If they’re able to really get the reality and the image right, with low latency, I think they’ll get it.
Source: BBC
