So let's be real here for a second, Nintendo had an amazing year last year. Nintendo recently passed the 10 million Switch's sold in just under 9 month, and Nintendo announced they expect to sell 16.7 million Switch's by March 2018. If you are wondering if that is good, suffice it to say that puts the Switch on course to surpass the sales numbers of the PS4 and Xbox One on launch. Not to mention Zelda BOTW and Super Mario Odyssey swept the awards this year and have been killin it in the sales department.
So when Nintendo recently announced the Nintendo Labo, it left some people scratching their heads wondering....why?
For those that have not heard about the Nintendo Labo, it consists of two pre-designed sets of cardboard. The variety kit sells for $69.99 MSRP, and consists of 2 RC cars, a fishing rod, a house, handlebars for a motorbike, a piano, and the software to go with these items - and the robot kit sells for $79.99 MSRP and comes with the pieces to make a robot suit and the robot game. You can also purchase various "accessories" for the Nintendo Labo.
You can listen to our discussion on the Nintendo Labo here
My additional post-discussion thoughts are below:
Discussion Followup
My initial reaction to hearing about this product release was, "this is the stupidest thing I have every seen Nintendo do", and I imagine most people had the same reaction. Nintendo is selling cardboard to people! I mean come on, how could they think anyone would want to buy this?
But as you can hear in the discussion video, as I continued to think about it, I didn't hate the idea - and here's why. From the initial marketing material, it looks like the robot kit is Nintendo's first VR game.
With the announcement of the Vive Pro coming only a few weeks before Nintendo Labo's announcement, the idea of having a VR option that was not priced at $400+ USD was exciting. As painful as it would be to spend $80 on cardboard and software, the idea that there is now an affordable VR option was exciting. Unfortunately, I was completely wrong.
Looking back on the trailer and reading through the product page, it is abundantly clear this is not a VR game. This visor is entirely aesthetic.
Realizing that, my thoughts on the Nintendo Labo have returned to...why Nintendo? The idea that you could create your own things and bring them into a video game is cool. If this had been an announcement from Lego, I would probably be a lot more excited about the idea for these reasons.
1. Cardboard and Lego's are not the same thing
Cardboard is not durable, we ship packages in it because it is rigid enough to stack but cheap enough that you can tear it up and through it out afterwards. Cardboard is practically free since it is used to ship everything. The Nintendo Labo is clearly something marketed towards kids, and kids break things. Especially if you are going to be using these creations constantly to play games, they're going to break no matter how careful you are. Lego's are durable, easy to use, and fun. Cardboard is not.
2. Nintendo Labo is not creative
The Nintendo Labo comes with a set of pre-designed cardboard sheets, ready to be cut and folded into the designs Nintendo gave you. Assembling cardboard is not fun. Creating something you dreamed up is. Creating something new, and then tearing it apart to create something even more awesome is fun. Making cardboard shapes that cannot be turned into something new is not. If the Nintendo Labo was actually something that could be used to dream up cool creations, and then bring those creations into a game world, that would be awesome. But as it stands, assembling cardboard boxes to hold your Switch remotes is not.
3. Nintendo is not the company that would let Labo evolve
If you are a PC gamer, or you have ever used Lego Mindstorm, then you know the community surrounding these products is amazing and creative. PC games went through a renaissance a few years ago when it was discovered that by opening up your game code to your customers, they would create amazing mods that would continue to sell your game long after it's initial release (see Skyrim). The same stands for Mindstorm, if you spend some time googling Mindstorm creations you will find an incredible wealth of cool creations, and tutorials on how to do it yourself. If Nintendo Labo was something that allowed you to create new things and share them with the community, this would be exciting. Buying cardboard blueprints from Nintendo is not.
4. No one wants to buy cardboard
This ^
So that brings me to my final thoughts on Nintendo Labo. I think this is completely silly and it leaves me wondering how some many people in Nintendo thought this was a good idea that they released it to the public. Will they sell units? Probably. Nintendo always sells something. Is this the next Wii U for Nintendo. Probably. Nintendo Labo could be something cool, but it would take some fantastic marketing to help consumers to see its potential, and it would take something other than cardboard. Nintendo Labo is going to flop.
Thanks for reading, thanks for watching. Let me know what your thoughts are on Nintendo Labo in the comments. If you liked this article please consider leaving an upvote, following me, and sharing this with your friends. If you did not have a chance, be sure to check out my Youtube channel where we release a weekly podcast covering topics like this.