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4. As mentioned in Point 3, one of the main problems afflicting the modern games industry is the increasing development costs associated with modern games development. As a consequence of these changing market conditions, games are becoming more prone to following tried and tested formulae, and are also becoming more risk averse as a result.
Nintendo is certainly no stranger to this, as previously successful franchises (such as F-Zero, Starfox and Metroid) have all underperformed in recent times, with the recent Mario 3D World also coming up short at retail with only 99,588 copies sold in Japan in its first week (making it the lowest debut for a 3D Mario platformer), and charting at 14th place in UK (behind games like Knack).

In the wake of these revelations, it's worth taking the time to ponder exactly as to how much cultural currency Nintendo still has with its age old franchises. And whilst it's arguable that Nintendo have always served a different sector of the market, with most of the company's intellectual properties catering towards children, it's also worth pointing out that Nintendo's last major new IP launch was Wii Spor...