The Wii U is done

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Rizen said:
They';re not bleeding cash because of the Wii U hardware. They've said that the sale of a single game makes the console profitable. My guess is that they are bleeding cash because of large software development teams and that the sales of the WiiU haven't been enough to cover their other expenses.
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I know they said that, but selling the system at a loss is still a loss. Nintendo used to make nearly $100 from every Wii they sold. For a comparison, even the PS3 generated a "profit" with a small attach rate, and yet Sony is still losing money from that venture. Just because they make up the cost of manufacturing the console doesn't mean the company as a whole is making money with the project. Hell, the tablet alone costs nearly $100 to build.

So imagine if they drop the price by $50, they'd have to hope consumers buy an additional 2-3 games just to make up for the cost. This is more realistic eventually (I wouldn't be surprised if they cut the price once Zelda or Smash Bros is released), but not now that there's hardly any compelling games to buy.

And they are bleeding cash because of the Wii U. From this Gamespot article:

The news comes just days after Nintendo posted 36.4 billion yen ($387 million) in operating losses for the year, with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata attributing a major cause of the shortfall to poor hardware sales,
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AceCR42 said:
The problem is Nintendo is losing money on every Wii U sold and bleeding cash. It was the exact opposite scenario with the Wii, and the reason why I don't think they'll lower the price. At best, they can eventually hope for a GameCube like scenario: not a flop but not really a resounding success either.

PS4 and Xbone at least have that strong third party support. Games like Call of Duty/Battlefield 4 and Madden will drive those console sales.
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See Japan is very different than America they don't really look at gains and losses as narrow mindedly as we do. They are big picture people. They don't do rash decisions just to raise this quarter's profits a few points if it will hurt next quarter's profits or more importantly the entire systems success.

Nintendo Wii isn't selling for a few reasons the biggest being software. A price drop doesn't fix that. Releasing rushed shovel ware doesn't fix that. Time spent into quality games fixes that. And that is likely where a bit of their money is going to developing games.

They can have years of losses and be perfectly ok...which its looking like might be what happens.

I think Nintendo's Plan A was: Release Wii-U and see if all the wii owner buy it.

Plan A obviously failed. So they are moving to plan B: Make games that will sell a system people don't really what, understand, or can afford.....Plan B takes a while.

I am likely to buy a Wii-U well before a PS4 or Xone as I play jrpg's and those take time to make and nintendo has a year lead.
 
YeuEmMaiMai said:
nope

the sale of 1 software title makes the system profitable, since they have sold more software than systems, they are profitable on the Wii U.
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When you get to college and start taking business classes you'll understand. If I start a company and invest 1 Billion in R&D then sell my console at a slight loss which is then covered by selling software those costs have not been recouped. They (Nintendo) are talking about hardware costs not total costs.

See Sony and their losing 3 Billion in 2007-2008 + R&D, they didn't get out of the red until late 2011 or 2012.
 
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DaRat said:
If you own a Wii U be sure to try the Wonderful 101. Game seems like it will be an excellent addition to your library. Demo is a ton of fun and totally interesting.
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I played that last night.

I'm not sure what was going on, but I was smashing things and making giant weapons... I was having a blast. It's the first unique game that I've played in a while. I might actually pick it up...
 
Rizen said:
They've said that the sale of a single game makes the console profitable. My guess is that they are bleeding cash because of large software development teams and that the sales of the WiiU haven't been enough to cover their other expenses.
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I'm not sure if they're actually bleeding cash right now (source?), but I agree with the rest of this.

It's possible for a console company to do poorly even if they sell their console at a profit (more than manufacturing cost) because of the up-front R&D cost to design the console and because of the cost to create software and maintain services.

Sony was in the hole for years on the PS3 because they were selling the system at a loss and because of massive R&D behind it, but they managed to dig their way out and are profitable over the life of the system.
 
Demon10000 said:
I played that last night.

I'm not sure what was going on, but I was smashing things and making giant weapons... I was having a blast. It's the first unique game that I've played in a while. I might actually pick it up...
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I felt the same way and "unique" is a great way to describe this game. It was a wild ride and at times you had no idea what the hell was going on, but man it was a lot of fun. I'm considering buying it myself and I'm usually not one to dive into a weird game like this.
 
19 AUG '09

Street Fighter not coming to Wii U

Sorry Wii U I'm defecting (Op-Ed)

Sales numbers apparently have yet to be released for hardware, many people are curious to see if pikman 3 ended up being a serious system seller.

In other news, Zelda Rehash HD will take up 2.6 GB of drive space so all of you folks with countless 20mb NES games should get ready to free up some space. Title is close to being released for the 20 people that didn't play it.

EDIT: Also just noticed we broke into the #2 spot for all time replies, another 400 and we will overtake the GT5 thread.
 
AceCR42 said:
I know they said that, but selling the system at a loss is still a loss. Nintendo used to make nearly $100 from every Wii they sold. For a comparison, even the PS3 generated a "profit" with a small attach rate, and yet Sony is still losing money from that venture. Just because they make up the cost of manufacturing the console doesn't mean the company as a whole is making money with the project. Hell, the tablet alone costs nearly $100 to build.

So imagine if they drop the price by $50, they'd have to hope consumers buy an additional 2-3 games just to make up for the cost. This is more realistic eventually (I wouldn't be surprised if they cut the price once Zelda or Smash Bros is released), but not now that there's hardly any compelling games to buy.

And they are bleeding cash because of the Wii U. From this Gamespot article:
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They were bleeding cash because of the strong Yen. Japanese companies that are export-heavy loos massive amounts of cash when their home country's currency is doing well.
 
next-Jin said:
19 AUG '09

Street Fighter not coming to Wii U

Sorry Wii U I'm defecting (Op-Ed)

Sales numbers apparently have yet to be released for hardware, many people are curious to see if pikman 3 ended up being a serious system seller.

In other news, Zelda Rehash HD will take up 2.6 GB of drive space so all of you folks with countless 20mb NES games should get ready to free up some space. Title is close to being released for the 20 people that didn't play it.

EDIT: Also just noticed we broke into the #2 spot for all time replies, another 400 and we will overtake the GT5 thread.
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Storage shouldn't be an issue with up to 2tb supported externally. They are not expensive. I have a 2 TB drive on mine buying digital is easy. In using a external 3.5 drive which is nice not being limited to mobile drives.

There are games
Pikmin
Wonderful 101
Rayman legends
Splinter cell
Luigi u (retail)


The first one is out and those others are here in weeks now. there are others to that are multi platform.

In picking up splitter cell for Wii U from the reviews the gamepad integration looks good.

In between all that I'm keeping busy playing xenoblade chronicles (fucking amazing)!
 
HisSvt76 said:
Storage shouldn't be an issue with up to 2tb supported externally. They are not expensive. I have a 2 TB drive on mine buying digital is easy. In using a external 3.5 drive which is nice not being limited to mobile drives.

There are games
Pikmin
Wonderful 101
Rayman legends
Splinter cell
Luigi u (retail)


The first one is out and those others are here in weeks now. there are others to that are multi platform.

In picking up splitter cell for Wii U from the reviews the gamepad integration looks good.

In between all that I'm keeping busy playing xenoblade chronicles (fucking amazing)!
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The Wii U can support up to 3 TB easy, I think. I have a 1 TB drive hooked up to mine I got for $60 at Microcenter during their Black Friday sale last year. I don't buy a lot of games digital yet, though.

Pikmin 3 is pretty damn beautiful, though. I don't know why most game developers give up on making water effects anymore, and I'm glad that Nintendo put a lot of effort into it.
 
ballistic90 said:
The Wii U can support up to 3 TB easy, I think. I have a 1 TB drive hooked up to mine I got for $60 at Microcenter during their Black Friday sale last year. I don't buy a lot of games digital yet, though.

Pikmin 3 is pretty damn beautiful, though. I don't know why most game developers give up on making water effects anymore, and I'm glad that Nintendo put a lot of effort into it.
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It's 2tb according to the official Nintendo FAQ. But more than one drive is now supported not sure if that's just for transfers or if they can run concurrently. I have a 32gb Wii U and don't even use the internal storage.
 
HisSvt76 said:
It's 2tb according to the official Nintendo FAQ. But more than one drive is now supported not sure if that's just for transfers or if they can run concurrently. I have a 32gb Wii U and don't even use the internal storage.
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Yeah, by default when you connect an external drive, it uses the external drive only.

I picked up ZombiU again, and the patch from April really made it a lot more playable. It still feels like a missed opportunity, though. I'm holding off on Splinter Cell, mostly because my wife wants to play Saint's Row IV together, so all game purchases this week are on hold until we complete that game through online co-op. Wonderful 101 looks good, but I think I might have to take some time to decide on whether I'll be getting it. I have a bad tendancy to stop playing those games halfway through. Luckily there's a demo that I can keep playing to make up my mind.
 
ballistic90 said:
Yeah, by default when you connect an external drive, it uses the external drive only.

I picked up ZombiU again, and the patch from April really made it a lot more playable. It still feels like a missed opportunity, though. I'm holding off on Splinter Cell, mostly because my wife wants to play Saint's Row IV together, so all game purchases this week are on hold until we complete that game through online co-op. Wonderful 101 looks good, but I think I might have to take some time to decide on whether I'll be getting it. I have a bad tendancy to stop playing those games halfway through. Luckily there's a demo that I can keep playing to make up my mind.
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I'll have to give zombie u another go.

Most of my time right now is spent playing Xenoblade Chronicles what an amazing game I picked it up at gamestop had a rewards coupon with my discount and a few trades cost me nothing.
 
ballistic90 said:
They were bleeding cash because of the strong Yen. Japanese companies that are export-heavy loos massive amounts of cash when their home country's currency is doing well.
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so their cash reserves are staying the same?


Their cash in USD is irrelevant at the moment.
 
Verge said:
so their cash reserves are staying the same?


Their cash in USD is irrelevant at the moment.
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Their cash reserves were staying relatively the same (at this point they're making a profit again), but the loss was mostly because the Yen climbed pretty high in value by the end of that year. Considering that they do a huge amount of export business, when they sell overseas when their home currency is of higher than expected value, then the profits they see (expressed in their home currency) is valued much lower than they would be if the value of the currency stayed the same.

It's true that the sales of the Wii U weren't as good as they were expecting, but that was far from the reason they posted a loss in profits.
 
HisSvt76 said:
I'll have to give zombie u another go.

Most of my time right now is spent playing Xenoblade Chronicles what an amazing game I picked it up at gamestop had a rewards coupon with my discount and a few trades cost me nothing.
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I'd get ZombiU only if you had nothing else you feel like playing. It's good, but I wouldn't break my neck to get it.

I tried Xenoblade shortly after I got my Wii U, but I played it for about 20 minutes and it didn't catch my interest and returned it. With the price of the game being what it is right now, I don't feel like trying to get it again.
 
ballistic90 said:
Their cash reserves were staying relatively the same (at this point they're making a profit again), but the loss was mostly because the Yen climbed pretty high in value by the end of that year. Considering that they do a huge amount of export business, when they sell overseas when their home currency is of higher than expected value, then the profits they see (expressed in their home currency) is valued much lower than they would be if the value of the currency stayed the same.

It's true that the sales of the Wii U weren't as good as they were expecting, but that was far from the reason they posted a loss in profits.
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Record profit up to june. If they are recording record profits despite completely failing in the non-mobile console market... why isn't that enough reason to convince them to dump consoles like SEGA and just make games. Obviously not much money in it.
 
Verge said:
Record profit up to june. If they are recording record profits despite completely failing in the non-mobile console market... why isn't that enough reason to convince them to dump consoles like SEGA and just make games. Obviously not much money in it.
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The Wii is all the proof they need to prove you completely wrong. The Wii made so much money, that if the Wii U were to completely, COMPLETELY fail, they could easily fund another, more powerful console with the cash reserves from the Wii alone.
 
Yea I don't think anyone is suggesting that Nintendo can't make another console. They have enough money to come out with a new console in 2015 that would put the PS4 or X1 to shame.

I'd like to see a 7950 equivalent or higher with the same cpu clocked around 2.5 at 399.99 with an actual Live or PSN equivalent.
 
next-Jin said:
Yea I don't think anyone is suggesting that Nintendo can't make another console. They have enough money to come out with a new console in 2015 that would put the PS4 or X1 to shame.

I'd like to see a 7950 equivalent or higher with the same cpu clocked around 2.5 at 399.99 with an actual Live or PSN equivalent.
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I fully suspect that the Wii U will have maybe a 4 or 5 year lifespan, while the Xbox One or PS4 will have more of a 7 year lifespan.

Honestly, listening to Nintendo, they were really caught off guard about how high the HDTV adoption rate was, only 3 years into the release of the Wii, and I think the slowdown in sales for the Wii in addition to that prompted them to release a new console earlier. I still really enjoy my Wii U and there's plenty of games I'm looking forward to coming out that justify my purchase, but I think they're going to be tempted to release another console sooner than the competition.

And what's wrong with the Nintendo Network? I keep hearing people badmouth it, and yet no one has given me a straight answer. There's no friend codes, you can send friend requests to people you've played with and people on Miiverse, you have video chat, you have an actual decent web browser, it's fast and responsive when you play a game online. It also updates itself and the games you have when the system is turned off.

I know they need to have your purchases tied to your Network account instead of your console. That's a pretty major addition that needs to change, but everything is pointing to that happening this fall (adding Miiverse to the 3DS and buying games through a web portal would neccessitate a single shared ID). I'd like to have a party system too, or beacons like on Xbox Live, but I can live without them. Beyond those (potentially big) points, what is the problem with their online service?
 
next-Jin said:
When you get to college and start taking business classes you'll understand. If I start a company and invest 1 Billion in R&D then sell my console at a slight loss which is then covered by selling software those costs have not been recouped. They (Nintendo) are talking about hardware costs not total costs.

See Sony and their losing 3 Billion in 2007-2008 + R&D, they didn't get out of the red until late 2011 or 2012.
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Sony had to do it that generation, because there's a good chance HD-DVD might have won that format war had sony not included the bluray player in the PS3. Including this bluray player, which was initially a big expense on their part, assured that bluray would take the format war.

I'm glad bluray won, since bluray is what I would call barely large enough in it's storage capacity for good uncompressed HD content.. really need a larger capacity format for things like seasons of TV shows which I find too many episodes packed onto a disc means a softer picture from the compression... or for 4K HD content... looks like sony and panasonic are planning a successor with a storage capacity of 300GB.
 
Possible Wii U Zelda HD bundle in the works: [URL="www.gamespot.com/news/nintendo-preparing-wind-waker-hd-wii-u-bundle-report-6413353?edition=desktop] Gamespot[/URL]


Featured comment:

Alon Lessel from Facebook said:
I don't think there could be a more fitting commentary on Nintendo's policies than it bundling its next-gen console with a remake of a Gamecube game.
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next-Jin said:
Possible Wii U Zelda HD bundle in the works: [URL="www.gamespot.com/news/nintendo-preparing-wind-waker-hd-wii-u-bundle-report-6413353?edition=desktop] Gamespot[/URL]


Featured comment:
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Yeah, fuck them for giving people what they apparently want. It's capitalism: If people want that bundle, it will sell. If they don't, it won't sell.

Anyways, you didn't reply to my previous post. I really want to know what's the problem with the Nintendo Network service.
 
A new engine has been announced to have full compatibility with the Wii U! Hurray! The bad news is that it's the new CRYENGINE. They haven't made that many good games on that series of engine lately, but the specific inclusion is good.
 
ballistic90 said:
A new engine has been announced to have full compatibility with the Wii U! Hurray! The bad news is that it's the new CRYENGINE. They haven't made that many good games on that series of engine lately, but the specific inclusion is good.
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It's not the engines fault. It's a great engine.
 
umeng2002 said:
It's not the engines fault. It's a great engine.
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Yeah, I guess that's true. I blame the developers that never seem to want to put their full ass into anything anymore. Or the developers that can't seem to differentiate between a good idea and a bad idea.
 
The Wii-U will offically be relaged to pretender and also ran on the day the PS4 is released and become irrelevant the day the xbox one is released. harsh, but that is what is going to happen. unless nintendo comes to it's senses and does a major price cut, this one is over.
 
ballistic90 said:
Anyways, you didn't reply to my previous post. I really want to know what's the problem with the Nintendo Network service.
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There isn't one, hence the lack of response.

Just a bunch of Nintendo haters jumping on the bandwagon because they don't like when a company does things differently for a change. Sorry if I don't want to buy the same games I'll be able to get for PC on the Xbone or PS4.

What's more, I recently purchased a lot of 3 PS3s (one original, one mid-gen, one newest). All work perfectly, but you know what happened when I fired one up? I found out that I really hadn't missed this gen of games like I thought (I previously had only Wii + PC + handhelds + previous gens): 99% of the AAA titles on either the PS3 or XBox were also on the PC -- only now I get to play them watered down! True, I'm enjoying some of the console exclusives (particularly Metal Gear Rising), but most I'm playing are just downright horrible examples of visuals over gameplay. Since when did "hardcore" gaming become watching cutscenes? Maybe it's because I was born into the NES era, but &%@^ this generation of gamers if you all consider AAA titles to be nothing more than interactive movies. I had tons more fun playing my Wii than I do my PS3s, and why? Because the games and experiences offered by Nintendo aren't available anywhere else!

About to buy a Wii U for Wonderful 101, just debating over whether to wait for WW bundle or not. Xboners and PS4 fanboys can have your endless FPSers and interactive movies (both of which I can play on my $4000+ PC, thanks)
 
Xinmosni said:
There isn't one, hence the lack of response.

Just a bunch of Nintendo haters jumping on the bandwagon because they don't like when a company does things differently for a change. Sorry if I don't want to buy the same games I'll be able to get for PC on the Xbone or PS4.

What's more, I recently purchased a lot of 3 PS3s (one original, one mid-gen, one newest). All work perfectly, but you know what happened when I fired one up? I found out that I really hadn't missed this gen of games like I thought (I previously had only Wii + PC + handhelds + previous gens): 99% of the AAA titles on either the PS3 or XBox were also on the PC -- only now I get to play them watered down! True, I'm enjoying some of the console exclusives (particularly Metal Gear Rising), but most I'm playing are just downright horrible examples of visuals over gameplay. Since when did "hardcore" gaming become watching cutscenes? Maybe it's because I was born into the NES era, but &%@^ this generation of gamers if you all consider AAA titles to be nothing more than interactive movies. I had tons more fun playing my Wii than I do my PS3s, and why? Because the games and experiences offered by Nintendo aren't available anywhere else!

About to buy a Wii U for Wonderful 101, just debating over whether to wait for WW bundle or not. Xboners and PS4 fanboys can have your endless FPSers and interactive movies (both of which I can play on my $4000+ PC, thanks)
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To be fair, there are legitimate problems to complain about with the Nintendo Network system, but when I hear people bitch about it, they never actually mention the issues. Basically, there's no Party/Beacon system, and the ID is tied to your console are the biggest issues. These are things that can and should be addressed in patches.

I actually like FPS games a lot, but half the time, all that's coming out are the yearly CODs and a few good FPS games here and there, but typically they go way too much into "realistic warfare" to offer the amount of variety there used to be in the genre. Borderlands was desperately needed, and Farcry 3 was good, but I'm hoping for more than that.

As for Wonderful 101, I'm not sure if I'm all that excited for it. Pikmin 3 was really good, and I recently picked up Splinter Cell Blacklist, so I'm getting games I want for the system. There's a demo for Wonderful 101 that's available for download too, which is what I've played. I think it's one of those games that I just don't have a strong interest in.
 
At the rate Wii U is going it will take them at least 20 years now to catch up with PS3 sales.

Yea.
 
If i recall correctly, sega genesis was actually winning its generation till nintendo release donkey kong country and mortal kombat 2 with blood.
 
The PS3 had major growing pains for a while. There were very few exclusives, it was expensive, and it came out a year later than the 360. For the first year people were buying it just because it was the cheapest decent Blu-Ray player.
It didn't seem to get major traction until maybe 2-3 years into its lifespan. I'm not sure if there was a specific game or games that did it either. It just seems like one day casual gamers started picking them up.
 
Zohar78 said:
If i recall correctly, sega genesis was actually winning its generation till nintendo release donkey kong country and mortal kombat 2 with blood.
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I think that depends on the region. I think the Turbographix console (or PC Engine) was winning in some places.
 
Domingo said:
The PS3 had major growing pains for a while. There were very few exclusives, it was expensive, and it came out a year later than the 360. For the first year people were buying it just because it was the cheapest decent Blu-Ray player.
It didn't seem to get major traction until maybe 2-3 years into its lifespan. I'm not sure if there was a specific game or games that did it either. It just seems like one day casual gamers started picking them up.
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MGS4 released in June 2008, then the 80GB PS3 was reduced to $400 in September. After that it kinda snowballed with the exclusives (Killzone 2, Uncharted 2, God of War 3, etc.) and further price drops.
 
ballistic90 said:
I think that depends on the region. I think the Turbographix console (or PC Engine) was winning in some places.
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It beat sega in japan for a long time. Enough for them to release a sequel to turbographx 16 called pc-fx.

ultimately, the sequel failed enough to push NEC out of the console wars.
 
The TurboGrafx 16...that brings back memories. Back in the day most of the major magazines were drooling over that system. The Genesis was considered a dark horse early on, but nearly arcade perfect games like Altered Beast, Golden Axe, etc. went a long way over here in the states. That was back when arcade ports were a BIG deal. Sonic didn't hurt, too.
From memory, I think Nintendo's exclusive rights to certain franchises in the US didn't help either.
In Japan I think NEC technically "won" that generation or at least finished more or less even since they had a head start.
 
Also segas marketing during that era was top notch. some of the best commercials where sega's and that sega scream. It also helped that sega was pulling in the mature crowd with violence and non cartoon games that nintendo didnt have. Thus why nintendo started relenting on the blood gore issue, and why Mortal Kombat 2 had its blood returned.
 
Zohar78 said:
Also segas marketing during that era was top notch. some of the best commercials where sega's and that sega scream. It also helped that sega was pulling in the mature crowd with violence and non cartoon games that nintendo didnt have. Thus why nintendo started relenting on the blood gore issue, and why Mortal Kombat 2 had its blood returned.
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Nintendo (of American, at least) had a large number of restrictions on its games, like removing religious references from games whenever possible, and a lot of those restrictions survived all the way up to the Gamecube.
 
ballistic90 said:
Nintendo (of American, at least) had a large number of restrictions on its games, like removing religious references from games whenever possible, and a lot of those restrictions survived all the way up to the Gamecube.
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yeah, quake was one of the games. It was huge though them letting blood in mk2.
 
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