What the Hell Is Wrong With Nintendo?

King Icewind said:
What they should have done is made a more competent powerful console and use the 3DS for remote play like Sony did with the Vita for the PS4. Maybe you can do that already? Either way...
Click to expand...

I actually like that idea. That would probably have allowed Nintendo to gain some of the "hardcore" crowd back that they've lost over the years. As it stands, I think the Wii U is basically finished in terms of this generation of consoles. Sure, people will buy it when the next Zelda or SSB comes out, but they will probably never touch the console again once those games run their course. Sounds a lot like what happened with the OG Wii.....except people actually bought those by the millions.

Nintendo better have their engineers working on a console that they can bring out in the next 2 years or so. If not, I think we might see Nintendo go all portable. Apparently, that is where the Japanese market is heading anyway.
 
The controller killed the Wii & U for me. I have no interest in either. Instead of forcing gimmicks on people (Microsoft should take note as well) it should have been optional with a real controller. A more powerful console would not have hurt either.
 
Developing for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC is extremely similar, as the basic hardware is largely the same. You can target similar performance envelopes between them, and port your code over with minimal effort. Wii U? Totally different hardware and development environment. Combine that with poor relative performance, lagging sales, bad marketing (Wii U? Parents got confused enough with the Wiimote/nunchuck/Wii+ thing!), and a controller peripheral that has yet to show a really new and fun take on gaming. The Wii was something that, after a 30 second demonstration or commercial, anyone could pick up and play. And I mean anyone - how many Wiis were sold to nursing homes?

As for handheld gaming.. yeah.. the cell phone/tablet gaming market is eclipsing dedicated handhelds. Nintendo needs to give up on consoles and focus on software. Maybe custom peripherals for existing consoles if they want something unique, but stop trying to build walled gardens.
 
The controller is the best part of the WiiU. It's failing because their marketing sucks donkey balls. The should have never had the Wii in the name. I purchased it on launch and noticed that a lot of people thought it was just a Wii. They didn't know about the new controller or the fact that it was much more powerful than the Wii. It also didn't help that all the games people wanted like mario kart, new zelda, new smash bros etc are still not out. I bought the WiiU thinking there'd be tons of the old nintendo games I loved revamped but so far just Mario has been released. I don't regret buying one since it was cheap but it very rarely gets used.
 
eth3ton said:
The controller killed the Wii & U for me. I have no interest in either. Instead of forcing gimmicks on people (Microsoft should take note as well) it should have been optional with a real controller. A more powerful console would not have hurt either.
Click to expand...
Have you ever used a Wii U controller? It's actually really comfortable, despite the size. It's basically a normal controller, just with a touchscreen.
 
I remember reading an article 20 years ago about a boardroom meeting at Sega.
Basically they where discussing the launch for the Saturn and someone burst in with the news that Nintendo had developed a 3D console! The room went silent.... Sega had invested everything into a DOA 2D platform, had they known, the Dreamcast would or could have come out years earlier and maybe Sega would be in the console mix this Christmas.
My point is, Nintendo got the jump on the competition and it payed off for them.
Today we get incremental improvements and i really miss those days when you really expected something Amazing from Nintendo, Sega and Sony.
The wii is a really great platform, we play it once and a while and its is fun, but its more of a toy. I would love to see something from Nintendo like days of old, A bold push in a new direction, i miss the WOW factor.
 
I think everyone in this thread would forgive all of Nintendo's past mistakes, and fork over just about any sum of money for the following console. I know I wouldn't be able to resist - regardless of price. I'd spend thousands on "all the things" - they'd have me by the balls.

1) 1080p 60fps PS4/XBONE level graphics
2) No more stupid gimmicks - design a plain old controller with no motion nonsense
3) Integrate the 3DS ala PS4/Vita style. I also want to play those 3DS games on the big screen.
4) Line up a badarse remake of every major Nintendo title - old school difficulty style. Mario, metroid, smash, zelda, pikmin, kirby, god this list gows on forever. Note, this means games are available upon release. Mario comes with the console.
5) Fix your store and network. I want a friends list, a real store, and none of this tying crap to a console stuff.
6) Big hard drives for digital games - or at least the ability to replace/expand
7) Basic level home entertainment stuff. Streaming, amazon prime, netflix, MP3s, etc.

Anyone listening Nintendo? Make it and you can have ALL my money. Us old school hardcore gamers still like your IPs, and would love to see them get the modern treatment. God - look at the response to your new zelda game on the 3DS - that's what people want...

sigh
 
If they had that system with those major IP's, they would be #1 within months, given enough supply. Third party? What third party?

I'd buy it as soon as I could. Hell, they should start designing those kick ass games to be released in 2-3 years (using x86 hardware) then develop the hardware along side. In 3 years, when it's being released, start getting those games out there. One or two major IP releases a month for a year or two.

Kongar said:
I think everyone in this thread would forgive all of Nintendo's past mistakes, and fork over just about any sum of money for the following console. I know I wouldn't be able to resist - regardless of price. I'd spend thousands on "all the things" - they'd have me by the balls.

1) 1080p 60fps PS4/XBONE level graphics
2) No more stupid gimmicks - design a plain old controller with no motion nonsense
3) Integrate the 3DS ala PS4/Vita style. I also want to play those 3DS games on the big screen.
4) Line up a badarse remake of every major Nintendo title - old school difficulty style. Mario, metroid, smash, zelda, pikmin, kirby, god this list gows on forever. Note, this means games are available upon release. Mario comes with the console.
5) Fix your store and network. I want a friends list, a real store, and none of this tying crap to a console stuff.
6) Big hard drives for digital games - or at least the ability to replace/expand
7) Basic level home entertainment stuff. Streaming, amazon prime, netflix, MP3s, etc.

Anyone listening Nintendo? Make it and you can have ALL my money. Us old school hardcore gamers still like your IPs, and would love to see them get the modern treatment. God - look at the response to your new zelda game on the 3DS - that's what people want...

sigh
Click to expand...
 
Kongar said:
1) 1080p 60fps PS4/XBONE level graphics
2) No more stupid gimmicks - design a plain old controller with no motion nonsense
3) Integrate the 3DS ala PS4/Vita style. I also want to play those 3DS games on the big screen.
4) Line up a badarse remake of every major Nintendo title - old school difficulty style. Mario, metroid, smash, zelda, pikmin, kirby, god this list gows on forever. Note, this means games are available upon release. Mario comes with the console.
5) Fix your store and network. I want a friends list, a real store, and none of this tying crap to a console stuff.
6) Big hard drives for digital games - or at least the ability to replace/expand
7) Basic level home entertainment stuff. Streaming, amazon prime, netflix, MP3s, etc.
Click to expand...

Please take my money. The sooner the better!
 
Kongar said:
6) Big hard drives for digital games - or at least the ability to replace/expand
7) Basic level home entertainment stuff. Streaming, amazon prime, netflix, MP3s, etc.
Click to expand...

They already have that, Nintendo opted to use SSD instead on HDD for speed, if you want extra space there are two USB ports at the back and two at the front. The Wii U fully supports external hard drives/SSDs.
 
SixFootDuo said:
Yeah, they fucked up at Nintendo. They needed a bad ass Zelda, Metroid, Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, StarFox titles at launch and then some.

I heard rumors that Nintendo has been in talks with Sony to coop on Nintendo titles on PS4 if things get terminal
Click to expand...

What a complete load of bull. Nintendo's doing just fine, and any rumor you heard from the Cheeto eater hopefuls, is just that, Fanboy nonsense.
 
Ur_Mom said:
Ouch. Nintendo may be going the way of Sega fairly soon. :( Sad times.
Click to expand...

Nah, Nintendo's nowhere near the level of Sega. Remember that Sega released 2 add-ons to the Genesis, one of which was a massive fail (no other console has probably failed as hard as the 32x), haphazardly designed the Saturn (not powerful enough? Add a second processor, and make it so that each CPU shares the same RAM bus - so that they each had to wait for each other), and the fact that they then cut support for all their lucrative systems (bye-bye Genesis, Game Gear, etc) to pour all the eggs into the Saturn basket really pissed a lot of gamers off. Even when they finally did it right with the Dreamcast, it was too late. Nintendo is nowhere near any of that. Disclaimer - I LOVE the Sega Saturn, Genesis, and Dreamcast.
 
Here's my bold statement: N64 was the last good home system that Nintento put out. Why does the Game Cube get forgotten by so many people? because it had nothing innovative; it was a piece of shit. The only good thing about the game cube? it doesn't take up as much space as an xbox in the landfill.

The best system Nintendo ever produced? The Super Nintendo. Why? Because it had games that didn't suck and it pushed the system to it's absolute limit and didn't care about blast processing or other 32-bit systems. Nintendo focused on being creative to go around the limitations of the system and not market the garbage like Sega did with the 32x and the sega cd. Nintendo cherry picked their licensing and Squaresoft was pretty much nintendo exclusive at that time.

Hey, nintendo wants polygons in their games? Add SuperFX chip. Hey want speach in your games? add on another 16 Megabit to their cart size for Starocean or tales of phantasia. Adding extra hardware was ONLY to enhance what would be an excellent game, not to save the system.

Then playstation popped up and OH NO, Konami is now making games for the PSX, Squaresoft is no longer making the continuation of the final fantasy for Nintendo. Capcom is now making streetfighter alpha elsewhere but here's a port of Alpha 2 on SNES which was still a decent port for a System nearing discontinuation. Games were still pushing the SNES to the edge and back and STILL competing with next gen consoles which is why I consider it the best system Nintendo ever graced the planet with.

Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 2) was an absolutely beautiful game that came well into the time when PSX was launched.

Really, it's not the hardware that kills a console it's the lack of interesting and, the key word here, ENGAGING games that kills it. Nintendo lost their killer instinct, both figuratively and literally. One of the biggest Nintendo icons for over a decade was the killer instinct francise and now it's on xbox. It's as sad as seeing Sonic on Nintendo.

Here's where I think the defining neutering moment of Nintendo was: The fucking Virtual Boy. After such a colossal flop for that system, Nintendo sad fuck it, let's cut back on licensing and create games that are pick up and play.

/rant
 
jbltecnicspro said:
Nah, Nintendo's nowhere near the level of Sega. Remember that Sega released 2 add-ons to the Genesis, one of which was a massive fail (no other console has probably failed as hard as the 32x), haphazardly designed the Saturn (not powerful enough? Add a second processor, and make it so that each CPU shares the same RAM bus - so that they each had to wait for each other), and the fact that they then cut support for all their lucrative systems (bye-bye Genesis, Game Gear, etc) to pour all the eggs into the Saturn basket really pissed a lot of gamers off. Even when they finally did it right with the Dreamcast, it was too late. Nintendo is nowhere near any of that. Disclaimer - I LOVE the Sega Saturn, Genesis, and Dreamcast.
Click to expand...

Saturn was an excellent 2D system, but the 3D just wasn't up to par when the PS1 hit, which was great at 3D. Nintendo has the cash and the success that Sega didn't. Sega was a smaller company and didn't have the cash to fall back on.

The 32x was too expensive, and was abandoned because the Saturn was right there. No sense in it at all. The games are decent, though. But, for the cost of the Genesis + Sega CD + 32x was WAY more than a Saturn. Especially when you buy them at launch (damn, I washed a lot of dishes for those things).

Sega didn't fail right away. The Genesis was a huge hit. Saturn? Not so much (one of my favorite Sega systems, though, second to the SMS). Dreamcast was, but they burned too many people with the Saturn. The PS1 had eclipsed it and people were waiting for the PS2. Sega couldn't compete. The Saturn put Sega back in the back of the pack. Nintendo is heading there - back of the pack. They'll remain, of course, with the cash on hand... But, if they release another dud (going by the numbers listed, not by actual console thoughts, which are good with me), they may rethink their console strategy. They are in it for profit. If they don't make as much when releasing so-so consoles, and they keep releasing so-so consoles, they may go to software again. If they release another very successful console, they'll probably stay in the game. Wii U could be a fluke with bad timing and underperforming hardware (games are great, though). If they released a high powered console that competed with the Xbone & PS4 with some awesome first party games, could they hit #1 again? Probably.
 
Oh yeah, Sony should probably thank Nintendo for scrapping their SNES CD based add-on. Nintendo was too short-sighted on load times.
 
MrGoodbar said:
Oh yeah, Sony should probably thank Nintendo for scrapping their SNES CD based add-on. Nintendo was too short-sighted on load times.
Click to expand...

Yea, the results of that decision were huge. Playstation really took over the industry. Not only the system, but getting some third party folks to drop Nintendo and go Sony.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
All of the WiiU's problems revolve around that stupid ass controller. Many of us said from the beginning it was going to directly be involved in the WiiU failing miserably. All the fanboy's shouted us down and swore that all mighty nintendo couldn't screw up.

Who was right now? Oh right..Those of us actually capable of liking a company and being critical of their product at the same time.
Click to expand...


To me the biggest problem is the look and name. Wii captured a type of casual audience that imo would not be able to tell the difference in look and name of Nintendos new console. I don't know who at Nintendo thought naming it the Wii U would signify "new console new experience", but it doesn't. Making it look nearly identical doesn't help the marketing either.

The casual audience they captured isn't the typical casual audience. Nintendo's failure to realize this will cost them greatly.
 
For me Nintendo's problems stem from not identifying the audience that made the Wii successful to begin with. It isn't your typical casual audience.

Brand recognition and confusion: Why is it named the Wii U? That is confusing for the audience they won over. If you don't think it is, then you don't understand the audience they won over with the Wii U. Why does it look the same as the Wii? So it has created both brand and visual confusion. It looks IDENTIAL to the Wii and is not named in a way to present itself as a brand new experience. It was bound to fail and how their marketing and research could not identify this leads me to think someone high up really wanted this name and is a moron.

The naming problem. Some will say well how does a numeral tell somebody it is a new experience? Because everyone knows basic math and can understand that 2 > 1. Wii (non U) to Wii U differentiates nothing, especially because it looks the same. A tablet? That looks like something you buy and use with the Wii as an add on. The Wii U strikes me as an add-on or peripheral name, ANYTHING but a new console.

Note: The audience they captured is not the an audience who knows a ton about technology or consoles. Not clearly labeling a console as a sequel has done 0 benefits to Nintendo.

This doesn't include other factors but these other factors are minor imo.

- Launching with a very slow console that needed several updates to fix
- Launching with minimal killer apps
- Launching with minimal marketing it seems
- Launching with a casual game that captures the audience that made the Wii successful (Wii Sports, Fit etc).



TL;DR Nintendo fucked themselves with a bad name for the console, not creating a different enough looking console for the audience that made the Wii successful to begin with.
 
Wii was casual gamer shit i'm stupid... putting 40+ hours each into games like The last story, little king story, monster hunter tri, Loz: TP and SS, no more heroes 1/2, SMG: 1/2, super paper mario and shit. Forgot hardcore just meant fps.

Problem with wii/wiiU is that they have an issue with 3rd party content, in part they know this by creating the wii pro controller to combat this, but their problem also stems in their consoles limits in relation to other consoles. The WiiU could be successful for 1-2 years while the ps3 and xbox360 still linger around, except 3rd parties still don't want to touch it because of small install base.

Really Nintendo can keep the quaky controllers, but they must have the pro controller the base controller and let companies that want to experiment do it. Nintendo's first party content has proven those controllers when taken seriously can enhance great games, but making 3rd parities assume everyone starts off with those controls are unappealing. Start with the pro controller let the wii mote/screen be the 2ndary controller this does mean to have all 3 in the box.
 
armandh01 said:
For me Nintendo's problems stem from not identifying the audience that made the Wii successful to begin with. It isn't your typical casual audience.

Brand recognition and confusion: Why is it named the Wii U? That is confusing for the audience they won over. If you don't think it is, then you don't understand the audience they won over with the Wii U. Why does it look the same as the Wii? So it has created both brand and visual confusion. It looks IDENTIAL to the Wii and is not named in a way to present itself as a brand new experience. It was bound to fail and how their marketing and research could not identify this leads me to think someone high up really wanted this name and is a moron.

The naming problem. Some will say well how does a numeral tell somebody it is a new experience? Because everyone knows basic math and can understand that 2 > 1. Wii (non U) to Wii U differentiates nothing, especially because it looks the same. A tablet? That looks like something you buy and use with the Wii as an add on. The Wii U strikes me as an add-on or peripheral name, ANYTHING but a new console.

Note: The audience they captured is not the an audience who knows a ton about technology or consoles. Not clearly labeling a console as a sequel has done 0 benefits to Nintendo.

This doesn't include other factors but these other factors are minor imo.

- Launching with a very slow console that needed several updates to fix
- Launching with minimal killer apps
- Launching with minimal marketing it seems
- Launching with a casual game that captures the audience that made the Wii successful (Wii Sports, Fit etc).



TL;DR Nintendo fucked themselves with a bad name for the console, not creating a different enough looking console for the audience that made the Wii successful to begin with.
Click to expand...

The Japanese are all about brand loyalty. The Wii was a very popular system. From their point of view, people would associate the new U with the Wii, and migrate to it, naturally. It would guarantee sales. It makes sense why they look the same and have the same name if you look at it from that viewpoint.

What they have failed to account for, is that all those casual, older people that picked up a Wii just for the gimmick factor only ever used the system to play Wii Sports. Those same individuals will probably continue to play the same Wii Sports for the next 10 years. They have no reason to purchase, nor interest in a WiiU. And without the hype or their coworkers and friends talking about it, will probably never even know there is such a thing as a WiiU.
 
So, in other words, the majority of everyone here want Nintendo to come out with a $399 to $499 console capable of 1080p gaming at a steady 60FPS with graphics fidelity and quality on par or better than the PS4/XONE with standard gamepad controllers, and a capable gaming network without the need for friend codes, but also home entertainment and media streaming features and capability alongside the ability to have an expandable internal hard drive and Bluray playback, without trying anything gimmicky or something new and different than any other cookie-cutter video game console released from Microsoft or Sony?

That, pretty much?

http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-One-Console-Day-Edition/dp/B00CMQTVK0

http://www.amazon.com/PlayStation-4/dp/B00BGA9WK2

... when Nintendo doesn't consider themselves direct competition to Microsoft and Sony, yet cater to a different crowd by making a more affordable console that normal families can afford and without breaking people's wallets?

It would take someone at Nintendo to consider hardcore, non-casual gamers as people they can market a more powerful console to, that don't mind spending $400 or more for a more powerful console. Yet, people here spend hundreds to thousands of dollars on a gaming PC while bashing video console followers for buying nothing more than a $400 or $500 weak-as-hell PC with a mobile core processor and midrange graphics GPU?

Does this make sense to anyone? You say one thing and complain about it, yet when you want one company to do something different and do the same thing that's being done by two other companies, you still find the time to complain that the products [XONE & PS4] are weaker than desktop PCs and bash the products to high hell and back.

We cannot and, I repeat, cannot expect video game consoles to have quad-core Intel processors with high end graphics only capable on a Nvidia Geforce 780 Ti graphics card with 16GB of RAM, 256GB SSD and 4TB of hard drive storage to cost less than $500 or even $300. No way what's going to happen.

Yet, you want one company capable of doing that for a $400-level console or higher, then later bash the product like many of you have done to XONE and PS4 for having inferior hardware not to your liking because it's not capable of the same things your $800 or more desktop gaming PC is doing?

That doesn't make sense, honestly.

One product is a gaming console.

The other is your home gaming PC.

Don't blame one for being inferior to the other just because they have to come in under a certain price point, yet are marketed differently and to different people.

Nintendo markets to one corner of the market, while Sony and Microsoft target another. Everyone else are in the corner with midrange to high-end PC hardware costing much more than a videogame console, and have an entirely different demographic and consumer market.

As different as the hardware are and as "inferior" as they are, these are gaming consoles first and foremost. Not many people can or want to bother themselves with a gaming PC that isn't a "turn on and play" for the majority of non-computer aficionados. Let's have Valve try to solve that issue for them.

However, if people want Nintendo to do something different, why not a two-prong approach? One for families and households that probably already have a Bluray player, but can't afford a much higher-priced gaming console, and the other for those that want a little more power in their console. It'd be like having different versions and configuratoins of Steam Machines from Valve when it's released, but Nintendo style.

WiiU SD - $299

  • 2.0GHz custom triple-core PPC (higher clocked WiiU processor)
  • 2GB DDR3 RAM
  • Radeon 7790 GPU
  • 32GB internal SSD
  • No DVD/Bluray playback
  • Expandable storage via external hard drives
  • Backwards compatible with Wii and WiiU games
WiiU HD - $499

  • 3.0GHz custom quad-core PPC (higher clocked, quad-core variant of WiiU processor)
  • 4GB DDR3 RAM
  • Radeon 7870 GPU
  • 64GB internal SSD
  • DVD/Bluray playback
  • Expandable storage via external hard drives
  • Backwards compatible with Wii and WiiU games
Developers will make one game but the game automatically switches its graphics settings such as AA and resolution based on the hardware it's played on. Kind of like playing a PC game where you set the graphics settings that can run on your computer. Only difference here is that one would be Medium and the other is High. It shouldn't take any more effort on the developer's part by providing two switchable settings that can be selected by the console's BIOS before the game is loaded. At least those that can't afford the $499 system can still play the same game on a $299 system. It'd make logical sense. And, there'd be cost-savings by using the same triple-core PPC processor from the WiiU-- just clock it higher, give it a smaller process such as 28nm, and add another core for the higher priced console. The GPU themselves, so long as they remain un-customized for a good portion of it, should still remain affordable to include in the console.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Nintendo should have NEVER let their brand name be just a brand name and not the icon of the system. If they established Nintendo as their namesay for the console, they should have kept it.

When I was growing up, even when I had the PSX and PS2, my mom told me to turn off the fucking Nintendo and do my homework when clearly, it was a Sony product. I doubt any mom ever said turn off the game cube, or turn off the wii with such a distinct identifying icon as Nintendo.

Nintendo established their icon as the console itself. The statue of liberty was portrayed to have been controlled by the NES advantage in Ghost Busters. Nintendo had the world by it's fucking balls. A feature length advertisement named The Wizard, is all Nintendo.

Once Sony established their iconic Playstation name, that was it. It's next iterations came in the form of 2, 3, 4 and portables. Nevertheless, Playstation never took a backseat in the naming. Playstation store, Playstation Plus, Playstation, Playstation, Playstation. Say that shit until it loses all meaning.

If Nintendo ever does go down, a big part is Nintendo's Marketting failure.

Don't get me wrong, I fucking love Nintendo. I just hate what it's become after the N64.
 
octoberasian said:
So, in other words, the majority of everyone here want Nintendo to come out with a $399 to $499 console capable of 1080p gaming at a steady 60FPS with graphics fidelity and ...

WORDS
Click to expand...

I think you're missing the point. Nintendo as a brand, along with the potential of its IPs - could release a PS4 equivalent "Nintendo" for $1000 and I'd pay it, as well as others too I'll bet. I don't want the gimmicks and the headaches and the goofy crap. I want DEM GAMES. Or hell release them for Sony / MS / PC, that's fine too. But that would be stupid since they have a real possibility of taking all my money instead :)
 
Outamyhead said:
But how many handheld systems have they sold so far?
Click to expand...

Well, if you're going into that arena, Nintendo is now competing against smartphones which also doubles as a handheld console. As the library of games increases on the various stores, I don't see Nintendo being able to keep up their crown forever. Maybe nintendo will remarket Pokemon as Monsters in my Pocket and cater to the adults too, if you know what I mean.
 
Kongar said:
I think you're missing the point. Nintendo as a brand, along with the potential of its IPs - could release a PS4 equivalent "Nintendo" for $1000 and I'd pay it, as well as others too I'll bet. I don't want the gimmicks and the headaches and the goofy crap. I want DEM GAMES. Or hell release them for Sony / MS / PC, that's fine too. But that would be stupid since they have a real possibility of taking all my money instead :)
Click to expand...

At best, Nintendo will be here for a long time and I doubt they'll turn into Sega with their games heading to different hardware platforms.

The only way for Nintendo to have more games is to attract more gaming developers. And, unfortunately, if anyone has read developer complaints as far back as the N64, they want more powerful hardware. They came out with the WiiU but not many developers ported their games over-- the games were developed first for more powerful gaming hardware but developers won't back port a lower version for the WiiU. So, what gives?

You can't have a powerful gaming console at $299 that Nintendo hopes to market it to families that want something affordable.

Hence, the two prong approach suggestion in my post above. Offer one affordable console for those people Nintendo likes to market to, and the other to attract more developers and higher end gamers. And, offer an automatic software-switchable setting in the game that sets it to medium or high settings depending on which hardware the game is played on.

Everyone wants more games on the WiiU but kind of hard when developers are hesitant to even develop for it, especially when they complain that the hardware is not powerful enough, yet they're willing to work on two different consoles of varying processing and performance capabilities-- XONE versus PS4?

The logic there kind of escapes me there.
 
Semantics said:
Wii was casual gamer shit i'm stupid... putting 40+ hours each into games like The last story, little king story, monster hunter tri, Loz: TP and SS, no more heroes 1/2, SMG: 1/2, super paper mario and shit. Forgot hardcore just meant fps.
Click to expand...

Those are the gems among dozens and dozens of casual games, many of which just try to use the motion controller with little actual content. Great system, great games, but not bleeding edge console. Nintendo is great. But, it's almost like they like being in the game and are content with being the #3 guy.

For their market, though (families, etc.), they are #1. Kids from 3-103 can all enjoy games on Nintendo systems. A lot of games. For the Xbox or PS, there are a lot less games that any kids can enjoy. There are some, but not as many. The demographics are different.
 
I guess I agree. Although I am suggesting that Nintendo ditch the casuals and the grandmas. There's more money to be made off us hardcores. Hell, even the kids. I remember playing some fairly punishing games on the NES as a young teenager and loving the snot out of it. Battletoads, kid Icarus, ghosts and goblins, etc. nothing casual about those games. Make the awesome console and ditch the granny pants IMHO. :)
 
Astral Abyss said:
The Japanese are all about brand loyalty. The Wii was a very popular system. From their point of view, people would associate the new U with the Wii, and migrate to it, naturally. It would guarantee sales. It makes sense why they look the same and have the same name if you look at it from that viewpoint.

What they have failed to account for, is that all those casual, older people that picked up a Wii just for the gimmick factor only ever used the system to play Wii Sports. Those same individuals will probably continue to play the same Wii Sports for the next 10 years. They have no reason to purchase, nor interest in a WiiU. And without the hype or their coworkers and friends talking about it, will probably never even know there is such a thing as a WiiU.
Click to expand...

Japanese are only brand loyal to an extent (Vita, PS3, Wii U etc are all doing mediocre) and that is the smallest market and the market they should have concentrated on the least.

I am on the fence about this. Tablets are huge and a tablet for a controller should cause interest. Those old peoples coworkers are still the same demographic as those old people and it isn't just old people as well. I would assume more Women in general were interested in the Wii, more moms etc. I think the Nintendo would have benefit more from some how expanding with the Wiimote versus a tablet controller. I think they tried to make it too different because Nintendo is stuck in this perpetual need to innovate every time they release a new console, which it doesn't always have to.


I still stand by the confusion of brand naming and creating a console that has a horrible name and looks the same. Not enough differentiation in terms of telling people that this IS a new console and better than the Wii.
 
armandh01 said:
I still stand by the confusion of brand naming and creating a console that has a horrible name and looks the same. Not enough differentiation in terms of telling people that this IS a new console and better than the Wii.
Click to expand...

Even some gamers think it's just a new controller and an HDMI connection, nothing more.
 
Man, the problem with Nintendo is that it doesn't do 3rd party support really well with it's new generations of consoles. It needs to get back to the SNES days when they had a bunch of quality first person games with a LOT of quality 3rd party support.

They need to work WITH the 3rd party software companies, be actively engaged with them, and help them as much as possible.

They should want 3rd party software companies to succeed with sales on their platforms.
 
If they just went back to making games like the NES, SNES, N64 days .. I'd buy their crap.
 
i'm tired of the same mario game that looks like plastic over and over. i hope they will release an addon. could be named the 32U
 
I just bought a WiiU. I have no reason that I would not purchase one at launch.. I just really didn't know about it. We are very excited about a new Mario and Luigi..
 
Don't get me wrong, I've loved Nintendo since my very first Famicom. (Yes, it was actually a Famicom; I eventually got a NES as well). However, I think that they went the wrong direction with the WiiU. The Wii was a success because it was inexpensive and was a "blue ocean" strategy of getting people who never before purchased a game system to buy one. However, this wasn't going to work twice - the nursing homes are still happy with their Wii Sports Tennis - they don't need another console! Likewise, all the people who just are happy to play "A video game" - they already have the Wii. Its a very different thing to convince people to "upgrade" to another console; its a completely different market entirely!

While some Wii users would look to a WiiU for an upgrade, it really fell into a big problem in that it may not have been 'good enough' and 'different enough'. The original Wii's motion controls (especially Wii Motion Plus) were a new, best of breed kind of thing. However, that's no longer new and different - Microsoft and Sony now have their own motion controls, and some of them far more extensive (ie Kinect) than the Wii!. So what did the Wii U bring to the table that was new? The WiiU GamePad - and initially, it was neat.. but it wasn't as amazing as motion control was when the Wii launched. However, we're now in a world with ubiquitous multi-touch smart phones and tablets - the WiiU GamePad feels inferior in the comparison; especially when some games (ie CoD ) are now offering "second screen" phone/tablet apps. This, on devices that most people already have!

Worse, the WiiU basically falls into the cracks as far as hardware is concerned. 3rd parties went to the Wii because of all the investment in the new installed base, even if the console wasn't as powerful as the X360/PS3. There were some great "hardcore" gamer games on the Wii (Metroid series, Xenoblade, Last Story, Pandora's Tower, Smash Bros Brawl, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword etc.), both first and 3rd party - though admittedly there was a lot of shovelware and inferior ports as well. Now, the WiiU launched and for awhile it was looking that it would be at least a good competitor for the X360/PS3 - power-wise, it was looking that way, equal or one upping them. However, with the change of architecture for the XBOne/PS4, this means that 3rd parties aren't going to want to spend their time coding for the less powerful WiiU, if they don't have a huge financial reason to do so. This is probably a big issue for 3rd party rollout.

Worse, a lot of those people deciding if they want to upgrade from a Wii to a new console (or even X360/PS3) etc.. are going to have certain expectations. Wii's "friend code" system was cumbersome for instance, and the WiiU made some improvements to their Store, but the core of the system was the same. There was still no unified nickname, communication via text or VOIP etc... things that players looking to upgrade may be interested in. Compare this to all the features and store of the XBOne/PS4, and many will see it very lacking.

To be completely honest, I'd really like to see Nintendo concentrate on the PC as a platform, as well as open mobile OSes (ie Android, FirefoxOS etc.) I've said numerous times "I'd really like it if all these Nintendo 3DS games were instead available on my Android phone/tablet I already have." I don't like having to purchase proprietary hardware, which is in many cases inferior and/or locked down, to have access to my games. I can see a great future where Nintendo sells their games and peripherals for use on the PC instead - THIS would be a major blow against Sony and Microsoft; no more worrying about having a console rollout and proprietary management. Instead, sell peripherals like controllers and write open drivers to connect it for PC use, and sell 1st party titles exclusively on PC. Everything from the newest Smash Bros, to Metroid, Zelda, and more, to upscaled ports of older titles. Could you imagine the partnership between Valve and Nintendo, where purchasing a Steam Box comes with a code for the newest Mario Kart and/or Smash Bros? There's a lot of greatness here!

There was a time when Nintendo was THE household name for console video games, but times have changed. They can't rely on old patterns, nor can they be an "also-ran" besides Microsoft and Sony, accepting the scraps. If they refocused on PC and Tablet/Phone with a new open strategy, they could leverage that huge resurgence of PC gaming to bring the hammer down on competitors that laughed at their recent attempts, and create a gaming paradise of great options and content for a wide variety of players, from old Nintendo fans to new!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top