The Criticize Nintendo Thread

General and high profile video game topics.
ptdebate1
Posts: 909
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

The Criticize Nintendo Thread

Postby ptdebate1 » July 18th, 2014, 11:44 am

[QUOTE=scotland17]Merchandise it all. I see a bit of Mario merchandise, such as a type of building block, but build on it like Lego products are diversity for star wars and superheroes. Praise worthy video games are expensive, so figure out how to make money other ways.[/QUOTE]

My perspective on all of this is that Nintendo operates just fine as a small company with a relatively limited output.

Once Nintendo got into videogames with the release of the Famicom in 1983, they were suddenly all about videogames. I would prefer that they stayed that way, closely protecting the image of their IPs, rather than dive headfirst into other media like Sega has with Sonic.

Nintendo had about 11 years of unbelievable success, and then 12 more of (financial) mediocrity, followed by the runaway hit that was the Wii.

My personal favorite Nintendo consoles are the Gamecube and the N64--to me, Nintendo could do no wrong during those two generations, yet both of those consoles struggled to stay above water in the wake of Sony's PS1 and PS2. Looking at the books, those two console generations were Nintendo's Silver Age. But as a kid looking at what was available at the time, even though I couldn't rely on just the N64, I certainly couldn't be without it. 

Yes, Nintendo is losing money like never before. I really think Nintendo would still be in the black if they had just marketed the Wii U better and given it an appropriate name, while also courting mobile developers to push out some launch ports, given that the console, I dunno, HAS A TOUCHSCREEN! It ought to have been an appealing enough proposition, considering that Nintendo gives free Unity licenses to its indies and that, given the strength of the Wii platform up to 2012, there was no reason, from an investor's viewpoint, to believe that the next Wii would be any different.

Finally, belying Totalbiscuit's empty-headed Jeremiad is the fact that the Wii U is currently the best 8th-gen platform to own (aside from the PC), due to its number of critically-acclaimed exclusives. All XBox One and PS4 currently have to show for themselves are games that will be in the bargain bin come next year. This could, of course, turn around pretty quickly when MGSV, The Order, Destiny, and others roll out. But all in all, XB1 and PS4 have had a pretty pathetic launch year.







Atarifever1
Posts: 3892
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

The Criticize Nintendo Thread

Postby Atarifever1 » July 18th, 2014, 12:46 pm

[QUOTE=ptdebate]

Yes, Nintendo is losing money like never before. I really think Nintendo would still be in the black if they had just marketed the Wii U better and given it an appropriate name, while also courting mobile developers to push out some launch ports, given that the console, I dunno, HAS A TOUCHSCREEN! It ought to have been an appealing enough proposition, considering that Nintendo gives free Unity licenses to its indies and that, given the strength of the Wii platform up to 2012, there was no reason, from an investor's viewpoint, to believe that the next Wii would be any different.



[/QUOTE]
So much yes.  They had the investor's with them, the positive image, the swagger, the head start, the money, everything.  If they'd just called it the Wii 2 (heck, I'd take the Wii Too) and run a few extra commercials and had ONE Wii Sports game with added functionality at launch, they'd be doing better. I have wondered ever since why it didn't come with Bowling and Golf installed, or as a free download.  It couldn't be that hard to port somewhere between 2010 and launch.  Here's the commercial:

Family visiting other family looking bored at pleasantries.  

Mom 1: "Who wants to play Wii bowling?" 
Everyone "Sure, yeah!"
Breaks out Wiimotes.  Mom 1 powers up gamepad. 
Kid to Mom 1: "What's that for?"
Mom 1: "It's the Wii 2 Gamepad."
Mom2: "What's it do?"
Mom 1: "We'll show you" 

Montage of family playing Nintendo land and new Wii sports titles.  New bowling very obviously set up as using gamepad as the freaking monitor from a bowling alley, compete with score card and those funny little turkey and strike animations, which it totally better really do now at least.  Dad's go to play golf, then Dad 2 quickly shows Dad 1 how you actually position it so the ball is pictured on the floor.  Near the end they say "Hold on, we have a call from Grandma" she comes up on Nintendo video chat on the TV screen and they say "hey, want to play with us" and she says "sure" and it shows the friends list notification as saying she's online for some Wii Sports and we see her Mii start bowling. 

Any other commercial at all for any other launch game that has off TV play gets the obvious "I want the TV" "okay, I'll play on the Wii 2 gamepad" commercial. 


BOOM.  Everyone knows what the freaking Wii 2 is, and that it has a better and online Wii Sports.  That it has a gamepad that works in games, and to do videochat, and to power up and choose games, and to play some of the asynchrnous easy to understand Nintendo Land games.  That it frees up the TV, and you can squeeze in there somewhere that it frees up the TV while still running Netflix and Youtube.    People see why they might want it. 

Vexer1
Posts: 883
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

The Criticize Nintendo Thread

Postby Vexer1 » July 18th, 2014, 1:45 pm

Ptdebate- There's nothing at all "empty-headed" about what TB said, he's right in that the sales of the Wii U are worrying, the fact that the Dreamcast only lasted two years and still managed to have better sales then the Wii U shows that. Also not everyone think's that it is the best 8th gen console, many others including Nintendo fans have found the consoles library to be rather dissapointing. PS4 and XB1 launch year's were not "pathetic" at all as they both sold far more consoles in that period then the Wii U did in it's launch period, I don't see too many of their games ending up in the bargain bin anytime soon.


ptdebate1
Posts: 909
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

The Criticize Nintendo Thread

Postby ptdebate1 » July 18th, 2014, 2:04 pm

[QUOTE=Vexer]

Ptdebate- There's nothing at all "empty-headed" about what TB said, he's right in that the sales of the Wii U are worrying, the fact that the Dreamcast only lasted two years and still managed to have better sales then the Wii U shows that. Also not everyone think's that it is the best 8th gen console, many others including Nintendo fans have found the consoles library to be rather dissapointing. PS4 and XB1 launch year's were not "pathetic" at all as they both sold far more consoles in that period then the Wii U did in it's launch period, I don't see too many of their games ending up in the bargain bin anytime soon.

[/QUOTE]

You're still dwelling on sales, not software. I've made my point here.

weallmissedme1
Posts: 397
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

The Criticize Nintendo Thread

Postby weallmissedme1 » July 18th, 2014, 2:09 pm

Vexer, sales don't mean better games. In fact, alot of poor selling consoles have great games. Like the Neo-Geo, the Neo Geo Pocket Color, the Dreamcast. All poor selling, and all have better games than their competitors usually. In quality, not quantity. The Wii U is the same. Except Nintendo isn't as poor as Sega is. I mean, look at the GameCube, it sold poorly (but it was a poor system anyway, so I guess it's understandable) but Nintendo came back with the Wii!

ptdebate1
Posts: 909
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

The Criticize Nintendo Thread

Postby ptdebate1 » July 18th, 2014, 2:41 pm

[QUOTE=weallmissedme]Vexer, sales don't mean better games. In fact, alot of poor selling consoles have great games. Like the Neo-Geo, the Neo Geo Pocket Color, the Dreamcast. All poor selling, and all have better games than their competitors usually. In quality, not quantity. The Wii U is the same. Except Nintendo isn't as poor as Sega is. I mean, look at the GameCube, it sold poorly (but it was a poor system anyway, so I guess it's understandable) but Nintendo came back with the Wii![/QUOTE]

Ah, this reminds me: I do agree with one part of TB's tirade: that the Dreamcast is AWESOME! Definitely one of the greatest systems ever devised--and you'd never know it if you're just looking at sales.

Vexer1
Posts: 883
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

The Criticize Nintendo Thread

Postby Vexer1 » July 18th, 2014, 2:54 pm

ptdebate- No you haven't, like it or not sales DO matter and a lot of people would say that the software on the XB1 and PS4 is pretty good for the most part.

weallmissedme- I strongly disagree about the Gamecube, I think it's a pretty strong system and it's sales actually weren't that bad.  The Neo Geo isn't really a relevant comparison since it was aimed at a niche market. Also the Dreamcast still sold better then the Wii U by a wide margin.  Not saying the Wii U dosen't have good games, but a lot of people(including some users on here) are saying that the Wii U simply does not have enough good games to justify a purchase.


ptdebate1
Posts: 909
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

The Criticize Nintendo Thread

Postby ptdebate1 » July 18th, 2014, 3:12 pm

[QUOTE=Vexer]

ptdebate- No you haven't, like it or not sales DO matter and a lot of people would say that the software on the XB1 and PS4 is pretty good for the most part.

weallmissedme- I strongly disagree about the Gamecube, I think it's a pretty strong system and it's sales actually weren't that bad.  The Neo Geo isn't really a relevant comparison since it was aimed at a niche market. Also the Dreamcast still sold better then the Wii U by a wide margin.  Not saying the Wii U dosen't have good games, but a lot of people(including some users on here) are saying that the Wii U simply does not have enough good games to justify a purchase.

[/QUOTE]

I'm glad you agree with me about the Gamecube, Vexer. 

I do think that the Wii U is shaping up to be a good system. I got one pretty early (February 2013), and I worried initially that I would be sorely disappointed. Then I discovered Monster Hunter and it became one of my favorite series of all time. Really took me back to PSO days on the old 'Cube. Then there was Pikmin, then Super Luigi U, SM3DW, etc...

Anyway, this IS supposed to be the "Criticize Nintendo Thread," after all, and I just thought of something:

This goes along with what others have been saying, but I would really like to see Nintendo bring out some of its other titles on Virtual Console that never saw a U.S. release. I'm thinking Terranigma, Mother 3, and the like. It can only benefit them to do so.

Atarifever1
Posts: 3892
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

The Criticize Nintendo Thread

Postby Atarifever1 » July 18th, 2014, 5:38 pm

[QUOTE=ptdebate]

Anyway, this IS supposed to be the "Criticize Nintendo Thread," after all, and I just thought of something:

This goes along with what others have been saying, but I would really like to see Nintendo bring out some of its other titles on Virtual Console that never saw a U.S. release. I'm thinking Terranigma, Mother 3, and the like. It can only benefit them to do so.[/QUOTE]
We finally got Sin and Punishment on Wii and Earthbound re-release (finally!) on Wii U.  I know for sure Nintendo has been very impressed with the numbers for the Earthbound port, and they need games, so I am still trying to figure out why they're not just like "all that stuff we have that we never brought over over the last 30 years, all the stuff we never made easily available, all the late release N64/Gamecube/Wii stuff, yeah, we're giving you that this year."  Xenoblade is getting a sequel and is already hard to find and expensive, just drop that on the ol' eshop.  Do they own Odama?  Because the 3DS and Wii U both have a microphone. There is real stuff just in the last 10 years that Nintendo did release here that no one ever got to play, and now they have a download store that can let you download full games.   Doing stuff that never got released here but that would require one ten-thousanth of the work that went into any one Animal Crossing to translate seems like a no brainer. 




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