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[joesiv]

Nintendo had a significant amount of western second-parties until the GCN days. There was Silicon Knights, Rare, Factor 5 and Left Field Productions. DMA Design and LucasArts were part of the Nintendo Dream Team and Acclaim and Midway gave strong support it with a lot of exclusive titles.

This changed, however, when Iwata took the office and the situation got reverted. They got japanese support, but lost western.

Nintendo's "dream team" was at the time a "great idea", support the top developers to get the best western titles. However, as far as I remember, it totally backfired, while they did get some great support from some of those developers, they also left the whole rest of the third party support for Sony to sweep in and take. Those developers were great, but really, if you look at the current industry, new top dogs have risen, and they weren't a part of that dream team, they came out of nowhere, and Nintendo snubbed all of them. Nintendo was notorious for not supporting 3rd party developers, while they *did* support their "dream team" to a certain extent, everyone else was left out in the cold. Poor documentation, and poor tools provided, and a horrible lot check system infuriated 3rd parties.

When Iwata came in, he took his developer background and tried to reverse the wrongs that were done. If it wasn't for him, Nintendo would probably not exist today. Nintendo documentation is getting better, and they're providing tools that developers need, at least they can stand their ground against their competitors in that ground.

Abandoning hardware power was one of the primary reason on why Wii life went downhill.

Abdandoning the hardware power was the primary reason why Nintendo has a huge bank, and isn't out of business. They also have the DS, which gives them huge profit, but again, it wasn't cutting edge power either. Nintendo's portable business was always where they consistantly made huge profits as they owned that market, even with higher spec'd competition was released (Gamegear, PSP, etc..). Iwata thought that Nintendo could do that with the console market too, focus on games and leave the arms race. They were successful with the Wii.

While I like the hardware arms race, and I dig pretty graphics, I also love the Nintendo franchises, and what nintendo does in the console marketplace. So if they need to bow out of the arms race to survive, so be it, I'll just need to be a 2 console owner. If Nintendo's gaming doesn't make money long term, then they go out of business, unless Sony and Microsoft they don't have other departments to pad their losses.

 

[Blood Diamonds]

Wow, holy shit.

Not that I care, really, I wouldn't care if they fired Reggie either. They're bound to be gone at one point.

 

[CLEEK]

I don't think there has ever been a time where Nintendo games were popular with 30 year olds. Ever.

That's a crazy thing to say. I'm late 30s (and so are my friends), and all the gaming friends have some piece of Nintendo hardware.

Age is irrelevant. Not to mention, that once you start having kids, you will find Nintendo games are far more suited for young children than pretty much anything on PS3/360.

Yup. One of the big differences between the Wiimote and the Gamepad is that the Wiimote was a true game-changer back in 06 and remained the most advanced controller on the market for over half the generation. The Gamepad, however, was introduced after tablets had taken the world by storm and did not offer anything revolutionary.

I love my WiiU, but it's far from revolutionary. The asymmetrical gameplay possible with the Gamepad is awesome, but as an idea, it's really hard to sell to people. I didn't think I'd love the feature so much until I got a WiiU and experienced it for myself. And of course, it relies on needing more than one local player, which for some people, is not good / possible.

The off-screen play idea is answering a question no-one was asking. The prevalence of tablets, handhelds and the like mean that being able to play console games away from the TV is far from a new idea. This seems to be the selling point of the WiiU and it's a pretty poor one.

 

[diffusionx]

To be fair, Nintendo came to prominence in the 80s. There's no reason that people need to "grow out of Nintendo" the same way people don't grow out of Disney movies. People remember them fondly from their childhood and respect the quality of their output. Maybe they don't have the characters stamped all over their briefcase, but they end up seeing the movies/buying the games.

It's not that people need to, it's that they do.

I mean, think about the time when Nintendo was getting killed for being "kiddy": it was the late 1990's/early 2000's, when those kids (and I am one) were in their late teens/early 20's, where being "kiddy" is like, the worst thing ever. Maybe Nintendo should expand out to rope in people who may have grown out of Mario and Link, kind of like how Disney gets a ton of money from me with ESPN and whatever. But I'm not out there lining up for the next Disney movie. There's a reason why the Vault is 7 years, mainly because it's a good number for roping in every round of youngsters.

Age is irrelevant. Not to mention, that once you start having kids, you will find Nintendo games are far more suited for young children than pretty much anything on PS3/360.

Right, exactly. Nintendo games are great for kids. I agree.

 

[farnham]

I don't think there has ever been a time where Nintendo games were popular with 30 year olds. Ever.

15-35 year old males to be specific

 

[Fourth Storm]

Yup. One of the big differences between the Wiimote and the Gamepad is that the Wiimote was a true game-changer back in 06 and remained the most advanced controller on the market for over half the generation. The Gamepad, however, was introduced after tablets had taken the world by storm and did not offer anything revolutionary. Nintendo can try to spin it as a "DS setup for the home" all they want but even the most uninformed person will take a glance at the Gamepad and see it as nothing more than a gimped tablet. With sticks.

I sometimes wonder if the Gamepad would have been better off as a pack in with Nintendo's next Wii Fit kind of game. All the money they're now wasting on it could've been used towards a more powerful system and/or an evolution of the Wiimote with a built-in Vitality Sensor or something.

The Gamepad is too expensive to be a pack in peripheral, nor would I have wanted to see that. If you're going to run with an idea, run with it all the way.

In fact, I don't see the Gamepad as the problem. I love it! The major problem I see with it is the same one that we all groaned about (and some flat out refused to believe) when the initial tidbits on Wii U started to surface. It's a controller that wants to be a tablet. Asymmetric play is cool and all, but let's face it: how much cooler would it be if every player got their own screen. They should have gone all the way with the idea, sold the Gamepads separately at launch, and enabled 4 Gamepad simultaneous play. As it is, I see asynchronous play as an interesting idea, but ultimately a copout that won't sell systems. It makes the system seem undercooked, and just another one of those "buts" that seems to go along with every Wii U feature.

 

[Snowden's Secret]

There probably isn't anyone who understands the industry the way Iwata does, so if he were to step down I doubt Nintendo would let him stray very far.

 

[Chinner]

iwata understands the industry? oh yeah, nintendo is totally capitalising on the online market or growing their core base into buying more games.

 

[bart64]

I don't think there has ever been a time where Nintendo games were popular with 30 year olds. Ever.

My mom and dad played more Mario Bros and especially Dr Mario on "my" NES than I ever did.

 

[wildfire]

This is 100% on Nintendo fans for being enablers. When devotion to a company overrides common sense you end up with Nintendo thinking that they will be fine to release an underpowered console again because their fans are the worlds biggest echo chamber..

How is it Nintendo fans fault? They weren't the ones who took away the official Nintendo forum. They weren't the ones who limited face to face time through television shows and road shows targeting soccer mom's.

The Nintendo fans you are talking about have certain flaws but they weren't the ones who shifted around the lines of communications so much that they couldn't talk to Nintendo reps at a venue they were interested in going to.

 

[The Horror the horror]

I don't think there has ever been a time where Nintendo games were popular with 30 year olds. Ever.

Well, to this day, older gamers still talk about Mike Tyson's Punch Out and Tecmo Bowl. Contra was also big and resonated with older customers, as well. The NES was home to veterans and jock gamers before they all migrated en masse the following generation to the Sega Genesis, then to the Playstation.

 

[Pachterballs]

thing about wiiU and the release schedule - they knew going into it.

its not like any of this is defencable.

Wii entered a period of lengthy drought with a scattering of titles here there.

they weren't actively making wiiU games?

then they show LOZwiiU and that's probably a 2015 title.

and forecast for games for 2013 is embarrassing.

3rd parties? Incentivise it so they want to come to wiiU. First 2-3 games the lowest fees or something. Can't hurt them to get less money than no games.

Iwata is in charge of this. So if Nintendo can't recover, he should step down.

 

[diffusionx]

There probably isn't anyone who understands the industry the way Iwata does, so if he were to step down I doubt Nintendo would let him stray very far.

The idea that Iwata is some sort of irreplaceable genius is very silly. Even if he is an irreplaceable genius, if he isn't working in the best interests of the stakeholders, then he isn't doing his job and they should find someone who is. It's up to them to decide if he is. Personally I think he's doing a good job, it's just a very difficult time.

Well, to this day, older gamers still talk about Mike Tyson's Punch Out and Tecmo Bowl. Contra was also big and resonated with older customers, as well. The NES was home to veterans and jock gamers before they all migrated en masse the following generation to the Sega Genesis, then to the Playstation.

A bunch of old farts talking about Punch Out and Tecmo Bowl doesn't make Nintendo any money.

 

[CLEEK]

Right, exactly. Nintendo games are great for kids. I agree.

You're missing my point. They're great for gamers of all ages. 30+ included.

 

[Snowden's Secret]

iwata understands the industry? oh yeah, nintendo is totally capitalising on the online market or growing their core base into buying more games.

Have you ever read any of the things Iwata says? They're incredibly insightful and always much closer to the reality of things than what you hear from "analysts." Also, I think Nintendo is capitalizing on both online markets (read anything about Animal Crossing).

And understanding something doesn't give you the power to change it.

 

[capslock]

Finally some good news for Nintendo.

 

[Blood Diamonds]

Have you ever read any of the things Iwata says? They're incredibly insightful and always much closer to the reality of things than what you hear from "analysts." Also, I think Nintendo is capitalizing on both online markets (read anything about Animal Crossing).

And understanding something doesn't give you the power to change it.

Well, yeah, we can see this with Iwata.

 

[Fourth Storm]

It's not that people need to, it's that they do.

I mean, think about the time when Nintendo was getting killed for being "kiddy": it was the late 1990's/early 2000's, when those kids (and I am one) were in their late teens/early 20's, where being "kiddy" is like, the worst thing ever. Maybe Nintendo should expand out to rope in people who may have grown out of Mario and Link, kind of like how Disney gets a ton of money from me with ESPN and whatever. But I'm not out there lining up for the next Disney movie. There's a reason why the Vault is 7 years, mainly because it's a good number for roping in every round of youngsters.

Good points. I should clarify what I meant. I understand why people drift away from Nintendo once they reach a certain age, but it needn't necessarily be that way. Nintendo, at times, pander too much to the young audience in titles such as Super Mario Galaxy and the Zelda games, when they could probably benefit from balancing the cuteness factor a bit more towards experienced gamers. In the case of feature films and Disney, even if it's not something that appeals to you, the quality is usually there that accommodating a child or other loved one shouldn't prove too painful. You don't feel like you're being talked down to.

Similarly, as I said in my previous post, Nintendo's reliance on a handful of IPs would be like if Disney had stuck to only making big budget Mickey movies for years on end. Instead, even looking past revenue streams such as ESPN, they offer a variety of cinematic content which appeals to different age groups and demographics. Are these the same folks that then go to see The Expendibles? Probably not, but there are enough in the middle ground that it's not an issue.

 

[TreasureHunterG]

Nintendo's "dream team" was at the time a "great idea", support the top developers to get the best western titles. However, as far as I remember, it totally backfired, while they did get some great support from some of those developers, they also left the whole rest of the third party support for Sony to sweep in and take. Those developers were great, but really, if you look at the current industry, new top dogs have risen, and they weren't a part of that dream team, they came out of nowhere, and Nintendo snubbed all of them. Nintendo was notorious for not supporting 3rd party developers, while they *did* support their "dream team" to a certain extent, everyone else was left out in the cold. Poor documentation, and poor tools provided, and a horrible lot check system infuriated 3rd parties.

When Iwata came in, he took his developer background and tried to reverse the wrongs that were done. If it wasn't for him, Nintendo would probably not exist today. Nintendo documentation is getting better, and they're providing tools that developers need, at least they can stand their ground against their competitors in that ground.

You're treating Iwata like a savior.

During his management the western support from third-parties felt drastically. Like I said, japanese improved a lot during his management but the western support didn't. It's a huge assumption from you to say that Nintendo would not exist today if wasn't for Iwata, no one could say what could have happen if someone else took his place in 2002.

By the way, Iwata dismissed a considerable amount of Nintendo western second-party developers. Rare, Silicon Knights, Left Field and Factor 5, all dismissed at his management.

Abdandoning the hardware power was the primary reason why Nintendo has a huge bank, and isn't out of business.

No, it wasn't. DS profits could easily back up a stronger Wii hardware at the beginning and could keep Wii alive for longer as a long-term strategy. Wii underpowered hardware was a key reason for Wii's premature death. Third-parties shafted their support for Wii because the hardware wasn't able to match what they were doing. Wii's sales drop was a reason for the last year annual financial losts, the first time this ever happened for Nintendo.

They also have the DS, which gives them huge profit, but again, it wasn't cutting edge power either. Nintendo's portable business was always where they consistantly made huge profits as they owned that market, even with higher spec'd competition was released (Gamegear, PSP, etc..). Iwata thought that Nintendo could do that with the console market too, focus on games and leave the arms race.

Portable don't need to rely on hardware power and it's completely different from a console-wise approach. It's wrong to make a portable-like approach on a home console ground.

They were successful with the Wii.

Also the first of the three home consoles to die. It was the first time a market leader console became the first to die.

While I like the hardware arms race, and I dig pretty graphics, I also love the Nintendo franchises, and what nintendo does in the console marketplace. So if they need to bow out of the arms race to survive, so be it, I'll just need to be a 2 console owner. If Nintendo's gaming doesn't make money long term, then they go out of business, unless Sony and Microsoft they don't have other departments to pad their losses.

Now you're speaking your mind as a gamer.

 

[ii Stryker]

An interesting situation, I would who would replace Iwata?

Hiroshi Yamauchi's brain transplanted into a cyborg body

 

[Raist]

Hiroshi Yamauchi's brain transplanted into a cyborg body

Ken Kutaragi would be funnier.

 

[The Horror the horror]

A bunch of old farts talking about Punch Out and Tecmo Bowl doesn't make Nintendo any money.

Stop moving the goal post. Your original claim was that Nintendo never resonated well with older gamers, specifically 30+ year olds, and I'm saying that it isn't true. The NES was home to a wide variety of gamers, old and young, and the console pre-dates the whole "kiddy" label that Nintendo was originally branded with in the following generation.

 

[Doctor Decimate]

looks like Iwata could be the scapegoat everyone wants him to be.

 

[Jachaos]

I like Iwata Asks, him holding the Nintendo Directs, his answers towards a technological arms race and a potential game industry crash, etc.

He's made some mistakes for sure, but I think he's smart and Nintendo is better with him at the helm than with some traditional cold CEO.

Also, these objectives for next fiscal year obviously imply a few things to me. That aside from hopefully a load of Virtual Console games being released and new ones being added since they're easy money, that they'll go ballistic and that from March on we'll see a constant stream of games coming out including Pikmin 3, Animal Crossing outside of Japan which they'll want to promote heavily, Fire Emblem in Europe, Wonderful 101 (can't believe I played this 3 months ago), Project X Zone localized, Luigi's Mansion 2 coming out, maybe a new 3DS revision to go along new 3DS games announced for later in the year (including a Zelda 3DS game?), Windwaker HD, probably Retro's game, probably Mario Kart Wii U, probably the new 3D Mario game, and maybe Super Smash around March 2014 to keep selling Wii U up to the launch, which would be the end of the fiscal year. I don't see how they'd reach this target other than by launching those software in this time frame.

There will also need to be a big and actually GOOD marketing push and an update to Miiverse so its presence in everyday life (3DS and mobile) is more felt by non Wii U owners. This is some seriously big objective Iwata's targeting and I don't see how they can do it otherwise.

 

[MDX]

But shareholders are always going to be pushing for more, especially when compared to profits of previous years. So what does Nintendo do in a position like that?

Go private

 

[PhantomR]

You're treating Iwata like a savior.

During his management the western support from third-parties felt drastically. Like I said, japanese improved a lot during his management but the western support didn't. It's a huge assumption from you to say that Nintendo would not exist today if wasn't for Iwata, no one could say what could have happen if someone else took his place in 2002.

By the way, Iwata dismissed a considerable amount of Nintendo western second-party developers. Rare, Silicon Knights, Left Field and Factor 5, all dismissed at his management.

WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA. Hold up, son.

The stamper brothers decided to sell their majority stake in Rare to Microsoft, so Nintendo had to sell. That's Iwata's fault?

Factor 5 shuttered and closed their doors and went out of business. That's Iwata's fault?

Silicon Knights CHOSE to do their own thing with Too Human, bombed abysmally, and are barely getting by on scraps despite the cash the Canadian Government peddled to them. That's Iwata's fault?

Left Field Productions decided to buy back their stake from Nintendo and do their own thing. That's Iwata's fault?


Saying that Iwata "dismissed" these studios as if they were some diseased mushrooms is simplistic at best.

 

[Box]

Go private

Is this even possible? Why haven't they done this already?

 

[Somnid]

Is this even possible? Why haven't they done this already?

It's possible but Iwata has dismissed previously having a share buyback.

 

[GG-Duo]

I think there's more nuance required in this discussion. Iwata has his strengths. Many of them, in fact - and past successes too, including the Wii ramp-up and the NDS. I've been amazed at his deal making in Japan. Monster Hunter was a great coup.

I think Nintendo's problems are that they have huge blind spots too, areas outside of their competency, areas where they're too conservative, and they are getting creamed by them. So my preference isn't for Iwata to step down, but rather for Nintendo to augment his strengths and have a globally strong team.

 

[timetokill]

WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA. Hold up, son.

The stamper brothers decided to sell their majority stake in Rare to Microsoft, so Nintendo had to sell. That's Iwata's fault?

Factor 5 shuttered and closed their doors and went out of business. That's Iwata's fault?

Silicon Knights CHOSE to do their own thing with Too Human, bombed abysmally, and are barely getting by on scraps despite the cash the Canadian Government peddled to them. That's Iwata's fault?

Left Field Productions decided to buy back their stake from Nintendo and do their own thing. That's Iwata's fault?

Saying that Iwata "dismissed" these studios as if they were some diseased mushrooms is simplistic at best.

Well that, and look at the state of all of those companies today. Even if we imagine a fantasy scenario where Iwata kicked 'em to the curb, he'd look like an absolute genius for doing so.

 

[GG-Duo]

So what I'm really saying is that NOA should hire CliffyB. Ahem. 💩💩

 

[PhantomR]

I think there's more nuance required in this discussion. Iwata has his strengths. Many of them, in fact - and past successes too, including the Wii ramp-up and the NDS. I've been amazed at his deal making in Japan. Monster Hunter was a great coup.

I think Nintendo's problems are that they have huge blind spots too, areas outside of their competency, areas where they're too conservative, and they are getting creamed by them. So my preference isn't for Iwata to step down, but rather for Nintendo to augment his strengths and have a globally strong team.

We can't be having reasonable, measured posts like this here, bro.

Not cool.

 

[Box]

It's possible but Iwata has dismissed previously having a share buyback.

Did he give a reason?

 

[JordanN]

And you don't seem to realize that these excuses are a farce, they just don't wanna admit that they don't think this seemingly incomprehensible Nintendo fanbase will buy their games and ports cost money too. It doesn't matter what Nintendo does with their console, 3rd parties will never come back full force.

So your solution is for Nintendo to do nothing?

It's reasons like this why Iwata needs to go. This self defeating attitude.

 

[mclem]

No, it wasn't. DS profits could easily back up a stronger Wii hardware at the beginning and could keep Wii alive for longer as a long-term strategy. Wii underpowered hardware was a key reason for Wii's premature death. Third-parties shafted their support for Wii because the hardware wasn't able to match what they were doing. Wii's sales drop was a reason for the last year annual financial losts, the first time this ever happened for Nintendo.

That doesn't tell the complete story. I worked on a game that we were downporting to PS2 and PSP from a 360 and PS3 original. No Wii in that picture. We were porting the thing to PS2, for pete's sake!

(We did similarly with The Simpsons Game, but in that case there was a Wii SKU included)

 

[IrishNinja]

Good riddance, as apple apple apple

awesome

Well, if region locking consoles leaves with him, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

that's a pretty optimistic stance, CJ...i'd love to see them go as well, but part of me is waiting to see if the PS4 follows suit, honestly

GoldenEye XBLA might actually come out.

how the hell

 

[Subtle]

This is saddening. Iwata is so charismatic and made great strides with the Wii and DS.

 

[Tarsul]

That doesn't tell the complete story. I worked on a game that we were downporting to PS2 and PSP from a 360 and PS3 original. No Wii in that picture. We were porting the thing to PS2, for pete's sake!

(We did similarly with The Simpsons Game, but in that case there was a Wii SKU included)

However, in this moment you're not telling the whole picture, either.

 

[universalmind]

Meh

 

[xxbrothawizxx63]

I completely understanding trying to show how much he cares about the future of the company by putting himself on the line, but this is just stupid when we consider that Iwata was the boss through some of Nintendo's most profitable quarters ever (even if the ideas that took off were partially in place with Yamauchi).

 

[Skiesofwonder]

iwata understands the industry? oh yeah, nintendo is totally capitalising on the online market or growing their core base into buying more games.

Yes? Nintendo went from third place (a console that couldn't even sell 30 million units WW) to a 100 million units sold console (Wii), the greatest selling gaming system of all-time (DS at over 150 M sold), substantial sales-growth with their core and casual gaming series, many successful new IPs created, and currently holding a strangle-hold over the Japanese gaming market, all under Iwata.

His tenure has had some down moments (especially with the events that have unfolded as of late and looking froward to the future for WiiU), but to act like Iwata doesn't understand the industry is silly.

 

[TheUnknownForce]

Even if Iwata was really pulling a "I'm out of here if we fail next FY to make X amount of dollars," the chances of them failing next FY are not high.

Next FY will have, at the very least:
3DS
Animal Crossing: NL for US/EU
Pokemon X&Y for WW
Tomodachi Collection 2 for JPN

Wii U
Pikmin 3 for WW
Wii Fit U for WW
Wind Waker HD for WW
Yarn Yoshi WW
New 3D Mario for WW
New Mario Kart for WW
Probably X for JPN

If Nintendo fails to do well next FY, it will be more than Iwata in trouble.

 

[Dave Meltzer]

Even if Iwata was really pulling a "I'm out of here if we fail next FY to make X amount of dollars," the chances of them failing next FY are not high.

Next FY will have, at the very least:
3DS
Animal Crossing: NL for US/EU
Pokemon X&Y for WW
Tomodachi Collection 2 for JPN

Wii U
Pikmin 3 for WW
Wii Fit U for WW
Wind Waker HD for WW
Yarn Yoshi WW
New 3D Mario for WW
New Mario Kart for WW
Probably X for JPN

If Nintendo fails to do well next FY, it will be more than Iwata in trouble.

Didn't this year have a new Pokemon and 2 new 2D Mario games?

 

[Steve Youngblood]

I completely understanding trying to show how much he cares about the future of the company by putting himself on the line, but this is just stupid when we consider that Iwata was the boss through some of Nintendo's most profitable quarters ever (even if the ideas that took off were partially in place with Yamauchi).

Well, the problem is that there's kind of a "what have you done for me lately?" attitude when it comes to running a large business. Admittedly, that might seem short sighted. But the nature of the business is such that it's not quick to launch new products to get the ship back on course should he prove unable to come up with a short term fix for slumping hardware and software.

He's got a little time to try to turn the Wii U around and hope that the 3DS finally takes off as it teeters in this "will it or won't it soar?" position that it's in outside of Japan. But if he doesn't? What's the fix if holiday 2013 doesn't prove successful for the Wii U? Because either option available to you isn't very good.

So, for his sake, I hope he's got some tricks up his sleeve for this year, as I find Iwata charming myself and think he's very sincere in his endeavors. But if he can't get these products on the right track, this isn't like just having one bad season in professional sports where you give 'em one more year. If these products are duds -- and let me stress the word if there -- you're stuck with them for a while. Getting better replacements to market would be a considerable expense and a long ways off. "We'll give you three more years to get a Wii 3 out the door that sells better than this one" isn't a very likely lifeline one is likely to receive.

 

[Dave Meltzer]

I completely understanding trying to show how much he cares about the future of the company by putting himself on the line, but this is just stupid when we consider that Iwata was the boss through some of Nintendo's most profitable quarters ever (even if the ideas that took off were partially in place with Yamauchi).

You don't keep a job because you did it well 3 years ago. He can only be judged today by 3DS and Wii U.

If you have shareholders, the expectation is continual improvement. Not "well you did good in the past".

 

[TheUnknownForce]

Didn't this year have a new Pokemon and 2 new 2D Mario games?

A semi-sequel to the DS Pokemon games. Those are not the same as the next generation of Pokemon on a brand new handheld.

The NSMB series has gotten old to a number of people, and the games released months from each other, the latter of which is Nintendo's only major "core" release thus far on Wii U. It was not going to pull those who disliked NSMBWii to the system, whereas a new EAD Tokyo Mario is more likely to hype them up. Not to mention Mario Kart is not the same as a 2D Mario game.

 

[DaBoss]

Didn't this year have a new Pokemon and 2 new 2D Mario games?

The Pokemon games were sequels/3rd version games. 3D Mario and Mario Kart are system sellers.

 

[Dave Meltzer]

A semi-sequel to the DS Pokemon games. Those are not the same as the next generation of Pokemon on a brand new handheld.

The NSMB series has gotten old to a number of people, and the games released months from each other, the latter of which is Nintendo's only major "core" release thus far on Wii U. It was not going to pull those who disliked NSMBWii to the system, whereas a new EAD Tokyo Mario is more likely to hype them up. Not to mention Mario Kart is not the same as a 2D Mario game.

Mario Kart is fair, but 3D had never really been the draw 2D Mario has regardless of fatigue. I'd imagine NEMB2 outsold SM3DL considerably.

 

[gamergirly]

You don't keep a job because you did it well 3 years ago. He can only be judged today by 3DS and Wii U.

If you have shareholders, the expectation is continual improvement. Not "well you did good in the past".

And he's giving himself a little over a year to achieve better results. Not 2 months

 

[DaBoss]

Mario Kart is fair, but 3D had never really been the draw 2D Mario has regardless of fatigue. I'd imagine NEMB2 outsold SM3DL considerably.

No, but it did sell a lot

When it's all said and done it will be probably outsold by it.