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[metalslimer]

Seems kind of ironic to me, but taking Nintendo purely on their own terms, Wii U does a lot to start addressing the problems Nintendo's had. They discovered the internets, even if issues remain to be sorted. They're trying, once more, to establish a kind of Nintendo eco-system and community that buys mindshare. The kind they really haven't had since the NES and SNES days. (Talking about the social aspects like Miiverse, here.) The hardware is powerful enough to produce impressive games in both scope and technically - again, on Nintendo's own terms. It supports as wide a variety of input methods and gaming modes as frankly, anything outside the PC does.

The challenge now is to use that as a foundation to build... something. Whatever that something might be.

In a certain sense I often wonder if Nintendo is merely trying to survive what's going on with the game console world and what many game fans would see as the traditional game market. Isn't it kind of true that, should they hang in their long enough, convergence of technologies will make the game console horse race irrelevant anyway? Many say Wii U will be Nintendo's last console. Will that matter, if Durango and Orbis are also the last game consoles as anyone would recognize a console.

A pyrrhic last laugh for Nintendo - but any laugh Iwata can walk away from is a good laugh , I figure.

Well I think this gen with Wii U/Durango/Orbis will be the last traditional one anyway as the second Madden/Fifa/CoD lose their console exclusivity and can be played through new systems like the iPad on the tv or other methods the base supporting consoles will completely collapse. This is why I argue Nintendo should be the first to go at this kind of technology and the Wii U seems like a decent go at this. Maybe even ship an oculus rift like device with the system. When I look at the Wii U I honestly see very little of the innovation and excitement that went into creating the Wii. It seems like a stop gap measure for something bigger and half assed attempt to try and converge the wide and core audiences. Nintendo is never going to enter the graphics race again and honestly people who seem to that Nintendo is being punished for creating a weak console are missing the bigger picture of what is wrong with Wii U to begin with.

 

[mantidor]

I think this idea that Iwata is some Glinda The Good Witch of gaming is total bull.

I used to think that, too. That is, until that fateful E3 when, instead of debuting Xenoblade on stage and insuring gamers and their base that they indeed gave a shit about them, Iwata instead chose to peddle the Wii Freaking Vitality Sensor.

So concerned was he with maintaining casual interest; so unconcerned was he with pleasing gamers and their traditional base, that he chose to push obvious vapor hardware (without even sparing some BS software to show it off) instead of sparing time to show off the game that would go on to be considered the best JRPG of the gen.

My eyes were opened that day. I saw through the cooked smile, the goofy-ass haircut, and the awkward demeanor, and into the smarmy, full-of-shit core that lies within every CEO whose major goal is to get as much of your money as possible with as little investment as possible.

Iwata is no different. He may not nickel and dime with DLC, but he does in other ways. Hell, let's not forget that the reason Nintendo was even able to slash the price of the 3DS so quickly was because Iwata made the choice to jack the price sky high after gauging E3 hype.

Don't be naive.

lol so much resentment for something as inocous as the vitalilty sensor, which never even became a reality, from a presentation that announced Other M, a game that (at the time) sounded amazing.

Of course he is set out to make money, that doesn't necessarily undermine his integriry or his "gaming cred" or whatever you call it. He's one of the few CEOs in this industry that is also a game developer, and that is very valuable. He doesn't want to just make money, he wants to do it by making good games for broad audiences.

 

[Fourth Storm]

I don't know if it's about "entering the graphics race" anymore. Even Sony and MS seem to have settled on some basics together using plenty of feedback from 3rd parties.

They may not get all third parties on board with a competitively powered console, but they would get some. Even with Wii U's current specs, Ubisoft are on board, as are Activision. EA probably were before whatever fallout occurred.

It's not the whole problem...but it's part of it.

 

[Shion]

Nintendo is never going to enter the graphics race again and honestly people who seem to that Nintendo is being punished for creating a weak console are missing the bigger picture of what is wrong with Wii U to begin with.

What "graphics race"?

Durango and Orbis are no 5TFLOP beasts, if anything, they are both moderate designs.

Offering a nice spec bump over 7 year old products is no "graphics race".

 

[entremet]

The Wii U is every problem Nintendo's had since the N64 all rolled up into one console.

Not really.

Carts? Nope

Pricing? Nope

Hardware? Nope. The N64 was considered cutting edge at the time.

 

[metalslimer]

What "graphics race"?

Durango and Orbis are no 5TFLOP beasts, if anything, they are both moderate designs.

Offering a nice spec bump over 7 year old products is no "graphics race".

Moderate for multimedia conglomerates sure. The graphics race as in they aren't going to compete with Sony and MS or anyone for what their specs will be. What I was getting at is that the problem with the Wii U is not that the specs are terrible. The problem is who they are trying to sell the console to with specs that don't provide much a boost from said 7 year old consoles. Nintendo is halfassedly trying to compete for 2 different markets.

Pricing? Nope

Eh....

 

[Dave Meltzer]

Critically, Nintendo games have been as good now as they always have been. If there was/is a problem with the Wii, the DS, the 3DS, or the WiiU, it certainly isn't "Nintendo games are worse now then they were on the Gamecube." If anything, it is/was "There needs to be MORE Nintendo games on these systems so people will buy them."

Of course, I keep forgetting that some of the people in this thread advocating so heavily for Iwata to be canned are people who want it that way because "Nintendo doesn't make games that I like!!!11111".

Critically, Nintendo are no longer seen as trendsetters. You could make an argument that Wii Sports was a landmark title in games. But since then, they're not dominating critical praise. Galaxy was well received, but not in anywhere near the same way Mario 64 was. Nintendo still make great games, but the days of them being industry leaders are long gone IMO.

 

[metalslimer]

Critically, Nintendo are no longer seen as trendsetters. You could make an argument that Wii Sports was a landmark title in games. But since then, they're not dominating critical praise. Galaxy was well received, but not in anywhere near the same way Mario 64 was. Nintendo still make great games, but the days of them being industry leaders are long gone IMO.

http://www.gamerankings.com/browse.html

It may not have been as influential to the industry as 64 but Galaxy and Galaxy 2 are and will probably remain 2 of the greatest received games of all time.

 

[TheUnknownForce]

Critically, Nintendo are no longer seen as trendsetters. You could make an argument that Wii Sports was a landmark title in games. But since then, they're not dominating critical praise. Galaxy was well received, but not in anywhere near the same way Mario 64 was. Nintendo still make great games, but the days of them being industry leaders are long gone IMO.

Kinect and Move would have never been made without Wii Sports, so if anything, Nintendo defined the changes in gaming last generation, not to mention the Brain Training games and resurgence of the fitness genre with Wii Fit.

Maybe they aren't setting trends in more core gameplay mechanics, but to say those days are long gone, I'd say I disagree.

And yeah, Mario Galaxy was well-liked critically, as was its seqel.

 

[The Silver]

Not really.

Carts? Nope

Pricing? Nope

Hardware? Nope. The N64 was considered cutting edge at the time.

I wasn't referring to the carts but the problem caused by the carts. N64 started the lack of 3rd party support for Nintendo.

Gamecube is pretty much an extension of the N64's problems.

The Wii was underpowered but caught lightning in a bottle with it's motion controls.

The Wii U is underpowered(well it will be) yet it hasn't caught on with the mainstream like the Wii did. The Wii U has a lack of 3rd party support like N64/GCN but with the added disadvantage of being underpowered. All the problems but none of the benefits.

Pricing is a problem Nintendo had with the 3DS and yes it definitely is a problem for the Wii U.

 

[Gummb]

Well I think this gen with Wii U/Durango/Orbis will be the last traditional one anyway as the second Madden/Fifa/CoD lose their console exclusivity and can be played through new systems like the iPad on the tv or other methods the base supporting consoles will completely collapse. This is why I argue Nintendo should be the first to go at this kind of technology and the Wii U seems like a decent go at this. Maybe even ship an oculus rift like device with the system. When I look at the Wii U I honestly see very little of the innovation and excitement that went into creating the Wii. It seems like a stop gap measure for something bigger and half assed attempt to try and converge the wide and core audiences. Nintendo is never going to enter the graphics race again and honestly people who seem to that Nintendo is being punished for creating a weak console are missing the bigger picture of what is wrong with Wii U to begin with.

An interesting point, as Nintendo has always leveraged their business in continuous steps toward a final goal. What I'm about to write is speculative and dumb, but is based on what Nintendo has said about the Wii and Wii U and I think it fits into what you've said.

The Wii had the perfect atmosphere to launch successive peripherals and leverage unique software with it. It was inclusive and eccentric, not personal and grounded. The Wii U appears to be more about individuality among other individuals - the personal pad (everyone has their own screen in the family room) and the asynchronous gameplay (individual goals and gameplay are parts to a whole) point to this. I don't think we've seen Nintendo realize their goal, but I think it's coming. I don't think it's a vision that is more marketable than the Wii's message, but I think it allows more outcomes in gameplay, and better, more thought out ideas in the process. So, I'm excited to see how Nintendo makes their vision a reality (even if I turn out to be completely off-base with my analysis).

 

[PhantomR]

To me the problem isn't Iwata or any one person.

Again its their whole philosophy which pre dates Iwata.

To compete and or win we all know what they have to do. They don't have to have the best tech for graphics and visuals but it can't be lagging so far behind. And while they themselves might never want to make "hardcore" games, namely shooters which btw sucks because I am sure they could make amazing software in any genre, they have to attract 2nd or 3rd party developers to do so. You also can't have such a weak launch followed by a weaker drought of software.

Its all things everyone in the industry knows. Banking on innovation each cycle isn't going to work because not all innovations are going to take off like motion controls.

I don't think its all over for them. Sure they will finish #3 in the race but they won't also take a hit per console sold like MS and Sony most likely will. And once the software does pick up the base should expand and hopefully at worst they can still get shitty 3rd party ports to build around their own AAA titles.

But again they can't be the sole providers of software for their own hardware. Spread to thin. They need more 2nd parties with varying talents so they can at least ask them to make games which they themselves can't make.

I can see a completely different picture in a years time if they manage to release Mario Kart with a great online multiplayer setup along side the WW remake and one other big title this fall. Keeping fingers crossed that its a great FPS by Retro!

You make a great point here, because Nintendo was ALL ABOUT hardcore gaming and creating IP for that market during the N64 and slightly Gamecube days.

Goldeneye?
Perfect Dark?
Conker's Bad Fur day?
Killer Instinct?
Eternal Darkness?
Metroid Prime?


What happened? Those were the days, man. NOA had much more autonomy back then. NOA and Rare were BFFs, and that relationship really blossomed. That needs to happen again. I'm praying that with this Wii U project, Retro is being given the freedom to branch out and show an alternate side of Nintendo like Rare did. It's funny, because when Rare did that it didn't damage the core Nintendo brand or make it look different to consumers at all. It won't do that today in 2013 either.

 

[TreasureHunterG]

What "graphics race"?

Durango and Orbis are no 5TFLOP beasts, if anything, they are both moderate designs.

Offering a nice spec bump over 7 year old products is no "graphics race".

Exactly. Nintendo don't need to have such high specs like PS3/360 had for their time, but indeed, a nice bump over the current gen. Wii wasn't even on par with Xbox and there's controversy around Wii U's hardware if it's really a improvement over PS3/360. Most Wanted U so far is indicating that Wii U hardware is superior, hence can handle the PC specs while the HD twins couldn't handle.

But it's true, you don't need to enter the graphics race in order to bring a spec bump over the previous generation.

 

[Tenki]

Why do people want a new CEO coming from outside Nintendo? I prefer a CEO who has been all his life inside the company and knows about the video game industry, rather than a businessman who hasn't play a game in his all life.

 

[DjRoomba]

The Wii U is every problem Nintendo's had since the N64 all rolled up into one console.

Its a fucking games console that plays games. Wheres the problems?

 

[RPGamer92]

Why do people want a new CEO coming from outside Nintendo? I prefer a CEO who has been all his life inside the company and knows about the video game industry, rather than a businessman who hasn't play a game in his all life.

That's what Yamauchi was and besides from VB, every Nintendo system under him were all both profitable on day 1 and had a consistent amount of games released (with the slight exception of N64 early on).

 

[Tenki]

That's what Yamauchi was and besides from VB, every Nintendo system under him were all both profitable on day 1 and had a consistent amount of games released (with the slight exception of N64 early on).

And didn't Wii and DS have even more Nintendo games?

 

[Zoramon089]

That's what Yamauchi was and besides from VB, every Nintendo system under him were all both profitable on day 1 and had a consistent amount of games released (with the slight exception of N64 early on).

Yamauchi's family started Nintendo. He was far from some outside leader

 

[Chie Satonaka]

You make a great point here, because Nintendo was ALL ABOUT hardcore gaming and creating IP for that market during the N64 and slightly Gamecube days.

Goldeneye?
Perfect Dark?
Conker's Bad Fur day?
Killer Instinct?
Eternal Darkness?
Metroid Prime?


What happened? Those were the days, man. NOA had much more autonomy back then. NOA and Rare were BFFs, and that relationship really blossomed. That needs to happen again. I'm praying that with this Wii U project, Retro is being given the freedom to branch out and show an alternate side of Nintendo like Rare did. It's funny, because when Rare did that it didn't damage the core Nintendo brand or make it look different to consumers at all. It won't do that today in 2013 either.

I think what happened is that "gamers" rejected them for God of War and Halo.

To be clear, I'm not dissing Microsoft or Sony here. The PS2 was amazing. That third party support, those first party games, it just did a whole lot right.

But despite a lot of offerings to the hardcore on both the N64 and the GCN, people were playing on Playstations, and for good reason. That's when the industry started shifting in the direction that it's currently in, and unfortunately, Nintendo hasn't found their niche in that market yet.

Wii wasn't even on par with Xbox

Can I get a source on this?

 

[apana]

Seems kind of ironic to me, but taking Nintendo purely on their own terms, Wii U does a lot to start addressing the problems Nintendo's had. They discovered the internets, even if issues remain to be sorted. They're trying, once more, to establish a kind of Nintendo eco-system and community that buys mindshare. The kind they really haven't had since the NES and SNES days. (Talking about the social aspects like Miiverse, here.) The hardware is powerful enough to produce impressive games in both scope and technically - again, on Nintendo's own terms. It supports as wide a variety of input methods and gaming modes as frankly, anything outside the PC does.

The challenge now is to use that as a foundation to build... something. Whatever that something might be.

In a certain sense I often wonder if Nintendo is merely trying to survive what's going on with the game console world and what many game fans would see as the traditional game market. Isn't it kind of true that, should they hang in their long enough, convergence of technologies will make the game console horse race irrelevant anyway? Many say Wii U will be Nintendo's last console. Will that matter, if Durango and Orbis are also the last game consoles as anyone would recognize a console.

A pyrrhic last laugh for Nintendo - but any laugh Iwata can walk away from is a good laugh , I figure.

Gotta admit I have no idea what you are talking about it. Nintendo is doing what now?

 

[Kai Dracon]

Its a fucking games console that plays games. Wheres the problems?

Not enough fun shading.

Also I think the dual screens are giving people whiplash. It's the new "Wii Elbow".

Nintendo shipping neckbrace body condom w/ price drop confirmed.

Gotta admit I have no idea what you are talking about it. Nintendo is doing what now?

It's just wild mass guessing for fun. Like: Nintendo ends up just trying to hang on until this generation is over, and ALL game consoles pretty much get eaten. Gaming formats finish shifting, whatever the new market is arrives, and matures.

Then Nintendo finds a new niche, where they're not even expected to compete in the old "console" market.

But people keep saying Nintendo is "crazy". Maybe they might try it!

 

[JordanN]

Can I get a source on this?

The Wii was overall more powerful than Xbox but it lacked HD or programmable shaders (which the Xbox had).

 

[MisterHero]

Its a fucking games console that plays games. Wheres the problems?

It doesn't do enough non-game stuff like spreadsheets

 

[Gummb]

Gotta admit I have no idea what you are talking about it. Nintendo is doing what now?

I think he's limiting the definition of "console" and saying that merging technologies will require companies to think outside the "console" sphere. We don't really know what will come in the future, but I personally don't think Nintendo will stop creating "consoles," but I guess we could redefine what "consoles" are?? lol

nvm, he responded.

 

[Dave Meltzer]

http://www.gamerankings.com/browse.html

It may not have been as influential to the industry as 64 but Galaxy and Galaxy 2 are and will probably remain 2 of the greatest received games of all time.

Short sightedness. Is Galaxy better than 64? Probably. But it's obviously not as important a game. It doesn't deserve a spot with Ocarina and Mario 64, which is Nintendo flat out defining that era of gaming.

 

[RPGamer92]

Yamauchi's family started Nintendo. He was far from some outside leader

But wasn't he not even a gamer or at least a developer like Iwata was?

 

[Anticitizen One]

But wasn't he not even a gamer or at least a developer like Iwata was?

Who gives a fuck if he was a gamer or not

 

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

I like Iwata. I don't want to see him resign.

But if he did, Nintendo won't be the same and I think there will be some sadness in my heart.

 

[Kai Dracon]

Short sightedness. Is Galaxy better than 64? Probably. But it's obviously not as important a game. It doesn't deserve a spot with Ocarina and Mario 64, which is Nintendo flat out defining that era of gaming.

It was easy to lead and set trends when 3D was crude, and most games using the new technology were unplayable since almost nobody knew how to make games set in 3D worlds yet.

It's this kind of framing of Nintendo as perpetually failing to live up to their past that seems odd. When gaming was smaller, simpler, it was intrinsically less challenging for a good company to stand out.

Everything is far more built up today, more refined, and there are more players in the game. Nintendo has, on the whole, been doing what they've always done. But at times it seems sheer jadedness on the part of the audience and lack of perspective causes Nintendo to be measured against an unfair standard.

Put another way: I suspect if one went back in time and substituted Skyward Sword for Ocarina of Time, adjusting the audio-visuals in both directions to match the era, we would see people going on about how Ocarina of Time was such a disappointment. And wondering where was the old Nintendo, that strove to change the world with innovative games like Skyward Sword.

 

[Dave Meltzer]

It was easy to lead and set trends when 3D was crude, and most games using the new technology were unplayable since almost nobody knew how to make games set in 3D worlds yet.

It's this kind of framing of Nintendo as perpetually failing to live up to their past that seems odd. When gaming was smaller, simpler, it was intrinsically less challenging for a good company to stand out.

Everything is far more built up today, more refined, and there are more players in the game. Nintendo has, on the whole, been doing what they've always done. But at times it seems sheer jadedness on the part of the audience and lack of perspective causes Nintendo to be measured against an unfair standard.

Put another way: I suspect if one went back in time and substituted Skyward Sword for Ocarina of Time, adjusting the audio-visuals in both directions to match the era, we would see people going on about how Ocarina of Time was such a disappointment. And wondering where was the old Nintendo, that strove to change the world with innovative games like Skyward Sword.

Skyward Sword is awful, that's the most important reply I can make.

Second is that gaming is still changing constantly, and lots of companies are pushing it forward. And Nintendo isn't one of those companies anymore, at least not for me. I think Wii U and 3DS together represent a stale, boring company who isn't interested in pushing boundaries or being genuinely innovative. But this is just my opinion. I'm sure plenty disagree. Ultimately it's the difference between an N64 with Mario 64 and a Wii U with NSMBW.

 

[TheUnknownForce]

Skyward Sword is awful, that's the most important reply I can make.

Second is that gaming is still changing constantly, and lots of companies are pushing it forward. And Nintendo isn't one of those companies anymore, at least not for me. I think Wii U and 3DS together represent a stale, boring company who isn't interested in pushing boundaries or being genuinely innovative. But this is just my opinion. I'm sure plenty disagree. Ultimately it's the difference between an N64 with Mario 64 and a Wii U with NSMBW.

I think they are trying to be innovative, but they are not going far enough. The Wii and DS were hardware innovation, and 3DS and Wii U tried different innovations on top of the mainline Wii and DS innovations (3DS = 3D and StreetPass, Wii U = GamePad and Miiverse), but it seems they missed the mark on selling those innovations as well as Wii and DS.

I certainly would not compare M64 with NSMBW, especially as the former has more in line with Galaxy than NMSBW. Still, there was innovation with NSMBW, particularly 4-player cooperative play. The issue is that there is a lack of that innovation with NSMBU outside of the GamePad, which they have not sold well enough, as I mentioned above.

Their most innovative features are in their downloadable games, but yes, they need to make more unique games instead of relying on Wii and DS sequels to get their audience to move. It may take a bit longer for Nintendo to realize it, unfortunately.

EDIT: Oh, and Skyward Sword was definitely lacking compared to Twilight Princess. They did not go far enough with changing the game, and it came off as disjointed and wonky as a result :/ Hope the new Wii U Zelda they mentioned actually takes care to look at what other adventure games have done as of late.

 

[Tenki]

Second is that gaming is still changing constantly, and lots of companies are pushing it forward. And Nintendo isn't one of those companies anymore, at least not for me. I think Wii U and 3DS together represent a stale, boring company who isn't interested in pushing boundaries or being genuinely innovative. But this is just my opinion. I'm sure plenty disagree. Ultimately it's the difference between an N64 with Mario 64 and a Wii U with NSMBW.

And which companies are pushing gaming or being innovative in your opinion? Serious question.

 

[farnham]

lol so much resentment for something as inocous as the vitalilty sensor, which never even became a reality, from a presentation that announced Other M, a game that (at the time) sounded amazing.

Of course he is set out to make money, that doesn't necessarily undermine his integriry or his "gaming cred" or whatever you call it. He's one of the few CEOs in this industry that is also a game developer, and that is very valuable. He doesn't want to just make money, he wants to do it by making good games for broad audiences.

Other m and donkey kond country returns.

Other m is a very good game too. It got undeserved shit for its meh story. But that said how many games this gen had good story anyways

 

[Cheerilee]

Who gives a fuck if he was a gamer or not

Tenki does. He said "I prefer a CEO who has been all his life inside the company and knows about the video game industry, rather than a businessman who hasn't play a game in his all life."

Yamauchi may have been "inside the company all his life" (even when the company made playing cards or love hotels), but it can be said that he knew nothing about the videogame industry (especially not when he started), he was definitely a businessman, and he never even tried playing a videogame until he was pushed to do so several years after the Famicom launched (he got mad and threw down the controller during his first attempt).

 

[jett]

The 3DS this January was worse than any January for the NDS except last year's.

bububu iwata turned the 3DS around

 

[Tobor]

bububu iwata turned the 3DS around

Hopefully the Iwata apologists wake up and smell the failure now.

 

[Aquamarine]

An interesting point, as Nintendo has always leveraged their business in continuous steps toward a final goal. What I'm about to write is speculative and dumb, but is based on what Nintendo has said about the Wii and Wii U and I think it fits into what you've said.

The Wii had the perfect atmosphere to launch successive peripherals and leverage unique software with it. It was inclusive and eccentric, not personal and grounded. The Wii U appears to be more about individuality among other individuals - the personal pad (everyone has their own screen in the family room) and the asynchronous gameplay (individual goals and gameplay are parts to a whole) point to this. I don't think we've seen Nintendo realize their goal, but I think it's coming. I don't think it's a vision that is more marketable than the Wii's message, but I think it allows more outcomes in gameplay, and better, more thought out ideas in the process. So, I'm excited to see how Nintendo makes their vision a reality (even if I turn out to be completely off-base with my analysis).

Note how the simplicity of the Wii controller was conducive to its massive popularity---it was simple, easy to understand, and sturdy.

It "just worked." You picked it up, and you "got it."

The Wii U replaces that philosophy with an asymmetric, bulky, isolating experience. If anything, it's the fundamentals behind the machine that contribute most to its failure.

 

[Tenki]

Hopefully the Iwata apologists wake up and smell the failure now.

Isn't "failure" a bit hyperbolic? And by "a bit" I mean "a lot".

 

[optimiss]

Nintendo is failing because of a lack of imagination in their software creation. Where is the Pokemon MMO people have been clamouring for? Where is the Metroid Prime FPS with awesome online multiplayer? Where is the online multiplayer F-Zero sequel with highly customizable vehicles? Why no online Smash Bros at launch? Why no refreshed and updated "Nintendo" Kart? Give us a new Advanced Wars with online play. How about a new Star Fox with amazing 100 ship dogfights?

Oh and stop already with the remakes. I'd rather have 1 new innovative game than 3 Super Metroid All-star U editions. Give us the old games as is on virtual console and move on.

 

[CoffeeJanitor]

I agree with you. Sakurai would be a good choice. I don't know if he have any executive experience, but his line of thinking just fit what Nintendo need right now.

WTF am I reading. Miyamoto or Sakurai as CEOs? Come on people. These are not business types.

 

[Rehynn]

Nintendo is failing because of a lack of imagination in their software creation. Where is the Pokemon MMO people have been clamouring for? Where is the Metroid Prime FPS with awesome online multiplayer? Where is the online multiplayer F-Zero sequel with highly customizable vehicles? Why no online Smash Bros at launch? Why no refreshed and updated "Nintendo" Kart? Give us a new Advanced Wars with online play. How about a new Star Fox with amazing 100 ship dogfights?

They should totally hire you. Excellent, imaginate ideas all around.

 

[Spirit Icana]

Note how the simplicity of the Wii controller was conducive to its massive popularity---it was simple, easy to understand, and sturdy.

It "just worked." You picked it up, and you "got it."

The Wii U replaces that philosophy with an asymmetric, bulky, isolating experience. If anything, it's the fundamentals behind the machine that contribute most to its failure.

Well said.

*Thumbs up*

Just watch the unveiling of Wii Sports at e3 2006 on youtube and then watch the Nintendo Land unveiling at E3 2012 on youtube. Night and day difference. I don't know about others, but I knew Wii was going to be a hit and all over the news after that Wii Sports showing.

 

[jett]

Isn't "failure" a bit hyperbolic? And by "a bit" I mean "a lot".

The 3DS is failing everywhere but in its home country.
The Wii U is failing everywhere.

Iwata reeks of failure. He should take a shower.

 

[AntMurda]

Note how the simplicity of the Wii controller was conducive to its massive popularity---it was simple, easy to understand, and sturdy.

It "just worked." You picked it up, and you "got it."

The Wii U replaces that philosophy with an asymmetric, bulky, isolating experience. If anything, it's the fundamentals behind the machine that contribute most to its failure.

The Wii was great for accessibility and horrible for depth. You create an ecosystem where 80 million of your users are only interested in simple novelty games, and it looks like they are only going to buy the 2 big games "everyone is talking about" during the holidays.

Well what about the other 8-9 Nintendo games released during that forecast? What about third party games? They all either survived in the shadow, or complely bombed. Thus, you create a system that sells 90+ million and a couple of MEGA GAMES but everything else just fails to generate money.

The Wii U was Nintendo trying to combine the yin and yang. Right now that formula has both parties unconvinced. Their big hooks were off tv play, asymmetrical gaming, and "HD". I think off tv is the only thing even remotely exciting that could take off for the masses in Japan.

 

[optimiss]

I'm also sick of Nintendo half-assing all their games. As a concept, Nintendoland is brilliant. Imagine a real-time online, evolving, virtual Nintendo theme park populated by real people: walking around, chatting, competing in games. You would navigate a huge theme park style "over world" full of little side quests and easter eggs. Then pop into the main attractions to compete with friends or strangers. There could be leaderboards and trophies. They could have monthly official competitions with digital prizes from the eShop. Yiy could win virtual cons in buy in game prizes and costumes for your mii.

But no, we get a theme park the size of my bedroom with generic player status messages and offline play. There is no innovation. No imagination. Just a paper facade for the same old stale mini games.

It makes me sad. The industry needs Nintendo because no one else makes the kind of games Nintendo used to make. Now quit fucking around and make some goddamn good games!

 

[cajunator]

That poor guy is gonna work himself to death.

 

[VICI0US]

bububu iwata turned the 3DS around

if you use the DS as a benchmark prepare to consider every system released this generation a failure.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

That poor guy is gonna work himself to death.

He did this too himself. I think he is a great person but with the way things are looking for Nintendo it is clear they need some restructuring.

 

[seady]

I'm also sick of Nintendo half-assing all their games. As a concept, Nintendoland is brilliant. Imagine a real-time online, evolving, virtual Nintendo theme park populated by real people: walking around, chatting, competing in games. You would navigate a huge theme park style "over world" full of little side quests and easter eggs. Then pop into the main attractions to compete with friends or strangers. There could be leaderboards and trophies. They could have monthly official competitions with digital prizes from the eShop. Yiy could win virtual cons in buy in game prizes and costumes for your mii.

But no, we get a theme park the size of my bedroom with generic player status messages and offline play. There is no innovation. No imagination. Just a paper facade for the same old stale mini games.

It makes me sad. The industry needs Nintendo because no one else makes the kind of games Nintendo used to make. Now quit fucking around and make some goddamn good games!

This.

Their games are super creative is design but super conservative in scope.

 

[CoffeeJanitor]

This.

Their games are super creative is design but super conservative in scope.

Sucks because they used to do both.