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[Brera]

woah, WOW. well somebody get this guy a job application we got ourselves the next CEO of NINTENDO!!!!

It's not hard. The mistakes Nintendo have made with the 3DS and WiiU are comical and predictable. This is what happens when you get people like Iwata and Miyamoto making business decisions. Neither are visionaries like Trip Hawkins or Dave Perry (Game Animal included). A clear case of being promoted beyond their capabilities.

Nintendo Directs and Iwata asks are clearly vanity projects. Dude needs to be running a multibillion dollar multinational not fucking about on the Internet or chilling out with his development buddies on the company's dime.

 

[ii Stryker]

every console is overpriced in its early days except maybe the wii. Every new console had problems in its first few month to win against the old gen consoles as the value isnt there yet. These things can be fixed by releasing games and dropping price. The question is if nintendo is going to do it this holiday season or not.

Call of duty sales are strong but mario sells more overall. Mario kart wii did 34 million for example. Thats like 3 iterations on call of duty on 360.

This isn't just like every other system launch though. Consumers have come to expect more from these machines and being top of the line hardware is one of those things.

Nintendo is not only doing poorly against MS and Sony's hardware that's 7 years old already but they're going to have to compete against the PS4 and nextbox too.

I can't fathom that everyone thinks that Iwata is calling the shots at Nintendo though.

The business decisions Nintendo has continued to make even after Yamauchi's "retirement" scream the same practices that they've had since the 90's.

Yamauchi is and always has been in complete control of Nintendo. Iwata is his bitch puppet (and son-in-law IIRC) nothing more.

 

[Dave Meltzer]

Nintendo Directs and Iwata asks are clearly vanity projects. Dude needs to be running a multibillion dollar multinational not fucking about on the Internet or chilling out with his development buddies on the company's dime.

I agree

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Iwata is his bitch puppet (and son-in-law IIRC)

You're getting him mixed up with ex-NOA head Minoru Arakawa. Iwata is the first NCL president outside of the family.

 

[zroid]

It's a pretty cynical attempt on his part to become an Internet celebrity.

wow...

 

[Draconian]

Nintendo Directs and Iwata asks are clearly vanity projects. Dude needs to be running a multibillion dollar multinational not fucking about on the Internet or chilling out with his development buddies on the company's dime.

It's hard to tell who's being serious and who's joking around here anymore.

 

[JazzmanZ]

It's hard to tell who's being serious and who's joking around here anymore.

I can assure you Brera is 100% serious.
He has it out to call out on Iwata and Nintendo for things.

 

[grimshawish]

Brera you need to turn off the hate taps. Such bitterness is not good for the soul.
Seriously, whats going on?

 

[CoffeeJanitor]

Buwahahaha, here we go again.
Nobody recognizing the strategy, best CEO in the VG business, but hey: dem GFX and dem RAM suxxed, we want his head on a spike!
*yawn*

Iwata has not done a good job over the past few years

 

[Dave Meltzer]

Buwahahaha, here we go again.
Nobody recognizing the strategy, best CEO in the VG business, but hey: dem GFX and dem RAM suxxed, we want his head on a spike!
*yawn*

How is he the best CEO in the business?

Do you think Wii U and 3DS are living up to their potential?

 

[Rehynn]

Nintendo Directs and Iwata asks are clearly vanity projects. Dude needs to be running a multibillion dollar multinational not fucking about on the Internet or chilling out with his development buddies on the company's dime.

Ooooh, so you were joking all along! Got me!

 

[Javier]

Brera you need to turn off the hate taps. Such bitterness is not good for the soul.
Seriously, whats going on?

Honestly, I don't know. Sometimes I see some good points established in this thread, but then people start talking about how Nintendo should stop with Iwata Asks and Nintendo Direct and I really can't comprehend what's going on.

It's not like getting rid of IA and ND (both projects that are done in a day's timeframe and on a monthly basis tops) would really "fix" anything at Nintendo.

 

[JoeM86]

Iwata has not done a good job over the past few years

Because all the other games companies are printing money and aren't folding at all...

 

[Y2Kev]

Buwahahaha, here we go again.
Nobody recognizing the strategy, best CEO in the VG business, but hey: dem GFX and dem RAM suxxed, we want his head on a spike!
*yawn*

Seriously: where do you/people see 2 years in a row of losses? FY11 - profitable, FY12 - loss, FY13 - ? (Beastly 3DS, Wii U pending)
And 3DS not making a dent outside of Japan, wut?

Now we are talking about projections, I can deal with that, but ca. 20mio units until end of 2012 outside of Japan is "not making a dent"?? Puhhhllleeeaaassseee...



Let's wait and see, shall we?
I believe we'd have to agree on operating vs. net anyways

.

 

[grimshawish]

Problem with Iwata is that he's high on cloud 9 and lost it, maybe after the lackluster Wii U launch sales he'll come back.

XL was never going to have a second pad. Sense tells you this; fact is the 3DS hardly uses the Pro. Like 2 games fully utilise it; thats it. People need to get over this; there not going to add entire new feature sets to hardware that could make the previous model pointless or confuse third parties as to what model to develop for.

EDIT: My only criticism of the XL is I'd pay £20 more for a decent pair of speakers; the 3DS just doesn't have great sound.

 

[fuenix]

I think the core concept of the wii u is great: having a home tablet that is able to to play all the big blockbuster games, has good ergonomics and is automatically connected to the tv to share the experience with others or play on the big screen. But I think a big problem is, that Nintendo didn't take that concept far enough.
1. The OS is really bad. It is slow l, there are next to no apps available. I don't understand why they didn't choose to use a customized android version like amazon kindle to offer the user a real tablet experience. The Wii U supposedly already has a multi core arm co processor, why not use is for an android OS? And if its too weak the they should have put in a better one.
2. The gamepad looks like a child's toy. Nintendo says that they want people to use it as their primary screen in their living room but then they should have designed it in a way like the google nexus / kindle fire hd so that grown ups really see it as a home tablet.
3. I think it's brilliant that they have a camera in the gamepad that could be a kinect lite/ eye toy. Together with the Wii remotes in the players hand they could have a much better motion tracking. But I don't understand why they don't push that concept yet. Right now it's seems that they abandoned the next step in motion controls a bit. And I think that would be a real mistake since that technology is still in its infancy. I really hope that they come up with a new wii sports type of game this winter that uses camera and the Wii remote plus for better tracking.

 

[Naked Prime]

I don't think the problem is Iwata the issue, IMO is that NCL is fighting a global battle and are relying mainly on stratigies that really only work in 1- 2 regions. NOA souhld be allowed to make some decision that affect NCL as a whole. I doubt that NA had any real hand of the design of the WiiU nor were any key western developers (save Retro). Beyond that, any plans to help win over the west seem solely conceived in Kyoto. One thing that NCL needs to do is build up its western devs to the same level of quailty, structure and cohesevniess as they are in Japan. Once that is done they need the proper producers and creative leads to build a software portfolio that is well rounded and repersentative of the industry in broad. As well as nuture new talent so that they have that Nintendo pedigree of design & development standards. With the WiiU they should have also had (and still could) offer liasons for 3rd parties that help adapt & mold middleware. I almost wanan say that CryEngine 3 should be included in the devkits/SDK with a support team for devs comprised of Retro and Crytek Austin engineers.

And lets not talk about marketing outside of Japan

 

[WrenchNinja]

didnt it do reasonably well? nothing spectacular but enough to justify the existence of the device. its pokemon after all.

with 3ds they can have qr codes on the cards and stuff. its easier in comparison with the ecards.

I dont know, did it? Im just going by anecdotes of what I remember, and I never bought an e-reader, nor did anyone I know. We just stuck with the base game. If it was a success, wouldnt they have expanded it in the DPP generation? Or BW?

 

[Spieler Eins]

I don't think the problem is Iwata the issue, IMO is that NCL is fighting a global battle and are relying mainly on stratigies that really only work in 1- 2 regions. NOA souhld be allowed to make some decision that affect NCL as a whole. I doubt that NA had any real hand of the design of the WiiU nor were any key western developers (save Retro). Beyond that, any plans to help win over the west seem solely conceived in Kyoto. One thing that NCL needs to do is build up its western devs to the same level of quailty, structure and cohesevniess as they are in Japan. Once that is done they need the proper producers and creative leads to build a software portfolio that is well rounded and repersentative of the industry in broad. As well as nuture new talent so that they have that Nintendo pedigree of design & development standards. With the WiiU they should have also had (and still could) offer liasons for 3rd parties that help adapt & mold middleware. I almost wanan say that CryEngine 3 should be included in the devkits/SDK with a support team for devs comprised of Retro and Crytek Austin engineers.

And lets not talk about marketing outside of Japan

TVii?

 

[Crash Station]

we will see in a few weeks. the FY 2012 report end of this march will determine a lot. If nintendo can present a way forward and a reasonable 2012 result iwata will stay if not he will probably be axed.

He's talking about resigning after FY 2013, so he still has a year to turn things around. There's no way he'll get axed in a month.

 

[Dali]

I think the core concept of the wii u is great: having a home tablet that is able to to play all the big blockbuster games, has good ergonomics and is automatically connected to the tv to share the experience with others or play on the big screen. But I think a big problem is, that Nintendo didn't take that concept far enough.
1. The OS is really bad. It is slow l, there are next to no apps available. I don't understand why they didn't choose to use a customized android app version like amazon kindle to offer the user a real tablet experience. The Wii U supposedly already has a multi core arm co processor, why not use is for an android OS? And if its too weak the they should have put in a better one.
2. The gamepad looks like a child's toy. Nintendo says that they want people to use it as their primary screen in their living room but then they should have designed it in a way like the google nexus / kindle fire hd so that grown ups really see it as a home tablet.
3. I think it's brilliant that they have a camera in the gamepad that could be a kinect lite/ eye toy. Together with the Wii remotes in the players hand they could have a much better motion tracking. But I don't understand why they don't push that concept yet. Right now it's seems that they abandoned the next step in motion controls a bit. And I think that would be a real mistake since that technology is still in its infancy. I really hope that they come up with a new wii sports type of game this winter that uses camera and the Wii remote plus for better tracking.

The demo reel before Wii U released showed a player looking down at the game pad on the ground while it showed the image of a golf ball or a golf green. The player used the standard Wiimote to hit the ball displayed on the ground in front of them like a real golfer would play. Wii U sports isn't out yet but I'm sure they're designing the sports around using the game pad and it's features.

 

[Tobor]

XL was never going to have a second pad. Sense tells you this; fact is the 3DS hardly uses the Pro. Like 2 games fully utilise it; thats it. People need to get over this; there not going to add entire new feature sets to hardware that could make the previous model pointless or confuse third parties as to what model to develop for.

EDIT: My only criticism of the XL is I'd pay £20 more for a decent pair of speakers; the 3DS just doesn't have great sound.

This is always such a poor argument. Consoles have received updated controllers several times over the course of history and it's never destroyed a market or user base.

It would be slightly more work for developers to come up with two control schemes, and that's it.

 

[WiiredShawn]

"Iwata on why 3DS XL lacks a second circle pad"



Problem with Iwata is that he's high on cloud 9 and lost it, maybe after the lackluster Wii U launch sales he'll come back.

What about this decision means he's "lost it"? That seems like a pretty practical decision - you're designing a piece of portable hardware, and thus you're try to keep the size down so that it's actually, you know, portable. Plus, how many games actually need the second stick? Perhaps the 3DS won't receive a bunch of FPSs, but how many FPS fans want to play their genre on handhelds? It will rarely be missed because there will rarely be a game on the platform that demands it - and for that contingency, there is the Circle Pad Pro.

Remember, too, that Iwata is a Japanese CEO trying to sell hardware to multiple countries, and thus it has to be designed at a baseline that is acceptable across different cultures. He made the decision that he thought would best impact cost and form factor. Just because some people can't comprehend playing games without a second stick doesn't mean he's bonkers.

 

[JoeM86]

This is always such a poor argument. Consoles have received updated controllers several times over the course of history and it's never destroyed a market or user base.

It would be slightly more work for developers to come up with two control schemes, and that's it.

Yes, but those peripherals were barely supported. Look at Wii Motion Plus, Playstation Move etc.

 

[Tobor]

Yes, but those peripherals were barely supported. Look at Wii Motion Plus, Playstation Move etc.

The Dual Shock was barely supported? How about the six button Genesis controller?

 

[axisofweevils]

"Iwata on why 3DS XL lacks a second circle pad"



Problem with Iwata is that he's high on cloud 9 and lost it, maybe after the lackluster Wii U launch sales he'll come back.

Good decision IMO. By the time the 3DS XL came out, the original 3DS had already sold ~10 million. Similarly, Sony could have added a second stick to the PSP2000, PSP3000, and the PSP Go. They didn't. Dividing your audience is never a good thing. Personally, I wish they had never made the second circle pad at all, but there you go.

 

[grimshawish]

It would be slightly more work for developers to come up with two control schemes, and that's it.

Mario 3D Land is a 3D game thats built around you having one pad; adding a second could mean games are built around two.

Just having the pro means your developing for two only if its an added feature; your game needs to support one to sell anything significant.

 

[Tobor]

Mario 3D Land is a 3D game thats built around you having one pad; adding a second could mean games are built around two.

Just having the pro means your developing for two only if its an added feature; your game needs to support one to sell anything significant.

You're overcomplicating it. Plenty of DS games were designed to use the touchpad in place of a second analog. Leave that scheme in for those without an analog, and use the second analog for those who have it.

Again, this has been done successfully before. It's not rocket science.

EDIT:To be clear, I think there are valid business reasons not to do it, like not wanting to spend the extra money.

 

[Naked Prime]

TVii?

Sorry, I meant from the hw perspective. But part of me wants to think that TVii was a natural evolution from Netflix on Wii & Nintendo needing a way to compete with MS & Sony's set top features. And instead of half assing it themselves they got someone with an existing product and tailored it. Good move, whatever the situation, but they could stand to advertise it more. TVii works far better (for me atleast) than the CE world that has apps, on every peice of electronics, that needs t be exited, started up...etc. But in it's marketing its seldom (if at all) used as a selling point.

 

[meppi]

I wonder if Iwata Asks and Nintendo Direct are calculated moves on Iwata's part to make him more likeable so he can get away with awful decisions.

It's a pretty cynical attempt on his part to become an Internet celebrity.

Maybe he's trying to ensure Nintendo can't kick him out the company completely and need to keep him as a public figure. Wouldn't shock me.

Bwahahahahahaha

I know you guys tend to say some dumb shit, but come on now.

 

[axisofweevils]

The problem is that the CCPro exists so that's two control schemes either you like it or not. To me the annoying thing is the least effort being put into everything these days, "whatever, good enough, ship it, they'll buy it".

But the fact is, the 3DS doesn't need a second stick.

When the CCPro was unveiled, it was widely spun as a mistake - an admission that the original 3DS design was somehow flawed - it wasn't. If Nintendo really thought the 3DS needed dual sticks, by now - 18 months later - they'd have published far more than 0 games that make use of them.

It's pretty clear at this point that the CCPro was only designed at the behest of Capcom in order to secure exclusivity of the 2 Monster Hunter games.

 

[Brera]

I think the core concept of the wii u is great: having a home tablet that is able to to play all the big blockbuster games, has good ergonomics and is automatically connected to the tv to share the experience with others or play on the big screen. But I think a big problem is, that Nintendo didn't take that concept far enough.
1. The OS is really bad. It is slow l, there are next to no apps available. I don't understand why they didn't choose to use a customized android version like amazon kindle to offer the user a real tablet experience. The Wii U supposedly already has a multi core arm co processor, why not use is for an android OS? And if its too weak the they should have put in a better one.
2. The gamepad looks like a child's toy. Nintendo says that they want people to use it as their primary screen in their living room but then they should have designed it in a way like the google nexus / kindle fire hd so that grown ups really see it as a home tablet.
3. I think it's brilliant that they have a camera in the gamepad that could be a kinect lite/ eye toy. Together with the Wii remotes in the players hand they could have a much better motion tracking. But I don't understand why they don't push that concept yet. Right now it's seems that they abandoned the next step in motion controls a bit. And I think that would be a real mistake since that technology is still in its infancy. I really hope that they come up with a new wii sports type of game this winter that uses camera and the Wii remote plus for better tracking.

Most of those ideas are pretty bad.

Iwata or someone explained why the WiiU is so messed up. They had lots of different teams working on bits and didnt understand how it worked together until it was finished....and was clearly an unfinished dog of an OS.

1GB and it's still that bad of a mess?

People think I'm a hater and hate on Nintendo. I'm not. I'm a Nintendo fanboy. I don't like what Iwata and Miyamoto have done to Nintendo. They've basically ruined it.

They've run every franchise into the ground and milked the teet dry. Nintendo valued their IP once and refused to milk. You'd get a mainline game every 5 years if you were lucky.

 

[JoeM86]

Most of those ideas are pretty bad.

Iwata or someone explained why the WiiU is so messed up. They had lots of different teams working on bits and didnt understand how it worked together until it was finished....and was clearly an unfinished dog of an OS.

1GB and it's still that bad of a mess?

People think I'm a hater and hate on Nintendo. I'm not. I'm a Nintendo fanboy. I don't like what Iwata and Miyamoto have done to Nintendo. They've basically ruined it.

They've run every franchise into the ground and milked the teet dry. Nintendo valued their IP once and refused to milk. You'd get a mainline game every 5 years if you were lucky.

And yet if they were to do that now, people would complain even more than they are doing so at the moment. We've become a culture of instant gratification and Nintendo are just capitulating to that. The fact is that their games are still top quality, despite being "milked"

 

[QaaQer]

Actually, he was dead on about their policies and strategies. The only thing I disagree with is his assessment of Reggie, but it's possible Pachter has some inside info there.

Does anyone know what NOA's marketing budget is? That is a necessary piece of info. Also, the scuttlebutt is that NOJ is pretty hands on and keeps NOA on a short leash. But wherever the blame lay, the marketing for wiiu has been abysmal in N.America. And I dock Reggie points for outright lying on cnn.

 

[Brera]

NOJ need to keep NOA on a tight leash otherwise Reggie would run it into the ground.

Let's not forget that under his watch MTV showed less and less music and more bullshit and helped run raleigh bikes to the ground.

 

[FreeMufasa]

Real talk, iwata miyamoto and anouma need to go. Bring in someone else or Nintendo is over within da next 5 years.

 

[Boney]

I don't even know what to say to this.

Guess I'll just say there's no NOJ, so you boys can keep having fun without the need of people getting hurt.

 

[Brera]

Real talk, iwata miyamoto and anouma need to go. Bring in someone else or Nintendo is over within da next 5 years.

I always forget about Anouma...he's the dude that ruined Zelda right?

They need to make Koji Kondo the boss. He's the only dude with talent from the old days!

 

[fuenix]

Most of those ideas are pretty bad.

Iwata or someone explained why the WiiU is so messed up. They had lots of different teams working on bits and didnt understand how it worked together until it was finished....and was clearly an unfinished dog of an OS.

1GB and it's still that bad of a mess?

People think I'm a hater and hate on Nintendo. I'm not. I'm a Nintendo fanboy. I don't like what Iwata and Miyamoto have done to Nintendo. They've basically ruined it.

They've run every franchise into the ground and milked the teet dry. Nintendo valued their IP once and refused to milk. You'd get a mainline game every 5 years if you were lucky.

Care to explain why these ideas are bad? I'm just curious.
That the OS is unfinished is clearly visible but I don't understand what that has to do with using android as a base as I suggested.
I have to confess that I'm not really aware how difficult it is to implement a customized android, but I see it from a user experience: when I have a tablet I want android or IOS on it and not some shitty Nintendo developed OS

 

[metalslimer]

Im going to post what I posted in the other Pachter thread about why I vehemently disagree with the whole Wii HD idea. Of course the Wii U strategy is probably even more disastrous, but releasing a Wii HD would not have solved anything for Nintendo.

If Nintendo had launched a Wii HD for the same cost as the PS3/360 who exactly would have been the market? We're talking about 2010 right which is when Pachter said he wanted the thing to come out. If Nintendo had released a new console in 2010 they would have had nothing at all to launch with it. If it had PS3/360 multiplatform games, no one would have dropped their PS3/360s for a Wii HD. What would have happened is that they would have ended up abadoning the Wii even earlier than they did which would have made no sense when the Wii sold 4 million units in December of 2009 and they had a lot of their development tied into the Wii at that point. The problems Nintendo has with the Wii transition were inevitable due to the structure they had set up and launching in 2009 would have just exasperated the problems.

No, what Nintendo should have done was during the peak of the Wii years invested a large sum of money into acquiring western studios and began making multiple deals with 3rd party developers, asked all of them what they wanted from a next gen console, and conceded their isolationist view of the industry to a more level headed approach. Then they should have launched the Wii U in 2011 with Skyward Sword as a launch game along with all the big PS3/360 multiplats of the day (Skyrim, MW3, BF,etc.). Instead what we're left with is Nintendo being caught unaware that Wii sales were going to decline, and when they did they rushed into trying to finish Wii U only to realize that HD development was going to be a much more massive undertaking than they thought. And whatever massive deal they had with EA completely fell through probably due to EA asking for a lot more leeway with their games than even Sony or MS gave them due to Nintendo's complete vulnerability when it comes to 3rd parties.

 

[Goodlife]

Seriously, people are that down about the OS 4 months after launch?

 

[Karsticles]

Iwata saved Bayonetta, so he has a great deal of wiggle room with me when it comes to bad decisions. He's earned his brownie points.

 

[JoeM86]

Seriously, people are that down about the OS 4 months after launch?

Seems it, though much of it is exaggerated.

I've never had load times of longer than 20 seconds. Nowadays, Miiverse, eShop, Settings etc. load in 5 seconds max for me

 

[nopenopenope]

.

 

[Brera]

Care to explain why these ideas are bad? I'm just curious.
That the OS is unfinished is clearly visible but I don't understand what that has to do with using android as a base as I suggested.
I have to confess that I'm not really aware how difficult it is to implement a customized android, but I see it from a user experience: when I have a tablet I want android or IOS on it and not some shitty Nintendo developed OS

The GamePad is a dumb terminal. It has no processing power.

The OS is pretty bad but at the same time it runs games and does stuff that is a bit more powerful than what Android is designed for.

 

[Goodlife]

Seems it, though much of it is exaggerated.

I've never had load times of longer than 20 seconds. Nowadays, Miiverse, eShop, Settings etc. load in 5 seconds max for me

Indeed.

And Nintendo have admitted there are problems and going fix it.

I do hope there are more apps planned though. I wonder if 3rd parties are going to be allowed to sell apps on the system.

 

[Brera]

This is considered a good thing? There were three Mario games on the NES between 1985 and 88 in Japan, '90 in the US and '91 in Europe. There was one main Super Mario title on the SNES but you had Mario All Stars, Super Mario Kart, Mario & Wario, Mario Paint... why is the SNES considered such a core console when it had loads of Mario themed games as well?

Don't you think the market has moved on since the early 90's?

You forget that in those days Nintendo had countless IP and were release loads of varied games. These days, the rehash the same 5 mario games every gen and if we are lucky, we get a hardcore game like Animal Crossing or Pikmin to keep us quiet.

 

[JoeM86]

Indeed.

And Nintendo have admitted there are problems and going fix it.

I do hope there are more apps planned though. I wonder if 3rd parties are going to be allowed to sell apps on the system.

Well there's the Uplay app from Ubisoft, and various other things like Youtube, Netflix, LoveFilm, hulu etc. so I'd assume so

 

[Gummb]

Why did I enter this topic? My head now hurts from all the opinions. @_@

I cannot comment on Iwata's poor performance because we do not know the material limitations a company like Nintendo has. In one sense, the Wii U is a significant upgrade from the Wii, but it currently lacks the appealing software that Nintendo promised for launch. I'm unsure whether that means that Iwata should be sacked, especially if projects like Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101 turn out to be ridiculously good products. In the end, if Nintendo continues to provide quality software that capitalizes on their hardware, I am perfectly fine playing it on a cardboard box for all I care. As for the 3DS, it remains my most-played device followed by the PC. I'm pretty happy with it and I think Iwata deserves credit for turning around its fortunes.

 

[JoeM86]

What I don't get is people demanding people get replaced, and that a console get released akin to the PS4/Durango, which would be sold at a loss, thus causing more issues. Sony and MS are both having problems, Microsoft managing to stay somewhat afloat due to subscriptions etc. Nintendo would have a massively worse situation than it has now. Why do people not see this?

Microsoft and Sony made a decision that is just bad business. Sony haven't recouped the losses they made from the 4+ years the PS3 was sold at a loss. Viya is being sold at a loss. They have to rely on software licensing to try and get money. It is not a sustainable business model.

Nor is developing for such high class systems, which is why dozens of development studios have collapsed over the last 5 years