Print

Author Topic: I really like Nintendo's new development/marketing strategy  (Read 7893 times)

Trainman

  • Bob-Omg
« Reply #15 on: December 25, 2009, 01:47:11 AM »
The question is: are they gonna do it? Will they ever just make a system that isn't just 3 baby steps in front of its predecessor and stop flooding the market with "Wii _____" games based only on Miyamoto's day-to-day experiences? Is Nintendo going to keep their "they want gameplay only" mentality for the next couple decades? Like Chupperson said, Miyamoto is just [darn] near senile and to add on to that, still seems to be living in the mid-80s.

I seriously think they keep him in a straitjacket and throw him in Nintendo's secret, maximum security meat locker until they run out of ideas for games. When that happens, they slightly crack the door open peering into the lifeless, dark abyss and wait patiently for Miyamoto to shout a random activity and then, bam, it becomes a "Wii _____" game. Throw him an onigiri, slowly seal the door back up, and then Nintendo is off the hook from the fans for months developing the new game. "But I see Miyamoto getting interviewed and showing up to E3 every year!!!!" No, that's his android understudy programmed by Reggie and his Cuban cigar cronies to talk only about gameplay and answer gameplay-related questions (and also talk about finishing Super Mario World with 99 lives and all the "cheats" since it was Reggie's idea to create the android). When you ask the android a non-gameplay-related question, you get the generic response, "Haha, I can't get into that at this time" while Reggie desperately tries to change the subject while giving you The Rock stare..... He wants to kick your ass and take your name AND make a game.... badly. Haven't you seen smoke start coming out of the Miyamoto-san-droid when you ask it too many questions that don't pertain to gameplay? Ah yes, that's where Nintendo's vast funds and expertise are actually going: to edit out all the smoke you see in any video interview and to assassinate all the people who know for a fact they saw it smoking to keep Nintendo's secret under tight wraps. Further proof: Miyamoto didn't even know who Lou Albano was. The real Miyamoto knows. They just hadn't programmed the Miyamoto-san-droid to handle that question since his death had sprung up so quickly; they simply didn't have enough time to program it in before the questions started pouring in.


Back to reality:

I highly doubt the "hey, pretty innovative motion control ya got there" craze is going to last into the next generations of consoles. By then, Microsoft and Sony will have figured out the ins and outs of motion control and will be able to offer the Wii's gimmick (times 10) + everything that makes the other systems vastly superior to the Wii (times 10). They're gonna try and bring a tsunami in to wash out all the Wii owners that bought the system solely for the motion controls over to their side of the ocean. They will be wowed by the superior (and less instrusive [Natal-wise]) motion control, the better graphics, the higher quality of the majority of their games, and the better online support while the Wii's archaic wi-fi system and graphical capabilities get shunted to the side.

Sony is Andross in his first form and Microsoft is his true form from Starfox 64. Nintendo is Fox, missing a wing on the Arwing, and having missed the wing repair in the tunnels leading up to Andross. The damage indicator is sounding off, the Arwing is losing altitude by itself, and all they have is their measly, green-colored, single-shot firepower and a few smart bombs. Come on, Nintendo. You can friggin' do this.

If you read all that, I congratulate you. If you tl;dr it, shame on you.
« Last Edit: December 25, 2009, 01:59:24 AM by Trainman »
Formerly quite reasonable.

CrossEyed7

  • i can make this whatever i want; you're not my dad
« Reply #16 on: December 25, 2009, 03:10:46 AM »
First of all, let's not forget that this generation is the first time ever that Nintendo hasn't had the best graphics. The NES was way better than the Atari(s) and the Master System, the SNES was better than the Genesis, the N64 was better than the PS1, the GCN was better than the PS2 and always neck-and-neck with the Xbox, often better than it -- despite coming out earlier than it. So when you try to frame Nintendo as being nothing but a bunch of backwards technologically illiterate hicks who have never given a [darn] about graphics, you're completely ignoring the last quarter century. That does describe their handheld systems, to a certain extent -- the Game Boys always sacrificed graphics in exchange for portability (form factor and battery life) -- but pretty much everyone agrees that they rarely made a misstep there, and the fun of the games was always there.

Also, I find it a bit hard to swallow that the console that's been using the same SNES controller since 1995 is the one that's making progress.

I don't see Natal being any less gimmicky or better controlled than the PS2 version of the EyeToy. And I've yet to see any actual games for it. So far I've seen some kinda Tamagotchi with a 12-year-old boy in it and a generic racing game. You gotta do better than that. Especially since that little boy game, the defacto flagship game, is made by Molyneaux, who has never failed to disappoint when it comes to releasing games that live up to their ridiculously overblown expectations (I fell for the hype on The Movies; I'm not getting fooled again). Sony's thing is impressive, but I've not yet seen it do anything that you couldn't do with two WM+s and no camera and certainly no silly glowing ping-pong balls... and without waiting a year for the technology to materialize.

Nintendo will not be losing any significant portion of its audience to Microsoft and Sony. As far as I can tell, the WM+ offers just as much precision in control as the EyeToy / Ball Wand / Whatever system (and way more than Natal, seeing as it has, you know, BUTTONS -- the lack of which on the Wiimote I remember hearing people complain quite a bit about not too long ago), and it's out now rather than some nebulous time next year, and it's a completely unobtrusive and natural-looking add-on to the controller everyone's gotten used to for the last three years rather than something completely new and unrelated coming out of nowhere (making it much more likely to be supported in actual games and not just tech demos to catch the headlines), and it's cheaper (only $20 if you only need one, $80 if you need four, which will probably still be cheaper than either Natal or a full set of EyeToy Ball Wands).

The individual "gimmick" of motion control will lose its novelty by next generation, but again, you're acting like Nintendo's only existed for the last three years. Look at the last quarter century and all the control "gimmicks" Nintendo's introduced that everyone else has followed them on. Analog stick. Shoulder buttons. D-pad. The very concept of a horizontal controller you hold with both hands and control with your thumbs. Every major innovation in controllers in the last 26 years (and even further back than that if you count the Game & Watch games) has come from Nintendo, and the others have always just played catch-up. And that's not even getting into the number of genres they've created. They'll have something new, don't worry.

Is the issue really the perceived fewer "hardcore" (KIRBY **** YEAH!!) games (three main series Mario games, two Zeldas, a new Metroid Prime and remakes of the other two, the biggest Smash Bros ever, and only one Mario Party -- that's certainly above average for a Nintendo console barely halfway through its lifespan) and the lack of third-party support (name one Nintendo console where third-party games are the big draw -- that means not just one or two standouts from a couple of parties, but the amount that people are demanding from the Wii now), or is the issue just that there's a bunch of games you don't want to play that also exist? I think it's that the existence of shovelware somehow threatens your manhood on some level. You're not comfortable knowing that you're playing a console that can also play Ninjabread Man and want Nintendo to stage an inquisition and purge out all the impure games. You want to go back to the days where Nintendo only gave their Seal of Quality to good games (read: the kind of games you like), like in the NES days, right? Except... most NES games sucked. Seriously, go back and look some time. Yes, it had some of the best games ever, but if you take all the games it had into consideration, the great games, even the decent ones, were by far the exception rather than the rule. For every Punch-Out, there were twenty Sunday Fundays and Urban Champions Wizards and Warriorses and Donkey Kong Jr. Maths and Jekyll and Hydes and Deadly Towerses. Most NES games were cheap shovelware (the Seal of Quality did subdue it a little bit, mainly through censorship, but it was mostly a marketing gimmick), and it still had some of the best games of all time. Ditto with the Wii.



Meh. I didn't want to make this post, but I couldn't hold back anymore. You have some good points, but you're blowing things way out of proportion and don't seem to be giving history enough consideration. That's the basic point.
« Last Edit: December 25, 2009, 08:45:38 AM by CrossEyed7 »
"Oh man, I wish being a part of a Mario fan community was the most embarrassing thing about my life." - Super-Jesse

WarpRattler

  • Paid by the word
« Reply #17 on: December 25, 2009, 08:21:43 AM »
CrossEyed7: Hey, Urban Champion is a fun game. Use Wizards and Warriors if you need an example of a horrible NES game.
Trainman: You do realize the Wii is still the top-selling console and that Nintendo has been selling it at a profit from day one, right? For all the progress they might be making, Sony's still in third place and still selling their console at a loss (though less of one than when the system first shipped), and Microsoft's console has a chance of a system-crippling error that's only at a single-digit percent rate after being revised twice, so it's kind of hard to say they're doing any better than Nintendo.

Chupperson Weird

  • Not interested.
« Reply #18 on: December 25, 2009, 11:28:19 AM »
Xbox actually came out like 2 days before Gamecube, teehee.
That was a joke.

Trainman

  • Bob-Omg
« Reply #19 on: December 25, 2009, 06:26:04 PM »
Well, no no, I'm not pretending Nintendo hasn't existed except for the past several years. I'm referring to Nintendo's "new direction" as it seems to like being called which has occurred in the last few years. I'm afraid that Nintendo's "new direction" will screw them. I'm not saying that Nintendo is doing worse than the other guys; l feel that their "new direction" is going to get them in the long run if they keep it up.

Warprattler: Yes, I do know that Wii is still on top and I agree that that is awesome, but I still feel if Microsoft (forget Sony for now) can nail Natal at all, they will deal a large blow to Nintendo. The "casuals," like I mentioned will be floored by how cool and gimmicky Natal will be. These are the Wii owners who have never read any reviews of their products, games, or anything; they want it from mom and dad because it looks cool and because mom and dad's word of mouth spread to the other parents: "This is great for the kids!" They don't care about the graphics or anything like that; they just want the motion control because, again, it looks cool. When they go to Toys 'R Us or wherever the hell you can get a console/accessories these days (that you'd never buy it from) and they see "Natal for the Xbox 360" and they see the picture of the doofus waving his arms around like an idiot with the caption, "NO CONTROLLER UNLIKE THE WII..... WINK WINK" I think they'll step back and say "Hmm, THIS LOOKS EVEN BETTER LOL" regardless of the price.

More "casuals" will probably be swept into the tank that way. Microsoft is smart; they're creating Natal to one-up the Wii, and they know they'd be competing for "casuals," so I'm expecting their campaign for it to not go into any type of technical detail or how it could be applied to "hardcore" games; they'll simply say "OH LOOK!!!!! Look how all you have to do is make a twisting motion AND MILO COMPLIMENTS YOU ON YOUR DANCING." There's a lot of "casuals" riding on this deal. The Gamecube only sold just over 22 million consoles in its life and the Wii had sold over 56 million. I believe the huge leap in sales was based off knowing it had motion controls, and I imagine for every "hardcore" player that was sold by that idea, there were 100 "casual" players that wanted mom and dad to buy it for them. Nintendo just started a new trend and whoever makes the cooler version of it will get all the "casuals'" business.

Sadly, you're either a "casual" or a "hardcore" player. I dunno who in the holy hell made up those terms because I only started hearing them around the time the Wii and everything got released. Personally, I think they're stupid-ass words (which is why I always put them in quotations, but no one else understands any other term) and they leave no room for any in-betweens.

No matter what, you're either considered:

Casual - You play Wii Sports an a hour or two at a kid's house every 3 weeks
Hardcore - You play any amount over that and/or you bought a "hardcore" title some time in your Wii's lifetime.
« Last Edit: December 25, 2009, 09:16:24 PM by Trainman »
Formerly quite reasonable.

Chupperson Weird

  • Not interested.
« Reply #20 on: December 25, 2009, 08:21:39 PM »
People used them before Wii happened, but gaming companies just happened to start using them hardcore right around this gen, it seems like. I barely play games more than an hour or so a day max these days, so I don't consider myself either casual or hardcore. I don't think they really apply to anyone, though.
That was a joke.

CrossEyed7

  • i can make this whatever i want; you're not my dad
« Reply #21 on: December 25, 2009, 08:57:52 PM »
Pretty much all of my gaming the last few months has been Clubhouse Games, and yet I wrote a 100-page Mario timeline. I don't think they apply to me either.
"Oh man, I wish being a part of a Mario fan community was the most embarrassing thing about my life." - Super-Jesse

Trainman

  • Bob-Omg
« Reply #22 on: December 25, 2009, 09:28:10 PM »
I don't know what I'd consider myself, but since video game companies started using the words, it has turned into an outrageous stereotype.

"We want games that the casuals can play." "NO SCREW THAT WE NEED CORE GAMES FOR THE REAL PLAYERS HERE."

I really, really can't stand when I hear fanboys bicker about their "real" systems:

Wii owners: "Haha, yeah, have fun with your DUEL STIX LOL while I play a FUN system."
360 owners: "Haha, yeah, have fun with your KIDDY SYSTEM AND WAVING YOUR ARM FAT AROUND while I play a REAL MAN'S SYSTEM."
PS3 owners: "Haha, yeah, have fun with your CRASHING-BOX-360 LOL while I play a REAL MAN'S EXCLUSIVES.
PC owners: "Haha, yeah, have fun with your CUMBERSOME, CRAPPY GRAFIX CONSOLES while I have fun with my THREE-HUNDRED-FRAMES-PER-SECOND-ALL-OPTIONS-SET-TO-EXTREME computer THAT TAKES A REAL MAN'S SKILL TO PLAY.
Formerly quite reasonable.

Print