Topic: Nintendo NX

I believe the N64 not doing with discs was the one mistake.
I believe the GCN going with proprietary discs and not DVDs was the one mistake.
I believe the Wii going with extremely underpowered hardware was the one mistake.
I believe the Wii U's name (marketing) as well as being underpowered was the mistake — in this case two mistakes.

That doesn't make them bad consoles. The GCN is my all-time favorite console. However, in terms of market dominance, Nintendo has not made very good decisions.

@DefHalan

Of course the Wii was one of the best-selling consoles of all time, and in my opinion, stands the test of time with some of the best games to grace a television screen. The experience was great, and I'm glad Nintendo sold so many. But the decisions made by Nintendo have cost them sales today. And I don't disagree that the lack of support for the console helped perpetuate the problem, but I don't think it was the only or even the main problem.

Despite what the market wants, I still like the Wii U, and that's all that matters to me

I think sometimes people misinterpret my comments. I love my Wii U. It's my favorite console since the GCN.

See, I've been a Nintendo fan since I could hold a controller. It's probably the only company that I can truly say I have feelings toward. They've been with me my entire life. I grew up with Nintendo and their games. Nintendo is video games to me. Not Sony, not Xbox. Nintendo. That said, I REALLY want them to succeed. I know they don't care about little old me, but I care about them. I want to continue to play their games. If I ever have children, I want them to be able to play Nintendo games. A world without Nintendo — as weird as it sounds — would be a depressing world to me. So when I criticize, I say things because I want them to stick around forever.

If I hated Nintendo or did not like what they do, not only would I not have a Wii U, a Wii, GCN, N64, GBA, DS, 3DS, NES and SNES, but I certainly would not waste my time coming to these message boards and discussing Nintendo.

I don't think they are going anywhere soon to be fair

Which is pretty much my point. There is no one problem that Nintendo will need to solve. Increasing its power to PS5 or XB# levels won't make them a success. There is no one problem for Nintendo to solve. The idea is to find the problems that based on how Nintendo operates or has operated in the past, and figure out how they can succeed in the future. We also need to not just see as the "winner" of a console race as the correct path for future consoles. Will they be able to create another console to sell like the Wii? doubtful. But can they make a console that leads in sale? Yes they can, and in my opinion one of the most important things to look at is your current console. You know why Sony has had such a great time this generation? Not because of having the best exclusives or the amount of power they have, because they built up so much loyalty from PS3. Sony is still supporting it in fact. Consumers see that their investment into Sony pays off for years to come. Now I don't think that means Nintendo needs to support the Wii U after the next system is released but they need to continue to support the Wii U up until the next system release. Maybe offer other companies a deal if they put games on both Wii U and NX. This will improve the consumer perception of the Nintendo brand. Offering the most powerful system on the market is going to cost a lot and people were complaining about the Wii U's price before that came out, so I am not sure if that is the right place to go. It will be interesting to see what happens but it is important to keep in mind that there are lots of moving parts.

I love my Wii U. I'm having a bunch of playing it and I have alotta fun with it.
But the next Nintendo console needs to be much more better. Recently, I got my hands on the PS4 and everything just clicked in my brain. I understood the hype and praise the console gets. I understood why its selling like crazy. Enjoy your exclusives, PS4's awesome features and nonstop 3rd party games... that's the PS4's way. The Wii U can't even say that. All the Wii U have is amazing exclusives and that's... just not enough anymore. Not enough for me. I'll always support Nintendo and I'll always have their back but they gotta start improving on stuff.
So if the NX isn't some powerful console that's addressing 3rd party support, has tons more features, and other stuff then I will be more hesitant to buy it.
Just dang, man!!! I just wanna enjoy Nintendo's exclusives and 3rd party support!!! That's all I freaking ask!!!!!!!!!!!

I like how people are still saying that the Wii made a "mistake" by not jumping on the HD bandwagon when everyone else was. You know, the thing that allowed them to be half the price of their competitors, expand the market, end up in retirement homes and ultimately be one of the top few consoles of all time. The thing people are mocking is the same level of console design genius that also pushed the PS2 to the top spot by including a DVD player. Or the DS to a similar level of sales insanity by trying to train people's brains.

But what I find really hilarious is this ridiculous statement:

Oh yes, 2Mbps. This is why the Wii U can barely manage standard def on Netflix and why when you go to youtube the thing just sits there buffering. Or when I go to play a 1080p trailer from my NAS it just plays only about a second at a time. Oh wait, IT DOES NONE OF THOSE THINGS. Great test you have there, obviously it's the LAN connection itself that's the problem and has nothing at all to do with the fact that the site you used to test the Wii U's speed doesn't particularly like the Wii U's browser.

........................ and while we're at it. We're talking about the Wii U again, why? I mean really. What evidence at all do we have that it's going to be a Wii U successor? And complaining about account management and the fact that you're tied to your device? Why? How about I throw those slides up again.

Hmmm, it's almost as if they're talking about how bad their account management is, oh and what's this!

They want to still produce portable and non-portable consoles separately? And they're going to make them all work together with a single account system? Tied in with some infrastructure that also allows you to manage that account via Smart Devices? Wow, that almost sounds like exactly what they announced the other day....

http://www.wired.com/2015/03/nintendo-mobile-analysis/

This is my fear. Is it unwarranted? I don't know, but it is something I honestly thought about, and I'm glad I found an article that says what I was thinking when I saw the announcement.

I love that Nintendo goes into every new system with a new idea, but I genuinely hope that they iterate on old ideas. Being innovative is pointless if you don't build on it, so while this system can bring something new to the table, that new thing should include motion controls and maybe even a touch screen.

http://www.dromble.com/2014/01/07/dolphin-tale-story-of-gamec...

Interesting tidbits

By June 2000, no US companies had working GameCube development kits yet and were still in prototyping stages. Miyamoto explained, “There are several different stages of the development tools and until the final one is ready we just cannot mass produce them. Even at NCL we’re still dealing with simulation and emulation, but very soon we’re going to have the final development kit ready. In the interim, we’re working with incomplete setups. But soon the final kits will go out.”

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Technical director Jim Merrick said, “We are now and will be in a shortage condition for development kits for a long time to come. But going to low-cost disc-based media is breaking down some of the economic barriers that publishers felt toward the cartridge-based business. So we have a lot of interest. And we’re not going to be able to satisfy the demand for development kits. In fact, probably six months after the Gamecube launches we’ll still be in a shortage of development kits. We just can’t produce them fast enough.”

On May 16, 2001, the week of GameCube’s big debut at E3, Satoru Iwata criticized third party publishers for porting AAA blockbuster titles to multiple consoles.

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It may be good for game users but when it comes to some kind of unique interactions with the hardware I don’t think multiplatform games are contributing a lot.

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“I’ve been told that Sony won over Nintendo by surrounding itself with software companies, and I will admit that situation was there in the past. However, times have changed, and it’s no longer a race to see how many useless companies you can get on your side.” said Yamauchi.

Imanishi wasn’t the only one who didn’t feel threatened by the PlayStation 2. Shigeru Miyamoto said he didn’t care about the existence of the PlayStation 2 because GameCube’s software was strong enough for people to buy two consoles.

CNN reported that Nintendo was charging a much higher licensing fee for GameCube ($11) while Microsoft and Sony charged ($7 – $9). This fell in line with a report from IGN that Microsoft was charging $8 (and possibly lower) licensing fee standard. One major publisher admitted to IGN that Microsoft had been very accommodating when it comes to fees.

@iKhan I'd imagine motion controls will be present in the form of a gyroscope and accelerometer like the 3DS and Wii U GamePad.

Yep. I agree with that. I imagine some snot nosed brat asking why he can't have Pokemon on his phone and whine/complain that they have to buy the console to get the full experience. It's a slippery slope...

What that article forgets is that Nintendo are a stubborn and almost arrogant company. They're the Apple of game developers. When other companies bend to the will of whatever people ask for Nintendo basically ignores them entirely and instead tells the customer what they want. Sometimes it frustrates people, sometimes it pays of spectacularly.

So I don't think it's some sort of slippery slope. Even if a full on Android gaming device with buttons and all became mainstream I could still see Nintendo refusing to put a full-blown Mario or Pokemon on it. They've said specifically that they want to use this thing to drive customers to their platforms. That this is about capturing an audience more than it is about generating extra revenue. And I believe them, because it's kinda crazy but it's a very Nintendo way of doing things.

That would be disappointing if that was their only application. They work far better in "wand" form.

"Wand" form motion controls are usually seen to be more "gimmicky" and aren't as well received. Say a game has gyro/tilt controls and people will usually say "Cool"; use the word "motion" instead of gyro/tilt even though it's still the same gyro controls and people will complain about the dev trying to "shove motion controls down people's throats".

People need to realise Nintendo isn't alone in making gimmick gamecontrollers. You can get the same type of motion controller for the PS4 as Nintendo is offering. It's nice to have the ability to make games for a special type of controller and it has been around since the zapper for NES. Nintendo can't keep forcing this on their customers. If they want to make games that is completly different and needs a special controller, fine. But making it the standard is not the way to go. If they could go back to the roots it would make it easier for other publishers to make games for the console, and they would also have the choice to make use of other controllers if they want. Nintendo needs to meet the modern standards if they are going to surive. Today we take for granted good online multiplay, web store, DVD play, hardware that isn't outdated, games tied to your network account etc. Nintendo can be as innovative they want, but if they can't meet the bare minimum that is expected from a modern gaming system they are going to have a hard time winning support anywere...

So basically..... they should do literally what they've announced but also limit themselves to ticking off a checklist on the back of the box. Because what was really missing in Super Mario Galaxy was an online mode that everyone will just skip over anyway. Then they'll charge us more for their hardware even if there's literally no game concept that really needs the extra horsepower. Because lets face it, even a Wii U that was as powerful as the PS4 would still not attract third party devs but who cares if you can feel more secure about which team you backed! And for the final improvement lets add the ability to play movies on disks, because Netflix isn't a thing apparently.

Congratulations! Nintendo is now bankrupt.

Also, I still want to ram further home my argument that it makes more sense if this next console replaces the 3DS and not the Wii U. A new article up on the site kinda helps me make this point. Have a bit of a read:
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/03/interview_nintendos_...

Here's a key point:

The basic specs of the Wii are higher than those of the New Nintendo 3DS, so a simple port turned out to be a huge challenge. On top of this, implementing the 3D effect, which requires double the image processing, made it even harder. However, we used a lot of tricks technically, as well as in our working methods. We achieved the 3D effect while retaining an almost equal graphical quality, except for the resolution.

With mobile graphics improving at the rate it has especially given that all the chip makers are pushing for lower power consumption. Kinda hard for them to hold on with a portable that, even with a revision, can barely keep up with the Wii. It was impressive when it came out but it's time to move on. I look forward to playing the new 3D style of Pokemon at a higher screen resolution and proper 60fps. Or actually getting the full spread of interesting indie games. That would actually be a massive boost in Nintendo's image, way more than them trying to patch up the Wii U by cutting it short. Which in terms of software would give us what? You think third parties would even care at this point? No, if they're going to rebuild they need to do it by staying the course with the Wii U and bringing the 3DS upto date.

Still no thoughts on what ideas can't be done on the Wii U? Not one? Well then, precisely, then you all know I'm right

Well, third-party support would be helped a lot by similar specs and a similar hardware architecture, if porting a game to NX doesn't require rewriting the whole damn thing and removing parts of it so the hardware can handle it, developers are far more likely to make those ports (lower costs = lower risk), and face it: Nintendo's way of doing user accounts (or basically anything online) is prehistoric, and needs improvement badly...

@MysticX
Third parties aren't going to be interested in a new console at all if it doesn't capture an audience. If the Wii U was replaced next year then I doubt many people who did get a Wii U would be upgrading. Ontop of that the people who are on other platforms are unlikely to jump at a point when the PS4 and XBOne would be really starting to gather steam. Even worse I don't think anyone would have a lot of confidence in this new console's potential given that Nintendo were that willing to dump the Wii U that quickly.

I agree, if Nintendo was to do the whole thing over they might have made changed the architecture instead of keeping the Wii U not backwards compatible. They might have pushed the hardware a bit further at the cost of the price point and small form factor. In hindsight sure, that might have caught the eyes of third parties more. But it's too late to bin the whole thing now and if anything it would make things worse. The accounts and services thing they can improve, definitely, but that's precisely what the DeNA partnership is about! So lets not call for the Wii U to be binned for that. And DVD/Blu-Ray playback is just a stupid point.

As I said in my other post. Give me one piece of software that if Nintendo ditched the Wii U they'd be able to make that they can't now. Just one. If they pushed the Wii U upto the spec of the PS4 what game could they make that they can't now. Because you can't just assume that new hardware would solve all their other problems, which should be an obvious thing given the Wii U didn't solve all of the Wii's issues. With the Wii U I can't see it and nobody has pointed to anything yet to convince me otherwise. Because that's not a leap, it's a shuffle. With a new handheld however there's plenty more they could do that they can't do now.