Topic: Does Nintendo really matter in the gaming industry?

I wanna be honest with you guys. Does Nintendo really matter to gaming? I mean the fact that everybody states that Star Fox isn't any different than other shooting genres and yet it sells well is just awful and painful to think for fans like me. Or the fact that whatever Nintendo does doesn't matter because someone else will do it even better. Or how about the important stuff that revolutionized the gaming industry like the rumble pak only to realize that some one already considered the idea and would have done it anytime soon........this is really depressing to people like me who love Nintendo. So you're saying that Metroid, Mario, Star Fox, Zelda and many other franchises that Nintendo puts their heart and soul on don't really matter because someone else would've made them better than they are now? Because if that's what people feel and if that's what you guys kind of agree with, then Nintendo is nothing but a poor organization that people mock. No one would ever show respect to Hiroshi Yamauchi or Shigeru Miyamoto or Gunpei Yokoi or Koji Kondo because there are others better than them right?

It's not about who's better at it, it's that Nintendo is one of the few left with the balls to be creative with their projects.
Nowadays, the gaming industry is a potentially extremely profitable market, and the best ones are those who impress the most. However, you can't "show" how well your game plays with just video material, so most companies rely on cinematic impressions, similarly to Hollywood. The visual prowess often overshadows the actual quality, but customers often fail to notice these issues.
Nintendo, among very few others, is a company which, while aiming for profit, do it by aiming to satisfy customers. This approach is theoretically much riskier, but Nintendo knows how to do it.

Besides, who's "best" at making games from a particular genre isn't important - different approaches appeal to different people. Stating any game as the absolute best of its genre is something highly subjective, since not everyone will like it.

So, no. Nintendo is actually extremely important to the videogame industry. Without them, game development would slowly degenerate into utilizing a "success formula".

They matter to me.

@Kaze_Memaryu But then like I said for Star Fox, people claim that Star Fox isn't special and yet when I played Star Fox 2 and 64, they were innovative compared to the other shooting games I've played so why doesn't anyone appreciate what Nintendo did. I mean even Nintendo life members here kinda believe that Nintendo isn't really that special towards the gaming industry.

Yes.

50% yes & 50% no.

To be fair, Star Fox 64 was innovative. So was Goldeneye... but that was over 15 years ago. Shooters have evolved massively since then, and it's really a genre that tends to benefit most from better technology.

Star Fox, sadly, has fallen into irrelevance. Hopefully Miyamoto's game can change that.

I would say it's impossible to be a successful console manufacturer in the gaming industry and not matter. So, yes.

of course they matter. nearly all big developers today are influenced by the nintendo games that played in their childhood (and later). nintendo makes the best games around. they always did.

Does much more really need to be said?

If there's one thing Nintendo still has,it's originality and creativity,two things that I think are rare in the game industry as of late.

Ugggghhhhhh... Why do so many of your threads feel like they are reaching? Its always how important is Nintendo or why does Sega suck. And what's with all the threads based on Nintendo actually being another Starfox thread in some way?

Yes they do matter some. Substantially less then the 80s but with the huge success of Wii, the terrible idea that everyone wants motion control effect it had, they still do matter.

Probably not but then again someone will like me making this comment.

Short answer, yes. Long answer, yeeeeees.

They matter precisely because they are so different than the other two. Nintendo is sort of a bastion in the industry with their more light hearted high quality games. If they were gone, we'd just have Sony and Microsoft finding new ways to screw over the consumers

Then why on earth do you guys say like nearly everything they make comes with a gimmick and that if it weren't for the gimmick, the games won't sell? Or like whatever Nintendo does that revolutionized the gaming industry can easily be done by anyone else. For example, the battery save feature in The legend of Zelda revolutionized the way games can be progressed better but according to statements, There happened to already exist save features like Phantasy Star.......

Their gimmicks revolutionize the industry! Except they don't. Nintendo does matter though.

I think if any large company were to fall, it would have a big effect on its industry. Then again, what did companies learn when Sega fell? What did they learn when Hudson fell? Or when THQ fell? I'm starting to wonder if any of these companies matter in face of an industry seemingly unwilling to learn from the mistakes of others.

Yes... examples: Wii and DS. Those didn't happen that long ago and had a huge impact on the industry as a whole.

They're the ones who started video games in the first place, and unlike other companies, make their systems interesting these days. You know, Touch screen controls, motion, dual screens, all that stuff.