Topic: Where Does Nintendo Go From Here?

Honestly I don't see Nintendo succeeding very well if they just take the Sony/Microsoft route. They have such a bad reputation among that market that they would need to shake things up a bit. They certainly need to give gamers good reasons to buy the NX other than it just having good specs like the PS4 and Xbox One.

I knew someone who had an N-Gage, I thought it was the most ridiculous thing. You had to hold it on its edge to make calls and it only had a few games. You were far better off playing games on a Gameboy like a normal person because at least then you could be a bit more discrete about it. New phones obviously became more discrete but at the cost of any change of being machines for more "serious" gaming. They're stuck between a rock and a hard place so they'll never replace a dedicated device.

.... then again I don't have a great track record when it comes to judging new tech. So maybe I'm wrong about the future of portables. I remember someone I knew (different person) who had one of the earlier tablet PCs. We're talking years before the iPad hit the shelves. I thought it was ridiculous. The thing didn't even have an optical drive! .... to be fair though it was more expensive than a laptop, was bulky and ran windows. But I thought the whole idea of a tablet was kinda stupid. Hell, when the iPad launched I still thought it was a pointless product. I think I called it a smartphone for old people..... but more recently I've realised it's a smartphone for Netflix

I wouldn't really worried if I was you, as not much will probably change. Just because they're the CEO, doesn't mean they have all on control of the company. I honestly think Iwata already set Nintendo future for the next 5 years, because his chance for survival was pretty low and unless Nintendo of Japan wanted to shot their self in the foot they had to plan ahead despite how unrespectful that sounds.

^But at the same time they can't sustain by going after that hardcore Nintendo faithful. i.e. WiiU
The Sony/Micro route is the safest route, but it takes a lot of time and resources, and that is something I believe Nintendo isn't willing to do. Just look at the WiiU. Nintendo could be pouring more money and opening up that 'supposedly' big money warchest that people keep going on about and create some new IP or games/sequels and fight tooth and nail this gen and earn some of that good will... like Sony did with the PS3.

I'm not sure where Nintendo are going in the future, but going by the comments of Miyamoto/Satora i think the NX is definitely going to be a gimmick of sorts. And this is what I worry most about Nintendo. Because if they don't strike it hot right from the get go... I reckon they're going to drop out of the home console and probably focus on portable or go 3rd Party

I think nintendo will have its own dedicated hardware for a long time to come. They'll use other ecosystems to feed some of their own.

I only hope the new CEO doesn't do anything stupid like breaking the strong second party developer relationship that Nintendo has as of now....... I hope that he decides to buy most of them before its too when things go bad.

I don't think Nintendo is going to need to go that far. If they're buying anything, it would probably be failing Japanese third parties and/or their IPs. Their biggest problem IMO is western appeal, and I hope the new CEO can provide better relations with western development studios and gamers without compromising their identity. Partnering with more third parties, making consoles that are easier to develop for despite power differences, and building up more western dev studios that have more freedom to work on games that appeal more to western audiences should be pretty high on their list of improvements.

Gheesh, there goes that "Third Party" thing again. Look, I get it, third parties do have some role in them but these parties are owned by publishers for the most part so its up to these publishers to decide if they really want to make exclusive Nintendo games only or not. Look at the 3DS. Even though it easily dominates the handheld market, there's barely any support for third parties out there. And when there is support, it ends up not having quality.

@Artwark: WHAT!? there is a ton of third party support on the 3DS....that is quality stuff. Does capcom, atlus and square-enix not exist anymore?

and the only reason it "dominates" the handheld area because sony gave up on the vita....and if you include mobile then its not dominating that much.

Oh, didn't notice. Thanks

What about for western third parties? Does EA ever bother making lots of games for the 3DS? How about 5th Cell? Where's that new Drawn To life game for the 3DS or a new game even?

While Nintendo has support in Japan(and pretty much, a LOT!) they barely have any here in the west and it shows that even when Nintendo has the upper hand, the west just don't seem to really care much? Why is Ubisoft so lazy to port Legends to 3DS? And I don't care how pixelated it will look on the 3DS as all I would care as a consumer whether the product is worth my cash regardless of how it looks? Instead, what Ubisoft did is just changed Rayman 2's title to Rayman 3D but just slapped Rayman 2 in it as amazing as the game is.

EDIT: Honestly, I think the only reason why mobile gaming is so much popular is because of so much of demand in the phone. I doubt how Nintendo's IP on phone would motivate consumers to buy Nintendo products in the long run. Even if you look at the previous and the previous gen, Nintendo had competition for the handheld market and all their competitors failed in the market including Sony with both their PSP and Vita. To be fair though, atleast the PSP sold better than the Vita ever did.

@Artwark: It is because of culture. In japan more people play handhelds(Which is why the vita sorta surviving there and why console sales have dropped) while in american/European culture it is the opposite. Western developers know that their WESTERN type games wont sell on a handheld.

With consoles that is a totally different story, which is why nintendo needed third party support on the wiiU and future consoles. The situation 3ds is in and the one wii U is in are totally different and comparing them is like comparing an Iphone to a Mac.

And that's the thing, Nintendo's only really making decisions based on Japan and not really thinking much about the rest of the world. They've been focusing less and less on consoles and cutting back on Western appealing games with each passing day which is turning off a lot of Western developers and gamers. That's why Nintendo needs to improve their Western relations, and taking the kind of steps I mentioned earlier would go a long way towards bringing back some of that market.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Nintendo designs their games and hardware around Japanese audiences. There's a whole discussion I could get into about that, but it's plain to see they're more concerned with keeping their japanese partners and customers happy while the western fanbase sort of just goes along for the ride.

Its interesting because if I recall, didn't Nintendo host a western third party internet for the Wii and DS? And did it not shutdown making games like Mario Kart DS entirely pointless?

So after this surprising Direct that amazed nearly all of us, I am happy to see them recover so much despite what happened to.....

I can't stop thinking about Iwata-san even now. I........I wish to go back in time and save him.......as insane as it is.... I hope the people who wanted him to resign from Nintendo are happy, because you guys will never get to see him again....even if you changed your minds about him now.

But now what makes me wonder is seeing how next year is the fifth year of the 3DS, what will the NX be? Handheld or console?

And Masahiro Sakurai.....haven't heard any recent news from him besides defending Fates.

Really? You're gonna do that? Try and guilt trip everyone that didn't like his methods as CEO? You're better than that and using his death as some sort of rebuttal to people who disagree with you is immensely disrespectful, IMO.

@Operative: How is it disrespectful if I defended him from the time that gamers wanted him to leave Nintendo? Because of some stupid logic in them thinking that he's not getting into the times and all other crap like saying quit and telling him to make Nintendo consoles powerful, licence Nintendo IP to other media.

Atleast I'm no idiot like PETA who used his death to advertise their so called game. that's a rip off of a franchise that they despise of .

Right now, I'm feeling sorrow and I still am feeling depressed after four months. Simply because I know deep down that we will never find a spiritual Iwata-San out there leading Nintendo that we love him/her to do like how Satoru Iwata did.

@WaveGhoul: If you don't like him, that's fine. But you shouldn't like tell everyone to like he should quit or retire and all because there are people who wanted more of him which is similar to Iwata-San. I wanted to see more of what he had to offer but now I can't. Yeah, spread the negative if you must but don't spread it enough like quitting his job and whatnot.

Its for that reason that I get angry for people spreading out crap like this that irritate me a LOT!

@Artwark: yet you're fine when you talk about wanting SEGA to go bankrupt and have thousands of people to lose their jobs? dont be a hypocrite, you spread negativity as much as anybody here.