If you consider yourself to be one of those people then for the sake of your sanity (and possibly your crockery) please look away now, because Nintendo’s European Managing Director of Marketing Laurent Fischer thinks you’re a hopeless nerd for making such a request.
In the latest issue of UK magazine EDGE (issue 190), Fischer is quoted as saying that only “geeks and otaku” would possibly need a Wii hard drive. Ouch.
Taken from the magazine's WiiWare feature:
First Nintendo will not be concentrating any significant marketing spend on the service - journalists attending Nintendo's preview event were told that it was their job to spread the word about WiiWare titles via reviews and other coverage.
...when asked a pertinent question about the limited Wii system memory was raised, Laurent Fischer, managing director of marketing at NoE, easily slipped into talking about how "geeks and otaku" were the only people who want this issue addressed.
Now call us stupid, but surely Nintendo should be pleased that there are Wii owners out there downloading so many games that they’re running out of space? Clearly the company is entering a new, golden era of hatred and resentment towards its customers.
You know the drill - the comments section is below. Let the bitch-fest begin!
Comments 82
Dunno, I read yesterday about it and thought it's just a rumour.
What's a rumour? That the storage solution is coming or that Fischer let fly with such a stupid comment?
Both
But I meant the latter^^
People are asking Nintendo the wrong question. It should be something like "How can you expect the WiiWare and Virtual Console to succeed if players are becoming frustrated with having to delete and re-download games; downloading less games due to lack of space?"
Then of course we will get the generic Nintendo reply of how gamers can delete and re-download games, not answering the question directly at all.
@Bluezealand - well it's not a rumour, he made the comment.
I'm not able to store more and more games on my Wii because a bunch of WiiWare, PCE CD und N64 Titles fill my Wii Memory along with the saves of the Nintendo Channel, Mario Kart, Metal Slug and SSBB. (No WW or VC on my Wii = about 1400 free blocks) and no, you cannot move those to the SD card.
Ooook......... That's weird!
Nintendo need to fire him and bring in a new person who understands what we want! Someone should start a pettion to get him fired! Id sign it!
Yes, only geeks and otaku want a hard drive. Funnily enough, that's the grand majority of video gamers right there! It's frustrating that there is this level of disdain for Nintendo's best customers. I know they're trying to reach new markets, but that doesn't mean they have to shun the market that spends the most money on them.
I have owned a Wii for a year and a half, and spent quite a lot of money on Virtual Console and WiiWare titles because there's been hardly any disc-based games worth buying. I have already had to clear a ton of VC games off that I don't play any more, but what if I want to play them again? Do I have to keep deleting more of them to redownload the ones I want?
If this is where I am now, then more casual consumers are going to catch up sooner or later. Especially if we keep getting these new channels and casual WiiWare titles.
Just for saying we are geeks, he should be fired, even if i doesn't really affect me since I'm in North America.
NoE's Laurent Fischer vs. Iwata's
"Statistically speaking, it is true that there are a small number of customers who feel that the flash memory is too small, while many others find that they have plenty of memory. However, because this small number of people are none other than the most avid players, we know we have to review the best possible solution to eliminate their inconvenience."
Who is more right?
Anyways, I've jumped on the "we need a storage solution" bandwagon when I had to delete Sonic 2 and SMB3 from my storage to make place for the Nintendo Channel.
It's probably true that 'geeks' are the ones wanting hard drives. However, you don't have to be a geek to recognise how limited the current Wii storage is: something which Nintendo themselves seem very reluctant to do.
People I've spoken to who don't even play video games agree that it's a poor show when I explain that visually the Wii Menu provides 48 channel slots, yet many gamers will stuggle to fill half or even quarter of them before having to resort to the current 'solutions' Nintendo is offering.
It's almost creating the illusion that there is enough space: I thought people would run out of channel slots before memory blocks when I first got my Wii.
The thing is - he's actually telling the truth.
So what are you saying get2sammyb? All hardcore/diehard gamers are nerds? I personally don't think so. I'm just retro at heart.
Yes well how about when everyone stops downloading vc and wiiware games because theres nothing coming out that they think is better than the games they already have downloaded and havent finished half of them cause they deleted them when something better did come along so instead of giving ninty their precious gold coins, instead just redownload the games they havent yet finished, nintendo will soon biych and moan then. I'm actually glad i bought a 360 now, im only using my wii again when i get sam and max and SBCG4AP, nintendo need to get their fingers out and solve the storage crisis for the hardcore gamers, like myself. Think ive said my piece
Nice strategey, calling their best customers nerds
I don't play my wii endlessly... I just really enjoy the VC and Wiiware... : (
Even regular games can be big... Smash bros takes up about 1/20 of the Wii's space
Aside from the kids market Nintendo re-kindled with Pokemon its been the geeks and otaku that have kept Nintendo on thier feet.
Personally I would like to see a full transcript of the convo as its pretty easy to take things out on conext. The interview was before WiiWare and prehaps he was trying to say you do have to buy quite a few games which isn't what normal customers do but maybe he went a bit far...
Basically this is why Iwata heads the company while Fischer just directs marekting in Europe (which is basically for kids and non-gamers...the hardcore crowd market games themselves through the internet).
I'm sure Fischer will still have a job no matter what due to nobody fit to replace him (though keep an eye on the Nintendo Europe employment site for that director of marketing job ...theres a Nintendo channel director* job up for grabs ATM)
*-And boy does the Euro side need one.
I personally can't believe that so many of you have been suckered into keeping the Nintendo Channel on your systems. That piece of crap lasted 10 minutes tops before I deleted it. I then reinstalled it after the next VC/WiiWare releases and after realising that this channel - which is supposed to keep us up-to-date and interested in Wii/DS products - was so poorly maintained that it was rendered useless, I deleted it again. Even with the half-arsed WIi Fit content that supposed to be coming, I won't bother again. Delete it now and save yourselves 250+ blocks.
I reckon what we should do is all get together and create a banner which comprises of the four channel screens from our Wiis showing just how little we can play with our WiiWare games and channels installed. The banner title should be: "We Would Like to Play ... More" and then strapped right across the gates of NoE, NoA and NoJ's headquarters.
Umm.. that guys a dick. I don't like him, can we just consolidate with NOA, have Reggie lead it and call it Nintendo of Everywhere that isn't Japan?
At least then we could have simultaneous VC and Wiiware releases.
And what the hell is an Otaku?... Am I one?
I think Mr. Fischer might be a bit too metro for his own good.
Is this true then? I thought it was a rumour! I only listen to what Iwata said (not this nobody), and wait for the day when the SD expansion slot will truly be a SD expansion slot in a future firmware update
@Quimby: Otaku is a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly in anime and manga.
He's right.
Well, call me a geek, I'm not offended. If this individual feels the need to label the people who have memory problems, so be it. He's right, a majority of people with memory issues are geeks (otaku? you gotta be an idiot, sir), but why would you toss aside one of your biggest sources of income? I'm not even going to blame this one on Nintendo; this problem is this NOE idiot.
Pretty old but anyway: Especially with WiiWare, we NEED a storage solution, whether they/we consider us/ourselves "geeks" or not is irrelevant and it's a stupid excuse but I've gotten used to that.
I hope that loser's comments have no bearing on America. Anyway, that guy shouldn't quit his job; he should be FIRED!
This guy is basically telling all of the customers of Europe that Nintendo doesn't want your money. Think about it. Europe and America want more storage space for downloading VC and WiiWare games and this moron says that we are all geeks because we don't want to use Nintendo's stupid SD card method.
I have 487 blocks left. I thought that I would be out of space by this summer but Nintendo's fantastic marketing strategy of giving both America and Europe nothing but garbage this year so far has actually solved that problem. I used to be excited for VC Monday's but now I could care less. I downloaded 4 games in 2006, 14 in 2007, but 2008 has been a different story. I have only downloaded Kirby 64 and Dr. Mario in 2008 so far. Stop with the garbage releases and start giving us the games you know everyone wants already. And giving Europe no games last Friday is a joke.
Judging by this article guys, I don't think we are going to be getting a storage update. Nintendo is always behind the times. The N64 didn't use CD's, the Gamecube wasn't online (except for PSO), and the Wii has no storage. Nintendo set the Wii at $250, but most Wii owners would pay $300 or more if it had better storage. The only people that wouldn't pay more would be the soccer moms, but we don't need those casual gamers.
Thanks Nintendo. Between your bad storage and garbage VC releases this year, it's no wonder that so many people are mad at you right now. You wanna show us the gamers you still care about us, then fire Laurent Fischer!
You posted this article on your sister site. Now I'm confused and don't know which side to start an argument on.
I wonder if people are this pissy about the storage problem in Japan.
I know Nintendo hates us, but if there are the same issues being raised there, we may have a chance.
@Palgamer - Thanks, I don't like much anime, but I am obsessive about my games... and spend a lot of money on them. But I guess Fischer is right. I should grow up... I just wonder what he is going to do for a job after we grow up? Poor guy.
@Tim - do it here, I enjoy your rants
yeah, and trix are for kids.
rolls eyes
He's hip cuz he uses the word "otaku" like a pro.
I hate greed, complacency and lack of direction... hang on, why am I supporting Nintendo's lazy fat ass then?
They just keep finding more and more ways to anger me. I swear, never before have I went from total support of a corporation to down-right, demon-infested hatred born from a thousand black suns.
Wow,this guy thinks too much of himself! I think he deserves a reward for saying that...I think it's called being FIRED!
someone need's to fire him badly because he's a dick! mabye he's the reason of other bad stuff in vc/wiiware history. like no mega man 2 in n.a yet. or tetris not coming out for another year.
I am joining the Boycott now that my Wii is full from just 6 games. If you want my money, Ninty, get on your knees and...give us a HD fix.
@ calculon - probably because they provide you with a product that you enjoy. They can call me names all they want; if they continue creating excellent games that provide me with entertainment, I'll keep playing them.
Judging by this article guys, I don't think we are going to be getting a storage update. Nintendo is always behind the times.
To be fair Europe have always been kept in the dark about lots of things.
The most famous being the DS lite. A day before its announcement the Head of Nintendo UK said "I know of no DS redesign nor does Nintenod have any plans".
mabye he's the reason of other bad stuff in vc/wiiware history. like no mega man 2 in n.a yet. or tetris not coming out for another year.
This guy is a mkareting muppet for NOE. He has no power outside marketing. From what NOE and NOA have said Nintendo Japan has the most say about what can come out (I think the local region then has to pick order and schedules themselves). Maybe Nintendo Japan is being spiteful about Capcom USA saying "yeah we can put 100 Megaman games on the VC day 1". Personally I think its people pointing the finger at each other...
There will ber no Tetris on VC. Why? The Tetris on VC supported consoles is too outdated. The Tetris Company has to make sure all verisons of Tetris have the same rules as in how pieces move* after the disastrous Tetris worlds which basically broke Tetris with chains etc. No Tetris Company backing means its not official Tetris.
*-Including infinate spin which is where most older verisons fail.
Besides, Hudsons Wiiware Tetris should be more than good enough.
Not a big deal to me at all, especially not enough to act like a child and pitch a meaningless boycott or pitch cheap threats. Yes it is a slight annoyance factor for sure that you have to treat the Wii much like a very old PC with a small drive having to swap around(install/delete) old/new games to play what you want at the time, but it really isn't the end of the world either.
EFF this guy, I'm a casual gamer, I usually only get in a few hours of play time a week, and my Wii IS FULL! If I ever see this guy in the street, I'm beating his ass.
J.K.-
high gas prices are a slight annoyance factor too,
but lets not worry about them anymore either.
after all, paying $6 a gallon isn't the end of the world.
@ lockelocke-
call me up, i'll be glad to help.
@Starwolf
I dunno. Personally I liked Tetrisphere the most out of the Tetris games I've played. (Excluding Tetris Attack on the SNES, but that's not actually Tetris.)
Anyway, this guy sounds like a jerk to me. Even if it's one man's opinion, that's a pretty bold statement to make in a magazine.
Causualing gaming 'killed' the real Nintendo. Even if they are flourishing in the moneyz because of it.
@x.SuperMario.x
Haha, meet me at the airport, let's get 'em!
you won,t like me when im angry new movie hulk goes to nintendo of europe and smash this abomination to hell. seriously this guy not only needs to get fired and on his birthday would be really funny but this guy belongs to sesame street. sales would increase on vc and wiiware bigtime for sure if harddrive came soon or direct sd access happened they would get my entire paycheck worth of vc and wiiware games
lol.
You guys are hilarious. I was just picturing all you otaku geeks trying to knock down Laurent's reinforced golden mansion gates with your little stringy arms.
Well Damien, the picture and caption you posted of Laurent is enough to get anyone after him. The article is simply icing on the cake for Ninty Fanboys.
Tim: I suppose you're a popular high school quarter back trying to knock down Laurent's reinforced golden mansion gates with your massive muscular arms? ;¬)
My point is that that trying to distance yourself from those annoyed by the situation is pointless, because it's a problem nonetheless--and a major one at that.
@ koresh1959-
i played varsity quarterback when i went to high school.
but then i broke my arm and my career was over.
and i agree with your point.
It didnt affect your nintendo skills though!!!
next on nintendo's agenda: calling mother's who buy their kids games pushovers
seems like they are trying to hurt themselves on pupose
Someone needs to tell Fischer this is like giving him a cardboard box to store all of his money in, and he has to put the rest in the bank. Whenever he wants to play with his wads of cash, he has to use the ones in the box, or else drive to the bank to exchange them for a different set.
He'd apologize and take back his comments in no time. You just need to relate.
That's it... I need my Wii MODIFIED!!!!!!
Nintendo is breaking my heart about storage...Only got 564 Blocks left!
I know I had to register to say this. But I am not a geek. In fact I am someone who doesn't play videogames much at all, but I am still very interested in a hard drive.
When I do play games they tend to be RPGs; i would therefore be very interested in wiiware RPGs which would surely take up more room.
Pull your finger out Nintendo.
Also I'm looking forwards to SMRPG and Earthbound as I haven't yet played them.
right now im getting wii point card at shopper,s ”drug” mart thats right people a drug store for godsake dam zellers for closing lol. oh geez i wonder how many blocks final fantasy my life as a king will take good thing i bought sd card today for 20 bucks only put in games finish but damn it takes so long to down copy to sd thats 5 n64 and one snes game in there. you you your not that different from the ass slave billionare bill gates THTS right you heard me i think your a spy from microsoft lol. and i realise each time mario goes off the screen when downloading thats one block of the game data into your wii no wonder it takes so long god damn it. amen
I play games every so often and retro games intrigue me cause of they're history. That's why VC is great. It acts as a portal to the past. Just because I want to get the holy grails of these classic systems doesn't make me obsessed or a nerd. It just means I'd like to go and play the best of history's video games. And VC limits us to that portal Nintendo promised us from the release of VC. All we want is a new storage solution so we can continue to experience the best of the past. That's all we want!!! Don't give attention to him. That's all he wants! Just hope that we will get what we've payed for and deserve.
@koresh1959
I am far from the cliche you described, but I'll still help you bust down Laurent's reinforced golden mansion gates with my massive muscular arms, so long as I get to keep the gates and take it home with me.
Once in a while you just have to distance yourself, take a look at the whole picture and have a good laugh because of how stupid everything has become. Nintendo has reached an all new level of low and I simply can't take them serious enough anymore to even be angry.
Nintendo is the biggest joke in the scene. I don't understand how geeks can take them seriously. Geeks are suppose to be smarter than that or is it nerds?
so wait, if we all download a ton of VC games, to the point that we HAVE to delete some . Nintendo will have to keep them available to download forever!!!! I say we all delete a game, and wait a few years or so. then sue Nintendo, for not giving us a permanent way to store our games we rightfully payed for. If they plan on keeping the Wii shop channel open indefinately, thats fine. but 20 years from now, I want to be able to play Lostwinds, Dammit. and if I deleted it, with the mindset that I could just "redownload it at a later time" they had better have it saved for me. I still break out duckhunt for my NES its 20 years old.
@ 2d4eva- you're a genius.
And I thought Jack Thompson was evil...
Ok I have owned my Wii for a year and a half also and I love VC! I have close to 90 VC games and 6 Wiiware games along with all of the channels. I purchased a 2 gig sd card knowing that I will run out of space and all of my games and channels are stored on that card. I would absolutely love to be able to launch the games from the sd card but NOOOOOOoo nintendo dont want us to do that! I have ran out of space a long ass time ago and i want to have the option to browse my games that I paid for and select what I want when I want, not this crap of having to copy or re-download them when I want to play. With WW tittles chugging along and a good portion of them I will buy and have bought but the problem is space! I dont think we should have to remove 3 to whatever amount of games to fit one ww tittle, dont get me wrong I want the games to be large beautiful complex games but 512mb is abysmal! I and the rest of Nintendo fans will pay for a HDD or a fee to let us use an sd card. COME ON NINTENDO DONT FORGET THE PEOPLE WHO GOT YOU WHERE YOU ARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What's wrong with the Hard Discs? We need space. My Wii needs space and memory for all the WiiWare i want to download!
@2d4eva. You've got the pitfall of digital distribution in one. We're already seeing it happening too. Microsofts MSN music service recently shut down (basically iTunes owns that market). I can't remember if customers got refunds or even if their existing downloads continued to work.
Amazon is the only digital distribution whose got it right with no DRM on thier music downloads. I doesn't matter if Amazon go out of business, no DRM means working backups are something anyone can make
but 512mb is abysmal
if 512 MB is abysmal having about 270MB of it usable for saves of all kinds is just shameful*. Amirite?
*-It can't be helped the Wii OS needs to be put somewhere as well as things like download tickets and the like.
I agree with storage problem. I love my vintage games I have downloaded but now I have to delete just to get some of the new wii ware games. Nintendo please fix. Also I don't like Damien McFerran
using the Lord's Name in vain. Stir clear of that!!
J.K., good to see that I'm not the only one who sees the similiarities between this and how you had to remove your PC games to install new ones.
Except I use it as an example that it's less of a problem than it was with old PCs since you keep your savegames after removing the game, so you can resume your reinstalled games where you left off.
@X.SuperMario.x - What is varsity quarterback? Sounds like a drinking game. How would breaking your arm affect it?
@ Quimby-
haha, you're clearly not American.
quarterback is the highest respected position in American football, the player that throws the ball to a receiver, or hands the ball off to a running back.
in high school there is varsity and junior varsity, varsity being for the better athletes, so me playing varsity meant i was somewhat good.
and breaking my arm meant i couldn't throw a ball for about 7 months, which was the main problem...
the wii already can run directly off the sd card from the photo channel, jus expand this feature
I don't care if this clown is calling customers out if it results in nintendo waking up and solving an increasingly tragi problem. I continue to submit daily "questions" via the voting channel asking for an sd card or portable harddrive solution.
@x.SuperMario.x "haha, you're clearly not American"
I thought the flag beside Quimby's name was a clear sign that he isn't American. I know both have stars but the American one clearly has more than 6 . I bet you also lost your high school sweetheart that year when your arm ruined your American dream.
All of this space nonsense and Nintendo's seeming lack of resolve is pissing me off so bad, that I don't really want to play my Wii anymore. I don't want to support a company that doesn't take heed of what they're consumers have been demanding for almost two years. WTF is they're problem. It's a catch-22 they've put they're hardcore fans in, this generation, and if they don't do something about it soon I'm going to be spending a lot more time and money on my PS3, a system with proper storage solutions! I've never said these before but eff you, Big N. You suck hairy stinky sasquatch balls..... and I mean it.
Well I dont play Wii games that much. I only play VC and WiiWare games and i'm bored of transfering them backwards and forwards. I have 13 VC games and 3 WiiWare games. Come on Nintendo sort it out!
Ike-Mike: I thought save games were kept as I don't recall ever reading something that if you move a WW/VC game to a SD card that over in the storage(save) area your game just gets wiped. Far as I know they're unique files just like a disc game and those too you can just shove right next to your game on the SD card.
I really don't get why people are being so overly dramatic over this. It may not be entirely the easiest and convenient (see: LAZY) way to go about stuff, but it's really a preference/non-issue. All I have are WiiWare, Neo Geo and Sin and Punishment stuff, all beastly files and I'm not crying about it. I get the frustration but this just is rampant complaining.
or at least let us able to do something us like my ps3 can play a game while waiting for the download if only our wii`s can do that. then it may temporary get less people upset for awhile. i bet nintendo would work on that to stop their fan's from leaving if they really care.
Well, I already said what I had to say over at VC Reviews.
Nintendo must really hate us Europeans.
This guy is in charge of MARKETING!?
Hey guys, I know how to promote sales! We'll just insult the people who buy the MOST GAMES!
i hunger for wiiware rpg lol is there a forum for that?
J.K., what I'm trying to say is that when you uninstalled PC games the savegames have been wiped off as well.
So at least be happy that your Wii savegames are seperate so you don't have to start your games all over again once you remove them.
I could get angry about this, but it just reinforces my opinion that anyone who works for Nintendo who isn't Japanese is a COLOSSAL DOUCHEBAG. I guess he's interpreted Iwata's comments about needing a solution for the hardcore Nintendo fans as "LOL gheys." Okay, I guess I am angry.
is this a personal opinion or one officially shared by Nintendo?
would be cool if we could connect our wii,s with our hotmail account cuz they have online storage and i have a 5 gb online storage on my hotmail account which i recently put music stored there
Ahh I get ya Ike...that could happen. Usually I'd back the save files up before erasing so I wouldn't have to start over. I even just did this again when I went from my 7yo PC to a new one about a month ago with my fat GTA3 save.
Hmm. That's the first slimy thing I've heard about Nintendo since they monopolized third parties on the NES... This is very... disappointing.
Nintendo is developing a USB HDD, they just like to be shaddy and say nothing...and NoE says things like this >.>
Just wait until E3 =P
this is indicative of much of the probs. with nintendo. they seem so out of touch with alot of things! they should take that word out of "touch-generation"! it's obvious that they're going to have to fire alot of ppl lol nintendo won't be around for long like this, --nor should they. how do they expect to attract anyone with such bad service?! after ppl stop paying attention to the commercials/hype, then what? they're pretty bad at everything lol + for what? laziness?! they seem like they have no idea, --the same company that invented the current game controller+most video game models! they might have to do some "cleaning" soon + practice "partnering"/general service skills. the wii should be the most inviting for developers+customers alike! feel pretty bad for ppl who own a wii. even at its price, it wasn't such a good investment...not that nintendo even care lol
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