Former Naughty Dog And THQ Head Jason Rubin Says Nintendo Is "Irrelevant" In The Hardware Arena

I respect this guy, but he's wrong

-10/10 for this guy.

This, after the incredible success of N3DS? Is this guy for real? For the record, I stopped playing PC games after I have my Nintendo. In fact, given my busy schedule, I only play N3DS games now. PC/Phone/Console games are irrelevant to me.

Personally, I think he's trying (and failing) to articulate that Nintendo doesn't realise itself as being competitive in the hardware space, and exhibits a sort of 'isolationism' towards the industry compared to Sony and Microsoft.

In any case, it's clear that "irrelevant" wasn't the most appropriate choice of words. He himself is most likely aware by now.

So he is just saying Nintendo rules, and is mad that you have to buy a Nintendo platform to buy Nintendo games.

Alright class, roll call!
Nintendo? "Here!"
THQ? "....."
THQ? "....."

A.bit dramatic indeed. But I believe he has some good points = The market has changed with mobilegaming. But I will always buy Nintendo's consoles if I can get them at a reasonable price and I do think that some of the magic would disappear if Nintendo chose to only make software.

Nintendo should team up with SEGA & make consoles and games together! i think that would be for the best =) and at some point where he said that it's a crime their games aren't multiplat, that is true but it's for the best, because Nintendo is trying to stay at hardware buissnes for a very long time & for many years to come...

Why do people say stupid stuff like this? (I'm trying to not get kicked off Nintendolife, so choosing my words carefully) Without Nintendo making hardware, things would be so boring! I got a PS4 at launch and I really like it but boy, you have to admit both Ps4 and Xbox1 had dull launches. No innovation what-so-ever and I thank Nintendo every day for being so different.

Hmmm funny becuase all Naught Dog games were SONY exclusives...
Head of THQ? .... Didn't he make them busted?
I hate when washed off people are doing controversional statements just becuase they want some public attention...

This article again huh, must be that time in the week. I wonder who we will have saying the Same thing.

Obviously he's never heard of ds, wii and 3ds. Just because wii u hasnt sold well it doesnt make nintendo irrelevant, i honestly believe wii u is the most innovative console out there and deserves to be bought, this guy is irrelevant not nintendo

You see, this bugs me. People only see the Wii U's poor sales and they declare "Nintendo is doomed" or "Nintendo is irrelevant" or "Nintendo is dead." They fail to see the handheld side of things, because the 3DS is a monster seller right now. And last I checked, Wii U sales are slowly getting better. Nintendo is far from being irrelevant.

That is like saying the four million people who own tje Wii U and the 100 million. people.who own tje Wii are irrelevant . The truth is Nintendo will oit live both PlayStation and Xbox because they jave so many exclusive titles that people want to play!

One console that sells poorly and they're "irrelevant", even after the super success that was Wii?

Actually in the big picture the whole industry makes me nervous. Everything has this whole about to shut down feeling. Particularly when you think of all those dudebro games on other consoles. Even Wii U has adopted the painful f2p model.

These smartphone models don't sit well with me. It's like handheld games like 3ds and, to a lesser extent, PS Vita are gaming's last line of defense against total garbage.

You guys heard of Wonder Flick. The very idea of that RPG makes my skin crawl <shudder>

Yet another person saying Nintendo should be a third party. Why? Why are they all so eager to see that happen? Is it because they hope their games would sell less leaving more room to others games?
_{Please watch the profanity — TBD}

I don't have a problem with what he says at all, he's entitled to his own opinion and I guess this is how he sees Nintendo from his view inside the gaming industry.

Their hardware may look gimmicky, their consoles may be 'under-powered' but Nintendo clearly know what they're doing, otherwise they wouldn't have been in the game for this long.

They are the difference in this industry. They take it forward, they keep innovating and they're the masters of their trade.

Haven't seen the video but will watch when later on.

About 35 million 3ds consoles sold to date tells me he's probably wrong.

@brandonbwii F2p isnt evil incarnate if done right The bigger problems are, that f2p almost always drags his buddys pay2win and "progress halt without microtransaction" with him.
F2p that finances itself not by gamebreaking stuff can be a really good thing. Im not up to date with it, and it might have changed by now, but League of Legends did a very fine job with it.You could play the game completely free, buy anything with ingame currency but you had the option to buy that same stuff quicker via real money.

On topic: I find it quite funny how many people want nintendo to be the next sega. You simply can not match the quality of a nintendo title. Some came close, but no one ever toppled the throne. Its understandable that people think that not beeing able to promote such quality on their own console is a thorn in the eye.

The Wii U is still on life support no matter how you look at it. I still like their willingness to innovate with their hardware (and occasionally software). I want Nintendo to stay around even with goofy home consoles like Wii U. It's fun seeing the occasional talented developers do some thing awesome with Nintendo based hardware.

While i dont agree that Ninty is irrelevant, the interesting a true point i think he made without even realizing it is this:

Without innovative, interesting software to support their supposedly innovative hardware, Nintendo's consoles are irrelevant.

This is true, and its one of the big reasons why Wii U is failing: because it doesnt have any sodtware that justifies its uniqueness. I still have yet to play/see a game on WiiU that convinces me tge GamePad and Miiverse are anything to get excited about. Even SM3DW, while an amazing game, would have looked and played just as good or better on a PS4. Nintendo isnt justifying their 'innovation over superior tech' strategy this gen like they did with Wii. So yes, i think the Wii U is in danger of being irrelevant, because it has no killer software that takes advantage of its unique capabilities.

Where would the N64 have gone without its Mario 64? Or Wii without Wii Sports/Fit? Or the DS without stuff like Nintendogs/Brain Age? Or the Gameboy without Pokemon? What about the Xbox without Halo?

For a non-Ninty example, look at the PS Vita. As a standalone gaming device, its in the same boat as Wii U. It has no interesting software that takes advantage of its capabilities, and so it doesnt sell.

Unless Ninty creates a must-own game that truly shows why the Wii U is a special console that can do things the other two cannot, it will be in danger of irrelevance.

I agree with him for the most part. No reason to have a whole range of systems dedicated to just one publisher. Nintendo since N64 is awful for third party.

@Einherjar
In all honesty, I don't play mobile phone games. I just go by word of mouth and similar models I hear adopted on game consoles. I rather have paid a flat fee for all Wii sports to return with Wii Sports Club. Then there's Tank Tank Tank, a couple rather clunky pinball apps, and on 3ds, that awful sounding progress microtransaction based feature of Bravely Default, a game that looks terrific otherwise.

EDIT: If you are referring to something along the lines of episodic content like the gta 4 trilogy then I'm all for stuff like that.

I'm sensing a U-Turn from him.

@bizcuthammer
If innovative software is key, then how do you explain 3DS success. Sure it has a lot of software, but how much of it feels truly new?

On a separate note I'd like to state the new 3DS Zelda is awesome and gives the franchise a good shot in the arm.

Why is the head of 'NOW DEFUNCT THQ' talking about Nintendo being irrelevant?

The Atari guy said the same thing and his company no longer exists either... maybe they are both jealous because Nintendo outlasted both of them?

Oh well, i'll await the up and coming article about how ZX Spectrum founder Clive Sinclair also thinks Nintendo is irrelevant, lol!

It would be a crime if Nintendo were ever forced to stop making their stuff exclusive to their hardware/controllers.

This guy is another Sony stooge so it's no surprise he's saying this. What I find pretty bizarre is that these people think that Sony and MS won't be rendered irrelevant in the hardware market when streaming technology means that home hardware doesn't need much processing power. Most publishers will deliver content via the cloud because they will be more secure against piracy. Nintendo are biding their time til this is possible and have much better brand recognition for a future when only the software will matter.

If the hardware didn't help Nintendo's games be unique, they'd be less unique.

If the games were less unique, they wouldn't sell as much.

If the games sold less and did so on a platform where Nintendo had to pay a royalty, profits would be smaller.

Nintendo see themselves as a toy manufacturer, not just a software company. The consumer attraction IS the symbiotic relationship between software and hardware.

HEY JASON... CATCH!

In a "hardcore" sense yeah but still I had a couple of my friends who were contemplating getting a Wii U but by today's standards you gotta admit, Nintendo is still playing catch-up despite fixing most of its flaws.

So this guy was at naughty dog when it was crap? Pre uncharted and last of us? Then ran THQ into the ground? And I'm suppose to listen to his opinion with respect?????? He worked at naughty dog which had ALWAYS produces Playstation exclusives and then he points a finger at the biggest video game company in the world and says they should be multi format????
What a tosser.
People will continually cry for Nintendo to be multi format same as they did for GTA before it went multi. Try produce ridiculously high quality triple A titles that you have to buy a certain machine for

Nintendo has always pretty much surrounded themselves with a mote; keeping their properties under lock and key guarded by a dragon, guarded by a kraken and making sure everything is to their liking less there be hell to pay. But the gaming world is changing, and one day Nintendo might not be apart of the gaming world like they have in the past and remain to be today.

I mean look at Atari and Sega, one day they were in the hardware market, the next day they're in software and barely hanging on market. If not for Sonic, Sega would have become the Beta Max of the Console Wars. (although I guess ultimately they kind of became the VHS of the console wars, but still VHS had a hell of a run and so did Sega)

There might come a day when Nintendo too has to throw in the towel and become a purely software publishing company. The irony being that at one time Nintendo helped cause the downfall of other hardware companies that now focus mainly on software.

I think it would be very beneficial if Nintendo did some out of house releases. Maybe establish a shell publisher that focuses on multi-console development for Nintendo titles. At the very least they could license out a property or two, maybe Metroid and Donkey Kong? That big monkey has come a long way since his days of tangling with Mario, but hasn't seen too many releases outside of the once a decade game and the inclusion into Smash bros. Its a shame he mostly sits on the shelf gathering dust while other franchises get love and attention. Why leave money on the table when you can invest it and get a profit return?

Plus, think about how some properties could expand with the help of other systems or better yet, PC/Mac. Nintendo could still maintain the copyright and publishing rights, but allow gamers without Nintendo's hardware to have access to their library. There are properties like the Legend of Zelda franchise, which, like Sonic is well know the world over. However, the major difference between them is that Sonic has seen a wider release since it is not bound by any one system. If LoZ got a wider platform release spread, Nintendo would see record sales and profits never before thought possible.

Show of hands, who here would buy LoZ for the PC, even if it was a older game port like a Link to the Past with little to no graphics update. I'm pretty sure some of you just smacked your hand on something raising it so fast. Nintendo fans are a loyal bunch, why betray their loyalty by limiting their access to your product. I mean, that's kinda like a crack dealer only selling crack on one street corner. (yes, I am comparing games to crack.) Its more economic to sell on multiple street corners. Starbucks gets it, they sell cra i mean coffee everywhere on every street corner, some on all four corners. It does't matter that they're too expensive, bland, burnt or over commercialized, they're still getting their product out there and not limiting themselves.

But seriously, could you imagine what the guys behind Legend of Zelda could do if they released a PS4/Xbone game? Imagine what could become of Link in the kind of rendering we've traditionally only seen in Final Fantasy. Imagine a nearly realistic (the ears will always take away from the realism) Link, crossing swords with foes in splendid crisp, large, detailed 3D, open world environments. I don't think there is a gamer out there that wouldn't trade in their first born for multi-platform access to LoZ.

Times are changing, and while Nintendo is still a big contender, they need to start branching out and being less of a control freak hermit.

Oh, you think Nintendo games are good and want to play them?

Then buy the console they are made for, idiot. That's the whole point of exclusives, you know that? Or did you lost all common sense after THQ went out of bussines? -.-

Yeah so out of all my consoles and PCs, I spend most of my gaming time on 3DS and Wii / Wii U hardware. Some of us play games for gameplay, not for admiring graphics. What is this guy smoking anyway? 3DS sales are smoking hot right now

Ha these 19th century company founders really want that 18th century company to lose its steam do they? Nintendo ain't going nowhere and they ain't changing hands. Just get use to it.

Well... Jason Rubin... YOU are the one who is irrelevant!!!

"it's a crime" that Nintendo doesn't publish on other platforms.

Yeah because naughty dog games are on other platforms other than playstation. Nintendo is not irrelevant in the hardware market at all not while they are still relevant in the software market, and you know who are irrelevant in the software market sadly THQ.

@brandonbwii Well, success doesn't mean innovation, really. The 3DS is a great console, but lacks the kind of innovation the GameBoy, GBA and NDS had, with new, gameplay-enhancing features being the 3DS' problem. GB was the first handheld, GBA was the first handheld with 16-bit graphics power and 3D progression, and the DS had two screens at once, one being a touch screen on top of it.
The 3DS, on the other hand, 'only' has better graphics - the 3D feature sadly only looks pretty, and barely has any impact on gameplay at all (except for being irritating in fast-paced games).

So, while innovative software does play a role in success, the formidable launch of XBone and PS4 show that its role is diminishing. A good gaming library is much more important to gamers nowadays.

@ReigningSemtex There were one or two Crash Bandicoot games on DS, so that's not true at all (granted, they were bad).

@Kaze_Memaryu yes bad because naughty dog didn't develope them.

This is an absolute non story. I'll summarise it for every one.

Paragraph 1: Nintendo are struggling to adapt to the new gaming industry that is supposedly being lead by cheap and cheerful games on the iPhone and android.

Paragraph 2: Two imbeciles think Nintendo should make games for the Xbox and Playstation.

Paragraph 3: But they think Miyamoto is totally cool.

Paragraph 4: Discuss.

I'll defend Nintendo to the hilt, but when I see news stories like this, I can't help but feel we're all being played. There's nothing to discuss that hasn't been said in countless other articles on this site about how some industry genius thinks Nintendo should just kill their own company so they can make Mario games on the Playstation.

It's hard to argue with him when you see how awfully Mario 3D World is selling.

Nintendo have become obsessed with the idea that "software moves hardware" while forgetting that just as importantly, hardware moves software. The mass market sees Nintendo as obsolete in the home console space and Nintendo don't have the resources to remedy that.

They'd be far more profitable selling to a larger market and without taking huge losses and risk on unprofitable hardware. We as fans would also benefit by having access to a far great library of games and online services the other console manufacturers can provide. Nintendo going third party really would be the best outcome for everyone.

Nintendo DID publish on other platforms, the CDi.
Dark times...

Oh and by the way to everyone saying that Rubin was the reason for the fall of THQ, he's not. THQ was doomed before he was president and that's most likely how he obtained the roll. Like seriously I love Nintendo as much as the next guy and it would be weird if they stopped making games, they'd eventually become the SEGA of today not really doing much but living off the shadows of their past with the classics. However I must admit, Nintendo would make a fortune if they ported their classic games to iOS and Android, but it's a shame that their pretty much neglecting their own consoles by sitting on that gold mine.

And Nintendo is making RIDICULOUS money with the 3DS, with games like Mario Kart 7, Fire Emblem Awakening, Animal Crossing, NSMB2, and the latest Pokemon games. Just wait until Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros hits stores, it'll be doom for the competition.

He's a "former" important guy for a reason, clearly.

To be fair, THQ was already in trouble by the time Rubin took over. Stock dove something like 85% that fiscal year and there were hundreds of employee layoffs. One might question his motives of taking over as company president when it was quite obvious to literally every shareholder and investor that the doors would be closed before the end of the next fiscal year, but hey. It wasn't his fault that company bombed.

It also wasn't his fault that Naughty Dog went on to become a critically acclaimed studio with multiple system-selling titles after he left the company. He had nothing to do with that.

As someone who's worked in the industry I'm surprised that he didn't realize how stupid what he's saying is. Nintendo is both a hardware and software company so it should be obvious to anyone that their consoles is a big part of their business. More importantly ,for gamers at least, Nintendo's hardware is speciffically made to compliment the games they want to make so if they had to make games on other systems it would impede the creativity that makes Nintendo what it is. The unique hardware is also important for their long-time fans and it's a huge part of Nintendo's image.
PS4 and Xbone are systems that just improves the graphical abilitiesof games without bringing anything new to the industry, and I'm not saying there's anything particularly wrong with that but I can't see how anyone after that could say that Nintendo's continous atempts at revolutionising the gaming industry makes them "irrelevant".

By the way, if Nintendo's hardware is "irrelevant" how comes Sony and Microsoft always flat out tries to steal the new features Nintendo introduces.

Stop posting articles like this, they're not newsworthy and just repeat the same wrong and stupid arguments we've heard a hundred times before.

So he isn't keen on Nintendo hardware - does he realise that he is not the arbiter of good taste - especially after the U Draw fiasco that killed THQ?
No console is considered a good piece of hardware when next to a PC, and Wii U's gamepad is the only thing that differentiate's the Wii U form the other consoles that really are just an expensive entry level PC.

@Mystemo Exactly - if Nintendo stopped making hardware, Xbox & PS wouldn't know where to steal and poorly implement innovations from.

I watch their shows regularly and I know that they are all Nintendo haters. At some weird point in the past they also said that no one cared about the "new mario game" that Reggie was talking about.
The only sane comment in that show was one in the "The Wii U is irrelevant! Look at their financial report!". That's true. Now the Wii U is fighting back to relevance with it's games. And it's far from irrelevant. It's easy to talk about numbers they read 2 months ago, before the Wii U starts rising on sales.

Naughty Dog. Home of two of the most criminally overrated franchises ever, Jak & Daxter, a platformer totally devoid of imagination; and the shockingly bad, Indiana Jones rip-off, Uncharted.

Releasing Nintendo games on another platform would be a shambolic move. Any clown can see that.

Frankly whenever I see an article that refers to Apple or Google as a serious player on the gaming market I completely lose interest. Just nonsense. I have never met any gamer anywhere that uses their phone as an alternative. It amazes me how out of touch industry 'experts' are sometimes.

@Godlike_Virus Lol!

Creating Nintendo games on other platforms would be like throwing gold in to a coal mine. Keep the gold with the gold! Nintendo's appeal stems from their consoles as much as their games. Cannot wait for Christmas

@pukka-pie Well said.

I don't see why it's a crime that Nintendo doesn't publish on other hardware. Should I expect that all the old playstation games I used to enjoy are ported to the Mac by Sony because I think they're really good?

The crime would be if Nintendo stopped making games altogether, but that's not the case. If you want to play Nintendo games that's easily done; if it's not convenient because you need to buy their kit, that's your problem, not Nintendo's.

Why is it that almost every critic says that Nintendo "needs" to publish all their games on Playstation and XBOX and every blasted smartphone device, yet if anyone even thinks that someone like Sony should publish their games on other consoles everyone is all "oh, no no! Those are Sony's exclusives! It's not right to publish them on anything besides their systems!" Okay, then why not leave Nintendo alone and let them publish on their own damn systems!?

Nintendo's huge money reserves say "we're not going third party anytime soon for a quick buck", Rubin.

In recent years, Nintendo has sold 100 million Wii's and 150 million DS, and THQ has gone bankrupt... is there anything else to say, really???

I'm often very critical with Nintendo, when it comes to some of their business strategies, but one thing is for sure, they're the most succesful console maker EVER: they sell high quality consoles which last for years and years, and they sell high quality games you may play for years and years... hard to be more relevant than this in a video game industry with so many d***heads full of themselves...

Back in 2001 when Sega deemed they were leaving the console market, Sony and Nintendo jumped for joy. Not because they were losing a competitor but because Sega former exclusives would now be on their systems. Here in 2013 going on 2014, Sony and Microsoft would love for this to happen again. I think "experts" always say Nintendo needs to "expand or die" because of the three console makers, Nintendo is the only one who focuses on videogames. Nintendo always seems to prove them wrong.

So, the 3DS is irrelevant then? Good to know, Jason Rubin!

@pukka-pie 'shockingly bad, Indiana Jones rip-off, Uncharted.'

It actually kind of ripped off tomb raider and indiana jones and was so shockingly bad that tomb raider itself heavily borrowed from the uncharted series for its reboot and I believe went on to be the best selling game of the series. Yeah uncharted is terrible.

Says the guy who lost a company and if that ever happens Mark my words I would be down with videogames. For GOOD.

It's a crime that this fool is allowed to voice his opinion

Maybe when Sony releases god of war on Wii u and Microsoft releases Halo on PS4.

Rubin can't be blamed for THQ. He was hired to see if it could be saved and then do the sweeping up if it couldn't. He probably took the gig just for the paycheck and his loyalty was presumably very low in that situation.

At the end, the problem with Nintendo is 1/5 Nintendo, with its bad decisions, but 4/5 is all the industry, these days, consoles are just hardware to create identity, like "I am a hardcore gamer", or "Xbone is cool", and not electronic toys to play and have fun, like Nintendo thinks about that. Old style gamers still plays with Nintendo, because the important thing at the end of the day is just have fun, nothing else. Not being part of the "hardcore gamer culture" that plays COD or being "adult and mature" for playing violent game only for the sake of violence. In my personal case, I have a PC and a Wii U, and with those two, I can cover like 80% of the games.

"Nintendo is irrelevant" says the guy that bankrupted THQ...

He reminds me of Sony and Microsoft fan boys... Dump on Nintendo in futile hopes they will become a 3rd party publisher on systems THEY own. I think its because they are too poor to purchase more than one system. I guess a job at the fast food joint up the road doesn't pay enough.

Not going to happen, no matter how much you wish it would, fan boy. Nintendo will be the last player to leave the console space. If you want to play Nintendo's amazing games (legally), you have to pay the tax of buying their console.

Trolls need to get a big boy job so they can afford to buy whatever console the games they want to play is on.

@brandonbwii Sports Club is a weird decision. All in all, you will pay as much as a standart release for it if you want, but you can lower the price if you want. The same goes to Tank³. If you buy everything, the price ends up on the same level as the retail version.But to be honest, since the multiplayer deathmatch is a waste of time, you can leave that one out and lower the price at the same time. The system is weird, but really not half bad,
The Pinball game has a weird way to download tables (only through the eShop although every table is teasered ingame and when selected, will only say "nope, close the game and go to the eShop" But also, ths is also quite a good example. The average player wont need a gazillion different tables. Get a pack or a couple single ones and your good. And that is considerably cheaper than buying a full retail release in which you wont use everything of its content anyways.
Its basicly a system of "build your own game", take all the parts that matter to you and leave out the rest. Just pay for what you want to use.
A bad example would a a full price game, that has the available content already on its disc, but locks it away.
Example: You buy game XY for the full price, but you NEVER play the multiplayer. You still have to pay for it. And it gets a story DLC that you want. With that practice, you end up paying more and more for a game. WIth the games mentioned above, you basicly have full controll over what you want to pay for.

@seronja Nintendo and Sega already team up. They have a three game deal on Wii U.

But if you were Nintendo would you really want to go into business with a company as poorly run as SEGA? I mean the whole reason why they are no longer a platform holder is because how poorly the business is ran. Nintendo would be nuts to make a console with them. Sega can hardly keep the lights on and are going through, yet another restructuring.

I might be wrong, but I don't think he's ever even made a game on/for a Nintendo system. Of course, everyone knows MS/Sony would love Ninty franchises on their systems, they would sell a ton and without any work done on their parts. The publishers who get paid by MS/Sony are saying this all the time and use the excuse that Big N's hardware is sub-par as justification. I don't understand why his statements are such a big deal when he hasn't done anything on the systems/for the company hes commenting about?

@Nintenjoe64 even in a streaming future Nintendo would still sell hardware. Might not need to buy a box that processes more but still would need new Hardware(Unique controllers required to play software over the cloud for instance)

Streaming technology without latency is still 30 or more years off. We need almost a gigabyte of bandwidth, and even then still have some serious latency problems. Fiber optics would be the answer to that, but we won't be getting fiber in our homes for a very very long time.

@Yamitora1 Atari and Sega were poorly ran companies. It was only a matter of time before they went bust. Sony and Microsoft's gaming divisions are poorly run companies too, if it wasn't for their other business propping it up, they would be also rans too. Nintendo will be the last to leave the console space with how careful they are with money.

He might be wrong, but Nintendo needs to realise that not everyone likes its Mario games (and not everyone will buy its Zelda game also). It needs to develop different franchises and attracts more third-party support.

@Einherjar League of Legends has an "okay" way of doing F2P. As in, everything is accessible without paying a dime, but you'll get it faster if you do. But accessing said stuff doesn't make you inherintly more powerful in anyway. It just gives you more options.

If there's a best way to do F2P and microtransactions it's either Heroes of Newerth (all microtransactions are purely cosmetic), or Path of Exile (almost purely cosmetic, except you can buy stash tabs which are a convenience, as you can just make more characters to use as mules).

If all F2P titles followed that scheme, I wouldn't be worried whatsoever about the trend of going F2P, that is, sadly, not the case though.

@ReigningSemtex Ooh, yeah. Just noticed. Sorry, my bad.

I love how developers are always saying bad things about nintendo how they recycle old ideas and such but always want nintendo to go the route of sega and strictly produce software.

@element187 I think 30 years is a bit pessimistic. I don't trust IGN's paid playtests of Vita remote play but it can't be too bad for them to say it works without latency. You're right, Nintendo will still make hardware and definitely peripherals but as time goes by, more and more of the processing can be done in the cloud and pretty soon we're going to hit the ceiling of what can be done in a (sensibly budgeted) game. The diminishing returns with hardware power and the time that it takes to make games look good means that the hardware wont be the limiting factor that it is now. Jason Rubin is just on the Nintendo don't make good hardware and should sell out to Sony bandwagon. I wonder if many other industries have the same attitude where the most successful and only profitable company is the one that is constantly 'doomed'.

For everyone citing 3DS as the reason he's wrong, the exact quote was "Nintendo is irrelevant as a hardware manufacturer in the console business"
Nothing to do with 3DS success, he's talking about the Wii U and it's tiny market share.

I think it's too soon for them to go software only, but if and when it happens I'll be just as happy playing Mario on a Xbox or Playstation. The games will still be fantastic I'm sure.
I've always enjoyed their hardware innovations, but the Wii U has never excited me in that area. It's like a clunky version of the DS interface, with none of the original game ideas that made it stand out.
I'd like to see them take another stab at hardware, but unless they come up with something that truely changes the way we play games, there's no point in them making another console imo.

Yeah, do not dignify these things with an article any more. It is evident - game developers are in no way experts of the gaming industry, and should not be treated as such. Give them a lollipop and move on.

When will I see Halo on Playstation? Never!!!
When will I see Uncharted on Xbox? Never!!!
When will I see Zelda on Xbox and Playstation? (in the gaming hood) "get smacked!!! I dare you to say it again!!!"

Nintendo games on other consoles doesn't make sense to me.

A crime? Then Apple got to be terrorists for not letting any computer / laptop company make & sell computers with Max OS X pre-installed. Yes. Or maybe people just got to accept that not all companies want to go their way, but rather the company's way. Peoples ways are too divided, you can't please everyone.

Beach, please.

Lol, the fantasy that someday morons will be able to play the newest zelda on a sony console. They need to let those fantasies go, because that is just what they are.

lol what!!? A crime!!? This guy is SOOOOOOOO wrong.

"Irrelevant" never exists in Nintendo's vocabulary.

@Godlike_Virus LMAO… best comment ever!

@ReigningSemtex Yes it really is. Uncharted 2 is woeful. From the awful characters, that smarmy donkey of a protagonist that makes sarcastic wise-cracks as he pumps a bullet into someones skull; that awful Australian woman, the generic Russian etc.

Those filler climbing around like a chip bits.

The overall SLOG of it all. Kill 50 men, move to another room, Kill 50 men, move to another room. The TOTAL lack of variety.

The feeble, pathetic grenades.

The awful story; Nathan Drakes goes on GENOCIDAL killing spree after being betrayed. Because somehow he has a right to the treasure...? He is a horrible protagonist, he isn't fighting for the greater good, he is fighting out of blood-lust and greed.

The pathetic goat men, slapped on to give a super-natural edge like in Indiana Jones.

Just a terrible, overrated, heap of turd. A game that does NOTHING well (well the graphics are nice). Honestly, I could write and essay on what makes that the most overrated game ever. And yes, Tomb Raider ripped off Uncharted, probably why that was terrible too...

And don't even get me started on Jak & Daxter, the void between that and Mario Sunshine in terms of creativity and craft is embarrassing. But hey, Playstation platformers are always way overrated, LBP was good though I must say.

Wow. So, guy, how your knowledge is helping THQ? It what? Oh... I'm sorry you helped them go bankrupt. I love guys like him, he's as worthless as CliffyB. Don't even quote them, let them die in peace.

@pukka-pie so Indy sucks?

Why is this even news? Its basically saying "This one guy has his own subjective opinion as to where Nintendo should go, and he's dissing them! Get over here and join the resulting fan war".

Nothing good will be gained from such a piece.

I simply find it amazing that the Wii U is struggling as much as it is after all of the success the Wii had. You'd think it'd at least have decent sales...

But, I disagree with this man. Nintendo doesn't need their first-party franchises on other consoles. That's part of what has ALWAYS made Nintendo Nintendo.

@pukka-pie well thats your opinion and your entitled to that but in my opinion yearly releases of COD, FIFA and assassins creed's are way more overrated i thoroughly enjoyed the uncharted games i dont think uncharted is the game most people think of when they think of overrated games i would say you are in the minority with that.

Some good points like how Nintendo games could benefit being on a more powerful systems. THEN AGAIN, most of my favourite games come from SNES-NGC era so power thing is a bit irrevelant for me.

I am tired of being defensive when people print click bait like this. I didn't purchase a Nintendo console to have a status symbol. My self-worth is not wrapped up in having the "chosen" console and having that choice validated by the masses. I purchased the Nintendo console because I can count on the games Nintendo makes to be both family friendly and fun. I don't know any other publisher out there that provides that.

Just because you have the most powerful system doesn't automatically make your games great. Good gameplay, story, design will always trump flashy graphics, big explosions, and shock value. Nintendo gets that in a way that most large development houses don't, hence why the large developers are falling one by one while Nintendo continues to turn profits.

As for Jason Rubin, I will counter with this advice, "If THQ wants to find success, then I would say abandon chasing the "AAA" games and focus on building solid middle of the road games ($20-40 price range). It is a segment of the market that is woefully under utilized, and if done well can be as successful as it was in the past (remember 2K sports starting as a bargain game vs Madden). Take a lesson from Nintendo and develop games that have solid gameplay instead of overreaching and releasing bug filled steaming piles of trash. And finally, deal with your own problems and deficiencies before handing out advice to other companies that are far more successful than you are."

I always find these articles funny. "Nintendo are cr#p but we want there games on Xbox and PS4 coz there amazing but we're to shallow to buy a Nintendo console"
All these people with that attitude need to get over it...

@Contrite Sadly, you are right. Even Bethesdas "invention" of DLC, although with a rocky start (horse armor) had sooo much potential was was in itself a really good adition to all of gaming, making games appealing for even longer periods of time, since devs could work on them even after it has launched and cater towards specific player wishes (new modes, characters etc)
But give a man power... It didnt take too long till this possibility was used to basicly rip people off big time, cutting out on disc content just to artificially inflate the price. And the same goes with f2p. Sure, these games have to make money somehow. Noone deserves to work without payment afterall. But it also was quickly used to lure in extra cash from people that are either too umpatient to unlock content through gameplay alone or just make the game so unballanced and / or unfair, that you coulndt stand a chance without investing more money into the game than you would have paid for a normal retail game.

Controllers are hardware, and they became a bottle neck in gameplay a generation ago. In my view, if you don't take popularity into account (because of the difficulty of the marketing of new controllers vs the ease of the marketing of the GPU, especially when the Wii U already softened the blow of the smallest generational leap ever and also got eternally sticking stigma for it), its the others, who are becoming increasingly irrelevant in the gameplay arena, that stems from their limited standard controllers.

I think that Wii U is superior FPS and strategy console...or just superior console in what ever genre, because of its versatile input hardware selection; a tablet controller and a Wiimote. Among a bunch of things, the tablet controller finally makes RTS games possible, like never before in consoles.

Good graphics require good amount of money, great graphics requires great amounts of money, or a shorter game. In my view, if you are aiming to make the best possible game today, the Wii U would be the best possible platform for it.

Its good graphics AND superior gameplay vs just great graphics, but last gen gameplay. I have already gotten bored of PS4 games.

Uncharted 2 is great. The others are garbage.

I hate it when people say this sort of stuff. It's like saying that no-one should be able to challenge Sony or Microsoft, because they are getting 'higher' sales!

When you look like that, it should sound really stupid.

Hmm, I get what he means about Nintendo being laregely irrelevant, but I won't stop buying their hardware 'til they stop offering unique experiences.

Games such as Skyward Sword simply wouldn't have been as good on another console. Something like SM3DW could work on another console though. Nintendo haven't even tried to utilise the Wii U's unique features in this game.

@PinkSpider
I think it comes down to playing games, going off most of the comments here i would say Nintendo so called gamers are shallow yes. Nintendo should just brand you all like thay do to cattle, it seems fitting.

Nintendo give what gamers want Mario 3D on WiiU is excellent enough said ..

He destroyed THQ. Hopefully Ubisoft goes the same way. Nintendo will stay the same.

Screw Rubin. I'd rather Nintendo dropped out of home hardware and only focus on handhelds before seeing their games on other platforms.

@element187 It can be argued that Nintendo has also been poorly ran as of late. I mean they're only now able to say "Consumers now know the difference between the Wii and the Wii U" And from what I heard on Black Friday, there are still idiots who don't. I mean it didn't take rocket science to tell the difference between the playstation and the playstation 2, but still people seem to be incapable of wrapping their heads around the U after Wii.

If Nintendo had chosen a different name, then maybe their sales would have no been so bad baring the lack of library bulk at launch.

What is a real crime is what he done at THQ!!!

I pulled out wiiu on thanksgiving day and everyone loved it, nintendo just needs people to pick it up, everyone cheering on the toads trying to catch mario in mario chase i have fun on my wiiu, its innovative and diffetent and carried over the wiimoted...nintendo is far from over and thq is dead

well, we know why he isn't with THQ anymore.

Where do these people come from? I think the Wii U really brought out the idiotic developers out of the woodwork. This generation is horrible. I've never understood this obsessive hatred for Nintendo. This man is a moron. Also, Nintendo creates the best quality systems of the three, and has the best selling software. I guess he didn't know about that.

Just like it's a crime for Sony, MS or any other developer to put their games on their devices, right?

It's funny how contradictory some people can be, although this guy didn't say it, I've seen people troll Nintendo games to death, but they want to play them on their Non-Nintendo device. Think about that last statement for a second and how little sense it really makes.

I agree with you Nictendo64!!100%

What Mr Rubin fails to realize is M$ & Sony do not make "traditional consoles" anymore! They also DO NOT MAKE CONSOLES OR GAMES FOR GAMERS!!

The Executive producer for Infinity ward (Mark Rubin) said it best: Call of Duty appeals to "the unconscious casual gamer". They spend $400 - $500 on a console & they'll buy Call of Duty- & thats it!! Or, they'll spend big on a console & buy GTA (& thats it!), Madden (& thats it), NBA 2k (& thats it!), Battlefield (& thats it!!), FIFA (& thats it!)

The only other game these "unconscious casual gamers" will get is the sequel to whatever they already purchased (C.O.D. Black Ops to C.O.D. Black Ops 2, NBA 2k13 to NBA 2k14, etc...) These people are not gamers!!!
Now, factor in the consoles PS4 & Xbox one & how they do EVERYTHING ELSE FIRST & GAMING COMES LAST!!! Sony & M$ boasts Mega social networking and Monster muti media. With video gaming in last place.So, yes-I think Nintendo is "totally not in the discussion" when compared with M$ & Sony. Because apparently- The only GAMING CONSOLE that is available is .......you already know. The Wii U.

"It's a crime that Nintendo's games aren't on other consoles"

Sounds like another person who just wants his favorite games on his favorite consoles. He just needs to suck it up and buy a Nintendo console if he wants to play Nintendo games.

Look! Another article about a quote from someone who's missing the entire point of what Nintendo does and doesn't contribute anything positive to the discussion!

Wait, the former president of a now dead game company is calling another infinitely more successful company irrelevant? Why is his opinion so important it needs to be posted as "news" because I learned absolutely nothing new or useful from this.

@MadAussieBloke Yay! Aussie's back with another one! Thanks man, had a bad day but this cracked me up. Maybe you should forward it to the man himself...
pukka-pie 200% agreed on the heavily overrated Uncharted series. And as far as I'm concerned The Last of Us can go into the bin right along with it.
@ReigningSemtex Naughty Dog sure did make some nice games and even if I don't like them, I can see where the attraction in the Uncharted games could lie, just not for me. And they definitely are a bunch of morons that think that their games are far more spectacular than they actually are.
Almost reminds me of Quantic Dream and their HD point & click-time adventures. Although I would sooner give them credit than Naughty Dog.
Their games are nice and entertaining, that's all, definitely not 'defining moments in gaming' or something similarly epic.
In general and on topic: I make it a rule of life never to listen to losers that almost ran two companies into the ground and are still too young to comprehend what one of the true giants of gaming had already achieved before they were even in diapers. Come back when you get yourself a working brain. The failed 'Nintendo has a lot of treasures' comeback doesn't even begin to excuse his initial moronic comment.
"Nintendo irrelevant? Aw, that's naughty, dawg... " .o..

@pukka-pie 200% agreed on the heavily overrated Uncharted series. And as far as I'm concerned The Last of Us can go into the bin right along with it.

The T-shirt fits the reputation perfectly, by the way...

First of all Nintendo would never release it's games on competitors devices. I think he's nuts to say such a thing but I do like promotional apps on android or the iPhone like Mario brothers or an overhead Zelda game partial that could help advertise for a link between worlds. Most people are on cell phones and the iPad these days so they should really consider making simple apps that can further promote the stuff they have on the 3ds and Wii u.

It's a crime that Sony doesn't publish games for other consoles.

JASON STAHP.

Without Nintendo he would of never made any games for Sony... So its a crime for him to sit here and lie through his teeth. and he change his tune when people start sending him hate mail.

I honestly wouldn't mind Nintendo games on PS or Xbox if it had to come to that. I'd be able to get the third party games Nintendo doesn't get on their consoles, and get Nintendo. (Without having to buy 2 consoles)

However, it just wouldn't seem right to play Zelda or Metroid on Playstation or Xbox. I think the games would lose their magic.

@Godlike_Virus You win the interwebs!

@DreMurf313 Nintendo don't make traditional consoles either. The last one they did was the GBA as it had proper cartridge. Everything is based on PC Graphics technology not totally custom which is what consoles should have. Around the time of the Wii Nintendo reduced the difficulty on everything which means for the same amount of enjoyment you need loads more games.

@Yukari_Sendo Not really all the decent Studio's Sony bought are no longer releasing anything worth having. All the good studios as soon as they are bought by Sony/Microsoft/EA/Ubisoft never do anything worth bothering about again.

I actually agree with him. I'd like to play Mario or Zelda at the best graphics available. That'd be great in my opinion. I also don't really care for the innovations Nintendo likes to bring to each system. I'd honestly rather just play with a standard controller and play some good ol' Mario, like back in the NES and SNES.

Nintendo is the like the Sea and the PS4 is the like land. People who think those pretty fish that would look so nice out of the water might be surprised how dead they'd end up on the land.

There would be advantages to Nintendo publishing on other consoles, but there would also be problems resulting from it. The one flaw with all of this is the assumption that Nintendo will, from this point onward, make weaker systems. We'll have to see how the Wii U follows course, and if it doesn't cut it, Nintendo will need to reexamine their strategy.

@everyone: This guy became president when THQ was already sinking, he did a good job of laying them to rest, not killing them.

Crash Bandicoot sucked.

This is becoming such a childish attention seeking trend…i wonder if he's trying to put himself out there by sayin such things so he could get on the right peoples favor or even a good job position cuz honestly what is he doing now?

I agree Nintendo has a hole they have to dig themselves out of with the WiiU but the WiiU stands out for me and im happy with it and cant wait for all the games coming out next year for the WiiU

@element187 Sega is run pretty well as a business these days. It is one of the few big publishers doing ok. (And of course gambling which is what Sammy does literally prints money). Of course being run well as a business usually leads to lowest common denominator boring games.

On one hand we're talking about a has been that ran one company into the ground and hasn't been worth a salt since, but then on the other side of it, you have Nintendo being the arrogant jerk bag company to developers as they were in the pre-3D days showing they don't learn lessons.

I've learned that Nintendo back in the development era of this generation of machines just like Sony and MS were approached by developers wanting to give input on what they wanted in the hardware for their games. The two took the advice, and while the similar output of the systems is evident, though long term PS4 will outperform a bit, Nintendo took the screw you attitude of the past of they'll design the systems for their game making needs and they can use what they're provided or not. While the system itself is the easiest of the three due to design to make stuff for, their bad attitude has clearly driven off support almost entirely. As it stands now the only turn around would be in the form of millions of systems sold through this holiday and off of the releases of Mario Kart and Brawl to get some support back. What we're looking at now is a N64 like existence living off really good quality first and second party stuff and the left over scraps from third parties. I got this information off family who works still in the industry as a third party developer who has put games onto the system in the past but is passing on it currently.

And where is THQ again in this day and age?? Almost as Irrelevant as Atari as has been in the console market. Honestly, I don't agree with this guy. I think Nintendo makes hardware for their style of games. That is why they can't do multi plats (Well one reason another would be most likely the death of some of their most well known and best loved franchises, I mean honestly do you think Mario would move nearly as well on the PS4?? Probably not most PS4 gamers scream when another Mario game comes out.) Of course this is also why 3rd parties can't always make their games good on Nintendo Hardware. They don't take the time to learn it and work with it. Nintendo is far from Irrelevant even if it's not the most powerful hardware out there. Nintendo can make games for it that looks so good.(If not better then what other systems have to offer)

Someone posted that Nintendo and Sega should team up and make a console. That would be sweet. Not sure if that's a possibility down the road or not, but still something to think about. Otherwise, I hope Nintendo keeps making consoles and fantastic games to go with them.

@Stucazzo That would have been sweet when they were both still active and high profile in the arcade business because with their forces combined back then they would have been able to bring a true arcade system into your home and it would have had amazing graphics. AND it would only have been the second machine to be able to do that, the Neo Geo being the first of course.
Now they're just way too far behind. I know Nintendo plots it's own course, but they really DO need to step up their game in a BIG way, either through games or much more aggressive marketing campaigns or the WiiU is a lost cause, much as I would hate to see that happen. Nintendo will then have to come back with a real killer of a console to be successful again. They will definitely survive, but the WiiU? Fingers crossed for big title after big title, just like Reggie is promising...

he has a point. no one ever buys nintendo consoles to play those crappy third party games! they buy nintendo consoles to play nintendo games! i'd be just as happy playing nintendo games on PS4 or X1, but as it is now, the only way to play nintendo games is on nintendo consoles, which is bogus for me, because i have to shell out extra $$ for their console. its better for my wallet if they just went third party. there is no reason to buy a nintendo home console for anything other than a nintendo game. any other game is usually a gigantic crap stain on the system.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! NO. That is complete BS. -_-

@schizor I can't believe people still believes the myth of "mobile gaming". Mobile gaming is far from being a successful market. The only mobile gaming that could be considered a success is Angry birds and yet like3 quarters of its profit comes from the merchandise not the game.

Show me a game companie that is being a huge success thanks to mobile games and then I'l believe it. So far there are only mediocre companies making mediocre gamings having mediocre profits. In the real world, profits shows how healthy is a market. So far, it isn't.

"Feels "it's a crime" that Nintendo doesn't publish on other platforms"

Well, you could also say that it's a crime that Naughty dog never published on Nintendo consoles! I would have loved to play the original Crash bandicoots, Jak and Daxter games and even the Uncharted games!!

@Stucazzo Sega of today is nothing but a former shadow of what it used to be. It isn't the great company that liked to push boundaires and explore gaming like before. It is now a generic 3d party company making generic 3d party games.

Anybody that agrees with the THQ dude and thinks Nintendo should be a 3d party company is delusional. Nintendo going third party will be its doom. Right now only a handful of 3d party companies are doing great and yet they keep having losses and shutting down studios and franchises. Nintendo is probabbly the last true game company and doing this will be its end.

So seriously shut up.

@DreMurf313 Totally agree with you. The only reason why I have an Xbox 360 is to play all of those Sonic games from Xbox Live.

"it's a crime" that *** doesn't publish on other platforms

replace *** with Sony, Microsoft,....Naughty Dog.....etc

Wow half these idiots thinks this EX- Naughty Dog co-founder is speaking on behalf of Naughty Dog, lol.

@TheRealThanos You forgot the CPS Changer. Sega is still making brilliant Arcade games. Look at Border Break / Operation G.H.O.S.T (Which is how smooth I think console games should be considering the much greater resources they have than people making Arcade games these days) / K.O. Drive - Have a look on Youtube at just those three.

@minotaurgamer First off, my comments were theoretically speaking about Sega and Nintendo teaming up for a console, it would be interesting, but I know that will never happen. I don't want Nintendo to go 3rd party as well, as the quality will suffer. I'm a huge N fan and want them to succeed.

I know it's easy for you to be brave over the internet/behind your computer telling whoever you want to shut up for no valid reason, because in a real life discussion with that mouth of yours, you'd be getting tuned up. So relax, and don't go telling people to shut up when they're being civil. That being said, I'm on the same page as you.

@unrandomsam You're right, forgot about that one, largely because I'm not up to speed anymore with arcade happenings since there isn't any around where I live now, so it's only consoles for me these days. As great as they are, I still see arcade as low profile in most countries nowadays, and that is also partially what I meant to say before. Thanks for the game titles though, they look interesting indeed. Now I only have to wait for a PC strong enough to emulate them...

To be honest, it may be best for Nintendo to go handheld-only for the time being and wait for the other companies to destroy themselves, then come in with a new console and pick up the pieces.

Here, in the USA, it seems that everyone wants to get an XBO. I think its the whole "buy american" thing, even if it means disregarding consoles that are way better (Wii U). Even Sony gives more for the money.

I would say its the other way around, PS and MS systems are adding more horsepower and memory to their systems, and what else? Nothing really innovative about that.

Nintendo does it's own thing, for better and for worse. Right now the Wii U is stalled.
It will take some work to get it going but it can be done.

Who are these tell say Nintendo is irrelevant ? Last time I checked correctly Naughty Dog is a fail and haven't made a crash game in years so they can shut their month. Nintendo is way more successful than Naughty Dog in every single freaking way.

_{Watch the profanity. -Raylax}

I don't know about irrelevant, but Nintendo did (and might still have) the idea that they're still in a position where they can set their merchandise out, kick back, and watch as it just flies off the shelves. I think they learned that lesson the hard way and they get that now though. Some of their practices are a bit antiqued and they're stubbron as a mule sometimes but then not everything new is better either.

Its a bit annoying needing to buy additional hardware just for the ability to play their games sure, but at the same time its also something I like about nintendo. Its old school for sure but theres something that just feels right about the whole thing. It could just be nostalgia talking but I think its that unique feel classic has thats been all but lost, Nintendo's practice is a remnant of that.

@MeWario well said matey with full respect

irrelevant and what did he say he also said that it was a "crime" that Nintendo games are not currently available on other platforms .because he knows that Nintendo rule with the games that they make just think for a mo then its a crime not to put sony or xbox games on nintendos platforms it works both ways sorry