Topic: Dissertation/thesis help

Hi guys

Bit of a random one really! I'm currently producing a dissertation about technology, and I'm writing a pretty big feature about Nintendo. Basically, if you've got an opinion, I'd love to hear it! I'm sure there'll be some good conversation starters too 👍🏼

Here's a couple of questions for some inspiration;
Why makes Nintendo so different and yet so successful?
Why do you love Nintendo?
How come people are not only buying the most recent consoles, but returning or sticking with retro alternatives too?

Honestly, I'd be hugely appreciative if even one person replies and can help me out. I'll credit your opinion and comments in my work, but where better to gain an insightful opinion than from the fans themselves?

1) I believe Nintendo's constant effort and dedication to offering their fans the highest standards of quality-fun is the number one reason why Nintendo is so successful.

2) I have been a Nintendo fan since I was a little girl. I am 32 years old now and I am always blown away by the quality of their games. The Legend of Zelda is my favorite video game saga ever and it only continues to get better and better.

I apologize for any mistakes. English is not my first language, Spanish is, but I hope it helps somehow.

Hmmmm this might not be right answer, and just my own feelings, but I'll try my best.

1. I would say that Nintendo managed to do it because they wanted to keep innovating- to differ themselves from their competitors. Otherwise they can't compete, other than staying in the same niche as the others. But to say they are successful isn't that right, they did flops as well (Wii U, Virtual Boy for example), but because they have done quite a nest egg from past success, they managed to stay afloat.

2. I love Nintendo because the games on their consoles are what I love... and it's handheld, or at least handheld-esque. At home, my parents use the tv a lot, and when I'm at college, I'm moving a lot so I feel getting a TV will be annoying to move around at, so I'm glad to have such a quality handheld from them! (From GBA SP, DS Lite, 3DS and Switch )

3. I'm not sure about this, but I think one of it is nostalgia.

@beth98765
Alright.
I will try to answer all.

"Why makes Nintendo so different and yet so successful ?"
Answer : Because Nintendo likes to Try something new. Being Out of the Box. Just look at Nintendo Switch concept, Nintendo Labo, Simply briliant. They always put a PASSION into their games, i can say almost all their games made with Love and Passion. Nintendo want their games can be enjoyed by Everyone, from Kids to Adults, Boys and Girls.

"Why do you love Nintendo ?".
Answer : Because Nintendo still CARE with Kids, their games are Majorly for Kids and also for Everyone, Kids to Adults. They still maintain their brand image as Family Entertainment and Kiddie, similar with Disney. Their games on each machines almost Never disappointing. There are TONS of Interesting titles to play.

"How come people are not only buying the most recent consoles, but returning or sticking with retro alternatives too?"
Answer : Well.... Some peoples were not really Loyal with the products. They got bored easily, choose to replace their old machines with the new one. Some peoples were kept both New and Old machines because they loved Both of them. Some peoples chose Retro Alternative due to its ability to emulate Genuine Retail games like the Official Nintendo Retro, moreover with the trend of Play on the go, Portability was the Major aspect for Retro Alternatives.

In my opinion Nintendo is so different yet so succesful because they just want to make games their own way and are completely aware of what they want their games to be and what they have to do to make them the way they want. They have their own style and they have a very effective method to do their job. They don't want to be different for the sake of being different, they just stick to what they have always done so well and today this is a different thing than most of the other developers do. This is why people recognize them and the value of the games they do. They also have very effective strategies to compensate products that are not succesful enough, for example while Wii U was a failure they had 3DS which sold very well and was very well received by people, when consoles like Gamecube and Nintendo 64 were not as succesful as Playstation and Playstation 2 they still had Pokemon that probably made a lot of money and were a big help for their incomes.
I like Nintendo because of just personal taste. There are some games that I love that are on other consoles, but for the most part I prefer Nintendo games. Non Nintendo games that I really love are a few if you compare them to how many are the Nintendo games I love. I also usually prefer their graphic style. Looking back at the Wii era Wii had very limited performances compared to consoles like PS3 and XBox 360, but most of the games on PS3 and XBox 360 were trying to be the most realistic they could be and were set in ugly places devastated by war, starving, illness, filth and so on. I don't necessarily have anything against games with mature themes, for example I really love Eternal Darkness and God of war 2. The fact is just that I play games because I don't like reality, I want to escape from reality as much as I can. God of war 2 is often violent and brutal but the landscapes you see are so wonderful and fascinating, paradise itself could look like this and I would be happy that way, but GOW 2 was an older game for an older console. On PS3 and XBox 360 most of the games took place in the most ugly, filthy, unpleasant environment you could imagine because they desperately wanted to point out how mature they were and I just refuse to play games like those because of this reason. A few ones can be ok. I played House of the dead overkill and find it really funny, but the problem with PS3 and XBox 360 was that games like those were the vast majority. I can't accept that. Before that period I liked Playstation consoles as much as Nintendo ones, but after PS3 I became a Nintendo only fan because I've never been able to find enough games that I like that much on other consoles since then

@TheTemptress @darkfenrir @Anti-Matter @LuckyLand

Thank you all so much for replying! This has been a huge help to my work and it's been really interesting to hear various opinions and stories - I too am a huge fan, and have genuinely enjoyed reading why Nintendo matters to you all in such different ways.

I really do appreciate your responses, so thank you again!

@beth98765 Good luck with everything.

In my opinion there are 2 big reasons why Nintendo remains a popular and relevant choice.

First: Nintendo does their own thing. They do not try to go along with whatever fads are popular, they focus on what they want to do: making fun games. Usually, but not always(Virtual Boy, Wii U) this is successful. People pick up on that and enjoy it. It is this basic simplicity: games are meant to be fun, that resonates with people.

Second: is a mix of nostalgia and familiarity. There was a point in the English speaking world where "Nintendo" was synonymous with "video game" and we still feel the legacy effects of that overwhelming popularity. Further, because of Nintendo's long history, people know they can expect a certain level of quality from a Nintendo made game. Nintendo has done a lot more right, than wrong, over its long history. And this long history is what ties it all together. Nintendo is something both adults and kids can relate to and enjoy, adults can relish the nostalgia and kids can see where current games evolved from, and enjoy the same games their old siblings and/or parents enjoyed.

@subpopz Except the fact that older games are usually much more hard and often even unfair compared to modern day games. They can seem more simple and straightforward and seem less intimidating because of that, but usually once you learn how to play modern games are a lot easier.

Not that I'm going to complain about it, I don't like when games are too difficult, but that's just the way it is.

Nintendo simply has a very different design ethos to other developers. They focus on the moment to moment mechanics feeling good and place this above all else in their game design.

They also have a few common threads running throughout their history (particularly first party 100% in house games).

1- no ‘grind to win’. Other developers went all in on RPG levelling as an alternative to properly balancing difficulty in the late 8 bit era (and never went back). That type of system meant that you didn’t need skill to progress- spend enough time and the levelling system allows you to brute force your way through. Nintendo has never done this.

2- abandoning the arcade mentality early. Nintendo games were among the first to depreciate and then completely drop traditional scores. Instead they focused on increasing the breadth and depth of their games - offering more gameplay as the reward for playing well instead of a high score (or punishing you for failure by sending you back to the start).

3- keeping controls simple. They have understood from the GameCube on that the controller is an obstacle - 8 buttons and 2 sticks is too much for most people so they’ve emphasised simpler control schemes. Obviously the Wii but also the big ‘A’ button on the GameCube contoller and subtler things like the MK8 auto steering.

As for the value and popularity of Retro consoles perhaps they were really just better games? 2d games are inherently easier to understand and control. It allows them to be more accessible (when they want to be) but it also allows them to throw more at you and be much faster in moment to moment gameplay.

In general older games were also designed to be possible to complete in an hour or two. It makes them much less of a commitment to pick up than most modern commercially successful games (which typically introduce some type of grind alongside cynical attempts to create addictive loops - whether to push micro transactions or not).

I love NSMBU. It’s a game that takes a lot of influence from SMB3 and SMW but the 3 star coins in each level take away from much of the mystery of the older games. There are secrets in SMB3 levels that I’ve still never seen - they’re just not signposted. Just by telling us that every level has 3 star coins NSMB loses something (even though it gains something else).

Or in other words - progress isn’t a one way street. New games aren’t ‘better’ - they’re just different.

"Why makes Nintendo so different and yet so successful?"

Nintendo entirely does its own thing, and never considers itself to be in any console race, regardless of what the general populace thinks or feels, and they always dare to innovate to a higher level than the competition, which certainly comes with mixed results, but is ultimately mostly to their advantage, which the Switch is currently demonstrating perfectly. No one else but Nintendo could have come up with that, and would have gotten away with it. Their developers also never seem to have lost their inner child, which results in games that are family friendly, suitable for all ages and yet still very entertaining, regardless of who you are, what you do or how old you are.

That specific touch that Nintendo has compared to the other two parties is actually a real and official thing, look it up: it's called "The Nintendo Difference".

"Why do you love Nintendo?"

Simple: for all of the above, and because they and only they can still manage to plaster an ear to ear grin on my 47 year old face, with almost every new console and game they bring out, and they really bring out the kid in me.

"How come people are not only buying the most recent consoles, but returning or sticking with retro alternatives too?"

Because Nintendo's games have completely ruled entire generations of gamers, and a lot of titles/series that have begun on Nintendo hardware aren't just classics, they still exist today, mostly because of Nintendo, and Nintendo as a company has a lot of history and importance for the industry as a whole.

In fact: if it weren't for Nintendo, the industry would have never survived the video game crash in the early 80's ('83 to '85 to be exact).

Because of all that, there's a lot of people, probably tens of millions, that have very fond memories of all these classic games, so when Nintendo re-releases them, either on Virtual Console or by means of a mini console, they are a very popular item for many people.

@StuTwo Aside from things like microtransactions (that of course are cynical) I don't think addictive loops in games are cynical. Quite the opposite. If a game don't have microtransactions or other systems that makes the publishers gain money while the customers are playing the fact that one becomes addicted to it probably means that he could buy less new games as long as he is playing that one. Being so focused on a single game that gives you the chance to "get stuck" in gameplay loops or even that is just VERY long can make people buy less games at least until they beat it or until they get tired of it that's why I think those mechanics are absolutely not cynical at least unless publishers use methods to monetize on them

@LuckyLand No offense, but next time, you might want to tag the person that your response is actually meant for, otherwise your post makes zero sense if people try to read it as a response to the original question...

@ThanosReXXX fixed, sorry

@beth98765 Good luck with your dissertation! I don't know if your planning to refer to these questions in your main body of work, including them in your Appendix or just gathering information, but remember to not show bias.
For example: 'Why(What) makes Nintendo so different and yet so successful?'.
That's a leading question.
Nintendo have always been successful in the portable space, but that's not necessarily true when it comes to home consoles.
NES ~62mill
SNES ~50mill
N64 ~33mill
GC ~22mill
Wii 100mill+
WiiU ~14mill
Switch 14mill+ in one year

If you take the Wii as the outlier- which it was (cultural phenomenon), then each Nintendo console has sold worse then the previous one. Nintendo lost market share in the home console space, whilst making strides in portable gaming.
However, with the supposed takeover of mobile gaming & their failing home consoles they had no choice but to consolidate their business. The answer was the Switch- Console gaming on the go.
People thought Nintendo should go third party after the WiiU. The Switch has been such a revelation that it's bringing gamers back to Nintendo- I'm one of those gamers. The hybrid nature of the Switch could be a focus of your feature, as both the PSP and PSVita tried to offer 'console gaming on the go', but both ultimately failed.

To answer your questions...

1)Why makes Nintendo so different and yet so successful?
Strength of IP. is there a more versatile and iconic character than Mario? For the most part people buy a Nintendo console to play Nintendo games (that's not a bad thing btw!). This is supported by the ludicrous attach rates the first party games have.
2)Why do you love Nintendo?
I was born in the 90's when Nintendo was king. I grew up around Nintendo and all my happiest gaming memories are Nintendo related. Whilst I'm very much in the PlayStation camp now, Nintendo will always have a special place in my heart.
3)How come people are not only buying the most recent consoles, but returning or sticking with retro alternatives too?
I don't know nostalgia, maybe? I don't really go back to old games, but I did buy a GameBoy Color with a copy of Pokemon Blue and Yellow last Summer... .

Good luck!

@LuckyLand No need to apologize, just thought I'd give you a friendly heads up.