Genyo Takeda Discusses Nintendo's Hardware Future

I hope they don't completely misread the situation. Mobile is dominating Japan's game scene right now but I don't think a Nintendo phone would be a success. People don't buy their phones for the games available on them, they buy the games because they work on the phones they already have.

Nintendo still don't get it, TV adverts still sell games AND consoles. Sticking a clip on Youtube like they have been doing for the WiiU & almost zero advertising elsewhere is the reason why the WiiU sales are dire in Europe. It is nothing to do with the name (the Wii name and sniggers it originally caused hardly stopped that console now did it!). The WiiU's failure is down to a completely useless 'marketing' department which does not even understand the basics of marketing. Mario 3D World, 101, Pikmin, Hyrule Warriors, Bayonetta and all the other games have all had almost zero advertising effort and that is the reason why the games are not selling. Nasty Shovelware and annual updates sell when they are advertised - CoD, FIFA, Just Dance, etc!

Nintendo HAS to get to grips with what advertising is, otherwise the next gen will have no chance of being massive successes as 3rd parties have no confidence in Nintendo anymore.

I'm guessing alot of that top paragraph got garbled in translation b/c that's a lot of corporate speak even for me, and it reads like google translated it.

I think we all know "Fusion" is coming. Not exactly sure what that is but either the 3DS bundled w/ the Wii U or a Gamepad w/ Wi-Fi support is probable. though w/ much better names

No matter how much they may embrace smart devices for marketing purposes I don't see them abandoning hardware, they seem to like it too much, even if they don't know how to sell a home console.

I still think we are headed towards fushion, it explains a lot of the design decision in the New3DS . I can only guess from the wording of this is that they are looking towards how mobile games are designed as a way to speed up their development as mobile games can very easily be moved between multiple platforms.

@Warruz Oh yeah, Fushion ftw! A handheld and home console in one fluffy pillow!

I love Nintendo and their ambition to innovate. I only wish they made their consoles as powerful as their counterparts so porting 3rd party games over would not be such a chore. You need to buy a Nintendo system to play a Nintendo exclusive, of course. But I really had hoped that I wouldn't have to buy another console to play Batman Arkham Knight for example.

yeah i think they are working on a game boy/ds smart phone with a game controller added on to the system and will have a nintendo os and android os on it or they will take the idea of the new 3ds and put a phone on it.

@shigulicious They did it with the gamecube and N64. The reason why they kept cartridges and small cds for that is to avoid piracy. Gamecube games are very hard to pirate and run smooth and piracy is a major threat in the industry. They can't make the product expensive and avoid piracy because they want consumers to purchase their products and its because of that that they make policies like region lock.

If they made the system expensive and the games cheap, that still won't matter because it won't sell well because of the fact that competition will only make it worse. Dreamcast and PS2 are nearly identical except the only reason was that the PS2 could run DVD whereas the Dreamcast can't.

So its only a matter of time that Nintendo expands their entertainment business rather than just gaming so they can appeal to all consumers.

I've been waiting for a true portable/console hybrid since the TG16 and it's portable counterpart. Nintendo is the one company perfectly positioned to make it happen. This is a concept that should have happened years ago. With the technology available, and Nintendo's dominance of portable gaming, this should be a no-brainer… but it's all in the execution I guess. As for a Nintendo game phone, that is such an incredibly bad idea I don't know how to comment on the notion politely.

Nintendo knows it market and knows it customers well I hope they do...

Not gonna lie, I see where he's coming from when talking about tv ads not being as effective as they used to be

I only watch 2 hours of tv a week nowadays, and even then its recorded programs and I just skip through the commercials...

I feel like Nintendo is between a rock an a hard place. If they match sony and Microsoft they are going to have to adopt some of their policies to pay for it. Online will likely not be free anymore, the price point for the system will go up to 400-450 range. And that still may not bring the third parties back and even if it does bring games it may not still bring the "hardcore" crowd back (I really hate that term). I still feel that even if the wiiu had been comparable to the xbox one and ps4 it would still not sway the folks that just... like sony and microsoft franchises. If they make that gamble and lose they are out a LOT of money for no reason.

I have some concerns over what Genyo Takedo has been saying. This may all be great ideas for Nintendo when it comes to producing first party games, but I am unsure how well it will be received by third party developers which is something Nintendo, I fear, cannot go through another generation without.

I'm keen on the Fusion hybrid idea. I think Nintendo will switch to ARM 64 on their next hardware and try to court the smart devices developers who are familiar with that architecture. And there's plenty of bang on ARM these days to achieve great HD gaming performance as well as portable experiences.
And I absolutely agree that they should have a €350 or so ceiling on their hardware. A over-the-top x86-64 machine for €500 wouldn't be right for Nintendo's usual consumers.

@Sparx Its not that hard to see why considering how TV commercials are expensive as hell and that a lot of people are are dropping cable thanks to the rise of internet streaming and I am not surprised considering how cable prices can seem like a bit of a rip off at times.

@Tsusasi
Yeah that would great. Something similar to the Wii-U gamepad that is fully portable and can also hook up to a TV, kinda like the Sega Nomad that was featured on here yesterday. They could even make games on cartridge again, or maybe the industry will be going mostly digital by then? As long as they let us transfer over our VC stuff!

They NEED to put more marketing in tv, I mean alot, I know NOE have now commercials that are just a quick 30-45secs of nintendo games for the wiiu showing them off in a cool way. They need to push that to show people "HEY GUYS LOOK WHAT WE HAVE THAT YOU CAN'T GET ANYWHERE ELSE!!"

TV ads might not be as effective as they used to be but it's no coincidence that the top selling console of 2014 is the one which had blanket TV advertising on the popular channels. It's also no coincidence that Nintendo's best ever generation for hardware sales was their most heavily advertised on TV. The weird thing is that the Wii campaign with famous families playing Wii games would have been perfect for showing off Nintendoland back in 2012.

@Wolfgabe I do agree with you about TV commercials. TV revenue here in the UK at least, has been in decline for a long long time. And it is partly due to way too many channels springing up, but also thanks to the internet amongst other things, that mean people no longer watch TV programmes as much as they used to.

The Future? I suspect the next console will be MUCH more DL friendly. The next handheld will probably be better able to keep up with smart devices as far as games (actual smart device functions, I'm not sure.) Both will probably have much more direct connectivity they've been tinkering with forever. Maybe even enough cross pollination game-wise for getting VC and indie titles that could go on either bundled in a single smaller-than-the-sum purchase.

As for advertising, no reason to retire the TV completely yet, but the web is a powerful tool. If anything, I want to see more effort to advertise DL games. I always felt the core series that do the most don't really need the help.

As for the west, I think they need to quit thinking so much about the online approach and try to focus on people who aren't internet prowlers. Those of us on boards like this aren't the target audience they should be trying to lure to the Wii U. Its the people who don't browse online all the time, the people who go to the store and pick their system based on commercials of hardware and software they have seen.

Maybe a MiiPhone that attaches to a new console and TV.

They need to market their product on tv, some people still don't think their system exists.

@Tiredman I don't think it helps that, certainly at my local Game store, the staff openly discuss in front of their customers how crap either Microsoft or Nintendo are compared to the "glorious" Sony and it's consoles. Then they try and persuade their customers to purchase a Sony system.

@StitchScout: So Nintendo is putting out TV adverts in Europe? If so it doesn't seem to be helping at all.
People, TV advertising is expensive and pretty ineffective and archaic in today's technological age.

I don't really like the idea of a home console/handheld which plays the same games...

A Nintendo 3DHDTV Console - Clamshell design, Connects to Your Multiple 4K Tvs simples . .

i like seeing nintendo ads on TV, it makes my family seem interested

Here is what I envision for future hardware, kinda seems like the most logical thing for the future. The key to it all is to merge the handheld and console markets into one single piece of hardware:

I feel like Nintendo's smartest move for the next generation is to merge the handheld market with the console market and go 1 tier for gaming. What I'm saying is, imagine if the next console is incredibly powerful, but the technology has advanced so much so that the physical size of the actual computer that makes up the console is small enough to fit into a Wii U Gamepad type device. Console gaming in your portable console, but here is where we start to connect Nintendo's playstyles. The Controller that holds the console, has a detachable clamshell top screen, just like any DS or 3DS (keep in mind this controller has analog sticks, so the screen actually only covers the bottom screen when it closes and not any of the buttons). The screen would be the same size as the bottom screen, both sterescopic 3D. This can be the entire handheld console for you, or if you detach the top screen, you can stream what would be on the top screen to your tv thanks to a small hub built into the newest version of the Wii Sensor bar, this is the only thing that connects to your tv, so it'd be very small, hardly bigger than a current sensor bar. Many games could make use of just one screen, so of course all previous bluetooth wii controllers could also connect to the console, or if you're playing portable you can remove the top screen for more convenient single screen on the go gaming. I think it'd be a smart move for the button layout to reflect the GC button layout (With the extra buttons currently seen in the Wii U). Finally, the detached screen, would also be able to connected to a shell controller, so that a second player can get his own screen, for on the go or in the family room multi player gaming. You see, they could have it all in one, no longer force teams to work on two versions of games, they could be for one system that can go with you everywhere or you can play on the big screen, your choice. Also, they definitely could have an optional VR set too, and since you'd be able to connect it to your handheld controller console thing, you could have on the go VR... which might not be the smartest thing lol. Yes, it would cost more money, but it could potentially be less money than if you had intended to buy both their console and handheld next generation anyway, as many people do, so the price could be justified. Extra storage could just be SD/HC/XC cards, they get cheaper every year, soon a 1TB card wont cost much at all.

"Apart from the business models used by smart devices"

better not be "free" to play. I hate that so much...hats? ok. pay to win? NOPE.

I still think Nintendo feels a bit of a crash coming, and that being different is the best way to survive it. Sony and MS are too similar and if things go pear-shaped they're both gone.

He said "no restrictions on the technical fields" which surely means they are letting people use whatever technology is around. Nintendo will be aware that power is ESSENTIAL not only to 3rd parties but to the consumer.

Why you people are conflating "architechture" with "consoles"?

There can be a future Nintendo console and a future Nintendo handheld that share the same family of internal components.

Here's what you do Nintendo, don't make your hardware as low end and cheap as you think you can possibly get away with.

You want your hardware to have unique features, fine, but don't sacrifice graphics and processing power for it.

Woah is that why there are no ads on TV?

I don't mind that as I don't watch TV anyway, but even surfing around the Internet, I don't see where Nintendo is doing its advertising. Seriously their sales would be so much more if they advertised atleast a bit more. If not on TV, atleast post more ads in other places!

@Ryno I was talking about bring those to America for we get nothing really here like that. just a little MK8 and a little smash

Fusion Dance time! Handheld + Console = $$$$$$

Integration of architecture does not mean one device but one architecture for both devices. In other words, hardware and software approach doesn't have to be completely different for 3DS and Wii U successors. You can share resources and even optimizations when developing a game or engine that will work on both devices. He's confirming good progress concerning what they already announced they were doing in unifying the previously separate hardware teams.

Whether the next console or handheld will more tightly integrate in a similar way to how the Wii U GamePad is used is still up in the air. It seems like a logical step but there are significant challenges.

The only way I can see it working is if the new handheld releases first and the home console comes in two flavors: With the actual handheld included as the new GamePad, or WITHOUT it so you can bring your own to it as the primary controller.

I think there are many advantages to this approach but many challenges as well.

Even if it doesn't happen in such a closely-tied way, we will almost certainly get many games that come to the handheld AND the home console near the same time with tons of overlap in content and functionality. Super Smash Bros. seems to be the litmus test for this so its success may very well determine Nintendo's plans. If it means we get 1.5x as many high-quality games on each platform that seems like a win-win.

I always think about Kid Icarus and Luigi's Mansion and the Star Fox and Ocarina/MM remakes and how they really should have been on the Wii U as well. Imagine how much that would have helped the launch of the Wii U. That's part of what we will get from architecture unification even if they aren't tied together in other ways.

This talk just really makes it feel like that the Fusion is coming, which is one sweet name for a piece of Hardware.

@duffmmann
Fun dream, but there's some very practical reasons this can't work in the near future:
Business reason: One platform is more dangerous than two. Iwata is starting the QoL platform because having only two wasn't enough to keep the company from bleeding money. If one has a misstep, the other can help bolster it. (Sony and Microsoft have many other revenue streams to protect against their console losses.)
And technical reasons involving batteries and performance and expectation. Console people want parity with Sony and Microsoft if they can get it. Handheld people want portability, battery life, and good pricing. These just don't play out well for anyone if you had to put it all in one device.

That's why I think the closest we would get is a sort of unification where the handheld device fully fulfills its business and technical expectations and the console is sold with that handheld as a controller or cheaper if you bring your own to it. The idea is that the higher price of the console is offset by the fact that you ALSO get a fully functional handheld with it. That's the closest to a "Fusion" platform that I can reasonably account for.

In addition, Nintendo has a big warning sign to overcome: Consumers, in general, did NOT respond enthusiastically to the prospect of the GamePad.

What might happen is Nintendo has a new innovation towards console gaming it wants to explore that will shape the new console differently enough to keep the platforms more separate. The good news is that Nintendo seems to want to target more serious gamers with its impressions and give up on growing the market like it did with the Wii — Iwata admitted that mobile gaming has continued that trend the Wii started to the point where almost everyone values games or accepts that others value them.

@shigulicious
Yeah that would have been nice...

@aaronsullivan
Yeah that makes sense. I also see nintendo merging the two technologies in that manner to kill two birds with one stone.. The only thing is the manufacturing/pricing/packaging equation...

But I believe that is a fun equation to crack...

If Nintendo isn't working on some kind of Virtual Reality device as I type then it's really missing a trick and it could end up being one of its biggest mistakes imo. While everyone else understands that VR is basically the next big thing in interactive entertainment I'm not sure Nintendo is actually on the same page and I really hope it doesn't actually go down the route of making wellbeing products instead of some kind of VR entertainment device. I know the VR market is gonna be crowded but by God if any company should be in it then it's Nintendo. How truly sad it would be if one of the companies that could potentially make some of the best VR games ever would be off making f'n sleep analysers instead.

Whatever direction they may take I will be watching intently!

I do think that the new3DS is meant to carry the 3DS line until the end of the Wii U's life after which they will have the Next Nintendo that is a handheld/tablet/console hybrid.

Some of us do not buy both Nintendo's Handheld and Console, having one thing eliminates that issue and the fanbase issue of "That other device is getting all the games this year."

This will allow for more games at a quicker pace, since we will get one Kirby game as opposed to one Kirby on the handheld and one on the console a year or two later.
This could lead to more games in that franchise or allow Nintendo to revisit other franchises since they already made one Kirby game now let's make a Metroid or Ice Climbers game.

Nintendo, as long as TVs exist and shows need commercials, there will be a need to advertise on TV shows. I know people love to hype how Television is dying and how digital platforms will soon replace it, but the reality is there are tons of things on TV that can't be seen on Hulu the next day.

Namely, sporting events. Microsoft and Sony advertise during those games, and some of the highest rated daytime games for Football can reach 11 million viewers. That's not even going into Sunday and Monday night football games.

I like the Nintendo Directs, but here's the issue with them. They are catered to people who follow news about Nintendo's consoles anyway. For the casual player who might be watching a Football game or a parent that is trying to decide which system to get for their kids this holiday season, they aren't going to look for Nintendo Directs to watch and youtube videos.

What will get their attention is ads during TV shows. And this is where Nintendo is losing their chance to promote the Wii U. Microsoft and Sony have no issue blitzing TV shows with ads showing off their consoles and games.

I applaud Nintendo for their Directs and moves into other forms of media, but Televisions still exist and people still watch shows. Until they vanish, maybe Nintendo should focus more efforts on TV ads.

So next console will be called Smartendo

I will have to say that I hope they don't abandon TV commercials. They shouldn't start throwing money around but then when I look at some of these commercials for Call of Duty Advance Warfare, it's everywhere. It's catchy, explosive, and it's straight forward.

Nintendo should have done that with Bayonetta 2. Hired an actress or something, create a badass commercial, then air it on TV and primetime shows like The Walking Dead or the sports channel. If they did, I bet they would have lot more business.

What experience in business do all of you that are trashing Nintendo's marketing have? Nintendo has been around a long time, globally. To suggest they know nothing about marketing is ridix. For whatever reason they have clearly decided that they don't currently wish to plough loads of money into WiiU television advertising. I saw two different 3DS adverts on the same UK channel a few nights ago, but I'm not sure I've ever seen a tv ad for the WiiU (maybe for Mariokart 8). It's a very clear decision to not pursue WiiU advertising on tv. None of us have access to Nintendo's figures. Is Microsoft breaking even with all of the advertising money it's spent this year?

What does bug me though is this: if Nintendo is so keen to get it's hardware out there, why are the peripherals so expensive? The wiimotes and balance boards seem to command the same retail price, more or less, that they did in 2007. This is old tech and they could do themselves a favour by taking advantage of that. And £35 for a pro controller?

I have an idea for Nintendo and their mobile direction: Develop a separate platform solely for mobile devices that works across Android/IOS/Windows. How it could work would basically be a portal, always online to reduce piracy, where both a respectable library of both emulated/recreated games and new first/third party titles are available. The initial application/portal might be free in order to develop interest and to expose people to the library and other Nintendo advertisements. It could either be subscription based, hopefully for a small fee, or pay per game. I'm not saying a gaming streaming service, as that is incredibly resource heavy, but allowing people to download the games and locking them unless they can make some sort of online check every so often. Might upset some people, but if the platform itself is appealing then people will use it, especially if it's initially free with a game. If Nintendo could manage to develop mobile games within this platform that adhere to their normal quality, it could become a must have for many gamers who own phones, which just about everyone does nowadays.

yawn some boring comments here.

Television ads are still the most important form of advertising, but you're lying to yourself if you think the internet is not growing in importance. Seriously, it would be obtuse for Nintendo to ignore the importance of channels like Youtube and other Social Media.

@aaronsullivan @duffmmann

I think U both make some good points......truly there is no way to give 'Next Gen' console gaming on portable hardware.....really I don't know how it can ever happen in that processing takes power and until we get wayyyyyyy better battery technologies something like that will never happen.

I see Sony's model with psp/Vita and ps3/4 as a viable example of portable/home system that share OS structure and development tools. A few games like Sly TiT and the drake game turned out impresively close to a ps3 experience.

I have always been a fan of portable/console fusion since the N64 transfer pack. Still I think what has made Nintendo handheld hardware so much more sucesssful than Sony is that Nintendo makes specific games for portable hardware. The conecept of AAA console type games has not really boomed for Sony. Even the recent Vita revival is based on quality Indy titles. Gamers on the go typically don't want what home gamers want.

Nintendo could do 'Fusion' right now with their current platforms. Make a BIG splash with a real pokemon game for WiiU and make it so you can import/export from pokecloud. Make Amibo that can move data between home/portable version of games like Mario Kart...Imagine a Zelda game where certain dungeons could only be played handheld but that was required to get the items needed to progress in the console version. This is the type Fusion I would like to see more of.

@rjejr Well I don't think they don't know how to sell a console. The Wii kind of destroys that argument. The problem is more likely that they don't know who their target market is with the Wii U. They knew who the target market was with the Wii.

If we're talking about one console/portable hybrid I suspect it would have a "cradle-like" console design that has more powerful hardware on it but cannot run without another component which would form the base for the portable portion of the system (which would be able to run on its own).

So sort of like the portable system would be the n64 and the rest of the "cradle" hardware would be the expansion pack (I would that makes sense).

Nintendo needs clear messaging and a clear target audience for their next product. The Wii U suffered from the fact that its advertisements didn't adequately explain its value to the consumer.

Plus, who exactly was the Wii U supposed to be targeted for? It couldn't have been targeted towards the casual market due to its hefty price tag, and it wasn't really for the people out there who consider themselves "hard-core gamers" either, because the Wii U's specs weren't on the same level as PS4 and Xbox One.

In the end both of those crowds have generally avoided the Wii U, and it's pretty much become a console for Nintendo fans and them only. Which isn't a terrible thing, since Nintendo has quite a lot of fans, but they really missed their chance to reach new people with the Wii U. Their next product needs a clear goal and audience, and to be honest, I think they have a better chance appealing to the casual crowd than the hard-core one, as much as I personally dislike that.

@electrolite77 The majority of the negative comments about lack of tv advertising take a tone of incredulity that Nintendo hasn't thought about tv, and as if it's just a case of 'spend $1 on tv advertising, make 10x that back in profit as a result'. If it was as simple as that I think Nintendo would be using tv much more.

Microsoft is using tv advertising. Microsoft is selling consoles. Microsoft is losing money.

Shifting consoles at any cost is clearly not Nintendo's strategy.

As I suggested on another thread, I get the feeling the WiiU was always intended as an evolutionary step rather than a whole new concept. The Wii was so successful that it bought Nintendo the time, space and money to experiment in the market and so the WiiU strategy is about seeing what Nintendo can do with its IPs without forking out millions on R&D and advertising.

In the future, having measured the performance of this strategy, they'll be in a better place to plan the strategy for the next gen of hardware.

@Ernest_The_Crab - "Well I don't think they don't know how to sell a console. The Wii kind of destroys that argument."

I'ld bet if you go back and look, the Wii supports that argument. I live in NY and the Wii was impossible to find on store shelves for almost 2 full years. It was nuts. A woman actually died on a radio show due to a "hold your pee for a Wii" contest. She DIED. But I bet if you go back and look at all the advertising and marketing Nintnedo did during that time...well I can't think of any. The system sold because it was IT. It was IT due to Wii Sports in the box and it became this craze, like streaking, but none of that was Nintnedo's doing. Is the person who invented streaking an expert tailor? IT was a fluke, a fad. Cabbage Patch kids, Tickle Me Elmo. Some things just become huge. But I don't think Nintedo had anything to do w/ it beyond the foresite to have a cheap price and putting Sports in the box. But that isn't marketing. They just sat back and collected money after that. Even they were caught off guard by how well it sold based on their previous 2 consoles, otherwise it wouldn't have been out of stock for 2 years. They did nothing after launch though. The system didn't have a price cut for 3 years, not a lot of great bundles or updates. Nintnedo didn't DO anything, it just sold b/c it was IT.

And here's the kicker. Nintnedo sold 100m Wii. 100,000,000. And then they come out w/ a follow up console before any other next gen systems, and they can barely sell 7m in 2 years? They had the lead, the install base, the public conscious. If they were even the least bit adept at advertising and marketing the Wii U should have crushed the PS4 and X1 before they even launched.

Saying Nintneod is good at marketing b/c 1 of their last 4 home consoles sold well is like saying somebody who got bit by a shark while swimming is a professional fisherman.

(Sorry if that reads angry, haven't had breakfast yet, but if it does it's directed at them, not you.)

@rjejr There were key, smart advertising moments in the Wii's life that include the choices of games they brought to the system and the way it was presented initially. There were TV ads, too. Almost perfect ads once they knew what they had. Remember the two Japanese gentlemen saying, "Wii would like to play?"

It was like this galvanized moment where the Japanese obsession with novelties met the West with this new way to play games that could excite everyone. Nintendo meant active fun with people in one room together.

It played into the memories of early Nintendo gamers and those who fell in love with Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros., and even Mario Party while simultaneously capturing the imagination of just about everyone.

Great advertising. Yet, you're right in that they didn't need to advertise much. Why would you at that point that you can't keep up with demand.

A big part of the Wii tanking at the end was mobile gaming, honestly. Casual gaming transitioned to that market while also getting backlash from more serious gamers. The whole casual market looked like a pile of junk to them and the Wii was thrown in there. Once the novelty of the Wii motion controls wore off and gaming expanded, the gamers that were willing to spend money on big games went right over to 360 and PS3. Nintendo did not see that coming. It erupted a wave of appreciation for gaming to the masses, but Facebook and mobile gaming stole the wave out from under them.

Nintendo seems to get it now. They make deeper awesome experiences and they need to focus on that again while still remaining appealing to a wide audience. Creating casual gamers is no longer necessary. Now Nintendo needs to transition them to their own platforms.

@rjejr I think Nintendo thought the GamePad might have a similar reaction to the motion controls, but people just didn't get it. I think Nintendo's marketing and budget were hoping for another sell itself sort of moment... way off target.

@aaronsullivan - "I think Nintendo's marketing and budget were hoping for another sell itself sort of moment"

Sorry you wrote that long comment and I picked the short one to reply too, but I think that sentence really pulls both points together nicely.

1. The Wii sold itself, Nintedo didn't have to work at it
2. Marketing and budget were lulled into a false sense of conceit and fell asleep at the wheel.

That 2nd point was my original main point.

They have been waking up this past year, but it almost feels too late. Hopefully not.

You are spot on about the Gamepad being the new Wiimote, that was obvious. But you can't catch lightning in a bottle twice, unless your Apple. And the whole argument about people giving up home consoles in favor of smart devices sort of fell by the wayside when the PS4 sold 13m in 12 months. Though the Japanese still seem to feel home consoles are dead.

The Wii U is cheaper than PS4 and Wii U has better exclusives, but Sony is much better at hype, extravaganza and hyperbole. Just ask Sega about the Dreamcast

@rjejr My point about giving up consoles was specifically about people new to gaming, aka casual gamers funneling over to the mobile games and Facebook games rather than looking for more on the Wii or other consoles.

There's a whole other kind of dude-bro gamer that has seemingly completely migrated away from Nintendo or came into it as teens for the sex/violence and competition.

@electrolite77 Pretty sure the GameCube was technically superior to the PS2. Just sayin'....

@rjejr You don't seem to understand that there's more than one way to market. The Wii is quite literally a textbook example of a successful blue ocean strategy, so much so that it is referred as such in a number of reputable business articles such as the Harvard Business Review (which is used in many universities for case studies).

Having NO idea of marketing would result in a complete failure of a blue ocean strategy as it's pretty much a requirement to curve out a niche in a new market. Someone had to figure out to package Wii Sports with the Wii not to mention Japan DID NOT have the game packaged with the console.

Also, I ONLY mentioned the Wii as it was the most recent example. I could reach back all the way to the NES and SNES days when they had a considerable and bitter rivalry with SEGA. If they didn't have marketing back then, you really think they would be in business now especially when SEGA was out to destroy them back then with their ads?

@Ernest_The_Crab @aaronsullivan

OK, here is a real world example which illustrates my point.

Nintendo just had a 33 minute Nintendo Direct on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkXmABkDlNE

Sony is having a 2 day event in Vegas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0rt83T2X44&linkname=keyart

Going forward here's something to watch. End of 2015 Wii U should have Link in another flagship Zelda game, PS4 should have Nathan Drake in another Uncharted game, 1 of it's flagships. While Pushsquare will be covering Drake night and day and NL will do the same w/ Zelda, if you watch the rest of the world I guarantee Drake will get more coverage via magazines, newpapers, tv commercials, etc than Link. I don't care about which game will be better or which character is better known, I'm just talking about marketing and advertising of the games. And Microsoft is probably even more aggressive than Sony, and we'll all drown in a media blitz for Halo 5 and it's accompanying Spielberg produced tv series on Showtime.

As for the NES/SNES Nitneod days of the late 80's and early 90s, how many of those people still even work at Ntinedo? How much has the world changed since then - internet, smart devices? I'm not concerned about how dominant Nitnedo was a generation ago, just the past few years and the next 2 years going forward. Though maybe all that domination went to their head?

@rjejr It's certainly possible since Sony made that mistake as well going from the PS2 to PS3 transition and Microsoft did the same this generation.

The biggest problem, as I mentioned before, is that they don't know whom their target market is. They've been flipping back and forth for this generation so far. You can hardly market the HARDWARE without knowing whom the hardware is for.

It's the biggest problem with a blue ocean strategy. Many companies that have had a hit with blue ocean generally cannot pull it off more than once (and a successful application of this strategy is also pretty rare). Blue ocean revolves around the whole premise that you curve out a section of the market that is either under-served or does not exist. After they pulled off a successful application with the Wii what happened? Their competitors started to butt into that area as well. It was no longer a "blue" ocean. Also, it didn't help that tablets pushed into that territory as well.

They fell into the trap, that is a blue ocean is no longer a blue ocean the second time around. That was their biggest mistake. They figured they could do a second blue ocean with the Wii U without realizing that the same market conditions no longer existed (happens a lot with blue ocean strategies, seems to be the norm).

Do you happen to know how much bigger Sony and Microsoft are than Nintendo? They have HUGE economies of scope (product lines can be used to fund/produce other product lines). This saved money can be used on massive marketing campaigns. This isn't even going into the royalties both of them get from setting industry standards.

Nintendo has effectively two product lines, portables and home consoles. They incur huge R&D costs and don't have any royalties on the same level as their competitors nor comparable production capability. Frankly, it's a miracle that they are still in business (I guess "leave luck to heaven" has another meaning here) considering the size of their competitors.

Are you REALLY expecting a marketing campaign on the same level as Sony and Microsoft? Nintendo most likely have to pick and choose which games get advertising and also how much advertising.

Also, a quick note, Apple can pull it off more than once but only because of one factor. Their brand. A quick search of the widest known brands will come up with Apple as king of brands (though Google isn't too far off). However, only time will tell if they manage to stay strong. After all, after Jobs originally parted ways with the company, at least two different CEOs came into power and both of them failed to pull Apple out of the bog they were stuck in. It wasn't until Jobs came back that Apple started coming back into power. Let's face it, it was Jobs that made Apple, so to speak, and it won't be for a least a couple of years after his death before we see what that really means for the company...wow that went longer than I thought it would.

"Whilst it's all speculation for the moment, it could be that Nintendo are considering a gaming system that would appeal to the same market as smart devices, with their pick-up-and-play style appeal that Nintendo dominated with the original Game Boy back in the late 80s and early to mid 90s."

This thinking is the reason I love Nintendo. It doesn't have to be this complicated media server, something that is simple can be endlessly entertaining as long as it is genuinely fun to play with.

@Ernest_The_Crab - "Are you REALLY expecting a marketing campaign on the same level as Sony and Microsoft?"

No I don't, that was my original point remember, Nintendo doesn't market. Of course $ is a big part of that. But they need to find a way to market w/ the $ they have, why build a product if you are going to keep it a secret? That's what happened w/ the Wii U. It's a secret from lack of marketing coupled w/ the camouflage of the Wii name and similar build. But if I watch a 90 minut ePoekmon movie like Idid thisafternoon on CN they HAV Eto have a Wii U commercial. Or a SSBU or amiibo comerical. They have to spend SOME money to make money. They can't sell the games to people who don't own the console.

And Apple pretty much always has been Steve Jobs, but I thnik Sony did a really good job for a few years w/ the Butler VP of Everything guy. Not a big presentation, just a series of commercials which resonated w/ people. When has Nitneod had something the equivalent of Butler?They have Mario and Samus and Link, but do they have Tony the Tiger or the Pillsbury Doughboy or the Energizer Bunny or the Where's the Beef lady? Butler wasn't in tat category but he was something to market w/, I just have't seen that w/ Nintendo. Not even the "Dude, you're getting a Dell" dude.

Maybe instead of making $5 Pikmin shorts they should have Myamoto make a series of commercials to help sell the WiiU?

@electrolite77 Er....how does that answer "the quote I'm selectively replying to"? Which, btw, wasn't even a question, it was a statement. And the blurb of yours that you quoted doesn't say what my statement said anyways, so I'm unsure of what you're thinking.