Nintendo is Making a Subtle Shift in Company Focus

Well of course. If there's one thing Nintendo has, it's their IPs. Use them.

I think this is the right move. It seems that games will still be their primary focus, but won't be their only focus anymore. Plenty of their IP could be used in more ways than just in games. For example, look at something like F-Zero. If they don't feel like a new game is worth the risk, they could use it in other ways by making a TV show and toys or something. This would get more people familiar with the series, and maybe raise enough interest for a game someday.

Wii would like to play!

Seems to me that they are more desperate to get profits instead of increasing their customer base. In other words, short-term goals vs long-term ones.

Only time will tell if it will work.

Here's a good example of that power: Nintendo will more than likely have a better holiday season than last year. There's only one real difference: this year has a main series Pokemon game, last year did not. Simple as that.

@Minotaurgamer I think it's both. If you read the entire meeting transcripts you'll get a better idea of what I mean.

don't forget the pokemon lingerie. that too gets people to 'play.'

@MitchVogel from what I gathered it seems that shiggy will be some kind of creative consultant for Nintendo when they are working with film/tv company's. I doubt they would push an ip if they didn't have a game in the pipeline.

According to Miyamoto, Zelda Breath of the Wild has to sell more than 2 million copies to recoup costs.

@IceClimbers I love that he said this. It gives us an idea of how high the bar is for Nintendo products. I guess Kirby and the rainbow paintbrush wasn't a failure after all.

Oh.

If only they could at least advertise Metroid for it's 30th anniversary. It seems every year they get their anniversary Zelda always take the spotlight and Metroid is left in the dark,

@MarinoKadame Zelda got what is considered to be the worst in the series for its 25th Anniversary, but then again, so did Metroid... Well, at least Kid Icarus had a good 25th Anniversary...

@Minotaurgamer
I think you've got it backwards. Them wanting to get more people to play games is shorter term. They expanded the market with the Wii and DS but those people didn't come for Nintendo's IP. Are they still gamers? Yeah, probably. But not necessarily on Nintendo's platforms.

If they instead try to get people exposed to Nintendo's IP? Well I doubt it's going to get people running through the gates like the Wii and DS did. But on the other hand you can't get Zelda, Mario, Pikmin, Pokemon or Metroid anywhere else. So it's a long term plan.

I don't know if that makes sense from my perspective. I mean, tons of people recognize Mario, Pokemon, even Zelda, and are familiar with the Wii, DS, Gameboy. People are very aware of Nintendo already. I don't see how making them simply more aware is necessarily going to make people want to buy Nintendo products more.

Sounds good to me, I just hope they plan on showing off more than just Mario and Zelda.

@MetaSmasher
I think it's amusing that people have for a long time made a song and dance about Nintendo not doing enough marketing. But then they come out and say they want to expose more people to their IP and the response is "well that won't work, everyone already knows what Nintendo does"......

...........

There is nothing wrong with Nintendo creating games that cater to new demographics or exposing their IPs to new audiences, as long as neither of these methods stifle the progressively creative and qualitative traits of the games they make, which makes them unique among the entire industry (often causing them to lead it, silently or otherwise). Unfortunately, it seems Nintendo is lately becoming more and more content to allow publicity to supercede innovation in game design, which has caused the creative and/or financial downfall or at least severe shrinkening of output of so many established game development companies already (eg, Capcom, Konami, Activision, Sega, Ubisoft, (formerly?) SNK, etc, etc, etc). They are the only hold-outs in this dying industry, but it appears that they are becoming too desperate to be so for much longer. I applaud recent works from them that dare to challenge convention such as Star Fox Zero, AC Amiibo Festival, and Metroid Prime: Federation Force, and Super Mario Maker, but lately all we have had to look forward to are newly christened versions of the same Fire Emblem and Pokémon games from 2013, not to exclude constant extraneous DLC updates to Splatoon and Smash. Zelda: Breath of the Wild looks pretty cool and has a great new concept, but it is (or may be) a small diamond in a large heap of coal.

Content is being rejected for market awareness, and that will kill Nintendo eventually. As a fan who has been in the defence and admiration of the company's policies for the past 15 years even when there were very few others who were also, it pains me greatly to see this idol of mine turn from stone to dust, simply because they are choosing to being ground up by the short-sighted economic machine. I want them to do well in the short-term, of course, but I would much rather they ignored that plight for the long-term, as they had always been known to do before Kimishima took office.

Nice idea.
Someday, we will find Delfino Island Resort, Animal Crossing Cafe, Tomodachi Life anime version, Dr. Mario Hospital, Super Mario Galaxy Land (Mario Galaxy version of Disneyland), Mario Pizza (a lot of Mushrooms topping), Luigi Pizza (a lot of Basil and Spinach topping), Princess Peach Beauty Shop (woman cosmestics with Princess Peach branded), Nintendo Rhythm Arcade machine (similar with Konami rhythm arcade machines but with Nintendo musics, especially rearranged version by SEGA), and many more.... for REAL.

@Anti-Matter My kingdom to walk into a Kirby cafe. You walk right into his mouth and his stomach would be the seating area.

That investor's meeting was the biggest load of non-news ever. They've already said this before.

Subtle?

I'm all for more merchandising and Nintendo IPs being used outside of just games but...

It's been blatantly obvious Nintendo's focus is anything but the core gamer and gamer market. They want the non gaming casuals, the people who don't care about consoles, and don't consider themselves gamers. They want the audience that purchased the Wii and only played Wii Sports.

@DarkKirby What is a core gamer? I have been gaming since the Vic20! I have played more games than most but I don't see myself as core. I love gaming, I love playing something I have not played before. I just don't get why trying to broaden the gaming audience is such a bad thing. By default...that means appealing to people that have never played a game. At some point in our lives...that person was us! Even you were not born with a gamepad in your hands.

@GrailUK I agree.

I don't understand why gamers are so offended over the idea of their mom being able to play a game.

Part of the appeal of Nintendo games are their accessibility. Having a sample goal, and only using a few buttons.

I feel this is the real problem. Their games are very universal, appealing to both western and Japanese audiences, but gamers want even Mario games to be a complicated mess.

does this mean more metroid? I hope this means more metroid.
(^_^ )

The Legend of Zelda anime, please!

@Neon_Blues If by "complicated mess" you mean a game with actual depth and variety instead of making lazy level pack sequels, less simplicity would be beneficial. Appealing to casuals is fine when they don't handicap the gameplay in the process, but usually when they start chasing "wider audiences" quality tends to drop.

@skywake #19
That's fairly typical. You should get used to it.

@Neon_Blues @GrailUK
I agree. I don't know what's so funny about elderly people playing games. The success of the Wii is usually downplayed, because it was bought by soccer moms and old people. And? I think there're quite a few people who weren't allowed to play games when they were younger and only really started gaming when they themselves could affort it. I guess those people would have liked something like the Wii back in the day, that challenges the stigma of gaming, something they could enjoy with their parents and grandparents.
Another point is, we're all growing older not younger. Do you want to be part of a meme or joke, because you're an elderly person playing games?

I feel the gaming community is exclusive, not inclusive. That's why you have such nice expressions like filthy casual. I guess people just need antagonisms, and hardcore vs casual is one of them.

@GrailUK

If you play more video games than most people, do you consider yourself a casual non gamer? I don't understand the aversion of being considered a core gamer. Do you think it's a pejorative? If you are a gaming enthusiast, that actively spends time caring about video games, you are a core gamer.

And Nintendo isn't trying to "broaden the gaming audience", they want a different audience. They want the audience that made the Wii a success, which were not gamers. To Nintendo, gamers are the cherry on top of the non gaming casual audience which Nintendo considers the cake, and where the real money is, and they want the cake.

Nintendo has already shown they are very willing to move away from making games for gamers to achieve that end, which is why I said in my original post, there is nothing subtle about their actions.

@DarkKirby
Of course you want non gamers and casuals, if you want the sales. The huge PS2 sales were likely also based on casuals and a gimmick, DVD. I don't understand what's so bad about that. And games for gamers? Please. Those are the antagonisms I talked about.

And if I hear the word hardcore I think about speed runners etc. Those to me are hardcore. I guess that's not the actual meaning, but this is how I feel about the word.

@DarkKirby Absolutely. It seems like Nintendo is increasingly interested in courting an audience that isn't interested in games at all. They have the capability and means, now let's see if they can do it right.

Makes sense for Nintendo to leverage their existing assets. Become a sort of Disney of Japan, but with their IP stemming from games first, rather than movies first.

However, Disney is constantly creating new IP. Constantly looking for the next Frozen or Lion King. I don't get that feeling with Nintendo.

Was listening to a podcast recently that suggested Nintendo retire Mario from games, to position of company mascot. In the same way Disney use Mickey Mouse, without him popping up in every second film.

Also I wonder where 3rd party devs fit into this? We still don't know what the NX is, yet Nintendo will need indies and others to help both generate and execute ideas to really sell the NX concept. Their comments recently about people stealing their ideas for the NX sound like something a first year game design student would say, and isn't conducive to an environment where innovation and cross-pollination of ideas thrives.

This line of focusing in on Nintendo IP is just going to further ingrain the feeling of 3rd party devs that they are very much periphery to Nintendo plans. That their games and IP don't fit in with the Nintendo ecosystem of theme parks, films/anime, amiibo and other merchandise, revolving around a core of mobile+NX games.

Sony, Microsoft, and PC fanboys want Nintendo to get out of the console business so they can get their games on /their/ consoles. While the universal medium isn't here yet, getting your brand out there in many new ways /will/ draw in those holdout fanboys.

All that said, hurry up with a new Super Mario and Zelda cartoon show.

It's a good thing. They've got a wonderful cast of characters and the market is starved for some merchandise for them as Amiibo has clearly shown. I really hope the movies and theme park turns out well for them. I've always wanted these to happen and as a fan I hope they can grow and nurture a new younger generation of fans.

Of course I will support Nintendo as it drifts away from its core products.

I will collect all the Amiibos just to show then off, I will go to the new park to have a ride on a real Mario Kart ride and I will collect all the soft toys and go and see a Pokémon movie and the F zero movie, (bound to be bigger than star wars).

I won't need the new console since the core product is now not what Nintendo do best, leave this to Sony and Microsoft.

Great idea. Everyone loves Mario and the gang as well as Zelda.
Nintendo are SO lucky to have so many instantly recognisable loveable characters

I will point out something that could quite possibly happen to alot of people.
For anyone who watched the Teens React video on the NES will remember this, the moment that girl saw the NES controller and commented having a phone case that looked like the controller, yet she never knew of the NES. Ok, the NES came and went before she was born, the point is that she had a product that was Nintendo related, yet the brand recognition wasn't there.
Even when Nintendo pushes their I.P into other media, it's not going to make the majority of people want to buy a Nintendo's console.

I think it could maybe be nice if they even partnered with Disney, I think their IPs could work well together... More than Marvel and Lucasarts anyway.

@IceClimbers Good thing there are 2 versions for most of us to buy. XD

Nintendo's competitors are multimedia giants. Sony and Microsoft make profits that are non-video game related as well. So it stands to reason that they expand and keep afloat. To think that they should focus otherwise is narrowminded and doesn't see that business adaptation is key for survival in any industry.

All I know is that whatever it does it needs to do it with the highest quality for me to give a ****, and, I think it needs to stay generally within the whole realm of entertainment for the most part with its core products and services. Basically, Nintendo needs to become like the Disney of gaming, imo, which means games would be at its core (hardware, software, and services) but it can also make movies, animations, toys, board games, comics, open dedicated Nintendo Stores, open Nintendo theme parks, and that kind of stuff.

@Gauchorino That is not on Kimishima, though. It is very well documented that the current trajectory, which will largely wrap up when the NX is launched, is still very much the execution of Satoru Iwata's plans, so Kimishima is just overseeing those already laid out plans.

And the whole theme park thing and all that is largely the brain child of Miyamoto and Iwata together, so that is also not on Kimishima.

Kimishima's true hand in management will probably not even be visible until well after the NX release, so in Q2 2017 you may see some changes or maybe not even until the end of next year, since implementing corporate plans and strategies takes time, so the effects of them will take even longer to notice.

Finally they seem to be going in the right direction considering building brand awareness. When people get exposed to their IPs, then people will get interested in their games as well.

I hope that games still remain their core focus though. And Nintendo has to find their audience too! Will this help?

Couldn't hurt to try. Strategy this generation was terrible. Word of mouth is cheap but in this new smart phone age, people don't talk to each other anymore, so hard to pass things along.

Can't help but worry about that continued focus on "everyone". The oodles of Wii buyers couldn't distinguish Wii from Wii U, so maybe they're not really a Nintendo audience. I get the feeling that these people wouldn't have an inkling what Splatoon is even if they were surrounded by Splatoon shirts, for example...

Hopefully they'll put some more effort into catering to their own gamer audience in their games. Nintendo Land seemed like a decent start if only because they used their characters and varied gameplay ideas rather than just sports. But, that nowhere near enough, and the more substantial games were too little, too late (though IMO the best games they've put out since the old days). Seems they still need to find out what "we" like.

@IceClimberis it will

I can't say I'm surprised, all evidence has been pointing towards NX being a gimmicky console outside of a few fake rumours that suggested the NX would be more powerful than the 2013 XB1/PS4 models.

@LegendOfPokemon They will always make core titles. During the height of the Wii they could have saved a lot of money just churning out sequels to brain games and infinite Wii sports titles yet we revived xenoblade, metroid prime 3, fire emblem, ect. The Wii had some truly amazing titles.

@Grumblevolcano It will definitely be on par with current consoles. It however will not be a Scorpio

In a lot of ways, Nintendo's massive risk taken with the Wii and DS didn't pay all that much back to them.

Smart device makers harvested all the new interest in games.

Which is why Nintendo launched the Wii U with a game that highlighted decades of Nintendo IP in a very in-your-face way.

Only it got very confusing. And they forgot to tell anyone it existed. But this new focus dosn't seem to be a change as such from what we have been seeing Nintendo actually doing over the past couple years.

Nintendo Land. Amiibos. 3DS themes and faceplates. Nintendo merchandise in Miitomo. It's all about putting Mario & Co. everywhere right now, which does seem to be a good fallback strategy during hard times.

@Grumblevolcano

What does "gimmicky" even mean anymore? Is anything that doesn't copy the original dualshock and go for maximum graphics power gimmicky?

It's a slippery slope. Quality in every product/experience is key, diluting the brand is a nono, meaning thoughtful ip uses, theme park is a great one, movie all depends on the IP, merch is good if you can tie it back to software. If it is thought out well, go for it, but we don't need Mario themed diaper wipes.

@Grumblevolcano how do you separate your "evidence" from your "fake-rumours"? Everything is speculation, so not sure what your sources are that makes one idea more true than another.

Hopefully this means bringing back the greatness of Nintendo's IPs to how they were in the days before the DS and Wii. I love my Wii, Wii U, 3DS, and the company, but a lot of their IPs' games on those systems seemed to have lacked the magic that made them memorable, in my opinion. For instance...

As much as I enjoyed the recent Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario 3D World, they both don't scream "fun" like most of their preceding 3D Mario titles. Additionally, there's the Paper Mario series (which I personally enjoyed SPM and SS and willing to get Color Splash), Mario Party series (Please, Star Rush! Please be good!), Mario Tennis series (Been waiting for a true sequel to Power Tennis for 12 years!! Where is it, Camelot!?), Mario Kart (I enjoyed 7 and 8, but we need battle modes in the vein of Double Dash again...oh, and Lap settings! Why in the world does 8 not have this!?), Mario & Luigi (I enjoyed Dream Team and Paper Jam, but...dang, I need the acrobatic Bros Attacks and Hand Powers from Superstar Saga back, and after three games that relied on the same ol' Minigame Attacks and Giant Battles, I'm kind of starting to get tired of them), and Smash Bros (As much as I enjoyed Smash 3DS and Wii U but not so much for Brawl, the series nowadays have become too chaotic and at times casual, plus Smash 4's Single Player modes need more meat). The IPs that I think still has their magic are Zelda (...I enjoyed Skyward Sword, but understandable why its motion controls weren't for everybody...), Kirby (Planet Robobot wasn't anywhere as amazing as Super Star, Return to Dream Land, and Triple Deluxe, but it's still an amazing game regardless), and Fire Emblem (Honestly, if it weren't for the series' "casualness" with Awakening and Fates, I wouldn't have gotten into the series).

But the one good thing that I thought came out of the Post-GameCube era was the Assist Options that started with the Super Guide feature from New Super Mario Bros Wii. I haven't used any of their games' Assist features, but I think this is a good way to attract more gamers to their systems so that everybody can play, regardless of their skill levels. Players want to use them? Let them. Skilled players don't want to use them? Don't. I hope Nintendo keeps this as a staple feature in their gaming world.

Overall, I still love Nintendo and would support them with all the cash I have for their games and amiibo, but they seriously need to gain back that magic that they had from the days before the DS and Wii happened. Their recent strategies have divided a lot of fanbases of their IPs and they can't rely on casuals and innovations forever. I still need Paper Mario RPGs, traditional board game Mario Party games, good Mario Tennis games, less-gimmicky Mario & Luigi games, Smash Bros with good single player modes, and 3D Mario returning to how 64 and Sunshine was and Mario regaining his Punches and Kicks from 64. If Nintendo could bring back a lot of the missing magic to some of their IPs again, then chances are that they will regain the missing crowd that they could've gotten then.

Oh, and one of their IPs is fresh.

@DarkKirby This core enthusiast is hyped for BotW. I just do not see your opinion. I do however applaud your use of the word pejorative and it has made me think a little

@RoomB31 Well stuff that Nintendo has said like Reggie saying specs aren't important and the Miyamoto info from yesterday supports the theory that the NX is an underpowered gimmicky console.

@Pod Basically a console which forces you to use a non-standard type of controller for most of its games. So in terms of already existing and upcoming stuff, the gimmicky things I can think of are: EyeToy, Wii, Kinect, PS Move, Virtual Boy, PSVR, Oculus Rift, Samsung VR and HTC Vive.

This is smart. Nintendo's IPs don't hold the weight these days that they once did in the 90s. Refocus some efforts on getting the brand back at the forefront of pop cultures mind.

@Grumblevolcano It's an assumption, a plausible one based on Nintendo's recent past, but it's his choice of words that still spell speculation, just because the focus isn't power doesn't mean its an underpowered "gimmick" machine.

@Yorumi, Nintendo’s “fans" suck for real, look at Kid Icarus Uprising sales, look at F-zero’s sales, Metroid, Pikmin, and more. Nintendo fans have shown that they only really care about is Mario and Pokémon, not even Zelda sells all that well, that’s the message we all give to Nintendo, that’s why they can trust us to keep the company afloat, that’s why they need to shift their market, it’s all our fault.

@Neon_Blues My mum is in her 60s and she loves playing games, she's had a Saturn, SNES, Megadrive, Wii, Dreamcast and Gamecube...

@Pod "What does "gimmicky" even mean anymore? Is anything that doesn't copy the original dualshock and go for maximum graphics power gimmicky?"

Pretty much lol. There's 2 machines that already do it but they'll labour the point ad nauseum that Nintendo really ought to be making a third that does exactly the same, rather than try to be creative and original.

@RoomB31 Nobody knows anything. It's just speculation, gossip, and counter speculation and gossip clogging up the internet.

how do you appeal to someone who has a ps4 , xbox one or pc. if nintendo releases more of its ip's such as metroid or fzero maybe that will sway gamers to take a look. zelda by itself won't cut it. when there are dark souls, overwatch, cod nd battlefield on other platforms why would gamers switch. I know yall will say that these games are crap but they sell in the millions on other platforms. so create a platform that is truly powerful and creative and developers and gamers will flock to it.

Haha totally forgot about those 'Wii would like to play' ads. Thinking about the Wii U..I actually don't remember them having any sort of ad whatsoever....

@skywake I think what they are saying is people know N is a gaming company but they don't advertise [specific]games as they release. They do seem very restricted in when and where they advertise, if at all; specific titles.

@JamesCoote I know you didn't mention Disney, a company that basically raids the public domain for "new" IPs. Second, you act as if companies in the past haven't copied Nintendo (i.e. Sony Move and Microsoft Connect)

@TruenoGT Can only speak for myself, but having the Wii U as my first Nintendo console, it's disenfranchising the way Nintendo and fans view all those old IP's

@Malakai The justification for not revealing the hardware too early is that it's so easy these days to manufacture fakes, copycats and imitation products.

The hardware though, is just one part of the offering. Quality software/games can't be knocked-off in a couple of months.

Cloning has always been a factor on PC and mobile (when people aren't out and out pirating games). However, we're moving into an age of games-as-a-service. By the time someone has cloned the original Splatoon, the amount of new weapons and maps made available in the meantime will render the clone out of date (and not like you could connect to the servers anyway).

It's all about staying ahead of the competition and providing the authentic, up to date experience that no clone or pirate ever can, rather than trying to DRM and Lawyer your way to victory. I think though, the latter is written into Nintendo's DNA.

If in 2 years time, the NX's 3rd party offering is just full of games that play identical across PC/PS4/X1/NX. Then, not giving devs a head start on at least knowing what it is, so they can start brainstorming / prototyping, will most likely be identified as one of the causes of any lack of innovation.

Hopefully, I'm doing my fellow indie devs a disservice by suggesting they lack imagination and/or will to make something unique, but there are huge risks for anyone who sticks their neck out to do a platform exclusive these days. Nintendo can't wait too much longer to reveal this thing and not expect devs to say "well sorry, but we're busy with another game/ now".

It's interesting to me just like a seed that is planted,as it grows it spreads it's roots, by the time it becomes fully grown,it's immovable. That's what I believe anyway.

@Grumblevolcano
But what defines "non-standard" for a controller?
What defines "standard"?

The NES joypad was quite out of the norm in '83-'85.

The N64 pad and Dual Shock both looked like space ships compared to anything before them.

The Wiimote was an NES pad at the same time as offering further functionality.

If that in itself is a "gimmick" then everything is a gimmick. And as I see it, the things that end up sticking around prove themselves to not merely have been "gimmicks". Touch and motion controls are completely standard in many games now. Albeit on phones or tablets.

@Pod - an excellent post, but one that we must deduct points from for use of profanity. Please remember the Community Rules when posting. Thanks.

Another welcome shift would be hitting the eject button on Reggie's reign of insanity at NOA. How many unbelievable failures does he have to tally before the suits in Kyoto wake up and flush him down the toilet?