Former Sony Boss Jack Tretton Lavishes Praise On Nintendo And The Wii

Never underestimate the Big N! Seeing as speculation is rife on the NX without anyone actually seeing one, it's safe to say that they could have something that again moves the industry in exciting new directions. The only thing their rivals ever do is provide more power which is something that Nintendo has never really been fussed with, focussing on player interaction and just plain old fun instead.

There's a reason why they keep the NX secret... i was hoping for a 3ds Player for the WiiU like they did a GB Player for the GC... maybe the NX is kinda that mixed with an upgraded WiiU that you can use the gamepad as a handheld, which would kinda be the best of both world, besides game that run on cartridge are faster and last longer than disk, so... yeah i'm optimistic, i just hope they got Solid launch titles, and that could be it for them!! ;D

I find it strange how so many morons make out as if Nintendo is constantly doomed, it's like they have selective amnesia or something:
'Wah Wah, I don't play Nintendo games, they are for babies, I'm so grown up, look at me, I'm a big boy now' etc etc.

I actually really liked the Wii- go back and play Wii Sports and the motion controls remain surprisingly fresh. It's a console that had excellent games (Xbox and ps3 were hardly exempt from shovelware themselves, let's not kid ourselves). It's just become fashionable amongst the ignorant masses to trash Nintendo. The internet hasn't helped Nintendo at all. Artistic revolutionaries almost always get spat on at the time.

Yeah... Sony certainly know that they can't count Nintendo out... especially after the Nintendo Play Station fiasco.

Honestly, I find more of Nintendo's and its third party titles memorable despite some of the biggest and impressive games being on Xbox or Playstation. I have about 30 or 40 Playstation titles whereas I have over 250 Nintendo titles.

No matter what people say about Nintendo, it is clear they are doing something right

@HappyMaskedGuy

And on the over hand, many morons pretend that everything Nintendo does is great and a success, even though sales figures show otherwise

Who cares what he has to say and this story is old news.

@WilliamCalley I won't lie- Nintendo has been a pretty reliable source of frustration for me the past few years!

In terms of sales- I would say that the only real failures have been the GameCube, to an extent, and the Wii U. That to me is more of an indication of trends. I think you would have to be pretty ignorant to class Nintendo as a failure because of a couple of consoles. I am optimistic about the NX.

The less said about the Virtual Boy, the better 😯

I think that with Nintendo, at this point, you can always expect the unexpected

I think that like the Wii, the NX will find a niche in the market if it can offer an alternative to the PS4 and XB1. Of course there are always going to be those gamers that want graphically impressive 3rd party games (but who refuse to buy a PC), but there are people that want a cheaper system, a less age biased system (inclusive of Kids and Grandparents), a less patched repeatedly after launch system, a portable system, a more local play friendly system, and a system with Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon on it.

I think the NX can score big for those people tired by the short comings of the other two consoles. And hopefully better games will attract both those gamers and the iPad generation.

Sony wouldn't be where it was today if it wasn't for Nintendo and Ken Kutaragi, who was inspired to create the PlayStation after seeing his daughter play a Famicom. Sony initially rejected Ken's Nintendo-PlayStation idea, but Kutaragi continued to work on in secret. They decided to go through with the PlayStation only after Nintendo pulled out. But it's worth noting that gaming was regarded as a fad and was disdained by Sony until this series of events happened.

I have a strong feeling of deja vu with this statement:
"And I think everyone discounted the Wii initially"

Let me just fix this:
"And I think everyone discounted the NX initially"

Done.

I think Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo don't see each other purely as competitors. It's not the early 90's. The real fight (especially for younger gamers) is mobile vs. console.

Well, it doesn't matter the console... Mariokart will always get people to buy it!

I sent think any actual Nintendo fan counted the Wii out! I didn't 😏

Sony has always praised nintendo, just like nintendo praises sony...that's why I choose these two as my consoles. Microsoft always puts the others down, which is why I kind of step away from them.

Back to the question, I think, as long as it keeps it going...Nintendo can have success with the NX, but it's all going to come down to the reveal and what it does. Rumors are that people are hoping it's a hybrid of a high-powered console and portable all in one, and I think if they release JUST A CONSOLE that is underpowered compared to either PS4 or XBONE, the rumor mill will disappear and most people that were hoping for something great, will disappear and never return.

Nintendo will have to really prove themselves with the NX, to get many people on board besides just the fans...whatever they call us. I'll purchase it, but it's only because it's nintendo, and they never let me down, but for the others that play nothing but mature-rated shooters and adventures (never to try anything else besides that), they'll have a hard time to sell it to.

If nintendo does make the NX a console (powerful) and a handheld all in one, it'll definitely attract enough attention, and if a Pokemon RPG game comes out for it...they have a huge winner. It all comes down to seeing what this NX is.

@yuwarite Your history of the situation is a little distorted... it was a sound chip for the Super Famicom that Kutagiri worked on in secret, and he went on to convince Sony to work with Nintendo to develop a CD-ROM drive for the Super Famicom, which is where the 'Play Station' came from.
The two companies were working on the 'Nintendo Play Station' together for a while until a legal dispute forced Nintendo to withdraw, leaving Sony with the PlayStation, and Nintendo with nothing... but despite that, Nintendo still managed to stay in the market with the N64.

I'm a Nintendo fan, meaning I'm in the "I told you so" camp whenever my console succeeds.
And being at the wrong end of this just plain sucks

"You just knew that you couldn't could them out."
"a lot more people in the surprise camp then there were"

Quality reporting.

Do you guys even have an editor? Proof read? Even MsWord could find these errors if you asked it to. Jees.

@JLPick
Wait, isn't Phil Spencer the cool dude who always speaks well of the competition?

It's true, Nintendo has always pushed the industry to challenge itself...regardless of sales numbers.

They've never been about cutting edge graphics, only player usability and fun.

@WilliamCalley And even bigger morons focus on Nintendo's sales rather than play video games. Unless you're invested in Nintendo via stock or something, the sales of a game or a system should mean absolutely nothing to you, nor should it concern you. Let Nintendo worry about it's own sales. We should be focused on playing video games and less on examining the sales. People get so hung up or caught up in the sales pertaining to a company that they need to realize that's the company's problem, not theirs. I doubt most consumers who purchase a TV focus on the sales of a TV when deciding which one to purchase. Theu just want to use it and relax, as it should be. This generation of gamers is too caught up in a sales war and focus heavily on it when they should be either playing video games or do something else that has nothing else to do with the sales of a company.

Let them focus on their woes and issues. As consumers, it's or job to purchase their products and either like or dislike them, not to relish in their sales or find fault in them.

Sony's former CEO has lots of public coulda woulda shoulda comments regarding the PS3 launch price, the PS Vita, and now praising the Wii... wonder is he is fishing for a consulting job now or if he is just really that well off that he doesn't need to worry about another company picking him up... normally comments like these remain close hold for a while when spoken from a person of former leadership.

Sony and Nintendo have been surprisingly nice to each other this decade, Shuhei Yoshida probably is probably part of the reason.

Is that the same guy as the one who said Vita failed because people only want mobile gaming on their phones now?

@Lucina Thoughts exactly. My wife and I buy them for the fun factor. We don't care about the graphics or what the system does, we buy them for games to enjoy and play! Which is the way that nintendo have stated games and systems should be for! Since Atari, this is what games are made for...party time and friends co plays! I'd rather play a game with one or more people, then sit by myself...but if I do play a game by myself, it's a relaxing experience...until the game frustrates me. It takes me forever to beat a game if I can't get into it, which brings the libraries up in the collection, but I still enjoy them! Hence, why I've kept all of my systems, and find myself coming back to play even my Atari 2600 at times! (yup, I'm old)

@Lucina

Ya you are right. Game sales don't affect gamers.

It's not like the low sales of franchises like Metroid, F-Zero, Star Fox, etc have anything to do with the fact that releases in those series' are either few and far between or non-existent.

Or the fact that Nintendo home consoles sell in such small numbers that third party companies don't bother releasing software on them.

Yes. You are right. There are no valid reasons at all why a fan of Nintendo would be concerned with how many games/systems they sell....

@WilliamCalley
The reason 3rd party developers steer clear of Nintendo systems is people buy Nintendo systems to play Nintendo games. As for Nintendo systems selling in small numbers. The Wii sold over 100 million consoles.

@DragonEleven That's right, he worked on the sound chip in secret, however according to his Wikipedia:

"Despite this hostile atmosphere to video games, Kutaragi managed to persuade Sony to fund his research into the Super Famicom CD-ROM Adapter. These efforts resulted a device called the "Play Station", a console that would be compatible with both Super Famicom games and software released on a new format called the SuperDisc."

So even when they were producing this device, he still had to pull Sony's arm to help fund it. He continued to produce the PlayStation with Sony, despite it being considered a 'risky gamble' by other Sony executives. It really sounds like it was down to his determination that PlayStation was conceived in lieu of a doubtful Sony.

I wasn't sold on the Wii until the announcement of it's Virtual Console. It was then that I knew I had to have it.

The Wii really was an awesome system. With so many great games, there will always be reasons to go back to Wii. It will outlive Wii U and many other systems.

Back in 2006 I wanted an Xbox to play the latest Sonic games, one of my close friends managed to convince me that Wii was a better choice. BC is really appealing to me as well. And I do not regret this considering that Sonic 06 ended up being what it is, but still to this day I'm curious to play that one.

@yuwarite It's all well and good for Sony, but it also essentially screwed over Nintendo... if he had just designed the CD-ROM drive for the Super Famicom like he was supposed to, then that could have led to further collaborations between the two companies further down the line... imagine the sort of console we could have had by now if the two companies had pooled their resources in earnest, without the forced situation he had placed them in.

That very action that is so often praised as one of the best decisions in the history of gaming may have actually been one of the worst.

" it ended up winning the console war that generation, outselling both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3"

But Reggie said Nintendo isn't in the business of competing! And Iwata admitted Nintendo isn't very good at it! 😂😂😂

@ekreig Are you kidding? Tretton has been one of the most smug and juvenile critics of Nintendo. Here's an example: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2011/04/sony_ceo_refers_to_nintendo_handhelds_as_babysitting_tools