Nintendo's Chinese Subsidiary iQue Shifts Focus To Games Development

Oh nice to hear they're not just disappearing now that Nintendo can just sell stuff directly (kinda?). Wonder what kind of games will they develop.

@StableInvadeel I too am curious. It would prob be family friendly games, because of how strict China can be on things though.

Unrelated: eally want to see the movie Ne Zha

I love that controller design, it's like if the N64 and the OG Xbox "duke" had a baby.

China is a huge market potentially for Nintendo - but I still say that they are playing with fire. Tencent wouldn't hesitate to stab Nintendo in the back if they saw the opportunity. And a Tencent owned Nintendo would be the end of Nintendo.

I still do like the idea of a controller that is an all-one-console. And I think some kind of modern versions of the "Minis" that were actually just the classic controller designs with all the games and stuff built in that connected to your TV would be rather cool. I'd buy a SNES Mini that was just the controller, and if it could additionally be used as an actual retro controller for other modern systems then that would be a great bonus (would probably need to let you use it in both wired and wireless modes depending on the situation).

@NinChocolate Saw it last week, not bad for a chinese production. A bit childish thou.

@Heavyarms55 not sure what you are talking about. Nintendo is on the stock market, so it's not that easy to take over Nintendo unnoticed. And for that, there was an interview sone time ago that Nintendo has some actions to prevent that.
If you are talking about something like Joint Ventures, I would say for a majority of firms it was win/win so far (looking at automotive).

@zufa86 oh nice

The iQue looks nicer to use than the original N64 controller, it could be used for a N64 Classic Mini. It looks like the original Xbox controller.

Just be careful with Tencent, Nintendo... I still don't trust 'em.

What kind of N64 controller is that? The 64 Duke.

How long until the Chinese reverse engineer a version of the Switch?

iQue also did a 3DS version that only included Mario Kart 7, OoT and Super Mario 3D Land.

Really curious to see what kind of talent people over there have.
They might end up making games to appeal to the Chinese market, similar to how Retro makes games to appeal to western audiences.

I read about the iQue console. So the China government banned consoles because they wanted to censor and control everything and console games are released separately but Nintendo released iQue via Tencent (you need a national partner in China) which is a N64 mini console BUT could connect to the internet and download more games which is exactly what the government wanted to avoid. Am I missing something?

Funny how China still requires a joint partnership (with Tencent) to do business in their country. Nintendo is going to get screwed over and any of the IP/tech they share will be stolen.

@gyro China is famous for cloning everything but was Nintendo's technology specifically stolen in this country?

@BlueOcean @gyro Switch is already made in China.

I think it’s great that gamers in China will have better access to Nintendo games now, but I hope Nintendo knows what they are doing. Doing business in a communist country doesn’t exactly sound safe.

@Trajan Good point! Everything is made in China these days.

Wonder how many people they employed and how many will remain ?

This aside - the stuff must be pretty collectible !

@Morrow That's my thinking too. Probably won't be much more than puzzle games or mini game compilations. Similar to the new Rabbids game announced as a Chinese exclusive.

@mazzel Joint ventures with respectable and trustworthy companies, yes. But Chinese companies have a history of stealing technology, inserting malware and spyware and a general lack of respect for international standards.

@gyro it will be Phillips cdi all over again!

@Heavyarms55 I was talking about chinese companies, as for automotive, there was a rule.for many years that the Chibeae JV partner alt least need to own 50% of the JV. Haven't seen any Mercedes, BMW or Audi "fake" in series production, though... Looks like they can be trustworthy!

And to be honest: aren't the western companies not spying on you, too? Your Android phone is listening the whole time, Facebook analysis and writes down WhatsApp voice messages, for Amazon you are completely transparent if you use Prime. No need to brand chinese companies as the Devil if you already let it into your house

@mazzel Everything we do online is monitored, if you think there is any difference between Android, iOS or anything else connected, well, the methods might be but the result ain't. If Google wants to know what smut I read and which YouTubers I watch, they are welcome to that info. Anything I want kept private stays offline. Amazon too, I would not buy something from Amazon if I cared about Amazon knowing about it. And I pity anyone who thinks otherwise. If you do something, say something, buy something, watch something etc... anything online, it's all known and recorded somewhere. Privacy is a myth online.

As for you automotive comparison, Chinese companies will steal tech, but they aren't stupid, they aren't gonna put a blatant off brand BMW on the market. But I am sure that they have copied internal components and designs.

Sure other companies would do it too, if they could. But if Ford steals the design for a GM brake system, you can be sure that GM will take them to court and win and the US government will back GM. But if Tencent steals the design for the Switch and releases something similar and Nintendo takes them to court, who do you think the Chinese court is gonna side with?

@Heavyarms55 I thought Japanese corporations were protected from buyouts by foreign entities.

@N64-ROX u ever seen a dreamcast controller before?

@NIN10DOXD I believe they were at one point. I don't think that's the case anymore. Though I could be wrong. I'm no legal expert by any means. I've just heard about and seen a lot of rip off products from Chinese companies.

I have nothing against Chinese people, and I don't even blame them for taking advantage of that sort of thing. I have no doubt that Americans, Japanese, or anyone else would pull the same thing given the opportunity. It's just that the way that China handles its businesses allows some things - or turns a blind eye to some things - that other countries usually are harsher on.

But if you put a gold nugget in front of me and I knew my country would back me up if I stole it, I'm not so noble as to claim I wouldn't steal it, given the chance.

@impurekind the only downside to that, if you need to replace the controller it’s going to cost a lot more as you’re replacing the whole system. Also i’m Not sure how multiplayer would work...?
That said snes controllers last a lot longer than joycons, and there could be Bluetooth for multiplayer

@Heavyarms55 the thing is, in China, growing up in that culture most of the people don’t even consider copying or stealing intellectual property as negative or wrong at all.
It’s just another option to make money, and if you don’t exploit any option available to you, then you’d be seen as dumb or lazy in china.
It’s a completely different view and belief.

@Heavyarms55 First of all, why is a blatant copy of a BMW stupid and unrealistic, but for Nintendo Hardware you take it as a possibility?
Second, as someone already mentioned, computer hardware is all "made in China", so the Chinese companies already have the best possible situation to reverse engineer the hardware.

The I think you underestimate the law in China a little bit. There is a Law for IPs and it is enforced. JVs and partners have conracts and these contracts are valid! Foreign companies are able to to court and the story about "Chinese Law is always pro China" is a myth today. China want to change from beeing the work bench of the world to be technology leader. Yes, they buy foreign companies to get knowledge, but so do western companies.
Also, don´t undererstimate the Chinese customers and the power of brands! Tencent will get a shitstorm if they copy a Nintendo Product unofficially! I´m not talking about some fakes or something youc an buy on the internet, but a product from a big company with a trustworthy name (in China).
Another point is, how would tencent make their copy work with Nintendo games? A platform, in the end, is only as good as the games, especially for a Nintendo platform.
I´m sure Tencent knows all of this. So the are better of by just letting Nintendo do their thing and get paid for distributing, maybe develope a game or two for the Chinese eShop and benefit from the good Name of their partner.
By all means, Chinese are business people, just like westerns are, and smart ones for sure!

P.s.: I hope I don´t get a wrong tone here, English is not my native language But I love to have a good discussion anyway

@konbinilife Well I think that's just a matter of making the product decent enough quality that this wouldn't be a genuine thing to worry about--I mean it obviously worked for the i-Que Player, and the Nvidia Shield as well. Could probably release it for roughly the same price as a decent modern controller too.

And for multi-player they could add a simple daisy-chain connector to the top of the controller or something like that (would probably be a USB in this day and age, which is the same as the main controller connector), much like the 3D0 controllers had:

@mazzel First, I don't judge people who speak English as a second language... or well, I guess I do, since I teach English as a second language. But I don't do it to be mean, I promise!

The thing is, there have been blatant copies of game consoles in the past. The term "Famiclone" meaning clones of Famicom game systems (the Japanese name of the NES) isn't a new one. It goes all the way back to when the Famicom was a current gen system with random Chinese (and to be fair, Russian) clones and copies. More recently there have been glaring rip offs of more modern consoles, but usually a lot less effort goes into it.

Don't just take my word for it though, go look around for them. To be honest, some are pretty funny with just how blatant they are.

Also the BMW thing is because honestly BMW is way more iconic and known than a game system. Even as big as gaming is, a car getting ripped off would be dramatically more obvious.

And to be fair, I just don't trust China - but I don't blame them for that. Given the opportunity I think most companies would do the same thing. You say those practices are a myth now and things are changing, and they probably are, and if another 20 years go by and things continue heading away from how they used to be, they'll earn my trust, at least as much as I trust Japanese and European companies. (I don't really trust American companies but that's for entirely different, unrelated reasons.)

@Heavyarms55 I just wanted to mention it, because from my experience of working many years in a different country (you guessed it, China!) I know that the things one says and the thing one means can be quite different just because of the language barrier I´m already quite confident in speaking English, but of course there might the things I say which can have a strange tone for a native speaker, but I never intended it to be strange

Back to topic: Sure, copying has a long history in China which might have many reasons (which I don´t all know!). One reason could be the lack of availability. If a company is either not willing or not allowed to sell their products in China, then you open up the market for copies... Another aspect is, what user "konbinilife" said above: Copying in China, as stupid as it might sound, is also a way of showing respect. You only copy what is good! But this is a very historic point of view, yet it is still deep in the Chinese mindset. Fun fact: The verb "to study" in Chinese 学习 (Xue Xi) means literally "to learn from" or "to imitate". Learning is, you as a teacher will know that, copying after all (I´m not talking about copying homework ). Advancing and making something by your own is the enxt step, but you first need the basis, which is always copying (language, science, technology etc.).
For the rip-offs of modern consoles, it´s the lack of alternatives again. If Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo would sell their stuff officially in China, they would have the IP protection by law. There was the video game ban for many years, yes, and today it might be the rule to join forces with a local company (e.g. Tencent) to join the market. But I´m sure, longterm it is worth it!

From my experience of working many years in the automotive indutry in China, there a lot of top notch companies, which are very realiable and trustworthy. You will always have black sheeps and the pure number of black sheeps might be higher in China, but the % might be the same like in western countries. It´s also important to know, that the Chinese Goverment is not backing up their own companies anymore no matter what. They also let the market decide who lives or dies.

Also I want to mention the customers again: I guess you read the news about the outrage of fans at ChinaJoy because of a "Zelda BotW"-like game from Sony. The masses/consumers have an unbelivable power in China. If they decide to boycot a product, it can mean the death of a company. The consumer is certainly influenced by the goverment, but the final decision and power lies within the customers hand.

why cant we get a controller with 6 face buttons like the n64 and original xbox controller?

@Prof_Yoshtonics Exactly. I just hope people don't expect too much from them. A Rabbids or Mario spin off, is prob the best we can hope for.