Comments 304

Re: Nintendo's Annual Report Continues Incredible Wii Figures

Mandoble

And I'm pretty sure Microwave industry sold many more units than Wiis along this period. Remember that Wii was pretty aimend to mature non-gamers and they were the main consumers and became, all of a sudden, casual gamers, because having a Wii was cool, it was something that looks good near the new TV, etc. This put Wii and most Wii games in a pretty different category than PC/XBoX/PS3. In fact, Sony, MS and PC gaming industry never considered Nintendo as a direct rival, it happens the same in the other direction. Problem is that after 6 or 7 years, these non gamers are now gamers or still casuals, and they are moving pretty fast for other handhelds (smartphones, pads, etc) and/or PS3 (just check 2011 sales for PS3 compared with Wii). Nintendo will hardly do any more fishing in that famous "blue ocean".

Re: Nintendo Will Announce Wii U Release Date Next Year

Mandoble

@dimi, do you really expect WiiU to be cheaper than 3DS when it was released? Well, Nintendo has proven to be able to, just paint a white pastic box to give it a "mature" flavour (reminds of a microwave or some other serious device), put a DVD reader inside with the cheapest, crapiest and weakest chips all around and that's all, but this was usually called Wii. If WiiU is cheaper than 400€ at launch time, best you can do is to suspect that Nintendo did it again, and that all you will get inside that white box will be more cheap and already obsolete garbage.

Re: Feature: The Future of Nintendo Gaming - 2D or Not 2D?

Mandoble

@dimi, it happens that now Nintendo wants to target to these that would hardly buy any Mario, and much less a 2D one. Yep, these that made it possible for PS3 to be the Console with best sales in 2011, way ahead than Wii, these that made it possible the same for "outclassed" PSP compared with 3DS. But then again, Iwata may keep singing the "we did something wrong somewhere" song as many times as his shareholders allows, might be only once or twice more.

Re: Feature: The Future of Nintendo Gaming - 2D or Not 2D?

Mandoble

They can aim their resources to build more 2D marios, and if possible in grayscale and low res and then try to sell them for 46€ copy for 3DS or 65€ for WiiU, after all these are the games that require less effort to develop and Nintendo allways follows his primary rule of minimum effort/maximum profit. But later on, when they'll feel cheered only from here and a pair of other sites might be they will, once again, start singing the song of "We did something wrong somewhere ...", and Iwata will cut his salary by two again (not that he will notice at all).

Re: Iwata Writes Open Letter to 3DS Owners to Say Sorry

Mandoble

@mariofanatic128, these NES and SNES games were discontinued long time ago, these games were already amortized, trying to use them now as a new valuable way to compensate the loses of the consumers (I cannot sell my 3DS any longer for 250€) is even more insulting than the price drop. They are giving us NOTHING, not a single € from Nintendo's pocket is returning to my pocket as compensation and as a real way to say sorry, we did everything wrong with this console but now we will try to re-launch it almost from scratch. Will I be able to sell and transfer my 20 copies to some non Embassador user for 100€? NO, there is not a single way that we can transform that garbage into money.

Nintendo is not paying me to be conformist, they should expect most of their consumers to act as consumers, not as calmy cows that you can cheat a will and then you drop a rotten coockie to them to have them pleased again.

Re: Talking Point: Nintendo Makes Bold Move with the 3DS

Mandoble

"Existing 3DS owners - Is the ambassador programme offer enough to appease you?"
Not at all, it is a bad taste joke, I lost 100€ in exchange of 20 obsolete games that probably I've already payed for or that probably I dont like. I have 1 GBA, 1 old N64, 2 DS, 1 DSiXL, 1 3DS and 1 Wii and hundreds of games, so probably I should be considered as one of the most loyal Nintendo customers around the world. Not any more, I feel robbed, fooled, cheated by a company that kicks the mouths of these that feed them. They are experts on selling garbage at diamond price.

"Do you feel your early purchase has been worth it so far?" Obviously no. I have the impression I threw 100€ to the WC, during this time all I had is shovelware with the exception of OOT, and I already payed twice for it.

And is not that we were WILLING to buy the system at the price we did, that idea is absurd, I really was willing even more to get the system for free. It is like buying an expensive 3D TV today and finding it for free in all the shops the day after, then the company tries to shut you up with 20 classic films in a DVD for free.

Re: Iwata Shoulders Blame for Low 3DS Sales, Cuts Salary in Half

Mandoble

@komicturtle92, x5 an exageration? 275€ retail price, 60US$ (41€) building cost, do the math, and you still have there distribution expenses and retail profit untouched (75€ per unit, which probably is way lower than that). I call this robbery.

And that robbery has become quite evident and notorious with the sudden drop of 100€ in 3DS price, while they will keep good margin and profit per unit.

Re: Iwata Shoulders Blame for Low 3DS Sales, Cuts Salary in Half

Mandoble

Nintendo is not falling "a bit", look at the results and the predictions, not only for 3DS, also DS and mostly Wii, none of then reaching anything close to the targets. And what is way worse, the sales curve has negative acceleration for all Nintendo consoles, so everything is expected to be worse. The price reduction of 3DS might just level a bit the negative acceleration for 3DS but will never compensate the loses with DS and Wii. 3DS price reduction seems to be a desperate movement to keep in business at least until WiiU release.
ATM 3DS sales are even lower than PSP and going down. Wii sales are lower than PS3 and equivalent to XBoX, and going down too. Only DS has a slightly up tendency, but now with about 500.000 units less than PS3 in just 2011.

Nintendo is going down in flames and free fall, and Vita is not even available yet. Expect to see more delays with third companies announced games expecting to have a noticeable increase in 3D sales (Metal Gear will not be the last one), something that will hardly happen will just Mario and Luigi there. And what is worse, with these numbers no third party will venture in new 3DS projects.

Re: From April to June, Nintendo Only Sold 700,000 3DS Consoles

Mandoble

A raw profit per hardware unit exceeding 150% says a lot about the honesty of a company. If any of us were planning to sell the thing, bad luck, now we better be happy with the coockie dropped by Nintendo in the form of 20 obsolete games for free as compensation for us to shut up, games that probably many of us have already payed for in the past. I feel robbed by this ridiculous company.

I really hope Nintendo follows the fate of Sega, they deserve it. It would be wonderful to have Miyamoto and some others (quite few) working for PC, Vita, iPad, PS3 or XBoX.

Now, do they expect to sell any WiiU in the first year??

Re: Feature: The State of WiiWare

Mandoble

They could have developed some nice short games and put there for free, easy way to promote both, the console and the service. And no, I'm not talking about the crappiest possible excitebike for the 3DS, this has the opposite effect.

Re: La-Mulana DLC Announced

Mandoble

I did play (and I'm still playing) PC original version of this game with the English patch. It is diabolic! Like playing a sequel of Maze Of Galious for MSX1, really amazing, resembling the original style of Konami creating the most interesting platform/adventure games, where your skill jumping from here to there is just a pretty small and anectodical fraction of what is needed to complete the masive maze. I really wish the best luck for the fantastic team of designers and programmers that made this game. How much should many learn of the old Konami and its truly followers.

Re: Pachter Thinks Nintendo has Superior First-Party Software

Mandoble

No idea about MS games for XBoX, no idea about Sony games for PS3, but for me MS games for PC are far better than whatever Nintendo has or has had for any console. It is also true that types of games are quite different, Nintendo never had any strategy game, MS never had a platform one, Nintendo never had RPG games, MS never had party ones (that I know of).

Re: Irrational Has No Plans for Wii U Games Yet

Mandoble

He was quite clear. He likes to lie on a sofa/bed and play a game with minimal effort and he is designing games that purse that experience. He is implying that typical WiiU users will be mostly these that want to rely on the gimmicky characteristics of the controller (same user base or user type as for the Wii), so, he is also implying that Biosock (and smilar games) would sell bad for the WiiU. And more than probably he is 100% right.

Re: Iwata Tells Shareholders "Core Gamers Will Accept Wii U"

Mandoble

Forget about core gamers terminology. The fact is that there are many game types that are not present or almost not present for Wii: RPG, Simulators, Strategy, FPS, Horror, mmo, mmorpg as some examples. So we can say that you might be happy with a wii as long as your preferred games are not of these types, I bet this will be true again with the WiiU. Remember that the big success of the Wii is due to non-gamers (people that was not playing to anything else before, they saw something wth the colour of a microwave, bought it and all of a sudden became "casual gamers") because most of the gamers already moved to other consoles or PC. Are these non-gamers going to replace their microwavecolouredthing by a new one?

Re: NOA: "Never Say Never," But No Plans to Bring Sought-After Wii Games to NA

Mandoble

@StarDust, you might be apparently right, if marios/parties sell better than anything else, why Nintendo should take care of anything else?
There is a clear reason, if Nintendo now has the 50% of the console market, that only means that Sony/XBoX have the other 50%, and might be that other 50% doesnt like to keep jumping from here to there, falling down into the lava, die and repeat the full level forever. Now might be the shareholders are quite interested into the money of this 50% of users, in fact PS3/PSP sales are increasing and Nintendo sales are decreasing or not increasing as expected.

Re: Iwata Tells Shareholders "Core Gamers Will Accept Wii U"

Mandoble

Might be they figured out that these casual gamers will rarely buy a new console, or perhaps they are already doing so to add a new torture device in their livingrooms: Kinect.

@albc5023, the shareholders must be really innocent to believe that Wii problem was the Wiimote.

Re: Iwata Tells Shareholders "Core Gamers Will Accept Wii U"

Mandoble

@cyrus, there is variety, but not quality. And while PS3/XBoX are famous for the shooters (at least between nintendo users), both of them have way more variety and quality than the Wii.

Just some examples coming from GAME lists (FPSs not included):
PS3 Party/minigames titles: 22
XBoX Party/minigames titles: 8
Wii Party/minigames titles: 125

PS3 RPG titles: 60
XBoX RPG titles: 86
Wii RPG titles: 25

PS3 Strategy titles: 12
XBoX Strategy titles: 24
Wii Strategy titles: 3

PS3 Horror titles: 17
XBoX Horror titles: 23
Wii Horror titles: 7

Best thing Iwata can do is to change the name, colour and shape of the new console if he wants to attract non-platformers/party/mini gamers.

Re: Wii RPG Outrage Floods Official Nintendo Facebook

Mandoble

That's true. For some reason I'm never going to understand Mario and Party type games sells well for the Wii, good games sell way worse. And Nintendo is all about business, dont forget this. 1000 Amazon preorders will not change anything.

Re: Wii RPG Outrage Floods Official Nintendo Facebook

Mandoble

It might also happen that these two games are so bad that they are not worth any localization, who knows ... ... the fact is that Wii has become a plain and empty desert for these liking RPGs during these past 7 years, something really hard to explain/understand, and this will not change even with 2 RPGs released at the very end of Wii's life.

Re: Wii U Striking Balance Between Performance and Price

Mandoble

I do not understand why so many people do care about Wii sales, unless you are buying Nintendo shares of course. Said that, the better Nintendo does in bussiness, the worse for the users. Were Wii keeping a positive rate in sales and you might be waiting 6 years more for the replacement. Were Nintendo games selling not so well, and you might have a decrease in price, more quality titles, less remakes, less shovelware etc, etc. As a matter of fact, the terrific and temporal success of Nintendo with casual users with the Wii became the total frustration for these hardcore gamers supporting the company with the N64 and then NGC.

Re: Sony: Wii U is No Threat, Says "Welcome to 2006, Nintendo"

Mandoble

"We all know Super Mario Bros for the NES save the gaming world right!" <- Nintendo's cheap propaganda and history manipulation. That might saved Nintendo, if any. Europe, at least, was quite safe with MSX, C64 and Spectrum, and later with Amstrad, Amiga, Atari ST and Mac, all of them with many more titles available than NES/SNES, as well as better quality. And Konami being the most inovative gaming development company followed by Pygnosis few years later. Might be the story was different in USA.

Re: Wii U Striking Balance Between Performance and Price

Mandoble

@moosa, these games are everywhere in the PC world, but not yet for PS/XBoX. For these you have many FPS with most of everything scripted, so the usage of CPU is really mininal except for just the visuals. But gaming doent end with FPS or Marios. Imagine a PS3 trying to run a masive TotalWar naval battle, or an ArmA2 mission with 100 squads of infantry/armour/choppers and maximum AI level. With a lot of luck you would get 20 fps with any of these top consoles. And that if you are able to load the game inside, as both of them would require more than 1GB of RAM. You might try also Divinity 2 with max visuals details, but only if you have 2GB. Said that, you are partially right, for these you might need a PC rig of more than 1000€ (or, perhaps, a console of 500€ in two years).

Re: Wii U Striking Balance Between Performance and Price

Mandoble

That's interesting. Two years ago "nobody" did care about the lack of power of the Wii compared to the others, now everybody says, oh, well, I'll be happy if WiiU at least has same power of XBoX or PS3. The fact is that both, PS3 and XBoX are still way behind current gaming PCs in performance and that both of them will try to catch up with PCs mostly because most third party companies create games for PC/XBoX/PS3. That means that next gen PSX,XBoX### might be expected to be as powefull as today's PC rigs in might be 2 years which means that WiiU would compare the same to them as current Wii to current PS3/XB. And then again it will happen that there will be no way to port third party games from PC/XBoX/PSX to the WiiU.

Re: Following Wii U Unveiling, Nintendo Shares Drop 10%

Mandoble

True, NGP price and performance might be the most important reason. 3DS was born already dead, Nintendo is killing the Wii and Wii U will hardly be able to compensate, and if it does, it will be already too late. I would say a share drop of only 10% is actually quite good news for Nintendo.

Re: Wii U Hopes to Rectify Problems that Wii is Experiencing

Mandoble

1 - Nitendo Sofware is not the best, not even close. PC software is the best and the cheapest. Nintendo software has just the very worst ratio dev cost/public price.
2 - For once I do like the new concept behind a Nintendo design, but I really hope they dont try to justify the console only basing games in the new controller as they did for the Wii, resulting in a bunch of nonsense games (tech demos) abusing of the Wiimote or M+.
3 - They should take a lot of care with the price. Now they have a 3DS more expensive than PS Vita but totally outclassed by Sony.

Re: Sony President Thinks 3DS is Just an Updated DS

Mandoble

@thesignpainter, I'm comparing the hardware itself: cpu, gpu and memory, that's all. These two consoles are not on par at all, it is like comparing Wii and PS3, and Wii won because it was way cheaper. Lets see what happens this time.

Re: Sony President Thinks 3DS is Just an Updated DS

Mandoble

Who cares what's an updated of what? My current PC is an updated version of my first PC, but now I can play Divinity 2 with full detail and the first one was able to run only DOS games. The fact is that NGP is generations ahead of 3DS in power and features (except 3D images), so we should expect to have it also way more expensive than 3DS. But what if this is not the case? What if you can get an NGP at 300€? Remember that Sony is specialist in selling hardware cheaper than its building cost (PS3) and if this happens, the current poor selling of the 3DS might become a NULL selling.