@Fred13 Ah okay, didn't know about the others. The Telegraph article is a particularly good account. So just the robot one has not been demo'ed and showcased yet.
@MFD And if it can happen once, it can happen in the future. So this is the true nature of the Kimishima leadership- maximizing monetary profits for his company at the cost of auteur production elsewhere. I don't think Iwata would have ever allowed this, since he was a developer/programmer himself, and he knew well what excising key staff does to projects. He would have brought in good outside assistance if BotW's production was really struggling SO MUCH that Nintendo actually needed the likes of Monolith Soft staff just to make it turn out well, but not at the cost of an important partner's production quality.
@MFD @Yorumi OMG that resetera post... No wonder XB2 has so much that feels off compared to XB1. Looks like the original Wii U version of BotW wasn't the only sacrificial lamb to support the NS version of BotW... The XB2 that could have been was also sacrificed! Didn't notice the true significance of those names in the BotW credits before.
That's... actually really greedy on Nintendo's part. Drawing so many key Monolith people away from their project to help ensure Nintendo gets all the glory through BotW... And XB2 is a lesser product as a result. Lowers my opinion of Nintendo's upper management, honestly.
@Oat No surprise at the Sonic Mania disparity, since Sonic has never been popular in Japan... pretty much ever. Whereas in the west, Sonic has always had the latent ability to generate high popularity. (Or at least Sonic of the classic variety, along with the Adventure series and Generations to a certain extent!)
...Have these analysts seen something we haven't? Have they been given demonstrations of how the software and cardboardware work together? How else could they be so optimistic over something that could go completely either way? Either being a total dud, or being the next big thing... And they believe it's the latter. Anyone wanna poke some leaks?
@electrolite77 It might sound like I'm being harsh, but I'm really more neutral about it with bated interest. The potential here goes beyond the Wii Remote, basically embracing the idea of the JoyCons being repurposed in all kinds of ways, according to each game they're being used for. That's potentially a really disruptive practice of how we think about the use of controllers. However, the quality of the software is at the crux of it. It could either create, for example, a a really nice beginner's introduction to piano in game form, warranting real piano keys, or it could be a Wii Music level of piano. (Which is... Ahem, REALLY bad, deserving of the cardboard tier.)
So Japan likes using scissors to cut themselves so they can slide through blocks while groping T&A, whereas Gaijins like getting their hands dirty harvesting blocks while running around at the speed of sound retro style.
Got it. Yep, just like we thought, the Japanese are... Unique. They understand the simpler pleasures in life, slowing down to enjoy them, while us westerners just want to accumulate more and more resources faster and faster. Clearly, we have much to learn from the Japanese. Maybe a... Cultural exchange, with a Senran Kagura localization, would help us also understand the simpler pleasures of life...
@ThanosReXXX I can definitely see people purposing actual mini pianos, doll houses, handle bars, remote controller antennae, and more... But will the software justify the effort? That's what separates this from a normal arts and crafts project: the software accompanying the hardware must also be worthwhile. And it's proprietary, only Nintendo can contribute software, whereas there are any number of other options that have community input with a far lower (or no) price tag. Thus, Nintendo must also demonstrate that the software is worth more in practice than the cardboard it's initially packaged with. This could be the next big thing, or it could be the next Wii Music.
@ThanosReXXX Now, that said, for the prime of it's lifespan... It's definitely an interesting concept... But in practice? We need to see it in action with demo kiosks/workshops. The Switch has caught on amazingly well based on Internet word of mouth, but this is the kind of thing that the virtual world isn't going to sell by itself, it has to be out there for people to work with. Nintendo has to put in some '80s/'90s era elbow grease for this one.
@LUIGITORNADO @ThanosRexxx Just to chime in for a moment... For whatever it's worth, the only arts and crafts projects which have survived to this day from my youth are those made from wood or clay. Those are natural materials which stand the test of time. Twenty years from now, few people are going to be looking back fondly on a Lab-O project, because cardboard is going to decompose and either be tossed out by then or detrimentally affecting the by then-grown kids' health. Cardboard does not stand the test of time, it gets recycled several times at most, then decomposes into unusable pulp. Following what happens to cardboard in reality, I would say the same holds true where ever it's involved: a short life span.
How about we get some demo kiosk workshops showing off this stuff in public before we proclaim it as the next big thing? This could be a total dud in practice, no matter how interesting it is in concept, after all. Seems like a total waste of trees to me, as well as being overpriced compared to other DIY tech and... actual arts and crafts. But hey, it could go either way. Who knows, maybe this will be what gets people to bring their consoles out in public for once?
"Oh my goodness, this is SO interesting and creative! Only Nintendo would do this, what a wonderful way to spend 70 or 80 dollars on an overpriced arts and crafts project! They've knocked it out of the park again!!!
...Oh, but I'm not buying it. It's not for me. But you kiddies have fun! ^_^"
Like Like Like Sycophant Like
How about we get some demo kiosk workshops showing off this stuff before we proclaim it as the next big thing? This could be a total dud in practice, no matter how interesting it is in concept, after all. Seems like a total waste of trees to me, but hey, it could go either way. Who knows, maybe this will be what gets people to bring their consoles out in public for once?
"Of particular note, one title was shot down after he introduced a game that deals with mature themes.
"It's a short and sweet game where two people have a conversation," Wozniak explained to The OP. "It's an adult situation, but there is no what you would call 'adult content' in it. Specifically, this was mentioned as being exactly what they were looking for, but too mature."...
This is probably why it was rejected. It wasn't so much a game as it was a story. There are plenty of other short and sweet "story games" like this which have high quality writing dealing with heavy topics that have done well on PC, such as To The Moon. However, Nintendo of America is not exactly known for allowing "story games" to be published. Possibly for the same reason Sega of America rejected JRPG's back in the day: they think there's no market for it on their platform, regardless of whether or not it's really true. So there's a fair possibility that the rejection of the introduced game has nothing to do with it's actual quality. As others have mentioned about certain companies which make money by selling garbage, Nintendo isn't necessarily concerned with the quality of games as long as they function, and think there's a market for it. (Case in point, 1-2-Switch)
"Wozniak, who works as a developer and publisher with Wolfgame and Poppy Works, has grappled with problems of his own while trying to bring games over to the system. Wozniak regularly collaborates with indie developers to publish their games, such as porting Sukeban Games' VA-11 Hall-A over to PlayStation Vita. But while working to get his partners' games published, he faced multiple rejections for Switch games from Nintendo of America"...
You said this in this article:
"Wolfgang Wozniak, perhaps most well known for his work on VA-11 HALL-A,"...
Nope, not his game. He was porting/publishing it for someone else. Double check the source article, don't just regurgitate from mynintendo.
In particular, under the "Quadruple Collision" section:
"In fact, the bizarre confluence of so many disparate researchers making the same discovery of two-decade-old vulnerabilities raises the question of who else might have found the attacks before them—and who might have secretly used them for spying, potentially for years, before this week's revelations and the flood of software fixes from practically every major tech firm that have rushed to contain the threat.
The synchronicity of those processor attack findings, argues security researcher and Harvard Belfer Center fellow Bruce Schneier, represents not just an isolated mystery but a policy lesson: When intelligence agencies like the NSA discover hackable vulnerabilities and exploit them in secret, they can't assume those bugs won't be rediscovered by other hackers in what the security industry calls a "bug collision."
...
So when the NSA finds a so-called zero-day vulnerability—a previously unknown hackable flaw in software or hardware—Schneier argues that tendency for rediscovery needs to factor into whether the agency stealthily exploits the bug for espionage, or instead reports it to whatever party can fix it. Schneier argues bug collisions like Spectre and Meltdown mean they should err on the side of disclosure: According to rough estimates in the Harvard study he co-authored, as many as one third of all zero-days used in a given year may have first been discovered by the NSA."
Handing over security to "the military" means handing it over to the NSA. Of whom are denying (read: most likely lying) that they had previous knowledge of the exploits, which they would greatly benefit from using without telling anyone about their existence. If true, it would be yet another massive violation of the Constitution, breaching citizens' privacy under the 4th Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. The NSA has been given carte blance to flagrantly violate the 4th Amendment with their mass data collection (read: domestic spying) programs, which is then used by the military apparatus. (Granted, one hand doesn't know what the other is doing.)
@MartyFlanMJFan To be fair, I die a little inside each time the sales numbers remind us that 1, 2, Switch continues to outsell Xenoblade 2 multiple times over. At full price. What this tells us is that most people don't want gripping epics, they just want to get drunk and jerk off virtual cows.
@Agramonte Yes, Ys VIII coming to NS is great news! Hopefully some of the technical issues on the original Vita version will have been ironed out on the NS version, such as slowdown during cutscenes and battles. We should also expect the PS4 content to be the NS version. None of this can help the story being weaker than previous entries in the Ys series, but at least the game is still good otherwise.
The sales records from 2011 speak for themselves- SMB on XBLA had a 1 month headstart on the PC/Steam version, yet only sold half as many copies within half a year after release. (Which was in November for XBLA and December for Steam, coinciding with being on the front page during Steam's massive annual Winter Sale, as well as several big holiday releases for the 360, as you mentioned.) It's an incontrovertible fact that 360 sales of SMB were hurt by lack of support from Microsoft, being a little fish cast into a sea of big fish that had more advertising grunt. Whereas on Steam, SMB received it's time in the limelight alongside AAA titles.
So hopefully Nintendo gives SMB a little more support than Microsoft did, which shouldn't be difficult with no big 1st party releases on the immediate horizon. No "hate" involved, from my viewpoint- NS is back in another "ports of old games" phase until more heavy hitters are ready.
Super Meat Boy originally sold about 600,000 digital copies between PC/Steam and XBLA within 6 months, with XBLA accounting for about 200,000 and PC/Steam for about 400,000. If SMB sales can reach at least XBLA sales by July, then it will have been downloaded onto at least 1.5% of every Switch in the world. (Assuming total console sales top 14 million by then.) That doesn't sound like a huge number, but that translates into at least 1 out of every 100 Switch's having SMB on them, which would be impressive for a nearly 8 year old indie game that the developers tortured their bodies to complete. I'm sure this is a bittersweet moment for them, and I hope they feel the payoff will have been somewhat worth it.
@Agramonte Yeah, Nintendo kinda sorta shot their load in 2017. There's mostly only going to be limited 3rd party and indie support until Nintendo has more big products ready... which won't be for a while. There's Bayonetta 2 in February if you didn't play it on Wii U, otherwise... Yeah, nothing big for several months, unless you like Dragon Quest spinoffs.
Definitely beyond my initial expectations! And yet... I STILL haven't seen more than 2 people total using one in public in the Washington, DC Metro Area, frequently taking public transport. I saw plenty of 3DS users in public within the first year. What this tells me is that easily less than half of everyone buying the system frequently takes it out of the house and into public view. Or at least, that's how it is in the USA. Interesting that the premise it's sold on is as a hybrid, yet it's mostly used as a home system. I guess there's still a great desire for Nintendo home systems after all, but they're more likely to be accepted in a fully portable wrapper, rather than just partially portable like the Wii U.
Honestly, I still find it amazing how well the NSW has sold, considering how invisible it is in public, and how there's practically no demo kiosks like past systems had. It's almost as if it's impact is more virtual than real...
@NinChocolate Adults should know what they're getting themselves into, and professionals accept that they may sustain permanent injuries in exchange for their pay. But yeah, those who don't implement flag tagging for high contact sports played by kids are irresponsible idiots.
@Deathwalka "NO ONE is putting legislation on you."
Not yet. During these times with what's going on in the US Government? It could easily get worse in a hurry. A lot worse. The ones who got elected to the top are already itching to erase as much funding/support as possible for departments dealing with mental health issues. An extra classification like this can be used to focus help on someone who needs it... or it could be used as an excuse to stop supporting people who need it because they can now be labeled as having yet another preexisting condition, thus potentially removing health care coverage.
Why did this happen? Follow the money. That's one of the best things one can do to read between the lines and see what's happening here. It has nothing to do with "gaming freedom." But rather, who holds the money purse (i.e. makes the decisions) and how that changes what the public can and cannot do in response.
@frogopus Well, the thing is, a lot of problems are really complicated, and have multiple layers.
Canadians have a lot of guns too, but their death rates by gun per capita are much, much lower than in the USA. They also don't have as much economic inequality.
Too much wine can ruin your health, and some people such as pregnant mothers should avoid alcohol consumption, but having some wine in moderation can actually provide antioxidants, which are definitely good for your health. Wine can also be good for lightly alleviating stress after a hard day, instead of opting to overmedicate- don't need a doctor to know that!
Overall, I'm just saying that there is more than one or even two sides to this and many other issues.
@Banjos_Backpack What @FinalFrog said, in a nutshell.
And thank you for the vote of confidence Froggy! Some people just want to be correct, and don't care about other perspectives. To be honest, I've been guilty of that in the past, myself. So I'm trying to expand my boundaries and keep my mind as open as possible!
@frogopus It's a constantly evolving field, and your wife is at the forefront! Glad to hear you're so proud of her!
Technology is changing very quickly now- too quickly for governance and laws to keep up with proper classifications. Personally, I think the correct term in many cases is "attachment," not "addiction." Behavior over time can be changed by the way people interact with each other. The brain's chemistry and how it wires itself is changed by constant stimuli- including the nearly constant cell/smartphone use people have now.
I'm surprised to hear that any debate would be focused on gaming, when the focus really should be on cell/smartphone use. It's become so pervasive, that it's changing the way people operate and think. Wouldn't that be the really important and urgent topic of research to focus their time, money, and efforts on? The condition of being overly attached to gaming covers a much, much smaller range of people than those who are overly attached to phones, smart devices, and the Internet of Things.
In particular, I would think it would be a hugely important and urgent issue of study to figure out whether or not, perhaps, human beings' brain chemistry is largely incapable of making a fully intact and smooth transition to a life dominated by the Internet of Things, like The Jetsons presents, and like all the big telecom corporations want consumers to think would happen. Any musings on gaming being directly associated with "addiction" or not are peanuts by comparison.
@KingdomHeartsFan The thing is, the WHO is applying their definition to gaming as a whole, not just MMO's and such. The insinuation made by this decision is that gaming is inherently associated with destructive and antisocial activities such as the action-reward effect that is well documented in gambling. The answer the WHO will tell doctors in response to this will be to prescribe and sell additional drugs/medications, which in many cases will not assist the patient significantly or at all. It could even worsen their situation.
What the WHO does not mention is that in truth, many people who play XP-based multiplayer and especially MMO titles really do so to fulfill their social needs, of which may not be so easily fulfilled in the real world. Many of those titles actually can have positive social benefits- I should know, I'm one of the people who have used it expressly for that purpose. (But of course the WHO wouldn't mention that wrinkle, because that would indicate there's more to this than it seems at first glance, therefore selling even more drugs/medications may not be the answer.)
Granted, that doesn't mean everything's hunky-dory as it is, and of course one can only form true relationships with other people face-to-face. But for those who find it very difficult to communicate in such formats, gaming can be a useful tool for those people.
@Deathwalka The fact you're looking for, or even mentioning a debate, not to mention insulting someone else's intelligence, reveals your true desires and intentions here. You don't really care, you just want to be correct. I don't know if this issue has any real significance to you, or if it's just a passing fancy, but you're not helping anyone here.
@JaxonH Interesting how this topic brought out the life stories in us!
You know, it's funny. People say that others shouldn't be armchair executives, but there's a whole lotta armchair neurologists, psychologists, and psychiatrists in here, who may not have gone through such bad conditions mentally, and believe they understand it. Granted, that doesn't mean one person can totally understand everything absolutely 100% either... Multiple people must contribute to a complete understanding. But I suspect many here have not gone through a diagnosis process over the course of many years to see what it really looks like.
As for the WHO... well... their funding by the UN has been drastically cut back in recent years, and word has been that they have turned to pharmaceutical corporations to make up the difference. Which, if true, means the WHO's decisions are influenced by the decisions of those highly profitable pharmaceutical corporations.
@Deathwalka I saw your previous comment, and thought about replying to it, but I decided not to, because I figured it would result in something like your own ironically one-sided response. Which is exactly what you just did, on your own. Not to mention, you're saying that anyone who happens to encounter depression is lacking in "emotional intelligence." You do realize you're not going to win anyone's hearts and minds that way, right? For someone who claims to hold the high ground,
As someone with Asperger's Syndrome (an actual mental disorder) who suffered from depression as a teenager and younger 20's, and even once thought of jumping out of the third story window of my father's house onto a wooden deck to escape doing homework... Such an intense focus on gaming to the exclusion of important activities is always,
Let me repeat that,
ALWAYS,
indicative of a symptom of some other, real and significant issue.
Gaming itself is not the same as gambling. There are elements within gaming that can be similar to gambling, such as paid loot boxes, but gaming as a whole does not lend itself to full blown addiction. The closest thing to that is someone relying on the release of endorphins and other natural chemicals the brain releases while enjoying a game, to cope with other, real issues, instead of forming a true addiction to all of those antidepressant medications and related drugs that the medical industry sells.
Whoever is responsible for this decision probably did it with some political as well as monetary influence. This reeks of the 1990's era US political scapegoating against gaming for society's ills. It's all too easy to label a problem by it's symptom, instead of investigating and uncovering the underlying set of issues behind each problem. Mental disorders are truly defined by conditions, not necessarily by activities.
@EvilLucario That's what I'm wondering. I would have thought Xenoblade 2 would sell better, given it's quality with Nintendo's weight behind it. What factors led to this result? My first thought is that XB2 hasn't gotten the support it needs to do better. So what chance do others have, if they're not a well known and popular series?
@dumedum <In Japan.> Look elsewhere, and Nintendo is still doing very well, but it's a different story. It hints at a future of limited western 3rd party support and supple Japanese 3rd party support, now that the 1st party evergreens are out there. Granted, companies like Bethesda have thrown their hat in, but has the payoff been worth it? I'm sure many are still wary.
Many expected that and accept it though, so maybe it won't change much. Nintendo is still back in solid black, just with some nuances, like non-SquareEnix and non-Capcom JRPG's not selling as well as they should.
@Ryu_Niiyama I apologize for what I've said, it was uncalled for and incredibly insensitive. I didn't mean to go off on you, I just felt angry that good people can work hard and not get their due, even winding up in bad situations, while others get way more than they're really owed and never need to worry about such hardships.
@JaxonH @IceClimbers You're both right, I got that part wrong/didn't word it well. What I meant there is that XB2 isn't made by an internal studio at Nintendo, since Monolith Soft is just financially supported by Nintendo. Although, like @NinNin said, Pokken Tourny DX is 3rd party, and only partially invested in through The Pokemon Company by Nintendo. I guess that just makes it an even worse situation for XB2 than normal. Even for a great game with the weight of Nintendo behind it, if it doesn't have the recognition level of a series like Pokemon, it doesn't necessarily sell as well as it should.
@Ryu_Niiyama Not just you specifically, but rather millions of Americans who are not in good living situations, and do have the power to affect public decisions which affects quality of life in society, but think they don't. Case in point, statements like "that's above my pay grade to decide." The best way to consolidate power is to make others think they have none, and no right to question anything. The worth of a person is not equivalent to the value of their fortunes.
Good news about these results: the NSW has a bright future ahead of it.
Potential bad news: Nintendo 1st party software is getting almost all the sales, leaving naught but scraps for the third parties. Case in point, the supposed 3rd party killer app Xenoblade 2 doesn't even scratch the top 20, while the lowly 1-2-Switch stays in, and at above #20 no less.
You're not setting yourself up for a healthy future ecosystem with 3rd parties when even the 1st party junk title is getting more attention than any 3rd party title. High 1st party sales are to be expected on a Nintendo platform, but these numbers only further confirm the stigma that 3rd parties can't even sell great titles with chart busting numbers unless they're something like Square-Enix with Dragon Quest or Capcom with Monster Hunter.
@Agramonte To be fair, the importance of NPD results ain't what they used to be, since digital sales aren't tracked. Still makes one wonder about the timing for US console sales numbers being released- NS is doing very well, but not absolutely killing it outside Japan like many here thought it would for the holidays.
I think there is some bias for that which is longstanding. For example, many people thought Nintendo crushed Sega back in the day, but the Genesis actually outsold the SNES during the holiday season from 1991-1994. Yes, even during the year of Mega Man X, Super Metroid, Super Punch-Out, and Donkey Kong Country, the Genesis still sold more during the holiday season in the US. Just like the PS4 outsold the NS during the holiday season in the US, despite it being the year of BotW and SMO.
All the results here were to be expected. No domination between the giants, just trading blows.
@Ryu_Niiyama It's not that high earners/rollers don't work hard, just that their earnings are all too often disproportionately higher than they should get compared to everyone else. It's impossible for a single person, even a CEO, to be able to work 100's of times harder than their lowest paid workers, corresponding with earning 100's of times more in big businesses like Nintendo.
Always interesting to see that despite circumstances people may have where they get the short end of the stick in life, they still see no problem with perverse economic inequality...
@NEStalgia That reminds me of Mega Man Legends. Dungeons start out as ancient labyrinths within Kattlelox Island, but the deeper they're uncovered, the more technologically advanced their construction is, eventually finishing off with artificial skylines and high tech temples.
The Zelda series has also dabbled a little bit in the concept with Subrosia, the Underworld in Oracle of Seasons. But can you imagine how massive the total traversable landscape size would be if there were a fully fledged overworld and underworld to explore? There's no way a title based on Wii U tech could handle that. Maybe the NS could handle it, but it would still be a gargantuan undertaking which would be years away. Like... 2021-2022 away.
@JayJ Modernizing, streamlining, and improving the Virtual Console service for the NS is the best way for Nintendo to stave off piracy of their older titles as much as possible. That doesn't take away from developing new titles at all. Nintendo has more than enough money in the bank (and now much more rolling in) to dedicate a department specifically towards the purpose of maintaining a fully fledged Virtual Console storefront and backbone, without impeding current game development processes.
@Jack_Goetz I don't think that voting process was an honest one. It didn't explain the full depth of what it would mean to switch over to the Eurogamer model. As it turns out, all one has to do figure out why the choices and their consequences weren't explained in depth is simple.
Look at the rating on every Eurogamer review entry on Metacritic: "In Progress and Unscored." Their reviews are actually complete and available for reading by the time their links are reachable on Metacritic. The reason they're marked as incomplete on Metacritic is because Eurogamer's review model is incompatible with the traditional decimal scoring system.
Terms like "Recommended", "Essential", "Avoid", or even no term given, are sensible indicators to the reader who is gaining information. But they doesn't translate well into an algorithm which demands a decimal value, of which is correlated with crucial business deals in the industry:
The fact is, NLife Media, which exists above Nintendo Life and Push Square, gets some kind of payout for participating in the Metacritic decimal-based scoring process. A company has to willingly choose to give up a higher income from Metacritic to embrace a review system like Eurogamer's. I wouldn't be surprised if opinions on the matter are split amongst Nintendo Life staff.
Ultimately, any publicly held "votes" are just there for show, and are presented and skewed towards achieving a certain result, with the NLife Media decision makers' desired one being a preordained outcome. But it was determined by a "vote", so they can say it wasn't a top-down decision to keep it the way it is today, despite years and years of protestations by many readers in favor of abolishing the decimal scoring system and focusing more on the written content.
Comments 5,813
Re: Labo's Cardboard Revolution Adds Almost $1.4 billion To Nintendo's Value
@Fred13 Ah okay, didn't know about the others. The Telegraph article is a particularly good account. So just the robot one has not been demo'ed and showcased yet.
Re: Hands On: The Future Of Gaming Is Cardboard, Thanks To Nintendo Labo
@MFD And if it can happen once, it can happen in the future. So this is the true nature of the Kimishima leadership- maximizing monetary profits for his company at the cost of auteur production elsewhere. I don't think Iwata would have ever allowed this, since he was a developer/programmer himself, and he knew well what excising key staff does to projects. He would have brought in good outside assistance if BotW's production was really struggling SO MUCH that Nintendo actually needed the likes of Monolith Soft staff just to make it turn out well, but not at the cost of an important partner's production quality.
Re: Hands On: The Future Of Gaming Is Cardboard, Thanks To Nintendo Labo
@MFD Only fantastic, not legendary. One legend was sacrificed for the sake of another...
Re: Hands On: The Future Of Gaming Is Cardboard, Thanks To Nintendo Labo
@MFD @Yorumi OMG that resetera post... No wonder XB2 has so much that feels off compared to XB1. Looks like the original Wii U version of BotW wasn't the only sacrificial lamb to support the NS version of BotW... The XB2 that could have been was also sacrificed! Didn't notice the true significance of those names in the BotW credits before.
That's... actually really greedy on Nintendo's part. Drawing so many key Monolith people away from their project to help ensure Nintendo gets all the glory through BotW... And XB2 is a lesser product as a result. Lowers my opinion of Nintendo's upper management, honestly.
Re: Nintendo Reveals The Top 30 Best Selling Digital Games On Switch In 2017
@Oat No surprise at the Sonic Mania disparity, since Sonic has never been popular in Japan... pretty much ever. Whereas in the west, Sonic has always had the latent ability to generate high popularity. (Or at least Sonic of the classic variety, along with the Adventure series and Generations to a certain extent!)
Re: Labo's Cardboard Revolution Adds Almost $1.4 billion To Nintendo's Value
...Have these analysts seen something we haven't? Have they been given demonstrations of how the software and cardboardware work together? How else could they be so optimistic over something that could go completely either way? Either being a total dud, or being the next big thing... And they believe it's the latter. Anyone wanna poke some leaks?
Re: Hands On: The Future Of Gaming Is Cardboard, Thanks To Nintendo Labo
@electrolite77 It might sound like I'm being harsh, but I'm really more neutral about it with bated interest. The potential here goes beyond the Wii Remote, basically embracing the idea of the JoyCons being repurposed in all kinds of ways, according to each game they're being used for. That's potentially a really disruptive practice of how we think about the use of controllers. However, the quality of the software is at the crux of it. It could either create, for example, a a really nice beginner's introduction to piano in game form, warranting real piano keys, or it could be a Wii Music level of piano. (Which is... Ahem, REALLY bad, deserving of the cardboard tier.)
Re: Nintendo Reveals The Top 30 Best Selling Digital Games on Switch in 2017
So Japan likes using scissors to cut themselves so they can slide through blocks while groping T&A, whereas Gaijins like getting their hands dirty harvesting blocks while running around at the speed of sound retro style.
Got it. Yep, just like we thought, the Japanese are... Unique. They understand the simpler pleasures in life, slowing down to enjoy them, while us westerners just want to accumulate more and more resources faster and faster. Clearly, we have much to learn from the Japanese. Maybe a... Cultural exchange, with a Senran Kagura localization, would help us also understand the simpler pleasures of life...
Re: Hands On: The Future Of Gaming Is Cardboard, Thanks To Nintendo Labo
@ThanosReXXX I can definitely see people purposing actual mini pianos, doll houses, handle bars, remote controller antennae, and more... But will the software justify the effort? That's what separates this from a normal arts and crafts project: the software accompanying the hardware must also be worthwhile. And it's proprietary, only Nintendo can contribute software, whereas there are any number of other options that have community input with a far lower (or no) price tag. Thus, Nintendo must also demonstrate that the software is worth more in practice than the cardboard it's initially packaged with. This could be the next big thing, or it could be the next Wii Music.
Re: Hands On: The Future Of Gaming Is Cardboard, Thanks To Nintendo Labo
@ThanosReXXX Now, that said, for the prime of it's lifespan... It's definitely an interesting concept... But in practice? We need to see it in action with demo kiosks/workshops. The Switch has caught on amazingly well based on Internet word of mouth, but this is the kind of thing that the virtual world isn't going to sell by itself, it has to be out there for people to work with. Nintendo has to put in some '80s/'90s era elbow grease for this one.
Re: Hands On: The Future Of Gaming Is Cardboard, Thanks To Nintendo Labo
@LUIGITORNADO @ThanosRexxx Just to chime in for a moment... For whatever it's worth, the only arts and crafts projects which have survived to this day from my youth are those made from wood or clay. Those are natural materials which stand the test of time. Twenty years from now, few people are going to be looking back fondly on a Lab-O project, because cardboard is going to decompose and either be tossed out by then or detrimentally affecting the by then-grown kids' health. Cardboard does not stand the test of time, it gets recycled several times at most, then decomposes into unusable pulp. Following what happens to cardboard in reality, I would say the same holds true where ever it's involved: a short life span.
Re: Hands On: The Future Of Gaming Is Cardboard, Thanks To Nintendo Labo
How about we get some demo kiosk workshops showing off this stuff in public before we proclaim it as the next big thing? This could be a total dud in practice, no matter how interesting it is in concept, after all. Seems like a total waste of trees to me, as well as being overpriced compared to other DIY tech and... actual arts and crafts. But hey, it could go either way. Who knows, maybe this will be what gets people to bring their consoles out in public for once?
Re: Nintendo Announces Labo, A Range Of Interactive DIY Toys For Switch
Lol, I love how people gobble THESE comments up:
"Oh my goodness, this is SO interesting and creative! Only Nintendo would do this, what a wonderful way to spend 70 or 80 dollars on an overpriced arts and crafts project! They've knocked it out of the park again!!!
...Oh, but I'm not buying it. It's not for me. But you kiddies have fun! ^_^"
Like Like Like Sycophant Like
How about we get some demo kiosk workshops showing off this stuff before we proclaim it as the next big thing? This could be a total dud in practice, no matter how interesting it is in concept, after all. Seems like a total waste of trees to me, but hey, it could go either way. Who knows, maybe this will be what gets people to bring their consoles out in public for once?
Re: SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy Will Not Censor Risqué Costumes For Western Switch Release
@Anti-Matter Lol I thought so.
Okay then... This!
Re: SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy Will Not Censor Risqué Costumes For Western Switch Release
@Anti-Matter Oh okay, so not just solid, but DIESEL!
Hmm... Then how about.... THIS!?
Re: SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy Will Not Censor Risqué Costumes For Western Switch Release
@Anti-Matter Hmm.... Like this?
Re: Review: Romancing SaGa 2 (Switch eShop)
No expressly negative criticism written. Gets 7/10. If we apply the Pokemon Sun&Moon review standards, shouldn't this be a 10/10 instead?
Re: Indie Dev Talks About Having Switch Proposals Turned Down By Nintendo Five Times
Also, from the source article:
"Of particular note, one title was shot down after he introduced a game that deals with mature themes.
"It's a short and sweet game where two people have a conversation," Wozniak explained to The OP. "It's an adult situation, but there is no what you would call 'adult content' in it. Specifically, this was mentioned as being exactly what they were looking for, but too mature."...
This is probably why it was rejected. It wasn't so much a game as it was a story. There are plenty of other short and sweet "story games" like this which have high quality writing dealing with heavy topics that have done well on PC, such as To The Moon. However, Nintendo of America is not exactly known for allowing "story games" to be published. Possibly for the same reason Sega of America rejected JRPG's back in the day: they think there's no market for it on their platform, regardless of whether or not it's really true. So there's a fair possibility that the rejection of the introduced game has nothing to do with it's actual quality. As others have mentioned about certain companies which make money by selling garbage, Nintendo isn't necessarily concerned with the quality of games as long as they function, and think there's a market for it. (Case in point, 1-2-Switch)
Re: Indie Dev Talks About Having Switch Proposals Turned Down By Nintendo Five Times
So, uh... About the source article in the link...
https://dotesports.com/the-op/news/nintendo-switch-indie-developers-19968
"Wozniak, who works as a developer and publisher with Wolfgame and Poppy Works, has grappled with problems of his own while trying to bring games over to the system. Wozniak regularly collaborates with indie developers to publish their games, such as porting Sukeban Games' VA-11 Hall-A over to PlayStation Vita. But while working to get his partners' games published, he faced multiple rejections for Switch games from Nintendo of America"...
You said this in this article:
"Wolfgang Wozniak, perhaps most well known for his work on VA-11 HALL-A,"...
Nope, not his game. He was porting/publishing it for someone else. Double check the source article, don't just regurgitate from mynintendo.
Re: CPU Exploits Meltdown And Spectre Could Potentially Affect Nintendo Switch
@NEStalgia Turn over control of personal products to the military? I don't think that's such a good idea:
https://www.wired.com/story/meltdown-spectre-bug-collision-intel-chip-flaw-discovery/
In particular, under the "Quadruple Collision" section:
"In fact, the bizarre confluence of so many disparate researchers making the same discovery of two-decade-old vulnerabilities raises the question of who else might have found the attacks before them—and who might have secretly used them for spying, potentially for years, before this week's revelations and the flood of software fixes from practically every major tech firm that have rushed to contain the threat.
The synchronicity of those processor attack findings, argues security researcher and Harvard Belfer Center fellow Bruce Schneier, represents not just an isolated mystery but a policy lesson: When intelligence agencies like the NSA discover hackable vulnerabilities and exploit them in secret, they can't assume those bugs won't be rediscovered by other hackers in what the security industry calls a "bug collision."
...
So when the NSA finds a so-called zero-day vulnerability—a previously unknown hackable flaw in software or hardware—Schneier argues that tendency for rediscovery needs to factor into whether the agency stealthily exploits the bug for espionage, or instead reports it to whatever party can fix it. Schneier argues bug collisions like Spectre and Meltdown mean they should err on the side of disclosure: According to rough estimates in the Harvard study he co-authored, as many as one third of all zero-days used in a given year may have first been discovered by the NSA."
Handing over security to "the military" means handing it over to the NSA. Of whom are denying (read: most likely lying) that they had previous knowledge of the exploits, which they would greatly benefit from using without telling anyone about their existence. If true, it would be yet another massive violation of the Constitution, breaching citizens' privacy under the 4th Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. The NSA has been given carte blance to flagrantly violate the 4th Amendment with their mass data collection (read: domestic spying) programs, which is then used by the military apparatus. (Granted, one hand doesn't know what the other is doing.)
So yeah, I wouldn't trust them.
Re: Super Meat Boy's Day One Switch Sales Almost As High As Its Xbox 360 Debut
@MartyFlanMJFan To be fair, I die a little inside each time the sales numbers remind us that 1, 2, Switch continues to outsell Xenoblade 2 multiple times over. At full price. What this tells us is that most people don't want gripping epics, they just want to get drunk and jerk off virtual cows.
Re: Super Meat Boy's Day One Switch Sales Almost As High As Its Xbox 360 Debut
@Agramonte Yes, Ys VIII coming to NS is great news! Hopefully some of the technical issues on the original Vita version will have been ironed out on the NS version, such as slowdown during cutscenes and battles. We should also expect the PS4 content to be the NS version. None of this can help the story being weaker than previous entries in the Ys series, but at least the game is still good otherwise.
The sales records from 2011 speak for themselves- SMB on XBLA had a 1 month headstart on the PC/Steam version, yet only sold half as many copies within half a year after release. (Which was in November for XBLA and December for Steam, coinciding with being on the front page during Steam's massive annual Winter Sale, as well as several big holiday releases for the 360, as you mentioned.) It's an incontrovertible fact that 360 sales of SMB were hurt by lack of support from Microsoft, being a little fish cast into a sea of big fish that had more advertising grunt. Whereas on Steam, SMB received it's time in the limelight alongside AAA titles.
So hopefully Nintendo gives SMB a little more support than Microsoft did, which shouldn't be difficult with no big 1st party releases on the immediate horizon. No "hate" involved, from my viewpoint- NS is back in another "ports of old games" phase until more heavy hitters are ready.
Re: Super Meat Boy's Day One Switch Sales Almost As High As Its Xbox 360 Debut
To put this in context:
https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/33286/GDC_2011_Team_Meat_Discusses_Super_Meat_Boys_Nearly_Lethal_Development.php
https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/33963/Team_Meat_Roughly_600000_Sales_For_Super_Meat_Boy.php
Super Meat Boy originally sold about 600,000 digital copies between PC/Steam and XBLA within 6 months, with XBLA accounting for about 200,000 and PC/Steam for about 400,000. If SMB sales can reach at least XBLA sales by July, then it will have been downloaded onto at least 1.5% of every Switch in the world. (Assuming total console sales top 14 million by then.) That doesn't sound like a huge number, but that translates into at least 1 out of every 100 Switch's having SMB on them, which would be impressive for a nearly 8 year old indie game that the developers tortured their bodies to complete. I'm sure this is a bittersweet moment for them, and I hope they feel the payoff will have been somewhat worth it.
Re: Super Meat Boy's Day One Switch Sales Almost As High As Its Xbox 360 Debut
@Agramonte Yeah, Nintendo kinda sorta shot their load in 2017. There's mostly only going to be limited 3rd party and indie support until Nintendo has more big products ready... which won't be for a while. There's Bayonetta 2 in February if you didn't play it on Wii U, otherwise... Yeah, nothing big for several months, unless you like Dragon Quest spinoffs.
Re: Nintendo Switch Is The Fastest Selling Console In US History With 4.8 Million Units Sold
@jbatsolo ...Which body part? O_O
Re: Nintendo Switch Is The Fastest Selling Console In US History With 4.8 Million Units Sold
Definitely beyond my initial expectations! And yet... I STILL haven't seen more than 2 people total using one in public in the Washington, DC Metro Area, frequently taking public transport. I saw plenty of 3DS users in public within the first year. What this tells me is that easily less than half of everyone buying the system frequently takes it out of the house and into public view. Or at least, that's how it is in the USA. Interesting that the premise it's sold on is as a hybrid, yet it's mostly used as a home system. I guess there's still a great desire for Nintendo home systems after all, but they're more likely to be accepted in a fully portable wrapper, rather than just partially portable like the Wii U.
Honestly, I still find it amazing how well the NSW has sold, considering how invisible it is in public, and how there's practically no demo kiosks like past systems had. It's almost as if it's impact is more virtual than real...
Re: Gaming Addiction Is Officially A Disorder, According To The World Health Organisation
@Deathwalka Now who's the one missing the point? Also, don't upvote yourself, it's bad etiquette.
Re: Gaming Addiction Is Officially A Disorder, According To The World Health Organisation
@NinChocolate Adults should know what they're getting themselves into, and professionals accept that they may sustain permanent injuries in exchange for their pay. But yeah, those who don't implement flag tagging for high contact sports played by kids are irresponsible idiots.
Re: Gaming Addiction Is Officially A Disorder, According To The World Health Organisation
@Deathwalka "NO ONE is putting legislation on you."
Not yet. During these times with what's going on in the US Government? It could easily get worse in a hurry. A lot worse. The ones who got elected to the top are already itching to erase as much funding/support as possible for departments dealing with mental health issues. An extra classification like this can be used to focus help on someone who needs it... or it could be used as an excuse to stop supporting people who need it because they can now be labeled as having yet another preexisting condition, thus potentially removing health care coverage.
Why did this happen? Follow the money. That's one of the best things one can do to read between the lines and see what's happening here. It has nothing to do with "gaming freedom." But rather, who holds the money purse (i.e. makes the decisions) and how that changes what the public can and cannot do in response.
Re: Gaming Addiction Is Officially A Disorder, According To The World Health Organisation
@frogopus Well, the thing is, a lot of problems are really complicated, and have multiple layers.
Canadians have a lot of guns too, but their death rates by gun per capita are much, much lower than in the USA. They also don't have as much economic inequality.
Too much wine can ruin your health, and some people such as pregnant mothers should avoid alcohol consumption, but having some wine in moderation can actually provide antioxidants, which are definitely good for your health. Wine can also be good for lightly alleviating stress after a hard day, instead of opting to overmedicate- don't need a doctor to know that!
Overall, I'm just saying that there is more than one or even two sides to this and many other issues.
Re: Gaming Addiction Is Officially A Disorder, According To The World Health Organisation
@Banjos_Backpack What @FinalFrog said, in a nutshell.
And thank you for the vote of confidence Froggy! Some people just want to be correct, and don't care about other perspectives. To be honest, I've been guilty of that in the past, myself. So I'm trying to expand my boundaries and keep my mind as open as possible!
Re: Gaming Addiction Is Officially A Disorder, According To The World Health Organisation
@frogopus It's a constantly evolving field, and your wife is at the forefront! Glad to hear you're so proud of her!
Technology is changing very quickly now- too quickly for governance and laws to keep up with proper classifications. Personally, I think the correct term in many cases is "attachment," not "addiction." Behavior over time can be changed by the way people interact with each other. The brain's chemistry and how it wires itself is changed by constant stimuli- including the nearly constant cell/smartphone use people have now.
I'm surprised to hear that any debate would be focused on gaming, when the focus really should be on cell/smartphone use. It's become so pervasive, that it's changing the way people operate and think. Wouldn't that be the really important and urgent topic of research to focus their time, money, and efforts on? The condition of being overly attached to gaming covers a much, much smaller range of people than those who are overly attached to phones, smart devices, and the Internet of Things.
In particular, I would think it would be a hugely important and urgent issue of study to figure out whether or not, perhaps, human beings' brain chemistry is largely incapable of making a fully intact and smooth transition to a life dominated by the Internet of Things, like The Jetsons presents, and like all the big telecom corporations want consumers to think would happen. Any musings on gaming being directly associated with "addiction" or not are peanuts by comparison.
Re: Gaming Addiction Is Officially A Disorder, According To The World Health Organisation
@KingdomHeartsFan The thing is, the WHO is applying their definition to gaming as a whole, not just MMO's and such. The insinuation made by this decision is that gaming is inherently associated with destructive and antisocial activities such as the action-reward effect that is well documented in gambling. The answer the WHO will tell doctors in response to this will be to prescribe and sell additional drugs/medications, which in many cases will not assist the patient significantly or at all. It could even worsen their situation.
What the WHO does not mention is that in truth, many people who play XP-based multiplayer and especially MMO titles really do so to fulfill their social needs, of which may not be so easily fulfilled in the real world. Many of those titles actually can have positive social benefits- I should know, I'm one of the people who have used it expressly for that purpose. (But of course the WHO wouldn't mention that wrinkle, because that would indicate there's more to this than it seems at first glance, therefore selling even more drugs/medications may not be the answer.)
Granted, that doesn't mean everything's hunky-dory as it is, and of course one can only form true relationships with other people face-to-face. But for those who find it very difficult to communicate in such formats, gaming can be a useful tool for those people.
Re: Gaming Addiction Is Officially A Disorder, According To The World Health Organisation
@FinalFrog Sounds more like Soma than gaming...
Re: Gaming Addiction Is Officially A Disorder, According To The World Health Organisation
@NinChocolate Is that a reference to Fahrenheit 451, about the Post-Literate Society?
Re: Gaming Addiction Is Officially A Disorder, According To The World Health Organisation
@Deathwalka The fact you're looking for, or even mentioning a debate, not to mention insulting someone else's intelligence, reveals your true desires and intentions here. You don't really care, you just want to be correct. I don't know if this issue has any real significance to you, or if it's just a passing fancy, but you're not helping anyone here.
Re: Gaming Addiction Is Officially A Disorder, According To The World Health Organisation
@JaxonH Interesting how this topic brought out the life stories in us!
You know, it's funny. People say that others shouldn't be armchair executives, but there's a whole lotta armchair neurologists, psychologists, and psychiatrists in here, who may not have gone through such bad conditions mentally, and believe they understand it. Granted, that doesn't mean one person can totally understand everything absolutely 100% either... Multiple people must contribute to a complete understanding. But I suspect many here have not gone through a diagnosis process over the course of many years to see what it really looks like.
As for the WHO... well... their funding by the UN has been drastically cut back in recent years, and word has been that they have turned to pharmaceutical corporations to make up the difference. Which, if true, means the WHO's decisions are influenced by the decisions of those highly profitable pharmaceutical corporations.
Re: Gaming Addiction Is Officially A Disorder, According To The World Health Organisation
@Deathwalka I saw your previous comment, and thought about replying to it, but I decided not to, because I figured it would result in something like your own ironically one-sided response. Which is exactly what you just did, on your own. Not to mention, you're saying that anyone who happens to encounter depression is lacking in "emotional intelligence." You do realize you're not going to win anyone's hearts and minds that way, right? For someone who claims to hold the high ground,
You have no idea what you're talking about.
Re: Gaming Addiction Is Officially A Disorder, According To The World Health Organisation
As someone with Asperger's Syndrome (an actual mental disorder) who suffered from depression as a teenager and younger 20's, and even once thought of jumping out of the third story window of my father's house onto a wooden deck to escape doing homework... Such an intense focus on gaming to the exclusion of important activities is always,
Let me repeat that,
ALWAYS,
indicative of a symptom of some other, real and significant issue.
Gaming itself is not the same as gambling. There are elements within gaming that can be similar to gambling, such as paid loot boxes, but gaming as a whole does not lend itself to full blown addiction. The closest thing to that is someone relying on the release of endorphins and other natural chemicals the brain releases while enjoying a game, to cope with other, real issues, instead of forming a true addiction to all of those antidepressant medications and related drugs that the medical industry sells.
Whoever is responsible for this decision probably did it with some political as well as monetary influence. This reeks of the 1990's era US political scapegoating against gaming for society's ills. It's all too easy to label a problem by it's symptom, instead of investigating and uncovering the underlying set of issues behind each problem. Mental disorders are truly defined by conditions, not necessarily by activities.
Re: Nintendo Switch Continues to Dominate in Japan
@EvilLucario That's what I'm wondering. I would have thought Xenoblade 2 would sell better, given it's quality with Nintendo's weight behind it. What factors led to this result? My first thought is that XB2 hasn't gotten the support it needs to do better. So what chance do others have, if they're not a well known and popular series?
Re: Nintendo Switch Continues to Dominate in Japan
@dumedum <In Japan.> Look elsewhere, and Nintendo is still doing very well, but it's a different story. It hints at a future of limited western 3rd party support and supple Japanese 3rd party support, now that the 1st party evergreens are out there. Granted, companies like Bethesda have thrown their hat in, but has the payoff been worth it? I'm sure many are still wary.
Many expected that and accept it though, so maybe it won't change much. Nintendo is still back in solid black, just with some nuances, like non-SquareEnix and non-Capcom JRPG's not selling as well as they should.
Re: Nintendo Switch Continues to Dominate in Japan
@Ryu_Niiyama I apologize for what I've said, it was uncalled for and incredibly insensitive. I didn't mean to go off on you, I just felt angry that good people can work hard and not get their due, even winding up in bad situations, while others get way more than they're really owed and never need to worry about such hardships.
Re: Nintendo Switch Continues to Dominate in Japan
@JaxonH @IceClimbers You're both right, I got that part wrong/didn't word it well. What I meant there is that XB2 isn't made by an internal studio at Nintendo, since Monolith Soft is just financially supported by Nintendo. Although, like @NinNin said, Pokken Tourny DX is 3rd party, and only partially invested in through The Pokemon Company by Nintendo. I guess that just makes it an even worse situation for XB2 than normal. Even for a great game with the weight of Nintendo behind it, if it doesn't have the recognition level of a series like Pokemon, it doesn't necessarily sell as well as it should.
Re: Nintendo Switch Continues to Dominate in Japan
@Ryu_Niiyama Not just you specifically, but rather millions of Americans who are not in good living situations, and do have the power to affect public decisions which affects quality of life in society, but think they don't. Case in point, statements like "that's above my pay grade to decide." The best way to consolidate power is to make others think they have none, and no right to question anything. The worth of a person is not equivalent to the value of their fortunes.
Re: Nintendo Switch Continues to Dominate in Japan
Good news about these results: the NSW has a bright future ahead of it.
Potential bad news: Nintendo 1st party software is getting almost all the sales, leaving naught but scraps for the third parties. Case in point, the supposed 3rd party killer app Xenoblade 2 doesn't even scratch the top 20, while the lowly 1-2-Switch stays in, and at above #20 no less.
You're not setting yourself up for a healthy future ecosystem with 3rd parties when even the 1st party junk title is getting more attention than any 3rd party title. High 1st party sales are to be expected on a Nintendo platform, but these numbers only further confirm the stigma that 3rd parties can't even sell great titles with chart busting numbers unless they're something like Square-Enix with Dragon Quest or Capcom with Monster Hunter.
Re: Nintendo Switch Continues to Dominate in Japan
@Agramonte To be fair, the importance of NPD results ain't what they used to be, since digital sales aren't tracked. Still makes one wonder about the timing for US console sales numbers being released- NS is doing very well, but not absolutely killing it outside Japan like many here thought it would for the holidays.
I think there is some bias for that which is longstanding. For example, many people thought Nintendo crushed Sega back in the day, but the Genesis actually outsold the SNES during the holiday season from 1991-1994. Yes, even during the year of Mega Man X, Super Metroid, Super Punch-Out, and Donkey Kong Country, the Genesis still sold more during the holiday season in the US. Just like the PS4 outsold the NS during the holiday season in the US, despite it being the year of BotW and SMO.
All the results here were to be expected. No domination between the giants, just trading blows.
Re: Nintendo Switch Continues to Dominate in Japan
@Ryu_Niiyama It's not that high earners/rollers don't work hard, just that their earnings are all too often disproportionately higher than they should get compared to everyone else. It's impossible for a single person, even a CEO, to be able to work 100's of times harder than their lowest paid workers, corresponding with earning 100's of times more in big businesses like Nintendo.
Always interesting to see that despite circumstances people may have where they get the short end of the stick in life, they still see no problem with perverse economic inequality...
Re: Here’s Why Traditional Dungeons Got Axed in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
@NEStalgia That reminds me of Mega Man Legends. Dungeons start out as ancient labyrinths within Kattlelox Island, but the deeper they're uncovered, the more technologically advanced their construction is, eventually finishing off with artificial skylines and high tech temples.
The Zelda series has also dabbled a little bit in the concept with Subrosia, the Underworld in Oracle of Seasons. But can you imagine how massive the total traversable landscape size would be if there were a fully fledged overworld and underworld to explore? There's no way a title based on Wii U tech could handle that. Maybe the NS could handle it, but it would still be a gargantuan undertaking which would be years away. Like... 2021-2022 away.
Re: Review: VS. Super Mario Bros. (Switch eShop)
@JayJ Modernizing, streamlining, and improving the Virtual Console service for the NS is the best way for Nintendo to stave off piracy of their older titles as much as possible. That doesn't take away from developing new titles at all. Nintendo has more than enough money in the bank (and now much more rolling in) to dedicate a department specifically towards the purpose of maintaining a fully fledged Virtual Console storefront and backbone, without impeding current game development processes.
Re: Review: VS. Super Mario Bros. (Switch eShop)
@Jack_Goetz I don't think that voting process was an honest one. It didn't explain the full depth of what it would mean to switch over to the Eurogamer model. As it turns out, all one has to do figure out why the choices and their consequences weren't explained in depth is simple.
Look at the rating on every Eurogamer review entry on Metacritic: "In Progress and Unscored." Their reviews are actually complete and available for reading by the time their links are reachable on Metacritic. The reason they're marked as incomplete on Metacritic is because Eurogamer's review model is incompatible with the traditional decimal scoring system.
Terms like "Recommended", "Essential", "Avoid", or even no term given, are sensible indicators to the reader who is gaining information. But they doesn't translate well into an algorithm which demands a decimal value, of which is correlated with crucial business deals in the industry:
https://kotaku.com/metacritic-matters-how-review-scores-hurt-video-games-472462218
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-05-13-defining-success-why-metacritic-should-be-irrelevant
The fact is, NLife Media, which exists above Nintendo Life and Push Square, gets some kind of payout for participating in the Metacritic decimal-based scoring process. A company has to willingly choose to give up a higher income from Metacritic to embrace a review system like Eurogamer's. I wouldn't be surprised if opinions on the matter are split amongst Nintendo Life staff.
Ultimately, any publicly held "votes" are just there for show, and are presented and skewed towards achieving a certain result, with the NLife Media decision makers' desired one being a preordained outcome. But it was determined by a "vote", so they can say it wasn't a top-down decision to keep it the way it is today, despite years and years of protestations by many readers in favor of abolishing the decimal scoring system and focusing more on the written content.