Nothing says desperation to scrape at any amount of hope like this. Zelda does not sell consoles to anyone other than the ever-dwindling Nintendo fanbase that can still justify purchasing expensive hardware for only a couple games.
Nintendo not attending E3 is a massive red flag. It indicates they don't have third parties on-board for Wii U, 3DS, and worst of all, NX. Major 3rd parties would not sit idly by and allow Nintendo to screw them over on any upcoming games like this. It also indicates that either the NX isn't ready or Nintendo doesn't have confidence in it.
Skipping E3 and skipping the holiday season in the West is a major set-back to the company and the ill-fated inbound hardware.
Unfortunately, I went from colossal Nintendo fan in my youth to jaded today. At this point, it's going to take something tantamount to a miracle for Nintendo to sell me the NX.
I caught this before and showed exactly what he does, which is to follow tutorials from the Construct2 website (or elsewhere), and then to charge people money for them.
Construct2 can be downloaded for free by anyone here, and they, too, can, in a week, be as "good" a developer as Rcmadiax. The most obvious was his Flappy Birds clone, which has a tutorial on the Construct2 website literally titled "Make a Flappy Bird Clone in 10 minutes."
His calling has always been to reduce indie gaming to empty shovelware. He managed to help ruin the eShop good and early. Nintendo's free-for-all "you buy a dev kit, you make a game" attitude didn't help things.
This was all within my predicted timeframe over the last year: Zelda will be on NX and the NX would launch in the current fiscal year. I expected November, but allowed for March.
March, though, is kind of a stupid time to launch new hardware, particularly as it misses the important holiday season. If Nintendo is really trying to just avoid competition with Sony and Microsoft during that time, that is very telling that they lack confidence in the NX already. Which makes sense. I have no confidence in the poor thing either.
Nintendo almost never spends time or money promoting 3rd party games, and this has been one of their problems for generations. There was an obvious difference in how Nintendo marketed their machines compared to Sony or Microsoft. And the biggest difference was that Nintendo almost never promoted 3rd party games. MS and Sony, on the other hand, often did ads with many 3rd party games shown, or fully supporting a single major release.
This is just another way Nintendo is behind the times in modern gaming. They still think they can just magically go it alone forever. Instead, they are becoming more marginalized each generation.
If people just "came back" to Nintendo, their sales and market impact would be better. The reality is that no one is coming back to the console, but people who did grow up with Nintendo are moving--permanently--to Playstation, Xbox, and/or Steam.
There is no logical reason to assume people will just "return" to the company, especially after spending 4 generations continually falling behind in every capacity. Sales, market impact, innovation, 3rd party support, game libraries, longevity, etc. Only the Wii and DS had sales, and that was only because they were flukes, fads. Even on their systems with sales, they lost tons of 3rd party support and they failed to create a long-lasting impact on the industry.
No one is coming back to Nintendo. The only thing happening is that people are out-growing Nintendo.
I liked the GamePad at first, then I got the PS4, and now it feels like crap in my hands again. And a common complaint I'd seen on the Miiverse was people wanting to play games without the GamePad.
I hope this isn't the stupid direction the NX controller is taking, but at the same time, I really wouldn't be surprised. Nintendo doesn't know how to actually do anything new with their franchises, so they make a new controller expecting that people won't notice... that they still aren't doing anything new. The biggest bragging Iwata made about DKC for the Wii U was "fur on the Kongs" while glossing over how it made the GamePad virtually pointless. Mario Kart 8 also doesn't do anything that couldn't be done on any other system.
If this is the controller, it's just another major hurdle to getting 3rd parties to give a crap, and is completely outside the major trends of the industry now, which is VR and augmented reality concepts--and those are incredibly popular.
Your post doesn't make sense. Every time Nintendo fans attempt to make an argument that Nintendo shouldn't go third party, it's usually the only time they admit the company is heavily flawed in a number of aspects, and would therefore fare poorly.
Nintendo would only make games that are guaranteed to sell? How is that different from now, where they take virtually zero chances on their games? They spend most of their time hitting the same notes every year and generation--Mario slapped onto the covers of half a dozen games a year. Zelda released or re-released for full prices every single year. Annual largely identical Pokemon releases. Nintendo is every bit afraid of taking chances, if not more so, as any other major corporation with too much to lose.
In many ways, it was a miracle Splatoon released at all--and do I really need to remind you that it was almost more of Nintendo afraid to experiment? It was almost just another Mario game.
There hasn't really been anything currently said about the NX that bodes well for the thing. Nintendo no longer understands the gaming industry. They add a bit more power, but less than everyone else, and then go back to doing things the same way they did 25 years ago.
This bodes well for them going more mobile and hopefully 3rd party in the future. When they start raking in the money on mobile, they'll see that making hardware is no longer beneficial to them.
I really don't see how Nintendo Selects would magically do or inspire anything different from the Greatest Hits titles that have graced essentially every other successful platform since the NES. This is a bizarre over-analysis of something that is commonplace in the industry as if it's something remarkable and different just because Nintendo does it.
This article seems to highlight that there is very little to talk about concerning Nintendo these days, so this was forced.
Neither Project Guard nor Giant Robot were originally conceived as full games, as they were created as tech demos, which is something I'd been noting since the E3 reveal. But people still argued that these were "totally real games coming out in 2015." This provides further evidence that these things were never intended to be actual games.
You're basically saying that, "yes, Nintendo is actually borderline lazy/incompetent without software-dependent hardware." So you agree that Nintendo is a company less dedicated to quality than they are in selling plastic.
And to think, this is from people who actually like Nintendo.
And frankly, what reason do you have to think games would come out less frequently? Where does that logic come into play? Since you think Nintendo would shrug off quality without dedicated hardware, that would automatically shorten development time, which means MORE games, not fewer.
SNK was an arcade company for the most part, not a console maker. Their consoles existed mostly just to benefit their arcade arm and for a kind of "elite" marketplace.
Atari and Sega both saw quality drops because they went third party too late, after too much money had been lost and too much damage done.
Nintendo needs to go third party before they reach that point, or they will suffer in the same manner. If they went third party now, while they still have money and clout, they'd transition on their own merits.
This argument that Nintendo needs to make hardware to make quality games is pathetic--let's just admit that now. That means Nintendo is a company that thrives, not on goals of quality, but on desperation to have products to sell hardware. Lots of companies churn out quality games without hardware being dependent on them.
This idea that Nintendo would be incapable of sustaining quality by going third party is telling of Nintendo fans--they do not have confidence in the company. They don't think the company could survive in an open market (Nintendo does have a history of avoiding competition), they don't think the company can make quality games without being forced, and they don't have confidence in Nintendo in general. That is precisely the root of the arguments Nintendo fans have when trying to explain why Nintendo shouldn't go third party, and that is precisely the roots of all the arguments against it. The only other explanation is the fanboyish need to have hardware with the Nintendo logo on the front. And here, I thought it was about video games. You know, software.
Explain why flicking your wrist is somehow more creative or a better way to do an attack than pressing a button. Nintendo shoe-horned in just enough simple motion elements in Mario Galaxy to give the impression of justifying the Wii, while not actually doing anything creative that might have damaged overall quality.
You also did not explain why the Wii U was necessary for Mario Kart 8 to exist, or why it could never work on any other current platform.
Nintendo's third party woes are well beyond just hardware limitations--that's just the most obvious. Devs and publishers have long since lost confidence in Nintendo, and the fans are traditionally unsupportive of non-Nintendo products on their Nintendo machine.
I fully expect the NX to be less powerful than the PS4 and XBO, for there to be very limited 3rd party support at launch, then no third party support within a year or two, and I expect it to sell worse than the Wii U.
These rumors are highly unrealistic for Nintendo. Bluetooth sync with everything? That is certainly not how Nintendo works. I also don't expect haptic feedback in analog, as it took heavy pushing from 3rd parties just for them to include normal Analog Sticks on the Wii U.
It's hardly an Easter Egg if we know about it before the game is even released. That's like calling the blatant in-movie advertising of the next Marvel movie an "Easter Egg." Remember when Thor spent 7 minutes totally advertising the next Thor movie in Age of Ultron? That's an "Easter Egg" now.
If the hardware is part of Nintendo's games, then surely you can explain why the Wii U had to exist for Mario Kart 8 to exist.
And that is exactly the problem. Most of Nintendo's own games fail to live up to the lofty promises of their hardware. Put Mario Kart 8 on any other platform, and it would play identically--probably better on XBO or PS4, actually, given the more robust and seasoned online infrastructures.
What did Donkey Kong Country do that could only be done on the Wii U? Besides not use the GamePad at all.
How about Wii mega-title, Mario Galaxy? What were the special Wii-features that made that game impossible elsewhere? The spin attack could have easily been done with a button, and the collecting star bits was basically added just to justify the Wii Remote.
There is nary a single Nintendo game that could not be done on any other hardware with relative adjustments. The Wii didn't change the industry. The only long-lasting influence it had was to make everyone hate motion controls. The Wii U has had zero impact on the creativity of the rest of the industry.
So, by all means, explain why Mario Kart 8 could only exist on the Wii U.
I've discussed Nintendo's ecosystem, if you will elsewhere, and I think there is incredible value to be found in their software. And almost no value at all in their hardware --before you throw around sales of the 3DS as some kind of proof, say nothing if you bought the system more than once, as I have reason to believe wholly half the sales of that system are to pre-existing owners. Let he/she who has purchased no more than one 3DS cast the first "3DS super seller" stone.
The Wii did show us something: Nintendo's software will sell--so long as the hardware has a large audience. The N64, GC, and Wii U have shown that, by and large, people no longer want to buy Nintendo's hardware.
I want Nintendo's games to reach the audiences they deserve. Which is why I would like to see them just go 3rd party. Imagine Splatoon's sales had it appeared on the PS4, XBO, and Steam. Nintendo would have a powerful game with an audience it deserves.
People are sick of Nintendo's hardware. The industry is sick of the hardware. Third parties are sick of the hardware. I'm sick of it, and it's been a part of my life for 25 years. Nintendo is better as a software company, and I think we can all see that. But I'll say it out loud (per se). The difference is that I want to see them spread to more people. Nintendo fans want them to continue this marginalizing toward irrelevance just because they want another console with little to offer. Nintendo fans apparently care more about hardware than software, or they'd want the company to go third party, too.
If they did it right, they'd be the most valuable commodity in gaming. Instead of what they are now--the most irrelevant.
Nintendo fans do however buy Derivative Game 947 with the same regularity as any other segment of the population. The thing is, they only care about one publisher: Nintendo.
Mario Kart 8 was a derivative. It was flashy graphics for the exact same game that we've played for generations. Zelda games have been of the same basic mold since Ocarina.
My point was that only Nintendo gamers demand that special attention. Not Sony gamers, not Microsoft gamers. Steam gamers generally just want a multiplatform game that actually works, but other than that, they do not make specific demands. They just want to play games.
Nintendo gamers demand special attention.
Other than that, I agree that sequelitis and derivatives are a problem, but not just with gaming, with everything. All of this media costs absurd fortunes to make these days, so everyone--gaming, movies, television, etc., is more focused on franchise-building than new concepts. The cost makes actual new concepts risky. Nintendo is no different in this--they are arguably more risk-averse than anyone out there, and more keen to play it safe. Remember how close we came to Splatoon being yet another Mario game.
In all of this stuff, I tend to jump franchises and interests. I never stick with one thing for too long, and later I come back so it's fresh again. The problem with Nintendo is a bigger fear of new games or ideas than anyone else. On the Wii, they certainly threw around a lot of new IPs. Too bad most of it was of the "Wii Whatever" concept.
I actually really enjoyed Zombi U, and sadly, it's still about the best game on the console to show it off, gimmick-wise. Our game got generally positive reviews, and just plain went unnoticed. The Steam version outsold the Wii U version in about an hour.
All new consoles get ports. It's been that way since the Dreamcast, which launched with ports of PS1 games. It's always a bit disappointing, but it's smart business--a way for devs and publishers to become familiar with the hardware and make a bit of extra cash for the first fully next-gen titles. Nintendo fans are the only ones you'll ever see taking this personally, quite literally making statements along the lines that 3rd parties did it on purpose, apparently, because they don't want to make money and they want Nintendo to fail. And yes, these have been serious statements.
The Wii U's failure means that the majority of it's supporters are likely this very type of Nintendo fan, with many of us older ones tired of the BS with the company and other fans. And worse, even if they're the minority, the vocal ones dominate places like this online, skewing perspective. Nintendo fans look like whiny, entitled brats who want special treatment.
I like Yorumi, and his post highlights this--that 3rd parties need to find some special way to pander to Nintendo fans. On any other console, they just have to make compelling games. That's not enough for Nintendo fans, apparently, who would only ever buy a Samurai/Dynasty Warriors game if it was skinned in Zelda characters.
Then, there's the whole quality argument. Those that do pander to them get support regardless of quality--sometimes. Third parties are called "uncreative" and "boring" for sequels and remakes, while Nintendo is celebrated for the exact same things. What part of Mario Kart Wii or Mario Kart 8 was truly new or unique? I bought Mario Kart 8, ready to give the franchise another chance. It was ultimately the same game I played on the GameCube. That franchise does not evolve.
Nintendo themselves do nothing but send mixed signals. One one hand, defending an under-powered console and downplaying the need for more horsepower, but then following with statements like their support of DKC on the Wii U with fundamentally silly notes: Talking up that the Kongs have fur now because technology! Look at the power!
The point here, is that third parties are not to blame, first and foremost. First, Nintendo is to blame for substandard hardware and poor 3rd party relations. Then the fanbase is to blame for creating an environment hostile toward 3rd parties.
I've been a gamer and Nintendo fan since the NES, way back in the olden days. I've been a part of the Nintendo fanboy fervor, and lived right to seeing how damaging it is to the company.
During the N64 days, Square was seen as an enemy to be hated for "abandoning" Nintendo to go where they would actually be able to make money on the games they wanted.
The N64 started this trend that "all 3rd party on Nintendo is terrible" for two reasons:
The N64 was a crappy console that was extremely difficult, limited, and expensive to work on. As such, many 3rd parties simply ignored the console, and what few that did stick around, often delivered sub-par products due to the difficulty of development. Nintendo couldn't be bothered to make a quality machine.
Secondly, because of the vacant 3rd party offerings, Nintendo was forced to largely carry the console by themselves, and the most memorable games came from them and Rare--and almost no one else. This caused Nintendo fans to rally around Nintendo in a new identity. Not as a "console maker," but as some kind of underdog that everyone treated badly.
Note, Nintendo wasn't actually treated badly. They had two generations prior where they were the industry bullies to third parties and competitors. Nintendo famously threw Sega under the bus during the "video game violence hearings," rather than standing together as an industry. However, Nintendo had developed a glaring ego and hubris, and the N64 was ultimately a dud, dead a year before it's successor even appeared (conversely, the PS1 sold strongly for a literal decade). Nintendo made their bed, and were forced to sleep in it.
Prior to the N64, Nintendo was no different from Sony or Microsoft now--a console maker, whose consoles were sold for their third party libraries as much as 1st party. Starting with the N64, the company's identity changed, and their fans began to form a fanbase starkly different from the rest of the industry. See my post to Yorumi above.
Fans rally hardest when what they love is suffering the worst, and Nintendo fans have gotten more vocal and angry towards differing opinions over the years as the company has lost ground--and outside of the flukes of the Wii and DS (which found fame on a fad), each new console generation sells worse than the one before. I predicted about 2 years ago that, according to then-current sales, the Wii U would top out at somewhere around 12.5-15 million in overall sales. My lower estimate of 12.5 looks like it's going to be about correct.
This is a complex situation, far more than Nintendo fans--and you'll find this exact rhetoric on this site frequently--like to think. Nintendo fans can easily be found dismissing all 3rd party games as the same shooter, thinking they're all crap because they're not Nintendo, or having reality-ignoring beliefs that everything from Nintendo is higher quality than anything from anyone else. Yes, even Wii Play and Pokemon Rumble U.
I think the main thing your post is missing is the fans are going to be a constant hurdle. It seems incredibly absurd for Nintendo fans to request special treatment and specific pandering from 3rd parties, when you don't hear that crap from Sony, Valve, or Microsoft fans.
That doesn't make Nintendo appealing to me as a place to release my game. That tells me, to be perfectly blunt, that Nintendo fans are babies that need special treatment, and everyone else is a gamer or gaming consumer that is just happy to have the variety. This "turn up their noses at 3rd parties" attitude has been a defining feature of Nintendo fans for way, way too long.
At this point, I'm not sure what would be accomplished by Nintendo forming closer relationships with 3rd parties. Their fans still turned up their noses at Tekken Tag 2 and Ninja Gaiden 3, for instance. Rayman Legends still faltered at retail, and so did Zombi U. In the end, those third parties will still get the shaft.
And in the end, I fully expect the NX to be less powerful than the PS4 and XBO, and saddled with some gimmick that ultimately harms the end product.
They asked for support for a variety of things, and its really your own fault if you don't understand there is risk involved. They are making it happen to their extent. Be it miscommunication, failure on the part of GameMaker, or failure on the part of Nintendo to get the GameMaker engine working, you would be best to approach any situation with understanding than the crazed black and white you're exhibiting here.
Kickstarter is not a guarantee. Nothing on there is. Every single other person using the site understands this--apparently except you. Even things that deliver may not be successful (like Ouya or GameStick), and some Kickstarters may fail, but come to fruition anyway--for instance, my team failed Kickstarter twice, but later released our game on three platforms.
Nintendo fans do not support 3rd parties, regardless of what they do, except for the following: Painfully pander to Nintendo fans by gratuitously including Nintendo characters and elements, talk openly about how mega-awesome Nintendo is despite any counter reality, and make the game super exclusive. Even then, success is entirely a crapshoot.
Nintendo fans began their long-standing abandonment of 3rd party products on the N64, and this attitude has been inherited for generations. Sales of 3rd party games on the GameCube always paled to the Xbox, despite equivalent overall hardware sales. Sales of any 3rd party game are all but totally guaranteed to be lower on any Nintendo hardware than anywhere else. Hell, even my team's game sold vastly better on Steam than on the Wii U, and we did way more marketing and review effort on the Wii U. Simply because it wasn't from Nintendo.
The third parties know this, and as such, any game made for Nintendo is going to be a port, and likely with features removed or gimped to save money because they know full well they likely won't make their money back. Nintendo fans then use this as yet another convenient "pat ourselves on the back" excuse to not support 3rd parties without understanding the reasoning behind it. There will be calls that the "Nintendo version is missing features" as if that would have mattered. Even games given extra features sell far worse on Nintendo hardware than elsewhere, and this has been the case for 4 generations. Several games on Nintendo consoles over the years have had Nintendo-exclusive features, but sales still didn't go anywhere.
On the other end of the "gimped 3rd party" offering is an issue Nintendo fans love to ignore, and that's that Nintendo has, in recent generations, repeatedly failed to deliver generation-equivalent hardware, which automatically forces gimped third party games. Expensive cartridges, tiny game disks, lack of harddrive, weak online infrastructure, lack of online features, weak player profiles, no Achievement system (a standard on PS, XB, and Steam), awkward controllers, limited and weaker hardware, lack of major engine support, etc. Each and every one of these work against 3rd parties almost guaranteeing that no 3rd party port will actually be better than the versions on other platforms.
It harkens back to the stuffy old Nintendo of the 80's that VERY DELIBERATELY worked against third parties because the number one thing Nintendo fears is fair competition. And this is unbelievably depressing.
Nintendo fans buy this hardware for Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, and some other secondary franchises where the Nintendo logo is slapped on the front. Nothing else. EA shouldn't bother, and neither should anyone else. For these reasons, Nintendo should just be 3rd party themselves, if they can't make a truly competitive console that is going to feature a robust overall library. A lot of gamers would love to play Nintendo games--but no longer want to buy the hardware. NX is starting from a losing position, one created by Nintendo and their "supportive" core fanbase. An environment hostile towards 3rd parties, and ever diminishing industry importance.
Now: Cue the angry Nintendo fanboys with their "totally justified" reasons for never supporting 3rd party games.
It's not just a lazy Flappy Bird clone. He did a tutorial from the Construct2 website, and expects people to pay him money for it. It's the kind of blatant disrespect for the gamers that damages the developer-player relationship.
Nintendo fans are only too eager to suck up to this guy just because he supports the Wii U, regardless of the lack of respect, zero-quality, or sketchy nature of his titles.
There's no such thing as "100%" certain on anything, be it indie and Kickstarter games or even major AAA titles from major companies. To demand such a thing is foolish at best and deliberately ignorant at worst.
Whatever reason, over the years, GameMaker has not come to the Wii U, though that's really no surprise. Supporting Kickstarter jobs comes with risks, and these guys seem to have followed through on those best they could. Indeed, offering a code for a different platform is a very good solution, as almost no one owns just a Wii U and nothing else as that's a silly thing to do unless the only games you want to play are a few Nintendo franchises and next to nothing else.
Supporters of Kickstarter can be disappointed, but it's wise to be understanding that they aren't getting screwed over. The developers are still trying to support them. At this point, it's on the Kickstarter supporter to grasp the olive branch, or turn up their noses.
Many people--a great many--predicted an ill fate for the Wii U, not the least of which include the man who is president of the company right now. In this regard, hindsight is only 20-20 for the Nintendo fans who were wearing blinders to the writing on the walls when the console was sloppily revealed and then extra sloppily launched.
The NX will likely launch with the weakest 3rd party support of any Nintendo platform yet, and it will peter out faster than ever. Why? Because Nintendo is launching new hardware at a time when the PS4 and XBO are going to be heading into their strongest years in the market (2016~2018). Third parties are going to be working for success, and they'll find it on PS4, XBO, and Steam.
There is no good reason for the NX to be backwards-compatible, particularly to the Wii U, which has done nothing positive for Nintendo in the public eye or gaming marketplace.
And if the NX is the fabled hybrid console (that has long been rumored, never confirmed, but a logical move forward--from a company that exists despite logic), the last thing Nintendo should do is keep the Wii U and 3DS active, and going by their history of quickly killing off legacy platforms, particularly poorly-selling ones (like the N64 and GC), the Wii U and 3DS are already on their way out. Depending on which platform NX is set to replace, the Wii U and/or 3DS will be dead within 6 months of launch. In many ways, the Wii U is already dead.
When Nintendo players eagerly throw away money on these trite affairs, they have created the eShop they deserved--plagued with bottom-of-the-barrel, zero-quality crap from people who know less about game design than your average shoe-shiner from turn-of-the-century New York. From last century.
Money can still be wasted, even at 49 cents. And continued support of sub-candy-bar value gaming will continue to produce more such games.
I don't think Wii Fit U sold any significant numbers of Wii U consoles. Wii Fit certainly helped the Wii, but it didn't do a damn thing for the Wii U--and the Balance Board has been dead since shortly after Fit U hit. It didn't do a thing.
On the QoL front, this doesn't surprise me. This project had all the hallmarks of eventual vaporware--like the Vitality Sensor. They never gave much in the way of details, it was unclear what it was or how it was supposed to work, and for years on end new details were less than scarce. It's better for the company to drop this whole endeavor and start focusing on new ideas.
I think it means your purchases are no longer stupidly tied to hardware. So, if your 3DS sinks to the bottom of a lake or is stolen by Elvis before he returns to Planet Xaxxar (your experiences may vary), you can redownload your games on your replacement 3DS.
On top of that there'll be a global roll-out of online eShop purchases, at last, a feature that's long been available in North America and recently in Japan - read about a game on Nintendo's website, buy it and it'll automatically download to the relevant system, all using your Nintendo Network ID (via a Nintendo Account, in the new system). It's a nice idea, and our hope is that the current setup will be expanded to allow you to browse and buy any game on the eShop, not just major retail titles; every download has official game pages in each region, so that should be on the cards.
Has my attention on re-reading. Does this mean, for instance, a game released only in the US can be bought in Europe? Or a game released only in the Japanese eShop can be downloaded in the US or Europe? Is this speculation?
I'm not seeing rewards of any kind for physical purchases... Or the actual Club Nintendo-like physical rewards scheme.
Er... 100 million subscribers? If ever a number was pulled from someone's behind, it's that one. 100 million people eventually picked up Wii consoles, because it was a fad. And with Nintendo's typical slowness in adopting and understanding new concepts, I have a concerned feeling about their understanding of the mobile space.
I expect the Twilight Princess treatment at the very least for Zelda U--both NX and Wii U, with the Wii U launch a month later. Nintendo is in a position where it now makes more sense to use that new Zelda as a gamble on the new hardware rather than putting out to pasture on a platform consumers have long since abandoned.
Currently known information put a new Zelda, new Mario (as Miyamoto talked about for two years), a rumored Smash Bros game (most likely a GOTY-style port of the current game), and potentially Pikmin 4 would give the NX a solid starting base with better chances for success than putting Zelda U only on the U.
Nintendo's history of drastic wind-down prior to releasing new hardware is already happening, and there have been no new Wii U games announced since prior to E3 last year. Also, previously, they have moved games from current to next gen in these exact late hours before: Eternal Darkness and Star Fox Adventures jumped ship from N64. Twilight Princess went to Wii. Pikmin 3 went from Wii to Wii U. This makes perfect sense right now.
Nintendo's pattern of business is to publicly announce "continued support" for legacy platforms, but then to abandon them once the new hardware is out. Only the NES and DS survived for considerable time after the successor platforms were out. The GameCube, N64, Wii, GBC, and GBA were all essentially dead when the successor platform released, and they were quickly and quietly forgotten. The only support the Wii U and 3DS will receive after their successors launch is going to be on the eShop side, and that for probably only a year, unless they are incorporated into the new platforms.
Nintendo will always publicly announce continued support so they can keep fans and consumers buying the current product. They will also continue to always dump that old hardware as soon as possible, which has been their history.
I knew Project Guard and Giant Robot weren't coming out last year. Nintendo never stated they were anything more than tech demos until after E3, and even then, it was only vague notions. I said as much several times last year.
Zelda NX, er, U on track for "2016." Probably because it's pulling a Twilight Princess.
I was generalizing on the hardware. The point is that the Game Boy Color is officially considered part of the Game Boy line. Its not a separate platform, or a brew hardware design (they merely upgraded the existing hardware). The GBC is to the GB what the New3DS is to the regular 3DS.
What you're doing isI called spin because you don't want to admit being incorrect. The reasons the Game Boy lasted as long as it did include that its original successor, the Virtual Boy failed hard at retail, and adding hardware revisions, not to overlook the way Pokemon gave it a new lease on life.
After that, the GBA sold lower numbers, and then the 3DS sold lower yet. The DS, like the Wii, was sold as a fad, and after, the 3DS sold below GBA levels.
The Game Boy Color is considered the same generation as the original Game Boy, even with Nintendo's own accounting, as they were identical hardware (with color added). That is not a logical fallacy (which indicates you may not know what those are), at worst, I'd be incorrect, but I am not. This has been shown on this site before, granted it was a while ago. The 3DS is in the same downward trend, as the consoles which strongly indicates that outside of the occasional fad, Nintendo is a non-factor in modern gaming and they far removed from being the industry leaders they were in the 8-bit and 16-bit eras, which, just so happen to be the eras where Nintendo tends to bank on all their nostalgia power.
I also am not "widely out of tune" with what NX is since no one outside of Nintendo actually knows for sure what it is, and the very description you have made is precisely the description I predicted two years ago as the direction they should take. I know I'm not around much these days, but I'm still pretty sure I flooded this site with my descriptions of how the NX should ideally work as both a handheld and home console--which, by the way, many people here adamantly argued was totally impossible.
We'll know the name of the NX console before the next Zelda, though, I wouldn't be surprised if they are done largely together. One thing I feel strongly about is that we'll get NX news before we get more "Next Zelda" news. And the HD Twilight Princess is like an almost too-obvious pre-apology: "Sorry, Zelda U is moving to NX, but we at least gave you two great HD remasters, right guys? Whatever, it's Zelda. You'd buy it even if the box was empty."
The success of the Wii was a fluke, based entirely around a successfully timed fad and nothing else. The DS was likewise a fad. The evidence of this can be seen in the sales of the Wii U and 3DS--which aren't just way lower than the Wii and DS, but are actually lower than the GameCube and GBA, themselves lower than their predecessors, going back to a history of Nintendo selling lower and lower with each new generation.
The safe prediction is that the NX will sell worse than the Wii U unless it happens to stumble upon some kind of fad-heavy success like the Wii. Since the NX will be launching mid-generation against two competitors when they will be entering their strongest phase, the NX is all but guaranteed to stumble and/or fail. No console launched mid-generation has ever performed well.
It's like TV's Friday Night Death Slot for gaming.
StarFox can handily fail, because it has happened to this franchise before. The main reason it might not is that it has literally no competition on the Wii U because there are almost no other games coming to the system.
No matter how good Zelda U is, it's not going to "save" the Wii U or suddenly create some kind of magical turn-around in sales. That ship has sailed.
And I'm willing to bet that a big reason for yet another HD Zelda remake is because Zelda U... is going the obvious route of becoming Zelda NX.
When there was only this many games coming to the N64, the GameCube launched later in the year.
NX is coming in 2016. Nintendo barely has games enough for this year, and they certainly don't have any for the Wii U for 2017. Even Miyamoto noted that the next major Mario game will not be on Wii U, as he indicated almost two years ago it was already in development for the new platform.
Comments 2,916
Re: Guide: A Nintendo Fan's Breakdown of E3 2016's Press Conferences and Events
Nintendo has done a fantastic job of showing the gaming world that they do not matter.
Re: Talking Point: Revealing an Innovative Legend of Zelda at E3 Could Provide a Timely Boost for Nintendo
Nothing says desperation to scrape at any amount of hope like this. Zelda does not sell consoles to anyone other than the ever-dwindling Nintendo fanbase that can still justify purchasing expensive hardware for only a couple games.
Nintendo not attending E3 is a massive red flag. It indicates they don't have third parties on-board for Wii U, 3DS, and worst of all, NX. Major 3rd parties would not sit idly by and allow Nintendo to screw them over on any upcoming games like this. It also indicates that either the NX isn't ready or Nintendo doesn't have confidence in it.
Skipping E3 and skipping the holiday season in the West is a major set-back to the company and the ill-fated inbound hardware.
Unfortunately, I went from colossal Nintendo fan in my youth to jaded today. At this point, it's going to take something tantamount to a miracle for Nintendo to sell me the NX.
Re: Review: SUPER ROBO MOUSE (Wii U eShop)
@Pikachupwnage
I caught this before and showed exactly what he does, which is to follow tutorials from the Construct2 website (or elsewhere), and then to charge people money for them.
Construct2 can be downloaded for free by anyone here, and they, too, can, in a week, be as "good" a developer as Rcmadiax. The most obvious was his Flappy Birds clone, which has a tutorial on the Construct2 website literally titled "Make a Flappy Bird Clone in 10 minutes."
Re: Review: SUPER ROBO MOUSE (Wii U eShop)
@MoonKnight7
His calling has always been to reduce indie gaming to empty shovelware. He managed to help ruin the eShop good and early. Nintendo's free-for-all "you buy a dev kit, you make a game" attitude didn't help things.
Re: Reaction: The NX Release in March 2017 and How It Changes the Game
This was all within my predicted timeframe over the last year: Zelda will be on NX and the NX would launch in the current fiscal year. I expected November, but allowed for March.
March, though, is kind of a stupid time to launch new hardware, particularly as it misses the important holiday season. If Nintendo is really trying to just avoid competition with Sony and Microsoft during that time, that is very telling that they lack confidence in the NX already. Which makes sense. I have no confidence in the poor thing either.
Re: Research Firm Reckons Nintendo's Spent Nearly $527 Million on Research and Development This Fiscal Year
@Project_Dolphin
Nintendo almost never spends time or money promoting 3rd party games, and this has been one of their problems for generations. There was an obvious difference in how Nintendo marketed their machines compared to Sony or Microsoft. And the biggest difference was that Nintendo almost never promoted 3rd party games. MS and Sony, on the other hand, often did ads with many 3rd party games shown, or fully supporting a single major release.
This is just another way Nintendo is behind the times in modern gaming. They still think they can just magically go it alone forever. Instead, they are becoming more marginalized each generation.
Re: Research Firm Reckons Nintendo's Spent Nearly $527 Million on Research and Development This Fiscal Year
@Nintendian
On what do you base that totally unwarranted assumption?
Re: Research Firm Reckons Nintendo's Spent Nearly $527 Million on Research and Development This Fiscal Year
@JaxonH
If people just "came back" to Nintendo, their sales and market impact would be better. The reality is that no one is coming back to the console, but people who did grow up with Nintendo are moving--permanently--to Playstation, Xbox, and/or Steam.
There is no logical reason to assume people will just "return" to the company, especially after spending 4 generations continually falling behind in every capacity. Sales, market impact, innovation, 3rd party support, game libraries, longevity, etc. Only the Wii and DS had sales, and that was only because they were flukes, fads. Even on their systems with sales, they lost tons of 3rd party support and they failed to create a long-lasting impact on the industry.
No one is coming back to Nintendo. The only thing happening is that people are out-growing Nintendo.
Re: Rumour: New Nintendo NX Controller Images Surface and Set the Web Alight
@XCWarrior
I liked the GamePad at first, then I got the PS4, and now it feels like crap in my hands again. And a common complaint I'd seen on the Miiverse was people wanting to play games without the GamePad.
I hope this isn't the stupid direction the NX controller is taking, but at the same time, I really wouldn't be surprised. Nintendo doesn't know how to actually do anything new with their franchises, so they make a new controller expecting that people won't notice... that they still aren't doing anything new. The biggest bragging Iwata made about DKC for the Wii U was "fur on the Kongs" while glossing over how it made the GamePad virtually pointless. Mario Kart 8 also doesn't do anything that couldn't be done on any other system.
If this is the controller, it's just another major hurdle to getting 3rd parties to give a crap, and is completely outside the major trends of the industry now, which is VR and augmented reality concepts--and those are incredibly popular.
Re: Miitomo Passed One Million Downloads in Just Three Days
@Nintendriat
Your post doesn't make sense. Every time Nintendo fans attempt to make an argument that Nintendo shouldn't go third party, it's usually the only time they admit the company is heavily flawed in a number of aspects, and would therefore fare poorly.
Nintendo would only make games that are guaranteed to sell? How is that different from now, where they take virtually zero chances on their games? They spend most of their time hitting the same notes every year and generation--Mario slapped onto the covers of half a dozen games a year. Zelda released or re-released for full prices every single year. Annual largely identical Pokemon releases. Nintendo is every bit afraid of taking chances, if not more so, as any other major corporation with too much to lose.
In many ways, it was a miracle Splatoon released at all--and do I really need to remind you that it was almost more of Nintendo afraid to experiment? It was almost just another Mario game.
Re: Impressive Miitomo Download Numbers Credited For Sizeable Jump in Nintendo Share Value
They're gonna need that share jump, because it's going to plummet again when they reveal the NX in April or May.
Re: Ori and the Blind Forest Director Criticises Secrecy and Lack of Access to NX Devkits
There hasn't really been anything currently said about the NX that bodes well for the thing. Nintendo no longer understands the gaming industry. They add a bit more power, but less than everyone else, and then go back to doing things the same way they did 25 years ago.
Re: MercurySteam Reunites With Castlevania Producer Dave Cox For New Secret Project
I would expect that whatever they're doing, it won't be on a Nintendo system.
Re: Miitomo Passed One Million Downloads in Just Three Days
This bodes well for them going more mobile and hopefully 3rd party in the future. When they start raking in the money on mobile, they'll see that making hardware is no longer beneficial to them.
Re: Talking Point: The Popularity of Nintendo Selects, Updates and DLC Expansions Can Change How We Buy Games
I really don't see how Nintendo Selects would magically do or inspire anything different from the Greatest Hits titles that have graced essentially every other successful platform since the NES. This is a bizarre over-analysis of something that is commonplace in the industry as if it's something remarkable and different just because Nintendo does it.
This article seems to highlight that there is very little to talk about concerning Nintendo these days, so this was forced.
Re: Future Of Project Giant Robot Is Still Up In The Air, Says Miyamoto
Neither Project Guard nor Giant Robot were originally conceived as full games, as they were created as tech demos, which is something I'd been noting since the E3 reveal. But people still argued that these were "totally real games coming out in 2015." This provides further evidence that these things were never intended to be actual games.
Re: Editorial: Triple-A Third Party Games Will Need Creativity as Well as Marketing for NX Success
@TheMisterManGuy
You're basically saying that, "yes, Nintendo is actually borderline lazy/incompetent without software-dependent hardware." So you agree that Nintendo is a company less dedicated to quality than they are in selling plastic.
And to think, this is from people who actually like Nintendo.
And frankly, what reason do you have to think games would come out less frequently? Where does that logic come into play? Since you think Nintendo would shrug off quality without dedicated hardware, that would automatically shorten development time, which means MORE games, not fewer.
Re: Editorial: Triple-A Third Party Games Will Need Creativity as Well as Marketing for NX Success
@TheMisterManGuy
SNK was an arcade company for the most part, not a console maker. Their consoles existed mostly just to benefit their arcade arm and for a kind of "elite" marketplace.
Atari and Sega both saw quality drops because they went third party too late, after too much money had been lost and too much damage done.
Nintendo needs to go third party before they reach that point, or they will suffer in the same manner. If they went third party now, while they still have money and clout, they'd transition on their own merits.
This argument that Nintendo needs to make hardware to make quality games is pathetic--let's just admit that now. That means Nintendo is a company that thrives, not on goals of quality, but on desperation to have products to sell hardware. Lots of companies churn out quality games without hardware being dependent on them.
This idea that Nintendo would be incapable of sustaining quality by going third party is telling of Nintendo fans--they do not have confidence in the company. They don't think the company could survive in an open market (Nintendo does have a history of avoiding competition), they don't think the company can make quality games without being forced, and they don't have confidence in Nintendo in general. That is precisely the root of the arguments Nintendo fans have when trying to explain why Nintendo shouldn't go third party, and that is precisely the roots of all the arguments against it. The only other explanation is the fanboyish need to have hardware with the Nintendo logo on the front. And here, I thought it was about video games. You know, software.
Re: Editorial: Triple-A Third Party Games Will Need Creativity as Well as Marketing for NX Success
@Project_Dolphin
Explain why flicking your wrist is somehow more creative or a better way to do an attack than pressing a button. Nintendo shoe-horned in just enough simple motion elements in Mario Galaxy to give the impression of justifying the Wii, while not actually doing anything creative that might have damaged overall quality.
You also did not explain why the Wii U was necessary for Mario Kart 8 to exist, or why it could never work on any other current platform.
Re: Rumour Buster: Let's Clarify Some Issues With Those Recent Nintendo NX Predictions
Nintendo's third party woes are well beyond just hardware limitations--that's just the most obvious. Devs and publishers have long since lost confidence in Nintendo, and the fans are traditionally unsupportive of non-Nintendo products on their Nintendo machine.
I fully expect the NX to be less powerful than the PS4 and XBO, for there to be very limited 3rd party support at launch, then no third party support within a year or two, and I expect it to sell worse than the Wii U.
These rumors are highly unrealistic for Nintendo. Bluetooth sync with everything? That is certainly not how Nintendo works. I also don't expect haptic feedback in analog, as it took heavy pushing from 3rd parties just for them to include normal Analog Sticks on the Wii U.
Re: Video: Zelda U Easter Egg Found Within Twilight Princess HD
It's hardly an Easter Egg if we know about it before the game is even released. That's like calling the blatant in-movie advertising of the next Marvel movie an "Easter Egg." Remember when Thor spent 7 minutes totally advertising the next Thor movie in Age of Ultron? That's an "Easter Egg" now.
Re: Editorial: Triple-A Third Party Games Will Need Creativity as Well as Marketing for NX Success
@Project_Dolphin
If the hardware is part of Nintendo's games, then surely you can explain why the Wii U had to exist for Mario Kart 8 to exist.
And that is exactly the problem. Most of Nintendo's own games fail to live up to the lofty promises of their hardware. Put Mario Kart 8 on any other platform, and it would play identically--probably better on XBO or PS4, actually, given the more robust and seasoned online infrastructures.
What did Donkey Kong Country do that could only be done on the Wii U? Besides not use the GamePad at all.
How about Wii mega-title, Mario Galaxy? What were the special Wii-features that made that game impossible elsewhere? The spin attack could have easily been done with a button, and the collecting star bits was basically added just to justify the Wii Remote.
There is nary a single Nintendo game that could not be done on any other hardware with relative adjustments. The Wii didn't change the industry. The only long-lasting influence it had was to make everyone hate motion controls. The Wii U has had zero impact on the creativity of the rest of the industry.
So, by all means, explain why Mario Kart 8 could only exist on the Wii U.
Re: Editorial: Triple-A Third Party Games Will Need Creativity as Well as Marketing for NX Success
@lilith
I've discussed Nintendo's ecosystem, if you will elsewhere, and I think there is incredible value to be found in their software. And almost no value at all in their hardware --before you throw around sales of the 3DS as some kind of proof, say nothing if you bought the system more than once, as I have reason to believe wholly half the sales of that system are to pre-existing owners. Let he/she who has purchased no more than one 3DS cast the first "3DS super seller" stone.
The Wii did show us something: Nintendo's software will sell--so long as the hardware has a large audience. The N64, GC, and Wii U have shown that, by and large, people no longer want to buy Nintendo's hardware.
I want Nintendo's games to reach the audiences they deserve. Which is why I would like to see them just go 3rd party. Imagine Splatoon's sales had it appeared on the PS4, XBO, and Steam. Nintendo would have a powerful game with an audience it deserves.
People are sick of Nintendo's hardware. The industry is sick of the hardware. Third parties are sick of the hardware. I'm sick of it, and it's been a part of my life for 25 years. Nintendo is better as a software company, and I think we can all see that. But I'll say it out loud (per se). The difference is that I want to see them spread to more people. Nintendo fans want them to continue this marginalizing toward irrelevance just because they want another console with little to offer. Nintendo fans apparently care more about hardware than software, or they'd want the company to go third party, too.
If they did it right, they'd be the most valuable commodity in gaming. Instead of what they are now--the most irrelevant.
Re: Editorial: Triple-A Third Party Games Will Need Creativity as Well as Marketing for NX Success
@Yorumi
Nintendo fans do however buy Derivative Game 947 with the same regularity as any other segment of the population. The thing is, they only care about one publisher: Nintendo.
Mario Kart 8 was a derivative. It was flashy graphics for the exact same game that we've played for generations. Zelda games have been of the same basic mold since Ocarina.
My point was that only Nintendo gamers demand that special attention. Not Sony gamers, not Microsoft gamers. Steam gamers generally just want a multiplatform game that actually works, but other than that, they do not make specific demands. They just want to play games.
Nintendo gamers demand special attention.
Other than that, I agree that sequelitis and derivatives are a problem, but not just with gaming, with everything. All of this media costs absurd fortunes to make these days, so everyone--gaming, movies, television, etc., is more focused on franchise-building than new concepts. The cost makes actual new concepts risky. Nintendo is no different in this--they are arguably more risk-averse than anyone out there, and more keen to play it safe. Remember how close we came to Splatoon being yet another Mario game.
In all of this stuff, I tend to jump franchises and interests. I never stick with one thing for too long, and later I come back so it's fresh again. The problem with Nintendo is a bigger fear of new games or ideas than anyone else. On the Wii, they certainly threw around a lot of new IPs. Too bad most of it was of the "Wii Whatever" concept.
Re: Editorial: Triple-A Third Party Games Will Need Creativity as Well as Marketing for NX Success
@lilith
I actually really enjoyed Zombi U, and sadly, it's still about the best game on the console to show it off, gimmick-wise. Our game got generally positive reviews, and just plain went unnoticed. The Steam version outsold the Wii U version in about an hour.
All new consoles get ports. It's been that way since the Dreamcast, which launched with ports of PS1 games. It's always a bit disappointing, but it's smart business--a way for devs and publishers to become familiar with the hardware and make a bit of extra cash for the first fully next-gen titles. Nintendo fans are the only ones you'll ever see taking this personally, quite literally making statements along the lines that 3rd parties did it on purpose, apparently, because they don't want to make money and they want Nintendo to fail. And yes, these have been serious statements.
The Wii U's failure means that the majority of it's supporters are likely this very type of Nintendo fan, with many of us older ones tired of the BS with the company and other fans. And worse, even if they're the minority, the vocal ones dominate places like this online, skewing perspective. Nintendo fans look like whiny, entitled brats who want special treatment.
I like Yorumi, and his post highlights this--that 3rd parties need to find some special way to pander to Nintendo fans. On any other console, they just have to make compelling games. That's not enough for Nintendo fans, apparently, who would only ever buy a Samurai/Dynasty Warriors game if it was skinned in Zelda characters.
Then, there's the whole quality argument. Those that do pander to them get support regardless of quality--sometimes. Third parties are called "uncreative" and "boring" for sequels and remakes, while Nintendo is celebrated for the exact same things. What part of Mario Kart Wii or Mario Kart 8 was truly new or unique? I bought Mario Kart 8, ready to give the franchise another chance. It was ultimately the same game I played on the GameCube. That franchise does not evolve.
Nintendo themselves do nothing but send mixed signals. One one hand, defending an under-powered console and downplaying the need for more horsepower, but then following with statements like their support of DKC on the Wii U with fundamentally silly notes: Talking up that the Kongs have fur now because technology! Look at the power!
The point here, is that third parties are not to blame, first and foremost. First, Nintendo is to blame for substandard hardware and poor 3rd party relations. Then the fanbase is to blame for creating an environment hostile toward 3rd parties.
Oh hell, I just remembered this: https://overdeepgeek.wordpress.com/2014/10/01/the-vicious-cycle-of-a-nintendo-console-part-1-of-2/
Re: Editorial: Triple-A Third Party Games Will Need Creativity as Well as Marketing for NX Success
@lilith
I've been a gamer and Nintendo fan since the NES, way back in the olden days. I've been a part of the Nintendo fanboy fervor, and lived right to seeing how damaging it is to the company.
During the N64 days, Square was seen as an enemy to be hated for "abandoning" Nintendo to go where they would actually be able to make money on the games they wanted.
The N64 started this trend that "all 3rd party on Nintendo is terrible" for two reasons:
The N64 was a crappy console that was extremely difficult, limited, and expensive to work on. As such, many 3rd parties simply ignored the console, and what few that did stick around, often delivered sub-par products due to the difficulty of development. Nintendo couldn't be bothered to make a quality machine.
Secondly, because of the vacant 3rd party offerings, Nintendo was forced to largely carry the console by themselves, and the most memorable games came from them and Rare--and almost no one else. This caused Nintendo fans to rally around Nintendo in a new identity. Not as a "console maker," but as some kind of underdog that everyone treated badly.
Note, Nintendo wasn't actually treated badly. They had two generations prior where they were the industry bullies to third parties and competitors. Nintendo famously threw Sega under the bus during the "video game violence hearings," rather than standing together as an industry. However, Nintendo had developed a glaring ego and hubris, and the N64 was ultimately a dud, dead a year before it's successor even appeared (conversely, the PS1 sold strongly for a literal decade). Nintendo made their bed, and were forced to sleep in it.
Prior to the N64, Nintendo was no different from Sony or Microsoft now--a console maker, whose consoles were sold for their third party libraries as much as 1st party. Starting with the N64, the company's identity changed, and their fans began to form a fanbase starkly different from the rest of the industry. See my post to Yorumi above.
Fans rally hardest when what they love is suffering the worst, and Nintendo fans have gotten more vocal and angry towards differing opinions over the years as the company has lost ground--and outside of the flukes of the Wii and DS (which found fame on a fad), each new console generation sells worse than the one before. I predicted about 2 years ago that, according to then-current sales, the Wii U would top out at somewhere around 12.5-15 million in overall sales. My lower estimate of 12.5 looks like it's going to be about correct.
This is a complex situation, far more than Nintendo fans--and you'll find this exact rhetoric on this site frequently--like to think. Nintendo fans can easily be found dismissing all 3rd party games as the same shooter, thinking they're all crap because they're not Nintendo, or having reality-ignoring beliefs that everything from Nintendo is higher quality than anything from anyone else. Yes, even Wii Play and Pokemon Rumble U.
There's a lot more ground to cover in this.
Re: Editorial: Triple-A Third Party Games Will Need Creativity as Well as Marketing for NX Success
@Yorumi
I think the main thing your post is missing is the fans are going to be a constant hurdle. It seems incredibly absurd for Nintendo fans to request special treatment and specific pandering from 3rd parties, when you don't hear that crap from Sony, Valve, or Microsoft fans.
That doesn't make Nintendo appealing to me as a place to release my game. That tells me, to be perfectly blunt, that Nintendo fans are babies that need special treatment, and everyone else is a gamer or gaming consumer that is just happy to have the variety. This "turn up their noses at 3rd parties" attitude has been a defining feature of Nintendo fans for way, way too long.
At this point, I'm not sure what would be accomplished by Nintendo forming closer relationships with 3rd parties. Their fans still turned up their noses at Tekken Tag 2 and Ninja Gaiden 3, for instance. Rayman Legends still faltered at retail, and so did Zombi U. In the end, those third parties will still get the shaft.
And in the end, I fully expect the NX to be less powerful than the PS4 and XBO, and saddled with some gimmick that ultimately harms the end product.
Re: Hyper Light Drifter May Not Be Coming to Wii U
@JaxonH
They asked for support for a variety of things, and its really your own fault if you don't understand there is risk involved. They are making it happen to their extent. Be it miscommunication, failure on the part of GameMaker, or failure on the part of Nintendo to get the GameMaker engine working, you would be best to approach any situation with understanding than the crazed black and white you're exhibiting here.
Kickstarter is not a guarantee. Nothing on there is. Every single other person using the site understands this--apparently except you. Even things that deliver may not be successful (like Ouya or GameStick), and some Kickstarters may fail, but come to fruition anyway--for instance, my team failed Kickstarter twice, but later released our game on three platforms.
Re: Hyper Light Drifter May Not Be Coming to Wii U
@SMEXIZELDAMAN
Ha, you have evidently not seen the philosophical arguments I have. Nor the Outer Limits episodes!
Re: Editorial: Triple-A Third Party Games Will Need Creativity as Well as Marketing for NX Success
Nintendo fans do not support 3rd parties, regardless of what they do, except for the following: Painfully pander to Nintendo fans by gratuitously including Nintendo characters and elements, talk openly about how mega-awesome Nintendo is despite any counter reality, and make the game super exclusive. Even then, success is entirely a crapshoot.
Nintendo fans began their long-standing abandonment of 3rd party products on the N64, and this attitude has been inherited for generations. Sales of 3rd party games on the GameCube always paled to the Xbox, despite equivalent overall hardware sales. Sales of any 3rd party game are all but totally guaranteed to be lower on any Nintendo hardware than anywhere else. Hell, even my team's game sold vastly better on Steam than on the Wii U, and we did way more marketing and review effort on the Wii U. Simply because it wasn't from Nintendo.
The third parties know this, and as such, any game made for Nintendo is going to be a port, and likely with features removed or gimped to save money because they know full well they likely won't make their money back. Nintendo fans then use this as yet another convenient "pat ourselves on the back" excuse to not support 3rd parties without understanding the reasoning behind it. There will be calls that the "Nintendo version is missing features" as if that would have mattered. Even games given extra features sell far worse on Nintendo hardware than elsewhere, and this has been the case for 4 generations. Several games on Nintendo consoles over the years have had Nintendo-exclusive features, but sales still didn't go anywhere.
On the other end of the "gimped 3rd party" offering is an issue Nintendo fans love to ignore, and that's that Nintendo has, in recent generations, repeatedly failed to deliver generation-equivalent hardware, which automatically forces gimped third party games. Expensive cartridges, tiny game disks, lack of harddrive, weak online infrastructure, lack of online features, weak player profiles, no Achievement system (a standard on PS, XB, and Steam), awkward controllers, limited and weaker hardware, lack of major engine support, etc. Each and every one of these work against 3rd parties almost guaranteeing that no 3rd party port will actually be better than the versions on other platforms.
It harkens back to the stuffy old Nintendo of the 80's that VERY DELIBERATELY worked against third parties because the number one thing Nintendo fears is fair competition. And this is unbelievably depressing.
Nintendo fans buy this hardware for Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, and some other secondary franchises where the Nintendo logo is slapped on the front. Nothing else. EA shouldn't bother, and neither should anyone else. For these reasons, Nintendo should just be 3rd party themselves, if they can't make a truly competitive console that is going to feature a robust overall library. A lot of gamers would love to play Nintendo games--but no longer want to buy the hardware. NX is starting from a losing position, one created by Nintendo and their "supportive" core fanbase. An environment hostile towards 3rd parties, and ever diminishing industry importance.
Now: Cue the angry Nintendo fanboys with their "totally justified" reasons for never supporting 3rd party games.
Re: Review: TAP TAP ARCADE (Wii U eShop)
@Xilef
It's not just a lazy Flappy Bird clone. He did a tutorial from the Construct2 website, and expects people to pay him money for it. It's the kind of blatant disrespect for the gamers that damages the developer-player relationship.
Nintendo fans are only too eager to suck up to this guy just because he supports the Wii U, regardless of the lack of respect, zero-quality, or sketchy nature of his titles.
https://www.scirra.com/tutorials/857/flappy-birds-clone-in-10-minutes
Re: Hyper Light Drifter May Not Be Coming to Wii U
@JaxonH
There's no such thing as "100%" certain on anything, be it indie and Kickstarter games or even major AAA titles from major companies. To demand such a thing is foolish at best and deliberately ignorant at worst.
Whatever reason, over the years, GameMaker has not come to the Wii U, though that's really no surprise. Supporting Kickstarter jobs comes with risks, and these guys seem to have followed through on those best they could. Indeed, offering a code for a different platform is a very good solution, as almost no one owns just a Wii U and nothing else as that's a silly thing to do unless the only games you want to play are a few Nintendo franchises and next to nothing else.
Supporters of Kickstarter can be disappointed, but it's wise to be understanding that they aren't getting screwed over. The developers are still trying to support them. At this point, it's on the Kickstarter supporter to grasp the olive branch, or turn up their noses.
Re: Soapbox: A Nintendo Fan's Hopes and Dreams for the NX
Right away there's fallacy in this article:
"Hindsight is always 20/20"
Many people--a great many--predicted an ill fate for the Wii U, not the least of which include the man who is president of the company right now. In this regard, hindsight is only 20-20 for the Nintendo fans who were wearing blinders to the writing on the walls when the console was sloppily revealed and then extra sloppily launched.
The NX will likely launch with the weakest 3rd party support of any Nintendo platform yet, and it will peter out faster than ever. Why? Because Nintendo is launching new hardware at a time when the PS4 and XBO are going to be heading into their strongest years in the market (2016~2018). Third parties are going to be working for success, and they'll find it on PS4, XBO, and Steam.
There is no good reason for the NX to be backwards-compatible, particularly to the Wii U, which has done nothing positive for Nintendo in the public eye or gaming marketplace.
And if the NX is the fabled hybrid console (that has long been rumored, never confirmed, but a logical move forward--from a company that exists despite logic), the last thing Nintendo should do is keep the Wii U and 3DS active, and going by their history of quickly killing off legacy platforms, particularly poorly-selling ones (like the N64 and GC), the Wii U and 3DS are already on their way out. Depending on which platform NX is set to replace, the Wii U and/or 3DS will be dead within 6 months of launch. In many ways, the Wii U is already dead.
Re: Outside the Realm from TreeFall Studios to Launch at 49 Cents
When Nintendo players eagerly throw away money on these trite affairs, they have created the eShop they deserved--plagued with bottom-of-the-barrel, zero-quality crap from people who know less about game design than your average shoe-shiner from turn-of-the-century New York. From last century.
Money can still be wasted, even at 49 cents. And continued support of sub-candy-bar value gaming will continue to produce more such games.
Re: Quality Of Life Device Not Fit To Be Sold As "A Nintendo Product" At The Moment, Says Kimishima
@zool
I don't think Wii Fit U sold any significant numbers of Wii U consoles. Wii Fit certainly helped the Wii, but it didn't do a damn thing for the Wii U--and the Balance Board has been dead since shortly after Fit U hit. It didn't do a thing.
On the QoL front, this doesn't surprise me. This project had all the hallmarks of eventual vaporware--like the Vitality Sensor. They never gave much in the way of details, it was unclear what it was or how it was supposed to work, and for years on end new details were less than scarce. It's better for the company to drop this whole endeavor and start focusing on new ideas.
Re: More Details Emerge on the Launch of My Nintendo
@Yoshi
I think it means your purchases are no longer stupidly tied to hardware. So, if your 3DS sinks to the bottom of a lake or is stolen by Elvis before he returns to Planet Xaxxar (your experiences may vary), you can redownload your games on your replacement 3DS.
Re: Talking Point: My Nintendo Can Be a Tipping Point in Nintendo's Approach To User Accounts
Hmmm, wait, this section:
On top of that there'll be a global roll-out of online eShop purchases, at last, a feature that's long been available in North America and recently in Japan - read about a game on Nintendo's website, buy it and it'll automatically download to the relevant system, all using your Nintendo Network ID (via a Nintendo Account, in the new system). It's a nice idea, and our hope is that the current setup will be expanded to allow you to browse and buy any game on the eShop, not just major retail titles; every download has official game pages in each region, so that should be on the cards.
Has my attention on re-reading. Does this mean, for instance, a game released only in the US can be bought in Europe? Or a game released only in the Japanese eShop can be downloaded in the US or Europe? Is this speculation?
Re: Talking Point: My Nintendo Can Be a Tipping Point in Nintendo's Approach To User Accounts
I'm not seeing rewards of any kind for physical purchases... Or the actual Club Nintendo-like physical rewards scheme.
Er... 100 million subscribers? If ever a number was pulled from someone's behind, it's that one. 100 million people eventually picked up Wii consoles, because it was a fad. And with Nintendo's typical slowness in adopting and understanding new concepts, I have a concerned feeling about their understanding of the mobile space.
Re: The Legend of Zelda for Wii U Gets Its 2016 Release Window Back, as Project Guard Slips to 'TBC'
@OneBagTravel
I expect the Twilight Princess treatment at the very least for Zelda U--both NX and Wii U, with the Wii U launch a month later. Nintendo is in a position where it now makes more sense to use that new Zelda as a gamble on the new hardware rather than putting out to pasture on a platform consumers have long since abandoned.
Currently known information put a new Zelda, new Mario (as Miyamoto talked about for two years), a rumored Smash Bros game (most likely a GOTY-style port of the current game), and potentially Pikmin 4 would give the NX a solid starting base with better chances for success than putting Zelda U only on the U.
Nintendo's history of drastic wind-down prior to releasing new hardware is already happening, and there have been no new Wii U games announced since prior to E3 last year. Also, previously, they have moved games from current to next gen in these exact late hours before: Eternal Darkness and Star Fox Adventures jumped ship from N64. Twilight Princess went to Wii. Pikmin 3 went from Wii to Wii U. This makes perfect sense right now.
Re: Nine Nintendo Titles Pass One Million Sales For This Financial Year
News: Nintendo games sell well on Nintendo platform with literally no other competition.
Re: The Legend of Zelda for Wii U Gets Its 2016 Release Window Back, as Project Guard Slips to 'TBC'
@Lady_rosalina
Nintendo's pattern of business is to publicly announce "continued support" for legacy platforms, but then to abandon them once the new hardware is out. Only the NES and DS survived for considerable time after the successor platforms were out. The GameCube, N64, Wii, GBC, and GBA were all essentially dead when the successor platform released, and they were quickly and quietly forgotten. The only support the Wii U and 3DS will receive after their successors launch is going to be on the eShop side, and that for probably only a year, unless they are incorporated into the new platforms.
Nintendo will always publicly announce continued support so they can keep fans and consumers buying the current product. They will also continue to always dump that old hardware as soon as possible, which has been their history.
Re: The Legend of Zelda for Wii U Gets Its 2016 Release Window Back, as Project Guard Slips to 'TBC'
I knew Project Guard and Giant Robot weren't coming out last year. Nintendo never stated they were anything more than tech demos until after E3, and even then, it was only vague notions. I said as much several times last year.
Zelda NX, er, U on track for "2016." Probably because it's pulling a Twilight Princess.
Re: IHS Technology Adds to Speculation of an NX Portable Release in 2016
@kingofthesofa
I was generalizing on the hardware. The point is that the Game Boy Color is officially considered part of the Game Boy line. Its not a separate platform, or a brew hardware design (they merely upgraded the existing hardware). The GBC is to the GB what the New3DS is to the regular 3DS.
Re: IHS Technology Adds to Speculation of an NX Portable Release in 2016
@IceClimbers
What you're doing isI called spin because you don't want to admit being incorrect. The reasons the Game Boy lasted as long as it did include that its original successor, the Virtual Boy failed hard at retail, and adding hardware revisions, not to overlook the way Pokemon gave it a new lease on life.
Nintendo counts the entire Game Boy line together.
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/sales/hard_soft/
After that, the GBA sold lower numbers, and then the 3DS sold lower yet. The DS, like the Wii, was sold as a fad, and after, the 3DS sold below GBA levels.
Re: IHS Technology Adds to Speculation of an NX Portable Release in 2016
@IceClimbers
The Game Boy Color is considered the same generation as the original Game Boy, even with Nintendo's own accounting, as they were identical hardware (with color added). That is not a logical fallacy (which indicates you may not know what those are), at worst, I'd be incorrect, but I am not. This has been shown on this site before, granted it was a while ago. The 3DS is in the same downward trend, as the consoles which strongly indicates that outside of the occasional fad, Nintendo is a non-factor in modern gaming and they far removed from being the industry leaders they were in the 8-bit and 16-bit eras, which, just so happen to be the eras where Nintendo tends to bank on all their nostalgia power.
I also am not "widely out of tune" with what NX is since no one outside of Nintendo actually knows for sure what it is, and the very description you have made is precisely the description I predicted two years ago as the direction they should take. I know I'm not around much these days, but I'm still pretty sure I flooded this site with my descriptions of how the NX should ideally work as both a handheld and home console--which, by the way, many people here adamantly argued was totally impossible.
Re: Macronix Will Be Providing Memory Products for the NX
@rjejr
We'll know the name of the NX console before the next Zelda, though, I wouldn't be surprised if they are done largely together. One thing I feel strongly about is that we'll get NX news before we get more "Next Zelda" news. And the HD Twilight Princess is like an almost too-obvious pre-apology: "Sorry, Zelda U is moving to NX, but we at least gave you two great HD remasters, right guys? Whatever, it's Zelda. You'd buy it even if the box was empty."
Re: IHS Technology Adds to Speculation of an NX Portable Release in 2016
@Aneira
The success of the Wii was a fluke, based entirely around a successfully timed fad and nothing else. The DS was likewise a fad. The evidence of this can be seen in the sales of the Wii U and 3DS--which aren't just way lower than the Wii and DS, but are actually lower than the GameCube and GBA, themselves lower than their predecessors, going back to a history of Nintendo selling lower and lower with each new generation.
The safe prediction is that the NX will sell worse than the Wii U unless it happens to stumble upon some kind of fad-heavy success like the Wii. Since the NX will be launching mid-generation against two competitors when they will be entering their strongest phase, the NX is all but guaranteed to stumble and/or fail. No console launched mid-generation has ever performed well.
It's like TV's Friday Night Death Slot for gaming.
Re: IHS Technology Adds to Speculation of an NX Portable Release in 2016
@Octane
StarFox can handily fail, because it has happened to this franchise before. The main reason it might not is that it has literally no competition on the Wii U because there are almost no other games coming to the system.
No matter how good Zelda U is, it's not going to "save" the Wii U or suddenly create some kind of magical turn-around in sales. That ship has sailed.
And I'm willing to bet that a big reason for yet another HD Zelda remake is because Zelda U... is going the obvious route of becoming Zelda NX.
Re: IHS Technology Adds to Speculation of an NX Portable Release in 2016
@Mario-Man-Child
When there was only this many games coming to the N64, the GameCube launched later in the year.
NX is coming in 2016. Nintendo barely has games enough for this year, and they certainly don't have any for the Wii U for 2017. Even Miyamoto noted that the next major Mario game will not be on Wii U, as he indicated almost two years ago it was already in development for the new platform.
Re: Macronix Will Be Providing Memory Products for the NX
@Yorumi
I've been saying NX was getting a 2016 release since Iwata first revealed it's existence.