This is not how any other shooter tends to work. Call of Duty, for instance, has a selection of around a dozen maps (more if you have DLC), and based on your DLC, somewhat randomly selects the next level. It usually gives two options players can vote on, but never just two maps per hour or whatever.
It sounds like Nintendo does not have very strong online infrastructure built to support this. Which wouldn't be a surprise. I tried Smash U last night and it was laggy and janky as hell.
I can see the GamePad being the best way to surf the internet on a console, but at the same time, that's really not the purpose of a game console. If I really want to surf the net, I have my laptop in front of me and an LG tablet nearby. I don't think I've ever even opened the browser on my X360, PS3, or PS4. I did open it on the Vita, mostly to give it a test drive and look up something in a game where I was stuck. I don't disagree that the GamePad can make internet searching better than on any other console, I just think it's a moot point because, honestly, how many people even do that?
Nintendo will likely now hover slightly around profitability for the remainder of the life of the Wii U and 3DS, but by the time the Wii U is replaced, it will have spent the majority of it's life in the red, so I think Nintendo's best interest is to just get it replaced by NX sooner rather than later.
Also, I checked your number, as it looked odd to me, the GameCube selling 21 million and the PS2 selling 155 million. Yeah, you were close with 15%, actual appears to be 13.5%, but whatever. The GameCube, however had advantages the Wii U does not--it had a lot more 3rd party support, higher sales, and was profitable for Nintendo (and low priced) out of the gate, where the Wii U was notable as the first Nintendo console to actually be sold at a loss, at least initially.
I also do not care for the Wii Remote. In the end, it by and large failed to live up to the hype, promises, or potential and did not permanently change how we play games. It was a gimmick, a fad--and therefore a temporary distraction.
It dons on me that we don't know what the PC side of this is, like at all. Man, if Nintendo created their own download service, at least for classic games, like Steam or GOG, that'd be a huge money maker. Unless they, you know, keep the absurdly high prices in the current Virtual Console format.
It's nice to see that they're finally starting to understand the "universal login" for all their stuff, but seriously, this is still way behind the times. It's not just Sony and Microsoft, but also Steam, Google, Apple, etc. have understood this concept for ages.
Man, I want to be happier about this, but it's like being happy that someone "is just getting up to zero."
I don't need demos or care if they're made, but seriously, Nintendo--at least do it right. Limiting this to three absurd one-hour increments of online-only is annoying. Chances are, I'll be busy all three times, so I wasted time downloading this for no reason.
You pay one dollar to preorder, and get a $5 gift card when you pick it up. I don't think the game will be even slightly hard to find when it launches, but the $5 off my next purchase will come in handy. My girlfriend and I joke about how frequently we go to Target. I mean, I literally haven't been there since yesterday. It's almost time to go back. So that gift card will come in handy.
Personally, I'm trying to be a "part of the solution" and stop preordering most games. Unless it's a special edition I really want that I think will be a challenge to get, I'm not preordering much of anything anymore. PushSquare had a good article on this recently, but I was already trying to get into this practice because I think all this pre-ordering creates a nightmarish relationship between gamers and publishers. I couldn't preorder the Witcher 3 Collector's Edition because I waited too long, so now I won't pre-order at all. I'll just go get it from literally any store.
Plus, I've been burned a few too many times on pre-orders as it is. Best Buy sold my Smash Bros U set with the adapter, and after working at GameStop, I know all too well that pre-order copies get routinely sold because upper management wants that money "that night" and will happily screw over half a dozen or so customers at any given time.
Oh it is not a bad idea in the least bit, especially if you offer the character for money as an alternative. This gets the most value out of those Amiibos without ripping off players (by locking content on disks), and the non-Amiibo optional paid download would appeal to the rest.
This is the kind of consumer-friendly stuff Nintendo should be doing with these figures.
It might have just been my Wii, as I don't recall ever seeing anyone else with this bizarre "refuse to load channels" issue. I did notice, however, that it was significantly worse the more time passed between gaming sessions on the Wii. Which, when I was doing the vast bulk of my gaming on the X360, meant very long stretches with the Wii sitting unused. The original NES is finnicky as well, but it's design did not exactly come with a coating of longevity to begin with. I replaced the pin connector a couple years ago and that seemed to give it new life.
I haven't had any issues with my 3DS, except when the bottom screen fizzled when I rage quit a Fire Emblem match. Pressed the Home button a little too hard that day.
I think it would be a huge boon for Nintendo to find a way to appeal equally to adults, kids, and their core fans, because appealing to adults in some capacity is going to be important for them to get back to relevancy. The "kiddie image" has been a plague on the company for damn long enough. They should never stop appealing to kids, but they need to recognize that some of us are in our 30's and grew up with the company, and grew up in general.
Nintendo needs an arm that appeals to Western and adult gaming flavors.
At the very least, I would have expected some kind of corporate spin along the lines of "and Bayonetta 2 and Hyrule Warriors did great, too!" Beating expectations, or whatever--anything to put a positive spin on the games and help remind the public about their existence.
I think there's still a case of "Nintendo doesn't know what to do with M-rated properties" for Bayonetta or Fatal Frame (or Eternal Darkness or Geist). Disney grew up and found a way to make it work. Surely Nintendo can do the same.
My Wii was on it's last breath ages ago. I think that was Nintendo's least reliable hardware ever, though mine may have been a special case. It frequently soft-locked when trying to open games or channels and would open a black screen and just sit there. Sometimes for several minutes before actually opening a game or channel, or I just unplugged it and tried again. It was such a pain in the ass that it was just another thing preventing me from playing it. I was glad to move everything over to the Wii U and put it away. It is the only Nintendo hardware I own that is not hooked up.
My surprise with Bayonetta 2 in in part due to how much I actually kind of hated the first game. The combat was okay, but the story telling was atrocious and not a single character was likeable or relatable. In Bayo 2, not only was she given a non-sexist haircut (read: a hair style actual human women would wear), but her personality was greatly improved, her interactions with others were more sincere and humanized, the combat was far smoother, and Bad Italian Stereotype Jar Jar was not in the game for very long.
Nintendo could drive up a lot more Wii U sales for the same reason Sony could sell a lot more Vitas--by slashing prices and bundling the systems with storage space. If the Vita was dropped to around $125~150 and came packed with at least a 16GB memory card, that system would see a surge in sales and popularity. If the Wii U was dropped to $200, and packed with either larger storage space or a couple major titles--like Bayonetta 2, Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Mario Maker & Nintendo Land, etc., it would see a surge in sales.
That said, at this point in the lives of both consoles, they are not going to reverse fortunes and these surges would likely be temporary. The GameCube briefly outsold the PS2 at one point--when it was dropped to $99--and then went right back to being dominated by the PS2 within a month or two (though, Nintendo waited way too long to do this drop).
My albeit loose hypothesis is NX will launch in 2016, be a home console in some capacity as Iwata has stated, but will be called a "third tier" until it's known if it sells better. If NX then sells better than the Wii U, I expect the Wii U to be quietly and quickly discontinued in 2017, the same as the GBA. The 3DS still has a bit more hardware momentum and I think we're going to see a reversal of recent generations--the console will be replaced before the portable, and Nintendo may well be weighing the options of making the next portable either a kind of phone, or simply transitioning to mobile entirely.
If they're smart, they'll make the next portable system handheld game system (with proper controls) that can be used as a smartphone for any carrier. Picture a thinner 3DS, that, when closed, the surface has a smartphone screen and maybe even an Android OS, and when opened, becomes a portable game system. But if you don't want to use it as a phone, you don't have to.
Depending on when the mobile stuff rolls out, I expect this fiscal year will bode very well for them, and with any luck, that will drive them towards finding some solid new footing. I would still like to see full user accounts implemented, but I have a feeling that DeNA may be building precisely that.
Still disappointed Bayonetta 2 didn't even garner a mention, though. I'm yet amazed at just how good that game really is. Even Hyrule Warriors was skipped when talking about "Wii U hits." That's a shocker.
I would expect F-Zero to just be a roller coaster, but it'd be cool if it was something like a "triple coaster" that had three tracks that "raced each other." I fully expect a Big Blue coaster at some point, but if they can find a way to do a Mario Kart go-kart track with digital weapons, that would be... man that would be something.
I would like to point out that you are treading dangerous territory--never blame the bullied for being bullied. That's victim blaming. No one deserves to be bullied (well, maybe Hitler, but he's dead now anyway). While true, you know better the risks, what there may be, you are also better able to deal with them.
I can't help but wonder if some here who are against VC simply lack the ability to deal with these situations and are therefore more likely to just avoid them out of a predisposed fear or lack of confidence.
I definitely wish for the best for the company, I'm just so frustrated at seeing them apparently not care to do the things that would help them.
But yeah, when I was a kid, I wanted an NES "because everyone else had one," which was a really stupid reason. Then I got pneumonia (before going to the hospital, I had a temperature so high that I was hallucinating anthropomorphic pigs destroying our kitchen), and spent two weeks in a hospital, and there were two NES consoles there. By the end of those two weeks, I wanted it because I really freaking wanted it. I told my parents, they said "then save your money," and six month of doing my best to save my allowance later, I bought it myself and have been a gamer ever since.
I get annoyed when people say that getting through difficult times with games, like you or I did, is "avoiding the problem" or escaping to a fantasy. It can seriously help you cope. I've heard stories like yours before--a soldier I'd learned about got over PTSD by playing shooters. A particularly unsettling writer at Kotaku highlights that violent games help him deal with his shockingly aggressive personality traits. http://kotaku.com/violent-video-games-help-me-get-beyond-my-violent-past-1678978763
For me, the NES simply took away the attention on my painful illness, and boy howdy, when they stuck those needles through my back into my lungs, that was damn bloody painful. But fluid in the lungs means deep breaths are painful, and laughing was super painful, but it helped to clear out the fluid.
If you haven't seen the film Moral Kombat (spelled exactly like that), I highly suggest it. It's a great look into game content, game value, and violence in gaming versus so-called moral crusaders. The part about Abe's Odyssey will make your vision blurry from fighting back the tears.
You seem to be totally unaware that several companies have done great things in dealing with jerks online. That's fine that you can't see it, and honestly a little sad that you think it's way worse than reality and think it will never get better. Yeah, there will always be jerks, that doesn't mean things can't be improved.
On Xbox Live, people who are consistently awful human beings can have their accounts banned and privileges revoked. This includes behavior over VC. Again, there are mute buttons.
You're ultimately still defending Nintendo for being backwards. You're ultimately still basing your view off stereotypes rather than reality. Your'e still ultimately commenting as if totally unaware that there have been great strides made in this by other companies--companies who are frequently called "less creative or innovative" than Nintendo." You're ultimately saying that "jerks online" have more power than Nintendo does on their own consoles.
Saying that "people who really want to will find a way" is just deliberately missing the point. It is a standard feature and option of modern online gaming. No one has to jump through these hoops to play any other online game. It's asinine to just accept it here because Nintendo or because you don't like talking to people online.
You want Nintendo to have success, right? You want Nintendo to have sales, right? You want Nintendo to return to their bigger influence and reach in gaming, right? Then why don't you want them to actually make efforts on every level to do that? Your point has repeatedly clung to stereotypes of online gaming and your personal dislike in talking to people online. The reality is, at the end of all of this, Nintendo is trying to sell a competitive team/squad-based shooter that is lacking expected modern features. No matter your feelings and apologetics, this will damage sales and reviews.
I just don't understand why anyone would continue to defend Nintendo's backsliding in an era when they need to be pulling out the big guns, so to speak. Or do you want the Nintendo to continue to linger on the outskirts of the industry for some reason?
How dare you not know what goes on behind closed doors! What I (think I) know is that Reggie was eventually promoted to the next position higher than Howard Lincoln once held, but then Iwata did kind of a "global power grab" putting himself totally in charge of NoJ and NoA, which I found reprehensible at the time, but can't really tell if it's been detrimental or not. Reggie would naturally have a better understanding of the Western audience than Iwata, but at the same time, Reggie prevented some games from coming over here, and it seems that it was his decision-making that gimped Xenoblade's release to "just GameStop" because he didn't believe the game would sell. Concerning XC, Last Story, and Pandora's Tower, Reggie had once commented that "100,00 signatures on a petition does not necessarily mean 100,000 sales." On that point, he is absolutely right, petitions don't mean anything, ultimately, and of XC, Last Story, and Pandora's Tower, none of them sold particularly well, especially the latter two.
I do enjoy that Nintendo is making a lot of differently priced levels of games, but at the same time, they still refuse to lower prices over time when they should, so that's annoying. I shouldn't have to pay full price for a three-year-old game. That's absurd. My prediction is a $50 price point for Mario Maker.
In general, Nintendo does need to find a way to sell the GamePad to on-the-fence consumers, but I don't think these Project games will do that. I really just think this ship has sailed. Nintendo fans like the GamePad (though I can't help but wonder how much of that is based on trying extra hard to like it), but the rest of the world hates it, and Nintendo will not change that view at this point. It's just not going to happen.
So yes, I effectively said that Nintendo needs to do something that is ultimately going to be pointless anyway.
Unless that is the final name. Uninspiring though it may be.
Nintendo did, at one time, have some kind Transformers-clone franchise, if I'm remembering my Smash Bros trophies correctly. Maybe it'll be intertwined with that?
I'm curious why you think it might get to 30 million. I no longer expect higher than 15 million before it's retired, so I expect it to be notably below the GameCube. Currently, it still has not outsold even the ill-fated Dreamcast, and the Wii U has had more time at retail. What do you base that on?
No, their profits are lower than expected. They planned to be back in profits now, but missed their projections. It's good and bad news. They made profits, but missed their goal.
I think you're overlooking the three years of hefty losses Nintendo incurred prior to this. Nintendo is definitely not "future proof" in any way--almost no one is. Today's tech giants are tomorrow's dated technology. Look at Sony, for instance--they dominated consumer electronics for decades, and have been struggling badly, particularly over the last five years or so. The Playstation division is raking in profits selling nearly as many consoles per month as Nintendo is planning for this whole year, but the company as a whole is still working to get back to profits (Hirai's plan is for this to occur in 2018).
A part of this is that they were not future proof, and didn't see companies like LG, Panasonic, and especially Samsung who would come sweeping in to dominate areas where Sony once held control. TVs are just as good from anyone these days, and Samsung has practically become a de facto Android phone company. In some cases, it isn't iPhone vs Android, it's become iPhone vs Galaxy. Sony's mobile division is still hemorrhaging money.
But no, Nintendo is no more "future proof" than any other tech or entertainment company. Microsoft might be difficult to topple, but i wouldn't even consider them future proof. Aside from the flukes that defined the Wii and DS, Nintendo's hardware has been on a pretty steady sales decline ever since the NES, with each new console selling below the predecessor.
On the upside, Nintendo going mobile and (at long last) licensing their characters for Universal theme parks are going to be huge boons for them. Now they should do like Disney, and absorb some other media empire. DC and Marvel comics are already taken elsewhere. They should buy IDW.
I've been saying Nintendo should do this for years. But they should've gone with Six Flags because those are in way more places.
Never been to Universal Studios. Give me a sweet Eternal Darkness "haunted mansion" (it'll never happen, they'd go with Luigi's Mansion), and I'm totally sold.
For ages, it wasn't even clear these things (Guard and Robot) were going to be games, as they were pretty clearly cobbled together for a quick E3 show off of "some kind of GamePad concepts," and then Miyamoto teased that they may be broken down and incorporated into StarFox. This does, at least, raise my hope a bit for StarFox (still not on-board with any amount of gyroscope-based gameplay), in that it won't have these two demos shoe-horned into the game in some way.
It's nice to have some kind of confirmation. I'll take a look, but knowing that it went from "slapdash E3 demo to full game" in less than a year is not exactly inspiring confidence.
At long last, finally some kind of confirmation that Giant Robot and Guard are some kind of actual games, though it's sounding like quick downloadable titles, and not major new franchises. What I see is "filler content" to hopefully keep fans from leaving their Wii U consoles off for more than a month.
I'm surprised to see these things actually appear as actual games, but not _that_surprised. It's not like Nintendo has much in the way of 3rd party support and they clearly can't support two platforms by themselves at once, so I suppose they need to turn E3 demos of the past into games now.
Well, it is nice to see them raking in some kind of profit without a giant asterisk about exchange rates or weak yen or modifiers like that.
However, this is a little sad: With respect to "Wii U," Nintendo released two hit titles, "Mario Kart 8" and "Super Smash Bros. for Wii U," which enjoyed robust sales of 5.11 million units and 3.65 million units respectively.
I take it Bayonetta 2 is closer to "failure" status, then, as it was not mentioned at all...? So that's a huge let-down.
Interesting that Nintendo really doesn't see anything resembling "growth" considering the Wii U or 3DS, but to just maintain generally low sales. The Wii U still has not outsold the Dreamcast and has now had around 6 months more time (or so) to it's life. I really don't see it doing 3.4 million in sales over this year. At this point, Nintendo better be planning to roll out the NX as a Wii U replacement next year, because the Wii U may have finally found some stability, but it's not a good stability.
Again, good to see that they've finally turned some profits, but they're still missing their own projections, and they are clearly not going to be "thriving" any time soon. They are only hovering around "stable survival." It's clear the 3DS and Wii U are not strong cards in their future.
My hypothesis is that they will rake in their biggest profits of the year the month they start appearing on mobile devices. And that will permanently alter the direction of the company.
I think you're missing that singular point and cramming all my points together into one overly simplified format or focus, which would be highly faulty.
I address individual comments on a per-comment-level, and only remark on the general audience if I deem it necessary. I'm interested in Nintendo's success, sales, and influence, as such, there are always lots of things to consider. Jaxon is a special case because he wants to be. I've tried burying the hatchet as it were and just having conversations, but he always wants to start fights for some reason, so a lot of those older conversations (since lost to the internet) ended up skewed into weird territory. He's the kind of person that twists a disagreement into some kind of personal attack, which is unproductive.
Per that, I really don't care if anyone disagrees with me--all I ask is that you have a good reason based on logic or reality (not personal anecdotes, and to accept that personal anecdotes are to be taken with a grain of salt), and that if you have a claim or I am incorrect, to please support it with some evidence. That's really not too much to ask, in my opinion.
I think I've agreed with Aaron Sullivan as much as disagreed with him on things. When scrolling through comments, his are frequently some I will read out of genuine interest. There are a few posters here I view in that regard. Kaze, rjer, Moon_Knight, Ice Climbers, and Ericwithcheese because he sounds delicious, etc. It's never anything personal, however general buying habits do have an effect on the company, and that is many times a valid consideration in an argument.
I have gone from finding Reggie entertaining to finding him rigid like a tape recorder affixed to the back of a cardboard picture of a man.
He has twice used the line, "Nintendo fans are always asking me, when is the next {title} game coming out? Well, here it is..."
Once with Mario, and once with Zelda. Maybe I've just gotten used to it, but now I can see the corporate team behind him writing his carefully tailored dialog. I think he's a far cry from the guy that walked out to support the GameCube with tough-guy antics and aggressive words. He's a lot softer now. He's not out to put up his dukes against MS or Sony, and that was inspiring of him. He seems more like a puppet now.
I do see some of his appeal, still, every now and then. But the worship levels of "put Reggie in Smash!" and this kind of nonsense is just baffling to me. And he gave us the Pizza Hut New Yorker. Do they even still have that pizza?
I blame Reggie for some games failing to come out over here, but not all. Some, like Disaster, specifically, he stated "would maybe come out after we see how it does in Europe," so he does have some say in what comes out over here. He also was key in selling off Rare, which was an acquisition by his predecessors--Lincoln and Arakawi (I think). Lincoln also worked hard to secure 3rd party support, particularly for sports and from EA, but Reggie doesn't seem to care at all.
How could I possibly know if there's no need for voice chat without playing it? I can, however, extrapolate that it would benefit by Nintendo's own descriptions of it being a strategic and squad-based, if highly energetic shooter. They even took it to EVO (or that other event) to show it off to competitive gamers. Even if it isn't necessary or important, for the sake of modernization and appealing to fence-sitters, Nintendo should have included it.
All of that indicates that this is a title that should have voice chat.
You also completely, whether deliberately or because you were busy responding to four people at once, missed my point on creativity and innovation. No, merely putting it in isn't creative or innovative--it's an expected modern norm.
But all of your complaints about it--jerks online, foul language, useless people, the occasional racist d-bag. Why can't Nintendo be innovative or creative enough to grow, advance, or evolve online chat and player interaction to work against these negatives? If Nintendo is so bloody creative, where is that creativity in making online gaming better? Why, instead, are they anti-creative about the whole thing, and, like an angry adolescent, just crossing their arms and angrily discarding the feature? The damn director even said as much! "People were mean to me online, so I just won't let anyone talk at all!"
That's like taking cars away from everybody because of a few drunk drivers. To this director, I'd like to say, "grow the hell up." Yes we should all be nicer to each other--that starts with each and every one of us actually doing it. But to just slam the door and walk away? How is that a creative solution?
Kind of a silly question, but I'll indulge. Why would I be here if I wasn't a Nintendo fan? Sometimes I get the feeling that I'm a bigger Nintendo fan than I thought because I want them to succeed and am frustrated by their failures and missteps rather than sitting here making apologetics for stupidity.
I'm a gamer first and a Nintendo fan second these days. I still buy my Nintendo hardware before anything else, but increasingly, I find that my tastes cannot be met with Nintendo's consoles anymore, especially not by themselves. I was all for playing games like Splinter Cell and Rayman on the Wii U, but apparently I was in an extreme minority, and those companies have walked away because those of us who supported them on Nintendo consoles were exactly that--an extreme minority.
I've been thinking about finally doing another blog on my long-dormant blog page about this. Nintendo is fascinating to talk about for a variety of reasons. PushSquare has almost 7 times as many people who've "liked" the page via Facebook, but there are way more conversations on NLife. This is a baffling, bizarre, fascinating, company to discuss. Meanwhile, Sony is basically just doing "everything right," so what is there to discuss? Nintendo is screwing up left and right and fast-tracking themselves to a third party future, and we're all just watching it happen (I've even come to now wanting it to happen and I can elaborate if you wish). Many of the most ardent Nintendo fanboys are actively contributing to the company eventually going 3rd party by driving away 3rd party support on these systems, and basically forcing the company into a corner of making and remaking Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon games endlessly--and these appease a small core audience, but no longer sell consoles.
The SNES, NES, DS, and GameCube remain four of my all-time favorite systems. I have incredibly fond nostalgia for NES games, Nintendo Power, and the like--and I'm pretty sure much of my personal nostalgia is different than most people given my tastes and what fascinated me back then. It's hard to put into words, but there is a look to so many 1st and 3rd party offerings of the day that grasp me so.
I mostly look for new experiences these days, but there are rare fleeting moments where I'll buy something for nostalgia. Mario Maker, for instance, I largely have no interest. However, once I saw Super Mario World graphics--easily my favorite 2D Mario--my interest piqued. I love this company, but so many things they do are just so damn frustrating. It was long my dream to make a game on Nintendo game systems, and this year, I realized that dream--to annoying struggles and some disappointment. We're stuck having to rely on nobody review sites to get any attention at all, and unfortunately, those same sites too frequently lack any amount of intelligent discourse or analysis. We understand our gaffes and learned from them, but at the same time, we were met with lukewarm attention and utterly buried the week we released because that's when Nintendo decided to whitewash anyone by releasing a slough of games that ensured we'd be ignored.
On the upside, we learned from the experience, and have moved forward enough to add PS4 to our approved platforms. So there is another reason I have some frustrations with Nintendo and their "we just want more of the same" general fanbase.
So, "please understand," you're talking to someone who grew up with this company. Someone who at 11 years old, credits the NES with helping him get through two weeks of often painful hospital recovery from pneumonia. Who still notes his favorite game (Eternal Darkness) is a Nintendo title. But who has grown frustrated with watching a once-great company shuffle it's feet into irrelevance.
Does that long-winded doggerel answer your question?
A lot of these guys either had a couple bad experiences and just linger on them like stubborn old geezers (no offense to any old geezers here), or have never actually used online voice chat because they've been core Nintendo fans for their gaming lives and simply decide to base their opinions around negative stereotypes.
There are loads of games that have made voice chat fun, or benefited from voice chat. Left 4 Dead instantly stands out to me, and when I played it online, I always used a headset so our team could coordinate how we were doing things. This was some of the most fun I've ever had online. But Left 4 Dead also shows why a team-based game so heavily benefits from being able to communicate with your teammates. "Pick me up! I'm over here! But look out, there's a Smoker nearby!" This kind of communication made the game vastly deeper and more engrossing.
It also highlighted the strength of communication, as one anecdote I have is that my team all had mics and the other team did not, and we were able to coordinate so efficiently, that on one level, we (as zombie team) cornered the other team at the starting point and crushed them. Sure this sounds unfair to the other team, but it highlights the strength of being able to communicate.
This is simply what modern gamers expect, and Nintendo is failing in this regard. And it will ultimately damage the game's appeal.
As a team, deal with it. It's entirely your choice on any other platform. Nintendo simply fails to give players those choices.
Again, why is it Nintendo fans are so quick to defend Nintendo's lame backsliding and willingness to look out of touch? You guys champion the company as the most innovative and creative out there all the time, so if they're so damn innovative and creative, then why couldn't the apply that innovation and creativity towards online play?
Perhaps Nintendo isn't as creative as we'd like to think, if instead of innovating online play and voice chat, they simply run from it. Instead of making it better or showing up MS and Sony, they merely prevent it entirely. That's just... lame.
To be fair, I don't think Reggie is doing the repairs himself, but I find it interesting that people so worship these figureheads. Reggie was hired to be a corporate leader and public speaker for the company in the West. He wasn't selected because he was some kind of mega gamer. He was selected to make business decisions and to dribble corporate speak a team of people write for him.
Miyamoto, I can see. He's influenced both gaming and Nintendo to ridiculous degrees. Especially Nintendo, as he's helped turn it into the "Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon company" above all else. He's a lifer with the company. Kind of like Kaz Hirai, who was the "father of the Playstation," who then moved to CEO of the entire company. But a lot of the guys in these companies change seats.
Peter Moore, for instance, held powerful positions with Sega, Microsoft, and now EA.
Again, on voice chat, it's not about what you personally may or may not want. It's about Nintendo failing to deliver an actual modern online game. That's all well and good that you're happy to play with an uncoordinated slap-dash team and revel in the anarchy and chaos sans socialization.
But the reality is that this is hurting the game's appeal, it will hurt the game in reviews, and it further backs up that Nintendo is simply out of touch with modern gaming, gaming concepts, and players.
It's bad enough that fans appear to fail to understand the concept of the "mute" button, it's another thing entirely that Nintendo is somehow stupid enough not to understand it.
Rather than championing Nintendo's backsliding and failure to even meet modern standards because you don't want to talk to other people, we should really be questioning how one of the most frequently touted "innovative and creative" companies in gaming somehow lacks the innovation and creativity to advance or evolve online chat in any meaningful way. Instead, Nintendo just decides to show how out of it they really are--just disallow the feature.
Your personal preference aside, surely you must recognize that this is a decision that is ultimately hurting the game and Nintendo's image as a whole. It's all well and good that you're going to be happy with a gimped online experience. The reality is that this is damaging to Nintendo's image, and damaging to the success and attention Splatoon otherwise likely deserves.
In this day and age, this kind of decision is every bit as damaging as Nintendo going with obscenely expensive and limited cartridges in an era when optical disks had already become the norm.
Essentially, if people really want to play with clans and teams in a co-op or squad-based shooter, they won't bother with all that nonsense you listed. They'll just skip this game and the Wii U entirely because it fails to offer the proper options for a solid experience.
Agreed. Frankly, I don't even see the point of online teams, clans, or tournaments if you can't coordinate with your team. That automatically makes the tournament a total crapshoot. That's like having a tournament for throwing dice.
GameStop does the vast majority of their business on Xbox and Playstation brands. Nintendo is largely looked upon with apathy or outright disdain from most within the company--and this is based on my albeit brief experience working there. Their stuff doesn't really sell there, and Nintendo is usually relegated to a back corner in the stores. Very few have playable demo stations for Wii U and/or 3DS while most have demo stations for Xbox or Playstation.
GameStop stores are also rather small, and already have shelf space taken up by Skylanders and Disney Infinity, and soon Legos, and all of those--no doubt--sell better and have larger available audiences than the Amiibos, which barely even have any worthwhile applications for gaming. There simply isn't a lot of good reasons for GameStop to stock a lot of Amiibos. One of the GameStops I went in recently (I think to get Mortal Kombat X), literally had fewer than 6 Amiibo on display, and I think they were all Mario and Mario franchise characters, and that was it.
Ahh, you're in the UK. I'm smack in the middle of North America, and surrounded by Best Buys (corporate headquarters is here) and GameStops (the magazine they own is also here), and a few remaining Toys R Us stores, and Target is also headquartered here.
I essentially have no shortage of places to find these things, and if I can't just walk into a store to get one, I'm not wasting my time anymore. With all these options, and still so many are so hard to find, that's a good reason for me to never want to buy them.
There has been no mention of missing money or debts, though--except for unsubstantiated rumors. A game company can melt down for a variety of reasons. All we've had is bizarre notes of abandoned offices, developers looking for new jobs, development within the company quickly losing steam, and a missing CEO.
Even if it is money, this is a bizarre turn. They delivered a completed game (Stella Glow) to Sega/Atlus, and then just packed up shop and vanished?
Money is easy to assume, but without evidence, should not be assumed--and there appears to be no solid reference to actual money woes. We shouldn't jump to conclusions. It's fine to speculate that money could be a part of it, but until we know better, it'd be irresponsible to speak confidently on it.
That is, until he turns up on an expensive yacht in the Mediterranean sitting on a pile of Imageepoch money saying, "what? I just found all this money."
I'd like to point out that if someone broke into your house and stole your Wii U, because it lacks a proper account system a la Microsoft, Valve, Sony, Apple, Google, etc., redownloading your games on a new Wii U is a notoriously obtuse process wherein Nintendo makes you file a police report, and then submit the police report to them, and then you still might not get them back.
To access my account on different hardware with Steam, I just need to sign in on new hardware, and they send me confirmation emails to ensure this new hardware is approved by me. Then I have instant access to all my stuff again.
I have seen Link and Samus in plentiful numbers at a Toys R Us near me. They also had ample numbers of both versions of Link, Mega Man, and Sonic. Anyone who paid over retail for any of these is a sucker.
Yeah, I find it extremely difficult to believe anyone is ordering more Marios. That is one figure that is never sold out. Or rather, two figures since there are two of them.
Eh, maybe. Without some kind of evidence, I don't think you can really make that claim. People disappear for a wide variety of reasons, and without evidence, putting it just on money is no better than saying "sasquatch did it" or that he was raptured, even if it might be more realistic. Stress, mental breakdowns, mental disorders, abductions, paranoia, death--the list is basically unlimited.
While it focuses on statistics in the US, many, if not most or all, could easily be applied to pretty much any country, with varying numbers (based on population). For one thing, at least in the US, missing persons cases are viewed with low priorities compared to things like murder, or robbery. In the US, there is generally 100,000 active missing persons cases at any given time. That's a lot of people that just up and vanished.
This guy is notable because he's in a high position in a company which may or may not be related to his disappearance. No one can really say. Money might be one thing, if he absconded and took a bunch with him, but instead, he just basically "vanished."
Yeah, because Mario, Bowser, and Link are so hard to find. They are liteterally at almost every store I walk into.
Whatever. Nintendo botched this with impressive hubris, so I'm essentially done with them. I'd still like Pac-Man and eventually, Zero Suit Samus and Mr. Game & Watch, but only if they are available in stores. If Nintendo isn't going to bother making or shipping enough of them to actually fill stores, I'm not spending my money on them. It's bad enough that they can't be found in stores in anything resembling reasonable supplies, but it's a slap to the face that after all the work in trying to get them, they're largely useless in any game.
Comments 2,916
Re: Feature: The Key Details on Splatoon, Nintendo's Shot at a New Wii U Hit
@The__Goomba
This is not how any other shooter tends to work. Call of Duty, for instance, has a selection of around a dozen maps (more if you have DLC), and based on your DLC, somewhat randomly selects the next level. It usually gives two options players can vote on, but never just two maps per hour or whatever.
It sounds like Nintendo does not have very strong online infrastructure built to support this. Which wouldn't be a surprise. I tried Smash U last night and it was laggy and janky as hell.
Re: Project Giant Robot Will Be Out Sooner Than You Probably Expect
@ricklongo
I can see the GamePad being the best way to surf the internet on a console, but at the same time, that's really not the purpose of a game console. If I really want to surf the net, I have my laptop in front of me and an LG tablet nearby. I don't think I've ever even opened the browser on my X360, PS3, or PS4. I did open it on the Vita, mostly to give it a test drive and look up something in a game where I was stuck. I don't disagree that the GamePad can make internet searching better than on any other console, I just think it's a moot point because, honestly, how many people even do that?
Nintendo will likely now hover slightly around profitability for the remainder of the life of the Wii U and 3DS, but by the time the Wii U is replaced, it will have spent the majority of it's life in the red, so I think Nintendo's best interest is to just get it replaced by NX sooner rather than later.
Also, I checked your number, as it looked odd to me, the GameCube selling 21 million and the PS2 selling 155 million. Yeah, you were close with 15%, actual appears to be 13.5%, but whatever. The GameCube, however had advantages the Wii U does not--it had a lot more 3rd party support, higher sales, and was profitable for Nintendo (and low priced) out of the gate, where the Wii U was notable as the first Nintendo console to actually be sold at a loss, at least initially.
I also do not care for the Wii Remote. In the end, it by and large failed to live up to the hype, promises, or potential and did not permanently change how we play games. It was a gimmick, a fad--and therefore a temporary distraction.
Re: Iwata Reveals a Bit More Information on Nintendo's Upcoming Integrated Membership Service
It dons on me that we don't know what the PC side of this is, like at all. Man, if Nintendo created their own download service, at least for classic games, like Steam or GOG, that'd be a huge money maker. Unless they, you know, keep the absurdly high prices in the current Virtual Console format.
It's nice to see that they're finally starting to understand the "universal login" for all their stuff, but seriously, this is still way behind the times. It's not just Sony and Microsoft, but also Steam, Google, Apple, etc. have understood this concept for ages.
Man, I want to be happier about this, but it's like being happy that someone "is just getting up to zero."
Re: Reaction: The Splatoon Global Testfire Demo Is a Clever Nintendo Direct Highlight
I don't need demos or care if they're made, but seriously, Nintendo--at least do it right. Limiting this to three absurd one-hour increments of online-only is annoying. Chances are, I'll be busy all three times, so I wasted time downloading this for no reason.
Re: Feature: The Key Details on Splatoon, Nintendo's Shot at a New Wii U Hit
The local multiplayer sounds like an utter waste. Cripes, Nintendo, let me and my kid play the regular game together on a team.
Re: Splatoon Mii Fighter Outfits Coming to Super Smash Bros. in the Summer
@rjejr
You pay one dollar to preorder, and get a $5 gift card when you pick it up. I don't think the game will be even slightly hard to find when it launches, but the $5 off my next purchase will come in handy. My girlfriend and I joke about how frequently we go to Target. I mean, I literally haven't been there since yesterday. It's almost time to go back. So that gift card will come in handy.
Personally, I'm trying to be a "part of the solution" and stop preordering most games. Unless it's a special edition I really want that I think will be a challenge to get, I'm not preordering much of anything anymore. PushSquare had a good article on this recently, but I was already trying to get into this practice because I think all this pre-ordering creates a nightmarish relationship between gamers and publishers. I couldn't preorder the Witcher 3 Collector's Edition because I waited too long, so now I won't pre-order at all. I'll just go get it from literally any store.
Plus, I've been burned a few too many times on pre-orders as it is. Best Buy sold my Smash Bros U set with the adapter, and after working at GameStop, I know all too well that pre-order copies get routinely sold because upper management wants that money "that night" and will happily screw over half a dozen or so customers at any given time.
Re: Splatoon Mii Fighter Outfits Coming to Super Smash Bros. in the Summer
@Undead_terror
Oh it is not a bad idea in the least bit, especially if you offer the character for money as an alternative. This gets the most value out of those Amiibos without ripping off players (by locking content on disks), and the non-Amiibo optional paid download would appeal to the rest.
This is the kind of consumer-friendly stuff Nintendo should be doing with these figures.
Re: Nintendo Announces Higher Than Expected Profits Despite Missed Sales Targets
@BinaryFragger
It might have just been my Wii, as I don't recall ever seeing anyone else with this bizarre "refuse to load channels" issue. I did notice, however, that it was significantly worse the more time passed between gaming sessions on the Wii. Which, when I was doing the vast bulk of my gaming on the X360, meant very long stretches with the Wii sitting unused. The original NES is finnicky as well, but it's design did not exactly come with a coating of longevity to begin with. I replaced the pin connector a couple years ago and that seemed to give it new life.
I haven't had any issues with my 3DS, except when the bottom screen fizzled when I rage quit a Fire Emblem match. Pressed the Home button a little too hard that day.
Re: Splatoon Mii Fighter Outfits Coming to Super Smash Bros. in the Summer
I would much rather have actual Splatoon fighters for Smash Bros, downloaded by linking an Amiibo to the game. That is all.
I already pre-ordered this at Target anyway.
Re: Nintendo Announces Higher Than Expected Profits Despite Missed Sales Targets
@Captain_Gonru
I think it would be a huge boon for Nintendo to find a way to appeal equally to adults, kids, and their core fans, because appealing to adults in some capacity is going to be important for them to get back to relevancy. The "kiddie image" has been a plague on the company for damn long enough. They should never stop appealing to kids, but they need to recognize that some of us are in our 30's and grew up with the company, and grew up in general.
Nintendo needs an arm that appeals to Western and adult gaming flavors.
Re: Nintendo Announces Higher Than Expected Profits Despite Missed Sales Targets
@Sir_JBizzle
At the very least, I would have expected some kind of corporate spin along the lines of "and Bayonetta 2 and Hyrule Warriors did great, too!" Beating expectations, or whatever--anything to put a positive spin on the games and help remind the public about their existence.
I think there's still a case of "Nintendo doesn't know what to do with M-rated properties" for Bayonetta or Fatal Frame (or Eternal Darkness or Geist). Disney grew up and found a way to make it work. Surely Nintendo can do the same.
Re: Nintendo Announces Higher Than Expected Profits Despite Missed Sales Targets
@JaxonH
My Wii was on it's last breath ages ago. I think that was Nintendo's least reliable hardware ever, though mine may have been a special case. It frequently soft-locked when trying to open games or channels and would open a black screen and just sit there. Sometimes for several minutes before actually opening a game or channel, or I just unplugged it and tried again. It was such a pain in the ass that it was just another thing preventing me from playing it. I was glad to move everything over to the Wii U and put it away. It is the only Nintendo hardware I own that is not hooked up.
My surprise with Bayonetta 2 in in part due to how much I actually kind of hated the first game. The combat was okay, but the story telling was atrocious and not a single character was likeable or relatable. In Bayo 2, not only was she given a non-sexist haircut (read: a hair style actual human women would wear), but her personality was greatly improved, her interactions with others were more sincere and humanized, the combat was far smoother, and Bad Italian Stereotype Jar Jar was not in the game for very long.
Re: Nintendo Announces Higher Than Expected Profits Despite Missed Sales Targets
@TruenoGT
Nintendo could drive up a lot more Wii U sales for the same reason Sony could sell a lot more Vitas--by slashing prices and bundling the systems with storage space. If the Vita was dropped to around $125~150 and came packed with at least a 16GB memory card, that system would see a surge in sales and popularity. If the Wii U was dropped to $200, and packed with either larger storage space or a couple major titles--like Bayonetta 2, Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Mario Maker & Nintendo Land, etc., it would see a surge in sales.
That said, at this point in the lives of both consoles, they are not going to reverse fortunes and these surges would likely be temporary. The GameCube briefly outsold the PS2 at one point--when it was dropped to $99--and then went right back to being dominated by the PS2 within a month or two (though, Nintendo waited way too long to do this drop).
My albeit loose hypothesis is NX will launch in 2016, be a home console in some capacity as Iwata has stated, but will be called a "third tier" until it's known if it sells better. If NX then sells better than the Wii U, I expect the Wii U to be quietly and quickly discontinued in 2017, the same as the GBA. The 3DS still has a bit more hardware momentum and I think we're going to see a reversal of recent generations--the console will be replaced before the portable, and Nintendo may well be weighing the options of making the next portable either a kind of phone, or simply transitioning to mobile entirely.
If they're smart, they'll make the next portable system handheld game system (with proper controls) that can be used as a smartphone for any carrier. Picture a thinner 3DS, that, when closed, the surface has a smartphone screen and maybe even an Android OS, and when opened, becomes a portable game system. But if you don't want to use it as a phone, you don't have to.
Re: Nintendo Announces Higher Than Expected Profits Despite Missed Sales Targets
@JaxonH
Depending on when the mobile stuff rolls out, I expect this fiscal year will bode very well for them, and with any luck, that will drive them towards finding some solid new footing. I would still like to see full user accounts implemented, but I have a feeling that DeNA may be building precisely that.
Still disappointed Bayonetta 2 didn't even garner a mention, though. I'm yet amazed at just how good that game really is. Even Hyrule Warriors was skipped when talking about "Wii U hits." That's a shocker.
Re: Nintendo and Universal Studios Announce Theme Park Partnership
@TheRedCap30
I would expect F-Zero to just be a roller coaster, but it'd be cool if it was something like a "triple coaster" that had three tracks that "raced each other." I fully expect a Big Blue coaster at some point, but if they can find a way to do a Mario Kart go-kart track with digital weapons, that would be... man that would be something.
Re: Feature: What We Want to See in the Splatoon Direct
@TwilightAngel
I would like to point out that you are treading dangerous territory--never blame the bullied for being bullied. That's victim blaming. No one deserves to be bullied (well, maybe Hitler, but he's dead now anyway). While true, you know better the risks, what there may be, you are also better able to deal with them.
I can't help but wonder if some here who are against VC simply lack the ability to deal with these situations and are therefore more likely to just avoid them out of a predisposed fear or lack of confidence.
Re: Feature: What We Want to See in the Splatoon Direct
@ericwithcheese2
I definitely wish for the best for the company, I'm just so frustrated at seeing them apparently not care to do the things that would help them.
But yeah, when I was a kid, I wanted an NES "because everyone else had one," which was a really stupid reason. Then I got pneumonia (before going to the hospital, I had a temperature so high that I was hallucinating anthropomorphic pigs destroying our kitchen), and spent two weeks in a hospital, and there were two NES consoles there. By the end of those two weeks, I wanted it because I really freaking wanted it. I told my parents, they said "then save your money," and six month of doing my best to save my allowance later, I bought it myself and have been a gamer ever since.
I get annoyed when people say that getting through difficult times with games, like you or I did, is "avoiding the problem" or escaping to a fantasy. It can seriously help you cope. I've heard stories like yours before--a soldier I'd learned about got over PTSD by playing shooters. A particularly unsettling writer at Kotaku highlights that violent games help him deal with his shockingly aggressive personality traits. http://kotaku.com/violent-video-games-help-me-get-beyond-my-violent-past-1678978763
For me, the NES simply took away the attention on my painful illness, and boy howdy, when they stuck those needles through my back into my lungs, that was damn bloody painful. But fluid in the lungs means deep breaths are painful, and laughing was super painful, but it helped to clear out the fluid.
If you haven't seen the film Moral Kombat (spelled exactly like that), I highly suggest it. It's a great look into game content, game value, and violence in gaming versus so-called moral crusaders. The part about Abe's Odyssey will make your vision blurry from fighting back the tears.
Re: Feature: What We Want to See in the Splatoon Direct
@Kaze_Memaryu
You seem to be totally unaware that several companies have done great things in dealing with jerks online. That's fine that you can't see it, and honestly a little sad that you think it's way worse than reality and think it will never get better. Yeah, there will always be jerks, that doesn't mean things can't be improved.
Again, EA and Microsoft found great ways to punish cheaters, by forcing them to play with other cheaters: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/214823/Titanfall_Why_Respawn_is_punishing_cheaters.php
On Xbox Live, people who are consistently awful human beings can have their accounts banned and privileges revoked. This includes behavior over VC. Again, there are mute buttons.
You're ultimately still defending Nintendo for being backwards. You're ultimately still basing your view off stereotypes rather than reality. Your'e still ultimately commenting as if totally unaware that there have been great strides made in this by other companies--companies who are frequently called "less creative or innovative" than Nintendo." You're ultimately saying that "jerks online" have more power than Nintendo does on their own consoles.
Saying that "people who really want to will find a way" is just deliberately missing the point. It is a standard feature and option of modern online gaming. No one has to jump through these hoops to play any other online game. It's asinine to just accept it here because Nintendo or because you don't like talking to people online.
You want Nintendo to have success, right? You want Nintendo to have sales, right? You want Nintendo to return to their bigger influence and reach in gaming, right? Then why don't you want them to actually make efforts on every level to do that? Your point has repeatedly clung to stereotypes of online gaming and your personal dislike in talking to people online. The reality is, at the end of all of this, Nintendo is trying to sell a competitive team/squad-based shooter that is lacking expected modern features. No matter your feelings and apologetics, this will damage sales and reviews.
I just don't understand why anyone would continue to defend Nintendo's backsliding in an era when they need to be pulling out the big guns, so to speak. Or do you want the Nintendo to continue to linger on the outskirts of the industry for some reason?
Re: Feature: What We Want to See in the Splatoon Direct
@IceClimbers
How dare you not know what goes on behind closed doors! What I (think I) know is that Reggie was eventually promoted to the next position higher than Howard Lincoln once held, but then Iwata did kind of a "global power grab" putting himself totally in charge of NoJ and NoA, which I found reprehensible at the time, but can't really tell if it's been detrimental or not. Reggie would naturally have a better understanding of the Western audience than Iwata, but at the same time, Reggie prevented some games from coming over here, and it seems that it was his decision-making that gimped Xenoblade's release to "just GameStop" because he didn't believe the game would sell. Concerning XC, Last Story, and Pandora's Tower, Reggie had once commented that "100,00 signatures on a petition does not necessarily mean 100,000 sales." On that point, he is absolutely right, petitions don't mean anything, ultimately, and of XC, Last Story, and Pandora's Tower, none of them sold particularly well, especially the latter two.
I do enjoy that Nintendo is making a lot of differently priced levels of games, but at the same time, they still refuse to lower prices over time when they should, so that's annoying. I shouldn't have to pay full price for a three-year-old game. That's absurd. My prediction is a $50 price point for Mario Maker.
Re: Nintendo and Universal Studios Announce Theme Park Partnership
@The__Goomba
I would be happy with that.
Though, I would be absolutely thrilled if they did one for Eternal Darkness.
Re: Project Giant Robot Will Be Out Sooner Than You Probably Expect
@ricklongo
In general, Nintendo does need to find a way to sell the GamePad to on-the-fence consumers, but I don't think these Project games will do that. I really just think this ship has sailed. Nintendo fans like the GamePad (though I can't help but wonder how much of that is based on trying extra hard to like it), but the rest of the world hates it, and Nintendo will not change that view at this point. It's just not going to happen.
So yes, I effectively said that Nintendo needs to do something that is ultimately going to be pointless anyway.
Re: Nintendo Outlines 2015 Software Plans, Star Fox Still Due For Take-Off
@JJtheTexan
Unless that is the final name. Uninspiring though it may be.
Nintendo did, at one time, have some kind Transformers-clone franchise, if I'm remembering my Smash Bros trophies correctly. Maybe it'll be intertwined with that?
Re: Nintendo Announces Higher Than Expected Profits Despite Missed Sales Targets
@TruenoGT
I'm curious why you think it might get to 30 million. I no longer expect higher than 15 million before it's retired, so I expect it to be notably below the GameCube. Currently, it still has not outsold even the ill-fated Dreamcast, and the Wii U has had more time at retail. What do you base that on?
Re: Nintendo Announces Higher Than Expected Profits Despite Missed Sales Targets
@crimsontadpoles
No, their profits are lower than expected. They planned to be back in profits now, but missed their projections. It's good and bad news. They made profits, but missed their goal.
Re: Nintendo Announces Higher Than Expected Profits Despite Missed Sales Targets
@JaxonH
I think you're overlooking the three years of hefty losses Nintendo incurred prior to this. Nintendo is definitely not "future proof" in any way--almost no one is. Today's tech giants are tomorrow's dated technology. Look at Sony, for instance--they dominated consumer electronics for decades, and have been struggling badly, particularly over the last five years or so. The Playstation division is raking in profits selling nearly as many consoles per month as Nintendo is planning for this whole year, but the company as a whole is still working to get back to profits (Hirai's plan is for this to occur in 2018).
A part of this is that they were not future proof, and didn't see companies like LG, Panasonic, and especially Samsung who would come sweeping in to dominate areas where Sony once held control. TVs are just as good from anyone these days, and Samsung has practically become a de facto Android phone company. In some cases, it isn't iPhone vs Android, it's become iPhone vs Galaxy. Sony's mobile division is still hemorrhaging money.
But no, Nintendo is no more "future proof" than any other tech or entertainment company. Microsoft might be difficult to topple, but i wouldn't even consider them future proof. Aside from the flukes that defined the Wii and DS, Nintendo's hardware has been on a pretty steady sales decline ever since the NES, with each new console selling below the predecessor.
On the upside, Nintendo going mobile and (at long last) licensing their characters for Universal theme parks are going to be huge boons for them. Now they should do like Disney, and absorb some other media empire. DC and Marvel comics are already taken elsewhere. They should buy IDW.
Re: Nintendo and Universal Studios Announce Theme Park Partnership
I've been saying Nintendo should do this for years. But they should've gone with Six Flags because those are in way more places.
Never been to Universal Studios. Give me a sweet Eternal Darkness "haunted mansion" (it'll never happen, they'd go with Luigi's Mansion), and I'm totally sold.
Re: Project Giant Robot Will Be Out Sooner Than You Probably Expect
For ages, it wasn't even clear these things (Guard and Robot) were going to be games, as they were pretty clearly cobbled together for a quick E3 show off of "some kind of GamePad concepts," and then Miyamoto teased that they may be broken down and incorporated into StarFox. This does, at least, raise my hope a bit for StarFox (still not on-board with any amount of gyroscope-based gameplay), in that it won't have these two demos shoe-horned into the game in some way.
It's nice to have some kind of confirmation. I'll take a look, but knowing that it went from "slapdash E3 demo to full game" in less than a year is not exactly inspiring confidence.
Re: Nintendo Outlines 2015 Software Plans, Star Fox Still Due For Take-Off
At long last, finally some kind of confirmation that Giant Robot and Guard are some kind of actual games, though it's sounding like quick downloadable titles, and not major new franchises. What I see is "filler content" to hopefully keep fans from leaving their Wii U consoles off for more than a month.
I'm surprised to see these things actually appear as actual games, but not _that_surprised. It's not like Nintendo has much in the way of 3rd party support and they clearly can't support two platforms by themselves at once, so I suppose they need to turn E3 demos of the past into games now.
Re: Nintendo Announces Higher Than Expected Profits Despite Missed Sales Targets
Well, it is nice to see them raking in some kind of profit without a giant asterisk about exchange rates or weak yen or modifiers like that.
However, this is a little sad: With respect to "Wii U," Nintendo released two hit titles, "Mario Kart 8" and "Super Smash Bros. for Wii U," which enjoyed robust sales of 5.11 million units and 3.65 million units respectively.
I take it Bayonetta 2 is closer to "failure" status, then, as it was not mentioned at all...? So that's a huge let-down.
Interesting that Nintendo really doesn't see anything resembling "growth" considering the Wii U or 3DS, but to just maintain generally low sales. The Wii U still has not outsold the Dreamcast and has now had around 6 months more time (or so) to it's life. I really don't see it doing 3.4 million in sales over this year. At this point, Nintendo better be planning to roll out the NX as a Wii U replacement next year, because the Wii U may have finally found some stability, but it's not a good stability.
Again, good to see that they've finally turned some profits, but they're still missing their own projections, and they are clearly not going to be "thriving" any time soon. They are only hovering around "stable survival." It's clear the 3DS and Wii U are not strong cards in their future.
My hypothesis is that they will rake in their biggest profits of the year the month they start appearing on mobile devices. And that will permanently alter the direction of the company.
Re: Feature: What We Want to See in the Splatoon Direct
@outburst
To answer your first question: I don't.
I think you're missing that singular point and cramming all my points together into one overly simplified format or focus, which would be highly faulty.
I address individual comments on a per-comment-level, and only remark on the general audience if I deem it necessary. I'm interested in Nintendo's success, sales, and influence, as such, there are always lots of things to consider. Jaxon is a special case because he wants to be. I've tried burying the hatchet as it were and just having conversations, but he always wants to start fights for some reason, so a lot of those older conversations (since lost to the internet) ended up skewed into weird territory. He's the kind of person that twists a disagreement into some kind of personal attack, which is unproductive.
Per that, I really don't care if anyone disagrees with me--all I ask is that you have a good reason based on logic or reality (not personal anecdotes, and to accept that personal anecdotes are to be taken with a grain of salt), and that if you have a claim or I am incorrect, to please support it with some evidence. That's really not too much to ask, in my opinion.
I think I've agreed with Aaron Sullivan as much as disagreed with him on things. When scrolling through comments, his are frequently some I will read out of genuine interest. There are a few posters here I view in that regard. Kaze, rjer, Moon_Knight, Ice Climbers, and Ericwithcheese because he sounds delicious, etc. It's never anything personal, however general buying habits do have an effect on the company, and that is many times a valid consideration in an argument.
Re: Feature: What We Want to See in the Splatoon Direct
@IceClimbers
I have gone from finding Reggie entertaining to finding him rigid like a tape recorder affixed to the back of a cardboard picture of a man.
He has twice used the line, "Nintendo fans are always asking me, when is the next {title} game coming out? Well, here it is..."
Once with Mario, and once with Zelda. Maybe I've just gotten used to it, but now I can see the corporate team behind him writing his carefully tailored dialog. I think he's a far cry from the guy that walked out to support the GameCube with tough-guy antics and aggressive words. He's a lot softer now. He's not out to put up his dukes against MS or Sony, and that was inspiring of him. He seems more like a puppet now.
I do see some of his appeal, still, every now and then. But the worship levels of "put Reggie in Smash!" and this kind of nonsense is just baffling to me. And he gave us the Pizza Hut New Yorker. Do they even still have that pizza?
I blame Reggie for some games failing to come out over here, but not all. Some, like Disaster, specifically, he stated "would maybe come out after we see how it does in Europe," so he does have some say in what comes out over here. He also was key in selling off Rare, which was an acquisition by his predecessors--Lincoln and Arakawi (I think). Lincoln also worked hard to secure 3rd party support, particularly for sports and from EA, but Reggie doesn't seem to care at all.
Re: Feature: What We Want to See in the Splatoon Direct
@Kaze_Memaryu
How could I possibly know if there's no need for voice chat without playing it? I can, however, extrapolate that it would benefit by Nintendo's own descriptions of it being a strategic and squad-based, if highly energetic shooter. They even took it to EVO (or that other event) to show it off to competitive gamers. Even if it isn't necessary or important, for the sake of modernization and appealing to fence-sitters, Nintendo should have included it.
All of that indicates that this is a title that should have voice chat.
You also completely, whether deliberately or because you were busy responding to four people at once, missed my point on creativity and innovation. No, merely putting it in isn't creative or innovative--it's an expected modern norm.
But all of your complaints about it--jerks online, foul language, useless people, the occasional racist d-bag. Why can't Nintendo be innovative or creative enough to grow, advance, or evolve online chat and player interaction to work against these negatives? If Nintendo is so bloody creative, where is that creativity in making online gaming better? Why, instead, are they anti-creative about the whole thing, and, like an angry adolescent, just crossing their arms and angrily discarding the feature? The damn director even said as much! "People were mean to me online, so I just won't let anyone talk at all!"
That's like taking cars away from everybody because of a few drunk drivers. To this director, I'd like to say, "grow the hell up." Yes we should all be nicer to each other--that starts with each and every one of us actually doing it. But to just slam the door and walk away? How is that a creative solution?
Re: Feature: What We Want to See in the Splatoon Direct
@Ryu_Niiyama
Kind of a silly question, but I'll indulge. Why would I be here if I wasn't a Nintendo fan? Sometimes I get the feeling that I'm a bigger Nintendo fan than I thought because I want them to succeed and am frustrated by their failures and missteps rather than sitting here making apologetics for stupidity.
I'm a gamer first and a Nintendo fan second these days. I still buy my Nintendo hardware before anything else, but increasingly, I find that my tastes cannot be met with Nintendo's consoles anymore, especially not by themselves. I was all for playing games like Splinter Cell and Rayman on the Wii U, but apparently I was in an extreme minority, and those companies have walked away because those of us who supported them on Nintendo consoles were exactly that--an extreme minority.
I've been thinking about finally doing another blog on my long-dormant blog page about this. Nintendo is fascinating to talk about for a variety of reasons. PushSquare has almost 7 times as many people who've "liked" the page via Facebook, but there are way more conversations on NLife. This is a baffling, bizarre, fascinating, company to discuss. Meanwhile, Sony is basically just doing "everything right," so what is there to discuss? Nintendo is screwing up left and right and fast-tracking themselves to a third party future, and we're all just watching it happen (I've even come to now wanting it to happen and I can elaborate if you wish). Many of the most ardent Nintendo fanboys are actively contributing to the company eventually going 3rd party by driving away 3rd party support on these systems, and basically forcing the company into a corner of making and remaking Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon games endlessly--and these appease a small core audience, but no longer sell consoles.
The SNES, NES, DS, and GameCube remain four of my all-time favorite systems. I have incredibly fond nostalgia for NES games, Nintendo Power, and the like--and I'm pretty sure much of my personal nostalgia is different than most people given my tastes and what fascinated me back then. It's hard to put into words, but there is a look to so many 1st and 3rd party offerings of the day that grasp me so.
I mostly look for new experiences these days, but there are rare fleeting moments where I'll buy something for nostalgia. Mario Maker, for instance, I largely have no interest. However, once I saw Super Mario World graphics--easily my favorite 2D Mario--my interest piqued. I love this company, but so many things they do are just so damn frustrating. It was long my dream to make a game on Nintendo game systems, and this year, I realized that dream--to annoying struggles and some disappointment. We're stuck having to rely on nobody review sites to get any attention at all, and unfortunately, those same sites too frequently lack any amount of intelligent discourse or analysis. We understand our gaffes and learned from them, but at the same time, we were met with lukewarm attention and utterly buried the week we released because that's when Nintendo decided to whitewash anyone by releasing a slough of games that ensured we'd be ignored.
On the upside, we learned from the experience, and have moved forward enough to add PS4 to our approved platforms. So there is another reason I have some frustrations with Nintendo and their "we just want more of the same" general fanbase.
So, "please understand," you're talking to someone who grew up with this company. Someone who at 11 years old, credits the NES with helping him get through two weeks of often painful hospital recovery from pneumonia. Who still notes his favorite game (Eternal Darkness) is a Nintendo title. But who has grown frustrated with watching a once-great company shuffle it's feet into irrelevance.
Does that long-winded doggerel answer your question?
Re: Feature: What We Want to See in the Splatoon Direct
@Haiassai
A lot of these guys either had a couple bad experiences and just linger on them like stubborn old geezers (no offense to any old geezers here), or have never actually used online voice chat because they've been core Nintendo fans for their gaming lives and simply decide to base their opinions around negative stereotypes.
There are loads of games that have made voice chat fun, or benefited from voice chat. Left 4 Dead instantly stands out to me, and when I played it online, I always used a headset so our team could coordinate how we were doing things. This was some of the most fun I've ever had online. But Left 4 Dead also shows why a team-based game so heavily benefits from being able to communicate with your teammates. "Pick me up! I'm over here! But look out, there's a Smoker nearby!" This kind of communication made the game vastly deeper and more engrossing.
It also highlighted the strength of communication, as one anecdote I have is that my team all had mics and the other team did not, and we were able to coordinate so efficiently, that on one level, we (as zombie team) cornered the other team at the starting point and crushed them. Sure this sounds unfair to the other team, but it highlights the strength of being able to communicate.
This is simply what modern gamers expect, and Nintendo is failing in this regard. And it will ultimately damage the game's appeal.
Re: Feature: What We Want to See in the Splatoon Direct
@outburst
As a team, deal with it. It's entirely your choice on any other platform. Nintendo simply fails to give players those choices.
Again, why is it Nintendo fans are so quick to defend Nintendo's lame backsliding and willingness to look out of touch? You guys champion the company as the most innovative and creative out there all the time, so if they're so damn innovative and creative, then why couldn't the apply that innovation and creativity towards online play?
Perhaps Nintendo isn't as creative as we'd like to think, if instead of innovating online play and voice chat, they simply run from it. Instead of making it better or showing up MS and Sony, they merely prevent it entirely. That's just... lame.
Re: Feature: What We Want to See in the Splatoon Direct
@Superryanworld
To be fair, I don't think Reggie is doing the repairs himself, but I find it interesting that people so worship these figureheads. Reggie was hired to be a corporate leader and public speaker for the company in the West. He wasn't selected because he was some kind of mega gamer. He was selected to make business decisions and to dribble corporate speak a team of people write for him.
Miyamoto, I can see. He's influenced both gaming and Nintendo to ridiculous degrees. Especially Nintendo, as he's helped turn it into the "Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon company" above all else. He's a lifer with the company. Kind of like Kaz Hirai, who was the "father of the Playstation," who then moved to CEO of the entire company. But a lot of the guys in these companies change seats.
Peter Moore, for instance, held powerful positions with Sega, Microsoft, and now EA.
Re: Feature: What We Want to See in the Splatoon Direct
@Kaze_Memaryu
Again, on voice chat, it's not about what you personally may or may not want. It's about Nintendo failing to deliver an actual modern online game. That's all well and good that you're happy to play with an uncoordinated slap-dash team and revel in the anarchy and chaos sans socialization.
But the reality is that this is hurting the game's appeal, it will hurt the game in reviews, and it further backs up that Nintendo is simply out of touch with modern gaming, gaming concepts, and players.
It's bad enough that fans appear to fail to understand the concept of the "mute" button, it's another thing entirely that Nintendo is somehow stupid enough not to understand it.
Rather than championing Nintendo's backsliding and failure to even meet modern standards because you don't want to talk to other people, we should really be questioning how one of the most frequently touted "innovative and creative" companies in gaming somehow lacks the innovation and creativity to advance or evolve online chat in any meaningful way. Instead, Nintendo just decides to show how out of it they really are--just disallow the feature.
Your personal preference aside, surely you must recognize that this is a decision that is ultimately hurting the game and Nintendo's image as a whole. It's all well and good that you're going to be happy with a gimped online experience. The reality is that this is damaging to Nintendo's image, and damaging to the success and attention Splatoon otherwise likely deserves.
In this day and age, this kind of decision is every bit as damaging as Nintendo going with obscenely expensive and limited cartridges in an era when optical disks had already become the norm.
Essentially, if people really want to play with clans and teams in a co-op or squad-based shooter, they won't bother with all that nonsense you listed. They'll just skip this game and the Wii U entirely because it fails to offer the proper options for a solid experience.
Re: Feature: What We Want to See in the Splatoon Direct
@MrGawain
I wonder if people felt that way when Reggie was just spewing corporate speak when he was in charge of Pizza Hut.
Re: Feature: What We Want to See in the Splatoon Direct
@rushiosan
Agreed. Frankly, I don't even see the point of online teams, clans, or tournaments if you can't coordinate with your team. That automatically makes the tournament a total crapshoot. That's like having a tournament for throwing dice.
Re: Updated Documents Point to Multiple amiibo Restocks for North America
@leo13
GameStop does the vast majority of their business on Xbox and Playstation brands. Nintendo is largely looked upon with apathy or outright disdain from most within the company--and this is based on my albeit brief experience working there. Their stuff doesn't really sell there, and Nintendo is usually relegated to a back corner in the stores. Very few have playable demo stations for Wii U and/or 3DS while most have demo stations for Xbox or Playstation.
GameStop stores are also rather small, and already have shelf space taken up by Skylanders and Disney Infinity, and soon Legos, and all of those--no doubt--sell better and have larger available audiences than the Amiibos, which barely even have any worthwhile applications for gaming. There simply isn't a lot of good reasons for GameStop to stock a lot of Amiibos. One of the GameStops I went in recently (I think to get Mortal Kombat X), literally had fewer than 6 Amiibo on display, and I think they were all Mario and Mario franchise characters, and that was it.
Re: Updated Documents Point to Multiple amiibo Restocks for North America
@BLPs
Ahh, you're in the UK. I'm smack in the middle of North America, and surrounded by Best Buys (corporate headquarters is here) and GameStops (the magazine they own is also here), and a few remaining Toys R Us stores, and Target is also headquartered here.
I essentially have no shortage of places to find these things, and if I can't just walk into a store to get one, I'm not wasting my time anymore. With all these options, and still so many are so hard to find, that's a good reason for me to never want to buy them.
Re: Feature: What We Want to See in the Splatoon Direct
This site is hilarious.
"I wanna see this stuff!!"
"Feature"
Re: Imageepoch CEO Remains Absent With Removal of Twitter Account
@CaviarMeths
There has been no mention of missing money or debts, though--except for unsubstantiated rumors. A game company can melt down for a variety of reasons. All we've had is bizarre notes of abandoned offices, developers looking for new jobs, development within the company quickly losing steam, and a missing CEO.
http://www.siliconera.com/2015/04/03/imageepochs-ceo-appears-gone-missing/
Even if it is money, this is a bizarre turn. They delivered a completed game (Stella Glow) to Sega/Atlus, and then just packed up shop and vanished?
Money is easy to assume, but without evidence, should not be assumed--and there appears to be no solid reference to actual money woes. We shouldn't jump to conclusions. It's fine to speculate that money could be a part of it, but until we know better, it'd be irresponsible to speak confidently on it.
That is, until he turns up on an expensive yacht in the Mediterranean sitting on a pile of Imageepoch money saying, "what? I just found all this money."
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo's Legacy Makes The Virtual Console Essential, But It Must Modernise
@BLPs
I'd like to point out that if someone broke into your house and stole your Wii U, because it lacks a proper account system a la Microsoft, Valve, Sony, Apple, Google, etc., redownloading your games on a new Wii U is a notoriously obtuse process wherein Nintendo makes you file a police report, and then submit the police report to them, and then you still might not get them back.
To access my account on different hardware with Steam, I just need to sign in on new hardware, and they send me confirmation emails to ensure this new hardware is approved by me. Then I have instant access to all my stuff again.
Re: Updated Documents Point to Multiple amiibo Restocks for North America
@BLPs
I have seen Link and Samus in plentiful numbers at a Toys R Us near me. They also had ample numbers of both versions of Link, Mega Man, and Sonic. Anyone who paid over retail for any of these is a sucker.
Re: Updated Documents Point to Multiple amiibo Restocks for North America
@leo13
Yeah, I find it extremely difficult to believe anyone is ordering more Marios. That is one figure that is never sold out. Or rather, two figures since there are two of them.
Re: Imageepoch CEO Remains Absent With Removal of Twitter Account
@CaviarMeths
Eh, maybe. Without some kind of evidence, I don't think you can really make that claim. People disappear for a wide variety of reasons, and without evidence, putting it just on money is no better than saying "sasquatch did it" or that he was raptured, even if it might be more realistic. Stress, mental breakdowns, mental disorders, abductions, paranoia, death--the list is basically unlimited.
This is a pretty interesting article: http://facts.randomhistory.com/missing-persons-facts.html
While it focuses on statistics in the US, many, if not most or all, could easily be applied to pretty much any country, with varying numbers (based on population). For one thing, at least in the US, missing persons cases are viewed with low priorities compared to things like murder, or robbery. In the US, there is generally 100,000 active missing persons cases at any given time. That's a lot of people that just up and vanished.
This guy is notable because he's in a high position in a company which may or may not be related to his disappearance. No one can really say. Money might be one thing, if he absconded and took a bunch with him, but instead, he just basically "vanished."
Re: Updated Documents Point to Multiple amiibo Restocks for North America
Yeah, because Mario, Bowser, and Link are so hard to find. They are liteterally at almost every store I walk into.
Whatever. Nintendo botched this with impressive hubris, so I'm essentially done with them. I'd still like Pac-Man and eventually, Zero Suit Samus and Mr. Game & Watch, but only if they are available in stores. If Nintendo isn't going to bother making or shipping enough of them to actually fill stores, I'm not spending my money on them. It's bad enough that they can't be found in stores in anything resembling reasonable supplies, but it's a slap to the face that after all the work in trying to get them, they're largely useless in any game.
Re: Review: Best Friends - My Horse 3D (3DS eShop)
Someone must be buying a lot of these games, because there is no shortage of them on the 3DS eShop.
Re: Imageepoch CEO Remains Absent With Removal of Twitter Account
@CaviarMeths
Was there a report somewhere that he owed someone money? I don't remember seeing that.