Comments 2,916

Re: Next Metroid Prime Home Console Title "Would Likely Now be on NX"

Quorthon

@IceClimbers

From that link you provided, I followed two more and lo and behold, once again we have Iwata apologizing to fans instead of just doing something right from the beginning.

To think, there was once a point on this site where someone argued with me when I criticized Iwata for appearing weak by choosing to apologize rather than simply deliver. He is still going for apologies over deliveries.

The only possible upside here is that, with such a dismally small E3 line-up, Nintendo must be putting most of their resources behind development for NX and mobile to stack the odds better for that hardware than they did for Wii U and 3DS. And frankly, they really need to be putting all their resources behind NX right now. The Wii U ship has sailed. It still doesn't appear to have even outsold the Dreamcast, and as I predicted, E3 merely showed us the last hurrah for this console as it dips out over the next year.

http://bgr.com/2015/06/17/e3-2015-nintendo-ceo-apology/

Re: Editorial: Cheer Up, There Are Some Exciting Games on the Way

Quorthon

That there is a "number" of games coming does not mean they all appeal to everyone, and this E3 still had the problem of featuring zero new AAA-level games for either 3DS or Wii U. There is not much coming to the Wii U or 3DS, particularly compared to literally any other platform.

So yeah, there are lots of games coming out. On the PS4, Xbox One, PC, and of all things, the Vita.

Even Nintendo doesn't give a crap about this release schedule, as they couldn't be bothered to include Devil's Third or Fatal Frame in it at all.

Re: First Impressions: Our Maiden Flight In Star Fox Zero Prompts Mixed Emotions

Quorthon

@exDeveloper

Then I'LL BE ANTAGONISTIC!

I think there's just a misunderstanding, but I also think Nintendo is taking a lazy route with StarFox the more I look at it. Miyamoto even said it started out as a demo on the Wii. The Wii U can handle some pretty massive textures 8k by 8k (PS4 and XBO, 16k by 16k) where k is thousand, as in number of pixels. So for this game to look like it's still running textures from the GameCube/Wii is pretty sad. Texture size on the Wii was around 512x512 pixels. So, 16x smaller than what the Wii U can do and 32x smaller than PS4 and XBO.

The game looks fairly clean, but is lacking in detail or graphical depth.

What we're discussing here is the idea that this game appears to be just "up-rezzing" textures from the GC/Wii era. Stretching a 512 texture to 8192 (or even half that) is not going to yield much quality, so when an actual up-rezzed version of a GC game is looking surprisingly close to this made-for-HD game, that's a bit unsettling.

I hope I explained that fairly well.

Re: Next Metroid Prime Home Console Title "Would Likely Now be on NX"

Quorthon

@IceClimbers

I would really like to see F-Zero return (like GX) and a new Sin & Punishment. But per my understanding, the last Sin & Punishment on Wii did not sell very well. Which is unfortunate, as it was one of my favorite Wii games. Kid Icarus, maybe. I did enjoy Uprising, but they need to fully adopt dual-analog controls if they do it.

But this E3, once again, rears it's ugly head. I've long pointed out that Nintendo aims to release Zelda, in some capacity, physically every year--and this E3 went one step further by showing a second one for this year, and a second one for 2016. I've also long complained about the ridiculous over-use of Mario, averaging 3~6 Mario-themed titles per year, every year. And sure enough, they stuffed three Mario themed games into E3 for this year, and one other at least has already come out (the Mario vs Donkey Kong one), which is 4 Mario games for 2015.

They are focusing too heavily on Mario and Zelda again, while franchises like F-Zero, S&P, Kid Icarus, Eternal Darkness, Geist, Battalion Wars, Advance Wars, Excite Bike/Truck/Bots, Custom Robo, etc. are, once again, totally ignored.

This is one thing that pisses me off so much about Nintendo fanboys--overly happy to buy anything with Mario, Link, or Pokemon on the cover, oblivious or apathetic to all that is being ignored as they do so. Imagine how much better this E3 would've been if, instead of two of those Mario games, they showed F-Zero and Eternal Darkness. Battalion Wars and Punch-Out. Kid Icarus and Metroid.

Just... sigh.

I mean, this E3 was all fluff, all filler. They could have, at the very least shown off a couple more HD remakes to pad out this final year! Eternal Darkness, Punch-Out, F-Zero GX, Geist HD! They didn't even aspire to that! Then there'd at least be a colorful variety of titles to look forward to.

Re: First Impressions: Our Maiden Flight In Star Fox Zero Prompts Mixed Emotions

Quorthon

@ericwithcheese2

Yeah, I had originally heard more traditional controls would be incorporated, but Nintendo and Miyamoto are adamant to justify that bloody GamePad, and I'm just sick of it. Especially for a game like this--that should be intense, exhilarating, and requires solid controls, my initial interest in this game has started bottoming-out.

I guess I'll just look forward to the next Ace Combat and forget that this thing even exists.

Re: First Impressions: Our Maiden Flight In Star Fox Zero Prompts Mixed Emotions

Quorthon

@Yorumi

It appears our earlier fears of gyroscope and GamePad controls have been confirmed.

StarFox64 was my favorite N64 game, and the sharp controls and intense action were defining traits of it. This sounds like an unmitigated disaster through and through. Reused audio from the N64? Are they f**king serious? Empty stages giving the impression of "maintain framerate at any cost?" Unevolved graphics? Nintendo brought no AAA games to E3, outside of the StarFox brand, and this is not filling me with confidence.

Re: Poll: What Did You Think of Nintendo's E3 Digital Event?

Quorthon

@IceClimbers

The company has been surprisingly aloof in dealing with gamers, their fans, and the industry as a whole for a couple generations now. So, the "doing nothing" concept is more apt than I was saying, so to speak. I think this comes from, in large part, their latter-day "not competing" bullcrap and their failure to understand how the industry was changing way back in the 2000s.

It does feel like they're doing nothing half the time. But there's such a total lack of content in this E3 and recent Directs that they better be doing something back there. Still. Frustrating. What a terrible showing.

Re: Poll: What Did You Think of Nintendo's E3 Digital Event?

Quorthon

@IceClimbers

I guess we'll have to disagree on the ZeldaU/NX thing, but not only do I think it'll work, but I think Nintendo fans--more than any other group out there--love to rebuy games or have cross-gen, multi-gen titles, remakes, and re-releases. Twilight Princess Wii destroyed the GC version in sales. This is a gamble that Nintendo, I'm quite confident, will make. You know, if Nintendo has demonstrated one thing over the years, it's that they totally don't know how to read statistics or market economics. Which means they'll look at TP's better Wii sales and all they'll see is "put Zelda on the upstart console=sales."

At any rate, I think this was at the heart of the game's delay from the very beginning. I mean, in addition to the regular usual Nintendo delays.

I see where you were going with the "they're doing nothing" comments now, though, ha ha. At least I think so. I haven't been particularly confident about the launch of the NX as is and.... I just realized they didn't talk about the Club Nintendo replacement stuff AT ALL. What the hell? We've been waiting for that information forever.

Anyway, my biggest E3 draw is not particularly original. Fallout 4 and Horizon: Zero Dawn which looked really, really cool--I just hope they tone down all the chatter from the main character. That was kind of annoying. Oh, and Transformers: Devastation. Ha ha, yes! I'm going to have to pick up that graphic novel collection. Somehow I missed it.

Re: Poll: What Did You Think of Nintendo's E3 Digital Event?

Quorthon

@Yorumi

I'm aghast, to be honest. I mean, I didn't expect them to topple MS or Sony because their consoles are entering their major growth period while the Wii U is in it's decline, but I never expected it would be quite this bad. The vast bulk of their showing was games we knew about! Xenoblade for the third E3 in a row! No major teasers, no major announcements, and not a single newly revealed game was of a AAA caliber or even close.

Fatal Frame, Devi's Third, Project Treasure, and that Pokken Fighters were all totally ignored. Not only did they manage to show very little of anything remotely noteworthy, but they even whittled down the showing to what amounted to a proclamation of "we make games for kids, and nothing else." The hubris surrounding Mario Maker as "if you want to make games, you'll like this!" is staggering. It's like they haven't heard of LittleBigPlanet or Minecraft or Project Spark or the dozen(s) of other similar titles.

And I'm flat-out amazed that Retro didn't show up. I'm quite convinced now that whatever they're doing, it's for the NX.

Re: Poll: What Did You Think of Nintendo's E3 Digital Event?

Quorthon

@DBPirate

I don't get the Anime love, either. Most of the "adult" anime I've seen still has stories written for immature 10-year-old boys, devoid of character development or depth, and largely filled with swearing, violence, and nudity just to garner that adult attention. Way too much of that crap feels like this to me.

Re: Poll: What Did You Think of Nintendo's E3 Digital Event?

Quorthon

@IceClimbers

You think Nintendo is doing nothing right now? Nothing is what they brought to E3. It's been pretty obvious for months now that Nintendo is shifting internal teams, and Miyamoto's "next Mario, next console" quip came last year.

Nintendo has made a lot of mistakes, but I don't think they're going to spend an entire year having no reason for anyone to look at their game console (which is what would happen if NX was held off until 2017). The last time Nintendo had a powerful launch was with the GameCube. It wasn't just the 3DS or Wii U that had sluggish, "where are the games?" launches. It was also the Wii and DS. The same with Sony and Microsoft. No new console launches at 100%. Nintendo will have plenty to prepare for the NX to launch next year to be a perfectly average, even solid console launch. Especially is Zelda U also becomes Zelda NX, which, given how well that worked with Twilight Princess, they'd almost be stupid not to do this.

Nintendo has also been quieter with new Wii U and 3DS games than they were with the Wii and DS at this point in their lives. Sure, they showed a lot of 3DS games--many of which are ports, already released (like Yokoi Watch), or built on existing engines. They are releasing games which do not require their full attention, because their full attention is elsewhere.

Preparing for NX to launch in 2016.

We are not seeing remotely their full output from their internal teams right now. Not even close. Because those guys are working on NX games. The complete lack of any announcement of any new AAA-level Wii U games at E3 is very telling. If the NX was slated for 2017, they'd have announced some more new games to fill out 2016.

They didn't do that.

Re: Poll: What Did You Think of Nintendo's E3 Digital Event?

Quorthon

@IceClimbers

And what's supposed to fill the dead space between June 2016 and November 2017? Nintendo doesn't have anything to prolong the Wii U in that time, or they'd have shown something. The big problem with thinking the NX will come in 2017 is that we are currently looking at a Nintendo that will literally have nothing to show at that time. Third parties aren't here. Ohh, Skylanders and Just Dance. Ppff. Even indies are walking away.

Hell, we didn't see what Retro is working on--that's a pretty big red flag, particularly since DKC:TF came out in 2014--which means Retro has already had a good year, possibly more to work on their NX title. All Nintendo showed at E3 was smaller games easily handled by smaller interior teams, and other titles--like Xenoblade, StarFox, Project Treasure (hey, where the hell was that?), SMTxFE are being handled entirely or in large part by external studios.

Nintendo has more than enough internal development set aside right now to prepare for a 2016 NX release, and every indication is that is precisely when it will show up. There is not enough games or momentum to carry the Wii U beyond this point next year. 2016 is clearly the last year for the Wii U.

Unless NX launches in the first quarter of 2017, every indication we have points to fall 2016. On top of which, there was also Iwata's statement that they will be "back in Nintendo-like profits" for the fiscal year ending March 2017. No doubt, a big part of that plan, is the NX falling squarely in that window, because the Wii U and 3DS will not do it.

Now, November 2017 could happen, but all the evidence and indications we have right now point to 2016. Lack of games for Wii U, lack of AAA titles for Wii U, no new AAA Wii U announcements at all, a focus on smaller games, and a focus on 3DS games indicates that Nintendo is getting ready to push the Wii U aside next year. Not later.

Hell, they replaced the GBA at the 4-year mark, and it was performing a lot better. The remainder of 2015 and 2016 for the Wii U mirrors the final years for the N64, GameCube, and Wii. The titles we have remaining are being spread out to cover some space while Nintendo preps the new system.

NX: November 2016.

Look at the XBO and PS4 (and PC for that matter). There are games announced straight through 2016, filling out 2016, and towards the end of the year. Nintendo barely has that for this year. The NX is coming sooner rather than later. All the available evidence points to a 2016 release, and this dismal, small-game-focused, no AAA, toy-centric E3 points directly to that.

We didn't get new Metroid games. We got new Metroid teasers, stopgaps. Two more Zelda games operating in exactly the same capacity. Hell, even Miyamoto himself noted that the next major (AAA) Mario game will be for the NX, which indicates that they are developing it now, if not well into development of it.

I don't want to come off like I'm picking on you, but the only that seems to be given for why anyone thinks the NX will arrive in 2017 is repeating this mantra of "5 year cycle, 5 year cycle" despite that the Wii had a six year cycle and the GBA had a 4 year cycle, and the original Game Boy lasted over a decade. There is no evidence that Nintendo is going to wait until 2017 for this thing. None. There are countless indicators that it is vastly more likely to arrive in 2016--especially the slim showing of this E3, with no new franchises, notable absences (like Retro), and several smaller-scale games that could be delivered without taking attention away from NX game development in-house. The biggest red flag is just the blatant lack of 2016 content for the system. Like the last year of the N64 and GameCube, which both featured very, very few releases, notable or otherwise.

Re: Poll: What Did You Think of Nintendo's E3 Digital Event?

Quorthon

@DroothR

Not true, good sir. Both the original Xbox and GBA were replaced at the 4-year mark. Thankfully, their replacements both had serious longevity. So there's an upside, huh? The last two consoles to be replaced as quickly as Wii U, were replaced by industry juggernauts.

Re: Poll: What Did You Think of Nintendo's E3 Digital Event?

Quorthon

This isn't just the worst E3 showing this year, this is Nintendo's worst in ages. It's extremely clear that they are going to release NX next year. The E3 showing was almost entirely games we already knew about, and of the few new games shown, not a single one was of a AAA development level. They are quite clearly following standard Nintendo procedure--once the new console is announced, they notably and drastically drop support of the current one as the build up for the new one.

Way too many games with Mario slapped on the cover. This will mark a year with three retail released Zelda games (and people have the nerve to argue with me about how Nintendo has been turning it into an annual or yearly franchise), and no mention of Fatal Frame, Devil's Third, or anything from Retro.

Those Metroid games are like a slap to the face, but they'll still probably be better than Other M.

Re: Yu Suzuki's Shenmue 3 Could Yet Come To The Wii U 

Quorthon

By the tentacled beard of great Cthulhu, just quit with these "OH IT MAYBE COME TO WII U!!" articles already. It's like you guys have nothing to talk about and are padding your site with empty fluff articles. Shenmue on Wii U would sell worse than Shenmue on Dreamcast. There's no bloody point to doing it or even talking about it.

Re: Hyrule Warriors Is Slashing Its Way to 3DS

Quorthon

@ericwithcheese2

This is increasingly one of my problems with Nintendo. They are too heavily focused on reselling the same old games over and over again. This treads the line of having 4 Zelda rereleases/remakes in 5 years, even though it's just a port. Still. I'm tired of them trying to sell me on rebuying the same crap over and over. I don't do it anywhere else, and I'm not going to do it for Nintendo.

Re: 3DS Hits 15 Million Sales Landmark in the US

Quorthon

@Mommar

I'm more interested in skewed numbers based on the absurd number of Nintendo fans who bought more than one or two editions of the console, thus throwing off the ultimate reach of the system.

We've got at least two people in here with four 3DS systems--just for themselves. One of my friends has 3 or 4 3DS systems. If every Nintendo fan was like this, their actual sales and reach would be closer to 1/3 of these numbers Nintendo brags about.

It's not really worth celebrating if you're just reselling the things to the same people over and over again.

Re: 3DS Hits 15 Million Sales Landmark in the US

Quorthon

@Savino

I think there's an inaccuracy there, since, ignoring the DS, it's selling below the GBA overall, which sold far more units in a shorter period of time. The GBA was replaced and on a noticeable decline by this point in it's life.

Compared to the DS, which hit 50 million in it's third year, the 3DS didn't reach that until year 5. Decent numbers overall, but still indicative of the overall decline in Nintendo's hardware sales. It's not just selling below the DS, but also the GBA.

Re: Hyrule Warriors Is Slashing Its Way to 3DS

Quorthon

@AyeHaley @Ogbert

Just pointing out the hypocrisy. When any other game leaves the Wii U exclusive status, Nintendo fans get all butthurt and the adversarial relationship with 3rd parties predictably rears it's ugly head--why, you can head to the main page here right now to see it happening in the rumored ZombiU move.

But when Nintendo devalues their own hardware by removing exclusives--be it Smash Bros or Hyrule Warriors--to put it on better selling hardware, you guys are all for it. Because Nintendo.

At the end of the day, the Wii U has, yet again, one fewer title to really make it worth the purchase. This also adds to the idea that Nintendo doesn't have much else looming on the horizon for these systems, so they're starting to port more games to fill the ever-widening gaps in the release schedule.

Re: Rumour: ZombiU Is Shedding Its Wii U Exclusivity To Infect The PlayStation 4 And Xbox One

Quorthon

You guys not understanding how the two screens of the Wii U version could be translated seem to be overlooking that the second screen on the Wii U is nothing more than a second camera looking at something other than the play screen. They can easily overlay this stuff on TV screen or split the two cameras to the single output. It's really not that difficult. The only thing to be replaced would be simple touch-screen controls. Not a big deal.

This stuff isn't a huge deal because the Wii U GamePad really doesn't and didn't offer anything so drastically different that it couldn't be done on any other platform.

Re: Hyrule Warriors Is Slashing Its Way to 3DS

Quorthon

Another Wii U exclusive jumps ship!

Here's what's happening with Nintendo fans. Any 3rd party exclusive jumps ship and the fans/fanboys are all: "Boo! 3rd parties are all evil! I'll never support another one!!"

But if it's a Nintendo game jumping ship from exclusivity it's all "hooray! I get to rebuy the same game again! All I care about is that Mario, Link, or Pokemon are on the cover and that the publisher is Nintendo, who never ever do things like third parties because I don't pay attention!"

Oh ha.

Re: Disney Infinity Producer Brands amiibo Stock Shortages "Irresponsible And Rude"

Quorthon

@ericwithcheese2

I think "rude" is a decent descriptor of Nintendo's attitude here because they have been consistently repeatedly vague in explaining anything to consumers. A lot of "maybe we'll make more" and "we might have solutions" and "just buy stupid cards instead." A great deal of their comments towards consumers have been a combination of rude, insensitive, aloof, and arrogant. Fine qualities at times (some people deserve rudeness), but not when you're trying to sell a product--and totally failing at it.

I'm still just shocked that their initial shipments last December for wave 1 were apparently intended to be the only shipments of so many figures. The way they addressed consumers was basically to either ignore them or give them non-answers.

This is a big part of why my interest in these things plummeted very quickly. I'm pleased to see that Pac-Man is actually visible in the occasional retail store. But it's still a far cry from what this should've been.

I suppose they should get all they can from these things now, because once fall and winter roll around, the Star Wars Infinity figures start showing up, coupled with a new Star Wars movie--nobody but the last remaining Nintendo fanboys are going to care about these things.

I would not be surprised at all if the Amiibo line is dead and gone by the middle of 2016.

Re: Disney Infinity Producer Brands amiibo Stock Shortages "Irresponsible And Rude"

Quorthon

@Ryu_Niiyama

I have a PS4, but the similarity between the Xbox, Playstation, and PC platforms is a big reason why I just wish this industry would move towards a unified format.

Something rather like the Steam Machines where anyone can make a console of differing power and price points, and all games are made scaleable for the hardware (using refined engines), and an organization like the ESA sets a "new minimum power" standard every 5 years.

For non-PC gamers, Reggie's comments were monstrously stupid and uninformed. The XBO and PS4 only cost $50 or $100 more, and for that same holiday season, they both came with games, way more storage space, robust online features and games, way more power, way more games, and both had a lot more content in-coming. The Wii U is the fastest I've ever, essentially, stopped playing a Nintendo console. A personal anecdote, to be sure, but this is from a life-long Nintendo fan who buys Nintendo first and foremost, and then the "secondary" platform. The PS4 just keeps offering all that I want. I'm still working through Bloodborne. And like last gen with the X360, the Nintendo console is now pushed to the side as the secondary machine.

At this point, I'd really rather they just go third party. No one seems to buy Nintendo consoles for third party games (apparently I was one of the last), Nintendo has no idea how to get the support, fans are adversarial towards 3rd parties, and it's increasingly difficult to justify the purchase of hardware that is going to be so rarely used. The Wii U is already lingering along at the dead pace of the dreadful final years of the N64.

It's good that it worked out for you, thus far, though. At least Fallout 4 is coming this year.

Re: Disney Infinity Producer Brands amiibo Stock Shortages "Irresponsible And Rude"

Quorthon

@Gavin_Rozee
Your post:
"Maybe because people actually want amiibo, but they don't want Star Wars toys which only work with one game."

The only way you could make such a ridiculous comment is to have never even known a single Star Wars fan. Like Amiibo, which are by and large, purchased for collectibles not their "usefulness" in games, these Star Wars figures will sell like mad, simply because they are new Star Wars figures.

The Star Wars action figure line has something around 500 or more unique figures going all the way back to 1977. A decade ago, I bought the 300th figure (which was a special edition Boba Fett) just for it. The 500th figure was Darth Vader. And it looks like they're approaching 600.

These Star Wars Infinity figures will bury Amiibo in sales.

Re: Disney Infinity Producer Brands amiibo Stock Shortages "Irresponsible And Rude"

Quorthon

This line:

"_ fans being forced to pay way over the odds on the secondary market in order to complete their collections_"

Caught my attention in the article.

No one was FORCED to pay more money in secondary markets. Absolutely no one. Nintendo fans helped do this to themselves the first time they were more than willing to pay absurd prices for plastic toys. That is capitalism, people. Prices went up because Nintendo fans were all too happy to pay more, and their urge to have these things outweighed the rationale about simply not buying all of them.

Here's the thing, once Nintendo fans started paying more, they not only helped drive up prices on the secondary market, but they fed scalpers and resellers the idea that they should further damage supply by buying up all the rare ones in order to resell them at higher prices.

Yes, Nintendo totally dropped the ball on these--I've been saying that the whole time. But at the same time, not a single Nintendo fan was ever "forced" to pay over retail for these things. They clearly wanted to, and clearly helped create the reseller fiasco that ensued. This is the bed Nintendo fans were all too happy to make.