Well, it can be hard to be straight early on, but these companies have to juggle over-promising and risking falling short. Promise too little early on, and no one pays attention. Promise too much, and people get their panties all twisted if they don't deliver.
This is a hype-driven industry, so it can be difficult to measure that or figure out how to do it well. On the one hand, yes, perhaps they should have been more reserved early on, on the other hand, they may have needed that hype to garner attention to get the game made.
I haven't seen anything that makes me think Zelda U is made from the ground-up for the GamePad. It was being used as a map and little else thus far. That's relatively easy to translate to just popping up a menu instead of streaming to the GamePad.
No, there's no guarantee that the NX is going to sell better--in fact, I think at this point, it is far more likely to sell worse simply because it's going to be that much harder to get 3rd parties back on board. Nintendo's fans are happy to buy and re-buy hardware--particularly portable, but I think the fanbase is shrinking.
I've joined the ranks of Nintendo fans who does the vast majority of his gaming elsewhere. I'm always interested in the company, but they simply don't offer much of anything that I want. I see the hardware as a hurdle now. I would prefer them to go third party--the games would sell far better on platforms with a high number of adopters.
However, I think it's likely Nintendo looks at the Wii U, increasingly, as a lost cause. That last broad-ranging Direct cemented this hypothesis as they are focused on keeping their players playing Mario Kart and Smash Bros for as long as possible with DLC packs. Since Nintendo likely looks at Wii U as a lost cause, they may simply think it better to walk away and take the gamble that NX might sell better if Zelda launched with it. They had no idea the Wii was going to take off like it did, but they still stacked the odds by pushing Twilight Princess over to it.
That's why I think it's likely. Nintendo has routinely shown an odd over-simplification to their understanding of the industry these days. I have little doubt that their talks center on "last time we had a console that sold bad, we moved Zelda over to the new console, and that console sold. We should do that again."
Remember, Iwata recently stated that "people bought the Majora's Mask remake. So we'll do more remakes."
I at least bother to understand the developer's viewpoint instead of hauling off on a whiny fanboy tirade. Yeah, it sucks, but guess what? This is a business, and they need to make the best decisions for their business and their employees.
And let's face facts: The audience that's upset here, is the absolute smallest audience that the game was maybe going to appeal to. For them, it's like looking out at a crowd of 100 people, where they can please 95 of them easily while 5 of them may get burned. Nintendo fans are sitting here demanding that they satisfy those 5 to the detriment of the company. That's just not realistic.
Be pissed all you want, but this is the reality that Nintendo and the fans have made for generations now--if it has Mario, Link, or Pokemon on the cover, the game sells. If not, it's a crapshoot at best, a failure more likely. Why do you think Nintendo churns out 3~6 games per year, every year with Mario glued on the cover? Why do you think they have annual Pokemon releases? Why do you think they actively work to plant Zelda at retail, in some form, almost every single year? These are, far and away, the things their fans will spend money on, and little else. Hell, Link is the only reason Soulcalibur II sold on the the GameCube.
This is the sad reality Nintendo has to deal with, and Nintendo fans are all to happy to cultivate. Over the past several months that I've been on here, I've seen fans routinely, and often very ignorantly, attack 3rd parties for any discretion, no matter how minor, female dogging when 3rd parties walk away, but constantly justifying never actually supporting those third parties. But, oh look! Another 3DS model! Better spend money on that!
The Project Cars guys are in a bind. They had a goal of bringing their high-rated game to the Wii U, but it's not working. The system is too weak, and the audience is too small and too uncaring towards 3rd parties to make porting the game worth their time. It sucks, but seriously, I can hardly blame them.
Most of the people here complaining were never going to buy it anyway. Just like they didn't buy ZombiU, Wonderful 101, and Bayonetta 2.
That is literally the way every new platform launches now--and it's been this way since the Dreamcast. The difference is that Sony and Microsoft consoles still sell, and the gamers who buy those consoles still support the games.
When you want to blame the Wii U's ills on "launching with last-gen ports," you now need to explain why the XBO and PS4 sold, despite launching in exactly the same way.
It was a dud. It landed to retail with a thud. It was not hot, it was not popular, it was not a major seller. That Nintendo eeked a profit out of it does not mean anything. It was still a dud.
Even Nintendo does not look fondly on the poor GameCube, once stating that if the Wii sold worse than the GameCube, they would consider it a failure.
By the way, the Wii U is selling worse than the GameCube... and the Dreamcast.
It's ignorant to just call them lazy as you evidently have no concept of why another team would need to handle this. For one thing, keep in mind that it's being developed in Unreal 4--an engine that does not run on Wii U. That means this other team will be taking the assets developed by the main team, and rebuilding them for Unreal 3 so it actually runs on the Wii U.
That's not remotely lazy. That's extremely logical. And the primary team needs to focus on the main game.
I also find it funny that Nintendo Life dared to put "Exclusive" at the header of this article, when multiple other sites reported it first. Yesterday.
Yeah, and that sounds awful. I wouldn't want an exclusive deal with Nintendo under those terms, either. Especially knowing full well that other exclusives largely failed at retail.
"Sure Nintendo, take advantage of us to our detriment."
That is hardly a winning scenario. And again, Nintendo fans would actually have to care about something other than Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon for this to have any value at all.
Nintendo has revealed that NX is in development. It will be revealed early next year, or maybe even late this year depending on how well or poorly they perform at E3. But the system has been announced, and for the most part, Nintendo does not spend more than 18 months between announcement and launch of new hardware.
NX has a high probability of coming out November 2016. Nintendo is clearly not focused on creating new experiences for Wii U, as they are implementing a policy of "lots more DLC" to just keep you guys playing the same few games until NX is out. The Wii U has very little on the horizon, and almost no 3rd party support outside of ports of X360 kids' games. The Wii U does not have the support or momentum to survive into late 2017. Nintendo needs to get NX out far sooner.
Given that they expect to "return to Nintendo-like profits" by the fiscal year end of March 2017, that would seem to indicate a strong move into both mobile and new hardware launching before then.
Why "can't" you see Nintendo doing for Zelda U what they did for Twilight Princess? The circumstances are even identical--the current system is a sales dud, the next system might not be, and they'll want to make their money back on Zelda.
It makes perfect sense for Nintendo to move Zelda U to NX, or to do another dual release. Right now, they don't even have notable 3rd party support to help the NX take off. That system is going to need all the help it can get after the fiasco defining the Wii U. Launching NX with Zelda may well be the smartest move Nintendo could make.
And no, the brief period where Nintendo fans are upset won't mean a thing. Nintendo fans have showing that, no matter what, they will always buy more Nintendo hardware.
E3 will have a few surprises, but nothing that will reverse the fortunes of the system, magically return 3rd parties to the company, or sell the console to regular gamers or new audiences. Nintendo's biggest titles, and strongest hardware-movers are Mario Kart and Smash Bros. Neither of those reversed the ill fortunes of the console. No matter what Nintendo brings to E3, it will not magically make the Wii U a success.
The system is in decline. It is very obviously already in it's final spiral, and since Nintendo announced NX already, development resources are going to be moved away from Wii U, very obviously, over the next year. This is the way Nintendo has operated since the N64. Once the new console was announced, the current one was fairly quickly moved to the backburner.
There will be stuff at E3 to make some Nintendo fans happy. But there's no way anything they show is going to suddenly change the fortunes of the Wii U. That ship has sailed. And it's sinking.
Countless games made for consoles have struggled on PCs in recent years for a variety of years. I'm not a PC gamer, and even I know GTA had issues on there. Patches also take time to churn out--that is not some kind of magical overnight fix. They have to identify the problems, track the problems, create a fix, and test the fix, and then probably do that two or three more times.
I'm not judging you here, but gamers sound like entitled brats when they act like this stuff is freakin' magic that can just be done in a matter of days. Yes, it sucks sometimes that there are issues with some games, but this one is still a well-regarded, highly praised title, and PC gamers have been used to this kind of thing for two generations now, at least. Have a little patience.
How would that have ever been a benefit to them? Being an exclusive didn't help ZombiU, Bayonetta 2, Wonderful 101, and it arguably didn't help the Sonic games. You're basically saying that they "missed an opportunity" to sell far fewer copies on a system notable for failing to support 3rd parties.
Being able to face reality has nothing to do with positivity or negativity.
You can either face reality or not. The game is struggling on the limited hardware, the sales are worse than the Dreamcast, and Nintendo fans have not been supportive of 3rd party efforts. Better for them to cut their losses.
Thinking positive is all well and good, but when one is doing it against reality, then one risks becoming delusional.
That your computer can't handle their game--which has an 84% rating on Metacritic by the way--does not mean they're lazy. That is a false dichotomy.
While this is no doubt disappointing to the Nintendo fans, it's time to face reality: The Wii U is already in decline, 3rd parties were overwhelmingly ignored by the Nintendo fans, and the console is not going to pick up in sales. It's time to let this one go. This E3 will have a couple surprises, but Nintendo's very clearly stated goal with that recent Direct is to focus on DLC over new games as the system lingers for the next year and a half until NX launches.
It's not like this was going to be a big sales success on the Wii U anyway. It doesn't have Mario, Link, or Pokemon in it.
Eternal Darkness remains my all-time favorite game, and I would love nothing more than to see Retro Studios truck out the brand at E3 this year. But, I don't think that's going to happen because Nintendo is just keeping control of their brand, here.
I do, however, hope Dyack and company eventually give up on the bastardization they've been trying to cobble together. Dyack has gone to great lengths to show that he is incapable of making a game without Nintendo's strict control.
The prices of those digital games went up because the feasibility of making bigger downloadable titles improved. It's not just a simple matter of raising price--it's because developers were given higher ceilings and fewer limitations. They could make full games worth the $20 investment.
And that is precisely why Nintendo would be better off going third party. If no one is buying the consoles as game consoles and just Nintendo boxes, then there is no good reason for Nintendo to continue this charade. They'll get far higher sales on other hardware.
People want Nintendo games, and they sell when the hardware is popular, but aside from the flukes of the Wii and DS, Nintendo hardware simply is no popular, and has been in decline in market share since the NES. People do want the games--but they don't want the hardware. It's an unnecessary hurdle.
I think if there was really an audience for these games, they'd be coming to the Wii U. At this point, this cannot seriously still be a surprise to anyone.
The Wii U is already in it's "final years" decline and has a terrible history for 3rd party success--where was essentially none to be found.
Nintendo also released Codename STEAM, at least in the States, in the shadow of Majora's Mask, which no doubt hurt it here. If you give a Nintendo fan the choice of buying a new game or rebuying one they already own, apparently the majority will rebuy the old game.
I wouldn't be surprised to see it flatten out if the sample size is large enough. Japan gets some harder games, the US gets some harder games, and then I don't know if Europe gets them different. Except for turning everyone in Contra into robots.
Though, conversely, Japan got the "easy" version of Contra: Hard Corps on the Genesis, which featured both a 70-man code and a health bar for the player. In the US, no 70-man code and no health bar--and it was already the hardest Contra game ever made.
This is still a fad that will crash within 5 years. Just like motion controlled games. Just like plastic instrument music games. Just like any other fad that has come and gone in this industry.
I got it from reality. Video games cost way more to make than you think, and when you aren't supporting the industry, you're forcing it to either die or take drastic measures like "Freemium" models to make money back.
Unfortunately, when you buy a game on discount in a store (physical), chances are the developer/publisher is no longer benefiting. They already made their money when it was sold to the store.
At least when discounted digitally, the dev still gets something.
No, I take that into account. Which is why I reference this going back to the N64, when it was far, far less common for people to own multiple consoles. And again this is the minority of people who own Nintendo hardware. For this to have the full effect we're seeing, we'd have to admit that the vast majority of people only buy Nintendo consoles as a secondary console for Nintendo games, which still comes back around to my original point on going 3rd party--why do we even need this hardware?
So, is this the majority or minority? Who is buying Nintendo consoles more? Dedicated fans, or people buying it as a secondary machine? Given the slumping sales over the past 6 generations, it would seem that it's mostly an ever-decreasing core fanbase first and foremost. And that the people buying Nintendo as a secondary are an extreme minority.
No one cares about the Nintendo hardware. Factoring for what I've noted--that Nintendo fans have a noted history of not supporting third parties--and that there are people who buy the machines as secondary consoles just for Nintendo games, that still means the vast majority of consumers do not care about the hardware and would buy those games on any hardware.
We will see later this year, early next year if Nintendo sells well on other platforms (mobile), which I think they will, and that will further add to the idea that they should just go 3rd party, so more people can have access to their otherwise great libraries.
No, sir. I'm not saying they didn't support Bayonetta 2, I'm saying they half-assed it, and dropped the ball on the support when the game needed it the most.
Nintendo has a history of not working with third parties, or working poorly with them. Or treating them like indentured servants and slaves. This doesn't help things.
MS and Sony regularly do work with 3rd parties, securing partnerships (Destiny and Batman PS4s, Call of Duty and Titanfall Xboxes, etc.), which not only helps with sales of third party games, but also helps MS and Sony build a rapport with these companies. They will bundle third party games with consoles as often as they do first party. Nintendo, except for very rare occasions (ZombiU, Monster Hunter 3), almost never bundles third party games or helps them to succeed.
Ah, another classic Flux_Capacitor post, rife with inaccuracies and invented charges! I base my posts on reality and known information, factual reality. When I make an anecdote, I note that it is such frequently with the actual phrase, "this is an anecdote" or "on a personal note," and those are not intended to be taken as anything more than that. Do pay attention. At least once.
Just because you don't like reality does not mean your imaginary form of what I wrote is correct.
Again, titles like Gunman Clive are more the flukes than the norm.
Now, your other point--that Nintendo is bought as a secondary machine for Nintendo games only is not entirely inaccurate, but it leaves a lot of gaps that you now need to explain.
For instance, people buying the Wii U as a secondary console are not buying it in the first two or three years of the console. The people who bought the Wii U thus far are overwhelmingly us--the remaining Nintendo fans.
On top of this, given that the Wii U is following the "gradually diminishing relevance" of all Nintendo consoles as I illustrated way above in this comment section (and was previously listed by @rjejr), which means that there are even fewer and fewer people buying Nintendo's consoles just for Nintendo games. They are simply skipping the console entirely.
And given the swiftness with which the Wii U has fallen into it's final year droughts, those people will not be buying the console later this year or next year. Next year, we won't even be talking about Wii U. It will all be on the NX.
The primary problem is still that Nintendo's core audience does not support 3rd party games.
Now, I think Nintendo will find a large audience on mobile, and I am hoping that it will convince them that the problem with reaching wider audiences is that people are less and less willing to leap the hurdle of their hardware to play the games. If Nintendo put Zelda on PS4 and XBO, it would grossly outsell the game on Wii U. And if Nintendo was particularly smart, they would use their remaining influence to get better deals from those companies. For instance, going exclusive on Playstation in exchange for higher percentage of the revenue. That would work in their favor immensely. As we've seen, Nintendo's games will sell on hardware with numbers--as Twilight Princess is about the best-selling Zelda game because it was on hardware that had an audience.
When Nintendo's games are on popular hardware, they sell. When the hardware itself is seen as a hurdle, they suffer.
It's some weird drive, to be sure. Nintendo is fascinating to talk about, and I used to be one of these blind Nintendrones that was adamant the company shouldn't go third party and adamant everything was okay and, I dare say, I even shared some of that blind hostility towards third parties.
But then in 2008, I bought an Xbox 360. And a world was opened up to me that I had been missing by being one of the Nintendrones. I realized what Nintendo was doing wrong. I realized that, as a fan, I was doing things wrong and my outlook had been warped. I started to understand gaming as a whole, not just from my closed corner of the Nintendo world.
I don't like seeing Nintendo struggle and fall. But I'm not blind or stupid. I can't deny the trends and the problems. Nintendo, despite their current, eventual ability to eek profits, is in trouble. The company is racing towards irrelevance. I want them to go third party, because I want them to counter that irrelevance, and get back to making great games--games that are finally not crippled by crap hardware. And the best way to do that is for those games to appear on other hardware and platforms. That is how they'll reach wider audiences again.
As it is, I have no confidence in NX. Nintendo isn't fixing their bigger problems, as Sony did during the PS3 era, so that the PS4 could launch to such success. They are hoping to ignore the problems and start over, I think, in 2016 when they launch new hardware.
I think a variety of bundles would have helped. Smash Bros and Nintendo Land, Bayonetta and Mario Kart, Mario Kart and Nintendo Land. Instead, Nintendo was just that backwards console that came with very little for about the same price as two new, vastly more powerful machines that offered and came with a lot more. For $50 more, you got an XBO with two games and modern hardware heft.
If you're going to pull a fallacy to just completely dismiss my points entirely--by pretending I never liked Nintendo games, which, aside from DKC or Pokemon, I have never actually said--then your responses are entirely useless.
You want to point out badly optimized ports--well that's special pleading. Nintendo fans like to argue that "if they were quality, they would have sold," which is why I pick the quality ports, and point out that they also didn't sell.
When you want to complain about bad ports, you need to keep in mind that bad ports happen everywhere, but when they happen to Nintendo consoles specifically, you need to remember that
A) this fanbase has proven that they do not support 3rd party games, so why put in extra effort?
and
B) Nintendo themselves routinely gimp the consoles so that developers cannot (or it becomes financially risky) make the games as complete as they are on other systems. For instance, every time Nintendo fans complained about missing DLC, they should have complained to Nintendo, who didn't give developers a place to store it.
Your final point about "blood and gore=adult" is also a fallacy and a false dichotomy, as I never said anything about blood and gore. But if you think that's what defines any non-Nintendo game, which this seems to indicate, that ignorance is yours. I play games for fun, challenge, and enjoyment. Hardly blood and gore. To even assume that is childish.
When I was a teenager, I loved the original Donkey Kong Country, but never bought the sequels until I downloaded them for my ex-wife on the Wii. And then I realized I didn't like them.
Then I bought DKCR on the 3DS. And hated it. Downloaded DKC:TF. And hated it.
This is not the only time this has happened. I also completely played through three God of War games before I realized I hated them.
Nintendo should farm out their franchises to other developers--more and more other developers, both to make crossovers and original games. There is no guarantee of quality in anything. Even Nintendo has released a huge number of lackluster or poorly-reviewed games over the years. Nintendo's stubbornness is a bigger problem. F-Zero GX is notable in this as it was extremely highly reviewed and loved, but apparently Miyamoto and Nintendo hated it. And if Nintendo doesn't like something, they don't do much to support it, even if they paid for it.
And sadly for Nintendo, this has become a norm. I no longer look at Nintendo as a place where I can get a lot of games. I look at Nintendo as a place that will have Nintendo games, and I even find my tastes in those waning. I found Mario Kart 8 boring and predictable. Same with Smash. Same with Pikmin (coupled with terrible control options). Same with New Super Mario U. But I loved the hell out of Bayonetta and ZombiU. Alas, when NX rolls around, I will likely be one of the lapsed Nintendo fans.
These consoles are a lot of money for such small libraries.
Regardless of your feelings about Ubisoft (smartly) taking Legends multiplatform, the game is still solid and arguably my favorite Wii U game, now that I really think about it. My son and I spent hours charging through those often brutal, but addicting levels and the game loaded, ran, and flowed with such smoothness and grace, I consider it the pinnacle of the modern platformer.
A couple months ago, I get DKC Tropical Freeze as my final Platinum reward. And it sucks. The design, especially for two-player, feels downright archaic. Instead of quickly restarting after a screw-up (like Rayman), it feels like a waiting room. Donkey Kong does not move with anything resembling grace, and it feels like he needs to be forced to merely move forward. It's still crammed with outdated "collectathon" themes with levels stuffed with crap to collect that, ugh, I just don't have the patience for. Bad enough Alan Wake had that stupid "find 100 thermoses" sub-sub-sub objective for just an achievement (gave up on them), but DKC is made entirely of this stuff. In half an hour, my son and I would blast through several levels in Rayman and be inspired to keep going. In that same time, we barely got through three levels in Tropical Freeze and we forced ourselves to continue with the third one.
I say this with all confidence: I hate Donkey Kong Country.
And the original on the SNES was the first game I ever pre-ordered.
I'll clarify: Nintendo funded development of Bayonetta 2 and featured it strongly in Directs and at E3, but post-launch did virtually nothing to support it as it led into a busy holiday season. Television ads barely existed, if they did at all--I never saw one, personally. Post-launch bundles with Wii U consoles didn't happen. It was never front and center.
Nintendo basically paid to have the game made, and then just stopped caring about its existence after launch. And the sales reflect this.
The question you're asking is absurd. You are automatically saying that parents should be buying Bayonetta for their kids. So what are you saying? That Nintendo is a kiddie console?
Your other comment is pure hyperbole. Lots of companies have put ample effort into their games and gotten nothing out of it on Nintendo consoles. Deus Ex was the ultimate edition. Mass Effect and Arkham City had exclusive features. Ninja Gaiden 3 was the highest rated version of the game, remastered in some elements. ZombiU was an exclusive built specifically for the Wii U. Rayman Legends was also heavily built around the aesthetics of the Wii U. None of them sold.
Monster Hunter sold because Nintendo has partially worked with Capcom to create a fanbase for the game, and in large part because Nintendo worked to build hype for it. What, do you expect every third party game to somehow have Nintendo Directs focused just on them? You expect every 3rd party game to have special edition Nintendo hardware like Monster Hunter did?
You are grossly over-simplifying and your argument is completely and totally faulty. You keep saying "Monster Hunter sold because Capcom worked hard." Lots of developers worked hard and got nothing. It has nothing to do with that. Nintendo fans don't care about quality, they care about Nintendo hype and no doubt, being able to dress your Monster Hunter character as Link or Samus helped sell several copies.
Otherwise known as the Soulcalibur II effect, if you will. Shoehorn in some "Nintendo stuff," and maybe it'll sell. Shoehorn in some Link, and it will. And that's why Hyrule Warriors exists.
This stuff has bothered me for a while as I am apparently in the extreme minority of Nintendo fans--I don't have a spiteful, adversarial relationship with 3rd parties or indies, and have historically bought Nintendo hardware as a game console, not a Nintendo box.
I supported Shovel Knight on Kickstarter for the Wii U. And Cloudberry Kingdom. And Shantae--which I will probably now take for the PS4. And Hex Heroes. I really like the PSN shop, and my occasional disappointments will be stemmed by time, as the PS4 is only a year and a half old. Thankfully, I do have the PS4, so while Nintendo fans are busy driving away 3rd parties and indies, I will be able to find their games on there.
I'm not too concerned about all the indies ending up on PSN+ freebies just yet. It will change over time, and many of them are really good games. I have still purchased several others.
Comments 2,916
Re: Exclusive: Slightly Mad Studio Head Ian Bell Sets The Record Straight On Project CARS Wii U
@TheWPCTraveler
Well, it can be hard to be straight early on, but these companies have to juggle over-promising and risking falling short. Promise too little early on, and no one pays attention. Promise too much, and people get their panties all twisted if they don't deliver.
This is a hype-driven industry, so it can be difficult to measure that or figure out how to do it well. On the one hand, yes, perhaps they should have been more reserved early on, on the other hand, they may have needed that hype to garner attention to get the game made.
It can be a helluva crapshoot.
Re: Exclusive: Slightly Mad Studio Head Ian Bell Sets The Record Straight On Project CARS Wii U
@rjejr
I haven't seen anything that makes me think Zelda U is made from the ground-up for the GamePad. It was being used as a map and little else thus far. That's relatively easy to translate to just popping up a menu instead of streaming to the GamePad.
No, there's no guarantee that the NX is going to sell better--in fact, I think at this point, it is far more likely to sell worse simply because it's going to be that much harder to get 3rd parties back on board. Nintendo's fans are happy to buy and re-buy hardware--particularly portable, but I think the fanbase is shrinking.
I've joined the ranks of Nintendo fans who does the vast majority of his gaming elsewhere. I'm always interested in the company, but they simply don't offer much of anything that I want. I see the hardware as a hurdle now. I would prefer them to go third party--the games would sell far better on platforms with a high number of adopters.
However, I think it's likely Nintendo looks at the Wii U, increasingly, as a lost cause. That last broad-ranging Direct cemented this hypothesis as they are focused on keeping their players playing Mario Kart and Smash Bros for as long as possible with DLC packs. Since Nintendo likely looks at Wii U as a lost cause, they may simply think it better to walk away and take the gamble that NX might sell better if Zelda launched with it. They had no idea the Wii was going to take off like it did, but they still stacked the odds by pushing Twilight Princess over to it.
That's why I think it's likely. Nintendo has routinely shown an odd over-simplification to their understanding of the industry these days. I have little doubt that their talks center on "last time we had a console that sold bad, we moved Zelda over to the new console, and that console sold. We should do that again."
Remember, Iwata recently stated that "people bought the Majora's Mask remake. So we'll do more remakes."
They are that f**king simplistic.
Re: Exclusive: Slightly Mad Studio Head Ian Bell Sets The Record Straight On Project CARS Wii U
@Ernest_The_Crab
I at least bother to understand the developer's viewpoint instead of hauling off on a whiny fanboy tirade. Yeah, it sucks, but guess what? This is a business, and they need to make the best decisions for their business and their employees.
And let's face facts: The audience that's upset here, is the absolute smallest audience that the game was maybe going to appeal to. For them, it's like looking out at a crowd of 100 people, where they can please 95 of them easily while 5 of them may get burned. Nintendo fans are sitting here demanding that they satisfy those 5 to the detriment of the company. That's just not realistic.
Re: Exclusive: Slightly Mad Studio Head Ian Bell Sets The Record Straight On Project CARS Wii U
@TheWPCTraveler
Be pissed all you want, but this is the reality that Nintendo and the fans have made for generations now--if it has Mario, Link, or Pokemon on the cover, the game sells. If not, it's a crapshoot at best, a failure more likely. Why do you think Nintendo churns out 3~6 games per year, every year with Mario glued on the cover? Why do you think they have annual Pokemon releases? Why do you think they actively work to plant Zelda at retail, in some form, almost every single year? These are, far and away, the things their fans will spend money on, and little else. Hell, Link is the only reason Soulcalibur II sold on the the GameCube.
This is the sad reality Nintendo has to deal with, and Nintendo fans are all to happy to cultivate. Over the past several months that I've been on here, I've seen fans routinely, and often very ignorantly, attack 3rd parties for any discretion, no matter how minor, female dogging when 3rd parties walk away, but constantly justifying never actually supporting those third parties. But, oh look! Another 3DS model! Better spend money on that!
The Project Cars guys are in a bind. They had a goal of bringing their high-rated game to the Wii U, but it's not working. The system is too weak, and the audience is too small and too uncaring towards 3rd parties to make porting the game worth their time. It sucks, but seriously, I can hardly blame them.
Most of the people here complaining were never going to buy it anyway. Just like they didn't buy ZombiU, Wonderful 101, and Bayonetta 2.
Re: Exclusive: Slightly Mad Studio Head Ian Bell Sets The Record Straight On Project CARS Wii U
@CaviarMeths
That is literally the way every new platform launches now--and it's been this way since the Dreamcast. The difference is that Sony and Microsoft consoles still sell, and the gamers who buy those consoles still support the games.
When you want to blame the Wii U's ills on "launching with last-gen ports," you now need to explain why the XBO and PS4 sold, despite launching in exactly the same way.
Re: Exclusive: Slightly Mad Studio Head Ian Bell Sets The Record Straight On Project CARS Wii U
@LunaticPandora
It was a dud. It landed to retail with a thud. It was not hot, it was not popular, it was not a major seller. That Nintendo eeked a profit out of it does not mean anything. It was still a dud.
Even Nintendo does not look fondly on the poor GameCube, once stating that if the Wii sold worse than the GameCube, they would consider it a failure.
By the way, the Wii U is selling worse than the GameCube... and the Dreamcast.
Re: Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Gets a Wii U Stretch Goal
@retro_player_22
It's ignorant to just call them lazy as you evidently have no concept of why another team would need to handle this. For one thing, keep in mind that it's being developed in Unreal 4--an engine that does not run on Wii U. That means this other team will be taking the assets developed by the main team, and rebuilding them for Unreal 3 so it actually runs on the Wii U.
That's not remotely lazy. That's extremely logical. And the primary team needs to focus on the main game.
Re: Exclusive: Slightly Mad Studio Head Ian Bell Sets The Record Straight On Project CARS Wii U
I also find it funny that Nintendo Life dared to put "Exclusive" at the header of this article, when multiple other sites reported it first. Yesterday.
Re: Exclusive: Slightly Mad Studio Head Ian Bell Sets The Record Straight On Project CARS Wii U
@TheWPCTraveler
Yeah, and that sounds awful. I wouldn't want an exclusive deal with Nintendo under those terms, either. Especially knowing full well that other exclusives largely failed at retail.
"Sure Nintendo, take advantage of us to our detriment."
That is hardly a winning scenario. And again, Nintendo fans would actually have to care about something other than Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon for this to have any value at all.
Re: Exclusive: Slightly Mad Studio Head Ian Bell Sets The Record Straight On Project CARS Wii U
@Ryno
Nintendo has revealed that NX is in development. It will be revealed early next year, or maybe even late this year depending on how well or poorly they perform at E3. But the system has been announced, and for the most part, Nintendo does not spend more than 18 months between announcement and launch of new hardware.
NX has a high probability of coming out November 2016. Nintendo is clearly not focused on creating new experiences for Wii U, as they are implementing a policy of "lots more DLC" to just keep you guys playing the same few games until NX is out. The Wii U has very little on the horizon, and almost no 3rd party support outside of ports of X360 kids' games. The Wii U does not have the support or momentum to survive into late 2017. Nintendo needs to get NX out far sooner.
Given that they expect to "return to Nintendo-like profits" by the fiscal year end of March 2017, that would seem to indicate a strong move into both mobile and new hardware launching before then.
NX will most likely be out next year.
Re: Exclusive: Slightly Mad Studio Head Ian Bell Sets The Record Straight On Project CARS Wii U
@rjejr
Why "can't" you see Nintendo doing for Zelda U what they did for Twilight Princess? The circumstances are even identical--the current system is a sales dud, the next system might not be, and they'll want to make their money back on Zelda.
It makes perfect sense for Nintendo to move Zelda U to NX, or to do another dual release. Right now, they don't even have notable 3rd party support to help the NX take off. That system is going to need all the help it can get after the fiasco defining the Wii U. Launching NX with Zelda may well be the smartest move Nintendo could make.
And no, the brief period where Nintendo fans are upset won't mean a thing. Nintendo fans have showing that, no matter what, they will always buy more Nintendo hardware.
Re: Exclusive: Slightly Mad Studio Head Ian Bell Sets The Record Straight On Project CARS Wii U
@Warbeard
Sure a lot of Siths in the ranks of Nintendo fans these days.
Re: Exclusive: Slightly Mad Studio Head Ian Bell Sets The Record Straight On Project CARS Wii U
@hobthebob
E3 will have a few surprises, but nothing that will reverse the fortunes of the system, magically return 3rd parties to the company, or sell the console to regular gamers or new audiences. Nintendo's biggest titles, and strongest hardware-movers are Mario Kart and Smash Bros. Neither of those reversed the ill fortunes of the console. No matter what Nintendo brings to E3, it will not magically make the Wii U a success.
The system is in decline. It is very obviously already in it's final spiral, and since Nintendo announced NX already, development resources are going to be moved away from Wii U, very obviously, over the next year. This is the way Nintendo has operated since the N64. Once the new console was announced, the current one was fairly quickly moved to the backburner.
There will be stuff at E3 to make some Nintendo fans happy. But there's no way anything they show is going to suddenly change the fortunes of the Wii U. That ship has sailed. And it's sinking.
Re: Exclusive: Slightly Mad Studio Head Ian Bell Sets The Record Straight On Project CARS Wii U
@Savino
Countless games made for consoles have struggled on PCs in recent years for a variety of years. I'm not a PC gamer, and even I know GTA had issues on there. Patches also take time to churn out--that is not some kind of magical overnight fix. They have to identify the problems, track the problems, create a fix, and test the fix, and then probably do that two or three more times.
I'm not judging you here, but gamers sound like entitled brats when they act like this stuff is freakin' magic that can just be done in a matter of days. Yes, it sucks sometimes that there are issues with some games, but this one is still a well-regarded, highly praised title, and PC gamers have been used to this kind of thing for two generations now, at least. Have a little patience.
Re: Exclusive: Slightly Mad Studio Head Ian Bell Sets The Record Straight On Project CARS Wii U
@TheWPCTraveler
How would that have ever been a benefit to them? Being an exclusive didn't help ZombiU, Bayonetta 2, Wonderful 101, and it arguably didn't help the Sonic games. You're basically saying that they "missed an opportunity" to sell far fewer copies on a system notable for failing to support 3rd parties.
Re: Exclusive: Slightly Mad Studio Head Ian Bell Sets The Record Straight On Project CARS Wii U
@theberrage
Their talents created a game with an 84% average on Metacritic. The Wii U simply isn't robust enough to benefit the game they made.
Re: Exclusive: Slightly Mad Studio Head Ian Bell Sets The Record Straight On Project CARS Wii U
@firstnesfan
Being able to face reality has nothing to do with positivity or negativity.
You can either face reality or not. The game is struggling on the limited hardware, the sales are worse than the Dreamcast, and Nintendo fans have not been supportive of 3rd party efforts. Better for them to cut their losses.
Thinking positive is all well and good, but when one is doing it against reality, then one risks becoming delusional.
Re: Exclusive: Slightly Mad Studio Head Ian Bell Sets The Record Straight On Project CARS Wii U
@Savino
That your computer can't handle their game--which has an 84% rating on Metacritic by the way--does not mean they're lazy. That is a false dichotomy.
While this is no doubt disappointing to the Nintendo fans, it's time to face reality: The Wii U is already in decline, 3rd parties were overwhelmingly ignored by the Nintendo fans, and the console is not going to pick up in sales. It's time to let this one go. This E3 will have a couple surprises, but Nintendo's very clearly stated goal with that recent Direct is to focus on DLC over new games as the system lingers for the next year and a half until NX launches.
It's not like this was going to be a big sales success on the Wii U anyway. It doesn't have Mario, Link, or Pokemon in it.
Re: Nintendo Renews Eternal Darkness Trademark as Denis Dyack Re-Affirms Continuing Work on Shadow of the Eternals
Eternal Darkness remains my all-time favorite game, and I would love nothing more than to see Retro Studios truck out the brand at E3 this year. But, I don't think that's going to happen because Nintendo is just keeping control of their brand, here.
I do, however, hope Dyack and company eventually give up on the bastardization they've been trying to cobble together. Dyack has gone to great lengths to show that he is incapable of making a game without Nintendo's strict control.
Re: Talking Point: Retro Gamers Beware, PAC-MAN 256 Could be a Template for Nintendo's Smart Device Future
@rjejr
The prices of those digital games went up because the feasibility of making bigger downloadable titles improved. It's not just a simple matter of raising price--it's because developers were given higher ceilings and fewer limitations. They could make full games worth the $20 investment.
Re: Capcom Is Bringing The Nintendo Exclusive Resident Evil Zero To Every Modern Gaming System But The Wii U
@The_Dude_Abides
And that is precisely why Nintendo would be better off going third party. If no one is buying the consoles as game consoles and just Nintendo boxes, then there is no good reason for Nintendo to continue this charade. They'll get far higher sales on other hardware.
People want Nintendo games, and they sell when the hardware is popular, but aside from the flukes of the Wii and DS, Nintendo hardware simply is no popular, and has been in decline in market share since the NES. People do want the games--but they don't want the hardware. It's an unnecessary hurdle.
Re: Capcom Is Bringing The Nintendo Exclusive Resident Evil Zero To Every Modern Gaming System But The Wii U
@pandarino
I think if there was really an audience for these games, they'd be coming to the Wii U. At this point, this cannot seriously still be a surprise to anyone.
The Wii U is already in it's "final years" decline and has a terrible history for 3rd party success--where was essentially none to be found.
Re: The Most Recent Media Create Japanese Charts Brought the Lowest Sales Since 2001
@electrolite77
Nintendo also released Codename STEAM, at least in the States, in the shadow of Majora's Mask, which no doubt hurt it here. If you give a Nintendo fan the choice of buying a new game or rebuying one they already own, apparently the majority will rebuy the old game.
Re: The Most Recent Media Create Japanese Charts Brought the Lowest Sales Since 2001
@earthboundlink
I wouldn't be surprised to see it flatten out if the sample size is large enough. Japan gets some harder games, the US gets some harder games, and then I don't know if Europe gets them different. Except for turning everyone in Contra into robots.
Re: Physics Puzzler Q.U.B.E: Director's Cut Coming To Wii U eShop This Summer
Really looking forward to Nintendo fans claiming it costs too much.
Re: The Most Recent Media Create Japanese Charts Brought the Lowest Sales Since 2001
@earthboundlink
Though, conversely, Japan got the "easy" version of Contra: Hard Corps on the Genesis, which featured both a 70-man code and a health bar for the player. In the US, no 70-man code and no health bar--and it was already the hardest Contra game ever made.
Re: NPD Survey Outlines Bright Future For amiibo And Other Toys-To-Life Franchises
This is still a fad that will crash within 5 years. Just like motion controlled games. Just like plastic instrument music games. Just like any other fad that has come and gone in this industry.
Re: Wii U Stretch Goal Seemingly Teased for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
@Kaze_Memaryu
I got it from reality. Video games cost way more to make than you think, and when you aren't supporting the industry, you're forcing it to either die or take drastic measures like "Freemium" models to make money back.
http://www.polygon.com/2015/5/19/8624665/big-indie-kickstarters-are-killing-actual-indies
I doubt you'd be willing to work for free, but gamers these days appear to expect game developers to work for nothing, or next to nothing.
Re: Nintendo Download: 21st May (North America)
@MoonKnight7
Ugh. Gross. And going for bottom dollar again.
So much for quality over quantity.
Re: Video: Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric Blame Could Largely be With SEGA, Not Big Red Button
@mjc0961
So what about Alien: Isolation? That one is quite highly regarded. And it came out after Colonial Marines.
Re: Wii U Stretch Goal Seemingly Teased for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
@Kaze_Memaryu
This game probably costs way more than 3 million to make. Anyone who thinks this could actually have been made for $500,000 is lying to themselves.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@BakaKnight
Unfortunately, when you buy a game on discount in a store (physical), chances are the developer/publisher is no longer benefiting. They already made their money when it was sold to the store.
At least when discounted digitally, the dev still gets something.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@Wolfgabe
No, I take that into account. Which is why I reference this going back to the N64, when it was far, far less common for people to own multiple consoles. And again this is the minority of people who own Nintendo hardware. For this to have the full effect we're seeing, we'd have to admit that the vast majority of people only buy Nintendo consoles as a secondary console for Nintendo games, which still comes back around to my original point on going 3rd party--why do we even need this hardware?
So, is this the majority or minority? Who is buying Nintendo consoles more? Dedicated fans, or people buying it as a secondary machine? Given the slumping sales over the past 6 generations, it would seem that it's mostly an ever-decreasing core fanbase first and foremost. And that the people buying Nintendo as a secondary are an extreme minority.
No one cares about the Nintendo hardware. Factoring for what I've noted--that Nintendo fans have a noted history of not supporting third parties--and that there are people who buy the machines as secondary consoles just for Nintendo games, that still means the vast majority of consumers do not care about the hardware and would buy those games on any hardware.
We will see later this year, early next year if Nintendo sells well on other platforms (mobile), which I think they will, and that will further add to the idea that they should just go 3rd party, so more people can have access to their otherwise great libraries.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@rjejr
No, sir. I'm not saying they didn't support Bayonetta 2, I'm saying they half-assed it, and dropped the ball on the support when the game needed it the most.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@SpykeXD
Your anecdotes have actually not proven me wrong on anything. And the rest of this, I already addressed.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@gojiguy
I'm not exactly sure what you're referring to.
Nintendo has a history of not working with third parties, or working poorly with them. Or treating them like indentured servants and slaves. This doesn't help things.
MS and Sony regularly do work with 3rd parties, securing partnerships (Destiny and Batman PS4s, Call of Duty and Titanfall Xboxes, etc.), which not only helps with sales of third party games, but also helps MS and Sony build a rapport with these companies. They will bundle third party games with consoles as often as they do first party. Nintendo, except for very rare occasions (ZombiU, Monster Hunter 3), almost never bundles third party games or helps them to succeed.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@FLUX_CAPACITOR
Ah, another classic Flux_Capacitor post, rife with inaccuracies and invented charges! I base my posts on reality and known information, factual reality. When I make an anecdote, I note that it is such frequently with the actual phrase, "this is an anecdote" or "on a personal note," and those are not intended to be taken as anything more than that. Do pay attention. At least once.
Just because you don't like reality does not mean your imaginary form of what I wrote is correct.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@Siskan
Again, titles like Gunman Clive are more the flukes than the norm.
Now, your other point--that Nintendo is bought as a secondary machine for Nintendo games only is not entirely inaccurate, but it leaves a lot of gaps that you now need to explain.
For instance, people buying the Wii U as a secondary console are not buying it in the first two or three years of the console. The people who bought the Wii U thus far are overwhelmingly us--the remaining Nintendo fans.
On top of this, given that the Wii U is following the "gradually diminishing relevance" of all Nintendo consoles as I illustrated way above in this comment section (and was previously listed by @rjejr), which means that there are even fewer and fewer people buying Nintendo's consoles just for Nintendo games. They are simply skipping the console entirely.
And given the swiftness with which the Wii U has fallen into it's final year droughts, those people will not be buying the console later this year or next year. Next year, we won't even be talking about Wii U. It will all be on the NX.
The primary problem is still that Nintendo's core audience does not support 3rd party games.
Now, I think Nintendo will find a large audience on mobile, and I am hoping that it will convince them that the problem with reaching wider audiences is that people are less and less willing to leap the hurdle of their hardware to play the games. If Nintendo put Zelda on PS4 and XBO, it would grossly outsell the game on Wii U. And if Nintendo was particularly smart, they would use their remaining influence to get better deals from those companies. For instance, going exclusive on Playstation in exchange for higher percentage of the revenue. That would work in their favor immensely. As we've seen, Nintendo's games will sell on hardware with numbers--as Twilight Princess is about the best-selling Zelda game because it was on hardware that had an audience.
When Nintendo's games are on popular hardware, they sell. When the hardware itself is seen as a hurdle, they suffer.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@Pandaman
You have piqued my interest.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@Technosphile
Ha, your post put a smile on my face. Kudos, sir!
It's some weird drive, to be sure. Nintendo is fascinating to talk about, and I used to be one of these blind Nintendrones that was adamant the company shouldn't go third party and adamant everything was okay and, I dare say, I even shared some of that blind hostility towards third parties.
But then in 2008, I bought an Xbox 360. And a world was opened up to me that I had been missing by being one of the Nintendrones. I realized what Nintendo was doing wrong. I realized that, as a fan, I was doing things wrong and my outlook had been warped. I started to understand gaming as a whole, not just from my closed corner of the Nintendo world.
I don't like seeing Nintendo struggle and fall. But I'm not blind or stupid. I can't deny the trends and the problems. Nintendo, despite their current, eventual ability to eek profits, is in trouble. The company is racing towards irrelevance. I want them to go third party, because I want them to counter that irrelevance, and get back to making great games--games that are finally not crippled by crap hardware. And the best way to do that is for those games to appear on other hardware and platforms. That is how they'll reach wider audiences again.
As it is, I have no confidence in NX. Nintendo isn't fixing their bigger problems, as Sony did during the PS3 era, so that the PS4 could launch to such success. They are hoping to ignore the problems and start over, I think, in 2016 when they launch new hardware.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@TruenoGT
Or console games will become ad-driven.
This is your choice, consumers.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@rjejr
I think a variety of bundles would have helped. Smash Bros and Nintendo Land, Bayonetta and Mario Kart, Mario Kart and Nintendo Land. Instead, Nintendo was just that backwards console that came with very little for about the same price as two new, vastly more powerful machines that offered and came with a lot more. For $50 more, you got an XBO with two games and modern hardware heft.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@ricklongo
If you're going to pull a fallacy to just completely dismiss my points entirely--by pretending I never liked Nintendo games, which, aside from DKC or Pokemon, I have never actually said--then your responses are entirely useless.
You want to point out badly optimized ports--well that's special pleading. Nintendo fans like to argue that "if they were quality, they would have sold," which is why I pick the quality ports, and point out that they also didn't sell.
When you want to complain about bad ports, you need to keep in mind that bad ports happen everywhere, but when they happen to Nintendo consoles specifically, you need to remember that
A) this fanbase has proven that they do not support 3rd party games, so why put in extra effort?
and
B) Nintendo themselves routinely gimp the consoles so that developers cannot (or it becomes financially risky) make the games as complete as they are on other systems. For instance, every time Nintendo fans complained about missing DLC, they should have complained to Nintendo, who didn't give developers a place to store it.
Your final point about "blood and gore=adult" is also a fallacy and a false dichotomy, as I never said anything about blood and gore. But if you think that's what defines any non-Nintendo game, which this seems to indicate, that ignorance is yours. I play games for fun, challenge, and enjoyment. Hardly blood and gore. To even assume that is childish.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@luke88
When I was a teenager, I loved the original Donkey Kong Country, but never bought the sequels until I downloaded them for my ex-wife on the Wii. And then I realized I didn't like them.
Then I bought DKCR on the 3DS. And hated it. Downloaded DKC:TF. And hated it.
This is not the only time this has happened. I also completely played through three God of War games before I realized I hated them.
I think Retro's talent is wasted on Donkey Kong.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@umegames
Short answer: Yes.
Nintendo should farm out their franchises to other developers--more and more other developers, both to make crossovers and original games. There is no guarantee of quality in anything. Even Nintendo has released a huge number of lackluster or poorly-reviewed games over the years. Nintendo's stubbornness is a bigger problem. F-Zero GX is notable in this as it was extremely highly reviewed and loved, but apparently Miyamoto and Nintendo hated it. And if Nintendo doesn't like something, they don't do much to support it, even if they paid for it.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@omalleycat215
And sadly for Nintendo, this has become a norm. I no longer look at Nintendo as a place where I can get a lot of games. I look at Nintendo as a place that will have Nintendo games, and I even find my tastes in those waning. I found Mario Kart 8 boring and predictable. Same with Smash. Same with Pikmin (coupled with terrible control options). Same with New Super Mario U. But I loved the hell out of Bayonetta and ZombiU. Alas, when NX rolls around, I will likely be one of the lapsed Nintendo fans.
These consoles are a lot of money for such small libraries.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@Ninty4thewin
Regardless of your feelings about Ubisoft (smartly) taking Legends multiplatform, the game is still solid and arguably my favorite Wii U game, now that I really think about it. My son and I spent hours charging through those often brutal, but addicting levels and the game loaded, ran, and flowed with such smoothness and grace, I consider it the pinnacle of the modern platformer.
A couple months ago, I get DKC Tropical Freeze as my final Platinum reward. And it sucks. The design, especially for two-player, feels downright archaic. Instead of quickly restarting after a screw-up (like Rayman), it feels like a waiting room. Donkey Kong does not move with anything resembling grace, and it feels like he needs to be forced to merely move forward. It's still crammed with outdated "collectathon" themes with levels stuffed with crap to collect that, ugh, I just don't have the patience for. Bad enough Alan Wake had that stupid "find 100 thermoses" sub-sub-sub objective for just an achievement (gave up on them), but DKC is made entirely of this stuff. In half an hour, my son and I would blast through several levels in Rayman and be inspired to keep going. In that same time, we barely got through three levels in Tropical Freeze and we forced ourselves to continue with the third one.
I say this with all confidence: I hate Donkey Kong Country.
And the original on the SNES was the first game I ever pre-ordered.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@rjejr
I'll clarify: Nintendo funded development of Bayonetta 2 and featured it strongly in Directs and at E3, but post-launch did virtually nothing to support it as it led into a busy holiday season. Television ads barely existed, if they did at all--I never saw one, personally. Post-launch bundles with Wii U consoles didn't happen. It was never front and center.
Nintendo basically paid to have the game made, and then just stopped caring about its existence after launch. And the sales reflect this.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@SirQuincealot
The question you're asking is absurd. You are automatically saying that parents should be buying Bayonetta for their kids. So what are you saying? That Nintendo is a kiddie console?
Your other comment is pure hyperbole. Lots of companies have put ample effort into their games and gotten nothing out of it on Nintendo consoles. Deus Ex was the ultimate edition. Mass Effect and Arkham City had exclusive features. Ninja Gaiden 3 was the highest rated version of the game, remastered in some elements. ZombiU was an exclusive built specifically for the Wii U. Rayman Legends was also heavily built around the aesthetics of the Wii U. None of them sold.
Monster Hunter sold because Nintendo has partially worked with Capcom to create a fanbase for the game, and in large part because Nintendo worked to build hype for it. What, do you expect every third party game to somehow have Nintendo Directs focused just on them? You expect every 3rd party game to have special edition Nintendo hardware like Monster Hunter did?
You are grossly over-simplifying and your argument is completely and totally faulty. You keep saying "Monster Hunter sold because Capcom worked hard." Lots of developers worked hard and got nothing. It has nothing to do with that. Nintendo fans don't care about quality, they care about Nintendo hype and no doubt, being able to dress your Monster Hunter character as Link or Samus helped sell several copies.
Otherwise known as the Soulcalibur II effect, if you will. Shoehorn in some "Nintendo stuff," and maybe it'll sell. Shoehorn in some Link, and it will. And that's why Hyrule Warriors exists.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@omalleycat215
This stuff has bothered me for a while as I am apparently in the extreme minority of Nintendo fans--I don't have a spiteful, adversarial relationship with 3rd parties or indies, and have historically bought Nintendo hardware as a game console, not a Nintendo box.
I supported Shovel Knight on Kickstarter for the Wii U. And Cloudberry Kingdom. And Shantae--which I will probably now take for the PS4. And Hex Heroes. I really like the PSN shop, and my occasional disappointments will be stemmed by time, as the PS4 is only a year and a half old. Thankfully, I do have the PS4, so while Nintendo fans are busy driving away 3rd parties and indies, I will be able to find their games on there.
I'm not too concerned about all the indies ending up on PSN+ freebies just yet. It will change over time, and many of them are really good games. I have still purchased several others.