I don't even know what the hell your point is at this point. Bringing up Bayonetta 2 only further supports my original point that Nintendo fans do not support 3rd party as even when Nintendo pays for the game, the fans don't buy it, especially when Nintendo doesn't do anything to support it after launch.
Monster Hunter is a lame argument no matter what as it is a lone duck, a stand-alone. A fluke compared to the norm. One 3rd party game selling well means nothing when 50 or 100 third party games are completely ignored.
What reason is there to acknowledge the bizarre different taste of Nintendo's audience? Their tastes are predominantly for games that look like Saturday Morning Cartoons, so what? That still shows Nintendo fans themselves as wholly different and still part of the problem concerning the sales of 3rd party games.
You accuse Ubisoft or Activision of "doing what the majority want" and are apparently completely ignoring that Nintendo does exactly that. Nintendo knows that their fans will rebuy hardware--which is why they sold the New 3DS without a charger. They know their fans will rebuy literally anything with Link on the cover which is why they released an absurd three Zelda remakes in four years for full price.
You are doing an excellent job of illustrating the adversarial relationship Nintendo fans have toward third parties. Even when they have substantial quality or special Nintendo-exclusive features (Rayman Legends, ZombiU, Mass Effect 3, Arkham City, Need for Speed, etc.), Nintendo fans ignore them. And before you try to truck out the tired old cliche of "well, we don't want ports," remember that Nintendo fans had no problem supporting the hell out of ports of Zelda games and that consumers on other hardware get this same treatment during the first year of their consoles, and they still bought the games.
I don't know about that. Opinion and personal taste will always be a factor, that's true. But there are also universal "norms" in gaming that can follow whether or not a game has aged poorly.
The original Super Mario Bros has aged well because the control is solid and the gameplay still works. Today, platformers still play in similar manners to this original game. There's been some evolution and improvement, but for the most part, it has aged well.
Donkey Kong Country games, on the other hand, were very much a "graphics over gameplay" title back in the day, and the way the games are played has not only arguably aged poorly, but they've been topped in recent years by titles like Rayman Origins/Legends. The DKC games feature shallow gameplay. Personally, I think that entire franchise has aged poorly and felt Tropical Freeze was a painful slog that felt archaic across the board after the beautiful control and smooth use of the Origins/Legends titles.
Urban Champion is also another turd that has aged ludicrously poorly--but Nintendo still seems intent on churning it out as much as they can.
Compared to modern gaming standards, there can be a pretty solid consensus made on which game have aged poorly or well, within a margin of error for personal taste. Some people like DKC games.
And then what did they do to promote it? How often did you see it advertised on TV? How many Wii U consoles came bundled with it? Did they make a big deal out of it's release with an eye-catching special edition or anything of that nature?
Nintendo paid for the game, and then failed to put up the money to promote it.
Yeah, Monster Hunter 4 was a rare case of Nintendo actively supporting a 3rd party game. Something they didn't even do for Bayonetta, and I doubt they'll do for Devil's Third.
The Wii and DS were flukes, and the evidence is in the Wii U and 3DS--not only aren't they remotely close to the sales of their predecessors, they aren't even catching up to the previously worst selling Nintendo hardware.
Nintendo has been on a downward slide for generations, and this has been pointed out by more than just me.
NES: 61.91 million
SNES: 49.10 million
N64: 32.93 million
GC: 21.74 million Wii: 101.52 million
Wii U: 9.5 million (that is less than the Dreamcast over a longer period of time)
GB/GBC: 118.69 million
GBA/SP/Micro: 81.51 million DS/Lite/DSi: 154.01 million
3DS/2DS/New: 52.06 million (and this is in the same amount of time as the GBA line was relevant)
Unless you have no understanding at all of statistics, the Wii and DS lines are clearly statistical anomalies, they are flukes outside of the curve. It's even more telling that immediately after the Wii and DS lines ended, their successors perfectly fell back into place on this pattern.
To even pretend they weren't flukes/fads is massively absurd.
You could bother being an adult and reading my actual point, and bother to learn that one success means little against dozens of failures. That's like congratulating a guy for winning a marathon, when the 200 people who would've finished ahead of him were all killed by the people on the sidelines.
Quit having an emotional connection to Nintendo and face reality.
Look, the low sales on the eShop are extremely sad, but the problem is primarily the fanbase: Nintendo fans do not support non-Nintendo games.
Nintendo fans have, since the N64 era, been cultivating starkly adversarial relationships concerning all third parties. This is just how this fanbase, overall, operates. For every one Nintendo fan supporting a game, there is seemingly 3 thousand refusing to even pay attention to anything that doesn't have Mario, Link, or Pokemon emblazoned on the front. Remember when you start attacking this post--just because you bought one game, your personal anecdote does not change the reality of the situation, and that the general Nintendo audience is buying in exactly this way to the detriment of Nintendo.
This is basically inarguable at this point. It's a common theme and a problem that has plagued Nintendo since the N64 era. Nintendo fans have a history of not supporting 3rd party games.
This, this is handily the biggest reason the company should just go third party. Even their own dedicated fans only use Nintendo hardware as "Nintendo boxes" instead of "game consoles." It's a losing endeavor and has led to Nintendo following an obvious downward trend in industry relevance and console sales, barring the fad-driven flukes of the Wii and DS, this downward trend continues.
If you aren't buying 3rd party games for the machine, why do you even need the machine? It would be better to have those Nintendo games on other hardware. Then, at least, they would reach way more people.
Nintendo's biggest hurdle to reaching mass audiences is their own hardware.
Nintendo's biggest hurdle to console sales is a combination of their gimmicky nature and their fans spending 4 generations telling third parties to "get bent."
Nintendo fans use the machines as Nintendo boxes first and foremost.
So if Nintendo fans, by and large, do not care about using their consoles as game consoles, then why does it even matter what hardware the games are on?
When Nintendo rakes in the money on mobile, hopefully they too will start to lose interest in hardware development.
Nintendo fans love to pull out the "quality over quantity" argument (despite MS and Sony having both quality AND quantity), yet do they support quality games with their money? No. But they certainly supported the hell out of pure drivel like The Letter and Spikey Walls. This is the bed Nintendo fans have made for the Wii U. It's time to stop complaining when the support continues to dry up.
This article has a good point, that many developers, like Atlus and Rcmadiax, have grossly abused the system by repeatedly putting their games up for sale, but the biggest problem is consumers. Consumer behavior drives developer behavior. And if consumers aren't supporting the games, the developers will go elsewhere.
Complaining about the paying for online is pretty much just lame whining at this point. Nintendo's may be free, but there are almost no games to even play online. So how is that better?
And if you're complaining about "full price games with graphical polish" being sold for full price, I sincerely hope you haven't purchased Wind Waker HD, Ocarina of Time 3D, Majora's Mask 3D, StarFox 64 3D, Mario 64 DS, Pikmin 2 for Wii, any of the Super Mario Advance games, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, Link's Awakening DX, A Link to the Past GBA...
Shall I continue? Because no company spends more time reselling old games than NINTENDO.
I've been saying that for years, but that's just not how Nintendo does things. And even if they did, they'd still struggle by losing all that third party support. The voids in the release schedule wouldn't be as prominent, but that's about it.
The irony in your post is staggering. You don't support 3rd parties, yet you would not support Nintendo when they go third party.
When you aren't supporting 3rd party on Nintendo consoles, you are actually helping the company to go third party. When Nintendo loses revenue and support from 3rd party games because their fans refuse to support 3rd party games, then Nintendo's profits are heavily damaged, and they cannot sustain this forever. They will have to go third party.
My point was more that this is a ridiculously common occurrence on this site--Nintendo fans do not like supporting games, they only like to spend money if Mario, Link, or Pokemon are on the cover, or if Nintendo rolls out yet another hardware revision.
Ultimately, this attitude will just convince the last remaining studios supporting Nintendo to walk away, and after that, Nintendo is really going to have no choice but to go third party.
Maybe, but I post on those sites as well, and it not only doesn't occur nearly as frequently as Nintendo fans turning up their noses at anything "not Mario-Zelda-Pokemon," but clearly, the players on the other consoles still actually buy games, which is part of why they have so much more support.
"Another bonus is support for standard USB controllers, although the bundled pad does look quite nice - it reminds us of the Wii Classic Controller."
Yes, because it's an almost perfect clone of the SNES controller.
I'm sorry, what? It has no analog sticks and only two shoulder buttons! Nothing about it should remind anyone of a Wii Classic Controller before the SNES pad!
Oh I don't know about that. Head on over to the Swords and Soldiers II article--clearly many Nintendo fans don't want to pay money for anything that doesn't have Mario or Link emblazoned on the front.
Konami is not "putting all their eggs in the smart phone basket," they are just focusing more on it. Metal Gear Solid V is still coming to PS4 and XBO.
I could totally see the "real 3DS sales" number being that low, or lower, even. I once calculated that Microsoft's actual X360 sales numbers may be off by around 4~6 million units due to people rebuying the console during the early RRoD days, which would mean that, realistically, the Xbox 360 may have truly sold below the PS3 globally.
I've considered buying a New 3DS myself, but I hardly play my old one lately. And my 3DS works just fine. But there have been three special Zelda-edition 3DS systems at least. Nintendo and Zelda fans are rebuying them. That Majora's Mask 3DS almost certainly went entirely to people that already owned the system.
Nintendo fans: "No game is worth more than twenty dollars. That's a lot of money to spend on a video game. OMG ANOTHER SPECIAL EDITION ZELDA 3DS MODEL! TIME TO BUY ANOTHER 3DS I DIDN'T NEED!"
Keep up the "not supporting any new games" concept guys. This will help Nintendo to be a third party company much sooner. After all, if you aren't buying video games on your console, why even have the console?
At this point, I can see Nintendo going full mobile for their portable games. It's possible that they're going to gauge the success of that market over the next two years to see if staying in a portable game system is still worth it. I would not be surprised at all if they were developing an actual phone-based portable. Hell, DeNA isn't even the first step into mobile, it's just the biggest for the company. Previously, they also invested in a company called Dwango. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-11-15/nintendo-rises-after-buying-stake-in-web-content-company-dwango
I agree, 50 million, though still showing their slipping, is pretty damn good. At the same time, though, the 3DS is awash in the same problems as the Wii U, and despite hardware numbers, has fewer games coming to it in 2015 than the Vita. Essentially, it isn't just the Wii U that lost 3rd party support--it's Nintendo. And this could very well end up damaging the future of their portable arms.
The 3DS launch was also a sluggish, dismal affair, and while it did rebound a bit and disprove the naysayers calling it a failure, it has never-the-less still fallen on hard times. Nintendo is clearly not selling the system to new customers anymore, and they know it--or they would've included a charging cable with the New 3DS. They're taking advantage of their loyal fans because they know actual growth has stopped.
It's pretty clear that, despite the sales of the 3DS itself, it is following the same trend as the Wii U. Very limited 3rd party support, massive retail droughts at a time when it should be at its peak, Nintendo no longer trying to sell to new customers. A guy on my team is such a dedicated Nintendo fan, he owns 3 3DS systems. How many other Zelda fanboys also own 2 or 3 Zelda-themed machines? I doubt very much he's the only one.
Nintendo's investors have been pushing hardest for them to get into mobile. I think, even with the sales of the 3DS being overall successful, though brief, they would prefer mobile over another portable system.
Nintendo fans look like raving fanboys when they attempt to dismiss games on other consoles as not being "good quality," just because they are totally ignorant of what is on there or have such limited, specific tastes. Knock off the pathetic weasel words and speak honestly: You can't guarantee that the other consoles won't have the cartoon platformers you want because you are unwilling to research what is offered.
It has nothing to do with quality, and you full well know it. Throwing that around is a grotesque foreplay with weasel words that does not paint any Nintendo fan in a positive light. You may not like quality games like Mass Effect, Doom, Fallout, Bloodborne, Dark Souls, Bulletstorm, Uncharted, Last of Us, God of War, Ratchet & Clank, Gears of War, Halo, Resistance, Sly Cooper, Jak & Daxter, Tekken, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, GTA, Tomb Raider, Elder Scrolls, Diablo, Resident Evil, etc., but don't act like there isn't anything of quality on those consoles or that you "can't guarantee games of quality" on those consoles. Both the XBO and PS4 have more highly rated games than the Wii U already. So where quality comes in, it's already there.
That you don't have any taste beyond Nintendo's Saturday Morning Cartoon style doesn't mean other consoles lack quality. It means either you lack knowledge, you lack the taste, or you lack the understanding. It has nothing to do with quality. To say so is to employ weasel words.
_"The Wii U's end has already been forecasted" Well...yes. I don't think you've ever said something so bone headed. Everything ends at some point, otherwise nothing would ever get started. I can guarantee Sony and Microsoft are also developing new hardware right now too._
You're completely missing his point. The Wii U has been on a downward trend since 2013, while the XBO and PS4 are constantly increasing. This is in everything--sales, number of announced games, games being released, etc.
The Wii U is already in its twilight. Much like the ill-fated N64 and GameCube, which saw dismal, nearly vacant final years with lengthy stretches with very few releases, the Wii U is there already. On the retail side, there is only a few sparse Nintendo games, and the occasional upcoming third party game for kids--which is just a port of the X360 version. Once publishers start scaling back or stopping the number of those games being made for X360 or PS3, the Wii U will have nothing... basically where it is now.
It's end was forecast the moment third parties walked away and Nintendo had nothing to fill the voids. Saying "oh, well everything ends, so whatever" is an incredibly lame avoidance of a valid point--surely you were aware of that? That's the equivalent of living in squalor because "every time you vacuum, more dust just falls on the floor later." 2015 is the last "good" year for the Wii U, and E3 this year will be showing us only what it has coming up in its final year. Sadly, none of which is likely to sell the console at this point, which is why I sincerely doubt Zelda U will see release on the console. I fully expect it to become Zelda NX.
It's nice to see someone else that can follow statistics and observe Nintendo's continued downward trend and isn't afraid to address reality.
If you did this with the portable line, you'd see the exact same trend, remembering to lump Game Boy and GBC together as they were technically the same hardware, in the same way you'd lump DS and DSi together and 3DS and New 3DS.
Game Boy/GBC — 118.69 million GBA/SP/Micro — 81.51 million DS (anomaly) — 154 million 3DS — 52.06 million
And to note: The 3DS has been out for just as long as the relevance of the GBA--which was replaced at the 4-year mark, and largely discontinued one year later. Unless the 3DS somehow magically sells 30 million over the next year, it will end out it's cycle behind the GBA. Given that the 3DS has averaged about 13 million per year, I'd say it's going to fall well short.
Nintendo's relevance in this industry, even on the portable side, has been slipping since the NES, and the trend continues. The Wii and DS were fads, anomalies. And I think they gave Nintendo a false sense of success, which they promptly botched with the launches of the 3DS and Wii U.
You could always be mature and take the response as a lack of "I don't live on this site" or "I didn't see your comment." But since you chose the childish route, it doesn't even deserve an answer.
Did I say Nintendo had to copy Sony or Microsoft? No, I explained that their failure to modernize, failure to deliver elements consumers expect, and failure to remain competitive is what has made former fans lapse.
Nintendo does not offer technically powerful hardware. Nintendo does not offer quality third party libraries. Nintendo does not offer the extra features and elements of the XBO or PS4--the abundance of streaming services, for instance. Nintendo does not offer a robust online service, and routinely downplays the importance of things like voice chat. Nintendo does not offer robust user accounts. Nintendo saddles the consoles with gimmicks that do not benefit the games. After all this time, the big innovations of the Wii amounted to "terrible waggle-based casual games." The GamePad has by and large amounted to "a smaller screen to play my TV-based game" or "a map" and not innovated or improved actual gaming.
Nintendo is not giving consumers or players what they want in a game console. They are throwing darts at a collage of gimmicks and hoping one makes them a lot of money.
It's not about "copying" Sony or Microsoft, it's about delivering modern concepts and features that consumers are looking for. The rest of your post is a straw man argument at best, or a red herring at worst. None of this has anything to do with Sony or MS being tech giants or anything to that effect. It has everything to do with Nintendo failing to understand the modern industry they once--in the increasingly distant past--helped create.
The Dreamcast comparisons are only really apt in comparing sales. And the Wii U has still failed to outsell the Dreamcast, which is not a very positive sign. It has also been out longer than the Dreamcast.
Posting high sales numbers of Nintendo's games is silly. For one thing, they have no competition. There are no third party games or major AAA titles from anywhere else taking up shelf space anymore. I'd be more impressed if these games sold amid heavy competition. Instead, almost every single major Wii U title from Nintendo has launched alone, and been supported more out of the desperation of a drought than anything else.
The Wii U is Nintendo's Saturn or PS3--an embarrassing gaffe that flopped its way to market. Nintendo must now work to ensure that the NX becomes their PS4, or it will be their Dreamcast. The problem is, Sony clearly worked their asses off to right the stalled PS3 ship, and managed to do such a good job, the 3rd parties were totally back on board well before the PS4 launched.
Sales are also indicative of longevity and value. A PS4 costs only a hundred dollars more than the Wii U, and it clearly has a lot more longevity. It's going to be around for a long time, and that's very obvious--that means way more bang for the consumer's buck. Good sales means more games, good sales means a robust library, good sales means lower prices for games and hardware at a faster rate. Good sales means a better online with more people to play with.
We can love a console all we want, but at the end of the day, how much we love it is, almost no matter what, going to hinge heavily on sales. The Wii U is now poised to be the first Nintendo console without an original Zelda title. Sales are bad enough that it makes business sense to can Zelda U and turn it into Zelda NX and give the game a better chance on new hardware. Whether or not this actually happens is up in the air, but let's face reality: Nobody refers to Twilight Princess as a GameCube game. When they talk about that game, it's a Wii game.
Even Nintendo is very clearly winding down from the Wii U. E3 will hold some surprises, but they will also be the last major titles revealed for the console as next year's E3 will be heavily focused on selling NX because it is now way too late to turn the Wii U into a success. Nintendo showed that they're winding down in their last over-all Direct--it revealed no new games and focused extensively on cheap-to-develop elements to drag out some longevity: DLC for Mario Kart, DLC for other games, DLC for Smash Bros. Nintendo is taking the easiest possible route to simply keep players coming back to the Wii U while they very clearly are focusing internal efforts to the next hardware.
As I've noted before, Iwata very plainly stated that if the Wii sold below the GameCube, it would be considered a failure. The Wii U is selling well below the GameCube, and to add insult to injury, also led to Nintendo's first years of financial losses since getting into gaming. To Nintendo, this console is a festering carcass that they need to keep afloat just long enough to get the new machine out--and then they'll let it quickly sink out of sight and hope the industry forgets about this embarrassment.
This is precisely how Nintendo has operated in the past with hardware that under-performed. The N64, GBA, and GameCube were all given the ax the moment the replacement was out. The worse the system performed, the more vacant it's final years, and the faster Nintendo forgot about it when the new machine launched. Mark these words: When NX is out, Wii U will be completely dead, and frankly, I suspect it will be dead long before then, especially if Nintendo is stupid enough to wait until 2017 to release the thing.
The Wii U is already mirroring the vacant release schedule that marked the final year of the N64 and GameCube. Nintendo needs to get NX out next year.
Lapsed fans haven't lapsed because of a lack of games like this (though I'm sure it's part of it), they've lapsed more because Nintendo consoles simply fail to offer the experiences that gamers have come to expect from game hardware, which MS and Sony both deliver. They've lapsed because they're sick of Nintendo's unnecessarily weaker hardware. They've lapsed because they're tired of gimmicks and nonsense being shoe-horned into the games.
Frankly, if Nintendo wanted to get back lapsed fans, the last thing they should've done was make a competitive team-based shooter, and then cut it off at the knees so the competitive aspect is crippled and communication is missing.
If it doesn't actively make Nintendo money, or actively leave Nintendo in total control, then Nintendo doesn't want to do it. It's that simple.
And when Nintendo chooses to do things for total control and money--like their awful YouTube policies--they tend to damage both and turn people away from them.
I feel the need to point out that your note on the "3DS covering any losses" is not accurate. The company as a whole saw nearly three years of notable losses--which means the 3DS did not cover those.
The 3DS is also Nintendo's lowest-selling portable (coming in shy of the GBA, which was replaced after 4 years), and also has many of the problems plaguing the Wii U: Lost 3rd party support, release schedule that is mostly vacant, and lower-than-expected sales.
Nintendo knows they aren't reaching new customers anymore. Why else was the New 3DS missing a charging cable? Because Nintendo knew they were just reselling these to the same people again. They are taking advantage of their fans.
Actually, that's exactly what Nintendo is doing--dropping support and rushing a new console. Sure, they're convincing legions of blindly devoted fans that "they're just following a standard pattern console releases," but the Wii and DS both broke out of that fabled 5-year-cycle, and the GBA was killed early, at the 4-year mark. The Wii U has no longevity, no matter how much some people may like it. It's time to face reality.
The only 3rd party games it's getting now are X360 ports of kids' games. Nintendo played their hand early with the NX, because they know the Wii U doesn't have any more steam left. Regardless of the surprises at E3 (one of which will likely be Retro's new title), none of these is going to turn the Wii U into a success, and it has still failed to even outsell the ill-fated Dreamcast, and the Wii U has been out longer.
If NX doesn't come out in late 2016, Nintendo is guaranteeing failure for the machine. The Wii U has never met it's sales projections, even when Nintendo drastically slashed those expectations. No matter what, it is no longer a winning endeavor.
Zelda U may very likely become Zelda NX. Twilight Princess was announced for the GameCube 3 years before it became a Wii launch title, when it was clear that releasing it late on the GC would yield no benefit to the game, the console, or the company as a whole.
At this point, the smartest move for Nintendo is to cut their losses and focus on NX, and that is exactly what they are doing. Nintendo very much appears to be moving toward a future where their portable games are on mobile, and the only hardware they focus on is something like NX. But the industry has been against Nintendo's annoying and ridiculous console concepts for generations, now. The Wii and DS were flukes. Nintendo has been selling less and less hardware with every new hardware iteration, with the exception of the Wii and DS, but outside of them, the downward trend continued--for both portable and console. Nintendo wants lightning in a bottle, but they do not plan for serious success. They want big sales to lots of people from temporary fads.
It's not working anymore. Nintendo fans frequently love to jump to an emotional reaction defending how much they love the Wii U and the GamePad and Nintendo's comically bad decision-making. You guys can do that all you want, that's fine. But at least recognize that the very things you are defending are symptoms of the things (or the things themselves) damaging this company and helping drive them to irrelevance.
I'm waiting for a couple Kickstarters I backed to be finished (one of them is Shantae), and of the projects that have been successful, they have pretty much all paid off. One was an Atari 2600 game--a former Atari engineer set to work to port Star Castle to the console after something like 30 years, when it was originally considered impossible. That was a really cool, and I have it at home.
People need to be smarter and not run their lives (and mouths) with thoughtless knee-jerk reactions and black-and-white sentiments towards things like Kickstarter. No matter where you're investing or donating money, there is always an element of risk. Being afraid of that is why people here--so readily dismissing Kickstarter--will never make money on the Stock Market. Because they seem to fear risk so completely. The smarter way to do this is to do your research and balance the risk vs reward and chances of success.
This is hardly a "disaster," just some planning issues. I'd like to point out to all the usual Kickstarter naysayers/whiners: These kinds of things happen even with professional studios--an old-gen version getting dumped because of hardware/performance/technical/sales issues. It's not a big deal. Yes, it sucks if you were a backer hoping for a Wii U port, but it's not like this or any other non-Nintendo game was ever going to make a profit on Wii U at this point. But they are making up for it by offering PC versions, and pretty much everybody has a PC these days.
When anyone pulls the lazy, brainless "this is why I don't support Kickstarters" nonsense, they are only advertising their own gross ignorance of everything to do with Kickstarter. This is hardly a measure of "every other Kickstarter," nor is it the norm. This game is still coming out, it's still being released. It's just losing some platforms--exactly like any number of major third party games. Disappointing to only a few people, but the developer is keeping backers informed and being responsible.
Should they have planned ahead a bit better? Yes, planning can always be improved upon--but even the best plans cannot address every issue. Kickstarter is not risk-free. If you are only backing things that are risk-free, you are missing the point of Kickstarter, which is to support ideas and concepts that are, by and large, a bit risky because otherwise they'd be funded by major companies and publishers.
Not coming to Wii U? Not a big loss. Most of you weren't going to get it anyway.
To quote: As if that isn't bad enough, your logic still makes no sense because you keep using outdated consoles that have long since been discontinued. Sega no longer does hardware, and there are no longer any Coleco systems in production.
I'm sorry, is the NES still in production? Is the SNES still in production? Are they still making Castlevania games on those?
In this case, the "Nintendo fans don't support 3rd parties" was probably more of an afterthought by the team, if anything. More likely, they skipped Wii U and 3DS simply because those platforms cannot handle the Unreal 4 engine, and it just made more sense to focus on XBO, PS4, and Steam. But, knowing the poor way Nintendo fans have traditionally treated 3rd parties probably made the decision to skip the platforms easier. That noted, they need to be businessmen about this--making "all the fans happy" might sound good to you or Nintendo fans, but be realistic. How much extra would it cost to rebuild the game for Unreal 3 or another engine just so it runs on Wii U and 3DS versus how much they are likely to make off of those two systems? My bet is that the potential profit is not enough to warrant development on those two platforms.
The Wii U has terrible sales--Nintendo's own numbers revealed that it still has not even outsold the Dreamcast, despite being out for a longer period of time. The 3DS is sliding, and both systems are clearly already in decline, as can be measured by the number of games released per year, which has been decreasing for both platforms for a while already. Both the 3DS and Wii U peaked early and started their declines quickly. That is not a confidence booster for developers.
I get that you, on a purely emotional level, want the game out of some kind of "fairness," but the reality is that it's a lot of extra work that may ultimately be a waste of resources that incurs a financial loss. They have ample reasons to skip the Wii U, and really, if Nintendo fans wanted more games like this, they should have supported the games like this that did appear.
I was thinking the same thing. This article almost makes it sound like there's modes in the game that we know aren't there. Like 4 players playing together on one machine.
Comments 2,916
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@SirQuincealot
I don't even know what the hell your point is at this point. Bringing up Bayonetta 2 only further supports my original point that Nintendo fans do not support 3rd party as even when Nintendo pays for the game, the fans don't buy it, especially when Nintendo doesn't do anything to support it after launch.
Monster Hunter is a lame argument no matter what as it is a lone duck, a stand-alone. A fluke compared to the norm. One 3rd party game selling well means nothing when 50 or 100 third party games are completely ignored.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@ricklongo
What reason is there to acknowledge the bizarre different taste of Nintendo's audience? Their tastes are predominantly for games that look like Saturday Morning Cartoons, so what? That still shows Nintendo fans themselves as wholly different and still part of the problem concerning the sales of 3rd party games.
You accuse Ubisoft or Activision of "doing what the majority want" and are apparently completely ignoring that Nintendo does exactly that. Nintendo knows that their fans will rebuy hardware--which is why they sold the New 3DS without a charger. They know their fans will rebuy literally anything with Link on the cover which is why they released an absurd three Zelda remakes in four years for full price.
You are doing an excellent job of illustrating the adversarial relationship Nintendo fans have toward third parties. Even when they have substantial quality or special Nintendo-exclusive features (Rayman Legends, ZombiU, Mass Effect 3, Arkham City, Need for Speed, etc.), Nintendo fans ignore them. And before you try to truck out the tired old cliche of "well, we don't want ports," remember that Nintendo fans had no problem supporting the hell out of ports of Zelda games and that consumers on other hardware get this same treatment during the first year of their consoles, and they still bought the games.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@Grumblevolcano
I don't know about that. Opinion and personal taste will always be a factor, that's true. But there are also universal "norms" in gaming that can follow whether or not a game has aged poorly.
The original Super Mario Bros has aged well because the control is solid and the gameplay still works. Today, platformers still play in similar manners to this original game. There's been some evolution and improvement, but for the most part, it has aged well.
Donkey Kong Country games, on the other hand, were very much a "graphics over gameplay" title back in the day, and the way the games are played has not only arguably aged poorly, but they've been topped in recent years by titles like Rayman Origins/Legends. The DKC games feature shallow gameplay. Personally, I think that entire franchise has aged poorly and felt Tropical Freeze was a painful slog that felt archaic across the board after the beautiful control and smooth use of the Origins/Legends titles.
Urban Champion is also another turd that has aged ludicrously poorly--but Nintendo still seems intent on churning it out as much as they can.
Compared to modern gaming standards, there can be a pretty solid consensus made on which game have aged poorly or well, within a margin of error for personal taste. Some people like DKC games.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@Tazcat2011
And then what did they do to promote it? How often did you see it advertised on TV? How many Wii U consoles came bundled with it? Did they make a big deal out of it's release with an eye-catching special edition or anything of that nature?
Nintendo paid for the game, and then failed to put up the money to promote it.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@SirQuincealot
That is a completely nonsensical post. Monster Hunter sold because Nintendo actively worked to make it appeal to the fans.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@jariw
Yeah, Monster Hunter 4 was a rare case of Nintendo actively supporting a 3rd party game. Something they didn't even do for Bayonetta, and I doubt they'll do for Devil's Third.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@omalleycat215
Countless indie games on PSN are $20.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@SirQuincealot
That comment is the definition of fanboyism and possibly deliberately ignorant. Your personal preference has nothing to do with quality.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@Guitardude7
The Wii and DS were flukes, and the evidence is in the Wii U and 3DS--not only aren't they remotely close to the sales of their predecessors, they aren't even catching up to the previously worst selling Nintendo hardware.
Nintendo has been on a downward slide for generations, and this has been pointed out by more than just me.
NES: 61.91 million
SNES: 49.10 million
N64: 32.93 million
GC: 21.74 million
Wii: 101.52 million
Wii U: 9.5 million (that is less than the Dreamcast over a longer period of time)
GB/GBC: 118.69 million
GBA/SP/Micro: 81.51 million
DS/Lite/DSi: 154.01 million
3DS/2DS/New: 52.06 million (and this is in the same amount of time as the GBA line was relevant)
Unless you have no understanding at all of statistics, the Wii and DS lines are clearly statistical anomalies, they are flukes outside of the curve. It's even more telling that immediately after the Wii and DS lines ended, their successors perfectly fell back into place on this pattern.
To even pretend they weren't flukes/fads is massively absurd.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
@bitleman
You could bother being an adult and reading my actual point, and bother to learn that one success means little against dozens of failures. That's like congratulating a guy for winning a marathon, when the 200 people who would've finished ahead of him were all killed by the people on the sidelines.
Quit having an emotional connection to Nintendo and face reality.
Re: Editorial: The eShop's Pricing Dilemma is the Fault of Many, But Damages Creativity and Risk Taking
Look, the low sales on the eShop are extremely sad, but the problem is primarily the fanbase: Nintendo fans do not support non-Nintendo games.
Nintendo fans have, since the N64 era, been cultivating starkly adversarial relationships concerning all third parties. This is just how this fanbase, overall, operates. For every one Nintendo fan supporting a game, there is seemingly 3 thousand refusing to even pay attention to anything that doesn't have Mario, Link, or Pokemon emblazoned on the front. Remember when you start attacking this post--just because you bought one game, your personal anecdote does not change the reality of the situation, and that the general Nintendo audience is buying in exactly this way to the detriment of Nintendo.
This is basically inarguable at this point. It's a common theme and a problem that has plagued Nintendo since the N64 era. Nintendo fans have a history of not supporting 3rd party games.
This, this is handily the biggest reason the company should just go third party. Even their own dedicated fans only use Nintendo hardware as "Nintendo boxes" instead of "game consoles." It's a losing endeavor and has led to Nintendo following an obvious downward trend in industry relevance and console sales, barring the fad-driven flukes of the Wii and DS, this downward trend continues.
If you aren't buying 3rd party games for the machine, why do you even need the machine? It would be better to have those Nintendo games on other hardware. Then, at least, they would reach way more people.
Nintendo's biggest hurdle to reaching mass audiences is their own hardware.
Nintendo's biggest hurdle to console sales is a combination of their gimmicky nature and their fans spending 4 generations telling third parties to "get bent."
Nintendo fans use the machines as Nintendo boxes first and foremost.
So if Nintendo fans, by and large, do not care about using their consoles as game consoles, then why does it even matter what hardware the games are on?
When Nintendo rakes in the money on mobile, hopefully they too will start to lose interest in hardware development.
Nintendo fans love to pull out the "quality over quantity" argument (despite MS and Sony having both quality AND quantity), yet do they support quality games with their money? No. But they certainly supported the hell out of pure drivel like The Letter and Spikey Walls. This is the bed Nintendo fans have made for the Wii U. It's time to stop complaining when the support continues to dry up.
This article has a good point, that many developers, like Atlus and Rcmadiax, have grossly abused the system by repeatedly putting their games up for sale, but the biggest problem is consumers. Consumer behavior drives developer behavior. And if consumers aren't supporting the games, the developers will go elsewhere.
Re: Nintendo Hoping That Splatoon Will Tempt Lapsed Fans To Splash Out On A Wii U
@rjejr
I think the memory cards are the biggest thing that hurt the Vita.
Re: Nintendo Hoping That Splatoon Will Tempt Lapsed Fans To Splash Out On A Wii U
@GammaNoises
Complaining about the paying for online is pretty much just lame whining at this point. Nintendo's may be free, but there are almost no games to even play online. So how is that better?
And if you're complaining about "full price games with graphical polish" being sold for full price, I sincerely hope you haven't purchased Wind Waker HD, Ocarina of Time 3D, Majora's Mask 3D, StarFox 64 3D, Mario 64 DS, Pikmin 2 for Wii, any of the Super Mario Advance games, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, Link's Awakening DX, A Link to the Past GBA...
Shall I continue? Because no company spends more time reselling old games than NINTENDO.
Re: Ronimo Games Explains Pricing for Swords & Soldiers II
@leo13
I've been saying that for years, but that's just not how Nintendo does things. And even if they did, they'd still struggle by losing all that third party support. The voids in the release schedule wouldn't be as prominent, but that's about it.
Re: Reaction: Nintendo Dropped the Ball, Not the Mic, With Its Nintendo World Championships 2015 Qualifiers
@IceClimbers
Ha, Nintendo Direct Syndrome.
"Nintendo told us stuff, therefore it's automatically good news and it proves the naysayers wrong!!"
This was the reaction to a Direct that featured no new games and was punctuated largely by "we're just going to make lots more DLC."
Re: Reaction: Nintendo Dropped the Ball, Not the Mic, With Its Nintendo World Championships 2015 Qualifiers
Geez, Nintendo is bad at everything lately. It's almost like they don't want us to pay attention to E3 this year.
Re: Nintendo Hoping That Splatoon Will Tempt Lapsed Fans To Splash Out On A Wii U
@Uberchu
The irony in your post is staggering. You don't support 3rd parties, yet you would not support Nintendo when they go third party.
When you aren't supporting 3rd party on Nintendo consoles, you are actually helping the company to go third party. When Nintendo loses revenue and support from 3rd party games because their fans refuse to support 3rd party games, then Nintendo's profits are heavily damaged, and they cannot sustain this forever. They will have to go third party.
Re: Nintendo Hoping That Splatoon Will Tempt Lapsed Fans To Splash Out On A Wii U
@Uberchu
Nintendo remastered 3 Zelda games in four years.
Re: Ronimo Games Explains Pricing for Swords & Soldiers II
@leo13
My point was more that this is a ridiculously common occurrence on this site--Nintendo fans do not like supporting games, they only like to spend money if Mario, Link, or Pokemon are on the cover, or if Nintendo rolls out yet another hardware revision.
Ultimately, this attitude will just convince the last remaining studios supporting Nintendo to walk away, and after that, Nintendo is really going to have no choice but to go third party.
Re: Ronimo Games Explains Pricing for Swords & Soldiers II
@sinalefa
Maybe, but I post on those sites as well, and it not only doesn't occur nearly as frequently as Nintendo fans turning up their noses at anything "not Mario-Zelda-Pokemon," but clearly, the players on the other consoles still actually buy games, which is part of why they have so much more support.
Re: Cyber Gadget's Retro Freak System Is Looking To Topple The RetroN 5 In The Downright Awesome Stakes
"Another bonus is support for standard USB controllers, although the bundled pad does look quite nice - it reminds us of the Wii Classic Controller."
Yes, because it's an almost perfect clone of the SNES controller.
I'm sorry, what? It has no analog sticks and only two shoulder buttons! Nothing about it should remind anyone of a Wii Classic Controller before the SNES pad!
Re: Capcom Hoping For "Aggressive Digital Download Sales" Of Remastered Classics
@DESS-M-8
Oh I don't know about that. Head on over to the Swords and Soldiers II article--clearly many Nintendo fans don't want to pay money for anything that doesn't have Mario or Link emblazoned on the front.
Re: Capcom Hoping For "Aggressive Digital Download Sales" Of Remastered Classics
Konami is not "putting all their eggs in the smart phone basket," they are just focusing more on it. Metal Gear Solid V is still coming to PS4 and XBO.
Re: Nintendo Hoping That Splatoon Will Tempt Lapsed Fans To Splash Out On A Wii U
@Yorumi
I could totally see the "real 3DS sales" number being that low, or lower, even. I once calculated that Microsoft's actual X360 sales numbers may be off by around 4~6 million units due to people rebuying the console during the early RRoD days, which would mean that, realistically, the Xbox 360 may have truly sold below the PS3 globally.
I've considered buying a New 3DS myself, but I hardly play my old one lately. And my 3DS works just fine. But there have been three special Zelda-edition 3DS systems at least. Nintendo and Zelda fans are rebuying them. That Majora's Mask 3DS almost certainly went entirely to people that already owned the system.
Re: Ronimo Games Explains Pricing for Swords & Soldiers II
Nintendo fans: "No game is worth more than twenty dollars. That's a lot of money to spend on a video game. OMG ANOTHER SPECIAL EDITION ZELDA 3DS MODEL! TIME TO BUY ANOTHER 3DS I DIDN'T NEED!"
Keep up the "not supporting any new games" concept guys. This will help Nintendo to be a third party company much sooner. After all, if you aren't buying video games on your console, why even have the console?
Re: Nintendo Hoping That Splatoon Will Tempt Lapsed Fans To Splash Out On A Wii U
@rjejr
At this point, I can see Nintendo going full mobile for their portable games. It's possible that they're going to gauge the success of that market over the next two years to see if staying in a portable game system is still worth it. I would not be surprised at all if they were developing an actual phone-based portable. Hell, DeNA isn't even the first step into mobile, it's just the biggest for the company. Previously, they also invested in a company called Dwango. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-11-15/nintendo-rises-after-buying-stake-in-web-content-company-dwango
I agree, 50 million, though still showing their slipping, is pretty damn good. At the same time, though, the 3DS is awash in the same problems as the Wii U, and despite hardware numbers, has fewer games coming to it in 2015 than the Vita. Essentially, it isn't just the Wii U that lost 3rd party support--it's Nintendo. And this could very well end up damaging the future of their portable arms.
The 3DS launch was also a sluggish, dismal affair, and while it did rebound a bit and disprove the naysayers calling it a failure, it has never-the-less still fallen on hard times. Nintendo is clearly not selling the system to new customers anymore, and they know it--or they would've included a charging cable with the New 3DS. They're taking advantage of their loyal fans because they know actual growth has stopped.
It's pretty clear that, despite the sales of the 3DS itself, it is following the same trend as the Wii U. Very limited 3rd party support, massive retail droughts at a time when it should be at its peak, Nintendo no longer trying to sell to new customers. A guy on my team is such a dedicated Nintendo fan, he owns 3 3DS systems. How many other Zelda fanboys also own 2 or 3 Zelda-themed machines? I doubt very much he's the only one.
Nintendo's investors have been pushing hardest for them to get into mobile. I think, even with the sales of the 3DS being overall successful, though brief, they would prefer mobile over another portable system.
Re: Nintendo Hoping That Splatoon Will Tempt Lapsed Fans To Splash Out On A Wii U
@Ootfan98
So you never had a point? You were just trolling? Well, at least that's settled.
Re: Nintendo Hoping That Splatoon Will Tempt Lapsed Fans To Splash Out On A Wii U
@BLPs
Nintendo fans look like raving fanboys when they attempt to dismiss games on other consoles as not being "good quality," just because they are totally ignorant of what is on there or have such limited, specific tastes. Knock off the pathetic weasel words and speak honestly: You can't guarantee that the other consoles won't have the cartoon platformers you want because you are unwilling to research what is offered.
It has nothing to do with quality, and you full well know it. Throwing that around is a grotesque foreplay with weasel words that does not paint any Nintendo fan in a positive light. You may not like quality games like Mass Effect, Doom, Fallout, Bloodborne, Dark Souls, Bulletstorm, Uncharted, Last of Us, God of War, Ratchet & Clank, Gears of War, Halo, Resistance, Sly Cooper, Jak & Daxter, Tekken, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, GTA, Tomb Raider, Elder Scrolls, Diablo, Resident Evil, etc., but don't act like there isn't anything of quality on those consoles or that you "can't guarantee games of quality" on those consoles. Both the XBO and PS4 have more highly rated games than the Wii U already. So where quality comes in, it's already there.
That you don't have any taste beyond Nintendo's Saturday Morning Cartoon style doesn't mean other consoles lack quality. It means either you lack knowledge, you lack the taste, or you lack the understanding. It has nothing to do with quality. To say so is to employ weasel words.
Re: Nintendo Hoping That Splatoon Will Tempt Lapsed Fans To Splash Out On A Wii U
@Ootfan98
Childish. What was your point? For once, at least try having one.
Re: Nintendo Hoping That Splatoon Will Tempt Lapsed Fans To Splash Out On A Wii U
@BLPs
_"The Wii U's end has already been forecasted"
Well...yes. I don't think you've ever said something so bone headed. Everything ends at some point, otherwise nothing would ever get started. I can guarantee Sony and Microsoft are also developing new hardware right now too._
You're completely missing his point. The Wii U has been on a downward trend since 2013, while the XBO and PS4 are constantly increasing. This is in everything--sales, number of announced games, games being released, etc.
The Wii U is already in its twilight. Much like the ill-fated N64 and GameCube, which saw dismal, nearly vacant final years with lengthy stretches with very few releases, the Wii U is there already. On the retail side, there is only a few sparse Nintendo games, and the occasional upcoming third party game for kids--which is just a port of the X360 version. Once publishers start scaling back or stopping the number of those games being made for X360 or PS3, the Wii U will have nothing... basically where it is now.
It's end was forecast the moment third parties walked away and Nintendo had nothing to fill the voids. Saying "oh, well everything ends, so whatever" is an incredibly lame avoidance of a valid point--surely you were aware of that? That's the equivalent of living in squalor because "every time you vacuum, more dust just falls on the floor later." 2015 is the last "good" year for the Wii U, and E3 this year will be showing us only what it has coming up in its final year. Sadly, none of which is likely to sell the console at this point, which is why I sincerely doubt Zelda U will see release on the console. I fully expect it to become Zelda NX.
Re: Nintendo Hoping That Splatoon Will Tempt Lapsed Fans To Splash Out On A Wii U
@MaseSco
Nintendo also previously handled Goldeney 007, Perfect Dark, and Geist. Shooters aren't exactly new to them.
Re: Nintendo Hoping That Splatoon Will Tempt Lapsed Fans To Splash Out On A Wii U
@rjejr
It's nice to see someone else that can follow statistics and observe Nintendo's continued downward trend and isn't afraid to address reality.
If you did this with the portable line, you'd see the exact same trend, remembering to lump Game Boy and GBC together as they were technically the same hardware, in the same way you'd lump DS and DSi together and 3DS and New 3DS.
Game Boy/GBC — 118.69 million
GBA/SP/Micro — 81.51 million
DS (anomaly) — 154 million
3DS — 52.06 million
And to note: The 3DS has been out for just as long as the relevance of the GBA--which was replaced at the 4-year mark, and largely discontinued one year later. Unless the 3DS somehow magically sells 30 million over the next year, it will end out it's cycle behind the GBA. Given that the 3DS has averaged about 13 million per year, I'd say it's going to fall well short.
Nintendo's relevance in this industry, even on the portable side, has been slipping since the NES, and the trend continues. The Wii and DS were fads, anomalies. And I think they gave Nintendo a false sense of success, which they promptly botched with the launches of the 3DS and Wii U.
Re: Nintendo Hoping That Splatoon Will Tempt Lapsed Fans To Splash Out On A Wii U
@Ootfan98
You could always be mature and take the response as a lack of "I don't live on this site" or "I didn't see your comment." But since you chose the childish route, it doesn't even deserve an answer.
Re: Nintendo Hoping That Splatoon Will Tempt Lapsed Fans To Splash Out On A Wii U
@Dr_Lugae
Did I say Nintendo had to copy Sony or Microsoft? No, I explained that their failure to modernize, failure to deliver elements consumers expect, and failure to remain competitive is what has made former fans lapse.
Nintendo does not offer technically powerful hardware.
Nintendo does not offer quality third party libraries.
Nintendo does not offer the extra features and elements of the XBO or PS4--the abundance of streaming services, for instance.
Nintendo does not offer a robust online service, and routinely downplays the importance of things like voice chat.
Nintendo does not offer robust user accounts.
Nintendo saddles the consoles with gimmicks that do not benefit the games. After all this time, the big innovations of the Wii amounted to "terrible waggle-based casual games." The GamePad has by and large amounted to "a smaller screen to play my TV-based game" or "a map" and not innovated or improved actual gaming.
Nintendo is not giving consumers or players what they want in a game console. They are throwing darts at a collage of gimmicks and hoping one makes them a lot of money.
It's not about "copying" Sony or Microsoft, it's about delivering modern concepts and features that consumers are looking for. The rest of your post is a straw man argument at best, or a red herring at worst. None of this has anything to do with Sony or MS being tech giants or anything to that effect. It has everything to do with Nintendo failing to understand the modern industry they once--in the increasingly distant past--helped create.
Re: Nintendo Hoping That Splatoon Will Tempt Lapsed Fans To Splash Out On A Wii U
@GammaNoises
Um, no, they deliver them. Which is why they have sales, and Nintendo does not.
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo's Modest Sales Targets Keep Wii U and 3DS Expectations Under Control
@TreonsRealm
The Dreamcast comparisons are only really apt in comparing sales. And the Wii U has still failed to outsell the Dreamcast, which is not a very positive sign. It has also been out longer than the Dreamcast.
Posting high sales numbers of Nintendo's games is silly. For one thing, they have no competition. There are no third party games or major AAA titles from anywhere else taking up shelf space anymore. I'd be more impressed if these games sold amid heavy competition. Instead, almost every single major Wii U title from Nintendo has launched alone, and been supported more out of the desperation of a drought than anything else.
The Wii U is Nintendo's Saturn or PS3--an embarrassing gaffe that flopped its way to market. Nintendo must now work to ensure that the NX becomes their PS4, or it will be their Dreamcast. The problem is, Sony clearly worked their asses off to right the stalled PS3 ship, and managed to do such a good job, the 3rd parties were totally back on board well before the PS4 launched.
Nintendo is not doing this.
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo's Modest Sales Targets Keep Wii U and 3DS Expectations Under Control
@ericwithcheese2
I'd like to just add to this:
Sales are also indicative of longevity and value. A PS4 costs only a hundred dollars more than the Wii U, and it clearly has a lot more longevity. It's going to be around for a long time, and that's very obvious--that means way more bang for the consumer's buck. Good sales means more games, good sales means a robust library, good sales means lower prices for games and hardware at a faster rate. Good sales means a better online with more people to play with.
We can love a console all we want, but at the end of the day, how much we love it is, almost no matter what, going to hinge heavily on sales. The Wii U is now poised to be the first Nintendo console without an original Zelda title. Sales are bad enough that it makes business sense to can Zelda U and turn it into Zelda NX and give the game a better chance on new hardware. Whether or not this actually happens is up in the air, but let's face reality: Nobody refers to Twilight Princess as a GameCube game. When they talk about that game, it's a Wii game.
Even Nintendo is very clearly winding down from the Wii U. E3 will hold some surprises, but they will also be the last major titles revealed for the console as next year's E3 will be heavily focused on selling NX because it is now way too late to turn the Wii U into a success. Nintendo showed that they're winding down in their last over-all Direct--it revealed no new games and focused extensively on cheap-to-develop elements to drag out some longevity: DLC for Mario Kart, DLC for other games, DLC for Smash Bros. Nintendo is taking the easiest possible route to simply keep players coming back to the Wii U while they very clearly are focusing internal efforts to the next hardware.
As I've noted before, Iwata very plainly stated that if the Wii sold below the GameCube, it would be considered a failure. The Wii U is selling well below the GameCube, and to add insult to injury, also led to Nintendo's first years of financial losses since getting into gaming. To Nintendo, this console is a festering carcass that they need to keep afloat just long enough to get the new machine out--and then they'll let it quickly sink out of sight and hope the industry forgets about this embarrassment.
This is precisely how Nintendo has operated in the past with hardware that under-performed. The N64, GBA, and GameCube were all given the ax the moment the replacement was out. The worse the system performed, the more vacant it's final years, and the faster Nintendo forgot about it when the new machine launched. Mark these words: When NX is out, Wii U will be completely dead, and frankly, I suspect it will be dead long before then, especially if Nintendo is stupid enough to wait until 2017 to release the thing.
The Wii U is already mirroring the vacant release schedule that marked the final year of the N64 and GameCube. Nintendo needs to get NX out next year.
Re: Nintendo Hoping That Splatoon Will Tempt Lapsed Fans To Splash Out On A Wii U
Lapsed fans haven't lapsed because of a lack of games like this (though I'm sure it's part of it), they've lapsed more because Nintendo consoles simply fail to offer the experiences that gamers have come to expect from game hardware, which MS and Sony both deliver. They've lapsed because they're sick of Nintendo's unnecessarily weaker hardware. They've lapsed because they're tired of gimmicks and nonsense being shoe-horned into the games.
Frankly, if Nintendo wanted to get back lapsed fans, the last thing they should've done was make a competitive team-based shooter, and then cut it off at the knees so the competitive aspect is crippled and communication is missing.
Re: Feature: The Poor Career Choice of Super Smash Bros. Professionals
If it doesn't actively make Nintendo money, or actively leave Nintendo in total control, then Nintendo doesn't want to do it. It's that simple.
And when Nintendo chooses to do things for total control and money--like their awful YouTube policies--they tend to damage both and turn people away from them.
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo's Modest Sales Targets Keep Wii U and 3DS Expectations Under Control
@Hotfusion
I feel the need to point out that your note on the "3DS covering any losses" is not accurate. The company as a whole saw nearly three years of notable losses--which means the 3DS did not cover those.
The 3DS is also Nintendo's lowest-selling portable (coming in shy of the GBA, which was replaced after 4 years), and also has many of the problems plaguing the Wii U: Lost 3rd party support, release schedule that is mostly vacant, and lower-than-expected sales.
Nintendo knows they aren't reaching new customers anymore. Why else was the New 3DS missing a charging cable? Because Nintendo knew they were just reselling these to the same people again. They are taking advantage of their fans.
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo's Modest Sales Targets Keep Wii U and 3DS Expectations Under Control
@justlink
Actually, that's exactly what Nintendo is doing--dropping support and rushing a new console. Sure, they're convincing legions of blindly devoted fans that "they're just following a standard pattern console releases," but the Wii and DS both broke out of that fabled 5-year-cycle, and the GBA was killed early, at the 4-year mark. The Wii U has no longevity, no matter how much some people may like it. It's time to face reality.
The only 3rd party games it's getting now are X360 ports of kids' games. Nintendo played their hand early with the NX, because they know the Wii U doesn't have any more steam left. Regardless of the surprises at E3 (one of which will likely be Retro's new title), none of these is going to turn the Wii U into a success, and it has still failed to even outsell the ill-fated Dreamcast, and the Wii U has been out longer.
If NX doesn't come out in late 2016, Nintendo is guaranteeing failure for the machine. The Wii U has never met it's sales projections, even when Nintendo drastically slashed those expectations. No matter what, it is no longer a winning endeavor.
Zelda U may very likely become Zelda NX. Twilight Princess was announced for the GameCube 3 years before it became a Wii launch title, when it was clear that releasing it late on the GC would yield no benefit to the game, the console, or the company as a whole.
At this point, the smartest move for Nintendo is to cut their losses and focus on NX, and that is exactly what they are doing. Nintendo very much appears to be moving toward a future where their portable games are on mobile, and the only hardware they focus on is something like NX. But the industry has been against Nintendo's annoying and ridiculous console concepts for generations, now. The Wii and DS were flukes. Nintendo has been selling less and less hardware with every new hardware iteration, with the exception of the Wii and DS, but outside of them, the downward trend continued--for both portable and console. Nintendo wants lightning in a bottle, but they do not plan for serious success. They want big sales to lots of people from temporary fads.
It's not working anymore. Nintendo fans frequently love to jump to an emotional reaction defending how much they love the Wii U and the GamePad and Nintendo's comically bad decision-making. You guys can do that all you want, that's fine. But at least recognize that the very things you are defending are symptoms of the things (or the things themselves) damaging this company and helping drive them to irrelevance.
Re: Video: Let's Remind Ourselves How Totally Radical The 1990 Nintendo World Championships Really Were
All of this stuff just reeks of "remember how great Nintendo used to be?" As if to distract us from how lame they tend to be now.
Re: Monochroma For Wii U Scrapped Due To Technical Issues
@GuySloth
I'm waiting for a couple Kickstarters I backed to be finished (one of them is Shantae), and of the projects that have been successful, they have pretty much all paid off. One was an Atari 2600 game--a former Atari engineer set to work to port Star Castle to the console after something like 30 years, when it was originally considered impossible. That was a really cool, and I have it at home.
People need to be smarter and not run their lives (and mouths) with thoughtless knee-jerk reactions and black-and-white sentiments towards things like Kickstarter. No matter where you're investing or donating money, there is always an element of risk. Being afraid of that is why people here--so readily dismissing Kickstarter--will never make money on the Stock Market. Because they seem to fear risk so completely. The smarter way to do this is to do your research and balance the risk vs reward and chances of success.
Re: Monochroma For Wii U Scrapped Due To Technical Issues
@whodatninja
This is hardly a "disaster," just some planning issues. I'd like to point out to all the usual Kickstarter naysayers/whiners: These kinds of things happen even with professional studios--an old-gen version getting dumped because of hardware/performance/technical/sales issues. It's not a big deal. Yes, it sucks if you were a backer hoping for a Wii U port, but it's not like this or any other non-Nintendo game was ever going to make a profit on Wii U at this point. But they are making up for it by offering PC versions, and pretty much everybody has a PC these days.
When anyone pulls the lazy, brainless "this is why I don't support Kickstarters" nonsense, they are only advertising their own gross ignorance of everything to do with Kickstarter. This is hardly a measure of "every other Kickstarter," nor is it the norm. This game is still coming out, it's still being released. It's just losing some platforms--exactly like any number of major third party games. Disappointing to only a few people, but the developer is keeping backers informed and being responsible.
Should they have planned ahead a bit better? Yes, planning can always be improved upon--but even the best plans cannot address every issue. Kickstarter is not risk-free. If you are only backing things that are risk-free, you are missing the point of Kickstarter, which is to support ideas and concepts that are, by and large, a bit risky because otherwise they'd be funded by major companies and publishers.
Not coming to Wii U? Not a big loss. Most of you weren't going to get it anyway.
Re: Video: Here Is The First Footage Of 90s Arcade Racer Running On The Wii U
Looks pretty damn good. I hope we get to see footage of an actual race (with other cars on the road) soon. And a release date.
Re: Newly Confirmed Guitar Hero Live Tracks Bring The Spandex And Poodle Perms
@rjejr
I'm sure your parents were thrilled by that sweet art.
Re: Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition Leads in Japan as 3DS Tops Hardware Sales
A surprising week for Nintendo. Seriously, Mario Kart 7? Really?
Re: Former Castlevania Producer Koji Igarashi's Kickstarter Launches, But Won't Come To Nintendo Consoles
@OnionOverlord
To quote: As if that isn't bad enough, your logic still makes no sense because you keep using outdated consoles that have long since been discontinued. Sega no longer does hardware, and there are no longer any Coleco systems in production.
I'm sorry, is the NES still in production? Is the SNES still in production? Are they still making Castlevania games on those?
Re: Former Castlevania Producer Koji Igarashi's Kickstarter Launches, But Won't Come To Nintendo Consoles
@brandonbwii
In this case, the "Nintendo fans don't support 3rd parties" was probably more of an afterthought by the team, if anything. More likely, they skipped Wii U and 3DS simply because those platforms cannot handle the Unreal 4 engine, and it just made more sense to focus on XBO, PS4, and Steam. But, knowing the poor way Nintendo fans have traditionally treated 3rd parties probably made the decision to skip the platforms easier. That noted, they need to be businessmen about this--making "all the fans happy" might sound good to you or Nintendo fans, but be realistic. How much extra would it cost to rebuild the game for Unreal 3 or another engine just so it runs on Wii U and 3DS versus how much they are likely to make off of those two systems? My bet is that the potential profit is not enough to warrant development on those two platforms.
The Wii U has terrible sales--Nintendo's own numbers revealed that it still has not even outsold the Dreamcast, despite being out for a longer period of time. The 3DS is sliding, and both systems are clearly already in decline, as can be measured by the number of games released per year, which has been decreasing for both platforms for a while already. Both the 3DS and Wii U peaked early and started their declines quickly. That is not a confidence booster for developers.
I get that you, on a purely emotional level, want the game out of some kind of "fairness," but the reality is that it's a lot of extra work that may ultimately be a waste of resources that incurs a financial loss. They have ample reasons to skip the Wii U, and really, if Nintendo fans wanted more games like this, they should have supported the games like this that did appear.
Re: Parent Trap: Splatoon Is The Perfect Family Firepower-Fest
@ikki5
I was thinking the same thing. This article almost makes it sound like there's modes in the game that we know aren't there. Like 4 players playing together on one machine.