maulinks

This looks like generic Unreal Engine layouts on Sonic, basically every squeal for "next gen graphics" that people complain for materialized.

To me it feels like there is almost no art direction or connection to the iconic Sonic art-style whatsoever... I don't like this at all... but maybe the gameplay will make up for it

But I have a strong feeling that if I buy this, I'll get bored in 1 hour

Nintendo knows its culture and core business is related to innovation. It was since the NES era. It doesn't make sense to have an innovative mindset while going around comparing and copying others. When they avoid comparisons, they aim to be not influenced by current standards.

While I understand that many people complain about nintendo IP not having better graphics, do we really need another developer making The Last of Us, GTA, Call of Duty-esque games?

Would the Wii or the Switch exist if Nintendo wasn't like that?

It takes a lot of courage to have the positioning they have, they see looking for copying and comparing yourself to others as the easy way out. They want the blue ocean strategy where nobody competes, instead of navigating the red sea of bloody competition of games and hardware that deliver almost the same things.

@abdias that makes sense... I wonder what is the share of players that become "DLC users", but their average spending must be high and compensate for everyone else (for example only 10% spend on DLC, but theri spending is high enough...)

I'm just curious over here, not criticizing the sales numbers or anything, but for PC games with these characteristics maybe "total unit sales" is not a very good indicator for success

When a console third party game sells "12 million copies" it is a better indicator of success (although not a lot, as these games tend to be discounted frequently).

When a Nintendo first party game sells "12 million copies", that success is crystal clear as these games are rarely discounted, and these discounts rarely go over 30%.

With the type of PC game you mentioned, the game on average is very cheap... is 12 million copies success? Is there a relevant base purchasing DLC...? Announcing this 12 million feels more like marketing... if they were very secure of success, they would have announced revenue numbers.

It leaves me wondering... what is the average selling price? These games usually are on sale all the time... number of units sold are impressive but I wonder what is the revenue that these titles that are frequently on sale actually generate.

"Former NoA boss" oh, you mean Reggie "My body is ready" Fils-Aime, aka THE REGGINATOR?

I get it but I was kind of saddened that reggie became just "former NoA boss"

I'm gonna wait and see for this one. Looks don't mean anything to me, Horizon Zero Dawn is one of the most beautiful games I have ever seen, but I also think it is one of the most boring and not fun games ever.

Hopefully they will be right and the game is very fun, there is some positive feedback from people who played. I mean I'm a Sonic fan, I hope its good.

But yeah, that frasing of "fans don't understand it" could have been better

@gcunit also currently in Brazil the PS4, xbox and switch are huge successes, specially PS4. PS4 is considerably more expensive than PS2 was, the same holding true for games. And pirate games are basically almost no longer available on a widespread basis.

So yes, not saying all, but a lot of those people would have bought a PS2 back then, which holds specially true considering we are in a crisis since 2015 (during ps4 generation), but we were 6th largest GDP in the world by the end of the 2000s (during PS2 and PS3 era).

I'm talking about rich and middle class people, all owning pirated PS2s back then. I was middle class, owned a pirated PS2. I didn't know a single person who owned a "PS2 bloqueado" (that's what we called a blocked, non-pirateable PS2). If you did you would be considered an idiot.

@Nintendo_Dandy I don't know in what sense you're using the word "superfluous", but if it is the correct sense, you're just being offensive. Sorry but I'm reporting you.

Also, Brazil had the 6th largest GDP in the world in the 2000s decade, so be careful with your assumptions. Not being US or Europe does not mean a majority of population of poor people.

@gcunit this means a good deal for the hardware manufacturer but not for the software developers.

PS2 was a huge success, but for the beggining of the next generation, considerable third gen support shifted to xbox 360 also for this reason (among other reasons like coming earlier, being cheaper).

@gcunit Yes it is. If pirated software and hardware surpass a certain threshold, you educate the customer it doesn't make sense to buy games, if they're free.

Here in Brazil in the Ps2 era, hacked versions of ps2 were essentially the norm, over 80% of the ps2s sold were hacked versions and over 95% of software sold was a pirate copy. There were huge markets in the streets for fake ps2 games. Anyone who had an original ps2 and payed full price for their games was considered an idiot.

All of that to huge losses to sony and developers.

Xbox has sold 200k units. That's impressive, as crazy as that sounds.

@mr-duster Ah fair enough, that does make sense.

They seem more natural on the blue legendary though, on the red one it really does look like a wheel was pushed into his neck.

Oh my god the image you guys chose for What remains of edith finch

Why do the legendaries have wheels on their chests? There's no way anyone can look at the red one and not think that's a wheel

But I guess we have chandelier and keys pokemons, so maybe its not that weird

That first line in the article, god I love some british-style humour. Cheers from Brazil!

How can they possibly know these numbers? Unless they are specific to online play, I feel like its almost impossible to estimate these.

This is a good example of strategic positioning. Nintendo plays to its strengths and understands their IP well, choosing to allocate their resources to maximize that.

One of the most obvious traps in terms of implementing a strategy is doing things, investing and allocating resources, just because the competition does it and regardless of their own strategic positioning. Nintendo of Japan seems to know this well.

@UltimateOtaku91 Splatoon probably needed more development time than Xenoblade, hence why they changed the launch order of these two games.

If workers of contractors are complaning about the treatment they receive when working to a CLIENT, they need to complain upwards, that is, to their bosses within the contractor, which is the company they actually work for, not vertically, that is, to their client.

The contractor has an obligation to provide services as promised within a contract - if that leads to worklife balance issues, that is an issue WITHIN the contractor.

However, many companies develop policies to avoid contracting abusive contractors and incentivizing good work policies within the value chain, for social and ISG related reasons. Nintendo needs to follow on their own policy regarding contractors, whatever that is.

As many people pointed out, all of this is regarding Nintendo of America, where "the court of public opinion" is a culture aspect on its own (western markets, north and latin america). Nintendo is a conglomerate contains Nintendo of Japan, Nintendo of Europe and Nintendo of America, as well as other subsidiaries.

Question: "game revenues" means just software? or software + hardware?

This is interesting, although I wished there was some type trend analysis, mainly how was the growth yoy.

I'm also guessing Pokemon Go is not here, as it is not a Nintendo game.

I like this, the selection thinks of gaming in general, not the magic bubble of AAA titles only.

Not gonna lie, the typo in the headline is killing me lol

I'm super excited for this, I'll buy it once I finish Xenoblade 1

I'm just here to say that I'm crazy hyped for this. Carry on.

@HenHiro that's true for nearly every non single player game

Reggie is a phenomenal executive

Very excited about this one. The first one is cheesy at times, but the overarching story was brilliantly constructed, even taking to account how convoluted these anime VNs usually are.

I like that they will improve Psync, but there will also be investigation elements... I love phoenix wright style investigations

If the story is crazy, I'm in

So if you add something, the number of people considering the service increases?? How groundbreaking

Wow, Elden Ring sold nothing in Japan

First game was fantastic - I was expecting something light and fun like Phoenix Wright but more "anime tropey". But the outcome at least for me was that the story was jaw dropping

METROID PRIME 4 PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@Freek oh my god what hateful pers... oh. well done sir

@Zeropulse They are incredible! And thanks for the recommendation for the Netflix show, I watched the Parking Lot Wedding episode...

I'm blown away, how are they capable of building 50 minutes of comedy out of a 3 minute conversation? Improvisers are incredible - Gonna watch the other episodes!

@AstroTheGamosian he was actually there many times! I recommend the episode where they play Quiplash online, it's based on improv so it's very funny

@Zeropulse there's an episode of Game Grumps during the height of the pandemic where they play Quiplash online with Schwartz and Middleditch, they did mention their show on Netflix but I never got around to seeing it, I'll check it out!

I highly recommend that episode of game grumps, it's hilarious

I have seen Ben Schwartz in Parks and Recreation and in Game Grumps, he's an awesome dude!

God I love these tweets.

@Zeldawakening these games have completely different costs and development time, their sales are not comparable.

A game that sells less can be more profitable than a game that sells much more.

The underlining thing here is simple: Smash Bros is not a free to play online game, whose success is driven by online community engagement.

Smash success is driven by retail sales, and the broader community that supports it is decentralized. It is, as many people said here, driven by the moms and dads, casual players. That is fine, and Nintendo understands this very well.

I also think Nintendo understands very well the risks of supporting an online community of a game whose base form of play is not online.

The streamers of smash are basically looking at their neighbours League of Legends, Valorant, etc., and demanding equal treatment. They fail to understand that Smash was not made to be driven by online streamer engagement.

@Diogmites this comment lol

I didn't understand this article - isn't Steins Gate Elite available on Switch since 2019?

Terra's theme from FFVI is on another level - to me best JRPG song ever, it's timeless

That does make sense, given Nintendo's culture of protecting their IP

Ah yes, the never ending quest of the japanese in releasing every type of game imaginable, but with school girls dressed in french maid outfits.

@Max_the_German those are all valid points, the xbox always did laughable numbers in Japan, in this generation there is clear improvement. If I recall correctly, the current Xbox generation outsold lifetime sales of Xbox One in the first week. They are certainly breaking into the market a little bit better.

However, both Xbox and PS5, are very far away from Nintendo. The OLED version of the switch alone is about to outsell the PS5.

@The-Chosen-one I gotta say I also imagined a giant titan-like snorlax in my mind, as the leading entity over the bionis and the aegises hahah but I tried to restrain myself

Flute wakes up Snorlax

@Lord Considering this is Japan only, it is insanely high by every standard

Very excited for this!!!