3 ms·

>Particularly in light of all that promise and potential that was squandered (or possibly illusory) in the Wii's original incarnation. ...the what? What exact

by scythe 15y ago

>Particularly in light of all that promise and potential that was squandered (or possibly illusory) in the Wii's original incarnation. ...the what? What exactly was squandered in the Wii's original incarnation? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii >As of June 2011, the Wii leads the generation over the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in worldwide sales,[7] and in December 2009 broke the record for best-selling console in a single month in the United States. What more could you possibly want? >When I saw the controller, my first thought was "$500". Probably not. Nintendo has never launched a console at $500. The Wii was noted for being cheap, and I really, really doubt they'd launch this without being able to make it at a similar price point to their previous offerings. >Sure, the Wii U looks impressive. But no Blu-Ray or DVD support? Really? I sure as hell hope not! ...okay, maybe not that emphatically. Still, there's a Blu-Ray player built into my TV, and as far as I can tell that's becoming common. I don't need a peripheral to do that for me, and I certainly don't want them to tack on an extra $50 for a capability I already have. Besides, who uses DVDs anymore? It's all about Netflix. >As Microsoft and Sony move ever closer to evolving into that mythological set-top box that does it all, how do you justify buying a presumably expensive console that does just one thing anymore? Because I don't want a set-top box that does it all. It's bad enough (but acceptable) that video games are closed-source; hopefully my media doesn't have to be the same way. >Mario and Zelda brands no longer sell systems in the long term when the competition is so stiff, ...alright, my Zelda fanboy is showing, but Skyward Sword is probably going to make me shell out for a console and I haven't bought one in a decade (I habitually use my friends' consoles, though). >They know this, which is why they bend over backwards to assure everyone that they have the support of firms like EA, Activision, THQ, and Ubisoft. But when you're releasing behind-the-times hardware that has features and peripherals completely different than competing platforms, it makes the prospect- and return on investment- of developing much riskier. This I agree with, but on a slightly different point than the author. Last I checked it wasn't close to easy to get a license to develop games for the Wii or 3DS. You have be a big company to afford a site license for the dev kit and you need specialized hardware to load your stuff onto the system. Nintendo doesn't need EA and Ubisoft; for one thing, EA sucks. Nintendo really needs to open up to independent developers. This is where Microsoft really shined with the Xbox ecosystem, obviously bringing some of their desktop expertise to gaming. Forget weirdness worries -- indie devs love developing for unique hardware and odd platforms. Independent game developers thrive on the iPhone App Store. They also built the Facebook application ecosystem. By contrast, large, established firms shy away from developing for unique hardware, because of the uncertainty involved. The proper strategic direction for Nintendo is to stop chasing EA and learn to open up to independent game developers. Even Apple, the infamously elitist company's infamously elitist company, has figured that out. Incidentally, as one other commenter has pointed out, Apple and Google via iOS and Android seem to pose more of a threat to Nintendo than do Microsoft and Sony. Nintendo had an unshakeable stranglehold on the handheld gaming market until the iPhone came along.

T-R 15y ago
I wholly agree with you, though I think what he may have meant by "squandered potential" was their decision to target their marketing (and many of their first party titles) at more casual gamers, seemingly abandoning their core audience.
- mdg 15y ago
  I interpreted "squandered potential" to the motion-based controls being relegated to cliche or uninspired gameplay.
  - T-R 15y ago
    Good point. There was an absolute dearth of games where mouse-like control would make sense, which is what the controller was actually good at. A few mediocre FPSs, a port of Pikmin, and I don't even remember any Tactical RPGs or RTS games.
9999 15y ago
For people with a limited budget, a Nintendo console does need to do it all to be the one stop set top box entertainment shop. Their omission of DVD playback on the Wii (to save money on licensing, the hardware is perfectly capable of doing it) was a pretty bad move for them. The one encouraging thing I've heard out of Nintendo Japan was the vision for the Wii U as something that you always have on, that you constantly go to while you're at home, and the controller with the screen facilitates that. Some interesting things could come out of that. Unfortunately, I just don't think the hardware is up to snuff for that kind of usage. I played with the Wii U controller at E3, and it is unfortunately not going to be particularly useful for doing much other than playing games. It has a big ridge across the back, which makes it somewhat more pleasant to hold horizontally when you're using the game controls, but makes it totally useless and uncomfortable for holding vertically, which is how most people would want to hold it if they were surfing the web. It also just feels cheap and low grade. I completely agree with what you said about appealing to indie developers, but that strongly clashes with Nintendo's corporate culture. In general, Nintendo's business practices and overall philosophy are laughably outdated by international business standards. Nintendo Japan is the only entity with any power or control over products at all, every other entity is just a glorified marketing arm for NOJ. Reggie Fils-Aime and the other apes over at NOA have no say whatsoever when it comes to long term strategy or product development. You're also spot on when it comes to the smartphone threat against Nintendo. During the lean years of the N64 and Gamecube, Nintendo could fall back on the huge success of the Gameboy, GBA, and DS, but that market will be almost completely eroded by smartphones in the next few years. It's a good time to short Nintendo.

by scythe 15y ago

T-R 15y ago

I wholly agree with you, though I think what he may have meant by "squandered potential" was their decision to target their marketing (and many of their first party titles) at more casual gamers, seemingly abandoning their core audience.

mdg 15y ago
I interpreted "squandered potential" to the motion-based controls being relegated to cliche or uninspired gameplay.
- T-R 15y ago
  Good point. There was an absolute dearth of games where mouse-like control would make sense, which is what the controller was actually good at. A few mediocre FPSs, a port of Pikmin, and I don't even remember any Tactical RPGs or RTS games.

9999 15y ago

For people with a limited budget, a Nintendo console does need to do it all to be the one stop set top box entertainment shop. Their omission of DVD playback on the Wii (to save money on licensing, the hardware is perfectly capable of doing it) was a pretty bad move for them. The one encouraging thing I've heard out of Nintendo Japan was the vision for the Wii U as something that you always have on, that you constantly go to while you're at home, and the controller with the screen facilitates that. Some interesting things could come out of that. Unfortunately, I just don't think the hardware is up to snuff for that kind of usage. I played with the Wii U controller at E3, and it is unfortunately not going to be particularly useful for doing much other than playing games. It has a big ridge across the back, which makes it somewhat more pleasant to hold horizontally when you're using the game controls, but makes it totally useless and uncomfortable for holding vertically, which is how most people would want to hold it if they were surfing the web. It also just feels cheap and low grade. I completely agree with what you said about appealing to indie developers, but that strongly clashes with Nintendo's corporate culture. In general, Nintendo's business practices and overall philosophy are laughably outdated by international business standards. Nintendo Japan is the only entity with any power or control over products at all, every other entity is just a glorified marketing arm for NOJ. Reggie Fils-Aime and the other apes over at NOA have no say whatsoever when it comes to long term strategy or product development. You're also spot on when it comes to the smartphone threat against Nintendo. During the lean years of the N64 and Gamecube, Nintendo could fall back on the huge success of the Gameboy, GBA, and DS, but that market will be almost completely eroded by smartphones in the next few years. It's a good time to short Nintendo.