6 ms·

nintendo's playbook: bet on withered technologies. which means their focus is only on gameplay mechanics, story and art direction. not focusing on bugs that ar

by dzonga 3y ago

nintendo's playbook: bet on withered technologies. which means their focus is only on gameplay mechanics, story and art direction. not focusing on bugs that are well not known cz of using something too new, expensive etc. not fancy graphics, or other modern fancy things - that don't really add anything to the game. wish the software industry would learn to bet on old technologies and develop novel experiences on those. not the current - move to the latest framework, hardware etc. while presenting shit.

dannyphantom 3y ago
> Mechanics, story and art direction Their [Nintendo] art-books are so cool - while a game-art-book isn’t necessarily unique to Nintendo I do appreciate the value in them being so well done and expansive. Don’t have the time to play Zelda sadly but the books have been a really neat thing to page through. As a kid, going to Barnes and Noble and grabbing the Emerald/Sapphire/Leaf Green official strategy book was, and still is, one of the coolest “books” I have.
- pallas_athena 3y ago
  Breath of the Wild's "Creating a Champion" [0] is hands-down the best artbook I have. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Breath_of_the_Wild_%E2%80%93_Creating_a_Champion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Breath_of...
speeder 3y ago
You are wrong there. Nintendo instead been always pushing the tech. The NES, SNES, N64 and GameCube were part of the "bits race" and kept pushing forward in hardware power. Mario 64 is credited along with Wing Commander for creating the AAA graphics race at all costs behavior in the industry. The Wii wasn't entirely a direction change, Nintendo felt competing on CPU power now was not interesting and went for motion controls, that later all other consoles imitated. Then we had the Wii U that tried to mix TV with handheld. Wii U kinda sucked so they just tried it again with the Switch and made it portable. This again is spawning clones (steam deck for example). I am not a Nintendo fan (I was on Sega camp during console wars and currently I prefer the Playstation) but Nintendo hardware always is impressive. PS4 and 5 for example are boring, just mostly normal x86 computers with custom OS.
- mcphage 3y ago
  > The NES, SNES, N64 and GameCube were part of the "bits race" and kept pushing forward in hardware power. The NES wasn't—it was an 8-bit machine in a time where 16-bit processors were available. I don't really know if the SNES pushed the envelope at all, but you're right that the N64 did.
  - zeta0134 3y ago
    The impressive part of the NES was its picture processing unit, which among other things finally delivered on an arcade-like experience at home and gained mass appeal in the process. For the time it was considered quite an advanced chip in its price range. The other extremely clever thing Nintendo did with the NES was to put the video bus on the cartridge, and this enabled them to expand the console's apparent capabilities by adding new features to game paks. This helped to keep the NES competitive in the market for many years.
    - SketchySeaBeast 3y ago
      > The other extremely clever thing Nintendo did with the NES was to put the video bus on the cartridge, and this enabled them to expand the console's apparent capabilities by adding new features to game paks. Can you imagine putting the video card in every copy of a game now? What a time that was.
      - michaelchisari 3y ago
        | Can you imagine putting the video card in every copy of a game now? I remember Star Fox (which included the SuperFX graphics chip on the cartridge) going for $90 on release in 1993. That's $188.95 in today's dollars.
  - mrguyorama 3y ago
    Well the Famicom came out several years before the NES, so it was a bit more competitive at that time.
  - 3y ago
AlwaysRock 3y ago
Weird take because of how much they have experimented with entire consoles in the past. I don't know how the Wii could be called betting on withered technologies.
- sharatvir 3y ago
  The wii is basically a slightly more powerful GameCube with novel controls. It competed with (and outsold) the ps3 and xbox360 which offered HD visuals and integrated online play.
  - byby 3y ago
    If you're a gamer though you know there were problems with the console. The appeal was to a very casual audience and that's why it sold well.
    - p0pcult 3y ago
      No true gamer fallacy
      - byby 3y ago
        Hmm maybe it's a bad term. I was trying to convey the fact that gamers that enjoy something like fallout or Diablo or Mass effect or RDR2, those types of gamers lose out when they lock themselves onto nintendo. I for one like every genre but I find it unfortunate nintendo has a wierd focus on casual age friendly games.
        AlwaysRock 3y ago
        The Wii is the 8th best selling console of all time (if you count the Game Boy, Switch, and DS as consoles) and the 4th if you don't. Almost any gamer who has played a fallout, diablo, mass effect or RD game also owned a wii.
    - gameman144 3y ago
spaceman_2020 3y ago
Always blows my mind when I see the install size for Nintendo games. Super Mario Odyssey was under 6GB. That’s smaller than the patch size of most games.
za3faran 3y ago
Not so dissimilar from Toyota then eh? :)
philistine 3y ago
The withered technologies idea was Gunpei Yokoi’s vision for development, explained in these terms after he had left Nintendo. Yokoi has been dead 25 years at this point, and more recent strategies, like the Blue Sea idea, have a far more influential impact on Nintendo’s design ethos.

by dzonga 3y ago

dannyphantom 3y ago

> Mechanics, story and art direction Their [Nintendo] art-books are so cool - while a game-art-book isn’t necessarily unique to Nintendo I do appreciate the value in them being so well done and expansive. Don’t have the time to play Zelda sadly but the books have been a really neat thing to page through. As a kid, going to Barnes and Noble and grabbing the Emerald/Sapphire/Leaf Green official strategy book was, and still is, one of the coolest “books” I have.

pallas_athena 3y ago
Breath of the Wild's "Creating a Champion" [0] is hands-down the best artbook I have. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Breath_of_the_Wild_%E2%80%93_Creating_a_Champion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Breath_of...

speeder 3y ago

You are wrong there. Nintendo instead been always pushing the tech. The NES, SNES, N64 and GameCube were part of the "bits race" and kept pushing forward in hardware power. Mario 64 is credited along with Wing Commander for creating the AAA graphics race at all costs behavior in the industry. The Wii wasn't entirely a direction change, Nintendo felt competing on CPU power now was not interesting and went for motion controls, that later all other consoles imitated. Then we had the Wii U that tried to mix TV with handheld. Wii U kinda sucked so they just tried it again with the Switch and made it portable. This again is spawning clones (steam deck for example). I am not a Nintendo fan (I was on Sega camp during console wars and currently I prefer the Playstation) but Nintendo hardware always is impressive. PS4 and 5 for example are boring, just mostly normal x86 computers with custom OS.

mcphage 3y ago
> The NES, SNES, N64 and GameCube were part of the "bits race" and kept pushing forward in hardware power. The NES wasn't—it was an 8-bit machine in a time where 16-bit processors were available. I don't really know if the SNES pushed the envelope at all, but you're right that the N64 did.
- zeta0134 3y ago
  The impressive part of the NES was its picture processing unit, which among other things finally delivered on an arcade-like experience at home and gained mass appeal in the process. For the time it was considered quite an advanced chip in its price range. The other extremely clever thing Nintendo did with the NES was to put the video bus on the cartridge, and this enabled them to expand the console's apparent capabilities by adding new features to game paks. This helped to keep the NES competitive in the market for many years.
  - SketchySeaBeast 3y ago
    > The other extremely clever thing Nintendo did with the NES was to put the video bus on the cartridge, and this enabled them to expand the console's apparent capabilities by adding new features to game paks. Can you imagine putting the video card in every copy of a game now? What a time that was.
    - michaelchisari 3y ago
      | Can you imagine putting the video card in every copy of a game now? I remember Star Fox (which included the SuperFX graphics chip on the cartridge) going for $90 on release in 1993. That's $188.95 in today's dollars.
- mrguyorama 3y ago
  Well the Famicom came out several years before the NES, so it was a bit more competitive at that time.
- 3y ago

AlwaysRock 3y ago

Weird take because of how much they have experimented with entire consoles in the past. I don't know how the Wii could be called betting on withered technologies.

sharatvir 3y ago
The wii is basically a slightly more powerful GameCube with novel controls. It competed with (and outsold) the ps3 and xbox360 which offered HD visuals and integrated online play.
- byby 3y ago
  If you're a gamer though you know there were problems with the console. The appeal was to a very casual audience and that's why it sold well.
  - p0pcult 3y ago
    No true gamer fallacy
    - byby 3y ago
      Hmm maybe it's a bad term. I was trying to convey the fact that gamers that enjoy something like fallout or Diablo or Mass effect or RDR2, those types of gamers lose out when they lock themselves onto nintendo. I for one like every genre but I find it unfortunate nintendo has a wierd focus on casual age friendly games.
      - AlwaysRock 3y ago
        The Wii is the 8th best selling console of all time (if you count the Game Boy, Switch, and DS as consoles) and the 4th if you don't. Almost any gamer who has played a fallout, diablo, mass effect or RD game also owned a wii.
  - gameman144 3y ago

spaceman_2020 3y ago

Always blows my mind when I see the install size for Nintendo games. Super Mario Odyssey was under 6GB. That’s smaller than the patch size of most games.

za3faran 3y ago

Not so dissimilar from Toyota then eh? :)

philistine 3y ago

The withered technologies idea was Gunpei Yokoi’s vision for development, explained in these terms after he had left Nintendo. Yokoi has been dead 25 years at this point, and more recent strategies, like the Blue Sea idea, have a far more influential impact on Nintendo’s design ethos.