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Oh Nintendo. You used to be so fun and innovative. But now, it seems you can't make anything newsworthy anymore. (Or when you end up in the news, it's because

Oh Nintendo. You used to be so fun and innovative. But now, it seems you can't make anything newsworthy anymore. (Or when you end up in the news, it's because of some silly takedown like this one.)

sebkomianos 13y ago
C'mon man, if there is one innovative video games company it's Nintendo. At least in that scale. I agree with @kamjam that it would have been great if Ninty put it on their site but I didn't have the expectation from them to let anyone use their whole game.
- sillysaurus2 13y ago
  What innovative things has Nintendo been doing besides the Wii? Nintendo is the opposite of innovative when compared to Valve. EDIT: Hmm, I've touched a nerve. Good. When proponents of Nintendo need to resort to "They invented the thumbstick" as an example of their innovation, it becomes obvious that they're not innovating in modern times, else it would be easy to give examples. Nintendo has no recent innovations when compared to other game companies. (The Wii isn't recent, and the WiiU is dead.)
  - sebkomianos 13y ago
    The DS and the Wii were two innovations pretty close to each other. We are only one generation after them and they are obviously still monetising on them while they are trying small things. It's not like companies innovate every other week. Valve is not at Nintendo's (or Sony's or Microsoft's, for that matter) scale.
    - sillysaurus2 13y ago
      Valve is not at Nintendo's (or Sony's or Microsoft's, for that matter) scale. For consoles, they're about to be. http://www.joystiq.com/2013/09/27/recap-valves-trio-of-steam-box-announcements/ http://www.joystiq.com/2013/09/27/recap-valves-trio-of-steam... For PC gaming, Valve is the gorilla. No one else comes close.
      - sebkomianos 13y ago
        As much as I'd like Valve to be successful, Nintendo has been in the video games industry since 1974 and is the oldest video games company alive. One is not simply "about to be" like them with an announcement.
        chinpokomon 13y ago
        It is easy to fall from that perch, just ask Atari or Sega. It is just as easy for some other party, such as Sony or Microsoft to claim the crown. Valve has every chance to change things as much as Ouya. Unfortunately, but like everyone else, they don't control their destiny -- the consumers do. Consumers don't always pick the best or the most innovative technology as the winner. Only time will tell.
        sebkomianos 13y ago
        You can't say "Nintendo will fall because Atari and Sega have both felt" because, well, Nintendo hasn't felt yet, unlike the other two. Nintendo is still here, dominating the handheld market and defining the consoles one. Only time will tell, sure. But until Valve or Ouya or any other company actually achieve something that big, they are just newcomers.
  - modeless 13y ago
    You can't arbitrarily exclude their biggest innovation and then claim they're not innovative. The Wii was revolutionary. The DS was also huge. Remember, it had a touchscreen and came out three years before the iPhone. Everyone thought dual screens was a crazy idea. The 3DS remains a crazy idea that hasn't worked out as well as one might hope, but you can't say it's not innovative. Nintendo's efforts on the N64 are also often underestimated. They invented the modern analog thumbstick. Also, Mario 64 was an incredible achievement that has influenced game design ever since.
  - onebaddude 13y ago
    >What innovative things has Nintendo been doing besides the Wii? Are you joking? Making a PC that hooks up to your living room television is a good idea, but doesn't scream "innovative" to me. Valve is, just now, trying to do what Nintendo has been doing, successfully, for almost half a century. In the annals of gaming, Valve has a long way to go to catch up to Nintendo.
  - jrs99 13y ago
    in terms of hardware what has valve done? Make an awesome controller which is still an iteration of today's generation of controllers? Yeah, they have things in the pipeline, but some of those may fail, like virtual boy. Or they may be successful. But, to say valve is innovative and nintendo is not is just saying something bizarre.
  - Keyframe 13y ago
    What innovative things has Nintendo been doing besides the Wii? Of top of my head and I am sure there are plenty more. - D-Pad (1982 on donkey kong) - L-R buttons on SNES - redefining handheld console as we know it today (gameboy) - Analog stick on a joypad (N64 had it first) - Rumble actuator on a joypad (N64 had it first) - revitalization of game and game console market with NES - Touch screen interface on handheld consoles with dual screen (before iphone) - portable handheld console with 3D without glasses - 'portable' 3d console (virtual boy) - (re)defining 2d platformer genre as we know it today - (re)defining 3d platformer genre as we know it today (N64 super mario) - vast collection of super brands of games and characters - Wii and that whole thing with motion controller - Wii U with separate screen on a controller .... many many more So, what has Valve done exactly? They created a marketplace for games which has revitalized PC gaming (debatable on revitalized - more like set direction) and several popular games. Don't get me wrong, Valve is successful and likable company now (remember when everybody hated Steam?). They are just not in the same category with Nintendo as far as innovation goes, not technically nor creatively. Maybe some day they will be, but they are definitely not there yet.
    - sillysaurus2 13y ago
      This feels bizarre. Maybe HNers don't actually play videogames? The Wii U is dead. It completely flopped. The original Wii may as well be ancient, in terms of game industry time. Nintendo was innovative. But they haven't been for awhile. When they have to resort to lawyering their fans, it's a bad omen. And they don't seem to have anything else up their sleeve right now, as Yahtzee elucidates: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/7417-Next-Gen-Buyers-Guide?hq=1 http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation... It's interesting that most people aren't recognizing what Valve's controller represents. The future of console gaming is Valve. I'll be happy to refer back to this comment in five years. Shall we bet $10?
      - sebkomianos 13y ago
        I am pretty sure you'd have said the same "Nintendo used to be but is not anymore" thing during the GameCube ages. We all know what happened after that. Regarding Valve, its controller may or may not represent a lot of things. But until it defines at least one generation, we can't say anything. Other than that, what have we seen from them that is so innovative? EDIT: Also, "resort to lawyering"? It's not like they are suing the guy. They are just politely letting him know that what he is doing is illegal.
- Frozenlock 13y ago
  I said fun and innovative. Believe me, I wanted to love Nintendo after the Gamecube. NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, GBA, DS... I loved them all. But after that, somewhere along the way, it seems Nintendo lost its unique flavor and started to look like a pale copy of what it once was. I'm not trying to defend the guy who coded a Mario Bros. clone (in fact, I couldn't care less...). I'm rather pointing out how saddened I am by the fact that the only instances where I hear about Nintendo now are for silly disputes like these.
  - sebkomianos 13y ago
    A lot of Nintendo's latest games are fun, have you played Super Mario recently?
gdubs 13y ago
Nintendo's entire business was built on hyper-strict intellectual property constraints.
- dragontamer 13y ago
  In particular, Trademark law that allows Nintendo to protect their brand and image. If you haven't noticed, Nintendo's brands (Mario, Zelda, Pokemon...) are its most powerful asset. People are not allowed to make money off of other people's brands. And that is a good thing. It goes beyond just "copyright" law, but towards "Trademark" law as well. Protecting your brand image is the absolute cornerstone of relationship building between a company and their customers.
- chilldream 13y ago
  And furthermore they've always been unusually aggressive in protecting what they perceive/claim to be their IP rights. They tried to sue rentals stores and Game Genies out of existence even before the Super Nintendo was a thing.
camus2 13y ago
> Oh Nintendo. You used to be so fun and innovative. Nintendo defends its estate all the time. Just because it is targetting a so called "cool developer" doesnt make them "evil" or whaterver. Trademark/copyright holders have the duty to fight trademark/copyright violations. Being cool or not is not the point. Want to be cool? Create something new instead of just copying someone else work for a quick buck. Be creative instread of sucking other people's creativity.
- Frozenlock 13y ago
  > Want to be cool? Create something new instead of just copying someone else work for a quick buck. Be creative instread of sucking other people's creativity. Who wants to be cool here? The guy who replicates a game everyone knows he didn't create, or the lawyers trying to 'defend the company's assets' by making sure a game released in 1985 isn't playable on the Internet?
  - camus2 13y ago
    > Who wants to be cool here? the guy who says something is open when it is not and rips off copyrighted assets. hmm? openmario...yeah right. > a game released in 1985 yeah like it changes anything.

Oh Nintendo. You used to be so fun and innovative. But now, it seems you can't make anything newsworthy anymore. (Or when you end up in the news, it's because of some silly takedown like this one.)

sebkomianos 13y ago

C'mon man, if there is one innovative video games company it's Nintendo. At least in that scale. I agree with @kamjam that it would have been great if Ninty put it on their site but I didn't have the expectation from them to let anyone use their whole game.

sillysaurus2 13y ago
What innovative things has Nintendo been doing besides the Wii? Nintendo is the opposite of innovative when compared to Valve. EDIT: Hmm, I've touched a nerve. Good. When proponents of Nintendo need to resort to "They invented the thumbstick" as an example of their innovation, it becomes obvious that they're not innovating in modern times, else it would be easy to give examples. Nintendo has no recent innovations when compared to other game companies. (The Wii isn't recent, and the WiiU is dead.)
- sebkomianos 13y ago
  The DS and the Wii were two innovations pretty close to each other. We are only one generation after them and they are obviously still monetising on them while they are trying small things. It's not like companies innovate every other week. Valve is not at Nintendo's (or Sony's or Microsoft's, for that matter) scale.
  - sillysaurus2 13y ago
    Valve is not at Nintendo's (or Sony's or Microsoft's, for that matter) scale. For consoles, they're about to be. http://www.joystiq.com/2013/09/27/recap-valves-trio-of-steam-box-announcements/ http://www.joystiq.com/2013/09/27/recap-valves-trio-of-steam... For PC gaming, Valve is the gorilla. No one else comes close.
    - sebkomianos 13y ago
      As much as I'd like Valve to be successful, Nintendo has been in the video games industry since 1974 and is the oldest video games company alive. One is not simply "about to be" like them with an announcement.
      - chinpokomon 13y ago
        It is easy to fall from that perch, just ask Atari or Sega. It is just as easy for some other party, such as Sony or Microsoft to claim the crown. Valve has every chance to change things as much as Ouya. Unfortunately, but like everyone else, they don't control their destiny -- the consumers do. Consumers don't always pick the best or the most innovative technology as the winner. Only time will tell.
        sebkomianos 13y ago
        You can't say "Nintendo will fall because Atari and Sega have both felt" because, well, Nintendo hasn't felt yet, unlike the other two. Nintendo is still here, dominating the handheld market and defining the consoles one. Only time will tell, sure. But until Valve or Ouya or any other company actually achieve something that big, they are just newcomers.
- modeless 13y ago
  You can't arbitrarily exclude their biggest innovation and then claim they're not innovative. The Wii was revolutionary. The DS was also huge. Remember, it had a touchscreen and came out three years before the iPhone. Everyone thought dual screens was a crazy idea. The 3DS remains a crazy idea that hasn't worked out as well as one might hope, but you can't say it's not innovative. Nintendo's efforts on the N64 are also often underestimated. They invented the modern analog thumbstick. Also, Mario 64 was an incredible achievement that has influenced game design ever since.
- onebaddude 13y ago
  >What innovative things has Nintendo been doing besides the Wii? Are you joking? Making a PC that hooks up to your living room television is a good idea, but doesn't scream "innovative" to me. Valve is, just now, trying to do what Nintendo has been doing, successfully, for almost half a century. In the annals of gaming, Valve has a long way to go to catch up to Nintendo.
- jrs99 13y ago
  in terms of hardware what has valve done? Make an awesome controller which is still an iteration of today's generation of controllers? Yeah, they have things in the pipeline, but some of those may fail, like virtual boy. Or they may be successful. But, to say valve is innovative and nintendo is not is just saying something bizarre.
- Keyframe 13y ago
  What innovative things has Nintendo been doing besides the Wii? Of top of my head and I am sure there are plenty more. - D-Pad (1982 on donkey kong) - L-R buttons on SNES - redefining handheld console as we know it today (gameboy) - Analog stick on a joypad (N64 had it first) - Rumble actuator on a joypad (N64 had it first) - revitalization of game and game console market with NES - Touch screen interface on handheld consoles with dual screen (before iphone) - portable handheld console with 3D without glasses - 'portable' 3d console (virtual boy) - (re)defining 2d platformer genre as we know it today - (re)defining 3d platformer genre as we know it today (N64 super mario) - vast collection of super brands of games and characters - Wii and that whole thing with motion controller - Wii U with separate screen on a controller .... many many more So, what has Valve done exactly? They created a marketplace for games which has revitalized PC gaming (debatable on revitalized - more like set direction) and several popular games. Don't get me wrong, Valve is successful and likable company now (remember when everybody hated Steam?). They are just not in the same category with Nintendo as far as innovation goes, not technically nor creatively. Maybe some day they will be, but they are definitely not there yet.
  - sillysaurus2 13y ago
    This feels bizarre. Maybe HNers don't actually play videogames? The Wii U is dead. It completely flopped. The original Wii may as well be ancient, in terms of game industry time. Nintendo was innovative. But they haven't been for awhile. When they have to resort to lawyering their fans, it's a bad omen. And they don't seem to have anything else up their sleeve right now, as Yahtzee elucidates: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/7417-Next-Gen-Buyers-Guide?hq=1 http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation... It's interesting that most people aren't recognizing what Valve's controller represents. The future of console gaming is Valve. I'll be happy to refer back to this comment in five years. Shall we bet $10?
    - sebkomianos 13y ago
      I am pretty sure you'd have said the same "Nintendo used to be but is not anymore" thing during the GameCube ages. We all know what happened after that. Regarding Valve, its controller may or may not represent a lot of things. But until it defines at least one generation, we can't say anything. Other than that, what have we seen from them that is so innovative? EDIT: Also, "resort to lawyering"? It's not like they are suing the guy. They are just politely letting him know that what he is doing is illegal.
Frozenlock 13y ago
I said fun and innovative. Believe me, I wanted to love Nintendo after the Gamecube. NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, GBA, DS... I loved them all. But after that, somewhere along the way, it seems Nintendo lost its unique flavor and started to look like a pale copy of what it once was. I'm not trying to defend the guy who coded a Mario Bros. clone (in fact, I couldn't care less...). I'm rather pointing out how saddened I am by the fact that the only instances where I hear about Nintendo now are for silly disputes like these.
- sebkomianos 13y ago
  A lot of Nintendo's latest games are fun, have you played Super Mario recently?

gdubs 13y ago

Nintendo's entire business was built on hyper-strict intellectual property constraints.

dragontamer 13y ago
In particular, Trademark law that allows Nintendo to protect their brand and image. If you haven't noticed, Nintendo's brands (Mario, Zelda, Pokemon...) are its most powerful asset. People are not allowed to make money off of other people's brands. And that is a good thing. It goes beyond just "copyright" law, but towards "Trademark" law as well. Protecting your brand image is the absolute cornerstone of relationship building between a company and their customers.
chilldream 13y ago
And furthermore they've always been unusually aggressive in protecting what they perceive/claim to be their IP rights. They tried to sue rentals stores and Game Genies out of existence even before the Super Nintendo was a thing.

camus2 13y ago

> Oh Nintendo. You used to be so fun and innovative. Nintendo defends its estate all the time. Just because it is targetting a so called "cool developer" doesnt make them "evil" or whaterver. Trademark/copyright holders have the duty to fight trademark/copyright violations. Being cool or not is not the point. Want to be cool? Create something new instead of just copying someone else work for a quick buck. Be creative instread of sucking other people's creativity.

Frozenlock 13y ago
> Want to be cool? Create something new instead of just copying someone else work for a quick buck. Be creative instread of sucking other people's creativity. Who wants to be cool here? The guy who replicates a game everyone knows he didn't create, or the lawyers trying to 'defend the company's assets' by making sure a game released in 1985 isn't playable on the Internet?
- camus2 13y ago
  > Who wants to be cool here? the guy who says something is open when it is not and rips off copyrighted assets. hmm? openmario...yeah right. > a game released in 1985 yeah like it changes anything.