General Nintendo sales/business discussion topic (previously: The Wii U Thread)

[Sami]

Because the option of easy patches and DLC means that every game on the system will have a 10 GB Day 1 patch and a game's worth of on-disc DLC, Chooch. C'mon man, can't you see how Nintendo's keeping traditional gaming alive?

Pfft I bet you only play CoD.

[Jin.]

XMB on the PS3 was ugly and slow. The 360 had the best even with the ads.

 

I hope you're joking good sir.

[Marcello]

I hope you're joking good sir.

I'm not. When I push the home button it takes a bit to load all of the symbols and get to my trophies list for example, whereas this happens right away with the 360.

[The Kid]

It's a pretty shallow reason, but I can't get behind Nintendo ditching the GamePad because I love off-TV play way too much.

 

Also these laughable generalizations about trophies and achievements are exactly why Nintendo was able to get away with their absolutely fucking awful online infrastructure for an entire console generation. Why is everything done by the competition always labeled as something negative or meaningless to Nintendo die hards?

 

That is kind of a generalization (being a die hard fan of a company doesn't meany you wont enjoy what competing companies are producing) but I'll bite. Achievements are hit or miss for me depending on the game, but they do serve a usefulness (like feeding my inner OCD). But people disregarding achievements as pointlessness on a stick doesn't have much to do with Nintendo's online infrastructure being far behind the competition.The notion that achievements add nothing to the game are made by people regardless of what console they own just like the opposite claim is made. 

 

Also, people who blindly follow their favorite company and literally lick the ground they walk on exist wherever you go. You could literally replace Nintendo with any other company in the statement you made above and it would hold the same weight. The notion that Nintendo's fanbase is more radical and delusional is rubbish.

[Jin.]

I'm not. When I push the home button it takes a bit to load all of the symbols and get to my trophies list for example, whereas this happens right away with the 360.

 

Seriously. 1 second is too long for you? Though I can agree with you on the trophy list sorta.

The loading thing with the home button is really shallow tho'. No offense meant, of course.

[The Kid]

Seriously. 1 second is too long for you? Though I can agree with you on the trophy list sorta.

The loading thing with the home button is really shallow tho'. No offense meant, of course.

 

It is mostly down to personal preference. I preferred the Xbox 360's up until Microsoft made everything all Window's 8-ish.

[Zaysho]

That is kind of a generalization (being a die hard fan of a company doesn't meany you wont enjoy what competing companies are producing) but I'll bite. Achievements are hit or miss for me depending on the game, but they do serve a usefulness (like feeding my inner OCD). But people disregarding achievements as pointlessness on a stick doesn't have much to do with Nintendo's online infrastructure being far behind the competition.The notion that achievements add nothing to the game are made by people regardless of what console they own just like the opposite claim is made.

 

Something I'd like to see with achievements, personally, is a system similar to Xenoblade's. On one level, it's just silly fun, but it also rewards you with experience for completing the objective. I'm not too familiar with achievements or trophies, but I think those that are skeptical about the system could probably get a nudge if some actual incentive was in place. I realize the achievements themselves are the incentive, but for people like me who can take or leave them (they're cool, but they don't affect my experience), it's nice being rewarded with useful in-game material for going the extra mile.

 

Now whether that's just in-game like Xenoblade, or part of a larger system like on Steam or Xbox, is another story, but Nintendo could let developers go the in-game route this generation since they don't appear to have a system in place for it currently (or if they do, I haven't heard about it).

[Marcello]

It's more than 1 second. It's admittedly isn't all that long, but compared to the 360 it's very annoying. On the other hand, compared to the Wii U it's absolutely fantastic.

 

Seriously, It takes a few minutes just to change the system language on the Wii U, while it takes less than a second on other consoles >_>

[The Kid]

Something I'd like to see with achievements, personally, is a system similar to Xenoblade's. On one level, it's just silly fun, but it also rewards you with experience for completing the objective. I'm not too familiar with achievements or trophies, but I think those that are skeptical about the system could probably get a nudge if some actual incentive was in place. I realize the achievements themselves are the incentive, but for people like me who can take or leave them (they're cool, but they don't affect my experience), it's nice being rewarded with useful in-game material for going the extra mile.

 

Now whether that's just in-game like Xenoblade, or part of a larger system like on Steam or Xbox, is another story, but Nintendo could let developers go the in-game route this generation since they don't appear to have a system in place for it currently (or if they do, I haven't heard about it).

 

What I liked (despite its horrible implementation) is Ubisoft's Uplay achievements. You get points that can be spent on whatever you want, such as costumes for characters or themes for your system. It rewards those achievements not only with bonus goodies but allows you to choose which goodies you want to spend points on.

[azoo]

http://gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=221204

 

 

Nikkei newspaper says Nintendo may put game demos, advertising on smarphones/tablets

The following comes from Nikkei newspaper...

- may soon launch game demos and advertising efforts on smartphones and tablets
- announcement coming on Thursday

Link

 

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[The Kid]

Isn't Nikkei Newspaper on about the level of Kotaku with gaming rumors? I'd take this with a grain of salt.

[SuperLink]

That's actually the kind of thing I was thinking they might do. Release little mini-Mario experiences along with a tagline like "experience the full adventure only on Wii U!". Not only that, but apps for wallpapers and other promotional materials that'll help their games become more noticed by a user-based system.

 

I think it's crazy enough to actually work, so I wouldn't complain at all if this happened.

[Marcello]

Here's a bit more detail:

 

A lot has been written and said about the status quo and future of Nintendo (7974), after the company reported disastrous financial results about two weeks ago: introducing its own tablet, putting a successor to the Wii U on the fast track, buying a smartphone game maker, splitting into multiple business units, and (of course) putting content on smartphones.

 

That last part now appears to become reality, albeit in a pretty unique way.

 

Japanese newspaper The Nikkei just reported on its website (2am Tuesday JST) that Nintendo is finally going mobile within this year.

According to the country’s biggest business publication, Nintendo will make such an announcement this Thursday, the day it holds a briefing for investors.

But Nintendo will not simply put Mario, Pokemon or other games on smartphones. According to the report, Nintendo plans to use Android and/or iOS devices (not confirmed at this point) to market its console games.

 

To be more concrete, The Nikkei writes that Nintendo wants to use smartphones to expand its potential user base by spreading information about new game releases, i.e. by using video to introduce future titles. (This will probably happen through some kind of official Nintendo app.)

 

In addition, Nintendo is said to be planning to put so-called “mini games” on smartphones, playable demos of console games – content that can only be purchased in full on Nintendo hardware. The reasoning here is to give smartphone-only players a taste of the experience without making the actual game available on non-Nintendo devices and convert these users into Nintendo customers.

 

According to The Nikkei, this content will be entirely free, and Nintendo is not planning to offer paid or freemium games on smartphones at the moment.

To make it clear again: this information is not coming from Nintendo itself. Expect further details during the company’s briefing on Thursday.

 

Seems interesting and a good way to do so.

[Indigo Rush]

That may actually be a pretty nifty idea. Of course though, if you give a Mouse a Cookie... pretty soon people will be demanding full Nintendo experiences on their iPhones and Androids. Only time will tell.

[azoo]

It just seems bizzare. What kind of games would they put on the iOS/Android anyways that are from Wii U? Wario Ware? NSMB? I highly doubt they'd be able to downscale Mario 3D World, Wind Waker, or Pikmin to nothing but a touchscreen.

 

And even then, the ones I mentioned (Wario Ware & NSMB) I doubt would improve sales. That's nothing near impressive. :\

[Badnik Mechanic]

Mario on Mobile.

 

Will sell millions.

 

Just ask that blue guy who collects rings.

[Marcello]

Mario on Mobile.

 

Will sell millions.

 

Just ask that blue guy who collects rings.

 

I dunno if this is sarcasm and Sonic sold bad on phones, but Mario is way more popular.

[SuperLink]

That may actually be a pretty nifty idea. Of course though, if you give a Mouse a Cookie... pretty soon people will be demanding full Nintendo experiences on their iPhones and Androids. Only time will tell.

People already are, but I think people will be better with Mario n co having some kind of official phone presence than none at all, the complete lack of an official presence for them on phones probably has the mainstream market thinking they're dead or something lol.

 

 

It just seems bizzare. What kind of games would they put on the iOS/Android anyways that are from Wii U? Wario Ware? NSMB? I highly doubt they'd be able to downscale Mario 3D World, Wind Waker, or Pikmin to nothing but a touchscreen.

 

And even then, the ones I mentioned (Wario Ware & NSMB) I doubt would improve sales. That's nothing near impressive. :\

Mini games heavily based on the full experience I would guess, they could use a Mario Bros-like simple platformer game to advertise Mario 3D World, or a simple pictograph game for Wind Waker. Who knows, there are tons of possibilities especially since we don't know the details (if any)

[MegasonicZX]

I thought sonic dash and sonic jump sold well.

[azoo]

This whole idea just feels nasty. Hopefully Nintendo proves me wrong and that it's gonna be fine, but this just seems.. blegh.

 

Especially if there's no downporting and it's just mini-games put on the smartphones/tablets. How will mini-games sell games that play completely different on a console? That doesn't make too much sense, unless you're talking just brand recognition.. which would make Nintendo seem like some desperate sellout.. which they sort of would be, but I'd expect Nintendo to have more dignity than that I guess?

 

Egh.

[SuperLink]

This whole idea just feels nasty. Hopefully Nintendo proves me wrong and that it's gonna be fine, but this just seems.. blegh.

 

Especially if there's no downporting and it's just mini-games put on the smartphones/tablets. How will mini-games sell games that play completely different on a console? That doesn't make too much sense, unless you're talking just brand recognition.. which would make Nintendo seem like some desperate sellout.. which they sort of would be, but I'd expect Nintendo to have more dignity than that I guess?

 

Egh.

I don't think it'll be as bad as you think, but yeah it mostly is for the purpose of establishing brand presence and recognition which is exactly what they need right now.

 

If they're doing it all for free too, it could very easily have far less dignity.

[azoo]

Yeah, I guess (and hope) it'll be better than I'm assuming. Just imagining Nintendo as a face on smartphones though just feels dirty. Can't really describe it. Just a bad vibe. X_X

[Dejimon11]

Nintendo already has a pokemon app that allows you to watch episodes of the old show and promote the games in the process so if they plan on doing stuff like that ill be fine

[Chooch]

But people disregarding achievements as pointlessness on a stick doesn't have much to do with Nintendo's online infrastructure being far behind the competition.The notion that achievements add nothing to the game are made by people regardless of what console they own just like the opposite claim is made.

What I said actually has more truth in it than you would normally think. Part of the reason Nintendo's followers are so very dismissive of things that the competition are doing is because Nintendo themselves are dismissive of it. At least until it they are met with large amounts of criticism or sub par sales. Nintendo was wholly dismissive of the idea of a powerful console with a strong online infrastructure (They still are, kinda). That's why the Wii was the way it was in the first place. It wasn't a big enough deal to people back then tho'.

 

How many times have you heard someone say that they love Nintendo because they're "different?" Quite a bit, I'm sure. Nintendo goes out of its way to ignore trends and try to set trends themselves. In more recent years it has backfired. The people drawn to that uniqueness (and their exclusive IPs) are those who have allowed Nintendo to survive as long as they have despite various set backs.

 

Appealing to your always loyal fanbase is all well and good but the industry is evolving to the point where staying afloat with just them is no longer possible. If it was, we wouldn't have all this doom and gloom shit surrounding the Wii U. The four million plus Wii U owners in the wild now are most likely people who have supported Nintendo for a long time.

 

You know what has always really confused me about Nintendo? It's like there are two separate companies functioning in the same place there. Like.. complete fucking opposites of each other. The Nintendo console that everyone wants / the console people want the Wii U to be has 1) Nintendo's signature IPs in full force and 2) Third party support. Third party support including but not limited to multi platform releases of major games and third party exclusive titles that aren't Sonic Lost World are notable. You know what that sounds like to me? ..The 3DS.

 

Actually, no. It sounds like every Nintendo handheld that has been released pretty much since the beginning. I love Nintendo handhelds. They are always a safe bet no matter what. The 3DS' start was a little shaky and I was worried that Nintendo may have lost its touch in the handheld department but after the price drop and 3D Land everything did a complete 180 degree turn. I can't even say that it was just Pokemon that did it because the 3DS was on the come up long before Pokemon came out.

 

Is there someone else in charge of Nintendo's handheld division that I'm not aware of doing all this? There must be because I don't get it.

 

The notion that Nintendo's fanbase is more radical and delusional is rubbish.

I never actually said this and you know I didn't.

[SuperLink]

Picture this: Nintendo offer money off or eShop download codes for people who do well in their alleged phone minigames.

 

If you were a mass-entertainment sort of person who had no idea what the Wii U was but just played a very fun free minigame and want more of it, how would a message at the end saying "CONGRATULATIONS, YOU WON MONEY OFF A WII U" or something like that sound? It would probably make far more people know what the Wii U actually was, because if there's something I know about most ppl who browse internets and play free games it's that if they win something they really want to know what it's about.

 

That sounds really dang smart to me.