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

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

WHOA, look at this, guess whos coming to Wii-u tomorrow?!

its LINK TO THE PAST!

http://gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=221398

 

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past slated for Wii U VC release tomorrow

Jan 29, 2014 by RawmeatCowboy

 

 

Havent played a 2D zelda game ever, and while I wouldnt get it right away, if it was on club nintendo next month, or I had the spare game money I might consider it, is this a good starting point for those that only have the wii-u as a currently convient way to play nintendo games?(I mean I could do emulator for GBA games, but I like using my wii-u)

[VO.SUPER]

Also, we are planning to utilize Nintendo’s abundance of character IP more actively. I think the reason that Nintendo is now considered to have this “abundance of character IP” is perhaps because of our passive approach toward the character IP licensing business, which tends to have a high risk of damaging the value of the character. In other words, we think that spending time to develop our approach of having our characters appear mainly in our carefully selected games has created our current fortunate circumstances. However, we are going to change our policy going forward.

To be more precise, we will actively expand our character licensing business, including proactively finding appropriate partners. In fact, we have been actively selling character merchandise for about a year in the U.S.

Also, we will be flexible about forming licensing relationships in areas we did not license in the past, such as digital fields, provided we are not in direct competition and we can form win-win relationships.

By moving forward with such activities globally, we aim to increase consumer exposure to Nintendo characters by making them appear in places other than on video game platforms.

Let's hope for more projects like Hyrule Warriors.

How about letting platinum make StarFox? Or letting Namco make Fatal Frame again?

[Solkia]

I have no idea what the hell any of that means, but is he saying he's going to revive old IPs?

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

I have no idea what the hell any of that means, but is he saying he's going to revive old IPs?

pretty much, by letting third parties using them, also they are going to do more mercandising in the west(perhaps we may get Archie nintendo comics after all!)

[Solkia]

so more outsourcing shit? get ready for the StarFox Halo clone.

[Agie]

Hopefully they pick good third parties. I doubt they'll trust Philips again.

[Solkia]

Phillips was an entirely different thing. Phillips isn't even part of the industry anymore.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

so more outsourcing shit? get ready for the StarFox Halo clone.

no, they arent exactly outsourcing, think Hyrule warriors, they od it in collaboration, however they may also companies to bring them proposals as well

[Agie]

Phillips was an entirely different thing. Phillips isn't even part of the industry anymore.

True. Very true.

[Jolt_TH]

GC games could still work on the Wii U, you don't need the 2-click triggers, now we have 2 back buttons. For example mario sunshine you would press ZR/ZL to spray while running or press R/L to stand still and spray.

[Sami]

Dunno if this has been posted (was busy playing NieR for the past hour and a half, lol, missed all the discussion) - 

 

"Summary - 

 

Wii U

 

- The problem is that people think it's an accessory for Wii

- They can't cut the price

- The Gamepad needs to be emphasized more

- The first game to emphasize the Gamepad will be Mario Kart 8, which uses off-tv play

- They will announce NFC games at E3.

 

General Direction

- No major changes in company's direction

- Further hardware R&D will continue

- They won't release games on other peoples platforms, including mobile

- They want to have a platform where the platform is not the device, but rather the user (IE integrated over multiple hardware platforms)

- They are considering a streaming service

- They have solved technical hurdles related to Virtual Consoles

- They will license characters to new partners -- it's unclear if this means merchandise or games

 

QUACK ZONE WARNING QUACK ZONE

- Nintendo wants to get into health care and wellness and lifestyle products

- They want to improve your quality of life

- This has nothing to do with games

- They want to announce ways to make you healthy

- This will not involve wearable devices because there are too many of those.

- This is integrated with games

- This will launch in April 2015"

 

Courtesy of Stumpokapow, a mod on GAF.

[Solkia]

GC games could still work on the Wii U, you don't need the 2-click triggers, now we have 2 back buttons. For example mario sunshine you would press ZR/ZL to spray while running or press R/L to stand still and spray.

 

That's not how it works. That would be so much worthless effort completely recoding a game's engine and working out the bugs again to only sell it for a small price.

[azoo]

That's not how it works. That would be so much worthless effort completely recoding a game's engine and working out the bugs again to only sell it for a small price.

 

I could see it working if they were to do an HD version of Sunshine, which straight-up wouldn't happen so yeah.

[RK64]

That's cool that Nintendo is going to do things to better the Wii U's position (having DS games on the system is a surprising and awesome idea; hope Kirby's Canvas Curse lands on the service ), and them trying to make better use of the GamePad is something they really should do (though saying Mario Kart 8 will using it is laughable; you use the dam thing as a horn and to steer your kart via gyro).

 

The non-gaming stuff they are trying to do is smart; getting more people to get your brand is very important when trying to sell franchises. I could see this being huge in some ways, with comics (a Zelda or Mario one on the quality level of the Super Mario Bros. Adventures comics from old-school Nintendo Power would be a great start ), animated films (Sony is doing it with Ratchet and Sly, so Nintendo could do it with Wonderful 101/Zelda/Donkey Kong Country and the like), and other things (maybe a Skylanders-esc game where you use the GamePads NFC sensor to use Nintendo character figures to play a action game/battle game/ect).

 

Them expanding into education and health is...a odd move but spreading the Nintendo name with "we help people and are family friendly!" is a good idea; the stronger positive image does help companies somethings.

[Conando]

Not merging but perhaps creating a big-scale partnership, I think Disney is very possible too, Disney have had nothing but praise for Nintendo lately and it could be because Nintendo have been giving them "favours" behind the scenes.

 

Kinky.

 

If Disney and Nintendo had a big partnership it could mean megabucks for Nintendo, and a more stable video game platform for Disney. I wonder..

 

It would certainly benefit both parties involved. It sounds like something that would only happen in people's wildest dreams, though.

 

Edit: OH. I should mention that Archie Comics approached Nintendo with the idea of a Super Mario Bros. comic, with Yardley on art. Not sure if Flynn was going to write it, but it was likely. Nintendo rejected the idea, though. Perhaps they will now reconsider the idea of a Mario comic, though.

 

Here's something Yardley actually drew up for it.

 

[Marcello]

That doesn't look all that great. And I'd rather not have Yardley doing the art. His humans, besides Eggman, look bad.
 

- The first game to emphasize the Gamepad will be Mario Kart 8, which uses off-tv play

Woah, this is something brand new that I've never heard of before. Why has no game on the Wii U ever done this before? That's a legitimately great way to start emphasizing the Gamepad.

 

 

P.S. Mario Kart 8 boxart is pretty nice.

Finally, full backgrounds are back =P

[Conando]

That doesn't look all that great. And I'd rather not have Yardley doing the art. His humans, besides Eggman, look bad.

 

Woah, this is something brand new that I've never heard of before.Why has no game on the Wii U ever done this before? That's a legitimately great way to start emphasizing the Gamepad.

 

 

P.S. Mario Kart 8 boxart is pretty nice.

Finally, full backgrounds are back =P

 

I see what you did there, since Off-TV Play is entirely common. Well, good to see it finally has a release. Even if it's really late. Goddamnit. Now, what I find more interesting is rolling in more NFC Reader games. That rather meh Pokemon Rumble game was the only one to support it.

[Marcello]

I don't like NFC. I'd rather not have to buy really expensive yet worthless toys to play video games. So I'd rather they stick with uninteresting games for that.

 

I guess it's a good way to get money, though.

[Carbo]

Investor Meeting Translated Slides

Samples to follow, recommend reading the entire thing.

As a platform in its second year, Wii U is currently in a very difficult position. I would like to begin with what we are going to do with Wii U.

Obviously, under the current situation where the company has to report an operating loss, simply executing a price reduction as a way to defuse the situation is not an option. In the short-term, Nintendo will focus on thoroughly enriching the value of the most significant feature of Wii U, the Wii U GamePad.

Unfortunately, as the current situation of Wii U shows, we have not been able to fully communicate the value of the GamePad. We also realize that we have not been successful in answering consumers’ questions such as, “What is the difference between Wii U and the previous platform, Wii, and what is the benefit of upgrading it?” By looking at the current sales situation, I am aware that this is due to our lack of effort. What’s even worse is that there even appear to be not a small number of consumers who think the GamePad is one of the accessories for the previous platform, Wii.

 

It is more challenging to convey the appeal of the GamePad to consumers who do not engage with video games that often since they do not actively gather information about video games. Therefore, we intend to take on this challenge, and I would like to have this solved before the year-end sales season.

In order to do this, it is obvious that Our top priority task this year is to offer software titles that are made possible because of the GamePad. We have managed to offer several of such software titles for occasions when many people gather in one place to play, but we have not been able to offer a decisive software title that enriches the user’s gameplay experience when playing alone with the GamePad. This will be one of the top priorities of Mr. Miyamoto’s software development department this year.

 

In addition, the GamePad is the only video game platform with an NFC (near-field communication) reader/writer function. “Pokémon Rumble U” has already taken advantage of this function, but aside from this title, Wii U has failed to make use of the full potential of this function so far, despite it being a built-in feature. This year, we will make full use of this function by preparing multiple proposals, including the implementation of NFC payments with JR East’s “Suica,” which we announced on a previous occasion. We will showcase our detailed propositions for utilizing the NFC functionality at E3 in Los Angeles in June.

 

We are now sure that we can solve the technical problem of displaying Virtual Console software from Nintendo DS on the GamePad.

The dual-screen Nintendo DS, one of which is a touch screen, has a very strong software lineup, and so we plan to add the Virtual Console titles from Nintendo DS software to the future Virtual Console lineup for Wii U.

 

On Wii U, we launched Nintendo Network IDs, which are abbreviated as NNIDs. This is the first step of our efforts to transform customer relationship management from device-based to account-based, namely, consumer-based, through which we aim to establish long-term relationships with individual consumers, unaffected by the lifespans of our systems. Our future platform will connect with our consumers based on accounts, not devices.

As a second step, Nintendo 3DS became compatible with NNIDs in December 2013. Nintendo 3DS was originally designed for a device-based management system, so making it account-compatible at a later time meant that not all of its features were perfect. However, we feel that we have taken a step in the right direction as we now have a uniformly managed system in which we are connected with our consumers on both handheld devices and consoles.

 

Of course, when we do launch new hardware in the future, rather than re-creating an installed base from scratch as we did in the past, we wish to build on our existing connections with our consumers through NNIDs and continue to maintain them.

 

The way in which dedicated video game systems and their software are sold has not changed significantly since the business model of dedicated video game platforms was first established 30 years ago. Dedicated video game systems are sold for two hundred or three hundred dollars, on which standalone software titles are distributed for 30 or 50 dollars. This simple model received widespread support from consumers that enabled us to create today’s market. The decision to change it is the manifestation of our recognition that we cannot expect this model to work forever amid dynamic changes in people’s lifestyles.

If we succeed in the redefinition of video game platforms that I speak of today, our account-based connections with consumers will become very clear. For example, until now it has been taken for granted that software is offered to users at the same price regardless of how many titles they purchase in a year, be it one, five or even ten titles. Based on our account system, if we can offer flexible price points to consumers who meet certain conditions, we can create a situation where these consumers can enjoy our software at cheaper price points when they purchase more. Here, we do not need to limit the condition to the number of software titles they purchase. Inviting friends to start playing a particular software title is also an example of a possible condition. If we can achieve such a sales mechanism, we can expect to increase the number of players per title, and the players will play our games with more friends. This can help maintain the high usage ratio of a platform. When one platform maintains a high active use ratio, the software titles which run on it have a higher potential to be noticed by many, which leads to more people playing with more titles. When we see our overall consumers, they generally play two or three titles per year. We aim to establish a new sales mechanism that will be beneficial to both consumers and software creators by encouraging our consumers to play more titles and increasing a platform’s active use ratio without largely increasing our consumers’ expenditures.

Nintendo aims to work on this brand-new sales mechanism in the medium term, but we would like to start experimenting with Wii U at an early stage.

 

We will definitely maintain dedicated video game platforms as our core business, but we will also take on the challenge of expanding into a new business area. We will attempt to establish a new platform business with which we can leverage our strengths, but which is independent from our video game platform business.

 

What Nintendo will try to achieve in the next 10 years is a platform business that improves people’s QOL in enjoyable ways. This definition includes, of course, dedicated video game platforms. While we will continue to devote our energy to dedicated video game platforms, what I see as our first step into a new business area in our endeavor to improve QOL is, the theme of “health.” Of course, defining a new entertainment business that seeks to improve QOL creates various possibilities for the future such as “learning” and “lifestyle,” but it is our intention to take “health” as our first step. Please note, however, that rather than simply setting health as our theme, Nintendo will also try to expand it in a new blue ocean.

[SuperLink]

What almost impresses me most about all this is that Iwata seems to fully intend to follow Yamauchi's legacy of transforming the company to new entertainments. This health thing may not be what anyone was expecting, but given the company's history in trying different kinds of entertainment, I think it makes more sense than I thought it made yesterday.

 

Iwata's right that people are pretty passionate about health, and high tech machines for health aren't widely accessible, they could actually be on to something there. If it does turn out successful I'm sure it'll just give birth to new branches in Nintendo rather than take away from the gaming branch.

 

Also ppl keep saying they're surprised that Mario Kart is in May, but May is Spring. It sure as hell ain't Summer! Personally not surprised at all by that date though I do wish they'd started development earlier to get it ready for the holiday season.

[Milo]

 

• Nintendo's gonna be more flexible with their IPs and start letting other companies grab the

  licenses so they could do badass shit with it OH GOD BOOM HELL YES BRING IT ON

 

 

If Nintendo plays their cards right with this approach, this could be a crucial step to not only creating partnerships with newer/smaller developers, but even making amends with third party publishers they've shunned away from in the past.

 

If Nintendo strikes up a really good partnership with a developer and assists them with a game or lets them go nuts with a Nintendo IP, and the game turns out to be a hit, Nintendo could have the likes of a Rare (DKC) or Retro (Metroid Prime) situation on their hands.

 

Alternatively, if Nintendo collaborates with a third party company (and one of said third-party company's developers) with an existing IP or a new one and it becomes a success, it could soften up third-party publishers to stop leaving the Wii U in the cold in terms of releasing (special) ports or even making exclusives.

 

Hyrule Warriors looks like the first action taken in this approach and from the looks of things people are very interested if not outright hyped for that title.

[Your Vest Friend]

Is the IP thing that attractive to most developers?

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

If Nintendo plays their cards right with this approach, this could be a crucial step to not only creating partnerships with newer/smaller developers, but even making amends with third party publishers they've shunned away from in the past.

 

If Nintendo strikes up a really good partnership with a developer and assists them with a game or lets them go nuts with a Nintendo IP, and the game turns out to be a hit, Nintendo could have the likes of a Rare (DKC) or Retro (Metroid Prime) situation on their hands.

 

Alternatively, if Nintendo collaborates with a third party company (and one of said third-party company's developers) with an existing IP or a new one and it becomes a success, it could soften up third-party publishers to stop leaving the Wii U in the cold in terms of releasing (special) ports or even making exclusives.

 

Hyrule Warriors looks like the first action taken in this approach and from the looks of things people are very interested if not outright hyped for that title.

I agree on this one.... hmmmmm Pokemon and soulcalibur anyone?

[SuperLink]

Is the IP thing that attractive to most developers?

I guess we'll see in practise. A lot of devs, even the ones who seem to hate Nintendo sometimes (Cliffy grew up on Nintendo systems and would kill at the change to use their vision on a Nintendo franchise. Third party games don't sell on Nintendo but Nintendo games do, and so many devs are calling for Nintendo to go third party, partially because they don't feel they can be on equal footing otherwise. If Nintendo let other devs make Nintendo games and give them profits from those, I think a lot of devs would be pretty up for that.

 

I don't know if Nintendo will be literally be letting other devs make core entries in their franchises though. Especially western devs, but the presentation did imply that Iwata knew western devs loved console development more than handheld development.

[VO.SUPER]

Dunno if this has been posted (was busy playing NieR for the past hour and a half, lol, missed all the discussion) -

Figures you would look at a quack list from those noodnicks at neogaf. They only want to focus on the negative stuff and you're doing the same thing.

What happened may not be the most positive thing; but it's certainly more mixed and weird than what you put down.