Nintendo Failures seem exaggerated

[Something Amyss]

Funny.....I was thinking the exact same thing regarding their successes.

But they've innovated all sorts of things (many of which Sega did first).

 

[Mooboo Magoo]

What I'm still trying to figure out is what the 'hardcore' market is for gaming. I skimmed through the replies on here and saw that phrase being brought up a lot.

Far as I can tell it refers to people whose primary source of entertainment is games, but even that description is way too broad to actually mean anything. Most people consider Call of Duty to be part of the 'hardcore' market but the playing and purchasing habits of CoD players is really similar to the casual market (a lot of people don't play games so much as they just play CoD and buy the newest iteration regardless of what is in it).

The term 'hardcore gamer' used to mean something and I knew exactly what it was. Lately though the more I think about it the less clear it is. I guess the only halfway accurate description I can think of is someone who only likes games that heavily feature violence and/or mature themes. In that sense Nintendo is lacking pretty far behind in the hardcore market.

I understand that mindset of not wanting to play 'kiddie' games and everything; aesthetics are a huge part of what we enjoy in entertainment after all. Still I find that description of a hardcore gamer...laughably inane. So if anyone can shed some light on this demographic that would be really helpful.

 

[The Lunatic]

One often forgets how lightly the Xbone got off upon it's unveiling.

 

[gorfias]

One often forgets how lightly the Xbone got off upon it's unveiling.

I still don't know where they go from here. Are the 3 mil or so that bought one enthusiasts? Q2 and 3 will tell us a lot more. My question is, once the few million enthusiasts buy one, will sales, still #3 of the big 3, dry up?

I honestly don't know. I'm nuts about this stuff. My wife is ready to kill me as I buy so much. And yet, I have not bought one and may never do so.

I would like to see the Nintendo Pro controller changed so the buttons are above the analog stick. I can see about 1/2 dozen games I want from them that I'll try to get cheaper than $50-60.

Pikmin 3
Super Smash Brother
Mario 3D
Mario Kart 8
Donkey Kong

I hope they have more Wario party games.

That's a lot attaching to this stuff. Xbox One? Maybe a Halo Collection (Everything. Brought up to gen 8 graphics. On a single disc). And Halo 5.

 

[KingWein22]

I think this year will tell us who's sitting where this generation, I think the Wii U will make a recovery, heck, it's sold over 2 million more units then the Xbox One, I know the Wii U has been out about a year, but the PS4 is less than a million away from the same number of units sold, shouldn't people be thinking Xbox may be the one in trouble if it doesn't pick up soon?

People like us who are paying attention already do think that. People who don't pay attention are too busy declaring the doom of Nintendo to notice what's happening.

The lead that the PS4 has built up is substantially larger than its rival, and while it's unconfirmed, it's somewhat implied that the PS4 is also costing Sony less than the Xbone is costing MS. And while people keep saying that the PS4 has released in more countries, they need to realize that MS just might never release in those countries at all, because they wouldn't pick up a hell of a lot of sales in those smaller markets (at least, not enough to justify the expense).

So MS has to do something with the markets it has to close this lead gap, because it can't take a $1 billion hit on top of its existing losses. Like I said in my earlier post, if Titanfall (the game that is pretty much supposed to sell the Xbone) fails, I think that'll be a huge red flag that the Xbox division is on its last legs. They're counting on Titanfall to recoup most of the losses from their initial development and release costs, so if it can't do that, then investors will have even more ground to argue for the Xbox division's sell-off.

Might I add, the first Xbox bombed in Japan, one of the world's biggest gaming markets, IIRC.

OT: I have had faith in Nintendo all the time, and laugh at people when they go all joy-joy about Nintendo's shortcomings. CriticKitten's posts are on point about MS and Sony's losses and peeps tend to look the other way. Nintendo's reports a loss? Well, they should just give up entirely, go 3rd party and then they can make a profit off their Mario and Zelda and others. They can even get a bigger fanbase!!

 

[kilenem]

There were several other things. Like the Kinect 2 for example. To the public they said it's not for marketing and you don't have to send anything over while in the same week the Marketing VP stood up in front of investors and marketing representatives from other companies to tell them that the Kinect 2 represents the next era of marketing directly to the relevant consumers. He even stated to reporters that they only get a "few" points of biometric data (think age, number of people in the family, general health statistics, etc. There really isn't a lot of biometric data that you'd need).

I agree with with everything you say but I still think some of that has to be bad P.R when you tell gamers where going to spy on you . Then you turn around and tell people where going to spy on them for adds.

 

[kilenem]

snip

I think the wii and wii u seem to be following the exact same line of eventually brushing off all third party games once they get some decent console movers out of their own. Remember the wii also had some decent third party support in the beginning and we all know how that turned out.

Unfortunately what Nintendo needs to do is pay for some of the development for these games like what Sony is doing with Borderlands 2 VITA. I actually want to get a VITA for that because it has all of DLC, except the head hunters packs I believe.

 

[kilenem]

Nintendo doomsayers don't seem to realize that doing (or in this case, saying)the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.

Wait, so what is it called when Nintendo makes the same decisions over and over to pursue their traditional business practices in the face of decreasing consumer confidence, and steadily dropping stock price.

I'm sitting here matching news stories to stock prices trying to figure out why Nintendo keeps losing me money and 'doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result' seems to be accountable for most of it. You can claim up and down that this or that 'might' be bad for Nintendo, but what they're doing now IS bad for Nintendo.

Well when they try to do something different people ***** and moan so Nintendo can't win either way.

What in recent memory have Nintendo done differently that has attracted people ire? Cause I'm not really finding anything. There was a bump when the first rumors started about Nintendo embracing mobile gaming, and then a dip when they actually released their highly unimpressive plan, but the first reactions have generally been good to them changing.

Street Pass. Its pretty legit It kind of makes people bring their 3DS with them and increase interaction with people. Making gamers less anti social when you have to leave the House to progress in some of the video games linked to it. Although I do feel sorry for the people in the middle of no where because they have difficulty meeting people.

 

[gorfias]

My advice to those who want to play Nintendo games? Rather than desire that they license out their games to other vendors, buy a Wii U. At $300 for the console, 2 games, the tablet/controller and, heck, even an HDMI cord (I thought that was so cute) with no need to get any kind of online subscription, this is dirt cheap. Just do it.

 

[Saltyk]

OT: I have had faith in Nintendo all the time, and laugh at people when they go all joy-joy about Nintendo's shortcomings. CriticKitten's posts are on point about MS and Sony's losses and peeps tend to look the other way. Nintendo's reports a loss? Well, they should just give up entirely, go 3rd party and then they can make a profit off their Mario and Zelda and others. They can even get a bigger fanbase!!

Which I always found funny. If they hate Nintendo so much, why would they want Nintendo to go third party?

The answer, of course, is because a lot of those "haters" really just want to play Nintendo's games (because they're generally some of the highest quality games on the market in their respective genres), but don't want to be associated with the negative stigma of owning a Nintendo console because "they're for babies". Well, tough. Part of being grown up means you stop caring about whether or not something is considered "for children", and you just enjoy what you choose to enjoy.

Who says they hate Nintendo? Why does stating that Nintendo is failing with the Wii U mean that you hate Nintendo? Since when is this a situation where you are either for or against Nintendo? No, being a grown up means you understand that a person can state that something was done poorly without meaning that you hate it and those associated with it.

Personally, I don't care about Nintendo. And there are more threads talking about how people hate Nintendo than threads hating on Nintendo. When the Escapist runs an article talking about something that Nintendo is struggling with, the NDF jumps up and claims that it's because the Escapist hates Nintendo and is trying to push an agenda that is "anti-Nintendo". This is despite the fact that several contributors on the site are very fond of Nintendo, such as MovieBob.

But when they run an article stating that Sony or Microsoft are having some issue, no one claims they are pushing an "anti-Sony" or "anti-Microsoft" agenda. And comments run the gambit of worry, support for the company, and commendation for them on each article. But only Nintendo fans seem to think there is some bias against Nintendo. That says a lot about the fans, if you ask me.

The Wii U is struggling. Yes, it has sold about as well as either of the consoles that Sony and Microsoft have released. But with a year head start, it should be outpacing them by much more. As is, I bet PS4 will overtake the Wii U in Worldwide sales as soon as we hear Japanese says numbers for the system. And the Xbox One is doing pretty well, too. Having Worldwide sales that outstrip the Wii U at this same point in it's life cycle.

I have no interest in the Wii U. I had no interest in the Wii (I really hate motion controls). And I can count the number of Wii games that caught my interest on one hand. Currently, the only game on the Wii U that looks good to me is X. Damn, does X look good. I'd love to see it on PS4. But there are plenty of games that won't come to Wii U that I am even more excited for.

With limited income, I can only afford one console. Sorry, but I'm not buying the Wii U for X. Mario holds no sway over me. The only classic Nintendo franchise that interests me is Zelda. Still not enough to warrant a Wii U. So, if Nintendo went third party like Sega, I would be happy. I'm not holding my breath, though.

Here's the deal, I think they messed up with the Wii U. Badly. I talked to someone, who owned a Wii, and didn't not know the Wii U was a new console. He thought it was an add on. When he asked me what the console looked like, I had to admit that I didn't even know. (I now know it looks about like a car CD Player) That is not a good thing. It's a sign of a failure in advertisement when people don't know what you are selling or what it looks like.

For the record, Microsoft failed with it's initial announcement. And their PR since then has been abysmal. Sony has had issues with some of the launch consoles messing up. My own console fried on me within a half hour (Admittedly, Sony was very good about the customer support by all accounts).

Every company makes mistakes. Reporting and commenting on it does not equate hate!

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

But there is a very, very regular occurrence on these forums where people will take the slightest bit of Nintendo news to make stupid statements like "Nintendo is failing" or "Nintendo should die" or "Nintendo should go third party".

That is the thing, I'm still trying to figure out the logic of it. What exactly has Nintendo done to earn so much ire? If people are still sulking over the N64/GC/Wii/DS/3DS, heck if they're still sulking over the Wii U then they have some SERIOUS freaking issues they need to work out with a therapist. Nintendo exists and they are an entity that likes to go against the grain and do their own thing.It's about time people get over that.

 

[VoidWanderer]

Why do we care if Nintendo isn't doing well? Because they are first and foremost a gaming company, so when their games and related devices fail, it is news.

But honestly, Nintendo won't fail. The fanboys will ensure that never happens.

 

[Saltyk]

-opinions-

Opinions are fine. I don't agree entirely with what you've said but I respect your right to an opinion.

But there is a very, very regular occurrence on these forums where people will take the slightest bit of Nintendo news to make stupid statements like "Nintendo is failing" or "Nintendo should die" or "Nintendo should go third party".

Those are the people I'm talking about. Not you. So I'm not sure why you attributed my statements to yourself when I'm clearly not talking about you.

That's the thing. That doesn't happen. I see threads like this one decrying the "Nintendo Hate" regularly. I could probably set my watch by them. I never see "Nintendo Hate" threads. The closest to these mythical "Nintendo Hate" threads is the stories reporting on Nintendo. And the comments on those are virtually identical to the comments on Sony or Microsoft threads. Except on those threads you actually get people proclaiming how mighty and superior the PC is. I don't think I've seen that in a Nintendo thread, yet.

If I were to talk bad about anything, it would be the Nintendo fanboys who constantly defend Nintendo against nonexistent attacks. These constant threads decrying the plight of Nintendo haters have seriously hurt my opinion on the Nintendo fanbase. I'd hate to be considered a part of the same group. That's more than enough reason for me to distance myself from Nintendo.

I'm a huge fan of plenty of things that get "hate". DBZ or Final Fantasy, for example. I probably consider FF7 to be my all time favorite game. But I see plenty of hate for it. Claims that FF7 is over rated and garbage. People constantly (accurately) joke about all the powering up in DBZ. I've never felt a need to tell those people how wrong they are. What do I care? It doesn't affect me or my enjoyment of those things. So why do you get so annoyed when people talk bad about Nintendo? Are you not secure enough in your opinion of Nintendo that you need everyone else to love them, too?

In fact, a true fan admits when there is a problem with what they love. A true fan can even joke about it.

For example:
The anime adaption of DBZ (though it would be more accurate to simply call it Dragon Ball) was full of useless filler. Not just scenes that served no purpose, but excessive powering up sequences. At their worst, they outright contradicted established lore of the series. It's to the point that fans actually suggest there are two cannons of the series. The anime and the manga. Probably the worst filler was Gohan returning to fight Freiza. I personally despise that episode.

You know it's really sad that Cloud could pass for a woman with just a dress and wig...