smudgey said:
fix-the-spade said:
iammatt95 said:
But they dont.I relized they dont care about their core gamers anymore.
"Hardcore" gamers spent ten years largely ignoring Nintendo in favour of Sony, why are you at all surprised that now they are ignoring you back?
I completely agree. When the PS2 came out, most people forgot about nintendo (myself included), and the gamecube got it's boxy liitle arse kicked by the PS2 and Xbox. After that, Ninty weren't exactly flush with cash like sony and M$ (for whom gaming is just one division of), and could not afford to spend the investment needed for their own HD console. They took a huge gamble in making games that could appeal to non-gamers, it paid off and now they cop shit for it. I mean, if they had made a HD console, would anyone have actually bought it when they saw it sitting next to a PS3 or 360? The Gamecube suffered from a lack of third-party support too, would devs have suddenly jumped on board, or would they have stuck with the "mature" audiences of the PS3 and 360?
Nintendo continued to make a profit during the Gamecube years, despite getting destroyed by the competition. Inversely, Sony and Microsoft lost money during those years, even though they had far more sales. The rest of your argument is pretty sound, though.
I didn't really read through this whole topic, but I feel I can make a pretty solid counter-argument to everything that's been said so far.
"Nintendo's betrayed me! They've abandoned their core audience!" - This statement shows how personal things have gotten for some people. Nintendo didn't betray you; they're a business, and ultimately, their goal is to make a profit. Nintendo's core audience has been continously dwindling ever since the days of the N64. The total amount of N64 and Gamecube sales in comparison to the PS1/PS2/Xbox sales reflect that. It wouldn't make sense to keep making games for an audience that was getting smaller all the time from a business standpoint. That's why Nintendo is taking the "casual game" approach. They've found a new audience, and it's working well for them. For better or for worse, they are much more successful now than they were even a few years ago.
"All Nintendo does is milk their franchises without adding anything new. They need to stop making Mario and Zelda, and make some new games already!" - This is just ignorance. If Nintendo is guilty of milking franchises, then so is Microsoft and Sony, and several other companies. The reason they continue making Mario and Zelda is because they are very powerful franchises that continue to sell very well. Again, from a business standpoint, what company wouldn't keep making games with those intellectual properties? Also, when they do make a game that's different from their core franchises (WiiFit, Pikmin, Nintendogs Fire Emblem, and Punch-Out! Wii) it's either ignored or criticized for being too different, usually from the same people.
"The Wii doesn't have any of the good games that are on the Xbox 360/PS3! The crappy graphics keep it from being a serious game console!" - The purpose of the Wii is to offer something different than what the other consoles offer. Remember back in the days of the Gamecube when they tried to be like Sony and Microsoft? It didn't quite go so well for them. If Nintendo tried to be like the other competitors with the Wii, not only would they still be behind in the console wars, but gaming wouldn't be as large as it is now. No one new would bother with gaming if all three systems were still geared towards the same hardcore audience after all these years. This is why you will never see games like Fallout 3, Gears of War, Left4Dead, or Metal Gear Solid 4 on the Wii. And while the Wii is a less powerful system than the 360 and PS3, it still has some good-looking games on it (MadWorld, No More Heroes, and the upcoming Punch-Out! Wii, for example.) Even so, graphics alone does not determine the outcome of a game or console.
"The Wii has no good games! It's all just a bunch of crappy fitness games and shovelware!" - This one kind of gets me, because the people who say this aren't looking for the good games. There's Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Mario Kart Wii, Zack & Wiki, No More Heroes, MadWorld, Boom Blox, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, House of the Dead: Overkill, two Trauma Center games, and a few others worth looking at. Also coming soon is Punch-Out! Wii, The Conduit, WiiSports Resort, Sin & Punishment 2, No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, Dead Space: Extraction (could be good), and a Wii Zelda. There's also the Virtual Console and WiiWare, which have endless amounts of high-quality games from Nintendo and other companies. The Wii also has several ports from previous generations like Bully, Okami, Twilight Princess and Resident Evil 4. Yeah, they're not original, but if you've never played them before, they're still worth checking out. The Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and LEGO games are also available for the Wii, and they're just as fun to play as their 360/PS3 counterparts. I understand that in comparison to the 360 and PS3, there aren't as many games, but the games that the Wii does have are very close to the highest quality available, if they aren't already on that level.
