Wii U Baffles Godfather of Gaming

[Baresark]

I think that his prevailing attitude is indicative of people suffering from the availability heuristic. Gaming is bigger than ever, and they look at the place where gaming is growing and think that it replaces other sectors of gaming. But that attitude is not entirely right or appropriate. Smartphones are absolutely everywhere. So it would make sense that gaming would explode on these things in a big way. I'm not going to go so far as to make this a core vs casual argument or anything like that. And while consoles to an extent are struggling, it's not really because of smartphones or tablets. They are struggling more likely from things like lack new IP's, publishers playing it safe, and the fact that every console hardware vendor is universally starting to sell things at a loss. These are just a few of many factors that affect how console gaming changes and evolves.

I love when people bring up relevance. It's an overused term at this point. There is no problem with console relevance in regards to gaming. Smartphones exist for a few reasons, but gaming is at best a tertiary endeavor on it. The primary use of the smartphones is not gaming, it's calling, texting, email, music, social networking device. I'll tell you where I start to question relevance in regards to consoles: Consoles as social networking devices. They are so far at the back of the pack in regards to that, they need to not even try. You can do that on you computer, your laptop, your tablet, your smartphone, your TV, your DVD/Media player... I honestly feel that where consoles start to fail is when they try to expand beyond what they are. Nothing is going to make you more irrelevant than trying to be a jack of all trades and being bad at them. Every time I'm in the market for a new phone, I get one that can play the latest games but soon resign myself to it not being a good gaming device for many reasons.

I can't help but feel that he says these things because he disconnected and not actually making games anymore. And in the words of the original Silk Spectre from The Watchmen, "Every day, the future looks a little bit darker. But the past, even the grimy parts of it, keep on getting brighter."

 

[gamerguy20097]

Old person thinking like old people do. I'm sure he uses the "back in my day we"......... phrase.

 

[weirdee]

i'm not sure if his experience has taught him anything, but it's way too late now to help anybody from his position. i'd rather get advice from somebody who knows information beyond what you can mirror from pundits.

i think the market is slowly expanding to accommodate different devices, and this isn't the complete picture he paints here. as long as the pogeymons stays on nintendo, you won't be able to get rid of their handhelds, lol.

 

[Aussie502]

I'm sure I heard only a year ago that the PC was going to die out at the hands of consoles. Now i'm hearing consoles are going to die out as well. Where are people going to play their video games? Nowhere it seems.

 

[shrekfan246]

When was the last time Atari was even relevant to gaming? The answer is around twenty years ago, so you know, they know the future of gaming pretty well, right? Or wait, I should give them this, the head of Atari should know pretty well what might fail.

Ehhh, they published Neverwinter Nights and its sequel, as well as the first Witcher and the second one in North America and Australia. They're at least as relevant as THQ, who are pretty close to bankruptcy at this point.

OT: I can't really comment on the Wii U, as I don't have one. I may plan on getting one some day when I can see a bunch of games I'm interested in being me for it to take advantage of the unique capabilities it has, but right now I can't justify it and I doubt I'm the only person in that boat.

 

[Beautiful End]

Bold words from the founder of Atari, a console that no longer exists. Since who knows when.

Anyway, I don't think the WiiU is gonna suck, I just think it won't do as well as they expect it to do once the other consoles come out. It's shiny and pretty and new and it has that on their side. But I don't think it will be so bad, Nintendo will be forced to shut down or become a developer.

Like Atari.

AWWWWW YEAAAAAAH!

 

[Jiefu]

Well, let's see, who knows more about the state of console gaming: Nintendo, or the guy whose couldn't hack it 25 years ago?

 

[cerebus23]

I do not think it is our of the realm to say that as smart phones and smart pads get more powerful whats to stop them from being the goto console of choice? Add to that they are far more flexible and portable than a console system.

Sony and ms will never make their systems open enough to allow for custom apps phones and pads do, developers can release games and updates free if they like, give away content free of they like, we know they cannot do that on XBL.

The way the big two treat customers and their utter seeming contempt for gamers in general, it is not hard to see these more open and flexible devices winning the next gen wars. Even smart tvs factor into the mix when they can provide content far better than sony and MS can.

As consoles try to be the center of it all, here are increasing options to make the center of it all being your handheld item of choice, that can network to all your stuff and tell stuff what to do far easier than probably setting it up on ps4 and xbox 720.

Nintendo lost face when they turned the wii into shovel ware dump central.

 

[sethisjimmy]

Sounds jealous. Rightfully so. Nintendo essentially destroyed his legacy back in the day, and have lasted far longer than he did, while proving him wrong on every prediction.

The guy's a living stereotype of the old guy who just can't understand "kids today".

 

[Nazulu]

Completely agree with this man, it still baffles me as well how they could design a console so backwards. Out of all Nintendo's controllers, Gamecube is still by far the most flexible.

You know what it is Nolan, standards have dropped, a lot. They have fallen so far that so many people just miss the point completely. That's why remakes of movies are shoved out and still make some money, why reality TV is popular at all, and why we can have over 100 bland FPS's copy other bland shooters and still stay in business.

Then you get people making assumptions about you when they disagree like your just blinded by nostalgia when they're blinded by pretty colours, or you just hate Nintendo just because they feel the need to defend it from everything.

 

[dyre]

Another person claiming consoles are dead, there seems to be a lot of those later, all the Wii-U's that were pre-ordered beg to differ.

Makes a change from people claiming PCs are dead. Both claims are just as silly.

Exactly, both are still wildy successful, consoles and PC's aren't going anywhere for a LONG time.

Handhelds get it the worst though, since people aren't buying Vitas because the price is unholy, handheld gaming is utterly dead and iPhone games will reign supreme...

Do people get payed to write such incorrect predictions?

Maybe they're just people with opinions, something we're all guilty of. What I don't understand is why this stuff counts as "news."

 

[xPixelatedx]

In the past he's called modern games "pure, unadulterated trash,"

Well, the guy is not completely off his rocker, it seems XD

But in all seriousness that's an exaggeration. I will however say most of the prettiest games I've played (this whole gen) have turned out to be 'pure, unadulterated trash'. So yeah, I can kind of see that point. That's kind of why I bought the wiiU, knowing it would be outclassed in hardware in a few years by it's two competitors. Hardware doesn't really matter to me, because I have yet to see much worthwhile come from graphics alone. They are just starting to matter less and less now.

 

[orangeapples]

When I read the article title I thought, "Miyamoto said what?"

Then I realized it was Nolan Bushnell.

I keep forgetting, Miyamoto is like the cool out-of-the-box uncle of the video game family. He has these crazy ideas and you're always unsure, but they manage to work out for the most part.

Bushnell is like gaming's old senile grandpa. Sometimes he says things that the rest of the family is just flat-out embarrassed by.

 

[zaion]

so does anyone know why he's baffled? that was the main reason i looked at this article and im still confused. what's baffling about it?

 

[zaion]

so does anyone know why he's baffled? that was the main reason i looked at this article and im still confused. what's baffling about it?

 

[vasiD]

While I do think consoles are dying, I don't think it's because of their controllers, I think it's because of greedy, DRM-crazy console developers with their constant updates in a futile attempt to fight pirates, planned obsolescence schemes, and general price gouging, not to mention how clearly dated the hardware can grow in a rather short time. I genuinely feel that at some point the market will shift over to the ever-evolving PC, once everyone realizes that in the long run it ends up saving you money. (I'm not trying to start a PC vs Console war here, anything you can say against what I just said is likely retarded or formed from an uninformed viewpoint, or that of a brainwashed fanboy, neither of which I'm interested in, so save yourself the arthritic build-up. Plus the only way you can really prove me wrong is to keep blindly giving Microsoft/Sony your money.)

And while I agree that handheld gaming will soon migrate over to phones and tablets (I have a Vita, and I genuinely regret not getting a tablet instead, though that's not my only bit of logic behind it mind you, just my personal testimony), I still think some of the comments this guy are making ring of "Back in my day" syndrome (specifically calling modern games "trash". No, sir, Pong was fucking trash. In fact, every Atari game I've ever played I'd call garbage openly, not to say there aren't good games, then I'd be no better than him, I'm just saying I haven't played even one of them that is worthwhile yet).

Eat a dick old man, it's 2012, we have hoverboards, jet packs, and flying cars, deal with that shit.

 

[vasiD]

When I read the article title I thought, "Miyamoto said what?"

Then I realized it was Nolan Bushnell.

I keep forgetting, Miyamoto is like the cool out-of-the-box uncle of the video game family. He has these crazy ideas and you're always unsure, but they manage to work out for the most part.

Bushnell is like gaming's old senile grandpa. Sometimes he says things that the rest of the family is just flat-out embarrassed by.

First of: This is also exactly what I thought, and it deeply confused me as I'm pretty sure Miyamoto had something to do with the U.

Second: Excellent analogy, couldn't have said it better myself.