About Nintendo..... The Japanese Rot

Nitnendo directs are so ground breaking that the whole industry now does them. And although Nintendos might not be perfect and boring for some, they are awesome for people who want a President to be held accountable for everything. Iwatas Direct unboxing is still one of the greatest unboxings in the history of entertainment.

Yall people act like what PC, Sony, and Microsoft etc do is better, but that shat is boring. I cant stand watching some no name or celebrity talking about games when they dont play or have anything to do with them. I want my shat DIRECT!

@GameboyTroy: Thanks for the video from Nintendo Life. I like that guy-Alex.

As I have said elsewhere, I have a huge backlog of games that I need to finish from my Wii and Wii U libraries. I think the Wii U is the best Nintendo console to date because of the Gamepad, b/c with Wii games, Wii U games and all of the digital store games. I did not think that people were confused about what the Wii U was until I previously helped clarify for a random mother in Walmart the difference between Epic Mickey 2 for the Wii and Epic Mickey 2 for the Wii U one day. That was only 1 encounter I had like that, but it was probably not an isolated incident. There are many reasons why the Wii U did not sell comparable to the competition, but the largest one that makes the most sense to me is Nintendo's home consoles are competing with the DS and 3DS brands. I don't have any scientific evidence to back it up, but t just seems like everyone has a DS in some form, except me lol!

I really feel like Nintendo has taken/continues to take steps to streamline their business model with all of the official changes we know about: addressing mobile, combing their portable/home console software teams, and attempting to be more inclusive with third party by using similar programming architecture as the competition and Unreal Engine to name a few things?

We finally got a release date for the NX, March 2017, but it will not be revealed at E3 2016. Nintendo said more time is needed for NX games to be finished. Everyone was hoping that the reveal would be E3 2016, but I don't recall Nintendo ever saying it would be there and then. With the recent announcements of the PS4 and Xbox One upgrades it seems to me that Nintendo has to adapt their marketing strategy to reflect how the NX will sell with new consoles launching around the same time. If Nintendo releases console specs or a new innovation while the competition is in the planning stages it could undermine the new concept they are trying to bring (it would not be new if the competition does it before Nintendo does). If they tell everyone what the console is and does almost a year before launch the negative people on the internet will tear it to shreds before anyone gets their hands on it. Like if it has anything else going for it except POWER and a regular controller with 3rd party support it will be no good in the opinion of the vocal negative types. Maybe we will get a peek at the new controller and console around the 2016 holidays.

@Collie_Lover: Good insight mate. I think you might have a point in that one of the reasons Wii U struggles is competition from 3DS, its true. More kids play 3DS to where more adults play Wii U, our fanbases are split.

@iandizion713: Thanks for that video-I miss Iwata...Seeing the Wii U unpackaged like that makes me want to buy another console lol! I loved the part of the presentation that the HDMI cable comes packed in with the Wii U console as a standard.

@Collie_Lover: Yeah i miss Iwata, he worked on Star Fox Zero as executive producer and when i beat the game i cried at the special ending thing. I had forgotten about him working on the game.

Well in my opinion most people who direslty make the games are terrible in front of large crowds. There are things you can do to better your public speaking, but they arent doing them. I agree with the language points, you are putting yourself ina tight spot putting ot aspeaker who's second language hes speaking.

That's why that dude from Suker Punch came out and was so passionate about telling his story and how he conveyed it was such a win. He was very comfortable on stage and describing the game and its story was quite exciting.

The last thing anyone wants to do right now is copy Nintendo. Their latest console was the biggest failure of a home console since Sega was around. They don't want to show it because they are embarrassed of it and know it will fail like the WiiU.

@NathanDrakeSwag: Funny you say that cause PS3, Vita, and PS4 copied a bunch from Nintendo. I think Sony is even coping Miiverse now. Sony is a copy company, its what they do, copy. They very good at it.

@iandizion713: the problem is that the wii u games usually have a very similar counterpart. And the 3ds itself as well as it's games are cheaper and more accessible

Super mario 3d world = super mario 3d land

Donkey kong country tropical freeze = donkey kong country returns 3d

Hyrule warriors = hyrule warriors legends

Kirby and the rainbow curse = kirby triple deluxe

Yoshis woolly world = yoshis new island

Mario kart 8 = mario kart 7

Super smash bros for wii u = super smash bros for 3ds

New super mario bros u = new super mario bros

You get the picture.

I'm sure there's a lot of casual 3ds owners that make up that 50 million install base that are more than happy with the games they have, and aren't interested in the console games of those franchises as they are very similar.

Nintendo needed more games specifically designed for a console to give the console it's unique reason to exist. Bayonetta 2 and Splatoon are good examples of this.

2d games should not be the dominant makeup of a consoles exclusive games because console games have proven for the last 2 decades they are much more capable than that.

You don't buy a lambo to drive it around Detroit.

@jcrame10: You do if you live in Detroit. Wii U has plenty of games to justify its existence. Its just not that appealing and has a lot of competition as you just stated.

@iandizion713: of course you would. But how large is that demographic? Very small more than likely. Just like the gaming demographic that owns a Wii U.

@jcrame10: Foundations dont have to be big, they just have to be solid.

@iandizion713: yeah but if your foundation never grows then you have a failed business model.

@jcrame10: Thank goodness Wii U is growing then. Look at them game sales. So purdy.

@iandizion713: the attach rate is good but the install base is not. Which is fine if they cater their console business model and market around that number. To be honest I don't see why people say wii u numbers are so slow- they're really not for nintendo. If we ignore the wii, which appealed to a much wider demographic than just video game players, wii u is not that far behind n64 and GameCube. For the last 25 years there's been about 20-30 million nintendo fans who regularly buy their consoles, it's just now 3ds is such a nice buy that some of that market has seemingly shifted over to exclusively playing nintendo on handheld.

@jcrame10: Also people grow older and switch or quit gaming and PC/Mobile is a growing force and easy to use now. Its a lot of things, but good thing is the games are doing good. Wii did good in certain areas, but bad in important areas.

That was a good System Wars comeback, but go ahead an underestimate Nintendo out your own peril. Nintendo's success with the Wii, handheld line, and games speaks for itself.

You're connecting their PR to their success/failures and what he stated is also connected to their success/failures. There are other variables affecting the reason they are not releasing information on the NX.

There was a time though when Nintendo fans called the Wii successful but when we all look at the wii as gamers it failed atrociously with its library. The only thing you can talk about that's revolutionary is the motion controls and the sales of the Wii. So basically, when it was the generation of the wii people considered it better than the other consoles but looking at the generation overall it did a poor ass job and not because of PR.

You really don't see anything wrong with this? This video exemplifies even more what's wrong than mine did.

He's speaking Japanese, he's bowing, he's not animated (no body language) or enthusiastic......everything he's doing here is centered around strict Japanese customs and mannerisms. You don't put a static, Japanese businessman in the front line of your international company informing you of the weight of the box as opposed to its predecessor if you wish to appeal past anything but the niche. Sure, some may find this cute, I'll admit he has charisma, and some may prefer this, but it will be a small minority and it will never penetrate widespread past what the cultural boundaries impose.

And Iwata being accountable for everything? Great, I can apologize a million times, and so what? Am I all of a sudden accountable? Accountability comes alongside responsibility and rectification. Iwata apologized over and over for software droughts. They continued year after year. Accountable? He cut his pay. "Oh, what a swell guy!" (....and Nintendo continued to incur losses). Accountable? The entire problem with Iwata is he tied his management style and professional life into his personal amicability, largely through Directs and Iwata Asks. They were carefully calculated attempts to form a personality cult around him, and it succeeded. That's why so many still adore him and excused him time and time again, even though he left Nintendo in near ruin, because when someone is likable it's very hard to criticize them. Especially given the way he passed, it now makes him now nearly untouchable in discussing his legacy without a preface of "RIP", or "no disrespect intended.....".

This is wrong, and I'm tired of it. The guy deserves his share of harsh criticism given the state of Nintendo today. I'm not saying anything bad about him personally, but I'll forever disagree that he was 100% competent in his professional career as a CEO as many like to claim, and Nintendo's current state stands in testament to it.

@MirkoS77: Pessimistic much? If it wasnt for Iwata Nintendo would have continued to struggle like it was doing. Why you carry on about the bad in Nintendo so much is strange. Iwata brought gaming to grandma and them. It caters to all. Iwata helped spark the return of the Indie scene, the dudes accomplishments are unmatched. Hes a true gamer, not just a business man.

And the dude speaks Japanese cause he is Japanese. Hes real, not pretend. We dont want fake people, i dont care if they speak French, as long as theyre a real gamer, ill welcome it.

@iandizion713: a lot of people feel they "outgrow" nintendo and move into playstation, xbox and/or PC. Because nintendo always caters to the same age audience and rarely creates new things.

@MirkoS77: you have to admit that the wii u unboxing makes for a great ASMR video.

@jcrame10: Also cause they do like me and think blood and guns equal mature. I use to be a Sega and Sony fanboy. It wasnt until Wii era that i changed and grew up.

That doesn't mean he was a competent businessman. I can't help but feel that after the disaster of the Wii U (which I know you don't see as such, but it is), the Wii and DS were either complete flukes on his watch, or he had a lot of help putting them in motion by people who know what they were doing. Yamauchi is much more accomplished than Iwata could ever hope to be, and will be remembered as such. He turned Nintendo into a legendary gaming company from the ground up, whereas Iwata exhausted that legacy and has left them in the worst position they've ever been in.

I talk about the bad of Nintendo because I want them to do good. And sorry to say, they aren't doing good on the gaming side of things. Nintendo is a train wreck right now, everyone knows this, and Kimishima has only been in office for a few months. What we are witnessing is still Iwata's doing (or lack of doing).

@MirkoS77: In order to release the Wii and DS, Iwata had to override the Nintendo board. Yamauchi made massive mistakes. He rushed the Virtual Boy and N64. They warned him about releasing the Virtual Boy but he wouldnt listen and overrode the board. Now you want to talk about failures? Virtual Boy is just that, it failed so bad Nintendo had to remove it from store shelves like 4 months later. Yamauchi is also the reason the Gamecube didnt go for regular DVDs and become an entertainment console, he was against this.

Yeah, thats all you talk about mate, your very pessimistic. But its cool, some people are just that way.

I don't even know if I'd grant it that much.

I don't think they are delaying the NX just so that there are more games at launch. I don't think that's a huge factor considering that most console launch with lacklustre games at first, even the hyper-successful ones. It's a good PR message though since it is undoubtedly pro-gamer and emits confidence in their brand. Of course then, if they are delaying the NX it makes no sense to show it off, since for the holiday season they need to be all about the wii u. Extending the wiiu's life a little bit is also a good olive branch to their fanbase.

There are two options of what is really going on. First, they want the NX to launch very cheaply. Nintendo believes in this idea, and although it's not the sexy answer especially for hard core gamers willing to spend cash, but in the mainstream market having cheap hardware is a massive deal.

Imo however, that's also not what's happening. Even if devs have been told about the NX, I believe that Nintendo might be updating what the NX actually is. This might be a response to the ps4k/ Neo. Maybe they are beefing the power of the thing to make it more of a cross gen console and less of a ps4/xb1 peer. Maybe they are enhancing the modular nature of it, or otherwise altering the architecture in some way. If it's true that they are launching in early 2017, it basically still amounts to them prepping for a monster push in the holiday season of 2017, hopefully entering that key period with some momentum in terms of already being known and already having some killer IPs and third party content.

Market-wise, it also makes sense to put off the console since the economy is still rough, although it seems to be turning around. 2017 might be a key year to target for an ambitious console.

@GunSmith1_basic: Good stuff, i think your on to something, i think its a little bit of all. We can take a guess and say Nintendo was expecting a delay all along, but played investors and the competition like they always do.

I mean heck, they even got Sony to announce an updated console for 2016 and Sonys in the lead! Come e3 Sony might show PSVR and the worlds most powerful console PS4K.

The problem with Nintendo is that they refuse to make a system that has 3rd-party support and media playback. They are allergic to being a primary gaming platform. Love Nintendo, but they are pretty much crazy.

@iandizion713: if you think that's all that's offered on other platforms then you're immature as well. There's a variety of games as usual on ps4 and xbox. From littlebigplanet and tearaway unfolded to doom. It's nintendo that generally caters to one art style and one demographic (although they've made a few exceptions this gen)

@jcrame10: That was my Dudebro mentality, all i played was FPS, Horror, RPGs, Sports and Action. If i was still dudebro, PS4 would be heaven.

Don't think you're insulting me by labeling me pessimistic. I understand my nature and accept it, but if you think it lends credence to your position, it doesn't. I could just as easily claim that your optimism towards Nintendo easily steps into the realm of outright delusion. At least I'm realistic in my negativity.

Yamauchi was still overseeing Iwata at the time of the Wii/DS's release, he had not stepped down in Iwata's early years. You have a link to show Iwata was fully responsible? Yamauchi made mistakes, but Iwata made massive ones as well. Sure, the VB was a failure, however it wasn't a main pillar of their business that ended up being the worst selling console in their history, was it? Who presided over hundreds of millions in losses over a period of years, the first in Nintendo's gaming history? (hint: it wasn't Yamauchi). Who did nothing when the Wii and DS were bring in money by the truckload to bring Nintendo's business up to par? (hint: it wasn't Yamauchi). Who did nothing to take initiative to build a competent online infrastructure because "no one wants online games"? Who said "we're poor at competing"? Who said "we're too far behind PSN and Live to catch up"? (hint....well, hopefully you get the picture).

Who has left Nintendo, in 2016, with literally no games from May until the end of the year? So yea, Iwata's not the god you make him out to be. Nintendo is suffering badly in terms of their console business, which is teetering on the brink contingent upon one system to save them. Who brought Nintendo to that point?

@MirkoS77: And youd be right, im a very optimistic person.

Heres a good link showcasing Iwatas involvement. Yamauchi was President of Nintendo during its decline, its why he was replaced. Iwata was President during its recovery. And again, Virtual Boy was a massive failure. Failure! Wii U isnt, Wii U is just a struggling Nintendo console that makes profit off its hardware alone.

@iandizion713: eh not big on FPS but I do get down with rainbow siege. Not into sports games either. I use my ps4 for until dawn, last of us mp, unravel, firewatch, the division, need for speed, tearaway unfolded, and ratchet and clank recently

@jcrame10: Yeah, as a dudebro i wouldnt have played most those. I would have played Until Dawn, Last of Us, Need for Speed and The Division. Plus others like CoD, Madden, NBA2K, Fifa, The Witcher 3 and GTA5.

Optimism is different from delusion my friend.

Yamauchi wasn't "replaced", he retired, and that had nothing to do with Nintendo's performance. The guy was 74 years old at the time, having taken on Nintendo's leadership at the age of 22. C'mon now. And yes, the Wii U on a commercial metric is an outright failure. Even Nintendo said so, what more do you need? Just because it wasn't pulled off the shelves doesn't mean it didn't fail commercially. As for the blue ocean strategy Iwata implemented, to what end? To draw in the casuals who had no interest in Nintendo's products, but were only there because of a fad of motion controls and brilliant marketing? Who then fled to mobile and left Nintendo hanging?

Looks like that strategy's working wonders for them currently...

@MirkoS77: Shat happens, thats why Iwata launched the mobile strategy. Got to get the kids, theyre our future. Iwata also greenlight Amiibos, he had to override the board on that too.

Gotta agree with MirkoS77 here...Iwata was a bad CEO ...whatever they had plan for Wii U, they fail to execute it...even worse they sacrifice Wii U in favour of 3DS. Nintendo now is Being different for the sake of being different..and that is bad...I hope Kimishima is not just following Iwata's playbook...cause that will be bad. :P

Kimishima was specifically brought on because he clashed with Iwata on core issues, and in fact he hated the Wii U from day one of them going that direction. That doesn't mean that he's any better than Iwata mind you, but be prepared for the NX to be different than the Wii U in many ways. Maybe that means the NX will just be simple game machine like the ps4 with some power to back it up. We can't know until we see the fruits of his leadership, because all we have now is words and rumours, which are fun but don't matter.

If I would wager a guess, I think that the defining feature of Nintendo (not just the NX) will be that they are servicing 3rd parties moreso than even gamers. The NX will ape the architecture of the competition to encourage porting, and Nintendo will be bribing 3rd parties for content, something they haven't done in the past, but what Sony and MS couldn't stop doing. Nintendo has the most disposable income of all three companies (the gaming sides of them anyway) considering the massive haul they got from the Wii.

What do you mean by "ape"? Copy or as in "ape-s**t" as in it's going to be more powerful?

I think Nintendo learned it's lesson this last go around, but I doubt they saw the PS4 Neo coming. At best, I'm expecting something inbetween the PS4 and it's Neo counterpart. My bets are that the NX's SoC will use Polaris, and I'm sort of betting that it will use Zen. A March 2017 release coincides well with what should be the time just after the launch of the first PC Zen CPUs, and APUs might be debuting by that time as well. Both Zen and Polaris are 14nm architectures, and applicable for lower power form factors like Nintendo prefers.

Lol. It's sold at a worse rate than the Dreamcast, has game droughts that go on for literally half a year, no third party support, very few 1st party killer apps, and is an acknowledged failure by Nintendo themselves, who lost hundreds of millions during the WiiU years.

It's a failure, by any metric.

The PS4's launch was nothing special, neither very good nor very bad. Plenty of good games, no killer apps, like most console launches, including the WiiU.

Again, using Metacritic as just a quick, rough way to estimate, the WiiU's 2012 games (launch through Christmas) shows me 19 games rated 70 ("Good") or over. The PS4's equivalent launch games show me 20 rated 70 ("Good") or over.

Moving into each console's second year, the WiiU has 32 good games, the PS4 has 91. Third year for each: WiiU has 31, PS4 has 154. Fourth year for each: WiiU had 25, PS4 has 66... and that's just the 4 months of the current year, PS4 will rack up a couple of hundred good games in the entire 2016 at this rate.

Obviously, Metacritic isn't "GOD" or anything, and those lists are packed with ports, remakes, DLC, indies etc... but it gives a good rough idea of the situation. Each console had similar launches, but PS4 quickly picked up steam, with each year giving more and more. WiiU puttered along and actually declined in terms of quality games.

Saying the PS4 had "squat" is just a lie. Even at it's worst (launch and year 1) it had plenty to play, at no point did it have ridiculous months long droughts like WiiU.

When it comes to "battling perceptions", the kiddy thing matters for sure, but much more important is the battle to convince gamers that NX won't be yet another Nintendo console with weak hardware, piles of minigames and Mario, no 3rd party support, massive genre gaps, and common lengthy droughts.

To be blunt: they need to convince gamers that they know WiiU was garbage and that they're dedicated to fixing that. I'm not sure if they CAN convince enough.

The NX was developed under Iwata, Kimishima really has no choice now but to carry out Iwata's hardware plans for the near future. The NX will be to Iwata's credit, for better or worse. It will take a while before all of his influence and planning is gone and it's all on Kimishima. Who knows, the NX might be a wild success, and if it is, that would give me a higher opinion of Iwata as he's been instrumental in it.

Wii U already passed Dreamcast, and it didnt need third party to help it pass either. Nintendo now makes profit off Wii U, millions of profit. Also thanks to Wii Us NFC reader we have Amiibos. All Wii U does is print money for Nintendo.

It's not printing as much money as the DS and Wii last gen

It passed Dreamcast by being out longer. It's actually sold at a slower rate than DC. Nintendo just have more cash to fund losses than Sega did.

It isn't "making profit" if you've already lost hundreds of millions for repeated years.

http://www.polygon.com/2014/5/7/5690124/nintendo-posts-456-million-annual-operating-loss

I know you're a creepy little WiiU fanboy but claiming that WiiU is a success when Nintendo themselves blame it for losing hundreds of millions just makes you look deluded. It's a trainwreck of a system, no matter the metric.

Yep, at least Dreamcast was able to sell above 12 million units with only 2 years of life, the Wii U is staggering dead last after 3 years and nothing is worth buying it this year after Zelda's delay until next spring.

Yeah, and it only took a price tag of $99 to help it.

Wii U lost money at first to pay for R&D. She all profit now baby.

Yet, 12 million units sold isn't something to be proud of when you had last gen sales be over 100 million. It also has them look bad a front of investors. Even if they are profiting with every Wii U sold, they're not making a ton of it due to slow and stagnant sales. Also, as you stated, they were taking a loss with every Wii U sales in the first year, yet finally started to profit now, but the issue is the returns aren't so spectacular with 12 million units sold.

@FireEmblem_Man: Yeah, the issues is, were not getting super rich no more, were just getting rich. Boy would i love have that problem.