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Spacebump
Dec 24, 2003

Dallas Mavericks: Generations

ohnoitschris posted:

You don't take your iOS games to a friends house and log into his ipad to play them, though, and you can't just load your apple ID onto his iStuff because he'll have full unrestricted access to your collection. That's why Xbox's is perfect, it follows you without saving itself onto a friend's console.

Also why do you keep calling it WIi

When my friends log into my Xbox, their account is still on my Xbox until I delete it.

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a.lo
Sep 12, 2009

I don't get it, the Wii U is going to have a DS back catalog but not the 3DS?

The 7th Guest
Dec 17, 2003

Just for the record Nintendo didn't even lay any kind of timetable for a switch to be flipped to say "okay, now you can redownload your games if you buy a new 3DS and log in".

They did say that FUTURE PLATFORMS would benefit from it. But they didn't say anything like "starting in June there'll be a patch to the OS and you'll be able to access your content from any device". You should probably wait for a Nintendo Direct to say something about it first before getting excited.

CURATOR OF ANIME posted:

I don't get it, the Wii U is going to have a DS back catalog but not the 3DS?
Yes but it doesn't matter because they're never going to actually do it.

Jimbo Jaggins
Jul 19, 2013
I'm a a little confused about what Nintendo means when it talks about 'health'. I can't think of anything other than Wii fit or calorie counting that wouldn't be a legal nightmare or force them to register their hardware as a 'medical device'. They must have something in mind that isn't either of those otherwise it's be a complete non-strategy not worth mentioning at an investors meeting.

a.lo
Sep 12, 2009

Quest For Glory II posted:


Yes but it doesn't matter because they're never going to actually do it.

It would be weird seeing DS games and still no N64 games.

Patter Song
Mar 26, 2010

Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man.
Fun Shoe

CURATOR OF ANIME posted:

It would be weird seeing DS games and still no N64 games.

Why would you want to play Diddy Kong Racing when you could play Diddy Kong Racing DS?

(This is a joke, just to be clear)

DEEP STATE PLOT
Aug 13, 2008

Yes...Ha ha ha...YES!



CURATOR OF ANIME posted:

It would be weird seeing DS games and still no N64 games.

N64 is like, the hardest system in the world to emulate. Even Nintendo can't do it properly and it's their own drat system.

The 7th Guest
Dec 17, 2003

I still think this is weird, by the way. They talk about Nintendo DS games coming to Wii U Virtual Console as a way of enriching the lineup and increasing the value of the gamepad.

Why aren't they selling original Wii games digitally over the eShop? Like, this seems like the most no-brainer thing to me. A lot of Wii software is out of print at this point. You'd fill the eShop with a ton of content. It can boot in Wii Mode or whatever but maybe have its own icon on the Wii Menu too if the player wants?

Having backwards compatibility but not actually selling those titles seems like, weirdly stupid to me. Xbox 360 sold Xbox games over the store, PSN lets you buy PSP games on a Vita. And there's no technological hurdle to it, and the games are not the size of Wii U titles you buy in the eShop, so what's the hold-up? I feel like it's inexcusable.

blackguy32
Oct 1, 2005

Say, do you know how to do the walk?

Quest For Glory II posted:

I still think this is weird, by the way. They talk about Nintendo DS games coming to Wii U Virtual Console as a way of enriching the lineup and increasing the value of the gamepad.

Why aren't they selling original Wii games digitally over the eShop? Like, this seems like the most no-brainer thing to me. A lot of Wii software is out of print at this point. You'd fill the eShop with a ton of content. It can boot in Wii Mode or whatever but maybe have its own icon on the Wii Menu too if the player wants?

Having backwards compatibility but not actually selling those titles seems like, weirdly stupid to me. There's no technological hurdle to it, and the games are not the size of Wii U titles you buy in the eShop, so what's the hold-up? I feel like it's inexcusable.

It would be a no brainer to put Xenoblade on there.

Supercar Gautier
Jun 10, 2006

Yeah, Xenoblade is begging for an eShop release. It's a good fit for every Wii U controller, even.

There's really just this strange gulf between words and actions when it comes to leveraging their legacy titles.

PrBacterio
Jul 19, 2000
It would make for some really good (and free) advertising for the upcoming sequel too.

Bass Bottles
Jan 14, 2006

BOSS BATTLES DID NOTHING WRONG

Quest For Glory II posted:

Just for the record Nintendo didn't even lay any kind of timetable for a switch to be flipped to say "okay, now you can redownload your games if you buy a new 3DS and log in".

They did say that FUTURE PLATFORMS would benefit from it. But they didn't say anything like "starting in June there'll be a patch to the OS and you'll be able to access your content from any device". You should probably wait for a Nintendo Direct to say something about it first before getting excited.

I don't think that's ever coming to 3DS or Wii U. Microsoft, a much more capable company, was unable to patch the 360 marketplace to be able to handle bundled content, XBLA games over a certain file size, or a PS+ type licensing system where you only have access to certain games while a subscription is active. Even the act of temporarily changing the price of games for sales was apparently a time intensive process on the back end.

These systems are weirdly fragile and difficult. Major changes like that generally seem to require new hardware.

Peel
Dec 3, 2007

RZA Encryption posted:

I get that these franchises are often overvalued by nostalgic gamers, and I agree that an amazing Starfox reboot wouldn't rescue them, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't make them anyway. Someone might want a Wii U for Mario Kart 8 (replace with any "system seller"), but most people hesitate to invest in a console when there isn't anything else there. Come for the smash bros, stay for the f-zero.

I definitely agree that they (or a third party) should make quality entries in their big franchises for whatever devices they put out. My point is more that I think some Nintendo fans assume there's an immense reservoir of people who'd love to play some Smash and Zelda and Mario Kart but can't bring themselves to give up third parties or flashy graphics to get hold of them. So all Nintendo has to do is make a console with those two things and they'll clean up and it'll be like the good old NES days.

In reality Nintendo isn't special, just one of many competent developers around today, and I doubt their home console arsenal has any particular advantage over that of Sony (or Microsoft before they ran Halo and Gears into the ground). I can buy a Nintendo box if I want Mario and Zelda and Karts or I can buy a Playstation if I want LBP and Uncharted and Gran Turismo. 'Only Nintendo knows how to make good games' was a good way for fans to cope with the downturns, but isn't a good basis for a business strategy.



For the record, I don't think Nintendo has any good options right now. They can't save the Wii U but they also can't safely abandon it, the handheld market is doing okay but has storm clouds on the horizon, and all possible solutions involve taking big risks and trying to learn to do new things against competitors with established competence. Unless they can find some hot new untapped market again where they don't have real competition, but if those were easy to find, they wouldn't be new and untapped.

Astro7x
Aug 4, 2004
Thinks It's All Real

Quest For Glory II posted:

Just for the record Nintendo didn't even lay any kind of timetable for a switch to be flipped to say "okay, now you can redownload your games if you buy a new 3DS and log in".

They did say that FUTURE PLATFORMS would benefit from it. But they didn't say anything like "starting in June there'll be a patch to the OS and you'll be able to access your content from any device". You should probably wait for a Nintendo Direct to say something about it first before getting excited.

Yes but it doesn't matter because they're never going to actually do it.

They talked about NNID in this weird way or tieing software to an account as a way to give customers that buy software benefits. My interpretation is most likely off, but I read it as something like giving discounts to people that buy software with their NNID. My only issue with this if it's true is that their implementation of it will suck. If right now they give us a free VC title after purchasing 3-4 retail games through Club Nintendo. It's essentially the same thing, and it doesn't do anything to boost sales of the Wii U or software sales.

Now if they did something dynamic where the more games you buy the less new games cost, then that's awesome and a step in the right direction, but I'm doubtful.

Supercar Gautier
Jun 10, 2006

They were barking up the right tree last summer when VC games offered different kinds of discounts and buy-2-get-1-free offers pretty much each week.

Then some exec decided they didn't like the returns and turned down the tap I guess?

Astro7x
Aug 4, 2004
Thinks It's All Real
I can't imagine that Virtual Console titles are enough to motivate anybody to buy a new console. It's a nice incentive if you have one, but I don't think anybody went "I need to get a Wii U now so that I can buy Balloon Fight for 30 cents before it's no longer on sale".

I will admit that free Excite Bike 3D was enough to get me to pick up the 3DS a month early instead of waiting for Zelda OoT 3D, but I was already planning on buying it and no sales were in sight at the time.

Supercar Gautier
Jun 10, 2006

Well, for reaching current users it's a way to get people visiting the eShop regularly, which should give a boost to all software on sale there. Three VC games a week back in the summer with special offers was a good way to make the eShop interesting. One a week (and often some third-rate NES title), less so. The goal should be to make that Thursday eShop visit a weekly habit for users, and the current pattern isn't cutting it.

For non-users, one goal should be to create the perception of a thriving store with a steady flow of content and regular deals. The back catalog from old systems should be there to fill that role during periods when new content isn't coming out.

Supercar Gautier fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Jan 30, 2014

Morby
Sep 6, 2007

Supercar Gautier posted:

Well, for reaching current users it's a way to get people visiting the eShop regularly, which should give a boost to all software on sale there.

For non-users, one goal should be to create the perception of a thriving store with a steady flow of content and regular deals. The back catalog from old systems should be there to fill that role during periods when new content isn't coming out.

That's a good point. Sony's doing that now with the indie titles on PS4. Nintendo has so much IP that they haven't touched in years and years. They finally re- release Earthbound (which people have been clamoring to get for years and years) and they put it on WiiU. It's like Nintendo ignores the fans for years, and then finally listens to them in a dumb way. If they had put Earthbound on Wii, WiiU, and 3DS, they would have made a lot more money for very little effort.

SirPhoebos
Dec 10, 2007

WELL THAT JUST HAPPENED!

Morby posted:

That's a good point. Sony's doing that now with the indie titles on PS4. Nintendo has so much IP that they haven't touched in years and years. They finally re- release Earthbound (which people have been clamoring to get for years and years) and they put it on WiiU. It's like Nintendo ignores the fans for years, and then finally listens to them in a dumb way. If they had put Earthbound on Wii, WiiU, and 3DS, they would have made a lot more money for very little effort.

No you see, if we put a highly-demanded game on the WiiU, people will get the WiiU just to be able to play it :pseudo:

The 7th Guest
Dec 17, 2003

My position on this is that Nintendo can't have an excuse if their competitors are doing the same thing and better. PS1 and PS2 classics exist on PSN for PS3 owners. PSP games exist on PSN for Vita owners. Nintendo (or its sycophants) can't just say "oh it's too hard, it's so hard for us to put out Wii titles in the eShop or put out more VC titles faster, boo hoo, please understand" because they are in competition and they're losing. I'm sure it's work for Sony too but they loving do it.

And Sony also GIVES GAMES AWAY over their subscription service, and Nintendo has no such structure. There are so many revenue streams for Nintendo to bring in profits and they have no excuse to be passing over them.

e: Like, for all the hand wringing people do about "look the N64 is hard to emulate, the GBA is hard to emulate", well the PS2 is not exactly Easy Mode, and every PS2 game released on PSN is emulated and has to be individually tested and tweaked, but Sony has put up close to 100 PS2 titles in North America alone, and they only started doing this since the end of 2011. And not just The Most Popular Titles but niche games like God Hand, Odin Sphere, and Chulip.

The 7th Guest fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Jan 30, 2014

testtubebaby
Apr 7, 2008

Where we're going,
we won't need eyes to see.


Quest For Glory II posted:

And Sony also GIVES GAMES AWAY over their subscription service, and Nintendo has no such structure. There are so many revenue streams for Nintendo to bring in profits and they have no excuse to be passing over them.

Seriously... Wonderful 101 not selling? GIVE THAT poo poo AWAY ON A SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE. Get people playing the loving game, then release the sequel and have people actually buy the thing this time.

Nintendo's 8, 16, and 64 libraries run pretty deep, but no one wants to pay $10 for a bunch of old games a-la carte... GIVE THOSE SHITS AWAY ON A SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE. Getting $5 a month by giving away 4 random games is better than getting $0 a month for selling nothing.

Pixeltendo
Mar 2, 2012


Quest For Glory II posted:

I still think this is weird, by the way. They talk about Nintendo DS games coming to Wii U Virtual Console as a way of enriching the lineup and increasing the value of the gamepad.

Why aren't they selling original Wii games digitally over the eShop? Like, this seems like the most no-brainer thing to me. A lot of Wii software is out of print at this point. You'd fill the eShop with a ton of content. It can boot in Wii Mode or whatever but maybe have its own icon on the Wii Menu too if the player wants?

Having backwards compatibility but not actually selling those titles seems like, weirdly stupid to me. Xbox 360 sold Xbox games over the store, PSN lets you buy PSP games on a Vita. And there's no technological hurdle to it, and the games are not the size of Wii U titles you buy in the eShop, so what's the hold-up? I feel like it's inexcusable.

Don't worry Quest, Wii games will come......on the 3DS.

orphean
Apr 27, 2007

beep boop bitches
my monads are fully functional
This whole 'platform X is hard to emulate' stance is bizarre. For example, GBA emulation has been a solved problem since GBA games were in development! no$gba was used by tons of developers to use for debugging so they don't have to write to flash every time they hit compile.

If Nintendo doesn't have the expertise in house or doesn't want to invest in such expertise contract that poo poo out! Hire the VBA guy, hire the no$gba guy, do something.

It's such typical not-invented-here syndrome it's infuriating.

univbee
Jun 3, 2004




orphean posted:

This whole 'platform X is hard to emulate' stance is bizarre. For example, GBA emulation has been a solved problem since GBA games were in development! no$gba was used by tons of developers to use for debugging so they don't have to write to flash every time they hit compile.

If Nintendo doesn't have the expertise in house or doesn't want to invest in such expertise contract that poo poo out! Hire the VBA guy, hire the no$gba guy, do something.

It's such typical not-invented-here syndrome it's infuriating.

This has been done before, too. Contra 4 on DS has emulated NES versions of Contra and Super C, run through PocketNES (which is even credited in the game's credits)

Paper Jam Dipper
Jul 14, 2007

by XyloJW

orphean posted:

This whole 'platform X is hard to emulate' stance is bizarre. For example, GBA emulation has been a solved problem since GBA games were in development! no$gba was used by tons of developers to use for debugging so they don't have to write to flash every time they hit compile.

If Nintendo doesn't have the expertise in house or doesn't want to invest in such expertise contract that poo poo out! Hire the VBA guy, hire the no$gba guy, do something.

It's such typical not-invented-here syndrome it's infuriating.

Nintendo is too obsessive with the emulation. Far too fussy. Hence why I hope they do contract it out. Contract it out to a dozen small companies and fix errors when they come.

Edmund Honda
Sep 27, 2003

orphean posted:

If Nintendo doesn't have the expertise in house or doesn't want to invest in such expertise contract that poo poo out! Hire the VBA guy, hire the no$gba guy, do something.
But... those aren't Japanese developers?

The 7th Guest
Dec 17, 2003

Edmund Honda posted:

But... those aren't Japanese developers?
I don't think NoJ has anything to do with the lack of VC support in America. The Wii U VC in Japan has 34 more games than Wii U VC in North America.

It's purely a NoA problem.

Patter Song
Mar 26, 2010

Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man.
Fun Shoe

Paper Jam Dipper posted:

Nintendo is too obsessive with the emulation. Far too fussy. Hence why I hope they do contract it out. Contract it out to a dozen small companies and fix errors when they come.

Nintendo's fussiness is the problem though. "This title runs at 58 FPS rather than 60 during a graphically intensive cutscene due to a not-totally-optimized emulator? It can't go out." They'll be like that if they have other people doing the actual emulation, too.

The 7th Guest
Dec 17, 2003

The emulation isn't perfect in VC games so I don't know why people keep saying that is the reason. We've already had multiple people in here explain how games still have issues.

DEEP STATE PLOT
Aug 13, 2008

Yes...Ha ha ha...YES!



orphean posted:

This whole 'platform X is hard to emulate' stance is bizarre. For example, GBA emulation has been a solved problem since GBA games were in development! no$gba was used by tons of developers to use for debugging so they don't have to write to flash every time they hit compile.

If Nintendo doesn't have the expertise in house or doesn't want to invest in such expertise contract that poo poo out! Hire the VBA guy, hire the no$gba guy, do something.

It's such typical not-invented-here syndrome it's infuriating.

There isn't even a PC N64 emulator that is reasonably accurate across the entire library. There are still no N64 emulators that can play, say, Rogue Squadron at all. Nintendo's own emulation efforts of the system that they made have been lackluster at best. Just try playing the VC release of Majora's Mask, I'm sure that you'll agree that the emulation is poo poo after the 10th crash. That thing used a very unorthodox hardware setup that makes it very hard to properly emulate and no amount of expertise can change that.

That said, there is a cycle-perfect N64 emulator being worked on called CEN64. It'll probably be usable on gaming PCs in about 10 years or so.

Supercar Gautier
Jun 10, 2006

The Gamecube version of MM was the crashy one. The Wii VC version was fine. I'm willing to believe being a pain in the rear end to fix was the reason it took a while to come out in that case.

But at this point it seems to be down to a combination of staff allocation and some weird ideas about how trickling the games out boosts their sales. Since we don't have access to their internals, maybe that's even true. But it looks bad from the user end.

Kurtofan
Feb 16, 2011

hon hon hon

zenintrude posted:

Seriously... Wonderful 101 not selling? GIVE THAT poo poo AWAY ON A SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE. Get people playing the loving game, then release the sequel and have people actually buy the thing this time.

Nintendo's 8, 16, and 64 libraries run pretty deep, but no one wants to pay $10 for a bunch of old games a-la carte... GIVE THOSE SHITS AWAY ON A SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE. Getting $5 a month by giving away 4 random games is better than getting $0 a month for selling nothing.

Do you keep the free games if you unsubscribe? Because what I hate with a subscription system is being pressured into playing games because I'm paying money for it.
I'd rather play a game a la carte whenever I feel like it, rather than play a game I don't care about because it's "free".
Same with online, I never got Xboxlive gold because I thought it's lovely to make you guilt trip into playing multiplayer.

I'm feeling like giving away big retail game like Wonderful 101 for free is a crazy idea as well, who the hell is going to pay for the sequel if they gave away the first game for free?
I know I don't buy third party games on Wii U until they drop in price for example.

Kabanaw
Jan 27, 2012

The real Pokemon begins here
I can imagine one somewhat reasonable explanation for why there's no GBA or N64 games on Wii U yet outside "they lied/they're having major issues". If Nintendo decided a few months ago that they needed to push the Gamepad's unique features, they may have halted production on other emulators to start hacking away at building a DS one. DS games on a home console are unique to the Wii U, something that you can only do with the gamepad. If that's the case, they're probably trying to push out DS games ASAP and then start working on GBA and N64 again.

That's pretty optimistic speculation though, a more likely answer is that they just can't get it done for whatever reason.

That Fucking Sned
Oct 28, 2010

Quest For Glory II posted:

My position on this is that Nintendo can't have an excuse if their competitors are doing the same thing and better. PS1 and PS2 classics exist on PSN for PS3 owners. PSP games exist on PSN for Vita owners. Nintendo (or its sycophants) can't just say "oh it's too hard, it's so hard for us to put out Wii titles in the eShop or put out more VC titles faster, boo hoo, please understand" because they are in competition and they're losing. I'm sure it's work for Sony too but they loving do it.

And Sony also GIVES GAMES AWAY over their subscription service, and Nintendo has no such structure. There are so many revenue streams for Nintendo to bring in profits and they have no excuse to be passing over them.

e: Like, for all the hand wringing people do about "look the N64 is hard to emulate, the GBA is hard to emulate", well the PS2 is not exactly Easy Mode, and every PS2 game released on PSN is emulated and has to be individually tested and tweaked, but Sony has put up close to 100 PS2 titles in North America alone, and they only started doing this since the end of 2011. And not just The Most Popular Titles but niche games like God Hand, Odin Sphere, and Chulip.

According to various sources and patents, Sony is planning on bringing native emulation of PS1 and PS2 games to the PlayStation 4. However, this time they'll be rendered at full HD, and one of the patents shows how trophies can be added to old games by observing certain values in RAM. There's another patent that uses a combination of save states and memory manipulation to allow them to put you straight into a game and be given a custom challenge, all without needing to modify the original source code.

For instance, just from the RAM you can tell how much health the player has, or what stage they're on, and they can do things like tallying the number of enemies killed, or the time taken to progress through the game. They could award a gold trophy for completing God Hand with the Kick Me sign still on their back, which is one of the game's challenges that requires you to finish the game without using any of your special abilities, just by checking if it's still there when you beat the final boss.

However, by using memory manipulation, they could also create new enemy encounters and use a save state to put you right into it. There's a limit to what type of content they could introduce, more of a rearrangement of what's already in the game than actual new assets, but it would allow the creation of new gameplay sequences and challenges to games that finished development years ago. Things like Metal Gear Solid's VR missions and Devil May Cry's Bloody Palace are very easy to do this way.

There's also the possibility of introducing online co-op to games that didn't previously support it over the cloud. The game is run on a server, and receives inputs from the player and sends the video back over the internet, hopefully fast enough that it's similar to playing on a console in front of you. However, there's no reason why it can't receive inputs from more than one person, or broadcast the video to several people at once. There is the issue of whether the two or more players are geographically close enough that they can run off the same server, but it would let you play any local multiplayer game online. If the game is split-screen, then they could cut off the other player's viewpoints, either to prevent screen watching, or to allow you to use the full resolution of your TV.


Meanwhile, Nintendo is wondering why nobody's buying Urban Champion despite it being the only new release that week.

The 7th Guest
Dec 17, 2003

Kurtofan posted:

Do you keep the free games if you unsubscribe? Because what I hate with a subscription system is being pressured into playing games because I'm paying money for it.
You can access them whenever you have a subscription, so if you stop paying and then resubscribe later, you still have all the games you acquired. The business focus of PS+ is to keep people subscribed so it makes sense, along with providing additional special discounts in the store that only PS+ members get.

The nice thing about PS+ is it covers PS3, Vita, AND PS4.

It's a revenue stream that Nintendo is really lacking, and they even talk in the report about how hard it is to view the Wii U and 3DS as a collaborative family and yet they never considered this kind of service. Or cross-system purchases for both systems, another perk Sony offers that Nintendo has no excuse for not offering. You have Virtual Console games that are on both Wii U and 3DS and Nintendo never considered the value add for consumers of being able to buy a game on one system and also access it on the other. It's just inexplicable.

The 7th Guest fucked around with this message at 22:26 on Jan 30, 2014

Astro7x
Aug 4, 2004
Thinks It's All Real

Morby posted:

That's a good point. Sony's doing that now with the indie titles on PS4. Nintendo has so much IP that they haven't touched in years and years. They finally re- release Earthbound (which people have been clamoring to get for years and years) and they put it on WiiU. It's like Nintendo ignores the fans for years, and then finally listens to them in a dumb way. If they had put Earthbound on Wii, WiiU, and 3DS, they would have made a lot more money for very little effort.

Did they think that people would buy a Wii U to play Earthbound? Sure, yeah, I get it... they need to get people to buy a Wii U, but you think they'd try to do that with retail software and not a 20 year old game with a niche following

A True Jar Jar Fan
Nov 3, 2003

Primadonna

Kurtofan posted:


I'm feeling like giving away big retail game like Wonderful 101 for free is a crazy idea as well, who the hell is going to pay for the sequel if they gave away the first game for free?
I know I don't buy third party games on Wii U until they drop in price for example.

There's been a lot of sequels I've bought on PS3 after playing the first game for free through Plus, games I wouldn't have considered before. It's a fantastic idea for games that have sequels coming soon or are DLC heavy.

Supercar Gautier
Jun 10, 2006

Astro7x posted:

Did they think that people would buy a Wii U to play Earthbound? Sure, yeah, I get it... they need to get people to buy a Wii U, but you think they'd try to do that with retail software and not a 20 year old game with a niche following

I don't think they ever thought of Earthbound as a system seller in itself, though? I'm pretty sure they just saw that there was demand among Wii U owners, and so they released it. Sometimes a game release is just a game release, not the singular linchpin of an entire platform's strategy.

VC games aren't individual system sellers and it would be odd to expect them to be, but in aggregate they can make a great bullet point if the service is handled properly.

Sunning
Sep 14, 2011
Nintendo Guru
I went over their reports and the slides for their meeting. What I come away is the impression that Nintendo believes they are doing alright so far and no major changes are required to address their shortcomings. Their investors were expecting a bold new direction for the company but Nintendo didn't appear as worried about their future stability. Their attitude towards the Wii U and its gamepad is that they have a strong concept but have not provided enough quality software and communicated to customers properly.

They used Mario Kart 8 as an example of a game that will better utilize the gamepad. However, there doesn't appear to be novel use beyond off screen play, a bottom screen UI, a touchscreen kart horn, and potential gyroscopic gameplay. They seem to have doubled down on the Wii U concept being good but their implementation of it being flawed. Miyamoto stated they were happy with Super Mario 3D World's critical reception despite it not being the sales driver that they hoped for. They haven't answered why consumers are reluctant to buy the Wii U and its games when they have released quality games for it. It's clear that their games don't hold as much value in the face of consumers finding cheaper alternatives at a good enough quality. I think their policy of pushing evergreen prices, especially at retail, will have to change in the future. Overall, it comes off as a weird feedback loop where quality software is need to sell systems but when that software underperforms the software itself needed to be better or consumers needed to be better informed and more quality software will be needed in the future to sell systems.

What's more worrying than the Wii U is their stance towards the 3DS. Their data shows that it's underperforming when compared to the GBA and DS in spite of major software releases. In comparison to the DS, the 3DS has had lower sales for their first and third party software. Their development costs are higher but their sales are substantially lower. Third parties are also gravitating towards mobile platforms, including companies that were an important part of the DS's success. I think the failure of the Wii U is less distressing when compared to the slow collapse of their handheld business. They could find themselves in a scenario where growing development costs eclipse the negative trend for software sales. However, the 3DS barely got mentioned other than being a relative highlight compared to the Wii U.

On the bright side, they are unifying accounts in a pan-Nintendo ecosystem. Nonetheless, they are treating it as some revelation when they are a generation behind their competitors and longer still for Apple's ecosystem. They are also planning on expanding on the Wii U gamepad's Near Field Communication (NFC) capabilities, such as interactive figurines. This had proven to be a lucrative market to Activision with Skylanders and potentially Disney with Disney Infinity. However, the constriction they are feeling in retail after the Wii U's failures, especially in Europe, may hinder this. It's also a slow reaction to a market pioneered by Activision with Skylanders. They're also making a solid effort to expand to emerging markets in Asia, South America, and the Middle East which should have happened a long time ago. Sony did well to sell surplus PS2s in emerging markets and the PS1 before that which helped establish their brand there.

I have no idea what they are trying to accomplish with their plan to use smartphones to promote Nintendo products. It goes back to their belief that their products are conceptually sound but consumer awareness is the major issue. Even if this works as intended, smartphone users will still have to purchase a new system and relatively more expensive software for it. The crux of the problem is that smartphones sufficiently fulfill their needs rather than them being aware of Nintendo products. Nintendo products lack the software variety present in iOS/Android which encompasses several non-gaming apps. This approach doesn't take into consideration consumer needs and their barrier of entry for purchasing Nintendo consoles.

Speaking of which, it's good that they plan on diversifying into non-gaming pursuits (health/learning/quality of life). They have identified their lack of agility as one of their biggest problems. The company is growing larger and larger, such as their hiring spree and the construction of a new software development building. However, they are now unable to readily identify trends while still being weaker than larger competitors. They recognize they've been slow to address the mobile and wearable and are taking steps to be more proactive in identifying future trends.

Nonetheless, their plan for a future heath products sounds dated. Competition in the fitness market is already very fierce due to the high growth surrounding it. More importantly, most products no longer exist in a closed ecosystem. They now connect with smartphones, tablets, and social apps. I feel that Nintendo's solution for a non-wearable product could lack agility in that it could be a new piece of hardware with semi-unique software that overlaps with the rest of the Nintendo software eco-system. However, there are now small companies that are dedicated around quality fitness software that is available for a low price and usable with smartphones. Even back in the peak of Wii Fit, Nintendo was outmanuevered by smaller companies when it came expanding the fitness genre they pioneered. For example, Majesco released Gillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum which used a celebrity and an emphasis on cardio workouts to differentiate itself from Wii Fit's focus on yoga. It was a very successful game for Majesco and ranked high in the Wii's monthly top ten charts for North America. There are now dozens of this types of games that work with celebrity trainers and large fitness companies for a number of platforms.

What concerns me the most is that they haven't addressed how they will lower their burn rate. As mentioned before, the company is getting bigger through a new R&D building and a larger headcount. Supporting a dedicated console has grown more and more expensive. It's the same reason why Sony didn't make that much money even in their PS2 days. The heavy cost of supporting a dedicated console can make a company live off margins. Sony's revenue was eaten up by its high operating costs which eventually led to heavy losses when they developed and released the PS3. We see the same thing happening to Nintendo with the increased competition having forced them to make loss leader hardware. I have to imagine that their software lineup will become more conservative to counteract rising development costs. However, that may not be conducive to making hit products.

I think their biggest problem is concentrating on Japan when they are a company competing on a global scale. They retreated from non-Japanese markets due to the costs of competition overseas. This was due to the high costs and turnover of Western software development. Their strategy was to develop hit software in Japan at low costs and use it as a springboard to compete in overseas markets. In Japan, they could attract the best regional talent and keep costs down. However, this method has been proven to be slow and unable to meet compete with agile software development companies in Europe, Australia, and North America (especially California). In fact, a company of their size simply can't operate for long without strong sales from overseas. The European market has completely collapsed for them and they have lost significant ground in North America. This Japan first approach hasn't been able to produce the talent or strategies required for them to compete at a global level. They've made some progress by expanding Nintendo European Research & Development (NERD) but they should have done this years ago.

I don't believe Nintendo realizes the level of competition they are facing based of their presentation. They seem to be at a crossroads. They need to be a larger company to support their consoles but lose their agility in the process. They're centered on Japan to have a reliable source of talent and sales but require over seas sales to function. Their quality software doesn't have the level of sales to support their development. They come off as very indecisive with their plan for the near future.

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JesusLovesRonwell
Aug 12, 2004

I want to touch my Rosalina-sama all over~

<3<3<3
No one will ever read the above post.

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