Has Nintendo done enough to support the Wii U in the months after its release? Has it created enough games to support demand? Miyamoto says yes.
Nintendo is in the midst of some fairly high profile difficulties, mostly focused around the Wii U’s inability to gain any sort of traction with consumers. In a recent Q and A with investors, Shigeru Miyamoto answered a fairly pertinent question: with third party support on the wane, has Nintendo done enough to support its own console? Nintendo typically works on a drip feed system, releasing big name franchises throughout the consoles life span.
But Shigeru Miyamoto thinks, with the Wii U, that Nintendo has done a good job of getting games out quickly.
“When we launched Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo DS, we were unable to release any games from any of our main Nintendo franchises to coincide with their launches,” admitted Miyamoto. “With Wii U, however, we released, along with the hardware, “New Super Mario Bros. U,” as well as “Nintendo Land,” which was a very unique proposition. If you look beyond, we also released a new installment in the Pikmin series after a long interval, and we also had “Super Mario 3D World” at the end of last year. By the end of this year, we will have “Mario Kart 8,” as well as “Super Smash Bros.” Therefore, I feel that we have managed to overcome the challenge of releasing enough first-party franchises on Wii U.”
According to Miyamoto, the problem wasn’t the software, but Nintendo’s inability to convince consumers of the value of the Wii U itself.
“Our biggest downfall last year was that we failed to communicate the true value of Wii U,” he said, “failed to make children persuade their parents to buy our products for them, and failed to offer products that parents could not resist.”
Part of me agrees. The Wii U has had a far steadier stream of software compared to, say, the original Wii, but when third party developers aren’t supporting your console, internally developed games suddenly take on more significance. Nintendo is single handedly propping up this console at the moment and their strategy of slowly spacing out big titles is making things difficult.
However, sales of Nintendo developed Wii U titles have been strong, despite low sales of the console.
Comments
67 responses to “Miyamoto Thinks Nintendo Did A Good Job Of Creating Games For The Wii U”
so he thinks that releasing 4 games, none of which are new IP (because let’s face it, Nintendo Land was nothing more than a re-imagining of Mario Party), and then having 2 more games that aren’t even out yet, is a job well done?
YAY, CONGRATS ON HAVING 6 GAMES AVAILABLE.
Jesus H.Macy that company is in trouble.
The Xbox One launch line up included one new IP (Ryse), the PS4 included 2 (Knack and Resogun). The Wii U had one new IP (ZombiU). I believe in total the Wii U had more launch games that the other two next gen consoles (around 32 for Wii U, vs around 25 for the Xbox one and PS4).
There’s many, many things the Wii U did wrong, as is still doing wrong, but new IP isn’t near the top of the list.
It might not even be the lack of new IP’s (although I think it is) as much as it’s a lack of progression.
ZombieU is far and away the newest experience on the WiiU from what I’ve seen. Certainly the most interesting even if it’s not a great game.
You can make a rough argument that at launch the WiiU had a similar amount of new IP to the Xbone and PS4, but really you need to factor in that the WiiU is now well over a year old and that not only has there been very little in the way of new experiences (or even basic progress), but there’s very little on the horizon either.
Look at the Wii for example, it’s got some great games, but where were the new massive franchises? Where was an Assassins Creed, Bioshock, Fallout/ Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, Last of Us, Red Dead Redemption…. Ect, ect, ect. Those games were either new experiences or massive progressions in gaming which all took place outside of Nintendo consoles last generation. Nintendo put Mario on 360 degree planets (which was great) but other than that it’s just more of the same.
WiiU at the moment is just looking like a more stagnant version of the Wii. The more traditional controller combined with the lack of power and online infrastructure means that developers are looking to make their new or evolved experiences (look at the Witcher 2 or Titanfall) on the other consoles.
There was TONS of innovation on both the PS3 and 360 last generation and I’m fully expecting that to continue this time around. Nintendo is in desperate need of some fresh content, stuff to make people actually excited for the WiiU outside of “a new Zelda game will be out in 2015 running on the same hardware you’ve been playing since 2005”. 3rd parties aren’t going to make new stuff for them and I’m not buying a console just to play a HD Mario Kart and HD Smash Bros.
Take a look at Wonderful 101, that’s a pretty new experience in my book.
Rayman Legends, how it was supposed to be played was a really good new experience. and for all of you that would QQ about having to touch the screen, find a friend to play with and experience the awesomeness that it is for real co op
I am not sure you’ve played Nintendo Land.
Nor Mario Party.
Still, it’s not really a new IP, it’s just mini games of existing IPs. And not too exciting at that.
People seem to have massively varying definitions of IP. Far too many seem to just treat it as another word for characters. So according to them Mario Galaxy, Mario Strikers, Mario Kart and Mario Party are all the same IP. Yet they’re not, they’re all entirely different games and each one is a completely different IP.
And every time it’s been cracked out with friends, we’ve spent several hours on maybe two of the games it offers. So they must be kind of exciting 😛
It’s a great amount of games for Nintendo as a developer, how many other studios release that many games in such a short period?
For Nintendo as the hardware creator, it’s not so great because there’s very little support from other devs in-between Nintendo releases.
Are you retarded? The company has enough cash to make a yearly loss for years yet you say its in trouble. Idiot.
@danmeddy
having Money left over to ride through a shit console still means they have a shit console and are quickly losing market share and consumer confidence. SEGA had enough money to get through the 32x, Saturn and Dreamcast… they were still in trouble.
I know that. But hes saying there in big trouble and there not. Mario kart 8 is coming ans ssb is coming out and the 3ds is doing epic.
Mario Kart and SSB will hardly be enough to lift out of this funk. WiiU is a sinking ship and Nintendo are going to need more than 2 new iterations of old games to save it. They need to actually try doing things like fixing the user interface and online experience. Think of NEW IPs.
If they keep losing support, through no fault but their own, they ARE in trouble. It’s long term shit not just money.
I disagree. But i guess we will see.
And yet every generation will know who Mario is. Yeah, they are failing so hard
just as every Generation since 1991 knows who Sonic is…
I see what you are doing there. But considering Nintendo have the rights and fall just shy of owning Sonic completely, you are basically saying the same thing.
Point is, as much as people say they are failing, this isn’t even the worse period the company has seen and they will always be there to be one of the first gaming outlets for younger generations, generations who will end up with the same massive set of nostalgia goggles we all have.
Personally, I hope not. I hope someday Nintendo can stop solely relying on nostalgia to sell games.
True, but on the other hand, I hope one day gamers can stop expecting games to surpass their nostalgia.
Nothing will ever live up to those great moments in gaming we all have, and yet we expect new games to do just that. We complain it doesn’t break new ground or that it isn’t like another game, when it is like another game it’s a rip off etc
If Nintendo can only release 3 new games a year then that’s fine, the games they release are great – but they need to get in bed with other developers to pick up the slack.
Well, I think that’s exactly what they’re doing with Hyrule Warriors right? Licencing their franchise to a third party. Same with Smash Bros – the bulk of that game is being made by Namco Bandai under Sakurai’s supervision. Then there’s Alpha Dream which continue to make great Mario and Luigi RPGs, Monster Games making the Excite and Donkey Kong games. That kind of thing is already happening quite a fair bit.
Shiggsy, i love you and all… but no.
If you “failed to communicate the true value of Wii U” it’s because you’ve put absolutely nothing on it that couldn’t be played somewhere else.
New Super Mario Bros Wii U is a rebadged 3DS/ Wii game
Super Mario 3D World borrows its template from a 3DS game
Wind Waker is a remake.
Nintendoland is shovelware
Pikmin was designed for the Wii
How can they expect people to want to jump on the “next gen” bandwagon when they don’t offer anything new or exciting?
You need to play some actual shovelware. Nintendoland is definitely not one.
We need more NEW games, if Nintendo comms advisers are reading this, make the following games: Metroid U, Animal Crossing, F-Zero U, Star Fox U, Earthbound 2 (Mother 4), Mario Party X, Super Mario Galaxy 3, Kirby Land U, Wario Land 5, Pokemon MMO, some new IPs. This is all in addition to what I’m sure will be amazing games already announced (Smash Bros, Mario Kart, X, Shin Megami X Fire Emblem)
Also team up with ATLUS + Level-5 for some exclusive JRPGs (a la Ni No Kuni)
Also bring Gamecube to the Wii U virtual console, hurry up with N64 virtual console releases, release Majoras Mask 3D and Super Metroid 3D remakes for the 3DS.
License characters out to LEGO, starting with Zelda + Super Mario lines.
License a GOOD Zelda anime or movie directed by Del Toro
Heres my final crazy big idea: construct a REAL Nintendo Land in Tokyo/Kyoto, Mario Kart rides, a Donkey Kong roller coaster, a Metroid space mountain, a Pikmin childrens ride etc.
Just employ more staff and do the above, also actually paying for heavy advertising helps.
Holy crap, NintendoLand, that is just brilliant.
As for all the other stuff… you have my vote. Fly out to Kyoto and drop in, you must make this happen!
I think a “Nintendo Land” would be amazing. If they put enough effort into it, it could almost rival Disneyland. Their characters and worlds are so iconic, it would be a money making machine.
I was a bit of a theme park junkie over the summer (I have season passes for all 5 GC parks ATM) and when I was dreaming of theme park ideas a Nintendo theme park struck me as something that I cannot believe no-one has attempted yet – I mean we had SEGA world in Sydney FFS – a Nintendo Land needs to happen sooner rather than later!
Nintendo Land has been a thing for a long time. They just haven’t got around to making it
Okay, some good ideas but Pokémon MMO and Zelda Anime, HOLY FUCK please no. Terrible ideas.
Just a wiiU pokemon RPG. No need for MMO.
That’s the thing, you see: Nintendo is not interested in jumping in bandwagons, especially not the hilariously subjective and sterile “next-gen” one. Nintendo has never catered to people obsessed with polygon-count, fps, draw distance or any other of the technical buzzwords only tangentially related to “fun”. They have always done their own thing, and that is, to have the best software that is going to enable them to make the best games they know to do, nothing more. While experimenting with the hardware (as opposed to always doing the same tired thing, only with increased specs) some times they will achieve incredible success (Wii, DS), sometimes they won’t (GC, VB, and for the time being, Wii U); what doesn’t ever change is the array of critically praised, fan-loved games they produce for those systems.
Before you bash Nintendo, especially in de-contextualised contrast with its competitors, think for a bit: How is it possible that a company that is solely focused in games is still alive and competing with newcomer companies backed by some of the most powerful and wealthy corporations in the world? You can bet is not because the polygon count outputted by their machines.
They exist for the following reasons:
Great handhelds and completely dominating that marked from 1990-basically now.
Solid hardware up until the Wii
The Wiimote was a massive mainstream hit for several years
They make (made) very very good games
The bottom line is the hardware needs to be powerful enough to drive innovation as well as to sustain the console for long enough to actually make great games. Think about how stagnant Nintendo’s 1st party games have become compared to how they used to be, when was the last time you saw a brand new franchise or a revolutionary revamp of an old one on a Nintendo console?
You talking about Nintendo not caring about graphics is ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT. I hear it thrown around by Nintendo fans all the time these days but it’s just rubbish. Their PR folks say they don’t care about power in press conferences and people just lap it up, but the bottom line is Nintendo’s biggest innovations and best franchises all developed during times when they were either close to (NES, GC) or ahead of (SNES, N64) their competitors in terms of power.
1. That’s the same recycled argument I hear each time. “Oh yeah, sure they were doing well up until the previous generation, but this time they really screwed over.” These arguments are proved wrong each time in the next generation.
2. I don’t know what you are talking about. Last console where several popular new Nintendo franchises were created was the N64. Need I remind you, though, that the N64 was obliterated by the PS1?
3. Again, the N64 was arguably the crowning moment of Nintendo when it comes to be technically ahead of the game (save that little detail of the cartridges). It still meant little against a product that made other better choices. Also, you keep hearing that the fans say that they don’t care about graphics and you think that’s bullshit? Who are you to tell us how we should think?
4. Nintendo’s “biggest innovations” have been the WiiMote and the DS’s dual screen. At least when it comes to the business part of the issue which is the one that can be measured.
5. The GC was not “close”. The GC is the Nintendo machine furthest behind its competitors in the console wars’ history.
“‘The GC was not “close”. The GC is the Nintendo machine furthest behind its competitors in the console wars’ history.’”
Are you saying that the GC was further behind the PS2 (which it was probably MORE powerful than) and the Xbox than the Wii was to the VASTLY superior 360 and PS3? Or that the WiiU is closer to the Xbone and PS4?
I’m pretty sure you are. That’s pretty stupid. I’m not sure you’re even worth arguing with if you can’t even get that right.
Nintendo invented and advanced their biggest franchises far more during the SNES, N64 and (to a lesser extent) GC eras than they have since they started having underpowered machines.
That’s my point, extra power both adds to the potential scope of the games they’re developing and allows for longer development cycles so that games can be fully realised. OOT took nearly 7 years to complete and when it did was AMAZING looking, sounding and playing compared to every other console game on the market.
Do you know what a WiiU game is going to look like after a development cycle that long? Shit compared to everything on the market. Which is why they just pump out Super Mario Sidewalking World New Edition instead of committing to innovation.
I’m not arguing about sales, I’m pointing out that the thing Nintendo does best – making brilliant games – has suffered more than anything over the past 8 years or so. The Wiimote gimmick covered the cracks but the bottom line is that the WiiU doesn’t have that gimmick and recycling the same old formula’s isn’t going to sell a machine.
That is possible, but depending on the art style used the game might be gorgeous.
A good example of this is GTA V and Journey on PS3, since we have moved onto next gen and our eyes adjust to the new visuals, if you go back and play GTA V in around 3 to 4 years from now it will look like ass, however if you go and play Journey at any time the game will look beautiful, it’s all about the art style, games that try to be realistic and gritty age a lot quicker than ones that adopt a more cartoony style.
This is why the GC version Wind Waker has held up so well (aside from resolution) and why people could still play it two console generations later.
The Wii U is capable of outputting 1080p resolution games, the one’s with good cartoony art styles will look fantastic, the ones that are trying to display realistic visuals, not so much.
And yes there will be a massive difference in visuals (for realistic games) between the Wii U, Xbox One and PS4, with the PS4 and Xbox One being better.
Just because you can paint a masterpiece with four 100ml paint tins doesn’t mean the scope of the work isn’t limited by not having a paint factory.
You can make artsy games on all consoles and they’ll look great, but it doesn’t change the fact that if you want to make GTA V on the Wii then you just straight up can’t. It’s limiting.
I think Skyward Sword is a great example. Nintendo clearly didn’t want that game to look rubbish compared to a similar game on a more powerful console (Fable 3 I guess would have had a similar art style) so they changed the art style entirely. The game looks great and they did a good job of getting (particularly Links) character models looking good by 2011 standards, at the same time it’s pretty obvious that the scope of the game world was limited in what they could do given how hard they pushed the character models.
If you look at the game as a whole there’s very few areas that I don’t think they could have rendered or close to-rendered to a relevant standard on the N64 in the OOT engine. Obviously they would have had to scale poly-counts and the like back but the point is that the actual game world hasn’t changed in scope to the point that it’s totally unfeasibly the way a game like Skyrim has.
When the next Zelda comes out on the WiiU in 2015 I guess it will be running on hardware comparable to the 2006 360/PS3. If they want Link’s model to look anything up to the standard of the other next-gen consoles then it’s again going to have to come at the expense other elements of gameplay.
And i am thankful, the last thing i want to see on any Nintendo console is a port, EA got that message loud and clear after the console launched, we don’t want ports we want original software, if that means we get a limited software library this generation, so be it.
Have you played any other home console Zelda game besides Skyward Sword? if you haven’t let me fill you in on something.
Nearly every home console Zelda game has different art style, the only exception to that is Majora’s Mask which has the same art style as Oot, your point is moot.
Do you have any evidence to back up those claims “it’s pretty obvious that the scope of the game world was limited in what they could do given how hard they pushed the character models.”
An article from Nintendo? or is that just your opinion?
Nintendo first party games are not meant to push hardware, they are built to push game play within the boundary’s of there control scheme, then they focus on graphics and everything else.
Zelda games aren’t massive in scope because the don’t need to be, they are not Skyrim or Fallout and never will be.
I really think you have very little idea about what you are talking about.
So again i will say it, Nintendo does not build there games around graphics, you can see that in the fact that they built a console that is UNDER POWERED for today’s standards.
The are not like the western developers that build there games around graphics first, story second and game play third (Uncharted 1,2 and 3, Gears of War 1, 2, 3, judgment, God of War 1, 2, 3 and Ascension etc, etc) they build there games based on there control schemes, so game play come first, graphics second and story third (Zelda, Mario, Kirby, Metroid etc, etc) in fact if you want to see what a western game looks like that has been made in the East, Metroid other M is a perfect example.
It’s not about graphics or power with Nintendo, if you don’t like that i suggest you stay away from them and stick with the consoles and software you will enjoy more, the Xbox One and PS4.
You are forgetting the main disadvantage that the GC had in relation to its competitors: the tiny capacity of their proprietary discs in comparison to DVDs, which discouraged third party developers to port games to the GC, or indeed, create new ones.
You are trying to validate your point of “the past was better” by forcing the GC into the equation, but at the best of my recollection, the only “new franchise” created for the GC was Mario Strikers. Besides, strictly speaking of your subjective intangibles, such as “innovation” vs “recycling”: are you going to argue that Mario Sunshine is superior to Mario Galaxy? or Twilight Princess superior to Skyward Sword? I’ve owned most marquee games for both consoles, and the only one that I can possibly admit was superior for the GC was Mario Kart.
The prevalence of new amazing franchises in the SNES and N64 had less to do with the technical superiority of the machines, and more with the fact that the medium was still young and they were basically creating what would become established genres and mechanics. The more a medium is developed, the harder is to find new ground. Or tell me, with the incredible power, oh-so-superior to the Wii U…. what are the XB1 and the PS4 bringing to the table in terms of gameplay innovation?You complain of stagnation in Nintendo games, but as I see it, most new entries of their games bring many more new things to the table in terms of gameplay, than most of the new entries of the staple games of those systems, that usually have hardly anything to advertise other than stuff like “drawing distance” and “fog effects” and “realistic skin”. I have no need to see the grit inside Mario’s face pores to enjoy my Mario games, thank you very much.
Also, you say you don’t want to argue sales…. well, I’m sorry but that’s ridiculously disingenuous. Nintendo is a business and wants to remain alive, which means doing good business decisions alongside good games. You may dismiss the WiiMote as a gimmick, but you have to understand that such gimmick, crowned it the king of the past generation over the super-specced PS3 and 360. That gimmick allowed games to be played in a complete different way, so much that Sony and Microsoft were soon slavering over a slice of that motion control market pie and producing their own irrelevant copycat accessories. How is that NOT INNOVATION?
I’m going to argue that the Wiimote was a gimmick and not an innovation.
It might one day become some kind of long extinct cousin of a new type of motion controllers, but as a tool which actually improved gaming the vast majority of its achievements related to sales and its ability to bring some non-gamer attention to gaming. I’d say the same thing about the Kinect and the PS Wiimote ripoff thing.
For every game which made decent use of the controller there were 20 that were made worse by its use.
I think the fact that Nintendo dropped the ‘waggle stick’ format for the WiiU and nobody said “Oh no, how are we going to play our games now!” suggests that the vast majority of people agree- it didn’t actually make GAMES better.
I provided a fairly decent list of games above which were huge leaps in the last generation (Assassins Creed, Bioshock, Fallout/ Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, Last of Us, Red Dead Redemption) but none of them were on Nintendo consoles. Nintendo games got better (you’re right, Skyward Sword IS better than Twilight Princess) but aside from Mario Galaxy you always knew exactly what you were getting when you opened the box.
As for where the new stuff is coming from this year?
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/10/questions-and-answers-how-bungie-invented-the-mystery-of-destiny/
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/12/the-witcher-3-delivers-another-badass-trailer/
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/12/elder-scrolls-online-arrives-april-4-for-pc-june-for-ps4-xbox-one/
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/10/why-titanfall-feels-next-gen-and-why-next-gen-still-matters/
All significant leaps over last gen. New experiences to get excited for.
New Dragon Age looks to be a big change from the last one, Dying Light looks like a cool cross between a zombie game and Mirrors Edge, Metal Gear Solid 5 is OPEN WORLD, Project Spark, Quantum Break and Sunset Overdrive are all new franchises. That’s just listing titles with AAA budgets (and not all of them either), there’ll no doubt be cool stuff on Xbox Live too.
The WiiU gets ANOTHER side scrolling Donkey Kong game, another Mario Kart (you can drive upside down in this one!) and another Smash Bros as the big three AAA titles. I’m sure they’ll all be great, but I’m not excited for them- I’ve done it all before.
Man, come on. Pikmin! 😛
Also Odama if you want to get a little more obscure. And Metroid Prime was a big enough change of direction to fit the bill.
Wow, for some reason I was convinced that the first Pikmin appeared in the N64. You are right on all counts.
My god, what a load of bullshit. Look, increased specs is a fucking fantastic thing to have because it allows you to make more varieties of games on the console without worrying about power constraints. Nintendo does not do this.
Rethinking hardware is not something only applicable to Nintendo. Nintendo habitually rethinks controllers. Not consoles. And their latest innovation is just to put a screen in the controller, which is all well and good for some things but it’s hardly a praiseworthy innovation. As much as Xbox one has left a sour taste in my mouth, look at the kinect 2.0 or event the rumoured PS4 VR headset for move. Regardless of whether the technologies have been adopted or not, they are a far sight more innovative than a screen in a controller. A controller that isn’t even very good. And a screen that isn’t very good (resistive touch? Come on, what is this? The late nineties?).
If nintendo is so interested in innovation and making great software they can start by fixing the clunky fucking eyesore user interface. Half the reason I hate using my WiiU. Sometimes I turn on my PS4 or PC just to check what’s new in the PSN store or Steam. Because the UI is nice. Never do that with WiiU because the user interface is just a huge turn off.
I cannot understand how anyone could prefer capacitive touchscreens over resistive. Especially when they’re more expensive and everyone’s already complaining about price as it is.
Pikmin wasn’t designed for the wii it makes use of the gamepad which couldn’t be translated to the wii without the gamepad the simultaneous control of multiple pikmin groups wouldn’t run anywhere near as smoothly.
Zombiu is definitely a game which couldn’t be played on any other system. The control of inventory, the radar and the looting for items wouldnt work as the main hook is to distract you from the main screen so there is potential of a zombie attack while your attention is away from the tv making a risky survival tactic and adding extra tension whi h wouldnt work on any other console. Also nintendoland games specifically use the gamepad gyro control and screen at the same time on the f-zero mini game which could not be produced on the original wii. Admittedly that isn’t much and I think the gamepad has alot more potential but still nintendoland pikmin 3 and zombiu are games which couldnt be translated anywhere else. The software is definitely unified with the wiiu hardware.
The Japanese culture of pride and saving face. It has its merits, but it has its downfalls too, as illustrated here.
Nintendo needs to start advertising their other developers.
Remember the stock hit that they took when it was even suggested that Miyamoto might retire one day?
He isn’t going to live forever.
And maybe if they start putting some faith in their other development staff, they’ll start generating some new ideas.
Could it be that Miyamoto is actually stifling development at Nintendo?
Maybe the higher ups are afraid to go against his ideas, and maybe he can’t think beyond the few ideas he’s already had…
or maybe I’m wrong.
I’ve wondered this too.
The guy is 61 years old and likely past his best.
He was what, 45 when he released OOT?
He’s undisputedly a legend but I’m not certain his heart is in pushing games beyond the boundaries of the basic console experience.
You don’t see him going – “F*ck it, I’m making a new MMO RPG” these days do you? I get the feeling that 20 years ago he would have jumped at that chance.
I don’t mind him overseeing the next Zelda or Mario or whatever but the basic problem is that if Nintendo’s best teams are all working under him and he doesn’t want to innovate then you aren’t going to see Nintendo moving forward.
I guess the if he is the problem (and I feel bad just suggesting that he might be) then he’s got to retire over the next few years. I don’t think it would be good for the company to have him working past his mid-60’s, no matter how respected he is.
He is making a new IP at the moment, which will be reveled sometime this year, he might surprise us with something completely new that we have not see before from Nintendo or other developers or maybe he wont.
I think when it’s revealed that would be a good time to judge where he is at and pose the question, is he pushing Nintendo forward? or holding them back?
He’s handed off development of a lot of core franchises to other developers already. He is more of an over seer of many games now.
Even if he’s only overseeing their development he still presents a potential bottleneck to the ideas present on Nintendo consoles.
And Nintendo should be doing a better job of highlighting who else is developing their games.
Yeah apparently Nintendo are very strict overseers as well. If they don’t like something a developer is doing for an exclusive title, they’ll make them change it. (What I heard a while back, not sure how accurate my memory is)
So the tech demo minigames of NintendoLand aside (it’s akin to Wii Sports), everything else listed there is not a new experience. We want to buy new hardware to experience new things that we couldn’t on our previous hardware. I’ve been disappointed that pretty much my entire Wii U library is just re-experiencing games I played on previous consoles (the glorious exception being Wonderful 101).
When are they going to release something new and interesting to make me glad that I own this piece of hardware? Or if it’s coming down to re-experiences, a proper account system and the entire back catalogue of Nintendo games available for a cheap price would go a long way to adding some value to the console.
Sure, the games they made for WiiiU are fine. That’s not the problem. They need newer, different games. They need third party developers. They need new inhouse titles/IPs. They need to accept the internet is a real thing, not just some terrifying pit of savagery and debauchery they need to shield everyone from.
I think they also need to realise the younger people of today aren’t entertained by Mario the same way I was when I was a kid. For better or worse, younger people have decidedly different tastes to what I had as a kid in the 80s and 90s.
I don’t think Nintendo’s quite caught onto that fact yet. Sure, their Zelda/Mario/Donkey Kong/etc titles are popular, but it’s seemingly most popular with people my age who grew up with them. I actually don’t know that many young people/kids who are excited about ‘Nintendo’ titles.
Don’t change your Mario/Zelda/DK, et c – that wouldn’t work – but they do need to add some new, modern blood to the family. Nintendo are still living in the early-mid 90s, and that’s what’s killing them.
So much talk about Wii U games being “rehashes of games already played”… well how do u explain Xbone and PS4 sales when all they have is sports games and first person shooters?!
Different FPS have different progression systems, different storylines, a lot of customisation options, better online play. It’s not my favourite genre but it’s less inherently repetitive than the same platformed that’s been out since the 80s in my eyes.
As for the sports games, yeah I agree, I don’t really give a shit about sports games.
Arrrrgh, why’d I read the comments, whyyyyy
I thought the same but then I found this comment.
Hi Sughly!
HAHAHA! Hai greenius :3
It’s great to bash Nintendo, I guess its what CoD players do because they’re last game was more of a rehash than Nintendo have ever done.
Jokes aside, name another Company that has churned out the number of solid quality (not saying they’re amazing but they’re definitely not crap) games in the last year.
Even if you don’t like their games you can’t doubt the ability to try and carry a whole console by themselves, no other company could do that.
Just look at the ridiculously lackluster launch games on both of the next gen consoles. and STILL another month till something that MAY be good will come out on the new consoles.
My Wii U is getting way more work out than my XB1
This guy gets it.
My wiiU played half of Wind Waker then gathered dust.
The WiiU library is boring and it isn’t getting any brighter any time soon. IMO, the PS4/XB1 launch lineup wasn’t too bad for launch but its going to get so many more games so much faster than WiiU. How anyone can even argue that is a mystery.
I think you’d probably have more fun if you actually played the game rather than your wii u
Completely agree that the next gen consoles will get more games faster, its why I own one. but that’s not the argument here (theres plenty of other places to voice that)
The face is that Nintendo as a company are churning out more games than nearly any other irrelevant if you like them or not
Sometimes it seems like Nintendo is still operating as if its the 80s while the whole market has changed around them.
The stories surrounding their dealings with licensees are legendary – they need to repair those relationships and come up with some new ones –
Activision is one of the few American companies still putting out games on the console. Go and see the Blizzard people about putting Starcraft on the console to utilise the game pad.
EA not being able to get Frostbite working is complete bullshit. Throw them an olive branch and let them put an Origin interface on there. EA would be wise to take advantage… the Sims 4 will not have the same type of success on PC as previous editions because the casual PC players have moved onto Tablets – the WiiU is like a go-between for those two worlds.
Nintendo should go to Chair and ask them to make a new 2D Metroid
An online Starfox where players can assume the role of Peppy, Falco etc would be amazing.
Pay the money and get Shenmue III happening – it’s not a money spinner, but it has a cache that will sell systems.
South Park the stick of truth kind of looks like Earthbound to me (a more offensive version I guess) get obsidian to make it.
Drop the bloody price already – as long as it costs more than a 360/PS3 consumers will look at those systems, the bigger libraries and comparable graphics and decide that they are better value.
Did you read what their plan is? 🙁
They disregard all logic, throw it out the window, and implement their own: health sensors (read; gimmick); new games (read: re-hashes); no 3rd party support (read: no games); focus on the gamepad (read: no price cut).
Yeah (sigh) I encouraged by their plan to make future hardware lines compatible with one another – ESP if that meant you could get on their handheld what came out on their console and vice versa.
@chobi77
I’ve played every major Zelda console title and finished everything since OOT (which to this day is my favourite game ever). I’ve owned every Nintendo machine since the N64 came out and my 3DS got plenty of use in the last year.
Like I said, Nintendo consoles were released as either the most powerful on the market or close to it for over 20 years up until 2006. I don’t know if you remember (I’m not going to assume that you’re six) but they were pretty damn happy to spruik the power of their consoles up until they stopped being competitive. This “power doesn’t matter” shit is utter rubbish. Remember when Donkey Kong was the most amazing game you’d ever seen? Or when Mario 64 revolutionised 3D gaming with 64-bit power? Or the stunning water effects the first time you swooped down near the water in Lylat Wars? Or the reflection of Samus’s face when an explosion went off in Metroid Prime?
I also don’t think it’s an accident that the biggest titles on the Wii (Skyward Sword, Mario Galaxy I and II) both use floating islands (or planets) as a key element of their level design- essentially allowing small areas to be rendered at decent quality within a vacuum.
I can’t prove that the switch to a Monet-inspired art style midway through the development of Skywards Sword was in part due to the inability of the ancient Wii hardware to render sharp, HD textures…. but if you’re objective about it then it seems pretty likely. You’d have to be completely biased to pretend that the leaps in graphics, storytelling and game world we saw in titles like Mass Effect and Skyrim were replicated on the Wii last generation. Outside of Mario Galaxy every single 1st party Nintendo title that I played on that system was essentially a new coat of paint. I think the fact that they essentially kept the same hardware over two generations has a LOT to do with that.
There is a reason they stopped being competitive, the market had changed and they had to adapt, it was no longer about how powerful your console was, but what it did that consumers and developers liked.
That change started with Sony and the PS1, which was also a music cd player with a fantastic software library, if you look at the N64 in comparison sure it also had great software but with no cd drive it was not offering the same kind of experience as the PS1 and people chose the less powerful PS1 with the audio cd capability’s over the N64 which was much more powerful.
The PS1 went on to sell 102 million units while the N64 went on to sell 32.93 million units, the N64 being them more powerful of the two got crushed and Nintendo would have looked at Sony to see why they were so successful.
Next up is the PS2 and the Gamecube, Sony built there console around the DVD format again pushing a media format which could play back dvd’s without any addons (do you see the trend here?) and again they make an underpowered console, Nintendo looking at what Sony had done the previous generation finally decides to start using optical media and still make a relatively powerful console only to fail again and post even worse numbers than the N64.
The Xbox is also launched in the same generation and has DVD playback (but not out of the box, you have to buy a playback kit) and brings two things that very important to the gaming industry Xbox Live and internal storage (HDD), this separates it from the Gamecube and the PS2 and pioneers online gaming for home consoles, but does not make the Xbox an instant success.
The PS2 went on to sell 155 million units
The Xbox 24 million units
The Gamecube 21.74 million units (the worst selling Nintendo console to date)
Lets just stop here and look at what is happening in the games industry at that time.
Sony has made two underpowered consoles and pushed Audio cd’s and DVD’s they have established a trend, they are the company that will push the physical media for home consoles.
Microsoft have jumped into the console race and pioneered online play and internal storage as well as downloadable games.
Nintendo has totally lost its footing, with the horrible sales numbers of the Gamecube they have to go back to the drawing board and come back with something new.
At this point in time looking at the three company’s you can see that both Microsoft and Sony have there own console brand, if you want good games and the latest physical media playback you go with Sony, if you want the best online gameplay experience and downloadable games you go with Microsoft.
What identity / brand did Nintendo have, if you want games, no physical media playback and pretty much no online experience you go with Nintendo? does not sound good does it.
Nintendo looking at Sony at this point would be thinking, Okay it’s not about the hardware because both the N64 and Gamecube were more powerful than the PS1 and PS2, so it’s okay to make underpowered consoles, Sony have been pushing physical media and we don’t want to do that (they don’t like to pay royalties for using the media) Microsoft is doing the whole online thing and we don’t want to compete with them because they are a much bigger company than we are and the results most likely wont be good.
So what did Nintendo do? they decided to go with an underpowered console with some internal storage and an small online shop (which they took from Microsoft), but what could they possibly do to make them self stand out like Sony does with it’s physical media playback and Microsoft with it’s online mulitplayer experience, what could the offer that was unique to them…. Motion Controls.
So the Next generation came around and Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo launched there console’s,
Sony bucked there trend of releasing underpowered consoles and bought out what is debatably the most powerful console for the generation, and also pushed the Blu ray physical media for there console as well as internal storage and for the first time offered an online store and online play for the masses.
Microsoft bought out a console comparable to the PS3, which had an dvd drive, internal hard drive and pushed there online experience even further.
Nintendo finally found an identity and separated it’s self from the competition with the Wii and it’s motion controls, finally we had three separate consoles offering three separate experiences, we have the PS3 with Blu ray playback fantastic graphics and games, decent online and internal storage, the Xbox 360 with comparable graphics to the PS3, robust online multiplayer, online storage and internal storage and the Wii with motion controls, limited graphics capability’s, fantastic games (Nintendo first party, and some second and third party games) small online store and limited internal storage.
Nintendo found it’s identity and it resonated with consumers, the Wii being the best selling console last generation.
As history has shown, if the consoles have an identity and people like it they will buy it regardless of how powerful it is, it just needs to stand out in a way that consumers want it to, if the Wii U would have been on par with the PS4 and Xbox One (IMO) i still think i would not be selling well like it is now and here is why, Nintendo has not communicated to consumers who they currently are, last gen they were the king of motion controls and everyone new it, this gen who are they?
They don’t need to compete with Microsoft and Sony, they need to convince consumers that they are different and that they offer a worthwhile experience, they have lost that message with the Wii U and need to figure out how to get it back, they either need to show of a game that makes people’s jaw drop from how good it is with the touch screen implemented into the game play in a fun and interesting way or they need to wait until next gen to reinvent them self.
That had nothing to do with power, they created 3d models of the environment and characters (in whatever 3d modeling software they had), rendered them out and used them as sprites for the game, it had nothing to do with the power of the SNES and everything to do with they way they created the graphics for the game.
I would argue that it was more about game play and the controls (analogue stick) than about graphics, the PS1 also had grate 3D platformers, like Spyro and Crash Bandicoot, why wern’t those games looked down upon for looking much worse than Mario 64?.
Never played it.
And still that was on one of Nintendo’s powerful consoles and that console has sold the worst out of all Nintendo’s consoles.
We will never know, unless they tell us.
I have not played any of the Mass Effect games (yet, i have the trilogy, it’s in my pile of shame atm) and Skyrim was fun, and i would not argue that there is anything remotely close to them on the Wii, the Wii was not built for those types of games, it was built around game play first and then everything else.
It’s possible, it’s all so possible that it would be quite hard to take a game franchise built on conventional controllers and figure out a way to change those controls and make them work well with motion controls.
Look, I’d agree with most of that. Although I think your history of ‘underpowered’ consoles is a little off.
The PS1 and PS2 were both market leaders power-wise by when they launched, and they were both future-proof for at least the next few years. Up until the Wii nobody had ever released a console that was a full generation (or close to it) behind the competition.
The Wii struck gold with its ‘waggle’ controller, but unless Nintendo can do that again (which seems unlikely) then they need to go back to making more traditional consoles. There simply isn’t a market for underpowered consoles which don’t have a gimmick, as can be seen from the WiiU’s terrible sales. They may not outsell the PS4 and or Xbone but as long as they turn a profit like they did with the N64 then it shouldn’t matter.
The Nintendo 64 is the perfect example of what I’d like to see from Nintendo right now. A brand new console in 2015 which comes late to the party and is slightly more powerful than the competition. Get working on new titles NOW that can launch with the new machine so people actually have a reason to buy it at launch (unlike the WiiU).That sales figure of 32m that the N64 is going to tower over whatever the WiiU hits. I’ve said before that on current figures it won’t go anywhere near the Dreamcast in terms of sales, it’s dead and they aren’t recovering it from here, it might get a few gems on its way out but it’s never going to be a success as a console.
There’s other issues outside of a lack of power (terrible marketing) but it’s the biggest thing that going to stop the console from recovering. It can’t run the engines that 3rd party developers are using for their multiplatform next-gen games, so it’s up to Nintendo to carry the machine on their own. They don’t have the resources to develop enough games to keep the machine viable AND make massive, innovative titles so they just pump out remakes (Wind Waker), mini-game collections (Nintendoland, Game and Wario) and new versions on old templates (Mario platformers, Smash Bros, Mario Kart).
Power won’t win you a console generation, but being a full generation behind WILL lose you one without a gimmick. I’m a massive Nintendo fan, they’ve made more of my favourite games than anyone, but as a Nintendo fan I don’t feel like I ‘won’ the last generation even though their sales were so good.
I want a reason to buy Nintendo’s consoles and I want a reason to be excited about their games, if they can’t sell a console to me then it’s time to go back to the drawing board.