Uh oh, sounds like somebody brewed up a PR nightmare. Yesterday, we ran a story on Capcom's Antoine Seux, who said that hardcore gamers had essentially abandoned the Wii and that the future of Capcom was in the PS3 and Xbox 360. The obvious sh*tstorm this caused was noticed by the rest of Capcom Europe, who are now scrambling for a U-turn.
"Further to comments made in a recent article on French website Gamekult, Capcom would like to confirm its commitment as a multi-platform developer and publisher of interactive software," states the publisher, with perfect diplomacy.
One can imagine that Seux was none too popular when he got into the office this morning. Still, regardless of how much trouble Seux may have gotten into, his comments regarding the poor performance of key titles still holds true. Like it or not, the Wii's reputation as a shovelware platform will be hard to shake, and that's nobody's fault ... except for all the arseholes who refuses to buy MadWorld.
Capcom (Try To) Back Away From Anti-Wii Comments [Kotaku]
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Contest:
10:30 AM on 01.07.2010
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Sort of like saying, "oh man that 16 year old chick is so hot!" Everyone will denounce you for it, but they were thinking it too.
Try telling that to GRIN.
Its a shame, because Madworld was a fun, stylistic beat'em up with hilarious commentary and a good soundtrack. I have Deadspace.. I'd say something about it but my Wii system data corrupted before I could play it and I'm not ready to shell out 70 dollars to have Nintendo reinstall their OS yet.
If I get it fixed, I might snag a copy of Little King's Story before it becomes the new Zack and Wiki, i.e, insanely expensive to find a new copy.
I guess that makes me a rarity, because unlike some people who run out and bitch that the Wii can too be a "hardcore" system, I actually bought some of the "hardcore" games, and know that it isn't, and will never be one, because Nintendo doesn't want it to be.
I take it you've never been to Gamespot? GameFAQs? IGN? *shudders*
I ain't even interested in the DS much anymore, I hate Nintendo so much.
Do you know what game that is a spiritual successor to? God Hand. Know how well that sold? Not even a third as much as that game. So the game is actually selling pretty well considering its ultra niche pedigree.
And I should also mention that No More Heroes is still Suda's top selling game.
What the Wii can't sell are games that wouldn't even sell on the HD systems, like Spyborgs and Extraction.
It's OK. Do what you must.
I highly doubt this has anything to do with the gamers and has more to do with keeping shit all good between the 'Com and Nintendo.
The rest is just plain ol cognitive dissonance.
RE4, RE:UC, Monster Hunter Tri, Zack & Wiki, Okami, RE:DC, Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, We Love Golf, RE, RE Zero, Neopets Puzzle Adventure, Moto GP, Spyborgs, and Harvey Birdman.
Outside of the first three, which have sold well, what else on the list deserves big sales? Okami, while a great game, has never done well at retail, so that leaves us with Zack & Wiki and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. That's it. If you're not going to put out games that are of at least decent quality, they won't sell, end of story.
This french dude speaks the truth, but obviously those who are blinded will deny and follow the rest of the blind flock. This is not about choosing sides or insane fanboyism, its a developer employee saying something, because evryone else wants to fucking tip toe around the big Nintendo wolf. Pathetic.
I've always known, that beyond the revolutionary controls, the Wii was destined for trouble far down the line. Its a harsh truth, no matter how sweet Nintendo games are, but I still believe the buck stops with Nintendo. Its they who made the Wii as such a cut down GC 1.5, so the must reap the money and bilge of creating a junk console, that's not up to the hardware standards (this goes back to the spec) of modern system.
Next time, Nintendo, stop hiding behind excuses like cutting cost and gameplay over graphics (a double edged sword) and give us all the kick ass 360/PS3 type console we deserve, after supporting you for fuckers 26 years. Like 360 and PS3, if the shit is hot, we will buy it regardless. Even if they had the get in bed with someone else to produce the hardware, I care not, just get it done.
Capcom, don't be pussies. Grow a pair of balls and stick to your guns. Its this kind of too much respect cow-towing, that has the japanese industry in such a sorry state. Call Nintendo out, and ask them to make a system with better spec and options, that devs will want to work with, and thus not have to bail from because of low sales of awful looking games.
I'm tired of hearing 3rd parties bitch about the Wii when the best efforts we get are "The Conduit". Had The Conduit come out on any other console, no one would have bought it either, because it looked incredibly generic.
I'll reward games like Muramasa with a purchase, because clearly the developer sought to make an original, exclusive title. Shitty ports and rails shooters will never get my money, sorry. If capcom released a Shadow of the Colossus equivelant on Wii and it sold like shit, I'd be inclined to feel sorry for them. As it stands: Boo-hoo, your quick cash-in light gun games sold poorly. Maybe re-thing what you're releasing instead of saying harcore gamers have abadoned the Wii - because we haven't.
Porting old arcade classic to PSP is another option Capcom should pursue more. I'd love a Capcom Collection Vol 3, with stuff like X-Men Children of the Atom, Warzard and such. Maybe a DLC route might be a good idea, if not UMDs for these.
The multiplayer mode and extra hard difficult try to superficially extend the game's length but their both pointless. The multiplayer mode is unenjoyable and felt tacked on and the hard mode was rididiculously frusterating and cheap.
Welcome to the world of Nintendo.
Strangely, its a repeat of the N64 and GC years all over again, those were the days. Few games, but Nintendo's, a weak release schedule, with nothing to really look forward too. After going down this road twice before with Nintendo, I'm not going to do it again for Wii, no matter how good Nintendo's games are.
And speaking of their games, Where's the F Zero, Blast Corps,Pilotwings from them? Too much Wii Fit focus has severely diluted their output. Fucking poor, as these the kind of games real gamers want.
Its a simple equation for Nintendo to fix this. Better console, with spec developers like = more support. If they manage to fuck up the Wii successor with poor spec, no hard drive etc again, I'm not sorry to say I'll be done with Nintendo home systems, and by rival product.
Oh yeah, I already am, I have a 360 and soon a PS3. Fuck you, Nintendo.
yeah because the gamecube was such a run away success.
But I see what your getting at, it's a shame, they tried to match and top the competition spec wise with the Gamecube and failed to win 3rd party support, so they didn't bother with the wii which then became a huge success and now 3rd party devs can't port there HD games over to Wii's install base.
I'll admit, I was expecting more interesting and exciting games to appear more frequently on the Wii, but to say you let it collect dust for over a year or the last thing you played was Super Smash Bros., then you weren't doing YOUR part 'cause awesome games were released during this whole time and you simply were not looking.
You think you're "hardcore"? Then LOOK.
And Madworld wasn't all that. I don't believe was the answer for "hardcore" games.
All Capcom is doing is calling out the painfully obvious, or at least Capcom France - but, to be fair, the one title that would/could/should see major success will be TvC. That one game may speak volumes about the state of where both Capcom and Nintendo should be heading, as I am sure that one little gem will pull some incredible amount of weight - just you watch.
The problem with GC, is that it got trumped by Xbox, when MS entered the market for the first time. Nintendo took too long to get it out of the door, and Xbox with its hard drive and stable online service stole the GC's thunder. Now, this was at a time of a major shift in the industry, and unfortunately Nintendo failed to act and were caught short.
Remember, MS and Xbox were an unknown entry to the market at that time, but the impact of Xbox shifted the industry again, just as Sony once did. Xbox could have just as easily failed, but either way it was a toe tip into these waters, that MS wouldn't give up on. Hey, even I was a sceptic of an MS console and laughed at it too. I ate a huge slice of humble pie there, as Xbox kicked GC in the nuts, and I now have both Xbox and Xbox 360.
GC should have been Nintendo's first stable online console. The cookie crumbled badly for them, because they were shit scared of the internet, sucking up the negative over the positive, whereas MS and Sony embraced it. Any normal person/forward thinking company in this situation, would approach the plenty of PC vendors/outfits, who know how to deal with online access, content etc (can't say if they did, and if they did, they didn't listen and execute it properly). However, Nintendo stupidly sat on their hands and approached the whole thing poorly, with the GC broandband adapter going on sale without even a mag ad. So, while the guts of the GC were sweet enough, the rise of hard drives and online play caught them offguard.
MS and Sony, knew that console were going to end up more like PCs, but Nintendo seem oblivious to this fact, from their jaded NoJ towers, and if they did know they tried their best to ignore/downplay it. From their view, they only short sightedly thought, as far as the coast of Japan (perhaps a poor luxury back then). Nintendo also have a history of strangling technology that could be better, for their own ends. From expensive carts to GC discs (and Wii still won't play DVDs in space year 2010, lol).
Sorry, but its Nintendo that made the piece of crap that is Wii, so they are to blame. Damn, even PS2 had a hard drive, so they have no excuse at all there. You don't see anyone bailing from 360 (PS3, understandable if some did over cost) development do you? Now why is that?
Better console with better online options.
It has a reasonable sized hard drive.
Free playable demos for new games, big pro or small indie, to help sell everyone's games, not just MS games (take a hint, Nintendo). For anyone who think demos don't help sell games I can give you examples, the best one being Bioshock. It won't work for every game, but it beats reading or watching a video about it.
XNA/Indies offers a cheaper dev alternative, one which Wii eventually copied, though nothing wrong with that.
The best gaming community in Xbox Live. Live is the legacy of the original Xbox and a well, ever-evolving hub of gaming. Demos, videos, tips, movies etc.
Overall, a nice place to be. I yearn for the day that Nintendo offer a service like this. I won't hold my breathe though.
"Better console with better online options...
...Free playable demos for new games, big pro or small indie, to help sell everyone's games, not just MS games (take a hint, Nintendo). For anyone who think demos don't help sell games I can give you examples, the best one being Bioshock. It won't work for every game, but it beats reading or watching a video about it.
XNA/Indies offers a cheaper dev alternative, one which Wii eventually copied, though nothing wrong with that.
The best gaming community in Xbox Live. Live is the legacy of the original Xbox and a well, ever-evolving hub of gaming. Demos, videos, tips, movies etc.
Overall, a nice place to be. I yearn for the day that Nintendo offer a service like this. I won't hold my breathe though."
First i'd suggest you to read this.
Better console? the RRoD, E074, Disc tray errors and others would like a word with you. Reasonably sized HDD? yeah, if you want to use it i guess, it's not like a Wii can't use up to 32Gb SD cards from any manufacturer, just like the X360 does with harddrives from 3rd parties... oh wait. Demos? ok i can give you that one. "The best gaming community in Xbox Live" LOL, yeah, legions of 12yo screaming "you suxxorz n00b" are sure great."Sorry, but its Nintendo that made the piece of crap that is Wii" i'll answer this by showing you the DS vs PSP situation, the DS has handed PSP's balls to it for 6 years both in hardware and software sells and this is a machine that back them was predicted to be crushed by the PSP in a year, 2 years tops. Why has the DS been able to do that? quality software that properly takes advantage of the "gimmicks" of the little handheld not just tacked on of crappily implemented. The DS is veritable proof that gameplay over graphics is possible, if the Wii has not done the same is due to 3rd parties laziness and halfbaked attempts when making Wii games.
That's not to say that you can't have good games on the Wii, of course there are and can be good games on the Wii - look at Super Mario Galaxy for instance. But developers think it is a risk. And that is due to Nintendo. Plus, graphics matter to the average consumer. Now you can get all high-and-mighty and say "I don't care about graphics, only idiots care about graphics". Well, the truth is, most people do care a bit about graphics. Do you want all your games to look like the first Quake? Of course you don't. Now, of course, the Wii's graphical capability is far beyond that, and as Super Mario Galaxy proved, you can get good looking games, but it is hard and 3D never will look as good on the Wii has on the Xbox 360 or PS3 or PC. Can you imagine the Wii running MGS4? Or COD:MW2 with all the settings turned up? Or Lost Odyssey or Bayonetta? I can't imagine the Wii running those games if its life depended on it.
And so developers making big budget games get scared of the Wii. They don't have to be, but they are. Like it or not, games are BIG FREAKING BUSINESS. BILLIONS of dollars are spent on the games industry and they expect BILLION DOLLAR RETURNS.
And the Wii is a big risk for an investor who sinks any significant amount of cash into a game. Huge, blockbuster games won't look good on the Wii (well, they won't look as good as on the other consoles or the PC), so there is little incentive for publishers and developers to shell out the big money for Wii games, which is why the Wii gets "Cooking Mama 10: This time, it's Garlic" and "Imaginz Babiez Pony Adventure 6: Back in the saddle", and you know, the 10 dollar budget games developed by fifth rate publishers.
The Wii has an image problem. Once you create the image of a low-budget, family friendly, easy-to-develop-for console, don't be surprised if the majority of games you attract are, well, low-budget family friendly and easy to develop!
The fact that everyone gets so worked up over this is laughable. Not to mention all this nonsense of the hardcore.
But you have to admit, the man said what was on a lot of people's minds, but just weren't saying for fear of unleashing a shitstorm.
On the graphics department it's the same example, how can such a graphically underpowered handheld beat the PSP (practically a portable PS2)? fun, quality games. What have 3rd parties done on the Wii? use the low graphical power as an excuse for low sales actually caused by their poor work.
Free repair is not to be sniffed at, as Sony and Nintendo aren't known for being that reasoanble. Make of that what you will. For me personally, I'm still on my first 360, but if it died, I'd have no problem buying another one, as its my home gaming hub.
@Edgy
Lol. You mention the 32gb SD cards, but where's the advertising for them? That's right, there is none in conjunction with Wii, not even from the mighty Nintendo, and therefore no one beyond the hardcore know they even exist. Without promotion its pointless.
((Don't stray into handheld territory, because home consoles and handheld are worlds apart in how they are handled.
The DS worked because of its handheld/PDA style regon free nature, like the GB before it. The handheld area is Nintendo's strongest area, and I for one knew the DS would trump PSP, so much so that I purchased a DS first (yes, even with its cannibalised N64 tech inside, in its phat silver case). I know the reasons why PSP failed to do over DS, and largely they all sit in Sony's camp.
-Lack of dual analogue
-Big 3D games aren't suitable for handheld use and quick play
-Poor battery life.
-More updates than you can swing a cat at, worrying about homebrew stuff.
-Sony being assholes about gamers buying import PSP games, when piracy is worse.
-Poor online play, which is only now being fixed.
-Not exploiting region free games enough (also guilty Nintendo).
The list for PSP goes on....but like I said, bad comparison as home and handheld are very different.)))
But I digress, the reasons Wii is a mess up, IMO. Are you ready?
-Lack of Wii hard drive. Nintendo had a chance to create one, yet failed after many gamers reqested such, yet a Motion Plus or Vitality Sensor is what we need. All it would have took is an external option at best. Yeah right, lame duck.
-Lack of Wii demos to help sell games, both online or on disc. Inexcusable, especially when demos are available in a warped draconian way (switch DSi off and its gone), for DSi. No demos on Wii for third parties = that's right, low sales, for a demo is its own kind of taste advertising, think about that for a second. Once again, lame.
-Most developers working in the industry, want to work with, the best, latest dev tech possible to make the best games possible, against ever increasing competition with huge money at stake. Post it note or canvas for a painting? The latter offers better options. These people still need to eat and pay bills, so they back the best horse to win a better return, and its not Wii unfortunately.
-The rise of LCD and HDTVs, a Wii still being in standard definition. Once you can see real detail on an LCD, the flaws arise. Another big mistake. I suggest to try playing Uncharted 2 on a 1080p HDTV, then go back to playing a Wii game. Worlds apart. I'm sure a switch box of some sort could have offered this, (My SNES could use a 50/60hz once back in the day) but once again, fail.
-Many developers simply hate working with Nintendo, though they'd never publicly admit it, with their Nintendo genius comes much pointless Nintendo madness.
-Those god awful friend codes, that might as well be a prison ID. Bend over so they can print it on your ass.
-Lack of possible voice chat or online play. Like it or not, it works and is here to stay. Lacklustre effort, if nothing at all.
-Wii updates locking out Freeloader discs and GC import games, when they previously allowed import on GC. Turn coatage indeed. Fuck you, Nintendo.
-No DVD9 playback. Such a simple painless thing to include, but no, we could have that in the 21st century from Nintendo. Lame
-As for first party games, where are F-Zero Wii, Pilotwings Wii, Blastcorps Wii? Its all about Wii Fit now, so fuck those games, says Nintendo. All you get is Mario, Punchout, Zelda, Metroid. Not enough, and the pressure is on more with next to no third parties.
Gameplay over graphics is a nice sound bite chalice (sure, it does work in some cases, but not all), when you hardly push the graphical boundaries like Nintendo. Gameplay is Nintendo's strength, so their games can sell on just that and graphics can look like horseshit if they choose. Thing is, as technology progresses, the time they can hide under that cloud grows shorter. I think its a nice excuse to give out when you can't produce graphics and art direction up to what many western games can. I mean on an ability front.
Have you never wonder why there's never been a DS Player, like the old GBA TV adapter? Its because if a DS were blown up on you TV, the true flaws would emerge, the ones Nintendo don't want us to see about DS.
Like Korolev said, graphics do matter, even more so with HDTVs becoming standard in our homes. Every flaw will be poke at more. Nintendo just don't want to deal with the problem, and bury their heads.
That's all for now.
Mark my words, if Nintendo tries to keep up with the competition with their next gen console (ie. just an upgrade in hardware, added online, etc.), the same thing that happened to the Gamecube is just going to happen again: Great games will be developed for it, its hardware will be completely capable of handling anything, but 3rd party devs and gamers alike won't touch it because it's a Nintendo product.
It's strange really. It's a combination of Nintendo's own foolishness and the company's perception in the eyes of gamers that have really cornered them.
Of course, Nintendo knows there is still a "hardcore" demographic with them, so they still make their top franchises (Mario, Zelda) to help retain what they have left of us. But those who say they have a wii, but "give up" on Nintendo are, honestly, to me, idiots. If you see a good wii game, no rational person is going to go "woah, that game looks really good, too bad I gave up on Nintendo, or else I would have bought it." I've seen this happen, believe me.
I'm not a Nintendo fanboy, or else I wouldn't be so distraught and friggen bored ever since my 2nd xbox RROD'd a couple weeks ago. In fact, I haven't touched the wii in months. And I recognize how greedy and foolish Nintendo are being about their console and lack of features.
RROD, I'm sorry, but even if they handled the situation greatly, all those errors with the 360 should have never happened in the first place. I mean, what went wrong with them when they were manufacturing the hardware?
At least we know Miyamoto is aware of his low spec console and has realized that as other technology improves, he must improve his. (Hence him saying that the next Nintendo home console will probably be an HD one) so there's that. And with the Tegra chip 2 going to be in the next handheld, which I heard can produce 1080p images, you know they are aware of their low-quality and are rightly trying to correct themselves.
And rail shooters are no interest to me anymore, that is why I do not buy them. Capcom, read this comment from one person, and assume that's what a whole lot of people are thinking, because it's true. ...
And Nintendo, make your online games bearable, please, especially in one of your most anticipated titles this generation. (Brawl) It had so much awesome potential, and you screwed it up badly with that lag.
wooah longest comment I have made, but just to be clear, this is all my opinion, and none of it should be taken as fact. ...I want a PS3 and 360 now, damnit.
Of course we'd bring it, even when the problem got fixed by Jasper mobos, are those that went through 2,4 and even 8 consoles suppose to just, you know, look the other way and think it never happened? i've had a Nes, Snes, Genesis, PS1 and N64 and NONE of those have failed on me. Granted, shit does break up and maybe i've just been fucking lucky, but few electronics had a death warranty like the X360. As for the SD card thing, they fixed the problem and you attack the advertising? i knew they had fixed it, as well as every Nintendo owner with a couple of working braincells.
On your claim of the DS, lets assume the handhelds are Nintendo's camp, that the PSP failure's was Sony's fault (can't argue that with the lack of decent games of the first years, it was like one good game every 6 months at some point), so let me give you another example:
N64 vs PS1: the N64 had awesome games (Z:OoT, Mario 64, Golden Eye, Turok, Perfect Dark, Conker) as well as sharper graphics than the PS1, but in the end, it was the software variety and quality (Vagrant Story, MGS, RE1 to name a few) of PS1 games and poor 3rd party support for N64 (even though i'll admit it was due to Nintendo's stubborn attachment to the cartridge system) that gave the victory to Sony with a graphically inferior console (graphics where blurry as hell by the standards of back then) and this happened on consoles so there's no excuse now.
As for your reasons the Wii fails:
-Lack of Wii hard drive: Again, fixed with SD cards which is better than MS ripoff for a 20Gb HDD
-Lack of Wii demos: I can give you that, but personally even a demo can be very misleading sometimes, hell, the site's editors have sometimes tried games they hated on previews and then loved on the final version and viceversa. I'd rather base myself on reviews of the final product, but ok, i'll give you this one.
-"Most developers working in the industry, want to work with, the best, latest dev tech possible to make the best games possible, against ever increasing competition with huge money at stake": LOL, i guess that's why the DS and PS1 failed so hard, they sure had the best, latest and greatest graphics in comparison to competition.
-The rise of LCD and HDTV: I could buy this theory and yet i still stand by my point that only a sucker takes graphics over gameplay, if Uncharted 2 still had the same or even better graphics but gameplay sucked ass would it matter if it looks better than a Wii game on HDTV? hell naw!. How about this, have you played Eternal Darkness? back in GC era it had poor graphics even for a launch title, yet it's regarded as one of the best games last gen due to it's high level of polished and immersive gameplay that made you forget about the visuals once you started playing.
-Many developers simply hate working with Nintendo: Maybe, but i could argue it's over idiotic envy, since if the actually made a real fucking effort instead of acting like 8yo when no one buys their lame, half-baked and un-inspired games: "why can Nintendo sell and not me, why!!, WHY!?!?!"
-Those god awful friend codes: I've never given 2 shits about online play, but from the POV of someone who does i can understand the point and admit it makes sense.
-Lack of possible voice chat or online play: Again, read the point above though i'll say that if you enjoy a good game less without voice chat i think there's something wrong with you, i feel this is very similar to the constant bitching for co-op even on games that don't need it HD or not.
-Wii updates locking out Freeloader discs and GC import games: Wait, are you complaining about Nintendo fighting piracy? not that i'm a supporter of stuff like DRM and shit but it's funny that you say that IMO.
-No DVD9 playback: And what has blue-ray done for Sony for that matter? if i want to play a DVD i do it in a DVD player. NOTE: I assume you mean movies, if not, FYI Metroid Prime Trilogy and Smash Bros Brawl are DVD9 games.
-As for first party games, where are F-Zero Wii, Pilotwings Wii, Blastcorps Wii?: Hey, captain obvious 2 Zeldas, 2 Metroids, 4 marios, Punch-Out's return, the best Smash Bros so far and this from a company whose usual rule is 1 game per IP by generation. I think they've done pretty damn well, in fact with 3rd parties epic failures i believe it's what keeps the Wii alive. Even if we void that rule they still have to keep something in store for 2011 right? no sense on releasing everything in a single year.
"Gameplay over graphics is a nice sound bite chalice (sure, it does work in some cases, but not all), when you hardly push the graphical boundaries like Nintendo. Gameplay is Nintendo's strength, so their games can sell on just that and graphics can look like horseshit if they choose. Thing is, as technology progresses, the time they can hide under that cloud grows shorter. I think its a nice excuse to give out when you can't produce graphics and art direction up to what many western games can. I mean on an ability front."
I could apply the same thought pattern to 3rd parties on Wii, the reason they fail is because the cloud of "nice graphics" isn't there to cover their sloppy work on gameplay.
"Like Korolev said, graphics do matter, even more so with HDTVs becoming standard in our homes. Every flaw will be poke at more. Nintendo just don't want to deal with the problem, and bury their heads."
I know they do matter, but they are not everything, do you think that DR:CTYD would have received so much criticism if they had pulled SMG level graphics instead of the crap they delivered?, what i mean is that you don't need HD for beautiful graphics just do good polished ones, unless you're a graphx whore that is.
Like I said before, the third man factor of Xbox entering the market, alongside PS2 and GC, is what killed GC despite its good spec. Xbox had better/nigh on good spec, a hard drive and online gaming, and no doubt because of it being an MS product, also made it easier to create games for in devs eyes. Xbox got a good early start in Europe two months before GC, and over time GC was cool, but not cool enough to top the new Xbox online gaming hotness. GC was but an unfortunate victim of change, caught in this new transitional option for consoles.
GC was second in the race, but it only took 2-3 years until it ended up in third place. Xbox in the west was too much for GC to handle, so much so that even Xbox failing it japan was like an expensive thorn in a finger for MS, but a valuable lesson learn that was worth it for them. Soon after, I expect the devs could see the picture for GC, and the dev exodus began to migrate, as they too wanted their games to be online. Nintendo couldn't offer that on GC, and twiddled their thumbs about it, eventually leaving GC offline. Had Nintendo got GC online too like Xbox, along with a hard drive even (PS2 and Sony managed one), the picture could have been very different for GC overall at the end.
After this, I wonder if Nintendo ever did any market research to find out why GC dipped out against Xbox. I doubt they did, otherwise their choices with Wii might have been smarter. I never saw Wii without a hard drive as smart at all. Its the standard expected now by devs post Xbox, but since Nintendo more or less work in their japanese vacuum, they missed this news or ignored it.
As for MS and RRoD, no it shouldn't have happened, but that's life and business, expect the unexpected and be prepared to tackle it. They made a gamble, in order to get 360 out early and it was the wrong one. However, they learned from it, planned, regrouped and addressed it head on. No matter how many 360s went down, they still dealt with them FOR FREE, where many other companies, would have told us all to fuck off and buy a new one. Commendable stuff, whether you stuck with 360 or not.