Speaking with CNet, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime further clarifies the company line that has been pushed by Nintendo since the announcement and launch of their "new generation" console, the Wii. We all know it by heart now: The Wii is a casual system meant to have the ability to appeal to the masses, not just Nintendo's or the video game market's core audience. Here's a bit of the philosophy Fils-Aime says is behind the Wii:
... First, how do you satisfy the core while still expanding appeal? And second, how do you leverage your strengths against entirely untapped audiences--to the so-called "blue oceans" in popular marketing speak?
The answer by Fils-Aime and Nintendo?
Provide a new product that actually underperforms on an established industry metric for "progress," and substitute an alternative that typically is smaller, less expensive and easier to use.
And the result is:
It is purposely so simple and intuitive that anyone in a household can use it. It also incorporates functions like a photo browser, an Internet browser, and custom news and weather channels, which lead some people to wonder what these elements have to do with video games.
In all honesty, this begs the question: Do you want your old Nintendo back? Do you want that company that provided the best gameplay experiences with the best technology they could give at the time? Quite simply, is Nintendo alienating their core audience with the Wii?
[Via Next-Gen]
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Contest:
9:13 AM on 05.09.2007
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Flame war in....3....2....1.. GO!
Yes! While I enjoy my DS, the Wii has largely disappointed. I even loved the purple lunchbox. It pretty much matched Xbox in terms of visuals, and had great first party games, a couple of which are close to best games ever (Prime, Celda, etc etc). It really sucks when I think what could have happened with Metroid Prime 3 if it was made on a high-end machine.
I understand why Nintendo has done it though. Being an exclusive gaming company they would have struggled to compete with the juggernauts in terms of copping losses. It makes me ponder next gen however. Can Nintendo do something innovative again?
1. No, they are the same, and their IPs are just as strong as ever. The DS is kicking ass, and it sucked at first too. We've only really seen zelda from nintendo on the wii and that is a gamecube game. we haven't even seen their main IPs
2. No, because they are the same company.
3. No, they are creating a bigger audience.
Summa, as a pony, do you have any other tricks? or do you just have the one, biting weiners?
NEXT
To me, they're still running the same game they did from the start. I don't need Mario to battle hundreds of on-screen situational thinking koopa troopas in hi res hdmi. Nintendo knows that Koopa Troopas are inherently dumb and Nintendo knows that I haven't bought a high def TV yet. They're not making me get one to enjoy their games, which I kind of appreciate.
Is it possible to make a distinction between hardcore gamers and status symbol penis gamers? They're still two different things, right?
As a gamer though I feel increasingly alienated by them. I will be reserving final judgement until we see some of the more 'hardcore' games on the Wii though. If they can pull off Metroid, Mario and Zelda, Smash Bros (and maybe throw in some good new stuff) then Reggie Donkey Kong Fils Aime can claim that they have straddled the core/casual divide. Until then I'm not sold on their new direction.
I think that was very big of me to say that publicly! haha
So I say it's their turn. 20 years from now when the people playing the Wii are in our shoes playing hardcore games, we will thank Nintendo for breeding a new generation of gamers.
They need to do a Sega (:
has nintendo ever had the most powerful system for any generation?
nintendo < sega master system
super nintendo < Sega Genesis
nintendo 64 < playstation and saturn
gamecube < ps2 or xbox
wii< ps3 or 360
they typically win by games not tech in my opinion. it's still too early to say that they won't win on games this time around as well. i mean, it has a huge install base for just coming out, it's priced to sell, and development is cheaper
granted it will always be my "other" system but they still have one sitting in my house if i play it or not that they made a profit on the second i bought it.
Because that's worked out GREAT for Sega amirite?
nintendo 64 < playstation and saturn
gamecube < ps2"
lol wut
SNES was WAY more powerful than the genesis - it had a true 16bit color palette (genesis swapped out two palettes) and a better processor capable of handling more sprites. so what if it had a little slowdown, it's because devs were pushing the system and it had fancy FX chips and "Mode 7" graphics. the genesis had a made-up "blast processing" dohickey.
The Big N are still working out the kinks to a new system. Fuggin' get off your high horse and enjoy the game for what they are and not what they COULD be.
Only strong start for the next gen systems was the 360. And with the price of a PS3 I can pay for a semester at school. So I got my money's worth with the Wii. Just give it time.
your argument makes perfect sense, except for the fact that in the last two generations they started losing severe amounts of market share and that ps2 < gamecube < xbox. those two facts are sort of setting them up for failure in the long run, no? is it possible for them to turn around two failing console generations in one?
i don't know if any one has the answer for that, but i think it may take one or two wii-like systems from nintendo to retain it's top spot again. that will give sony enough time to shoot itself in it's foot over and over again and microsoft will STILL be waiting to make a system with wifi and motion control. THEN nintendo will be the winner. until then... not sure... haha
That is just dumb, if Nintendo didn't do hardware, video games would become somewhat stagnant. Nintendo has been one the one that has been making innovations and making it the best they can be for systems.
Analog Stick, Rumble Pack, Wireless, Touch Screen, and now Motion Sensing....all originally/perfected by Nintendo.
Nintendo are innovators, that is just fact.
Rather than make awesome, in depth games for core gamers.
Oh wait do I need to put /sarcasm at the end there?
I'll stop being a smartass, honestly, I just think they need to pump out some damn games for it. There's room for both types.
The SNES was generally a better all around system to be sure, but what it DIDN'T have was a faster processor. The Genesis had a 7.6MHz Yamaha YM2612 processor while the SNES used a Nintendo manufactured chip that had a maximum clock speed of 3.58MHz. "Blast-processing" was certainly a marketing ploy to try and convey the fact that the Genesis was superior, but that doesn't mean that the idea behind it was entirely made up.
Compare some crossplatform games like Earthworm Jim or TMNT: Turtles in Time to TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist and you'll see much better animations in the Genesis versions than in the SNES versions for this reason. Although on an overall sense, the SNES was superior because it had a greater color pallete, it had Mode-7, a superior sound chip, and it could do some neat tricks like sprite scaling.
mmmm
i know i did. after the N64, and honestly didn't feel like i was missing out on much. the exclusives i got on my sony and ms consoles more than made up for missing the latest zelda or mario game.
the wii was different enough to bring me back, and i bought my first piece of nintendo hardware since 1996. i like it, its exactly what i wanted. fun for when you have company over.
whats suprising me the most, is how much i'm enjoying titles on the wii that i usually wouldn't waste my time on (godfather, blackahnd edition is fucking awsome).
"Do hardcore gamers actually want and will expend a extra $100 in an actual Next Gen version of the Wii, instead of the crappy gamecube they've got now?!"
The ANSWER will probably shock you!
"YOU CAN BET YOUR SWEET, SWEET ASS! REGGIE!"
"Analog Stick, Rumble Pack, Wireless, Touch Screen, and now Motion Sensing....all originally/perfected by Nintendo."
I wouldn't say perfected. Seriously that makes you sound like a.... (the F word)
The N64 was unarguably way more powerful than the Sony Play Station. I mean, the Play Station was just supposed to be an add-on to the SNES, but Nintendo decided against it. Ken Kutaragi pushed to have teh system released as a stand alone. Sony went ahead with it. The actual Play Station is pretty much all the same hardware that was supposed to be in the attachment itself. It was teh last generation hardware, and it sold like fucking made. Sony destroyed Nintendo that round. And the gamecube was considerably more powerful than the PS2 as well but that didn't do anything for them.
If you look at history, it will predict that Nintendo is going to have the majority of the market share, and there is a good chance that Sony is going to never get anywhere with the PS3. You need to think sometimes, Summa.
Also it was TOO DAMN OBVIOUS the Gamecube was aimed at children. The size, the mini dvd, the controller.
IF Nintendo could pull a Console aimed at everyone with next gen tech, free online access and a Wiimote, the current Wii success would pale in comparison.
Nintendo made the right move for where the market is at right now. I appreciate Sony and Microsoft for pushing HD content forward, but I don't think it's a feature that the average consumer demands right now. In a few years at the end of the lifespan for these consoles, we'll see if that's still the case. But for now they wouldn't be continuously sold out if this strategy weren't working.
That is why I said originally and you know next gen Wii will be perfected.
And I say perfected cause people wil lsay Microsoft had computer joysticks similar but I don't believe they were as popular as what Nintendo has made.
I saw a Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles trailer in the movie theater.
I'm not gonna disagree, but I wouldn't agree either.
What? what history are you talking about? Sony has been outselling Nintendo since the PS1 actually thats the reason why Sony is so damn overconfident with the PS3, they know at the end they won. Even though the PS2 (and the PS1) had a lot of initial problems.
And No you can compare the DS to the Wii handhelds and consoles go to different markets, if they were the Wii would be selling millions of units each month in Japan and you can clearly see, its not. (actually Zelda:twilight princess sales were less than stellar there)
Nintendo painted themselves in a corner with the Wii, they made a system anyone can afford and want, but that developers wont accept, simply because the result is of much less quality than is next gen consoles due to low Spec restraints. (and the resources the Wiimote handler needs)
About wireless...before the Wavebird, wireless gaming was unheard of and thought of as unreliable.
Motion Sensing is not perfected yet but just wait 4-5 years.
Definitely not...I just remember seeing it and hearing a bunch of college HS aged kids booing it.
The Wii has all the ingredients for success, and the PS3 has all of the ingredients for failure.
They aren't selling millions in Japan of Wii cause they can't make enough systems to keep on the shelf (much like the DS).
And what is this about developers won't accept their system? That is why most (with excepts like with Factor 5) developers love the Wii and are REALLY excited to make games for it like EA, Ubisoft and other developers.
Where do you get your facts?
As far as Nintendo's original "core" audience goes, that core audience changed during the N64 and Gamecube eras in a negative way. If it changes again with the Wii, I think it will be in a positive way for the people playing the system.
And if there are people who just don't like it or don't want to play it because it's different, then Nintendo doesn't have to worry about those people. They'll always be there, but I guess they're not the target audience here. There's Sony and Microsoft to appeal to the biased hardcore traditional gamers.
I think everything I've seen from Super Mario Galaxy is decent proof that the Wii is going to be just fine in the visuals department.
And so long as they keep the VC service running, you will never ever ever hear me disparaging the Wii. Unless they fuck up and never put Mega Man or Bionic Commando on the VC. Then heads will roll and blood will fall from the sky.
I second that put I add MegaMan 2 to your MegaMan and Bionic Commando line-up