If there's one thing I've learned as a videogame fan, it's that you can always depend on being amused by what people in or associated with the gaming industry have to say during interviews. I usually look to names like Kutaragi and Pachter to get my daily dose of comedy gold for the day, but sometimes other sources make their presence known. Take for instance the following statements that the president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, said during an interview on Shigesato Itoi's blog:
"Even if we make great products, if the number of new customers doesn't increase, it won't reach people. That was clear to us, so doing the easy was not an option. I think we can say 'we won't do the easy' because we are currently making profit. If we were having a hard time, maybe we will choose the easy, so that we can make profit for certain."
Now you may be wondering what is so damn funny about those statements. Well, I just don't see how anyone can buy into it. For starters I can't even remember the last time I heard the words "Nintendo" and "unprofitable" in the same sentence, so that part was nothing more than a waste of breath based on hypotheticals. That being the case, how can Iwata say that Nintendo takes the road less traveled? The Wii, even with its motion controls, was very much a safe bet on Nintendo's part. I see a lot of titles based on mini-games, and familiar names. Fire up the virtual console, and tell me what's so groundbreaking about the offerings. Can you honestly believe that the Wii is not a representation of taking the easy way out? If you lived in a vacuum, you might be tempted to say yes. However, when placed side-by-side with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, it becomes obvious that the Wii took the path of least resistance.
What about the endless supply of sequels the Nintendo name has come to be associated with? Was the GameCube a big gamble on their part? The list goes on and on. I love Nintendo as much as the next guy, but I don't try and kid myself into believing they represent anything other than being the name behind high quality consoles and great games. Had this come from Sony, who tried to design a supercomputer instead of a gaming console (and are paying the price), I might have overlooked it. Had this come from Microsoft, who decided to throw their hat in the hardware business for the second time even though they've never truly mastered the software side as it is, I might have overlooked it. Unfortunately, this came from the head of Nintendo -- and it's just not true.
[Via GamesIndustry --Thanks yet again, Justin]
Contest:
11:14 AM on 09.13.2007
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Nintendo taking the hard road = fail.
@Kyousuke Nanbu: I agree. The only franchise they are allowed to keep stagnant is Smash Bros. It could be the same as the 64 days and if there were more characters I would be happy. Even THAT game is piling on tons of fanfare and refinements (it's hard to call custom soundtracks and game rules as innovation).
It's the same rehashed characters in the same rehashed worlds, or they're playing some kind of sport. Pretty much slapping Mario in anything constitutes the easy way out.
I also found Nintendo and unprofitable in the same sentence hilarious. What have they had? Something like one unprofitable quarter in over 100 years?
Nintendo chose to stay behind hardware-wise, risk losing the hardcore gamers (and they are, apparently), in hopes of getting the non-gamer market which is HUGE. Their decision to take the small path payed off big time.
And to repeat this again for the bazillionth time... if you bought the Wii wanting a purely harcore experience, you're an idiot.
Don't get me started with the Zeldas. With a few exceptions, the Zeldas almost always follow the same formula: Find the dungeon, get the item, beat all dungeons, fight Ganon. And it's ALWAYS Ganon! I've been sick of the franchise since Ocarina.
Playing devil's advocate, Nintendo will never get to the stagnant.whoring level that EA Sports is at.
This console is not geared towards your hard core gamer. Innovative may be there ability to suck in new demographics with there DS and Wii. The increase in female and elderly gamers has put them at the top of what counts to all three major companies....units sold.
I am surprised at how the Wii shot up the charts. I was expecting them maybe to be a distant second behind the 360 but not neck and neck in less than 12 months.
Not to make excuses for Nintendo though, because I think 99% of the software out for the Wii is utter crap. Well, maybe not utter crap, just games not aimed at gamers like me.
I don't hate the Wii, and I have no regrets for buying one. I just disagree with what Iwata's saying here.
Perfectly said, perfectly worded and the future of articles.
I love you man.
You mean somebody actually reads my stuff? That's news to me ;-)
Hugs and kisses to you too, Grover. In need of a nice, warm, saltwater enema to relax you a bit?
Fair enough. Just my over-eagerness wanting Nintendo to get the ridicule it deserves, getting the better of me. ;)
Gameboi, you shouldn't have to defend your stance on things. People are going to spew "stupid" no matter what you write. Personally, my biggest disappointment in this round of consoles is the Wii.
IAWTP!!!
No, they definately didn't take the easy way. The real easy way would have been to travel the same path as their competitors. Right now, the wii is still in uncharted waters and there's nothing easy about that. Afterall, if the wii failed big time, they might have made more profit by going down the traditional path.
HOWEVER, i do agree that Nintendo always has a backup plan. Even if they fail, they always make a profit. In that respect, going with weak hardware is a win win situation. If the wii succeeds, MASSIVE profit. If it fails compared to the competition, they STILL make a profit, simply because the hardware is so cheap to produce.
As for hypoteticals, there's nothing wrong with hypothesizing. Even if it's a situation unlikely to happen. Don't really see anything to laugh about in Iwata's statement.
Even this early in the console wars Nintendo has already made its mark in the industry. The PS3 tried to quickly implement it in some way before it was launched and I will bet you $200 that every console next generation will have some sort of motion control or at least a new sort of new control scheme implemented. If I was Iwata this is the only viable option that I could see being successful. They already tried matching, or in some cases beating, the competition in terms of hardware and it resulted in a failed console. So they tried a new angle this generation and it happened to work out wonderfully for them.
For all of you who gripe and complain about how the controls seem wonky in most games, I'll just say it's technology that hasn't even been out for a year yet. It's new technology thats going through it's growing pains. This is the price you pay for being an early adopter. Just look at the DS.
Also, I'm late for class now COCKS!
You can't really get beyond a lot of the supportive points, however.
1.) We have no real idea how many people own a Wii that never really bought consoles or games before. Nintendo makes it sound like it's a majority of their userbase, but we never see any real numbers on this... just superfluous reports on how some retirement home has a bunch of people playing a Wii or owners telling us how their mom plays it.
2.) There is a heavy reliance on sequels. Not only from the obvious big three, but also their new ideas since the DS. Wii Sports and Wii Fit have been the only really "new" concepts on the system in any sense. They talk about Brain Training and training this and that, but that market is already getting incredibly saturated and sequel-itis is probably going to set in even more quickly. I think this concept hurts a lot more because the Wii is constantly being portrayed as inventive, but little of the software supports this yet. I imagine this will change like it did for the DS.
3.) This reliance on sequels and repetition flies directly in the face of this Blue Ocean strategy they used to quote ad nauseum.
4.) The Wii, for many people, seems to be solely a device to play Wii Sports. If they buy anything else, it will likely be whatever is most marketed as being in that vein and more than likely it will be from Nintendo. Coupling this with the general concept that only Nintendo's games on it (largely) are of real purchase value, it could potentially become a Nintendo-only machine on a far higher level than the GameCube ever was... regardless of a few standout titles such as RE4.
A lot of it remains to be seen, but more than anything I'd really like Nintendo to start giving us some stats or something that will signify how many new groups are playing these games and who they are. They have ways to track this. The fact that it's selling a lot isn't necessarily enough because it's not clear how many of these people might have been PS2 or Xbox owners who aren't interested in the PS3 and 360. Until then, I'm tired of hearing about it.
I think bucking the trend of better graphics in favor of a new and untried control scheme was a bit risky. Not totally risky. The DS - that was a huge risk. The GameCube definitely had better graphics and loading times than the PS2, but it didn't do that well against the PS2. The same can be said about the Xbox. With GameCube sales flagging and the GBA dominating the hand-held market, Nintendo had to do something drastic to fight off the PSP. And they did.
Nintendo has traditionally led the market. They invented the d-pad, were the first console maker to launch a console with an analog stick, provided the best 2D to 3D game experiences, created hand-held gaming, introduced the DS and now the Wiimote. But that's not why I buy their products. It's the quality and their first party software. Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Fire Emblem and Smash Bros. are all great games.
I think the Wii and Nintendo took the different path. Where no one in my family will even look at the PC, 360 or the PS3, they all play a few rounds of Wii Tennnis or Bowling every so often.
I personally think they took the genius way out by thinking different and not sticking to the old methodologies (bigger = better).
Now, did they play it safe with the Wii? Damn skippy they did. If they were completely confident that the Wii would've been hotter than a crack pipe on check day they would've made it both powerful AND innovative. But they weren't, so they went the safe route by using the Gamecube's architecture since they knew it would be cheap to produce. I'm willing to bet that Nintendo's next gen console (codenamed: pew pew) will be an amped up Wii. There might possibly be some other gimmick attached, but considering the success of the Wii, the next console should be powerful.
Iwata isn't saying that they don't use their tried and tested franchises for risk free success, he is saying that Nintendo's design philosophy is based on interface innovation which always involves taking risks and doing things the hard way. I don't know how anyone can suggest that Nintendo takes the easy way. I really can't think of many companies who would take a hugely successful, globally recognised brand name such as the Gameboy and then decide to discard that name completely in favour of something that was initially laughed at - the DS. That's like Apple dropping the ipod at it's peak or Sony dropping the Playstation at it's peak. That is not easy.
The DS was not the easy direction, neither was the Wii. people conveniently forget that before their success, both consoles were predicted to be failures based on the current trends of success. The easy option would be to try and compete in a known and familiar arena of superior graphics and presentation, Nintendo didn't do this, and to this day they are still getting slated for it. Having a design history of Hardcore traditional games, then being able to adapt to a changing environment and come out with software like Wii Fit and Wii sports is not easy.
I think that Iwata's comments were lost in translation, Nintendo don't make money from other digital media like Sony and Microsoft, therefore they cannot afford to play those guys at their own game - the bigger equals better game - if Nintendo were to follow the easy path, the status quo, then they simply wouldn't exist now.
An obvious example is the N64, perhaps the most arrogant and obvious console Nintendo has ever made, it was a relative failure, the only thing that kept them afloat back then was Pokemon, a wonderful piece of innovative software which didn't take the easy direction, it relied on ingenious design and innovation, not 3D graphics. So in conclusion, Nintendo really can't afford to take the easy path, their existence relies on innovation, which is always difficult. Iwata is simply saying their current success has confirmed to them that their design philosophy is sound, whilst other companies may not be in that situation and share that approach.
Also, to sourgr8pes, Link does not always fight Gan(n)on. Zelda 2's antagonist was Shadow Link. Of course G was behind the scenes with that damn silhouette taunting me when I died, but I don't think you ever fought him personally. Dethl was the final boss of Link's Awakening. Vaati is the final boss of Minish Cap. I forget who the boss is in Majora's Mask, but I know G had nothing to do with it.
LOL. Nice try, but you Fail!
Exactly, that's exactly it, and that's what Iwata is saying. There is a known route which is marked out by previous success, to build upon this is in a flashier way is easy, the unkown route is not at all easy, and it has to be said that both the DS and Wii were, and are new territory. That's all Iwata is saying and I don't know why this is so hard to understand.
"The Wii, even with its motion controls, was very much a safe bet on Nintendo's part. I see a lot of titles based on mini-games, and familiar names. Fire up the virtual console, and tell me what's so groundbreaking about the offerings. Can you honestly believe that the Wii is not a representation of taking the easy way out?
Gameboi, that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Very few people in this industry thought the Wii was going to succeed the way it has. So don't try to tell me you knew all along that the Wii was going to be a safe bet. Every console knowadays has a significant backwards-compatability feature, bashing Nintendo's because they didn't innovate with it is ridiculous. The Wii is groundbreaking because it offers a different gaming experience. Not because they offer all of our old favourites through a downloadable system.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was quite a different look from all of the old Zelda games. The DS Zelda, Phantom Hourglass is mixing up the formula a bit. But why should they completely change each series? Nintendo may not innovate all the time, but they certainly do their fair share of it.
Yeah, I should have stated the exceptions. The handhelds usually deviated from the usual predictable formula, and were actually enjoyable. With exception of Majora's Mask, the console versions followed the boring tried and true formula.
The Wii's got it's faults, and it's not going to be a system that appeals to every gamer. The same can be said of the other too. I'm glad that there's a console out there that's cheaper and more noob friendly, along with the more traditional ones. That means more people can enjoy the sort of gaming that appeals to them.
SRSLY.
Nintendo really needs to stop talking all this BS just because they are poised to take the lead, they really are starting to remind me of a certain other Japanese game company that has been put in it's place this generation.
Nintendo is falling back a bit with the new innovative games, but they're still some of the only games worth playing until other developers get up to par.
You guys need to realize that the corporate world has a much lower bar for what innovation is. When you have billions of dollars riding on the line, then yes, motion controls are very risky. They're not going to release a system that is too far from status quo. And last time I checked noone else seems to be innovating.
"Third party development for the Nintendo Gamecube is unprofitable." ? Pretty sure would have been a few publishers who said that.
*Slaps Hulk to the ground
Get out of here!
They might be taking the easy way out, but it could be worse.
see what I did there
I mean, the trend, or "easy way" had been going since the transition from 2600 to 7800. Every gen you get better graphics, that was the well paved path most travelled. Nintendo wandered off this path, machete in hand, and discovered a shining temple of money called "People who aren't game obsessive shutins". If you have to use a machete to get there, it is not the goddamn easy way.
Man I'm looking forward to MOH heroes 2.