My stepmom thought that Diablo was a devil worshipping program for the computer. But she thought the computer itself was the devil.
... And all technology for that matter.
Took me a while to convince her that killing the devil himself is a thing people like to do in a video game.
Well, you do...
SPOILER ALERT
... Stick the Devils soulstone into your cerebral matter by the end of that game which ultimately leads to the resurrection of the other two Prime Evils...
/SPOILER ALERT
Alright and in this next scene all the animals have AIDS.
President Satoru Iwata continued to address Nintendo investors’ fears in an investor question and answer session on Monday after reporting the company’s first-ever fiscal year loss at the end of April. In addition to announcing new digital download initiatives for both the Nintendo 3DS and the upcoming Wii U, Iwata said Nintendo is refocusing its development on gaming enthusiasts rather than casual and family players. It was a bad move to abandon the core according to Iwata.
“The Wii was able to reach a large number of new consumers who had never played games before by bringing hands-on experiences with its Wii Sports and Wii Fit. However, we could not adequately create the situation that such new consumers played games frequently or for long, consistent periods. As a result we could not sustain a good level of profit,” said Iwata.
“Moreover, regrettably, what we prioritized in order to reach out to the new audience was a bit too far from what we prioritized for those who play games as their hobby. Consequently, we presume some people felt that the Wii was not a game system for them or they were not willing to play with the Wii even though some compelling games had been released.”
Nintendo’s underwhelming announcement of the Wii U at E3 2011 was a less explicit admission of the same mistake. The naming of the new console according to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime was supposed to reconcile the casual and core audiences of Nintendo’s games, a console for “me and you.” Hence the hybrid of traditional control inputs and something simpler like a touch screen.
Iwata’s comments to investors though betray the fact that he and the rest of Nintendo’s corporate leaders in Japan misunderstand the chief failing of the Wii: The machine needed more games, more frequently. The casual audience lured by titles like Wii Fit in 2008 and earlier during the height of the Wii’s success are the same players that went on to pour money into free-to-play social games like FarmVille and mobile titles like Angry Birds in the years that followed. They are more than willing to play games for “long, consistent periods” as long as they’re given a reason to. Nintendo failed this audience by not giving them a wider selection of titles at lower costs.
Nintendo failed its core audience in a similar way. There simply weren’t enough games to maintain a healthy community of users. Releasing the Wii with limited technical capabilities wasn’t a mistake, but releasing it with no ability whatsoever to support high-definition television screens was nothing short of insane. It automatically alienated hobbyists and encouraged them to seek other solutions like the Dolphin Wii emulator. That’s not to mention the system’s asinine online gaming structure.
While the Wii U could be a hit for Nintendo, it’s concerning to see that its leadership still doesn’t understand the failures of past business decisions.
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Clearly game analogies don't work. If doom was the model T...
Don't be silly. The model T was churned out at a really cheap price. Zynga games are the Model T.
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Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
I don't understand that article. Isn't that exactly what Iwata is saying? It failed because we didn't put enough software out there that appealed to people?
Iwata’s comments to investors though betray the fact that he and the rest of Nintendo’s corporate leaders in Japan misunderstand the chief failing of the Wii: The machine needed more games, more frequently. The casual audience lured by titles like Wii Fit in 2008 and earlier during the height of the Wii’s success are the same players that went on to pour money into free-to-play social games like FarmVille and mobile titles like Angry Birds in the years that followed. They are more than willing to play games for “long, consistent periods” as long as they’re given a reason to. Nintendo failed this audience by not giving them a wider selection of titles at lower costs.
Farmville has an obvious reason to play for long, consistent periods, and it so happens that the reasons are the same as Animal Crossing's. The main reason to play Angry Birds for long, consistent periods is because it's with you everywhere you go, something Nintendo couldn't provide with the Wii.
Their point seems a bit muddled. If Nintendo needed gamers playing for long, consistent periods, then wouldn't fewer and better-crafted games be ideal? More games mean each individual game is played for shorter periods, and you have to give people a reason to buy each one.
Or if they meant that the long, consistent gaming periods would be spread across multiple games, then why did they only give two examples of games that encourage extended play on their own?
Aren't there a ton of cheap, casual games on Wiiware and DSiware? According to Wikipedia, there are about 200 Wiiware games, 400 Virtual Console, and 300 DSiware games in North America, almost all under $10. That would seem to show that Nintendo's problem wasn't a lack of software volume or low enough cost, but instead a lack of marketing.
If they'd still insist that Iwata's comments betray a misunderstanding, surely they'd admit that actions speak louder than words, and the WiiU's direction appears to be falling more in line with what they say Nintendo needs? Better specs and HD means more cross-platform ports and more games overall. The renewed digital sales focus removes one of the barriers to entry for purchasing any game. DLC means the ability to provide reasons for gamers to play for longer, more consistent periods. No?
Releasing the Wii with limited technical capabilities wasn’t a mistake, but releasing it with no ability whatsoever to support high-definition television screens was nothing short of insane.
This part made me laugh. Tell me again, what was the HDTV adoption rate in 2006?
If they'd still insist that Iwata's comments betray a misunderstanding, surely they'd admit that actions speak louder than words, and the WiiU's direction appears to be falling more in line with what they say Nintendo needs? Better specs and HD means more cross-platform ports and more games overall. The renewed digital sales focus removes one of the barriers to entry for purchasing any game. DLC means the ability to provide reasons for gamers to play for longer, more consistent periods. No?
Add in the strides they've made with 3DS's eShop in providing and promoting digital download titles which will surely carry over to WiiU (over the mess that was WiiWare). At the very least they should be able to offer some good digital stuff.
If they'd still insist that Iwata's comments betray a misunderstanding, surely they'd admit that actions speak louder than words, and the WiiU's direction appears to be falling more in line with what they say Nintendo needs? Better specs and HD means more cross-platform ports and more games overall. The renewed digital sales focus removes one of the barriers to entry for purchasing any game. DLC means the ability to provide reasons for gamers to play for longer, more consistent periods. No?
Add in the strides they've made with 3DS's eShop in providing and promoting digital download titles which will surely carry over to WiiU (over the mess that was WiiWare). At the very least they should be able to offer some good digital stuff.
Yeah, I edited something about this into my post. There are about 600 games on the Wii store including VC and Wiiware, all pretty cheap. Also a lot of (incredibly crappy) budget family Wii software out there. Seems their main problem was marketing and not a lack of content. If anything, "more" software hurt them more than anything else, when the shelves at every store have at least 10 games with "party" in the name.
As far as the Wii neglecting the traditional gamer, it's not so much a matter of there not being good games (there are many) but that there were big gaping holes in their library. There wasn't a single big multiplayer FPS on the system and until Xenoblade came out just recently, there wasn't a single big RPG either. There's two major genres that were horribly represented on the system. That's not to say that there were NO RPGs or FPS games, just that there weren't any with a high profile and that reviewed well.
Releasing the Wii with limited technical capabilities wasn’t a mistake, but releasing it with no ability whatsoever to support high-definition television screens was nothing short of insane.
This part made me laugh. Tell me again, what was the HDTV adoption rate in 2006?
Consistently rising as everyone who was replacing a TV was doing it with an HD flatscreen?
As far as the Wii neglecting the traditional gamer, it's not so much a matter of there not being good games (there are many) but that there were big gaping holes in their library. There wasn't a single big multiplayer FPS on the system and until Xenoblade came out just recently, there wasn't a single big RPG either. There's two major genres that were horribly represented on the system. That's not to say that there were NO RPGs or FPS games, just that there weren't any with a high profile and that reviewed well.
The Conduit games were pretty good and reviewed well.
Edit: And Goldeneye.
Edit2: And Red Steel 2.
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While the Wii was shut out on western RPGs it got a fair number of JRPGs that no one heard about or cared about, about as many as the 360 or PS3 had. PS3 has made a comeback on that front though with a crapton of b and c tier had to move on from the ps2 eventually tier games.
The real home of JRPGs though now and for the forseeable future is the handhelds though and everyone should come to accept that. It is very reassuring though that PC RPGs have made a comfortable home on platforms this gen, though there will be some salty pc only fans who are sad about their games being dumbed down for consoles.
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Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
As far as the Wii neglecting the traditional gamer, it's not so much a matter of there not being good games (there are many) but that there were big gaping holes in their library. There wasn't a single big multiplayer FPS on the system and until Xenoblade came out just recently, there wasn't a single big RPG either. There's two major genres that were horribly represented on the system. That's not to say that there were NO RPGs or FPS games, just that there weren't any with a high profile and that reviewed well.
Paper Mario reviewed ok I thought :P And they had Monster Hunter (and I think a couple Dragon Warrior games?) Also there were definitely some multiplayer FPSers (or at least, Call of Duty games to co-incide with whatever the latest CoD-of-the-week was). Also the Activision Goldeneye. Not to say you are wrong, just that there are a few examples
But I think ultimately it goes back to what Iwata was talking about. They didn't deliver this stuff fast enough, so the audience for it flat out wasn't there. FPSers and RPGs are kind of a niche market in the sense that they almost exclusively appeal to the hardcore crowd, unlike say, Mario or Zelda which probably has pretty wide appeal to both sides. Since they didn't nurture that audience early on, you didn't really see a lot of those genres represented on the system (because no one was there to purchase them :P).
Edit: For what it's worth, I thought like the first year or so of Wii was actually pretty good (Zelda, Smash Bros, Metroid Prime 3, Mario Galaxy eventually) then there was a HUGE dead period (~2008 or so?) where everything coming out was crap like Wii Fit. I think that period is ultimately what killed any chance it had.
Releasing the Wii with limited technical capabilities wasn’t a mistake, but releasing it with no ability whatsoever to support high-definition television screens was nothing short of insane.
This part made me laugh. Tell me again, what was the HDTV adoption rate in 2006?
More importantly, DVDs. How dare DVD players and DVDs still exist in a world of HDTVs? Get that 480p garbage out of here!
As far as the Wii neglecting the traditional gamer, it's not so much a matter of there not being good games (there are many) but that there were big gaping holes in their library. There wasn't a single big multiplayer FPS on the system and until Xenoblade came out just recently, there wasn't a single big RPG either. There's two major genres that were horribly represented on the system. That's not to say that there were NO RPGs or FPS games, just that there weren't any with a high profile and that reviewed well.
The Conduit games were pretty good and reviewed well.
Edit: And Goldeneye.
Edit2: And Red Steel 2.
Conduit has a 69 Metacritic and came out 3 years into the Wii's lifespan. Conduit 2 has a 64 average and just came out last year about this time. Goldeneye and Red Steel 2 are recent developments and nowhere near as high profile as stuff like Gears, CoD and Halo.
But the CoDs actually did quite well for themselves on Wii, and were competent despite the technical restrictions of the downports.
As a point of interest, Red Steel 1 has a 63 average, not far off from the Conduits.
As far as the Wii neglecting the traditional gamer, it's not so much a matter of there not being good games (there are many) but that there were big gaping holes in their library. There wasn't a single big multiplayer FPS on the system and until Xenoblade came out just recently, there wasn't a single big RPG either. There's two major genres that were horribly represented on the system. That's not to say that there were NO RPGs or FPS games, just that there weren't any with a high profile and that reviewed well.
The Conduit games were pretty good and reviewed well.
Edit: And Goldeneye.
Edit2: And Red Steel 2.
With the exception of maybe Goldeneye, none of those were anywhere near as high profile as the stuff the 360 & PS3 was getting though. Red Steel 1 sold really well but it was so badly reviewed that nobody bothered to buy the sequel (even though I hear it's a good game).
While the Wii was shut out on western RPGs it got a fair number of JRPGs that no one heard about or cared about, about as many as the 360 or PS3 had. PS3 has made a comeback on that front though with a crapton of b and c tier had to move on from the ps2 eventually tier games.
Maybe in Japan, but in the US, the Wii was pathetic for RPGs. Excluding PS2 ports like Sakura Taisen V and old Virtual Console stuff, the only non-horrible RPGs I can think of for the system before Xenoblade are Arc Rise Fantasia, Shiren the Wanderer, and a couple second-tier Final Fantasy spin-offs. Not exactly an impressive lineup. The 360 & PS3 had a better lineup than that on the JRPG front with stuff like Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Tales of Vesperia, main Final Fantasy titles, Disgaea 3&4, as well as second tier stuff like Atelier. And like you mentioned, the Western RPG libraries on the other consoles is pretty decent.
As far as the Wii neglecting the traditional gamer, it's not so much a matter of there not being good games (there are many) but that there were big gaping holes in their library. There wasn't a single big multiplayer FPS on the system and until Xenoblade came out just recently, there wasn't a single big RPG either. There's two major genres that were horribly represented on the system. That's not to say that there were NO RPGs or FPS games, just that there weren't any with a high profile and that reviewed well.
The Conduit games were pretty good and reviewed well.
Edit: And Goldeneye.
Edit2: And Red Steel 2.
With the exception of maybe Goldeneye, none of those were anywhere near as high profile as the stuff the 360 & PS3 was getting though. Red Steel 1 sold really well but it was so badly reviewed that nobody bothered to buy the sequel (even though I hear it's a good game).
You didn't specify that you were talking 360/PS3 level popularity. They were big as far as Wii games go.
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HAIL HYDRA
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Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
edited May 2012
Yes Red Steel was very awful and neigh unplayable. All the more reason I keep insisting Ubisoft lacks a QA department :P (or it's like one of those where testers find a ton of stuff and management ignores them)
Edit: As far as RPGs go though, honestly yeah, PS3 and 360 didn't have THAT many either. All the RPGs moved to handhelds. I think they are just too expensive to produce on consoles anymore for most publishers (see the disaster that is Final Fantasy XIII)
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am i doing it rite
She thinks Diablo is just some fancy mexican hot sauce.
Does she also refer to every video game console as Nintendo?
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... And all technology for that matter.
Took me a while to convince her that killing the devil himself is a thing people like to do in a video game.
She refers to every handheld as a Game Boy. Close enough. :P
Well, you do...
SPOILER ALERT
/SPOILER ALERT
I got a little excited when I saw your ship.
Nintendo president backtracks on commitment to casual and family audiences over core gamers, betraying a profound misunderstanding of past strategic mistakes.
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It would have been the closest thing for awhile, until it disappeared, came back for a mediocre sequel, and then disappeared again.
Can we all agree there really isn't a good Mario equivilant for the PC and move on?
I thought the Sims was actually a pretty good one. Or the whole "Sim" franchise (including Sim City, Sim World, Sim Ant, etc).
Or maybe "MMORPGs" the genre in general
Edit: I mean, Doom had three games. Even when it was popular I don't know if I'd say it was "Mario popular"
According to Wikipedia (so take it with a grain of salt), the only video game franchises that have sold more than The Sims are Mario & Pokemon.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
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Yeah he did, all the more reason I don't understand what that article is trying to say about them "not getting it"
Nintendo still doesn't know what the fuck they're doing outside of pushing cheap gimmicks.
Farmville has an obvious reason to play for long, consistent periods, and it so happens that the reasons are the same as Animal Crossing's. The main reason to play Angry Birds for long, consistent periods is because it's with you everywhere you go, something Nintendo couldn't provide with the Wii.
Their point seems a bit muddled. If Nintendo needed gamers playing for long, consistent periods, then wouldn't fewer and better-crafted games be ideal? More games mean each individual game is played for shorter periods, and you have to give people a reason to buy each one.
Or if they meant that the long, consistent gaming periods would be spread across multiple games, then why did they only give two examples of games that encourage extended play on their own?
Aren't there a ton of cheap, casual games on Wiiware and DSiware? According to Wikipedia, there are about 200 Wiiware games, 400 Virtual Console, and 300 DSiware games in North America, almost all under $10. That would seem to show that Nintendo's problem wasn't a lack of software volume or low enough cost, but instead a lack of marketing.
If they'd still insist that Iwata's comments betray a misunderstanding, surely they'd admit that actions speak louder than words, and the WiiU's direction appears to be falling more in line with what they say Nintendo needs? Better specs and HD means more cross-platform ports and more games overall. The renewed digital sales focus removes one of the barriers to entry for purchasing any game. DLC means the ability to provide reasons for gamers to play for longer, more consistent periods. No?
Their newest is a pretty expensive gimmick, based on what I've been hearing.
This part made me laugh. Tell me again, what was the HDTV adoption rate in 2006?
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
Add in the strides they've made with 3DS's eShop in providing and promoting digital download titles which will surely carry over to WiiU (over the mess that was WiiWare). At the very least they should be able to offer some good digital stuff.
I literally just hit refresh to correct myself.
Cheap AND expensive, since you'll still be using those awful Wiimotes.
EDIT
"Better specs"
Yeah, I edited something about this into my post. There are about 600 games on the Wii store including VC and Wiiware, all pretty cheap. Also a lot of (incredibly crappy) budget family Wii software out there. Seems their main problem was marketing and not a lack of content. If anything, "more" software hurt them more than anything else, when the shelves at every store have at least 10 games with "party" in the name.
Phht, what a gimmick. :P
Profit's a gimmick.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
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Consistently rising as everyone who was replacing a TV was doing it with an HD flatscreen?
The Conduit games were pretty good and reviewed well.
Edit: And Goldeneye.
Edit2: And Red Steel 2.
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The real home of JRPGs though now and for the forseeable future is the handhelds though and everyone should come to accept that. It is very reassuring though that PC RPGs have made a comfortable home on platforms this gen, though there will be some salty pc only fans who are sad about their games being dumbed down for consoles.
Paper Mario reviewed ok I thought :P And they had Monster Hunter (and I think a couple Dragon Warrior games?) Also there were definitely some multiplayer FPSers (or at least, Call of Duty games to co-incide with whatever the latest CoD-of-the-week was). Also the Activision Goldeneye. Not to say you are wrong, just that there are a few examples
But I think ultimately it goes back to what Iwata was talking about. They didn't deliver this stuff fast enough, so the audience for it flat out wasn't there. FPSers and RPGs are kind of a niche market in the sense that they almost exclusively appeal to the hardcore crowd, unlike say, Mario or Zelda which probably has pretty wide appeal to both sides. Since they didn't nurture that audience early on, you didn't really see a lot of those genres represented on the system (because no one was there to purchase them :P).
Edit: For what it's worth, I thought like the first year or so of Wii was actually pretty good (Zelda, Smash Bros, Metroid Prime 3, Mario Galaxy eventually) then there was a HUGE dead period (~2008 or so?) where everything coming out was crap like Wii Fit. I think that period is ultimately what killed any chance it had.
More importantly, DVDs. How dare DVD players and DVDs still exist in a world of HDTVs? Get that 480p garbage out of here!
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Nintendo's a lot like my Grandma.
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The Great Giana Sisters are the Mario equivalent on the PC.
Youtube too while we are at it.
Conduit has a 69 Metacritic and came out 3 years into the Wii's lifespan. Conduit 2 has a 64 average and just came out last year about this time. Goldeneye and Red Steel 2 are recent developments and nowhere near as high profile as stuff like Gears, CoD and Halo.
But the CoDs actually did quite well for themselves on Wii, and were competent despite the technical restrictions of the downports.
As a point of interest, Red Steel 1 has a 63 average, not far off from the Conduits.
With the exception of maybe Goldeneye, none of those were anywhere near as high profile as the stuff the 360 & PS3 was getting though. Red Steel 1 sold really well but it was so badly reviewed that nobody bothered to buy the sequel (even though I hear it's a good game).
Maybe in Japan, but in the US, the Wii was pathetic for RPGs. Excluding PS2 ports like Sakura Taisen V and old Virtual Console stuff, the only non-horrible RPGs I can think of for the system before Xenoblade are Arc Rise Fantasia, Shiren the Wanderer, and a couple second-tier Final Fantasy spin-offs. Not exactly an impressive lineup. The 360 & PS3 had a better lineup than that on the JRPG front with stuff like Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Tales of Vesperia, main Final Fantasy titles, Disgaea 3&4, as well as second tier stuff like Atelier. And like you mentioned, the Western RPG libraries on the other consoles is pretty decent.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
You didn't specify that you were talking 360/PS3 level popularity. They were big as far as Wii games go.
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Edit: As far as RPGs go though, honestly yeah, PS3 and 360 didn't have THAT many either. All the RPGs moved to handhelds. I think they are just too expensive to produce on consoles anymore for most publishers (see the disaster that is Final Fantasy XIII)