After the collective world went "oh...omg...what is..oh god...OH GOD <uninstall>" over Resident Evil 6, I don't know if that's something Nintendo should be going nuts trying to snap up.
I will not have people understate the shittiness of that game.
I don't see why Nintendo would even be remotely interested in getting Capcom. Or a lot of the companies mentioned with darker, more adult titles.
It seems pretty clear to me they don't really want that audience. They have no desire to capture "mature" gamers.
If they did - we'd hear about it. They just held a shareholders thing and went on and on about how the plan is to introduce a quality of life thingy. Never once was "capturing a more adult audience with franchises and games aimed at them" mentioned.
This is TOTALLY FINE by the way! This is not a slam on Nintendo at ALL.
It's hard to really explain well, because of course Nintendo wants anyone they can get - but I can't see them buying a studio with a bunch of IPs for the simple sake of forcing fans to have to buy a Wii U to play them. They want to buy a company or studio that fits what they're trying to do.
They want to be the XBOne in a way, I think. They want to be the center of a living room for a family. Mom watching whatever while little Timmy plays Mario on the GamePad. Dad watches the game so Mom takes the pad to the other room to do WiiFit U (honestly, in Target we saw a video of exactly that, a woman using the WiiU pad to do Yoga in another room - using the balance board too, and my girlfriend almost bought one on the spot. I never had thought of that either.) The whole family playing bowling. They had that success with the Wii and they obviously want to re-capture it, but they won't change who they are at their core to do it.
The weirdest thing to me is how slow they get out some of the first party stuff that makes them Nintendo. Still waiting on Mario Kart...and the ONLY reason we don't have one in our house is because everytime my girlfriend wants to get one she just says "Eh, I'll wait for the Animal Crossing for it. It may be cheaper by then." She had a literal 'dusty Wii' in her living room until one day I bought City Folk and brought it to her old apartment. She played it daily for a full year, until I got her a 3DS because it had Mario Kart on it, and pre-ordered New Leaf for her. She is still playing New Leaf every damn day.
If they just straight up ported New Leaf, we'd have a WiiU. I have no idea why things like Pokemon and Animal Crossing weren't commanded to be out already. Or at least announced with a constant hype drip feed like the Smash Bros Dojo did. We'd have a WiiU by now.
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Only reason I want a WiiU is Bayonetta 2 and to play W101.
I cannot think of a market less relevant to Nintendo than the people who buy Platinum games, it's a terrible idea.
Nintendo clearly thinks otherwise.
Platinums issues are due to their partners failings ( sega being sega and The Wiiu identity crisis)their games are well regarded critically and they have a fairly large and loyal fanbase.
Theyd do well as a Nintendo second party
The trick here is I think there's a difference between publishing a game for a company, and buying the company and making them part of your brand. Platinum got lucky with Nintendo and Bayonetta 2 because, and this is the only reason you need, Nintendo was desperate for third party exclusives for the WiiU and grabbed it.
Again, I honestly do not know if Platinum fits Nintendo's brand. Of course the trick here is Nintendo's trying to change their OWN brand right now, so anything's possible. I just don't think Platinum is a large enough company to shake up Nintendo's woes that much. If they really wanted to make a big change in their brand, they had that opportunity when THQ was going under. They could've bought or merged with them when they were in trouble, and they could've bought a few of their divisions when they were auctioned off. But they blew it... that was the best opportunity they had, and nothing came of it. So if they're trying to find a grand opportunity for buying more IPs and studios, I think they already missed the bus.
What would be a better investment of money... A billion bucks for Capcom or cutting the console to 150 bucks for a loss of 1.5 billion if they manage to move ten million more consoles that way?
A billion for Capcom not only gets them guaranteed properties that sell like Resident Evil and the new Street Fighter 4 iteration, but it also prevents those properties from going to the XBone or PS4.
The problem with slashing the price is that it undercuts their brand and even if they DO sell an extra ten million consoles that wouldn't persuade third parties to make games for the system.
Agreed, anyone who is buying it for $150 is most likely buying it a second console and developers can just assume that anyone who would play their games on the WiiU also has one of the other more popular consoles that they are developing for anyway. Getting games that are already multi platform is not going to solve the problem of getting people to decide to buy a WiiU.
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The_SpaniardIt's never lupinesIrvine, CaliforniaRegistered Userregular
If Nintendo learned anything from the Wii, it should have been that the mature demographic hardly paid attention to their systems. No More Heroes and Madworld were sent to die. And I say this as someone who bought the system for NMH and Castle Shikigami 3.
They can start by repairing their image. Remove region locks and implement an account system.
Then take the Wii U out back and put it out of its misery. Failing that, price cut ASAP and get some actual third parties interested(highly unlikely).
Nobody cares about region lock but hardcore gamers who import. Its iliterally a non issue to any other consumer base.
They are implementing a unified account system. Its not on lives level yet but it took Microsoft a few years too.
And, you know, people who live in countries where videogames aren't that easily available. Afaik, Nintendo has a very limited presence outside of NA, Europe and Japan, unlike MS and Sony which are in many developing markets as well.
I guess I'm a hardcore import gamer because I occasionally like to buy a handheld game to pass the time during my yearly trips to Europe. Oh wait I can't do that anymore with Nintendo systems...
They probably aren't specifically worried about how many people that spend months out if the year in different countries make up their customer base.
I do remember Sony actually mentioning this specifically about the PSP though. It was region free because "People travel, so why shouldn't they be able to buy a game where ever they are."
I have problems believing Nintendo is looking to acquire or merge with any video game software company as a major part of their strategy --- barely any of their investor update was about software. They didn't talk about increasing the Wii U software library, or enticing more third party games, or anything like that. It was emphasize our hardware, clarify our hardware, oh, and introduce some new hardware, too. If you read the news without context, you'd be forgiven for thinking that their software situation was fine.
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Lots of people seem to be laboring under the idea that M&A is like going to the supermarket to pick up groceries. It's not. Even if Nintendo bought any company, it would take years before we see the effects. That will not help Nintendo's current problem. A lot of people also want Nintendo to do what they as fans want: All their favorite companies under one umbrella. However, what is good for the goose may not be good for the gander.
At this point, it's also not clear why exactly the WiiU is failing the way it is. Is it really due to no third party support? Maybe. However, it could also be that consumers simply do not want another console in addition to their Sony or MS consoles. As a forum, PA folks tend to be pretty hardcore in owning multiple consoles. Once you go outside this demographic, what really happens? Will people really buy into Nintendo just because Bayonetta 2 or X are being released, or will people simply shrug and at the end of the day it's the existing Nintendo owners that benefit? The former helps Nintendo, the latter does not, but we don't know what the market reaction will be.
If Nintendo is smart, and I think they are, they know better than to dilute their brand and focus at this point in time. I'm sure they also know that most M&As do not end well, especially between two juggernauts. You do not spend cash reserves on that sort of thing. Capcom and Sega are hardly small pills to swallow. Not to mention, any M&A would have the two companies swapping board members. No company would suffer to have their company stripped of any say in the new business entity. Does anybody really want Capcom board members meddling with Nintendo? Small troubled dev studios like Monolith Soft, yes. Huge publishing studios with multiple dev shops, no.
I think bss is right. Nintendo will double down to present a much more focused marketing campaign for the WiiU.
I will now proceed to put on my asbestos suit and be flamed to death.
I don't think buying out Capcom or Sega would help Nintendo much anyway. Yes, maybe Nintendo platforms being the only home for Sonic and Street Fighter would be attractive to enthusiasts, but these are already the people who would consider eventually buying a Wii U as a complimentary platform. The sort of consumer who only cares about Madden, Battlefield, CoD and/or GTA would likely just shrug their shoulders and continue on with what they already have.
The idea of the Wii U being the dominant platform among its peers is increasingly unrealistic, so the best course is to be an attractive second console. To be successful at that, the price has to be lowered.
I think their talking about moving onto other types (presumably) of hardware shows their hand --- their primary focus is selling hardware to support the business, regardless of how they do it, which is probably why another price drop is such a tough pill to swallow. It would kind of seem that their strategy is to squeeze what they can out of the Wii U situation without dropping the price again, and already not exactly expecting that to do gangbusters, diversifying by transitioning part of their efforts to a new market.
And that's really the craziest thing. They're talking about more engineering and R&D --- more GamePad focus, tune up the boot speed a bit, get 3DS games on the Virtual Console, finish this NNID integration, put social marketing apps on phones... and on top of all of that, start this quality of life thing. Hopefully they're hiring a lot of new, young talent, because at their current levels, it's getting a bit hard to believe they have the staff to do all of that and crank out the Nintendo jams.
bss on
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
After the collective world went "Urp" over Resident Evil 6, I don't know if that's something Nintendo should be going nuts trying to snap up.
It still sold really well. It's not going to spell the end of RE co-op. It was a step in the right direction over 5, I thought. There were parts of it I enjoyed, and the end of Leon Chapter 4 was all kinds of ballsy.
What would be a better investment of money... A billion bucks for Capcom or cutting the console to 150 bucks for a loss of 1.5 billion if they manage to move ten million more consoles that way?
A billion for Capcom not only gets them guaranteed properties that sell like Resident Evil and the new Street Fighter 4 iteration, but it also prevents those properties from going to the XBone or PS4.
The problem with slashing the price is that it undercuts their brand and even if they DO sell an extra ten million consoles that wouldn't persuade third parties to make games for the system.
After the collective world went "Urp" over Resident Evil 6, I don't know if that's something Nintendo should be going nuts trying to snap up.
It still sold really well. It's not going to spell the end of RE co-op. It was a step in the right direction over 5, I thought. There were parts of it I enjoyed, and the end of Leon Chapter 4 was all kinds of ballsy.
Compared to the average game, RE 6 sold amazingly well.
Compared to the giant amount of cash spent on it and Capcom's expectations, it was a ginormous disappointment. It's to the point that Capcom execs said some months ago the next game would try to be more like classic Resident Evils.
I've said it before, but RE 6 is a fascinating game if you play it from an industry perspective. You can pretty much feel the massive amount of money that went into every single scene, with ludicrously detailed environments and extremely complex mutating creatures, up to and including a Bayformer of flesh. And yet the entire thing was "eh" at best since the actual game was a slog.
After the collective world went "Urp" over Resident Evil 6, I don't know if that's something Nintendo should be going nuts trying to snap up.
It still sold really well. It's not going to spell the end of RE co-op. It was a step in the right direction over 5, I thought. There were parts of it I enjoyed, and the end of Leon Chapter 4 was all kinds of ballsy.
Compared to the average game, RE 6 sold amazingly well.
Compared to the giant amount of cash spent on it and Capcom's expectations, it was a ginormous disappointment. It's to the point that Capcom execs said some months ago the next game would try to be more like classic Resident Evils.
I've said it before, but RE 6 is a fascinating game if you play it from an industry perspective. You can pretty much feel the massive amount of money that went into every single scene, with ludicrously detailed environments and extremely complex mutating creatures, up to and including a Bayformer of flesh. And yet the entire thing was "eh" at best since the actual game was a slog.
It's like that episode where Bart seriously and legitimately studies his ass off and tries... and he still only barely manages a D.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
Why do people seem to forget about Resident Evil Revelations when talking about recent entries in the series? It was a damn good game that did a fine job blending the more recent action focused gameplay with the suspense of the older titles. That game alone is proof enough to me that Capcom still has it.
I think their talking about moving onto other types (presumably) of hardware shows their hand --- their primary focus is selling hardware to support the business, regardless of how they do it, which is probably why another price drop is such a tough pill to swallow. It would kind of seem that their strategy is to squeeze what they can out of the Wii U situation without dropping the price again, and already not exactly expecting that to do gangbusters, diversifying by transitioning part of their efforts to a new market.
And that's really the craziest thing. They're talking about more engineering and R&D --- more GamePad focus, tune up the boot speed a bit, get 3DS games on the Virtual Console, finish this NNID integration, put social marketing apps on phones... and on top of all of that, start this quality of life thing. Hopefully they're hiring a lot of new, young talent, because at their current levels, it's getting a bit hard to believe they have the staff to do all of that and crank out the Nintendo jams.
I'm not sure hardware people and software people are the same teams
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SirUltimosDon't talk, Rusty. Just paint.Registered Userregular
Why do people seem to forget about Resident Evil Revelations when talking about recent entries in the series? It was a damn good game that did a fine job blending the more recent action focused gameplay with the suspense of the older titles. That game alone is proof enough to me that Capcom still has it.
The actual game developers at Capcom still have it and are very talented. It's when the toxic management gets involved that things tend to go off the rails. Revelations managed to sneak through because it was a portable game and lower priority so the executives didn't meddle with it the same way they did RE6.
I think their talking about moving onto other types (presumably) of hardware shows their hand --- their primary focus is selling hardware to support the business, regardless of how they do it, which is probably why another price drop is such a tough pill to swallow. It would kind of seem that their strategy is to squeeze what they can out of the Wii U situation without dropping the price again, and already not exactly expecting that to do gangbusters, diversifying by transitioning part of their efforts to a new market.
And that's really the craziest thing. They're talking about more engineering and R&D --- more GamePad focus, tune up the boot speed a bit, get 3DS games on the Virtual Console, finish this NNID integration, put social marketing apps on phones... and on top of all of that, start this quality of life thing. Hopefully they're hiring a lot of new, young talent, because at their current levels, it's getting a bit hard to believe they have the staff to do all of that and crank out the Nintendo jams.
I'm not sure hardware people and software people are the same teams
They likely are not, but all of those initiatives have software components, some likely quite intensive, and without bigger teams, the existing software side of the house either needs more staff who are better suited to some of this stuff (mobile development, quality of life thing) or they risk losing time to develop actual games. It's hard to say what their hardware requirements actually are, anyway --- as I believe someone said a page or two ago, it makes much more sense to me that they'd acquire a biometrics startup or something and buy up a bunch of tech and talent.
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AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
Nintendo has an awful brand image. I can't go anywhere and mention that I own a Wii U without getting heckled. It was the same with the Wii, except that had the advantage of the "blue ocean" crowd that has since moved on to other distractions. It's particularly bad when shopping. Who wants to go buy a Wii U game when you are going to get that fucking attitude from the register biscuit working the counter? Thank God for digital distribution.
Nintendo has an awful brand image. I can't go anywhere and mention that I own a Wii U without getting heckled. It was the same with the Wii, except that had the advantage of the "blue ocean" crowd that has since moved on to other distractions. It's particularly bad when shopping. Who wants to go buy a Wii U game when you are going to get that fucking attitude from the register biscuit working the counter? Thank God for digital distribution.
Tell them they can fuck right off. Then buy and enjoy your video game.
Nintendo has an awful brand image. I can't go anywhere and mention that I own a Wii U without getting heckled. It was the same with the Wii, except that had the advantage of the "blue ocean" crowd that has since moved on to other distractions. It's particularly bad when shopping. Who wants to go buy a Wii U game when you are going to get that fucking attitude from the register biscuit working the counter? Thank God for digital distribution.
I...wait, what? Who the crap is heckling you over what console you own?
I've never been heckled over my taste in games. I've actually been complimented for a good choice. Funny, I ended up hating the game the one time that happened.
Nintendo has an awful brand image. I can't go anywhere and mention that I own a Wii U without getting heckled. It was the same with the Wii, except that had the advantage of the "blue ocean" crowd that has since moved on to other distractions. It's particularly bad when shopping. Who wants to go buy a Wii U game when you are going to get that fucking attitude from the register biscuit working the counter? Thank God for digital distribution.
I...wait, what? Who the crap is heckling you over what console you own?
Nintendo has an awful brand image. I can't go anywhere and mention that I own a Wii U without getting heckled. It was the same with the Wii, except that had the advantage of the "blue ocean" crowd that has since moved on to other distractions. It's particularly bad when shopping. Who wants to go buy a Wii U game when you are going to get that fucking attitude from the register biscuit working the counter? Thank God for digital distribution.
I...wait, what? Who the crap is heckling you over what console you own?
Nintendo has an awful brand image. I can't go anywhere and mention that I own a Wii U without getting heckled. It was the same with the Wii, except that had the advantage of the "blue ocean" crowd that has since moved on to other distractions. It's particularly bad when shopping. Who wants to go buy a Wii U game when you are going to get that fucking attitude from the register biscuit working the counter? Thank God for digital distribution.
I...wait, what? Who the crap is heckling you over what console you own?
Have you met the internet?
AbsoluteZero seems to be implying that he was somewhere in public and was being heckled.
So the Chinese market just opened up by removing restrictions on selling consoles there, and Nintendo probably has a glut of Wii U's lying around... that could be a pretty big opportunity, and likely the only company that can fully take advantage.
Nintendo has scraped the bottom of their franchise stables with Rosalina and Wii Fit trainer lady.
Imagine, instead, Smash Bros. Wii U: Sega vs Nintendo.
Sakurai picks wacky shit because he's, well, Sakurai.
We'll know we're at the bottom of the barrel when Epona is a character.
Haha yeah I've seen plenty of people jab here and there at various game stores and places like Best Buy. I wouldn't call it heckling so much as gentle ribbing.
"You got such and such for WiiU?"
"Oh so YOU'RE the guy who bought one of those!"
Was one I chuckled at when I overheard it at the local game shop, even the customer laughed.
Why do people seem to forget about Resident Evil Revelations when talking about recent entries in the series? It was a damn good game that did a fine job blending the more recent action focused gameplay with the suspense of the older titles. That game alone is proof enough to me that Capcom still has it.
The actual game developers at Capcom still have it and are very talented. It's when the toxic management gets involved that things tend to go off the rails. Revelations managed to sneak through because it was a portable game and lower priority so the executives didn't meddle with it the same way they did RE6.
From my understanding was that Revelations was actually supposed to be further DLC episodic content to Resident Evil 5.
Nintendo has an awful brand image. I can't go anywhere and mention that I own a Wii U without getting heckled. It was the same with the Wii, except that had the advantage of the "blue ocean" crowd that has since moved on to other distractions. It's particularly bad when shopping. Who wants to go buy a Wii U game when you are going to get that fucking attitude from the register biscuit working the counter? Thank God for digital distribution.
Tell them they can fuck right off. Then buy and enjoy your video game.
Personally, if someone did that I'd pull out my phone and order it from Amazon instead. In front of him.
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Nintendo has an awful brand image. I can't go anywhere and mention that I own a Wii U without getting heckled. It was the same with the Wii, except that had the advantage of the "blue ocean" crowd that has since moved on to other distractions. It's particularly bad when shopping. Who wants to go buy a Wii U game when you are going to get that fucking attitude from the register biscuit working the counter? Thank God for digital distribution.
One thing I like about Nintendo is that they refuse to pander to these kind of assholes.
So the Chinese market just opened up by removing restrictions on selling consoles there, and Nintendo probably has a glut of Wii U's lying around... that could be a pretty big opportunity, and likely the only company that can fully take advantage.
They did mention finding ways to make their products affordable in emerging markets, so...
"No, you cannot believe everything you read on the internet," Chief of Staff for Devices and Studios Group at Microsoft Aaron Greenberg said on twitter when asked about the rumor that Microsoft will drop the price on Xbox One to $399.
One wonders if that means we can believe some of the things written on the internet, but let the rampant speculation continue!
The UK's Office of Fair Trading has issued eight principles free-to-play game makers must follow in order to protect consumers, especially children, from misleading and exploitative commercial practices.
"These Principles clarify the OFT’s view of the online and app-based games industry’s obligations under consumer protection law," the OFT document reads. "Following our market investigation in 2013, we had concerns that there were industry-wide practices that were potentially misleading, commercially aggressive or otherwise unfair."
The principles are not new laws, but are intended to clarify the UK's existing consumer protection laws. If a company doesn't comply with the principles, the OFT can take a number of actions, including investigating the studio, requiring them to address issues, and in extreme cases issue court proceedings.
Games in the UK have until April 1 to comply.
The principles are largely concerned with making free-to-play games more transparent upfront about the costs associated with them. Games can't mislead players into thinking that payments are not required to progress or that payments are the only way a player can progress.
The principles also aim to prevent games from "aggressive practices," which put pressure on children to make purchases or to have others make purchases for them.
Finally, one of the principles makes clear that payments can't be made without the informed consent of the person who owns the bank account that's being billed. This is to prevent problems like the one Apple got into recently, where the FTC ordered it pay $32.5 million in refunds to consumers whose children made purchases without their consent.
The Association for United Kingdom Interactive Entertainment (Ukie), an organization that aims to promote the games industry in the UK, said that it's been working closely with the OFT, but also defended the business model in question.
"We need to make sure we balance the opportunity and growth of innovative business models in the industry with sensible measures to protecting players," Ukie CEO, Dr. Jo Twist said in response to guidelines. "Done responsibly, micro-transaction based business models give choice and value for both players and businesses."
A statement on Ukie's website explains that the principles are not clear enough, leaving developers unsure about whether they need to change their games or not.
This is long overdue and I hope other governments adopt similar practices (I know Australia and NZ are investigating it at the moment). Essentially they have tried to make it so companies making free to play games have to specify what you need to purchase and if you have to purchase something in order to actually advance in the game. They have also explicitely protected parents whose children go on a microtransaction spree without their knowledge in a game as well. I have to say reading it for myself it seems pretty obvious what the requirements are and it seems pretty fair to me (IANAL).
"No, you cannot believe everything you read on the internet," Chief of Staff for Devices and Studios Group at Microsoft Aaron Greenberg said on twitter when asked about the rumor that Microsoft will drop the price on Xbox One to $399.
One wonders if that means we can believe some of the things written on the internet, but let the rampant speculation continue!
They should have had Major Nelson come out and say that you can't just flip a switch to drop the optical drive and $100 off the price, the console was built around them.
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AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
Nintendo has an awful brand image. I can't go anywhere and mention that I own a Wii U without getting heckled. It was the same with the Wii, except that had the advantage of the "blue ocean" crowd that has since moved on to other distractions. It's particularly bad when shopping. Who wants to go buy a Wii U game when you are going to get that fucking attitude from the register biscuit working the counter? Thank God for digital distribution.
Tell them they can fuck right off. Then buy and enjoy your video game.
While I whole-heartedly agree, I think the average consumer would rather buy the "cool" console than deal with that kind of bullshit. It's a problem Nintendo has got to solve.
Nintendo has an awful brand image. I can't go anywhere and mention that I own a Wii U without getting heckled. It was the same with the Wii, except that had the advantage of the "blue ocean" crowd that has since moved on to other distractions. It's particularly bad when shopping. Who wants to go buy a Wii U game when you are going to get that fucking attitude from the register biscuit working the counter? Thank God for digital distribution.
Tell them they can fuck right off. Then buy and enjoy your video game.
While I whole-heartedly agree, I think the average consumer would rather buy the "cool" console than deal with that kind of bullshit. It's a problem Nintendo has got to solve.
Nintendo have had that specific problem for almost 20 years now. Nintendo would have to stop making games that kids might also enjoy to stop that particular brand of dumb.
Nintendo has an awful brand image. I can't go anywhere and mention that I own a Wii U without getting heckled. It was the same with the Wii, except that had the advantage of the "blue ocean" crowd that has since moved on to other distractions. It's particularly bad when shopping. Who wants to go buy a Wii U game when you are going to get that fucking attitude from the register biscuit working the counter? Thank God for digital distribution.
Tell them they can fuck right off. Then buy and enjoy your video game.
While I whole-heartedly agree, I think the average consumer would rather buy the "cool" console than deal with that kind of bullshit. It's a problem Nintendo has got to solve.
Nintendo have had that specific problem for almost 20 years now. Nintendo would have to stop making games that kids might also enjoy to stop that particular brand of dumb.
Nintendo has an awful brand image. I can't go anywhere and mention that I own a Wii U without getting heckled. It was the same with the Wii, except that had the advantage of the "blue ocean" crowd that has since moved on to other distractions. It's particularly bad when shopping. Who wants to go buy a Wii U game when you are going to get that fucking attitude from the register biscuit working the counter? Thank God for digital distribution.
Tell them they can fuck right off. Then buy and enjoy your video game.
Personally, if someone did that I'd pull out my phone and order it from Amazon instead. In front of him.
I actually did this very thing. When I tried to buy a Vita at GameStop the guy kept trying to upsell me on the 3G model or try to get me to buy a used Wi Fi model, telling me I just wouldn't be able to find a new Wi Fi model anywhere in town.
While he was going through that whole routine, I used my phone to order a Vita from Amazon. It was on my desk at work the following day.
Nintendo has an awful brand image. I can't go anywhere and mention that I own a Wii U without getting heckled. It was the same with the Wii, except that had the advantage of the "blue ocean" crowd that has since moved on to other distractions. It's particularly bad when shopping. Who wants to go buy a Wii U game when you are going to get that fucking attitude from the register biscuit working the counter? Thank God for digital distribution.
Tell them they can fuck right off. Then buy and enjoy your video game.
Personally, if someone did that I'd pull out my phone and order it from Amazon instead. In front of him.
I actually did this very thing. When I tried to buy a Vita at GameStop the guy kept trying to upsell me on the 3G model or try to get me to buy a used Wi Fi model, telling me I just wouldn't be able to find a new Wi Fi model anywhere in town.
While he was going through that whole routine, I used my phone to order a Vita from Amazon. It was on my desk at work the following day.
Viva la Amazon!
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I will not have people understate the shittiness of that game.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
It seems pretty clear to me they don't really want that audience. They have no desire to capture "mature" gamers.
If they did - we'd hear about it. They just held a shareholders thing and went on and on about how the plan is to introduce a quality of life thingy. Never once was "capturing a more adult audience with franchises and games aimed at them" mentioned.
This is TOTALLY FINE by the way! This is not a slam on Nintendo at ALL.
It's hard to really explain well, because of course Nintendo wants anyone they can get - but I can't see them buying a studio with a bunch of IPs for the simple sake of forcing fans to have to buy a Wii U to play them. They want to buy a company or studio that fits what they're trying to do.
They want to be the XBOne in a way, I think. They want to be the center of a living room for a family. Mom watching whatever while little Timmy plays Mario on the GamePad. Dad watches the game so Mom takes the pad to the other room to do WiiFit U (honestly, in Target we saw a video of exactly that, a woman using the WiiU pad to do Yoga in another room - using the balance board too, and my girlfriend almost bought one on the spot. I never had thought of that either.) The whole family playing bowling. They had that success with the Wii and they obviously want to re-capture it, but they won't change who they are at their core to do it.
The weirdest thing to me is how slow they get out some of the first party stuff that makes them Nintendo. Still waiting on Mario Kart...and the ONLY reason we don't have one in our house is because everytime my girlfriend wants to get one she just says "Eh, I'll wait for the Animal Crossing for it. It may be cheaper by then." She had a literal 'dusty Wii' in her living room until one day I bought City Folk and brought it to her old apartment. She played it daily for a full year, until I got her a 3DS because it had Mario Kart on it, and pre-ordered New Leaf for her. She is still playing New Leaf every damn day.
If they just straight up ported New Leaf, we'd have a WiiU. I have no idea why things like Pokemon and Animal Crossing weren't commanded to be out already. Or at least announced with a constant hype drip feed like the Smash Bros Dojo did. We'd have a WiiU by now.
The trick here is I think there's a difference between publishing a game for a company, and buying the company and making them part of your brand. Platinum got lucky with Nintendo and Bayonetta 2 because, and this is the only reason you need, Nintendo was desperate for third party exclusives for the WiiU and grabbed it.
Again, I honestly do not know if Platinum fits Nintendo's brand. Of course the trick here is Nintendo's trying to change their OWN brand right now, so anything's possible. I just don't think Platinum is a large enough company to shake up Nintendo's woes that much. If they really wanted to make a big change in their brand, they had that opportunity when THQ was going under. They could've bought or merged with them when they were in trouble, and they could've bought a few of their divisions when they were auctioned off. But they blew it... that was the best opportunity they had, and nothing came of it. So if they're trying to find a grand opportunity for buying more IPs and studios, I think they already missed the bus.
Agreed, anyone who is buying it for $150 is most likely buying it a second console and developers can just assume that anyone who would play their games on the WiiU also has one of the other more popular consoles that they are developing for anyway. Getting games that are already multi platform is not going to solve the problem of getting people to decide to buy a WiiU.
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
At this point, it's also not clear why exactly the WiiU is failing the way it is. Is it really due to no third party support? Maybe. However, it could also be that consumers simply do not want another console in addition to their Sony or MS consoles. As a forum, PA folks tend to be pretty hardcore in owning multiple consoles. Once you go outside this demographic, what really happens? Will people really buy into Nintendo just because Bayonetta 2 or X are being released, or will people simply shrug and at the end of the day it's the existing Nintendo owners that benefit? The former helps Nintendo, the latter does not, but we don't know what the market reaction will be.
If Nintendo is smart, and I think they are, they know better than to dilute their brand and focus at this point in time. I'm sure they also know that most M&As do not end well, especially between two juggernauts. You do not spend cash reserves on that sort of thing. Capcom and Sega are hardly small pills to swallow. Not to mention, any M&A would have the two companies swapping board members. No company would suffer to have their company stripped of any say in the new business entity. Does anybody really want Capcom board members meddling with Nintendo? Small troubled dev studios like Monolith Soft, yes. Huge publishing studios with multiple dev shops, no.
I think bss is right. Nintendo will double down to present a much more focused marketing campaign for the WiiU.
I will now proceed to put on my asbestos suit and be flamed to death.
The idea of the Wii U being the dominant platform among its peers is increasingly unrealistic, so the best course is to be an attractive second console. To be successful at that, the price has to be lowered.
And that's really the craziest thing. They're talking about more engineering and R&D --- more GamePad focus, tune up the boot speed a bit, get 3DS games on the Virtual Console, finish this NNID integration, put social marketing apps on phones... and on top of all of that, start this quality of life thing. Hopefully they're hiring a lot of new, young talent, because at their current levels, it's getting a bit hard to believe they have the staff to do all of that and crank out the Nintendo jams.
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
It still sold really well. It's not going to spell the end of RE co-op. It was a step in the right direction over 5, I thought. There were parts of it I enjoyed, and the end of Leon Chapter 4 was all kinds of ballsy.
Or PC. Capcom actually has good PC ports.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
Compared to the average game, RE 6 sold amazingly well.
Compared to the giant amount of cash spent on it and Capcom's expectations, it was a ginormous disappointment. It's to the point that Capcom execs said some months ago the next game would try to be more like classic Resident Evils.
I've said it before, but RE 6 is a fascinating game if you play it from an industry perspective. You can pretty much feel the massive amount of money that went into every single scene, with ludicrously detailed environments and extremely complex mutating creatures, up to and including a Bayformer of flesh. And yet the entire thing was "eh" at best since the actual game was a slog.
It's like that episode where Bart seriously and legitimately studies his ass off and tries... and he still only barely manages a D.
The actual game developers at Capcom still have it and are very talented. It's when the toxic management gets involved that things tend to go off the rails. Revelations managed to sneak through because it was a portable game and lower priority so the executives didn't meddle with it the same way they did RE6.
They likely are not, but all of those initiatives have software components, some likely quite intensive, and without bigger teams, the existing software side of the house either needs more staff who are better suited to some of this stuff (mobile development, quality of life thing) or they risk losing time to develop actual games. It's hard to say what their hardware requirements actually are, anyway --- as I believe someone said a page or two ago, it makes much more sense to me that they'd acquire a biometrics startup or something and buy up a bunch of tech and talent.
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
Tell them they can fuck right off. Then buy and enjoy your video game.
I...wait, what? Who the crap is heckling you over what console you own?
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
Have you met the internet?
Oh, yeah.
That guy's an asshole.
Why I fear the ocean.
but the gamestop they went to is usually shit and I avoid it, so might just be that one bad egg of a store.
AbsoluteZero seems to be implying that he was somewhere in public and was being heckled.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
We'll know we're at the bottom of the barrel when Epona is a character.
"You got such and such for WiiU?"
"Oh so YOU'RE the guy who bought one of those!"
Was one I chuckled at when I overheard it at the local game shop, even the customer laughed.
From my understanding was that Revelations was actually supposed to be further DLC episodic content to Resident Evil 5.
Personally, if someone did that I'd pull out my phone and order it from Amazon instead. In front of him.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
One thing I like about Nintendo is that they refuse to pander to these kind of assholes.
They did mention finding ways to make their products affordable in emerging markets, so...
Steam: pazython
One wonders if that means we can believe some of the things written on the internet, but let the rampant speculation continue!
On the other hand this move by the UK government is great and long in coming:
This is long overdue and I hope other governments adopt similar practices (I know Australia and NZ are investigating it at the moment). Essentially they have tried to make it so companies making free to play games have to specify what you need to purchase and if you have to purchase something in order to actually advance in the game. They have also explicitely protected parents whose children go on a microtransaction spree without their knowledge in a game as well. I have to say reading it for myself it seems pretty obvious what the requirements are and it seems pretty fair to me (IANAL).
They should have had Major Nelson come out and say that you can't just flip a switch to drop the optical drive and $100 off the price, the console was built around them.
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
While I whole-heartedly agree, I think the average consumer would rather buy the "cool" console than deal with that kind of bullshit. It's a problem Nintendo has got to solve.
Nintendo have had that specific problem for almost 20 years now. Nintendo would have to stop making games that kids might also enjoy to stop that particular brand of dumb.
Steam: pazython
I actually did this very thing. When I tried to buy a Vita at GameStop the guy kept trying to upsell me on the 3G model or try to get me to buy a used Wi Fi model, telling me I just wouldn't be able to find a new Wi Fi model anywhere in town.
While he was going through that whole routine, I used my phone to order a Vita from Amazon. It was on my desk at work the following day.
Viva la Amazon!
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