Former Nintendo Boss Talks GameCube, PSP

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a GamerFeed article translating an interview with former Nintendo boss Hiroshi Yamauchi about the state of gaming. The legendary Yamauchi is customarily dismissive about Sony's attempts to get into handheld gaming with the PSP ("I don't think [Sony] understand the game business... but software for both machines will be much different, and it would be a mistake to consider them in direct competition."), and also offers a different perspective on slipping GameCube sales ("Sales of GameCube software fell short in North America and Europe last year, and I believe that's due to the popularity of violent games on other consoles. The culture of Japan is much different and less accepting of such titles. Our target market is the entire world, so it's very difficult to develop software that appeals to everyone.")

Comments

NES production to stop this year?

[PyroMosh]

Question: The Famicom (NES) recently celebrated its twentieth anniversary, your thoughts?

Yamauchi-san: Fortunately, many people have the chance to enjoy it. It became impossible to procure a fixed number of parts to continue manufacturing the console, so production will stop this year.

Huh? Are they saying that the origional 8-bit NES / Famicom is STILL IN PRODUCTION? Or at least that it was until this year? Where? And can the top-loader still be had?

Re:NES production to stop this year?

[Gr33nNight]

Am I the only one who remembers this fondly? BTW I still have a great working NES console.

Re:NES production to stop this year?

[PainKilleR-CE]

I never had any problems with the game cartridges themselves, just with the system (and we had 2 systems in the house eventually, both of which gained the same problems after about 2 years).

I've never had any problems with CD and DVD based games, but then I treat the discs much better than I ever did a cartridge. I've never had a major problem with a top-loading cartridge-based system, either, just the old front-loading NES systems. My Atari 2600 (the old wood-panelled one) still worked just fine when I sold it about a year after getting the NES in '87 (so '88 or so, about 8 years after we got the Atari). My Genesis still works today, and the TurboGrafx-16 disappeared somewhere in my parents house.

I've heard of a lot of problems with PS2 systems as they get older, but haven't had any problems with my disc-based systems (except that Project Gotham causes my XBox to not want to shut off until I pull the plug, which seems to have nothing to do with it being a DVD-based system).

Nintendo has been associated with RPGs since...

[Rares Marian]

they got competition. Not that they're limited to that. The ploriferation of colorful scenery and characters put Nintendo in a certain stereotype.

Metroid Prime proved they could do more, but there doesn't seem to be as much focus on the intricacies of more violent games. The RPGs have depth but other games seem to be well, a little thin.

On platforms recognized as designed for 3D there's an ironic turn. Now that the 3D is so rich, games designers can use that to focus on things such as hiding from enemies or looking over another character's shoulder. Nintendo's games aren't quite as involving.

Violence in gaming

[dracol1ch]

The following keeps comming up over and over in discussions about US vs Japanese games.

Sales of GameCube software fell short in North America and Europe last year, and I believe that's due to the popularity of violent games on other consoles. The culture of Japan is much different and less accepting of such titles.

It's a funny juxtoposition but the quick answer is always something about how violent anime is yadda, yadda. I think I finally hit the cultural nail on the head today though when I read this story. It's not the vaunted 'tolerance for violence' that everyone keeps spouting (on both sides). It's simply a cultural preconception. In Japan it's okay for cartoons to be violent but games should be cute. In the US it's okay for games to be violent but cartoons should be cute. Neither country seems (in a general sense) to be able to get over these preconceived concepts.