Slashdot Mirror
Nintendo - Money, Announcements, Comeback?
Thanks to GameSpy for their new 'Sole Food column, which discusses Nintendo's recent announcements and their prospects for the future. They point out that "Despite the large number of 'Nintendo-is-doomed' articles written over the last few years, the company still has a ton of cash (around six-billion USD by most reports)", and speculate on the 'big announcement' Nintendo are promising early next year ("Initially, the buzz was that it will be announcing a new console to be released in 2005. Lately, the buzz has shifted to a new handheld announcement.") Finally, the opinion piece ends on an upbeat note: "If any company is capable of making a comeback, it's Nintendo. It has the money and the talent. It just needs to strategize better to ensure that its future consoles appeal to a broad audience."
Irrelevant!
Even if Nintendo's consoles tank, they will still be around for years to come because they know how to design games. They'll just pull a Sega and we'll all be playing Animal Crossing 3 on our Playstation 5 Mega-Media Centers in a few years.
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
They have fully embraced all levels of maturity in entertainment, but Nintendo will forever create first party games that are acceptable to all audiences simultaneously. They really have never created "games for kids", so what really needs to be dropped here is the concept that colorfully animated, easily playable video games are "for kids only".
"If any company is capable of making a comeback, it's Nintendo. It has the money and the talent. It just needs to strategize better to ensure that its future consoles appeal to a broad audience."
I really don't understand the mindset of people when it comes to Nintendo. They have a great line of products, loyal fans, and ca$h in the bank. Even though their sales are far behind Sony in the home console market, they are still turning a decent profit on the GameCube. Why do people seem to have the obsession that Nintendo must have the #1 selling console, or that this should even be Nintendo's goal? I don't see the local flower shop strategizing over how to overtake all of their competitors and rise to the top flower distributor in the nation. Sometimes a company is content just to make a great product and turn a profit. Not that I really know if that is Nintendo's mindset, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised.
Do not read this sig.
Nintendo DOES NOT MARKET TO KIDS. They market to EVERYONE. Seriously, I'm amazed at how people confuse a game playable by everyone to a game playable by only kids. A kiddie game is something like Elmo's Letter Adventures. It's made ONLY for kids to be played. A game like Super Mario Sunshine is made for EVERYONE. It's made to be enjoyable by kids, teens, AND adults. Just like Mario 64. Little kids played Mario 64, and they had fun, just like the millions of teens and adults that also played Mario 64. Anyone who considers Nintendo to be kiddie really needs to open their eyes, because Nintendo makes games for everyone. When a game doesn't have a serious topic, or blood, gore, and swearing, it does NOT mean the game was made for kids. It just means that it was made for not ONLY teens and adults. Seriously, I'm sick of hearing the "Nintendo is kiddie" thing. Metroid Prime, Eternal Darkness, and resident evil are all hardly games meant for kids to play. Especially Eternal Darkness, which is the most mature game I've ever played. Rather than relying on violence to sell and appeal to a "mature" audience, the game rather uses a deep story and a system that messes with your head. Oh, and just so you know, even though Eternal Darkness was made by Silicon Knights, mainly, Nintendo had huge amounts of input on the project, and the game was also published by Nintendo. Nintendo also owns a 49% stake in Silicon Knights, I believe, so anyone who still calls Nintendo kiddie is just plain ignorant. Open your eyes, people. The amount of "mature" content that is absent from a game does NOT determine the target audience. Nintendo makes games for everyone. It isn't Nintendo that's branding themselves with the kiddie image. It's the gamers. And the gamers need to open their eyes up.
29 year old heavy machinery operator here (and game reviewer/newsie on the side). I have no problems picking up Nintendo first party games. Neither do most of my friends who are of similar age, if not similar working enviroments.
This is what Nintendo never got. Adults don't feel silly watching action movies and thus don't feel silly playing action movies. Adults do feel a little silly watching peter pan cartoons, and thus do feel silly manipulating a little guy with his green hood and tights.
Maybe it's you who has a slight problem dealing with the things you mention, and not the whole world?
You say that the M-rated games on the PSOne marketed the PSOne to the 20+ crowd....yet the fact is the real 20+ crowd buys games from any rating, from E all the way to M.
You do know where the M rated games sell the most, though, right? The 12-16 crowd. Yep, teenagers, most barely old enough to shave or look at a girl without thinking about 'girl germs'. The real kiddies of the video game market.
And they flock to blood and polygonal boobie filled games like flies to shit. And, while the oogle over the game and say how cool it is and beg mommy and daddy to buy it for them (because they aren't old enough to have a job), they'll scoff at the Nintendo stuff as 'kiddie'.
Irony, your face is pimply.
Thursdae