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Nintendo Comment On Alleged Problems
Thanks to GMR Magazine for their feature interviewing Nintendo executives about alleged issues with their console strategy, as "a sentiment spreading throughout the industry holds that Nintendo is marching its own way right out of the home-console business." Perrin Kaplan of Nintendo suggests there are three ways to look at her company's position: "One would be how we are doing financially, and we're clearly No. 1. Second, where are we perceptionwise, and we suffer being third there. And then the third is the actual reality of the market share, and I'd say that we're No. 2 worldwide." She also takes Xbox to task, suggesting Microsoft's console may be too adult-oriented: "They chose to pick a certain segment of the demographic, and Microsoft is having a heck of a time expanding out of that. That's their niche, the older guy."
When we got a console for our kids, we picked GameCube over XBox for because GameCube seemed to have more kid-friendly games, so there is some truth in what he says.
On the other hand, being percived as more mature can't hurt XBox sales in the long run as those kids get older.
Andrew Semprebon EQ Systems Inc.
One thing that I think hurts Nintendo tremendously is their lack of creativity lately. How many original characters have come out of them recently, ignoring throwaway Mario Party/Kart/Golf/Tennis characters like Waluigi?
I think they need to create some sort of "adult" character. The game doesn't have to have tons of blood and carjackings and other GTA stuff, just a character that doesn't look like a cartoon. There is Samus, but yet again that character is about 15 years old at this point.
You would think Nintendo could create another awesome franchise, especially after all this time. Pikmin doesn't cut it.
I'm on top of my game like I'm standin' on Xbox.
Perrin's pretty much hit the nail on the head on Nintendo's position in the console wars. It would seem that Nintendo's future looks much brighter for the holiday season... Let's see... #1 selling console in the United States right now, at $99. They probably have the largest number of anticipated games coming out for Xmas.... They're probably the "second" console of choice for gamers who want more then one console... plus they've got a stranglehold as being the "family" friendly game console.
Microsoft has been and will always be losing money on Xbox. Sony is losing profit in hardware sales because their console sales have eroded. Nintendo's has increased.
MSFT's marketing machine in North America is much more refined then even Sony's is. However, they also spent millions more then anyone else has in marketing (just because Bill can). Considering that Nintendo spends a fraction of MSFT's marketing cost promoting the Xbox, Nintendo's market cost per console sales makes it easier to sell the Cube at $99.
Also, Nintendo is in a nice niche right now. It doesn't need to compete for the "older" gamers. Why spend the marketing money? Let MSFT and Sony spend millions in marketing to slug it out for what's left of a saturated "older" gamer market.
uhm, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't "older" guys (and when I say older I'm talking twenties and thirties) the ones with the most disposable income and the time to actually play games? It seems to me that Microsoft is, or is trying to at least, steal away the "Nintendo" generation. The kids who grew up playing NES and SNES. Worked with me at least. It might be a niche, but it's a hell of a niche to have cornered.
-sam
I was just here, where did I go?
Game Cube is having serious issues with their appeal to the older, say teenage to adult, crowd. Many of my gaming comrades believe that the game cube controller is shaped in a perculiar way for a reason ; to be shoved up the mother's cervix in order to reach it's intended audience.
Oh, puu-leeze. The only people concerned with "looking adult" are teens who are so worried about looking like a kid that they deny themselves fun things because a kid might enjoy them too. Real adults have stopped caring about whether or not we look like kids and will do fun things because they are fun. Nintendo's games are fun. And cheap!
I have a lot of opinions about Cyborgs and Architects
If they didn't have explaining to do, they wouldn't be doing these interviews. Period.
I don't agree - I think this latest wave of Nintendo-bashing is the very reason they're trying to get their side of the story out. Granted, they had a slow start and now with 3 successful consoles to develop games for that take upwards of 2 years to complete, some licensees are jumping off the big N's ship. But Nintendo is far from out of the game and is actually in a very strong position to come back IMO. As long as they can produce good games, and they still can, they will continue to be a significant force in the market.
Nintendo does have a long history of not trusting it's precious franchise with certain game developers and/or burdening licensees with restrictions and non-standard technical requirements; the recent bailouts shouldn't come as too much of a surprise in this light. But if they can survive the disaster that was the N64, then they can survive this. I don't understand what triggered this rush of story after story of how Nintendo's failing and faltering, but I can't help seeing them as an attempt to create a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Perception is everything.
"Not all who wander are lost" -- JRR Tolkien
You don't work much in public entertainment, do you?
Apple hasn't had to give a bunch of interviews about why iTunes and iTMS is being perceived as unsuccessful.
No, but Apple has had to give interviews constantly since 1995 to explain that they are doing fine financially and any system you purchase from them will be supported for years to come.
It's a matter of public perception. Why spend X many dollars on a system if it is going under? That makes it useless. But if Billy says that Nintendo is going under because they don't have GTA and Microsoft does, and Nintendo says nothing, it must be true. Of course, by your logic if Nintendo starts bringing out pieces of paper with lots of impressive numbers on it, they must be lying.
People and companies don't explain themselves unless they have explaining to do. I love how they always talk about worldwide terms on the Nintendo side. I don't live worldwide, I live in the US. EA, Activision, THQ, Take-Two, these are not worldwide companies and don't care about the Gamecube's success or failure in Japan. They want consoles in the houses in the US and Europe and Nintendo just isn't delivering.
I'd like to mention here that Activision was extatic about the sales reception our game recieved in Korea, and were looking to release in more territories there. Publishers care about selling games, not about whom they sell them to. Of course, publishers tend to specialize in their own region because that's where they're drawing their talent pool from. If what you want are FPS Computer Games, then westernized companies are the way to go. However, you're ignoring the more console-centric Japanese developers such as Konami, Treasure, Sega, Namco, Capcom, etc, whom any console company also needs to placate.
While you may not live worldwide, they do sell worldwide. And worldwide numbers should matter to gamers buying a system: Sega's systems have routinely tanked in the US, but thanks to sales in Japan US gamers were still treated to Shenmue, several legendary Treasure shooters, great incarnations of Street Fighter, and many others. Even the Sega CD got Lunar 1 and 2 as well as some of Core's finest work. The Jaguar tanked everywhere: and games were completely nonexistent.
If you want to be a small-town gamer and bury your head in the American Sand, that's fine. Eidos et. al has some Legacy of Kain love stored up for you. But you will be missing out on the industry's best fighters, RPG's, twitch arcade games, racers, and many other underrepresented genres.
Nintendo does these interviews to change public perception. Saying that attempting to change public perception automatically validates that perception is as convienient an oversimplification as saying that because you live in America you automatically don't have to care about what happens abroad. If you don't want to have to think about the world around you, that's your prerogative. But don't expect your perceptions to translate to that of EA, Activision, and the rest of the western producers.
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