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Nintendo's Iwata On GameCube Sales, Future Plans
Thanks to 1UP for its article covering a recent interview with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, in which he discusses "Nintendo's current state and its plans for the future in what will be a critical year for the company." Iwata seems to be confident in Nintendo's "..current target of 6 million GameCube consoles sold worldwide in the current fiscal year, which will conclude in March", and also notes that he believes the China-launched iQue "will grow into a major business in three to five years." Finally, Iwata has comments about the mysterious new Nintendo device due to launch at E3 in May, suggesting he "doesn't necessarily expect this product to be an immediate hit upon its announcement - he's prepared to see a lack of applause from some of the audience."
If Nintendo did have something that wouldn't smack an audience in the mouth, it would be 50/50 between something Completely Different (abstract hard/software) or Me-Too ("It's a game system, a home media hub, a fondue, AND MORE!"). Personally, the latter would be like Dylan going Electric. Dogs and cats living together, etc.
The N has had a focus exclusively on making Games, not trying to jam as many tech.swiss army gear into their hardware. Not that there is anything wrong with gadget laden stuff, but hopefully that keen focus on Just Games will keep Nintendo in motion. All they really need is just a game that can capture the hearts and minds of a generation, like another Mario. My guess?
Donkey Konga.
Planet GameCube has a bit about how they're re-releasing a mess of old NES games for the Game Boy Advance, as well as producing a new GBA/SP with a color scheme with the old color scheme. It sucks from my point of view, since I spent a lot of time in used game stores and pawn shops this Christmas looking for an old NES for my wife. She loves Super Mario and Dr. Mario.
My guess from what I know, is that Nintendo will debut their long announced wireless project.
In a nutshell, it'll be a wireless device, that will send/receive a signal and create a grid/P2P type network. This will allow almost lag-free gaming across a fairly wide area. It'll be good if you're in a city, for example, and it catches on, you could play against all the locals. Would really catch on if it came with voice chat.
The iQue really seems to be the predecessor for such a device. You pay for the player (an internal hard drive, possibly?) and then can download all of those old school games (NES, SNES, GB, GBC, N64) to your GC, paying by the game, not the month. Possibly even have a Nintendo-blessed compact flash cartridge for the GBA (one a little less unwieldly than the eReader) that you could then download the game (well, non-N64 one) to your GBA...
Those of you with a GCN: check the underside of the console. There is a third port, aside from the online adapter and GB Player ports. You can create a third device that sandwiches between the GCN and the GB Player, with a pass-through port for the GB Player to access its port.
I really think there's going to be an online component to this. There has to be a better reason to buy the online adapters other than Mario Kart, Kirby and Phantasy Star...
Wow. I wasn't aware that having $6+ billion in the bank was classified as "standing on your last leg". I must have lost my legs long ago..
It's like sex, except I'm having it!
One of the things Nintendo is best at is coming up with extremely bizarre products...and then making them work.
At first, I had to check your list there to see if it was a list of things that didn't work. They all are, save the GB. More importantly, many of those things are items from the golden age of Nintendo. The e-reader is more recent, but compared to what they were churning out prior (add the powerglove to your list, the Mario mouse, the exercise pad) most of these are from years ago. Nintendo introduced them and then they quickly faded into the background of popular culture. Really, the only innovation that is still being used is the Gameboy. Even Mario and Zelda are from their glory days (Pokemon was an idea from a company that Nintendo bought).
That's not to say that I didn't love Windwaker, or the GBA SP. But these are evolutions of concepts formed years ago, not fresh innovations. This makes them completely unlike Apple, who is still actively a market leader in design (from the iMacs to the iPods to, well, putting a small letter in front of words to make them sound cool). Nintendo, on the other hands, is doing its best to catch up. Even the Wavebird, a fantastic wireless device, is an evolution and not an innovation. Meanwhile, and in the same industry, Sony is releasing Nintendo-esque products like the Eyetoy - and, at the same time, getting a good deal of success while doing it, which is more than we can say for Nintendo's efforts.
I like Nintendo's apathetic "investor-may-care" attitude; this idea that they'll cater to 10% of the market for the duration of their corporate lifespan (which is, admitedly, very Apple-Like). Unfortunately, (and unlike Apple) I just don't know if there's room enough in the console market to support that kind of niche company. I hope so.
Nintendo's innovations aren't all bad. For instance, if you look at control pads alone, Nintendo were the first to introduce shoulder pads, analogue sticks and make the pad vibrate - at least to a mainstream anyway (I'm pretty sure the N64 pad & rumble pack were released before the Dual Shock).
Of course, it's a lot easier to remember the stupid ideas, and complain how Mario Sunshine is just Mario 64 with prettier graphics and not innovative at all, but everyone always seems to overlook the entire genres that Nintendo have "created", from the recent "suck-em-up" that was Luigi's Mansion to the old "Stripped-Down-RPG/Action-Adventure-athon" that is Zelda. Smash Bros was a completely unconventional beat 'em up that still ruled. Nobody can decide what genre Metroid Prime is. Pikmin stripped out a lot of the complexities of the RTS and still managed to kick complete ass.
It's like special effects in a film. If they're done brilliantly, you don't even think twice about them. If they're bad, then they're laughed at, and people remember how bad they were. However, Special effects don't make a movie
To conclude, I am a Nintendo zealot with a knack for making bad analogies :)