Yesterday's Nintendo press conference was probably the most subdued and honest of the three major events this week. While they didn't have anything really earth-shattering to offer up, the Gameboy Micro, the Revolution's game-downloading capabilities, and the new Zelda Trailer were all welcome news from a company that has been very quiet of late. Commentary, photos, and speculation available from:
Nintendo,
Engadget,
USAToday,
GamesIndustry.biz,
1up.com,
Gamespot,
Cube.IGN,
NYT,
BBC,
Gamasutra, and
CNN. Specific coverage on the new Gameboy Micro is available from
Gamasutra,
GamesIndustry.biz, and
CNN. My two cents about Nintendo's conference are available below.
Last night I took in G4's E3 coverage, and their discussion of the Nintendo press conference struck a chord with me. This last console cycle, with the Gamecube, Nintendo really missed the boat. The GC wasn't released until many months after the PS2 was already in homes lighting up screens, and their attempts to carve out a market share were always muddled by confusing choices. The most confusing choice of the current generation, by far, was their almost complete refusal to participate in online gaming. While the Xbox sailed by with the Live service and the PS2 limped into the arena with the broadband adapter, the GC quietly sailed on with only Phantasy Star to break up its lonely voyage. At last year's E3 Nintendo very specifically said that they were not going to miss the boat this time. They were going to release the next console right around the same time as the other two companies and make sure their name was out there.
I have high hopes for the Revolution, but to be honest Nintendo's press conference was very underwhelming. Even given that the PS3 isn't going to be on store shelves for another year, what Sony showed on Monday was literally jaw-dropping. Even if there was some liberal use of pre-rendered footage in the presentation, the press conference put on by Sony was designed to fire the imagination and get people excited about the possibilities of the next generation. Nintendo offered us Nintendogs. And a new Game Boy Advanced. Yes, I think that downloading old games onto your Revolution is a cool idea, but a...uh...friend of mine tells me that I can emulate those games on my PC for free.
Perhaps all this is just worrywortism. Nintendo has never failed to be innovative in the past, and their support of the DS and quirky games like Warioware is proof that not everything has to be same-old same-old in this ever more business-like industry. They have more than a year to get their ducks in a row, but I'm afraid that Sony and Microsoft may have already beaten them to the punch. In the end, it's not just about making fun games. You have to sell them too.
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Yes, I think that downloading old games onto your Revolution is a cool idea, but a...uh...friend of mine tells me that I can emulate those games on my PC for free.
Yeah, copyright infringement is soo much cheaper!
The Revolution's game-downloading capabilities
My Phantom can do that, and so much more. Infact my phantom is so much better: only those truely 31007, such as myself, can see its golden case...
3 degrees of separation from Vladimir Putin
I for one, am taking a wait and see approach.
I've been a nintendo fan from the start with NES. Yes they lost a lot of the market when sony entered the game and gave them real competition, but they've consistantly showed inovation in the gaming industry
From what I've seen from the Sony footage, it looks absolutely amazing, and I'm sure the XBox360 will be great, too.... but I have a Tivo, I have my computer for browsing the internet... I want a game system (don't even get me started on XBox360's connectivity to the MediaCenterPC.... does anyone even own one?). I want new games. I don't want more FPS games. I want new genres... something different. I have faith that Nintendo will provide that something different. The DS (though akward and lacking) shows that they're not really afraid to try something new.
So, while Nintendo's press conference may have been underwhelming, I'm still excited for the Revolution.
Slashdot: where repeating an article in a post is "+5 Insightful"
Not an expert by any means but Nintendo probably wanted the spotlight to itself. Honestly, everyone is talking about Xbox vs. PS3 --- Nintendo can wait a few weeks/months and release info on the Revolution once PS3/Xbox talks get a bit stale.
My question is if Nintendo and Sony are going to have U.S. launch dates at around the same time as Japan, or is the PS3 going to be out months and months before, like the PS2?
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
Nintendo always puts out the big information at Tokyo Game Show or some other usually Nintendo biased video game show in Japan. The fact they didn't supply anything at E3 is not a surprise. Why would you try to compete for press time when you can say something later and have the spotlight for yourself?
Nintendo didn't miss out on online in the current generation. Xbox Live has
been a mild success, though the majority of Xbox owners don't use it, but PS2
online was a fizzle.
Honestly, I think Nintendo has been trying harder than anyone to innovate. The
DS lineup is really out there: Nintendogs, PacPix, Electroplankton. Weird,
wonderful stuff. But maybe the rest of the hardcore gaming market has gone too
much over the top, expecting desaturated military shooters, which is what
everyone is announcing at E3 this year.
People like to cite Nintendo as the loser of the current generation, but that's
far from true. They dominate the handheld market both in hardware and game
sales. And though the Game Cube is the third place console, the big games for
that console are all coming straight from Nintendo, with each one pulling in
awards and selling like crazy.
Personally, I think Nintendo's biggest difficulty is that they lean much too
hard on old franchises: Metroid, Zelda, Mario, Kirby, and so on. They were once
fresh, but no longer. Hopefully some of Nintendo's experimentation will result
in a brand new hit for them.
Handhelds were the last area they had a commanding lead over the opposition, and the PSP has blown that to hell.
Nintendo announced yesterday that the DS has outsold the PSP in japan 3 to 1.
With a sucessful marketing campaign, imagine the outcome. Imagine the NES generation, now in their 20s and 30s, with disposable income to spend a mere $200 on, and showing them with Super Mario 3 in their homes. And... here's where I think the MAJOR innovation and system-seller will make Rev sell like wild-fire: combine the internet Wi-Fi with the old-school games. You could play Dr. Mario head-to-head with your old next-door neighbor, even if she now lives in Seattle. You wanna get some Street Fighter II action on? Pop it in. Still remember Up, Up, Down, Down, L, R, L, R, (select) start? Then now you can play through 8 levels of Contra with your college roommate. And as with the great NES games, we often loved watching others play them. Well, if a "spectator mode" is installed, your elementary school/camp buddy/cousin is only a wi-fi connection away, and you can watch him pound away at Bald Bull, King Hippo and Super Macho Man.
The nostalgia market is enourmous. It's more than a Mario-All Stars rehash like the GBA games. This could be the console that Nintendo was sorta going for (but never quite even made much of a dent) with their "Who Are You?" campaign. This sort of strategy will send the message to non-gamers that Nintendo is synonymous with fun. Synonymous with their childhood, and that feeling you had when you first got to World 8 in Super Mario 3. And... perhaps their own 5 year-olds that they now have? Get them in with these games. Then... they'll try that Mario 64 they might have heard their girlfriend's 18 year-old younger brother talk about. Then, they'll try the new Mario 128. Like that? Well, in the Nintendo Online startup screen, here's a frontpage:
"Welcome BTWR! Your collection includes Metroid (NES), Super Mario Bros 2 (NES), Tetris DX (Gameboy Color), Super Mario RPG (SNES) and Street Fighter II (SNES). Might we recommend Super Smash Bros (N64), Tetris Attack (SNES) or Metroid Prime (Gamecube)? Also, look for Metroid: Mission X coming next month for Nintendo Revolution and The Legend of Zelda: World of Hyrule for the Nintendo DS. Press A to pre-order it now on your NintendoAccount and get a 60-minute FreePlay of Super Metroid (SNES) and one (1) free downloadable NES 'Players-Choice' game you wish"
The possibilities are endless...
I have to admit, I'm quite a Nintendo fanboy, so you can disregard my comments if you like. There a few advantages that the GC had over its peers that I'd like to point out.
1. Portability: The light weight and small form factor of the GC allows it to be toted around to a friends' house if you want to, or for it to be brought with you for weekend trips.
2. Load Times: The GC has much better load times then both PS2 and XBox. So much less that many games appear to have no load times at all.
3. Lower Price: A new GC can be had for 100 $CDN right now. XBox still costs around 200 $CDN, which is about double the price.
4. Better Controllers: While this is a matter of taste, I believe the controllers are much better on the GC. The buttons are much better laid out, allow easy movement between the buttons, and allowing the buttons to be easily located. One exception is that stupid z button.
I think the GC is one of the most underrated systems of all time. It lost out because people are afraid to buy something that looks kiddie, even though it is anything but. I hope Nintendo grabs more market with the Revolution. I also don't think that the Revolution will scare away 3rd party developers with some weird control scheme. Remeber, it is going to be backwards compatible with GC.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Two people with no prior console ownership buying an overpriced gimmicky handheld with games which have nothing to do with portable gaming? Yeah, Nintendo's really crying over that lost revenue.
Newsflash: They also don't have an NES, Sega Master System, SNES, Genesis, Playstation, PS2, Dreamcast, Xbox, any form of a Game Boy, or a DS. As far as Nintendo's concerned, they're either small children with very deep pockets, or people who probably weren't buying a game system in the first place.
They still have a commanding lead, as the opposition is new to the market, has no previously existing game library to fall back to, and designed a system focused on delivering the complete home console experience to your handheld, slow loading times and all. (Really, look at Wipeout. It's abysmally slow to load tracks, and that's just suicide on a handheld.)
Sure, I have a PSP. I even play games on it. But it feels more like I bought Lumines, and a PSP for it, than when I bought my GBA, and Castlevania, Metroid, and a few other titles for that. The handheld experience I'm used to, including a lightning-fast startup and seconds-to-gameplay, just aren't there, and as a result, it's going to take some truly spectacular titles to make the whole thing worth the wait between levels.
Raptor
"Procrastination is great. It gives me a lot more time to do things that I'm never going to do."
I am sick and tired of people linking "good games" to the "mature market." I can't not express inwords how irritating that is to me. When the gaming industry gives out their awards for games Nintendo is always heavily represented. Nintendo is a lot like Disney. 9 times out of 10 they put out the highest quality stuff around, and though they are more geard towards a younger audience if you could just get the F*** over yourself for a second you could have fun too. I dare anyone out there to play Donkey Konga or Jungle Beat and NOT have fun, I literally dare you!
Sega and Atari failed to make their consoles profitable, which is why they stopped making them. Last I heard, Nintendo's consoles themselves continue to be profitable which alleviates any need to be #1 in order to make up costs on software sales.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
Having been stunned and dismayed by the quality of commentary that I've read in last 24hrs concerning Nintendo's E3 conference, I was excited that this article might perhaps shine some light on the messages from doom that are being put forth. Sadly, it's not exception, and once again shows complete ignorance on well publicized facts, both on Nintendo as a company, and on their upcoming console.
The buzz on most gaming sites is, expectedly, represented by two extremes. On one side, Nintendo fans and some "undecideds", praise the looks of the Revolution, and it's legacy game download feature.
On the other side, statements that have a stinky ting of "BSD is Dead" come in the following shapes and flavors (paraphrasing):
- "What a weak showing, Nintendo is going to hell, gonna get trounced, dead meat"
- "Legacy gaming?! Some revolution!"
- "PS3 and Xbox are going to smoke the Revolution."
- "Nintendo has made a huge mistake, and it's going to pay for it."
Let's clarify some facts:
- Nintendo made profit on the N64 and the Gamecube, both on consoles sales (they didn't sell at a loss), and games sales. So Nintendo did not lose this generation's "war". It made a profit, and that's always more important than being "first". (Yes Sony also made an overall profit with PS2, if we count games).
Nintendo will almost definitely make profit on the Revolution, so even if it's third, Nintendo won't "die".
- Nintendo did NOT intend to show anything important about the Revolution at this E3. They said it before the conference. So what is everyone whining about?
We also know (if we read the news from these months) that the console isn't finished, and that includes the controller. Why is that so difficult to understand? Even the Iwata should, is not the final version. It will be ready in a few months, and he invited user participation to make suggestions on things like color, etc...
Furthermore, they consider they have very revolutionary ideas, and hence don't want those copied early in the game.
So what was Nintendo supposed to show? Some freaky , wacky, OMFG graphics. NO, once again, you're not listening. "It's not about the graphics anymore (Nintendo)".
In conclusion, Nintendo is right on track, and when it's ready it will show it's console. When that happens, you can all open the floodgates of opinion and commentary, but until then read up on Nintendo before making uninformed comments.
What are you basing the "lower power" comment on? The specs i've seen show the Revolution being pretty much on par with the 360. (Four cores at a slightly lower speed vs. three cores at a slightly higher speed.)
Perhaps you're listening to the marketing-speak? Sony and Microsoft both claim their new consoles will be a jazillion times better than the old ones, while Nintendo only claims its will be two or three times better, but so far this exactly mirros the claims made by all three companies for the last generation. How many times can people be taken in by Microsoft and Sony's inflated figures before they get a clue?
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
A few things:
The PSP and the DS do not exactly target the same market. The DS has two primary purposes - as a special controller for Revolution and as a handheld console for people who don't normally play games. That's why a lot of the upcoming titles are puzzle games and things like Animal Crossing.
Online capability: strange, even though X-box has Live, that didn't stop Gamecube from completely owning it in terms of worldwide sales... and Microsoft just started to turn a profit on X-Box???
Remember that Gamecube's primary customers are parents looking for family-friendly games. What if pedophiles started hanging out in Pokemon Online? The American media would eat it up and Big N would be dead in the water in a month. Definitely not something to be rushed into.
And as for those saying that Nintendo will stop making hardware: have you ever played with a Gamecube? Ergonomic controllers. Next to no load time. Sharp graphics. All in a small, light, durable box. $99 CDN. Sony and Microsoft wouldn't know how to pull that off, even if they had any interest in doing so.
If I want to play Ultimate Online Gorefest 2005 (complete with five-minute load screens before each level) I'll go play on my computer. However if I have some friends over and want to jump right into a really fun game, nothing beats Nintendo.
The US Army: promoting democracy through unquestioned obedience
This time around, they look to be a long way behind the curve performance wise.
No, they won't be. They're a long way behind on the "make up random numbers for E3 based on peak FLOPs numbers that could never be achieved" performance curve, but they won't be far behind on the actual performance curve. C'mon. Give me a break. Sony and Microsoft are literally making numbers up here.
Microsoft and Sony were both sloppy in the previous generation when it came to console design, and both of them look to be quite sloppy this time. I mean, really: Xbox 360 has 6 front ends and the system has shared graphics memory. So it needs serious amounts of memory bandwidth (good chance one of those threads is going to evict a cache line) and it's sharing it with the graphics card? What?
Nintendo knows how to make consoles without blunt force. The games will look surprisingly similar to this generation in terms of who's better: Revolution will look pretty much the same, but maybe a *little* worse, PS3 will look the best on some, but worse on others (too high a developer learning curve), and the Xbox 360 will probably look about equivalent to the Revolution on most games, with maybe a few being better.
I can download Nesticle
Nesticle was good for its time, but compared to current emulators, it's an inaccurate P.O.S. In fact, an NES program can detect Nesticle with just four instructions. Use Nintendulator instead, especially if you're developing your own NES programs.
and a couple hundred ROMS
Now that Nintendo is renting ROMs online, the fair use argument for abandonware largely evaporates. Are you prepared to pay statutory damages if you're caught?
...except that GC and NDS consoles (and games) are selling fairly well in Japan (unlike, say, the Xbox). I know that Slashdot is USA-centric, but it irritates me that, because Nintendo encourage games fitting to the Japanese gaming style, Americans keep saying that the company is dying. Newsflash: it isn't, and there are those of us who deeply enjoy its games.
Prescriptive grammar:linguistics
I agree entirely. My brother and I went and bought a couple of bongos, Jungle Beat, and Donkey Konga on a whim a few months back and haven't regretted it one bit. I believe the exact description I heard was "Bongos should be the natural input for a game console". Even more, people I know who "don't like video games" were getting me to come over with the 'cube just to play Donkey Konga for hours on end. High School "I'm too cool for kids games" kids who dismissed it at first couldn't be torn away from it after playing once.
Nintendo makes games with the WTF factor that you can throw down with some friends of varying skill levels and all have a blast. Warioware is another perfect example of this. "This looks lame" quickly makes way for "This game is awesome", despite the lack of plot or "mature" content.
Revolution, just like anything else, is going to be dependent on games before system specs, and if Nintendo keeps on innovating we will all be around to do this again at their next launch.
- Relativistic? That's barely Newtonian!
IMed to a friend about 4 hours ago:
... focus on the games, the library, the 3rd party developers. I've shown off Metroid Prime and Resident Evil 4, etc to Sony or PC headz, and they couldn't believe this stuff flew under their radars. The games are great quality for Game Cube .. there just arn't nearly enough of them.
.. being first can be as big a gamble as being 3rd depending on the purchasing cycle of the market,) I think Nintendo is stepping away from the other two companies so it doesn't get lumped in with the invitable backlash. Halo 3 .. its .. its Halo 2, but more polygons! Woot!
14:48] KraftBoy: Nintendo has been pushing this 'performance isnt everything' mantra
[14:48] KraftBoy: they say the Revolution will be 2 or 3 times as powerful as the gamecube
[14:49] KraftBoy: Sony says PS3 is 30 times the power of the PS2
[14:49] KraftBoy: MS says the Xbox360 is 15 times as powerful as the first xbox
[14:49] KraftBoy: if people dont dig the offering of Sony and/or MS, then Nintendo looks like a genius for purposefully underhyping the power of the console
[14:50] KraftBoy: I get the feeling that people are gunna be like, "Great, Halo 3, same game, better graphics"
[14:50] KraftBoy: or GTA: Mississagua, same game, better graphics
[14:51] KraftBoy: they come come away looking smart for realizing that the market is getting bored of bying the same game 4 times, each time with cosmetic upgrades
Nintendo is always bashed for recycling the same games. How can this be? They recycle the same *charcters*, but I can't think of too many Sony properties or franchises that have undergone the kind of radical transformations that the gameplay of Mario or Metroid titles have undergone. (GTA 1 wasn't much of a big seller, y'know.)
99% of the Mario platformers were awesome (tho Sunshine underwhelmed me.) Metroid? If you've played Super Metroid and Metroid Prime, nuff said. For those who havn't, the game was legendary in 2D, and the 3D first person (!) leap, if anything, *improved* the gameplay.
I think Nintendo is playing a strategy here. If performance meant anything, nobody would have bought a single PS2 after the day the GameCube was released. MARKETING is the operative strategy here. Just like Nintendo got too big for its britches, I think they realize that if they downplay performance, and Sony and MS can't live up to the "Its 30 times more powerful than the PS2" claim (which, as pointed out about, is a laugh to anybody with an once of BS detection in their bones), people might start realizing that it ain't the performance, its the games.
The games (and their time to market, of course) is what got the PS and the PS2 their place in history. Now that Sony and MS are pushing the performance advantage angle, I think Nintendo realizes it can do exactly what Sony did
Sheesh, its almost a mirror image from the PS/N64 situation - sexier technology != higher sales. Release dates aside (it practically looks like all companies WANT to release at the same time
Now, I realize there are tons of other ways Nintendo works against itself:
1. Not enough advertising. Their name is not household anymore with the 16-21 year old set, so heres to hoping they know this and plan to push the Revolution in TV, etc.
2. No shame in cozying up to the kiddie crowd. I think thats just a reality that disaffected cool teens will have to accept if they want access to the kind of graphical and gameplay orgasms that is Resident Evil 4, Eternal Darkness, etc.
All that said, Xbox outsold Gamecube, and who made a profit? Nintendo had to compete against a company that knew, neh, committed itself to ending up in the red, and they still managed a respectable share of the market place, and still turned a profit.
So really, all things being equal, what company is more impressive? The one that throws money away for the sake of getting their name in front of your eyes for every minute that you play video games, or the company that works on stuff it thinks is cool, and manages to make money off of it to boot?
"Old man yells at systemd"