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Nintendo Moves Back, Shuffles Release Dates
Press the Buttons has commentary and release dates, now that Nintendo has released their Fall release plans. Frustratingly Metroid Prime Hunters, Mario Kart DS, and Animal Crossing DS have all had their release dates moved back. From the article: " Q1 2006: Metroid Prime Hunters from Nintendo. Bad Nintendo, bad! This game has slipped down the calendar so many times it isn't even amusing anymore. First it fell from a June 2005 release down to August, then to October, and now it's dropped into next year. Here's hoping they're using this extra time to add online multiplayer support, because if not a lot of people are going to be even more disappointed."
I just hope they don't release it too close to the release of Duke Nukem Forever.
That game is supposed to be amazing, and I'd hate to see Nintendo get scooped.
Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
I would rather they pushed them back to improve them than release a buggy piece of crap (Battlefield 2).
The real people at fault are the marketing department for setting silly goals , Thankfully nintendo has the sense to push things back .
I don't think there will be any kind of Duke Nukem farce , nintendo do have a long history of shuffling release dates and it normally turns out for the better
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
Half-Life was scheduled to be released mid-1996 but was delayed a year because the devs realized it sucked and they had to rewrite it...
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I think Nintendo's essentially made the same mistake with the DS that Sony made with the PSP. They had their launch titles and they had a number of other AAA titles that were allegedly close to release. Of course, it now turns out that they were being, shall we say, economical with the truth over how close to release these AAA titles were. The result of this is fairly predictable; strong initial sales on the basis of these predictions, followed by a backlash now.
The PSP is finally released in Europe (traditionally a rather Sony-friendly-Nintendo-hostile) territory on Thursday. The DS has a fair old lead over the PSP at the moment, but it will be very interesting to see what effect the European PSP release has had by Christmas. If Sony can actually get the PSP releases of a few AAA titles (such as a Grand Theft Auto game) out by Christmas, the positions could reverse real fast.
Maybe it's just me, but isn't this just adding more encouragement to those who (like me) have been waiting to buy the DS until there are more AAA titles available? What are the odds that the price on the DS is going to drop between now and when these games are released (especially MP:Hunters)?
It will be real interesting to see if the two recent releases (Advance Wars and Nintendogs) are going to push hardware sales enough for Nintendo to lay off any cost cutting measures. Certainly there are going to be some pressures from Sony around the holidays, and I don't know if the DS lineup is strong enough to carry the system without a price cut. Will Nintendo try to lo-ball Sony with their older (and arguably inferior) but significantly cheaper system?
Daikatana was released years after it was initially scheduled to come out. And it was still horrible. Delays don't always mean a better game.
Remember how the SNES Zelda shipped late? Or how FF3 slipped and slipped? Remember how late the original Metroid was? Or how late Warcraft 3 shipped? The Sims?
Once it's released, people will forget the delay. As long as the game is good and doesn't ship like buggy junk, bygones will be bygones. Nintendo has a solid track record in this respects, so more than likely in 6 months we will be cooing about how awesome the new Metroid is, and will have forgotten the delays. It's better to have a legendary title tomorrow than a half-baked good game today.
The ______ Agenda
I have no doubts that the GTA3 game will do well with PSP owners.
That said, Nintendo released both Advance Wars: Dual Strike and thee flavors of Nintendogs yesterday, and I bought myself a DS and both games. Stores are selling out of both games and the DS itself.
I have no plans to buy a PSP ever. Hopefully the GTA3 game will get emulated.
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
This is exactly the kind of behavior we should be encouraging, not disparaging. How many times have we seen games released too early for no reason other than that was the stated release date, or simply because the Christmas season neared, only to have a buggy piece of crap?
Sure I'm dismayed that the game I'm looking forward to (New Super Mario Bros) continues to be delayed, but I'd rather wait and have a better, longer game than get it now and be less satisfied. I think we could all do with a little less of this "I want it now!" attitude that has become so prevalent in today's high-tech age. Take your time, Nintendo. I know it will be worth it.
In the words of Shigeru Miyamoto: "A delayed game may eventually be good, but a bad game is bad forever"
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
Seriously, chill out. At least they're doing better than the PSP. I felt the same as you until the last couple of months. But I think with the combination of WarioWare, Kirby, Advance Wars, and Nintendogs, the purchase was well worth it to me. Then you have the other interesting, but not "must buys", like Meteos, Pac-n-roll, and Pac-Pix that round out the system pretty well.
And looking to the near future, next month we have Lost in Blue and Trace Memory, which both look promising. And by the end of the year, we'll have Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Castlevania, Mario and Luigi, Viewtiful Joe, and weird surgery and lawyer games. This is really a very exciting time for DS fans.
I can't imagine they would postpone Metroid that long without giving it an online component. I always thought it was dumb to not include that feature from the beginning. When it finally comes out, we'll have a great title to play, but in the meantime, there will be plenty of great titles to play.
The DS did seem rushed to get it out before the PSP. However, look at the lineup of the PSP games versus the DS games. There's a lot more fun games for the DS then the PSP. I'd take the DS anyday.
A lot of the games people are calling "delays" aren't. Animal Crossing DS and Mario Kart DS did not have offical release dates until now, now they do (within the Q4 2005 timeframe that Nintendo offically stated)
Any other release date you heard were just wild guesses (some of them were even in September and January which aren't Q4 2005)
ADVENTURERS! - ANTIHERO FOR HIRE - CARDMASTER CONFLICT
I think it is backwards here:
The PSP launched with some strong games like Lumines, Wipeout, Twisted Metal, Ridge Racer, DarkStalkers, and MGS Ac!d. Those and emulators have practically carried the system up until today.
The DS on the other hand, had quite a lackluster launch. Mario64DS was marred with strange controls (Mario64 is one of my favorite games ever, but I just cant play the DS ver), and Ridge Racer was a bust when compared to its PSP brother.
I had no reason to own a DS until the Mario64 bundle came out, but then the deluge of quality titles started to hit.
Kirby Canvas Curse, Meteos, Yoshi Touch and Go, Nintendogs, Advance Wars DS, Nanostray, and Ouendan (import title). Coming soon is Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow, Mario Kart DS, Viewtiful Joe DS, and more.
The PSP started strong, but has what I believe to be a lackluster future library (from what has been announced, and GTA does not interest me). The DS started poorly but has quickly ramped up AAA-title releases since Kirby hit.
This plus the fact that they pushed back The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (did that even get a slashdot cover?) to spring 2006 makes me a very sad Nintendo user right now. I even preordered Zelda.
I think I'll go make some soup so I can cry into it.
How is it that you can consider Warioware a must buy but not Meteos. I own both and can easily say that Meteos is one of the best handheld game released in the past 12 months.
I got bored of warioware after a week. I bought Meteos last month, and still play it almost daily. Meteos is the best puzzle game I've played since Tetris, IMHO of course.
It amazes me how people buy into the rationale that says the longer a game's release is delayed, the better, more finished it will be on release. Pretty much every +5 on this story is patting Nintendo on the back for "taking their time to make a great game".
Does it ever occur to anyone that these delays might negatively affect the production quality of the title? Or perhaps delays have more to do with marketing than development?
Sure, releasing early is a bad idea. But that doesn't mean releasing later guarantees a good game. (Nor does having the word Nintendo on the box)