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Nintendo Learns from Mistakes with GameCube
kukyfrope writes "Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's Executive VP of Sales and Marketing, talks about what went wrong with GameCube and how Nintendo will not make the same mistakes when launching Wii. Reggie admits that the initial software lineup for the GameCube was simply not 'diverse and strong enough from a first and third-party perspective,' and by Nintendo's showing at E3 2006, the Wii will launch with a wide variety of games for may types of gamers."
Except it was called "Nintendo learns from mistakes with N64".
Seriously though...I've seen a few articles like this for the Wii, but I can almost remember them saying nearly the same things about how the learned from mistkes with the N64 and promised for 3rd party support for the 'Cube.
Hopefully, it work this time.
In 3010, the potatoes triumphed
They did A LOT of things right actually, just from a hardware standpoint
- Excellent Price point
- 1st party wireless controllers (as usual ahead of it's time)
- choice of colors
- durable as hell, can easily take more of a beating then the other consoles of that generation
- Widely available 480p video modes in games... 2nd only to the Xbox, and way more coverage then the PS2 had
- easily the most comfortable controllers of last generation
- from what I hear a fantastic development environment, almost Xbox 1 level graphics from apparently "inferior" hardware
Despite the fact that most of the good games are 1st party, it still remains the best "party" system on any console. with the exception of say Halo, or DOA on the Xbox 1 you wont find as many quality 4 player party games on any other console...
Collector's Edition
I know Nintendo stays away from games like GTA:SA and they are one of the greatest game makers ever (Mario is still the king) but it's games like GTA:SA that sell like gasoline at a SUV convention.
Nintendo would give their left nut for a port of GTA:SA, and don't let anyone tell you different.
Nintendo themselves have no interest in making games like that, but nobody should ever suggest that they would turn down the opportunity to have a game that sold 10 million copies on their system.
Nintendo's problem is attracting that level of support. They really just don't have complete control over their third-party situation - they can wine and dine developers till the cows come home, but at the end of the day they can't force anybody to do anything. So they end up with Spongebob Squarepants instead of GTA to fill out their E3 presentation.
They can claim they've learned whatever they want from the GameCube, but the fact remains that they can only control their own game development for the system; they have very little say over third-party development (apart from veto power in licensing... which they'd never be stupid enough to use on a top-selling franchise).
I think the major problem with the gamecube launch lineup was the lack of a Mario game. NES launched w/ Super Mario Bros, SNES had Super Mario World, N64 had Mario 64, and gamecube had... luigi's mansion... It appears the Wii will suffer the same problem, as I hear SM Galaxy won't be out at lanuch. Oh well, personally I'll be happy with a Zelda and Metroid game at least. Hell I still need to beat Wind Waker and MP 1 and 2... also Super Mario Sunshine, though that game doesn't feel right to me... maybe it's the 'jetpack'/'flamethrower'
"GameCube" says what it is -- it's a cube that plays games. Pretty straightforward. Good name.
And also incredibly generic and tough to defend as a trademark, especially when your closest competitor uses "box" (meaning an approximate cuboid) in the name of its product. People outside the business find it hard to keep the PS2 generation consoles' names straight.
"Wii" -- what the fuck is that?
And what is a "PS2"? Isn't that pronounced like piss too?
Nintendo's GameCube offerings were the grand total of Luigi's Mansion and Wave Race: Blue Storm.
Day one isn't as telling as the launch window, which covers the entire period from launch in November to roughly December 18 (a week before Christmas). What came out on December 3, 2001, was a smash hit that sold a lot of GameCube consoles.
I find this new learning fascinating. What does "emacs" mean in your world? ; )
[javac] 100 errors
The trouble is, Nintendo is a control freak company. They don't like to be dependent on 3rd party. They like to be in charge and they like to make money off of everything. When they were the only game in town, they could get away with it. If developers wanted to make a game, they had to do what Nintendo said. I remember some controversy in 1989, the president of Namco made some public comments about how Nintendo's control was hurting the industry. Nintendo responded by threatening to stop allowing Namco to make games for Nintendo consoles, and the Namco president shut up. When the PlayStation took off, it offered developers a choice, and Sony offered much better licensee terms. Nintendo hasn't been able to control developers since the mid-90's, but they still want to.
For the GameCube, Nintendo invested a lot in 2nd party support. They put a ton of money into Retro, Rare, and Silicon Knights. Despite having first crack at development hardware, only one company, Silicon Knights with Eternal Darkness, had a launch title ready. Retro was working on 6 launch titles. Of those 6, only 1 ever saw the light of day - Metroid Prime, and that didn't come out until a year after launch. Rare was supposed to deliver Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero for launch. Two years after GameCube came out, those games were nowhere in sight and Nintendo sold their half of Rare to Microsoft. Nintendo poured tons of money into those companies, and it didn't pay off at all. They had companies they controlled, but those companies couldn't deliver.
Now that Yamauchi has finally retired, maybe Nintendo can really change its relationship with developers. Maybe they can get 3rd parties on board in the competitive climate of today's console wars. But maybe a leopard can't change its spots.
Don't forget that Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.
"What sane teenager or adult is going to publicly announce that they have to go home to play with their Wii?"
I think most people would say "I'm going home to play Nintendo."
What sane teenager or adult is going to publicly announce that they have to go home to play with their Wii?
Why do the name detracters keep wording it so strangely?
If someone came up to me and said "I'm going to go home to play with my playstation" I'd look at them funny... because "play with my ___" will always sound dirty.
Most people would just say "I'm going to go home to play video games"... actually, most people just say "I'm going home.. see you tomorrow".
They made $4.5 billion profit last year.
The Gamecube's worldwide sales are almost exactly on par with the Xbox's at ~15 million units apiece. And the big N makes a profit off *every console sold*, while MS, at the beginning of 2005, was *still losing money* on every Xbox sold.
So, tell me again what the mistakes are? Nintendo makes a boadload of profit year after year. Microsoft's entertainment division is hundreds of millions in the red. And we all know the boondoggle Sony is making of the PS3.
I don't think anyone has to worry about Nintendo over the next few years....
Honestly, we're absolutely going to be inundated with the Wii name over the next x months until release, it's not like people won't know what you're talking about. I'm sure at one point it sounded really bizarre to say "I'm going to home and write a paper on my apple" or whatever, but you get used to it - proper nouns take over namespace surprisingly quickly.