Slashdot Mirror
Mixed News for Nintendo, Microsoft
If you were to just look at downloadable content this week, Wii and 360 owners would have a lot to cheer about. Virtual Console downloads include the (under-appreciated) Legend of the Mystical Ninja and the original Castlevania. Xbox 360 owners can finally sink their teeth into the board-game spectacular that is Settlers of Catan. Classic titles Millipede and Centipede will also be on offer via Xbox Live Arcade. Unfortunately, there are some less cheery things to discuss as well. Virtual Console sales are down, apparently, and some analysts are questioning whether Nintendo's success may be bad for the industry overall. As for the 360 ... the Elite may be bringing back some old problems. 'Red Rings of Death' have already been reported with the just-released consoles, and DRM issues with Live Arcade titles on the 'upgraded' system are making some new owners frustrated.
ugh, I get goatse flashbacks when I hear that phrase!
Reports have already emerged that the some Xbox 360 Elites are showing the red ring of death. This comes just a day after the model's release in the US. Apparently disc-scratching issues are also emerging, with the video below demonstrating that one unit (in the owner's words) "always sounds like a screaming banshee on crack". At this stage, however, SPOnG's treating the reports as rumour only until we see more evidence. Given that there has been no evidence other than "reports," I call bullshit on this one.
What? From TFA in question, ""Nintendo has not only increased the size of the market, but it has also re-segmented it in its own favor, in our view," Mitchell wrote. "Nintendo is dominating software sales on its popular hardware platforms, leaving the publishers with a smaller slice of an only somewhat incrementally larger pie."" What this sentence says to me is that the market grew, so it's good for the industry overall, but that the current players in the market are less innovative than Nintendo and so they have a smaller slice of this generation - which is good for the consumer.
"He continued, "Moreover, we feel that the likely shorter product cycles of Nintendo's platforms puts the publishers in a permanent catch-up mode. We think the upcoming releases of Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption will highlight this phenomena [sic] this holiday season."" Interestingly, Microsoft had the short generation this last time around. Not Nintendo.
"What Mitchell alludes to is the tendency for Nintendo-published titles to overrun the top end of sales charts on Nintendo platforms, leaving third party publishers out of luck sales-wise." Also known as the tendency for third-party developers to be worse at making fun games than Nintendo is.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The whole "It's hard to make money because people only buy 1st party Nintendo games" schtick is really, really obnoxious. People buy quality titles (for the most part). Nintendo makes quality titles. The few third parties that do make quality titles sell well. It's not like I picked up Zelda because it was made by Nintendo; I picked up Zelda because it has gameplay that I enjoy, great artistic direction (vs. throwing mounds of polygons at you), and has proven a dependably excellent quality series. I also picked up Rayman, despite the fact that it's a third party title, because it looked to have some excellent off-beat humor and gameplay, and it lived up to that expectation.
"Nintendo is dominating software sales on its popular hardware platforms, leaving the publishers with a smaller slice of an only somewhat incrementally larger pie."
How is this a new trend? Unless I'm mistaken, I believe Nintendo has always dominated the sales charts of their own platforms, and deservedly so - why buy a generic licensed platformer when you can get a Mario title that's been polished to near perfection?
He continued, "Moreover, we feel that the likely shorter product cycles of Nintendo's platforms puts the publishers in a permanent catch-up mode. We think the upcoming releases of Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption will highlight this phenomena [sic] this holiday season."
Shorter product cycles are a bad thing? Since the Wii is less powerful than the PS3 or the Xbox 360, I'd have to imagine that any experience the publishers get on those platforms would carry over nicely to the Wii's eventual successor. Besides, it looks like - for the time being, at least - Nintendo's "less powerful hardware for lower price" strategy is working far better than Sony's "buy it now for $600 and we'll support it in ten years, we promise" plan of action.
Moreover, Mr. Todd Mitchell seems to be missing something key here: while this may not be the most favorable trend for third party publishers, Nintendo is going to make buckets of money from all of this. Since he's an investment analyst, you think he'd want to point out the bright side there, that being that Nintendo is going to make you rich and that, perhaps more importantly, Nintendo succeeding in this generation - even if entirely due to their own titles - means there will still be some form of a gaming industry in five years instead of the supposed game industry crash that is supposed to happen in the near future.
Goo goo g'joob.
I think its somewhat one-sided to say Nintendo is bad for the industry. It's bad for today's publishers who continue to pump out the same crap year after year after year because most of the new people who are getting into games (older people, etc) won't enjoy that garbage. It's good for gaming, though, because those more creative video game publishers will be more successful...
I say let the big companies fail, I'm hope I don't have to see Madden 2015 advertised...
Um... Isn't that what virtually any business aims to do? You don't think Microsoft and Sony are trying to do the same?
Although I haven't been following video games nearly as actively as I used to (read: at all), I thought Nintendo was making great strides to bring third parties on this generation, or at least claiming to.
I wonder if I use bold in my signature, people will notice my posts.
Whoops, either I'm hoping or I hope. Pick one... we're at war :)
"Nintendo has not only increased the size of the market, but it has also re-segmented it in its own favor, in our view," Mitchell wrote. "Nintendo is dominating software sales on its popular hardware platforms, leaving the publishers with a smaller slice of an only somewhat incrementally larger pie." Waaaaa! How dare you sell consoles to non-harcore gamers!!! Waaaaaaa! The truth is they did not want to be part of the launch of the Wii. Now they are blaming strong sales of Wii consoles as hurting 3rd parties. Waaaaaaa
So getting more women and older users buying their first personal consoles, expanding the market, lowering the entry point for new enthusiasts, and coming up with a series of great first-party titles to buoy these systems rather than depending on third-party support is a BAD thing?!
Okay, I may buy 'this is bad for all the people doing things the old way', but this is only because the Wii and DS are two radically different paradigms. Once these interfaces take off, we may see the WiiMote and Nunchuk turn into a smaller, sleeker 'WiiWand' with 'Wiiry Stone' attachment, or the DS Lite become the DS Nano (or maybe the DS Slim, or DS Micro, DSleek . . . you get the idea.)
Nintendo is unlikely to change the interfaces AGAIN so soon, simply because these were so dramatically different from the norm, and I estimate that even if they update the hardware within the next few years, what we'll be seeing are not new systems in the vein of the PS3 where the engine development is the radical difference, but rather changes in form factor.
Expect crazy leaps of intuition like a WiiDR pad or DS games that are both DS-playable but have DS++ elements for whatever the DS's successor is, by all means, but since the most drastic part of Nintendo's great leap forward has already been accomplished, we shouldn't see another new switch in the actual computational hardware anytime soon.
In other news, analysts made the shocking discovery that the Nintendo Gamecube had the least amount of support from third party publishers leaving Nintendo-published titles to overrun the top end of sales charts on the Gamecube.
This video that has sparked the 360 elite controversy:
1. Doesn't show a ring of death
2. Shows a game that can't be read - that game - a $4 game from Burger King that could either be a bad disc or all scratched up (we can't see the bottom of the disc)
Are there any real elite user's having issues? or is this just a scare tactic or someone doing some 360 flaming...
... some analysts are questioning whether Nintendo's success may be bad for the industry overall.
Yeah, like Chris Hecker, who was run out of town on a rail for saying as much.
I don't understand why there's this psuedo-FUD regarding the VC sales by everyone carrying this article. Sales are not down. What he's pointing out is that VC sales have not been growing proportional to the skyrocketing sales of the Wii console.
My guess is that the average user isn't going to care a whole ton about the VC. The hardcore gamer might because they are trying to play games they never got to play before or are trying to consolidate their retro catalog legally into one location. I would be willing to be that the initial buyers for the Wii were in-fact hardcore gamers or previous gamers, not necessarily the soccer moms and grandma's who are now starting to actively seek the system for themselves. These newcomers to the system probably have less interest in the VC than in buying the Wii mostly for Wii Sports and a couple other titles. Finally, anyone who's been following the VC lineup knows that signal to noise ratio hasn't been incredibly high. There's a handful of must-haves on that list, but there's a lot of games waiting in the wings for some reason or other (my theory is to help keep gamers going if there's a big drought of Wii games).
A better description of what's happening is that sales are slowing or plateauing, not "down". I don't think Nintendo and its partners really care anyways. 1.8 million units sold with price tags >= $5 and only bandwidth costs to consider is nothing to scoff at.
Insert Sig Here
If I owned a 360 I'd be getting sick and tired of all the "Red Ring of Death" reports. Both Sony and Nintendo don't seem to have this problem. Why is it MS seems to have an issue with making a console "just work"?
As much as I agree, MS just has too much money to burn, and Nintendo has proven the gaming market is lucrative.
Those two things combined mean that MS is probably here to stay (even if they keep providing a crappy product that needs to be sent in for servicing every 3 months).
Perhaps we'll see MicroSoft Certified Xbox Repairman as a new "certification". That would solve the problem of out of work tech sector people, and provide more cash for MS
EXACTLY! I got a Wii at launch, and I am a gamer. I think I have 14 VC titles, and maybe 10 Wii games. LOVE the system. My Parents loved WiiSports over the holidays and I got them one. Currently they have 3 Wii games (WiiSports, WiiPlay, and Tiger Woods) and ZERO VC games. Why? NONE of them are appealing to them.
How about a crossword puzzle "game"? SuDoKu? Online Poker? Online Hearts? or Uno? The VC is a GREAT service for old gamers like me, with nearly 100 retro titles but for 'First time casual game players' they offer crap. The most 'Casual friendly game' they have (Pacman) isn't available in the US yet. Why is it that XBLA has more 'casual friendly' titles available? (and don't say because it's been out longer, there are currently more VC titles available than XBLA ones. It's an issue of 'what types of games are available' rather than 'how many')
My parents wouldn't go near an X-box (despite the XBLA selection), but really enjoy the Wii. When will Nintendo recognise that despite being able to 'capture the casual market' early, they aren't catering to them with their current releases?
The #1 goal for the Direct-X Box is to promote Direct-X as a programming API. Any analysis of it has to take this into account.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
It frustrates me to no end when I hear people taking rumors of XBox 360 owners who have gone through 3 or more replacements and automatically assuming it must be true and all cases were Microsoft's fault. Yes, the first launch systems had issues with a couple machines here and there, but the problem has been nowhere near the level some people would like to fantasize.
I still have my first generation 360 from the original launch supply and have had none of these issues. Perhaps that is unusual in some circles, but maybe it's because I take care of my system and keep its area open and free from dust. I have no fancy add-on fans or other external modifications on the unit... it's simply the same exact setup rhat came out of the box the day I got it.
8==8 Bones 8==8
Point One: I do not like nintendo games. I own a DS but not single nintendo developed game. Worse, all the games listed as being developed by nintendo leave me cold as well. So if other publishers, who make games I do like, can't survive, then I loose out.
Nintendo becoming the biggest player is only good if you like nintendo games.
I think people still expect that the DS and Wii are intermediate consoles, the DS was even claimed NOT to be the next gameboy but a in between. This might have been nintendo trying to safe itself from a potential failure BUT the idea has stuck.
Point Two: IF HD-TV takes off then the Wii might age a lot faster then previous consoles. HD-TV might not take off, especially if people do not buy the Blu-Ray player or the HD-TV addon player. *cough* PS3/360 *cough*
Point Three: See one. Oh and remember, to read carefully. Nintendo overruns the top end sales of charts on NINTENDO platforms. This can also be read thus. Do not publish games for the Wii because they won't sell because Wii buyers only buy the kiddie Nintendo games. Sure, you might claim that this market is big enough, but Nintendo itself seems to think it needs third party titles to reach that audience that its own games cannot.
Blizzad created a huge success with WoW BUT it also can be seen as bad for the industry as all that money is NOT going to other publishers and ultimately this leads to fewer games and less choice.
Does it help if you replace Nintendo/Blizzard with Microsoft and talk about the OS market instead to see the light?
What the game industry does NOT need is a monopoly. Not by MS, not by Sony and certainly not by Nintendo (especially the US half of it).
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
The Wii success article is 100% whining.
Translation: "The old third party "same port across the board" style of developing doesn't work in this generation, we'd have to change the way we do things, but we don't want to or want to know how, so we will just whine about it instead."
Games are supposed to be about fun, not profit. If the game is fun, it will sell. if the Wii's first party games hurt Third-party devs' profits, it's not the Wii's fault!
Could it be that third-party devs would have to... god forbid, work a little at making a game for the wii? This reminds me of the same Bullshit that went on with the N64: Lack of third-party support. But that was for a different reason.
There really IS no reason now.
This exposes something about a few third-party publishers, and it isn't pretty at all.
"No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson
Rumour has it an Xbox dies everytime Sony sacrifices a goat....
Can I get an Amen Brothers and Sisters?
I know two types of 360 owners: People who's consoles still work, and people who have been through multiple 360s.
Perhaps there is a flaw in the design that causes failure, but given the none/multi dichotomy of the situation (and I say this as somebody who is as anti-Xbox as you're likely to find without being a fanboy for another platform) the question I want to know the answer to is "What are these people doing differently to their system that is causing it to break?". Sure, maybe they're victim to a faulty device, but it's got to be something about the way they use the system that is triggering the failures.
The other question I want answered is that, given the mainstream media's willingness to report on every minor Xbox development from Microsoft, why aren't they reporting on this problem. It's clearly widespread, as it had notable impact on Microsoft's bottom line. Are CNN and the New York Times really in Microsoft PR's pocket? I mean, I know they spend a lot on advertising....
In related news Sony has just announced they've successfully cloned multiple goats...
The #1 goal of the X-Box is to promote Microsoft's DRM. They want it to become the industry standard so they can use it to shore up their OS market share with additional vendor lock-in.
Direct-X games that don't run on the 360 generate *zero* revenue for Microsoft, and Microsoft only cares about them enough to prevent a "lack of games" opening a chink in their marketshare-protecting armor. If Xbox were a lever for Direct-X adoption instead of Direct-X being a lever for Windows adoption, Direct-X 10 would have been available for XP. (All the technical reasons given by Microsoft are bullshit.)
Could also be that early adopters were more likely to have home WiFi than later purchasers.
[Insert pithy quote here]
Disclaimer: I don't own a 360 and no little about the specifics of the failures that these "multiple 360" owners have experienced.
It's possible, perhaps, that the 360 is very susceptible to noise on the incoming power line, to the point that such noise causes permanent damage to the device. Is that a problem with the power system in many homes? Maybe. Is the power company going to fix it? No. Should Microsoft fix their product to be more durable? Yes. (Well, yes, if it would cost less than replacing units over and over with some customers, losing some of those for life, and the bad press it generates.)
So, that's one example of a source for this problem. It would explain why certain people have to go through many Xboxes to find one more tolerate to a third-party problem, while others are fine from the start.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
The "DS is not a GBA" thing was meant as a safe-guard. In case the DS failed, they could always fall back on the GBA. But now, GBA sales are now practically non-existant, and I think the last game released, that anyone had ever heard of, was Final Fantasy VI. Even Nintendo has started making noise about how the DS is replacing the GBA. Don't get attatched to the GBA, if you can't hear its death rattle... its time to remove those earplugs.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
Yeah, that seems like a plausible explanation. Maybe it's something as simple as horizontal vs. vertical use... Maybe it's related to dust... Infrequent vs. Frequent use (people I know who have had the problem have all been casual players... The more frequent users have had no trouble). No matter what the connection, there's got to be a way to find the common element. That way if Microsoft is unwilling to solve the issue, these people can protect themselves from future failure.
Everybody you see posting about it online always suspects or disclaims heat issues. People need to get out of the '1337 0verclocker mentality and actually gather some real data.
So let me get this straight... Nintendo is dominating software sales on its platform because its fans aren't tolerating the relative crap put out by the third parties, and this is a bad thing?
is like the first game developper company ( if not software? ) by it's dev team size...or something like this, not only they take time to really polish theirs titles ( unlike blizzard who just are awefully slow for bugged shit, hello D2, hello W3, hello WoW and its expension ) and they are almost always original despite being the same franchise.
I assumed they were rumors until I saw the financials for Microsoft's previous quarter. The 360 supposedly costs less to make than its sticker price, yet they lost a boatload of money on them last quarter. That money is going somewhere... To replacements maybe?
The problem is probably triggered by some user variable, and you're not doing whatever it is that triggers the problem.
I'm even more surprised that nobody has filed a Class Action Law Suit against MS re: the XBox 360 failure rates. Of course that might be because MS extended the warranty so that they would replace the box, so less people have an "unheeded" grievance.
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
I'm late to the party here and I'm terribly sorry if what I'm about to say has already been said... I just need to say this.
Goddamn, analysts are dumb!
"Nintendo has not only increased the size of the market, but it has also re-segmented it in its own favor, in our view," Mitchell wrote. "Nintendo is dominating software sales on its popular hardware platforms, leaving the publishers with a smaller slice of an only somewhat incrementally larger pie."So, apparently Nintendo is not only adding new people to the market, but they are killing all the old ones
Also, it is apparently Nintendo's fault that 3rd parties refuse to do something original, rather than slapping Wii controls onto a PS2 port and calling it good. Next I suppose it will be Nintendo's fault that publishers do heap piles and piles of shovelware onto the DS and Wii in the hopes of making a quick buck. Absolutely ridiculous.
Maybe MS simply send not-fully-working-as-new consoles to people whose consoles break, that seems the simplest (not saying the right one) explanation for why this is so.
Hello, I'm here to tell you about a threat to our way of life. This heinious trend will inevitably turn all of our children over to the clutches of Satan, and send our great nation spiraling into entropia. I am, of course, speaking of the Nintendo Wii. This is video gaming, as God never intended. The Wii will most likely destroy the video game industry as we know it, turning meaningful crusades like F.E.A.R and Crackdown into fun... and enjoyable entertainment. This must be stopped, at all costs.
But what can you do to prevent it? Here are a number of tips:
1) Spread the word by catering to the adolecent fear that the Wii is a childs toy. Obviously, this is not true, but it will eat at the soul of any person between the ages of 12-18. "You don't want to remain boys forever, do you? Then stop playing with your Wii!"
2) LET THE WORLD KNOW! Let the world know that the Wii is a threat to our God-given way of life. For God is kind and good... and the Wii is shitty and white.
3. Make Zonk pay. Did you know that Zonk is actually spelled L-U-C-I-F-E-R? Well, it is. He's the devil, and he spreads his heretical message far and wide. Make sure he can not get a word in edge wise by picking apart his every sentance. Only the pure crusader can curb his demonic message
4) Spur ideological discussion on how our fine, under-achieving game developers will be swollowed into the maelstrom of bedlam if Nintendo is able to continue; continue it's satanic tyrade of developing better games, at the expensive of others. This will confuse idiots, easilly, and throw the more knowledgable off, at least throw them off enough to get a few more jabs at Zonk.
In closing, use your head, but not too much, as knowledge is the gateway to hell, and the gateway to hell, as we all know, is the Wii. Be irrational, spontanious, and do not be afraid to be utterly obnoxious. For this is a crisis bigger then ourselves, and it must be stopped. As the penis must be stopped from entering the bowel, the Wii, too, must be stopped from seducing our young people, and our elderly, from the temptations of evil.
Thank you, and good luck.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
The principle of "coopetition" states that ultimately is not to the best interest of a firm to destroy their competition.
Competing with Nintendo is formidable as they can start designing for their innovative consoles ahead of time, they take their time and put out products that sadly put 3rd party efforts to shame. Since 3rd parties want to maximize profit the previous model of "Develop for the biggest installed base and port to the others" is not working well with the Wii and DS (Any IP depending with the Wii or DS input controls doesn't work well as a port).
If you look at the article that way it makes sense as the outlook for 3rd parties is not good.
Oh well... let me go back to playing SPM...
That's an excellent point. I hadn't considered that, and it seems quite plausible.
Welcome to Capitolism! I love how people complain that the VC prices are too high 'because the games are already finished' and 'their development is already paid for', For some reason I don't see people complaining that Gears of War isn't in the $3-$5 range. The reason is the same. The game is finished, and despite it costing nearly $10 million they certainly made their money back after selling over 3 million copies, so why not sell it for the incremental cost of pressing and distributing the disk?
The market has determined that it is worth more than the incremental cost, and pays what they feel is a reasonable price for the experiance. The VC is no different.
What they are talking about is the primary reason the Gamecube did so poorly. Nintendo titles sell better than third party titles...for obvious reasons (quality, fun, etc.). Particularly for a system like the Wii that appeals to more causal gamers...they are going to sell less games per system per year (nothing wrong with this, just casual gamers are going to buy less than hardcore gamers by definition). Most of the games that will be bought will be first party Nintendo games leaving sales for third parties be somewhat poor.
So what is different this time around? Well, developers have short memories too apparently. They see the Wii selling like hotcakes and they want in on the action. Of course, they most likely won't sell as many games as they would like to since Nintendo's titles will soak up most of the casual sales (and the few quality third party titles). Thus people will stop developing for the Wii and third party developers will go where they can sell more titles. Of course, the people who have Wii's won't care because they are still getting what they want...first party titles. This time around the casuals plus the Wii's price point might be enough for people to ignore the lack of games allowing Nintendo to win number of consoles sold this time around.
In a way, this sucks for PART of the industry. The model that Nintendo invented (improve the console through improving hardware and offering a reinvention of the typical controller) may not be seen as viable any more. XBox and PS survive off of game sales in the early years since they take losses on the consoles. The advantage to the consumer is that you get expensive hardware cheap and developers can create cutting edge graphics and develop better AI on these top of the line boxes. The downside for them is that it is is more costly to develop for these systems compared to the Wii which is basically just an elite Gamecube with an innovative controller. They feel the need to develp cutting edge graphics for the PS3/XBox while with the Wii they can get away with putting a lot less effort in to that because the games just don't have to look that good.
Now, while it is more expensive to develop for the 360 and PS3...I don't think they are "sacrificing" fun. The people who work on the mechanics of a game are separate than the art team. Slashdotters have this stupid idea that you can't have good graphics and good game play. Are there games out there that have "ooh, shiny" graphics but play like crap? Of course...but there are games that look like crap that have that as well.
Personally, I like to have top of the line hardware. The Wii is a fantastic product...I just hope MS and Sony don't do the same thing the next generation (i.e. offer up something that is an iteration of the PS3 and 360 rather than pushing the limits). I know anything that says the Wii isn't a gift from God on here is taken with offense. I am not trying to say the Wii is bad...I am just saying that I hope everyone doesn't go down that road. There is room for all 3 console makers and I hope they all do well. Competition is good for everyone.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
I've heard about Neo-Geo games for the Wii in Japan, but no mention of this for the rest of the planet. Why?
It's not like the Neo-Geo games were never made in anything other than Japanese...
You can also blame Nintendo for not releasing enough games every week. If they release five or six games a week, what's the probability there's gonna be a game you want in that lot?
And of course sales are down. Just like for CDs and DVDs, people are simply buying the games they used to have/play at first, then buy a lot less after that. It's not that "sales are down", it's just that "sales are now at their normal level now that most people bought their favorite games".
But the new 700k players only buy a few titles a year, is that "bad news" or is it "good news"?
... casual gamers.
Realize that the new casual gamers are
They only buy games once in a while.
They only play games sometimes - and for brief periods.
They don't start WoW Care Bear guilds like me. Or upload their Sim families to MySims.
They don't play every segment of Star Wars - from Episode 0.1 to Episode 6.5 - over and over, using different characters, with and without cheats enabled.
They might play a light saber game with the Wii a few times, but they'll never reach Elite Status as a Jedi - at least, not without cheats.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Actually I think it's more of a marketing issue. Nintendo has a reputation, characters that are well known and now even a competent marketing department. When Nintendo makes a game the press talks about it. Nintendo has everyone's attention and that's why their games sell better than everyone else's. The error some third parties make is to put out a game and think it'll sell just as well as the games of this marketing behemoth. You have to compete with Nintendo not only on quality but also on marketing and it's going to be fucking difficult to get a similar marketing force out of nowhere. Nintendo is a familiar brand for people without a clue (i.e. those who don't read gaming publications to know what's good and buy stuff on a whim based on what their friends and the box say), your game can be the best thing since sliced bread, if you don't make sure people know about that people will pick a game over it that they know something about.
By the way, if you want to knock companies for uninspired Wii ports EA should be the last company to take that blame, they've put more effort into their Wii ports than any other company.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
but there's a lot of games waiting in the wings for some reason or other (my theory is to help keep gamers going if there's a big drought of Wii games).
/. an interview with a NofAmerica rep who basically said that. He was explaining the difference between the Japanese and North American VC release list, saying that in Japan they released a bunch of stuff early, but in America had decided to be more "strategic" about when to release the A-list games. I don't think he explicitly said "to keep gamers happy during a drought of Wii titles", but he did say he didn't want, e.g. a Zelda Wii game and Zelda on VC conflicting with each other, which basically means releasing the VC titles when no major Nintendo-published Wii game was coming out.
I recall reading on
The enemies of Democracy are
It's more than plausible - it's likely. My partner works for a multinational company with a three-letter name that earns its money through software and services. Her employer has contracts to provide customer support for the products of other large multinationals.
The first company she supported was in the laptop business (which was purchased from her employer a few years ago). They would often replace faulty parts with second-hand parts. This includes repairs both under and out of warranty! One of the more common second-hand replacements were fans. I wouldn't want to be paying for that.
Her current contract is supporting a popular portable music player. They certainly provide refurbished units as warranty replacements, but I'm not sure about out-of-warranty repairs.
I think it's pretty likely that Microsoft (along with Sony and Nintendo) do the same.
"Moreover, we feel that the likely shorter product cycles of Nintendo's platforms puts the publishers in a permanent catch-up mode. We think the upcoming releases of Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption will highlight this phenomena [sic] this holiday season."
What planet is this guy from? If anything, Nintendo has been guilty of keeping their old tech going far past its expiration date. Look at the Gameboy Advance and the Gamecube, both are still getting games long after their replacements have been on the market. I know that the DS was advertised as a new platform and not the sucessor to the GBA but seriously with the amount its selling can you really see them going back to the single screen format again? You have to go back the N64 to find a console that was abandoned and even that had more support than the sales should have deserved. The biggest thing I can see being "bad" for the industry is that the Wii and DS prove that a reliable Volkwagon can beat a broken down Porsche. Multi-Million dollar high tech games are getting trumped by comparitively low tech but innovative game. For the immediate future its a loss for the big game companies who put their eggs in the wrong basket and are now having to back pedal but its definately a win for the smaller developers.
"Virtual Console sales are down, apparently"
You mean everybody isn't running out and downloading Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, spending their money on Symphony of the Night in XBLA instead? Shocking!
Give me more (A) good games that (B) I don't already have in another medium and I'll spend my money. I already own Ocarina of Time three times, and all three of those versions work with the Stone of Agony. How about adding some overlooked gems like the Ys series (where's Sega Master System support, anyway?). Better yet, you've already tantalized us with the idea of releasing games on the VC that have never been released outside Japan before, if you give me Mother I will buy it.
But Wonder Boy in Monster World doesn't tickle my fancy.
At the very least, why not include the videos you include in your website in the Shopping Channel, so I have a better idea of what I'd be throwing away $8 on?
I find it funny that one analyst admits Nintendo is growing the industry yet tries to say thats a bad thing.
I will translate "Nintendo you are successful and profitable and growing the industry... shame on you"
The way games cost so far the market needs to expand to keep the costs of the games down at a reasonable price, otherwise the market will shrink which will drive game costs up
Make SELinux enforcing again!
http://img398.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lawlpx4.j pg
riiiight :p
Nintendo wasn't always the brand name it is today... When the original NES hit, Atari and Coleco were kings of the hill... then came NES, and Sega.. then Sony... it's a cycle... I can only give props to Nintendo's effort in this round... They came up with some creative controls, and simplified, but fun gameplay in their games. GameCube games were imho difficult to play... For most people, playing 3d shooters and very control intensive games are difficult. I enjoy gaming on the PC to some extent. A lot of that doesn't translate well to the console.. this has been a large problem. Yeah 3d shooter, and intensely real sports games are really cool, but imho hard to actually play and get good at for most people.
This is a well needed step back for consoles... some of my favorite games of all time, to this day include the arcade version of centipede (control matched the game well), Atari 2600's Asteroids (more simplified play than the arcade, and later versions), The original super mario bro's series. And sonic the hedgehog... Except for super mario 3, they all had simplified gameplay, not that the games were necessarily simple... This is what made them fun.
Consoles don't need the most exceedingly impressive graphics, though HD output is probably a good thing in the long term.. the Wiii (yeah, 3 i's) will probably have it... I have a gametap subscription setup on my living room pc, and it's just fun... I've opted out of the current generation of consoles, until the Wii, or its' successor has more availability. Because of the actions of it's entertainment divisions, Sony is simply not an option for me (Ironically I've spent far more money on hardware (TV, Stereo, etc) the past 2 years than I ever would have on music)...
Also, the only issue I have with any of the console vendors regarding 3rd party development is simply the licensing terms... MS has made some awesome tools for X360 dev, but the licensing is heavily restrictive. I wish the hardware was standardized, and simplified, like the Wii to have a lower, but real cost. And that the software were freely available for anyone who wants to make titles for the platform.
Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
The fact is that a lot of people buying Wiis have always bought Nintendo consoles. I fall into this group, and because I still have my "retro" system (Nintendo 64 in working order) *and* know how to use ZSNES, I really don't see anything in the Virtual Console (USA) that I want but don't already own. If I want to play Zelda 64, I can just put the cartridge in and turn it on (with moon jump enabled, of course).
I work in retail, we had 4 elites that we got in about a week before launch. We sold 3 of them on launch day. 2 of those came back the same day deffective. The one guy exchanged his, and didnt come back, so we assume it worked, but the other guy was SOL and had to get a refund. Not a lot can be drawn from such a small sample size, but still, 50% failure rate for us so far.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Except that the Virtual Console's selection and pricing comes from Nintendo's monopoly, not the free market. The Virtual Console remains the only way to legally purchase old Nintendo games that will very definitely work (ie: no broken hardware).
Most people really just look at the selection and think: "Why should I pay $5 for another copy of a game whose broken cartridge is sitting in my attic?"
Wow, Mr. Anonymous Coward Sony Fanboy Troll. I love your posts because they're always so ON-MESSAGE. Nice spin attempt.
Only the shills are reporting anything wrong with the elites. Mine hums quietly under the television, working perfectly. I guess that's because I don't play lacrosse with it or whatever the heck these people supposedly do to break their consoles...
Of course VC sales are down, they're dropping shit like Pinball, Soccer, TMNT, and having the Kutaragi-gall to say "you'll pay this price for our hash".
Geezus Reggie, just get off yer plumb-ass and give us Super Metroid for $10 and rent a few dozen extra servers to handle the demand.
Enthusiast press should stick to being game critics and leave the business stuff to... well... business people. Video game business is extremely seasonal. Software sales peak during the Holidays and declines during the first of the year. Everyone knows this.
Kohler could have made a news story that read: "Software for all next-gen consoles down since end of 2006!" This is why I believe his blog entry on it is an intended joke.
Actually, I don't mind paying the current prices on a couple of games that I know to be worth it for me. The problem of course is "risk."
When I buy a VC game, I risk being disappointed in the game for several reasons. One of course is, have my gaming tastes changed too much to enjoy something I remember fondly? Wsa the game really bad, but I remember it fondly because of nostalgia? It's worth the money to risk it for many VC titles(I eagerly awaite Contra, Double Dragon 2, and more).
However, it is EXTREMELY hard for me to risk $8 on a Genesis game that I've never played before. Even with reviews of VC games, that doesn't assure that I'll like it. I can't get a refund if I think the game sucks. I'd be more willing to pay the price if I could have say... 3 day return period where I could get my points($) back if I didn't like it.
The problem I see with that is that some people would abuse the system. We could beat many of these old VC games in 3 days or less and just get a refund. I would guess a second purchase of the game would be permanent to counter that sort of thing. Of course, knocking the price down might also do the trick for me. I might pay $5 for a Genesis title or $2/3 for a NES/TG16 title if it seems decent.
No shit...lets see, what is the business model?
Take a wide range of old gaming systems with a vast number of loved games.
Release those games on a regular schedule.
Make the release count so low that even releasing A+ games it could take 2 or 3 years before you get through them all.
Mix some lame ass, obscure and poor games (1 game, and it scores a 3.8 out of 10 as a rating, that was the sole offering a few weeks back)
Charge a premium for this awesome service.
All they're doing is showing that if you release mediocre stuff, you'll get mediocre sales.
Is it possible that Wii's first party sales domination, is due to the proliferation of poor, low-value-for-money 3rd party output? Perhaps the linked article is focusing too hard on the effect, and not the cause.
I work for a video game electronics store, one of the big ones. We pretty much have acknowledged that the GBA is done. There is seriously ONE game in our computer system listed as an upcoming release. A movie tie-in called Ratatoullie or something of that sort. We get one GBA SP system stocked maybe every week or two. They sell FAR less than the DS now. You'll see "C-List" titles come out for it down the road, I mean hell Back to Stone and Mazes of Fate were ones even I was looking forward to, but we decided not to carry them because they were too low-market-value. So there might be others, but very few and far between at my best guess.
I know its not something everyone wanted, but honestly... expect to see it discontinued soon. The Gamecube just got the official axe recently, the GBA SP is just around the corner from my best guess.
-TK SV.
"Now that GTA and MGS are not going to be exclusive..."
Has it been confirmed that MGS is no longer an exclusive? GTA going multiplatform is old news, but I was under the impression that MGS was still a PS3-only game. Do you have a link I could look at?
--The Ligand
Although I don't disagree with that, wouldn't it be better for them to send fully working ones out? This should (hopefully) ensure that those who've had their console replaced wouldn't have to get it replaced again (and again, and again?) and cause all the negative comment about it on teh intraweb.
To err is human, to arr is pirate.
Sure we're all gamers here and we want to see developers like Nintendo and other developers pouring their heart and soul into a game and making it as good as it can be regardless of cost.
What an investor wants is the biggest return per dollar invested and that sadly means the kind of crappy film tie in that just isn't going to sell unless Nintendo stop spoiling it by producing better games. Other developers could of course spend more money and make better games but that works out good for us, not for investors.
If you read the investors note linked to in the article it's basically saying get ready to sell stock in companies that make crappy games, there may not be any money in it for much longer.
As someone else said, not if you consider this from the point of view of money. MS doesn't send out broken consoles, they send out consoles refurbished for as little as possible. They make no money off of this and even if they send 3 cheap refurbs to someone it is still cheaper than sending out a single new console. Remember also that when you send in a broken console they can simpyl repair it cheaply and send out the barely working result to someone else who sends in a broken console. So they decided that the PR hit is worth the cost, probably someone said something along the liens of"gamers are idiots" during that meeting.
Then again this isn't exactly evil compared to what other US companies have done such as balancing out deaths caused by their product with increased profits.
If you don't like the price, don't buy the games. If enough people agree with you and do the same, then Nintendo will drop prices to increase volume.
I happen to like the fact that they are releasing a bunch of SNES ports. I never had one, so this has been a pleasant experience. Not everything is geared towards you.
It depends on your perceived Value. For me, the definitive version of Mario64 is on the Wii. Personally, I never liked the N64 Controller, so being able to play it with the Wavebird is worth it enough. Add in to the fact that it (unlike the original) runs in Progressive Scan sealed the deal.
I also sold a working Genesis with a copy of Golden Axe only to re-buy Golden Axe on the Wii. The control is simply better with the Wiimote (no more 'accidentally nuking everything', since that was moved to the A button), and the output simply looks better through the component cables (not sure if it does Progressive scan or not, but I would guess yes). Add in the convienince of having it always "loaded" via a channel, it was easily worth $8.
Then provide a demo, like MS does on the 360, and Sony on its PS3. I really hate wasting my wii points on games that prove to hugely disappointing.
You mean the endless stream of Mini/Party games consisting of three games? There are more FPS games for the Wii than there are minigames compilations. Besides, I like minigames compilations. They are perfect for Wii parties, playing against people who don't usually play with consoles.