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Nintendo Could Base Comeback On Improving Peoples' Health
Nerval's Lobster writes: "It's no secret that Nintendo faces significant challenges: revenues are down, rival platforms such as Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4 are attracting a lot of buzz, and iOS and Android have made significant inroads into mobile gaming. Rather than double down on its core business, however, Nintendo reportedly sees its salvation in new, nongaming segments such as... monitoring your health? 'We have now redefined entertainment to mean making it fun for people to improve the quality of their lives,' Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata told a company strategy meeting, according to The Wall Street Journal. But he refused to part with more detail about Nintendo's plans, except to claim that whatever's in the works isn't a wearable device along the lines of Nike's FuelBand or the FitBit, and it isn't an iteration of the Wii Balance Board, an accessory that measures the user's weight and center of balance while playing games."
Juuuust before they went out of business.
It urges you to go out for a walk and then turns itself off.
Nintendo released Wii Fit about five years ago, Walk With Me for the DS about four years ago, the 3DS with a step counter three years ago, were discussing a Wii pulse reader until two years ago, and just last year released a new version of Wii Fit that incorporates an upgraded version of Walk With Me.
I know that's a bit much to go over but you've been so spectacularly counterfactual that I have to wonder if you just hid away from gaming entirely for the last half decade to have drawn the conclusion that it was "the latest bandwagon" for the company.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Tells you to get your fat ass off the couch.
Nintendo's management seems incapable of admitting that their current situation is the direct result of them seeing if they can make a human ouroboros by shoving their heads so far up their asses they're nibbling on their stomach lining. Their hardware is woefully underpowered, they are not embracing small developers even remotely as well as their competition and no one wants to admit the obvious. They didn't have to release the Wii U when they did. They could easily have afforded to release a new console around last Christmas with similar specs to the XBone PS4. They could have even released one that was a bit weaker, but broke even and gotten third party support by waving most of the licensing costs for the first two years for anyone willing to make a game for their system. Heck they could have create a Nintendo quality Ouya-like system and turned the console market on its head.
But Nintendo did what Nintendo does. They pretended that their brand is still so strong that they can do what they've always done and ignore the fact that Microsoft opened half of the seals of the video game apocalypse by creating the XBox which is a steady progression from gaming toy to a powerful, dedicated and cheap entertainment PC that is open to developers. The fact that Super Mario World 3D sold so poorly when it came out should have been an indicator to Nintendo that they need to clean house and hire people who seem to actually understand what is going on in the market today. This isn't 1992. Nintendo faces real competition with much stronger backing than Sega ever could have brought to bear.
Obviously they've had fitness stuff out. The wii was pretty much based on it so this is basically saying hey that worked lets do it again. But with the new bandwagon of smartwatches, app intergration and all those latest buzzy things. Thanks anyway though.
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It's like you're accusing a tomato company of jumping on the ketchup bandwagon. They were going to be releasing ketchup this year anyway!
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Only if they've had a few tomato based condoments out in the past now they plan to base their future on a ketchup with their twist on it, yeah.
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Wii Fit was one of the biggest successes of the original Wii. There were literally lines. So I don't see that it's so unusual that Nintendo think it'll be one of (emphasis: one of) their future product growth areas.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Keyword; was. It was part of a fad and a novel way to use the tech in the living room. Sure, loads and loads of people bought it, some of them probably still use it but I wonder how many they sell now. It's not hard to pick up a second hand one for dirt cheap because once people used it a few times they got bored of them. If they do go for it good luck to them, but imho focusing on being a fitness technology company or whatever isn't going to save them and if it does it will be a way that is no longer relevant in gaming.
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They need to take on Nike Fuel, maybe a quadriped version with a VMU style interface that plays classic gameboy games.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...
When I here the Wii balance board mentioned, that is what I think of.
Nintendo seems intent on being dragged kicking and screaming into the modern gaming age. They don't seem to put out any hardware that doesn't produce huge margins (which is why their consoles always seem to trail in technical performance). It feels like the Sega story, Nintendo needs to make sure they don't put out a Dreamcast at the wrong time (and I say this as a Dreamcast lover, still have mine in my office.) I think there's space for three console manufacturers in the market, but at this point they're pretty going to need to put out somewhat comparable products. Putting out another low-powered Wii that people flocked to, played for two weeks, and then let collect dust? Yeah, that's not going to work this time.
Its not just the lack of games , its the TYPE of games. As the GP pointed out , its not 1992. Video games are played by more adults than kids and teenagers now and adults don't want games consisting of silly anthropamorphised animals in go karts.
They need to make it more sciencey otherwise no one will believe Dr Sonic :)
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and profitable. Nintendo making things like VR based fitness arcade centers or interactive rehabilitation training methods using all their gaming hardware and software expertise is not a difficult thing to imagine. Let alone education. There is so much they could do without being the cheesy shit that are most edutertainment games. If they are willing to take risks and develop their own medical devices they could, but they could also partner with Japanese medical equipment start-ups(or even sony, as they also make medical equipment).
But ignoring the core problems, in particular with the home console divisions, is far from ideal. If want to ignore their home console problems, might as well go third party.
One thing that bothers me is that, while the WiiU is not selling well, the 3DS is selling like crazy, including hardware and software. The only reason I can see them not making good money are internal management/administrative problems. Another is thing is that you don't need to have the absolute majority of the market to be profitable. They know that first hand from the N64 and Gamecube eras. Seeing all this negativity and lack of confidence coming from inside the company would be really bad if I were a shareholder. I'm much more bothered by this than the bad revenues.
Sorry Nintendo, that's a miss.
When the Wii came out, people who were not typical gamers embraced it because they saw it was a way to have fun and stay active. However, the novelty wore off and most of the people who bought them at that point have not done much with them since. I don't see another round of trying to tap into the same market as going anywhere at all for them, this time around.
Indeed, speculation on Japanese forums is that this is just the addition of some pads that measure body fat to the balance board. Most bathroom scales in Japan already have them so it was actually kind of odd that the balance board could measure weight but not body fat when it came out. It's just a logical evolution following a fell trodden path.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
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See today's Kotaku article: http://kotaku.com/nintendo-confirms-it-will-make-stuff-and-maybe-games-1512052047?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow
The Wii Balance Board was one of their top sellers, so the health angle makes sense. It's not like they would lack a market for that.
... since the N64 era. The won the lottery with the Wii but the Wii was a one shot deal selling to non-gamers and the Wii U proved that by it's hard failing. Nintendo since the N64 era has been making stupid decisions regarding it's hardware which allowed other companies to come in and take their market share.
Nintendo should sell those flag ship games on the other consoles, iOS and Android. If you can't beat them, join them. Or face the sad truth that their share price is going to drop low enough that a compeditor, probably Sony because MS isn't savvy enough and Apple and Google don't seem to crave their patents, will buy them out for what would have been pennies on the dollar a few years ago.
Speak for yourself. As far as games go, Most of the games I enjoy are more cartoon than real life. Not everything has to be about ultra-violence to be fun. I play games to relax, and traditional Nintendo games like Mario and Zelda titles allow me to do that.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Indeed, speculation on Japanese forums is that this is just the addition of some pads that measure body fat to the balance board. Most bathroom scales in Japan already have them so it was actually kind of odd that the balance board could measure weight but not body fat when it came out. It's just a logical evolution following a fell trodden path.
Bioelectrical impedance isn't a reliable enough measure of body fat for home use really (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioelectrical_impedance_analysis) - and if your bathroom scales do it just as well (or badly) it wouldn't add much to the Wii fit for the cost and hassle of adding it. I'd guess it only measures weight because it has the sensors to measure center of gravity.
Nothing has given me a better work out then running on that old NES track matt and the one I own is still function. The best part is, when you get tired or can't run fast enough you get on your knees and start smacking the pad with your hands for that extra boost. It's been 20 years now but I'm sure I'll finally beat cheetah this time!
So is it a bandwagon or a past fad?
Jesus saves and takes half damage.
Sure, throw into the garbage the profitable console from Nintendo. Genius! It's evident you're not aware the struggling console from Nintendo is the Wii U. The portable 3DS is chugging alone more than fine.
I seem to recall a few friends of mine that purchased Wii Fit and that balance board. The balance board was used the day they unwrapped it and now while the wii fit sits in the closet the balance board continues to sit under the TV where it has sat since the day it was unwrapped.
So now Nintendo's strategy is to push Wii Fit again? Is their market the elderly in retirement homes?
Well.. i guess their next move is to release yet another version of Mario...
They were clearly arguing it was a past fad, I'm not sure why you asked.
While Nintendo definitely has problems, you sound like just another person on the internet who has no idea what you're talking about. I mean...
The Pokemon-Mario crowd has outgrown Nintendo, and those that are left are insufficient to support an entire gaming platform.
Yes, that's why Pokemon X & Y are the fastest-selling 3DS games ever and have already sold over 11 million worldwide. Clearly, Nintendo's problem is they've lost the Pokemon crowd.
It's time to dump the whole Japan-themed everything if they want to continue to be able to sell to the world.
"Japan-themed"? Have you even played any of Nintendo's recent games? Pokemon X & Y's setting is modeled after France, you know.
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Downvoted?! Not only are they lacking in Fiber, apparently they're also lacking in Humour.
Nah, they can and should keep their consoles but what they should do is have an emulator for their handhelds on the console and make the entire handheld library available.
i for one think nintendo is doing fine and once it's first party titles are out will turn around their wii u sales.
all this talk of making games for mobile would really hurt nintendo in the long run.
nonetheless, nintendo would be an interesting value acquisition by apple.
they could release nintendo exclusives into iOS.
shit, apple could even just sign an exclusivity contract with nintendo and hand them $5B to only release their games on iOS (in addition to their own hardware) for the next 5 yrs.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
Mega Man isn't a Nintendo franchise, btw.
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Yes, the Balance Board was a top seller. Also, guitar controllers were a top seller for all consoles just before that. Notice how nobody is trying to make music games any more? That fad died years ago, there's no market for it any more. I think the same is true for health/fitness games. Nintendo is going back to a well they dried up some time ago. The people who bought Wii Fit and used it for six months aren't likely to get back on the wagon just because there's a new version with better graphics.
It's no coincidence that Wii Fit was successful because it appealed widely to people who are not young children.
Nintendo seems to have positioned themselves somewhere between LeapPads and the other gaming systems - a platform for kid-safe, ultra-casual gaming.
The latest console was a flop. They've been behind the curve on hardware since two (three?) console generations ago. They have no real properties that they haven't had since the 1990s.
It's hard to think of why you'd be interested in Nintendo if you were > age 10, unless you are interested in Mario or Pokemon
Makes me think of this: http://xkcd.com/189/
But monitored by some wearable computer(s), I don't know how good current technology would have for accurately sensing and represnting various body types (plenty of critism of BMI for example) but I could see how turning excercise into a sort of game could have a future. If they can, more power to them, obesity has sadly become a significant problem and excercise is a necessary tactic for reducing it.
Because the earlier argument was that Nintendo was a bunch of bandwagon jumpers that are just getting into fitness.
Jesus saves and takes half damage.
Nintendo's problem is and always has been they put the bare minimum spec hardware in their devices, make a big fanfare of some gimmick, charge an arm and a leg for it and hope they can coast far enough for the next gimmick to show up. ...
Actually, you are very wrong. Nintendo put out a bunch of successful consoles, without gimmicks for decades. NES, SNES, Gameboy, N64, Gameboy Advance, Gamecube, Nintendo DS. During that time only 1 gimmicky item, the Virtual Boy. I wouldn't call most of those consoles bare minimum hardware specs either.
The Wii was the first "real" console with a gimmick, the wiimote. And underpowered hardware. And it did well. And Nintendo has been behind the curve since then.
IMO, Nintendo needs to get back to it's roots. A lot of it's fan base is older now. We don't want to jump around, or wave our arms to play games. We want to use a controller and have fun. We got big TV's that can really support 4 way and 2 way gaming at the same time. So you know, our kids (not that I have any) can play with us, and have fun with us.
And I'm going to keep saying this, where the fuck is my Pokemon MMORPG? The fact that there hasn't been one only shows how Nintendo doesn't understand the gaming market anymore (IMO).
Be seeing you...
As for "back to its roots", the problem is it has never left its roots. Nintendo thinks it has a monopoly on fun, that only its own games matter, and treats 3rd parties like so much dog crap on the end of a stick. They can't think like that. 3rd parties need to make money too and will jump ship for Sony and Microsoft which know how to treat them better. But its probably way too late for that. WB have basically thrown in the towel by cancelling their Batman DLC and Ubisoft isn't far behind with rumours that Watch Dogs is cancelled.
The Wii U is dead man walking at least in the west. Which is why I suggest one route of recovery may be to target China or somewhere.