That particular part, the fluffy dog, the cuddly cat, and the neglected sheep, the individual parts themselves didn't make a very compelling argument, but at the bottom of the article it was all brought together.
We who make the software - we are not out to rip you off; we are lovely people who just want to make an honest crust, and we smell nice. We are pretty sheepies, we are happy puppies and we are the fluffy kittens. And all we ask is that if you should happen to find yourself in a situation where you can try before you buy - then do so, but if you like what we do, then please make a point of offering us the Digestive biscuit of your approval, the pig's ear of your support, and the half a dead rat of a little financial cooperation.
As an explanation for the most braindead amongst you....
The animals were being mistreated in the sense that someone wanted to give the fluffies a treat in the first place, because... they were cute. However, since the people being depicted doling out the treats were "cunts" in the authors words, they never paid out.
Meaningless? Not entirely... the developers metaphorically representing the animals are "cute" or "good" in the sense that they're doe-eyed wishfuls making games to surprise and please the masses. The masses in turn show their appreciation by waving dollar bills (aka the Pirate-it-be-for-your-buy-it BS), but realistically just steal the damn games off of BitTorrent.
So it's not utter tripe. It's a bit silly, a little crude even, but the author makes his point.
What a laugh! The over simplification that goes on in this article is mind blowing.
Release dates do play a big part in who buys what system, but Nintendo doesn't sound like it's accounting for why or how their consumers make decisions to pick a console! Honestly if they had released the GameCube closer to the unveiling of the Playstation 2, how many more sales would they have generated? How many additional impulsive buys would that have accounted for? How many people would still buy the Playstation 2 for GTA?
The biggest question on the minds of my friends back in '95 was, "Do I buy a Sega Saturn now, wait for Sony's first console system, or preorder an N64?"
My buddies started to fall in to three distinct camps. First there were the impatient gamers that wanted to satisfy a fix right now! Naturally they snatched up the Saturn and voiced no regrets. The next bunch were the tech savvy spec hunting gamers that assumed the market would follow whichever system had the best hardware (please don't remind me of the 3DO). Even after the Playstation was released, and it was becoming obvious that Nintendo was going to take a lot longer to ship, there were still countless people that I knew that stuck with the philosophy that if Nintendo was taking it's time to do things right it was probably worth it to wait for their system(even if it meant waiting another year)! Last, but not least, there's the slow-to-let-go, trend-following fan-boys-and-girls that were too leary to fork over hundreds of dollars to a company that was just getting it's feet wet in the game biz. As would be expected the last bunch became product loyalists, either standing devoutely behind Nintendo and their SNES's or advocating the virtues of buying the already-here Sega Saturn system. To be fair, there were those that just wanted to wait to see which developers would sign up with which systems. And others who just wanted to make sure that the system they bought had GOOD games worth playing, developers be damned! That's probably another camp or two entirely, but who's counting?
So you have players operating on indulgence/instant-gratification, product superiority, product loyalty, the number of developers backing the console (which probably has it's roots in the adage, "a 1000 monkeys all banging away at a 1000 keyboards for a 1000 years, and eventually you have to get something good"), and what seems most important, IMHO, GOOD titles worth playing.
It just rather irked me that Iwata sounded so desperately clueless in this interview! Yes, getting it out the door sooner would be great, as long as you don't compromise any of the other things needed to sustain your system! Duh! If they're trying to finger why their sales are low they should look towards their software and hardware. For having spent as long as they did to release, they only surpass the PS2 by a foot on the yard stick.
I think what you meant to say was, "For those of you who are spectulating about Nintendo being bought out-- The GAMECUBE (not Xbox) is tanking in Japan."
Brand loyalty is still very much a factor in the minds of people who have, for thirty years, watched Nintendo go from being an infant struggling company to a leader in the game console market.
Quite a few people treat their consoles the same way other people stand behind their sports teams. The same way Apple has it's loyalists and Linux has it's advocates, Nintendo can continue to survive by catering to it's diehard following as long as it stays true to what the company represents to those fans (assuming they don't do anything immensely stupid).
That all aside, it's true that Nintendo isn't the leader in the States, but sales are still strong! If you can put the US market share aside, and look at operations over in Japan, one can quickly see by searching any of the major game news sites that the GameCube is kicking major booty, taking second and third place in sales early november! The proofs in the pudding.
Slashdot Mirror
That particular part, the fluffy dog, the cuddly cat, and the neglected sheep, the individual parts themselves didn't make a very compelling argument, but at the bottom of the article it was all brought together.
... they were cute. However, since the people being depicted doling out the treats were "cunts" in the authors words, they never paid out.
... the developers metaphorically representing the animals are "cute" or "good" in the sense that they're doe-eyed wishfuls making games to surprise and please the masses. The masses in turn show their appreciation by waving dollar bills (aka the Pirate-it-be-for-your-buy-it BS), but realistically just steal the damn games off of BitTorrent.
We who make the software - we are not out to rip you off; we are lovely people who just want to make an honest crust, and we smell nice. We are pretty sheepies, we are happy puppies and we are the fluffy kittens. And all we ask is that if you should happen to find yourself in a situation where you can try before you buy - then do so, but if you like what we do, then please make a point of offering us the Digestive biscuit of your approval, the pig's ear of your support, and the half a dead rat of a little financial cooperation.
As an explanation for the most braindead amongst you....
The animals were being mistreated in the sense that someone wanted to give the fluffies a treat in the first place, because
Meaningless? Not entirely
So it's not utter tripe. It's a bit silly, a little crude even, but the author makes his point.
Release dates do play a big part in who buys what system, but Nintendo doesn't sound like it's accounting for why or how their consumers make decisions to pick a console! Honestly if they had released the GameCube closer to the unveiling of the Playstation 2, how many more sales would they have generated? How many additional impulsive buys would that have accounted for? How many people would still buy the Playstation 2 for GTA?
The biggest question on the minds of my friends back in '95 was, "Do I buy a Sega Saturn now, wait for Sony's first console system, or preorder an N64?"
My buddies started to fall in to three distinct camps. First there were the impatient gamers that wanted to satisfy a fix right now! Naturally they snatched up the Saturn and voiced no regrets. The next bunch were the tech savvy spec hunting gamers that assumed the market would follow whichever system had the best hardware (please don't remind me of the 3DO). Even after the Playstation was released, and it was becoming obvious that Nintendo was going to take a lot longer to ship, there were still countless people that I knew that stuck with the philosophy that if Nintendo was taking it's time to do things right it was probably worth it to wait for their system(even if it meant waiting another year)! Last, but not least, there's the slow-to-let-go, trend-following fan-boys-and-girls that were too leary to fork over hundreds of dollars to a company that was just getting it's feet wet in the game biz. As would be expected the last bunch became product loyalists, either standing devoutely behind Nintendo and their SNES's or advocating the virtues of buying the already-here Sega Saturn system. To be fair, there were those that just wanted to wait to see which developers would sign up with which systems. And others who just wanted to make sure that the system they bought had GOOD games worth playing, developers be damned! That's probably another camp or two entirely, but who's counting?
So you have players operating on indulgence/instant-gratification, product superiority, product loyalty, the number of developers backing the console (which probably has it's roots in the adage, "a 1000 monkeys all banging away at a 1000 keyboards for a 1000 years, and eventually you have to get something good"), and what seems most important, IMHO, GOOD titles worth playing.
It just rather irked me that Iwata sounded so desperately clueless in this interview! Yes, getting it out the door sooner would be great, as long as you don't compromise any of the other things needed to sustain your system! Duh! If they're trying to finger why their sales are low they should look towards their software and hardware. For having spent as long as they did to release, they only surpass the PS2 by a foot on the yard stick.
Brand loyalty is still very much a factor in the minds of people who have, for thirty years, watched Nintendo go from being an infant struggling company to a leader in the game console market.
Quite a few people treat their consoles the same way other people stand behind their sports teams. The same way Apple has it's loyalists and Linux has it's advocates, Nintendo can continue to survive by catering to it's diehard following as long as it stays true to what the company represents to those fans (assuming they don't do anything immensely stupid).
That all aside, it's true that Nintendo isn't the leader in the States, but sales are still strong! If you can put the US market share aside, and look at operations over in Japan, one can quickly see by searching any of the major game news sites that the GameCube is kicking major booty, taking second and third place in sales early november! The proofs in the pudding.
'nough said.