The major issue isn't exclusive rights to the Matrix games (MS only wants a 6 month lead, after which Interplay is free to publish it for other plats). It's the exclusive rights to certain features of games based on this license.
Goldeneye for N64 is published by Rareware. They hold second-party status with Nintendo for their consoles -- they make games for no one else. Interplay does not have the same status with MS, AFAIK. MS is only trying to limit how well the implementation of the Matrix games on the other consoles are.
The reason and result are obvious. Whereas previously it was preferred for, say, Sega to have exclusive rights to a particular title from a third-party dev, MS wants to show the world that only the BEST version runs on xbox. "It's available on other platforms, but why in hell would you want to play it like THAT? You can't even play it on the internet!"
If this were the PC world, it would be like MS paying Adobe to give the Windows Photoshop release a 6 month headstart over Mac OS versions, and the Mac version isn't allowed to do Gaussian blur. It is NOT like MS paying Adobe to make Photoshop exclusively for Windows.
While I agree wholeheartedly with this AC that the level of dedication required for traditional sports far surpasses what's required for current electronic games, I also think that electronic games can already be considered sports, in the same way that chess and card games are sports.
And the whole issue of useless skills is purely subjective. Come wartime, I'd hope that the diplomats trying to negotiate peace had good poker faces, the generals running my country's army had the skills of a good chess player, while the soldiers in the trenches had the hand-eye coordination and ability to deal with high-pressure physical situations of a quarterback. Of course, I'd be worried if press releases came from Washington that the President was worried about a possible Zergling rush of the White House.
Assuming the machines are identical, this is a good way to make sure the prize money doesn't go to the one with the most money to burn in the first place (read: the one with all the disposable income and free time required to purchase and maintain a hot gaming rig).
Compare in terms of competitive spirit:
(1) "Yay, I won because I'm good."
(2) "Yay, I'm glad I upgraded my sound card driver last night -- 0.5% less CPU util., f00! The GeForce 3 didn't hurt either."
I think Nintendo's only trying to gauge how they will price the NGC. Yamauchi has been frank about precious few release details, but console pricing is TBA in late May. This IGN update even points out that the price announce date is 5 days after E3.
They have a lot to consider. If the "all games, no CD/DVD" approach appeals to the general public, then Nintendo can afford to price the NGC as high as is competitive. If it gets a lukewarm response at E3 (for that or any other reason), they may try to fight a price war with Sony and MS, focusing on price in their marketing. That's a major factor with parents, if not with us wealthy geeks.
Even Yamauchi's announcements that NGC will be delayed in order to secure adequate chip supplies hint that pricing is still likely unsure within Nintendo. When (not if) NEC agrees to Nintendo's pricing for the Flipper chip, Nintendo will price the NGC.
Regardless, I'm getting an NGC for the Zeldariotroid games: Zelda, Mario, Metroid. Kids will buy it for Pokemon. Nintendo understands killer apps just as well as MS.
First, the GC is far more powerful and easier to develop on than N64. (Plus a lot of cool stuff, like the controllers finally have built-in "Rumble Pak" functionality and no longer require 2 AAA battery cells). Read any comparative review of the current game consoles, and you'll find that graphics ability is a huge selling point.
Second, the GC keeps Nintendo on the map. Like you've noticed, nobody makes SNES games any more, because there are other consoles with larger market saturation and with better capabilities.
I actually would have liked to see [comercial *] dev on SNES games continue as well. (Actually, so would have Nintendo; a quick look at the N64 manuals and the Nintendo website will show that Nintendo, to this day, publicly considers the SNES a viable starter system.) But like I mentioned, market forces ensured that the SNES died, just like those consoles that preceded it.
* [Homebrew freeware games are still being developed, thanks to the emulator scene.]
Ignore Nintendo if you like, but you'll be missing out on the best Japanese-style first-party games available on any console. If you've never played either N64 Zelda game for more than half an hour, you're missing out.
Compare this with Sony, and let us know which of their first-party (heh) games are of the same calibre that Nintendo and Sega are capable of producing, at any "maturity" rating.
(BTW, WTF does "maturity" have to do with games??? "Maturity" is for smoking expensive contraband cigars and eating aged cheeses and sipping on fine wines, not for kicking your best friend's ass all over a damn monitor screen. Pokemon...Street Fighter...Q3A...what's the difference? You're competing in a virtual world, hopefully _escaping_ the world of "maturity" while you're at it.)
Sounds like that/back title was taken from the RAMBUS company plan.
"Voting": Rambus was a JEDEC member
"Suing": SDRAM patent disputes
"Retiring": With even Intel distancing themselves from RAMBUS, what else are they going to do? I don't think demand for Nintendo 64 Expansion Paks is too high nowadays, what with GAMECUBE on the way.
I don't get your point. Mac OS QuickTime has had a basic CD audio import feature since, what, version 2.0 or so, which dates back to the early-/mid-1990s. Are you sure a CD ripper is all that exciting to find in a modern OS?
Great links. Sorry for using the term "free" so freely, but I'm talking beer here, as was the person I was replying to. That's how Microsoft considers their Windows installations/licenses; everything is beer to them. Sell your retail-purchased, unused Windows license to a friend and somehow you've just pissed in MS's...well, you get it. Copy a linux distro to 500 CDRs and tell me if you've stolen linux.
That's what fists are good for...protecting your beer. Speech is best protected by speech, as your links prove.
Anyone else notice the box on that article titled "New in XP?" Under "Pros," it lists something quite surprising: "Stable and dependable." Besides that, it lists two other items that have been in previous Windows releases, not to mention other OSes.
Well we wouldn't want people to steal something that they have not paid for. The MS programmers need to receive payment to take care of their families and if you steal the software that they make you are going to hurt them in the long run. This is one reason why MS takes precautions to keep theft at a minimum.
Well then what else are they supposed to steal? Stuff they have paid for? Whoops, I forgot that with Windows EULAs, that's exectly what MS would like to have us believe they're doing, especially if they're doing so much as (gasp) buying Windows from a friend who got (read: bought) it with his PC but never once used it.
See, that's the great thing about free software: There's no paranoia over making sure you're "legal," because there's no way to steal it. Unless, of course, someone's trying to swipe my FreeBSD CDRs, in which case all their bruise are belong to my fist.
Well, Nintendo of Japan named the thing. Nope, it doesn't make sense to native speakers, like "X-Box" surely does.
However, at least we can take into consideration why it's not called "Game Boy Advanced." To a Japanese native, "adobansu" sounds a lot better than "adobansudo."
Secondly, "advance" can also be a noun. In that context, it sounds kinda cool (well, to me).
Just now got to check out shoryuken.com; they have a link to that tourney between USA and Japan. They pretty much tied at SSF2, Japan kicked it on SF3TS and Alpha 3, and the U.S. dominated on the (pfff) Marvel dialer game. Read into that (or my previous post, parent to this one) what you will.
I used to play SF2 a lot, so I know where you're coming from. But I think there's an aspect to the "community" that you're ignoring.
Personally, I loved playing against friends, but I preferred playing against strangers, especially local superheroes. Of course, you walk into the wrong arcade (Sunnyvale Golfland) while the wrong people are there (certain nameless best-in-the-U.S. players that I won't mention) at the wrong time (tourney night) and you end up getting reamed, with so-called friends laughing at you the whole time. Oh, I digress.
Hmm, the point? I don't know. "Always ask if your opponent is 'ranked,'" I guess. Or something. Bah.
Oh, and don't forget, there are no stakes in net-play, or a "tourney" at your friend's house. I happen to like putting my money (all twenty-five U.S. cents) where my mouth is.
Capcom fighting games, at least, are not like this. A good player can dominate a machine indefinitely, limited only by the number of challengers willing to play him/her.
Yep, nothing beats the feeling of looking at your watch and saying to the next person in line, "you want my game? I have class in about 15 seconds." And there are plenty of places in the 408 area (at least, there were, when I was a local) that have inexpensive, <25 cent games, for a minimum entrance fee of about $2.00.
Face it, the Marvelization of Capcom's fighters was mere pandering to the American taste. The hard-core SF games are masterpieces, although many elite purists would say that the Street Fighter Zero/Alpha series aren't in the same league. Oh, and I'm not talking about the SF EX series.
In my SF-playing days (high school through college, SF2WW through SFA2), I witnessed a whole culture being born around this genre. There were classifications for people based on ability, e.g. people who overspecialized in one style of play or one type of character or who played and acted poorly were called scrubs. People who preferred huge flashy combos to strategic play were called dialers. Dialers, in particlular, were looked down upon by strategic players, because they lacked finesse and relied on sheer finger-speed. (I remember some dialers used to practice on Track and Field...go fig.) Perhaps the clearest, most direct example is this: Strategic players liked Virtua Fighter; dialers _lived_ Tekken.
When Capcom came out with X-Men (their first SF2-styled Marvel fighter), it was clearly an effort to appeal to dialers. It didn't take long for hard-core SF2 players to realize this. It was an answer to Midway's ridiculous finger-speed contest, Mortal Kombat. And Americans ate it up.
Incidentally, I should point out that SF Alpha 2 (American) is my all-time favorite fighting game, with Capcom's Warzard/Red Earth a somewhat-distant runner-up (because you fight huge-ass MONSTERS and gain levels and techniques like an RPG). It has the perfect balance of restricted options, damage control, speed, and finesse requirements. Also, it should be pointed out that in a recent USA vs. Japan Capcom fighting tourney, the Americans dominated the professional Japanese players at the Marvel-style games, while the Japanese players were able to beat the top American players (a certain Mr. John Choi included, whom I've never beaten =) quite handily.
In short, you can't blame Capcom for publishing so many inane titles for audiences that appreciate them. Ahh...I think it's high time I visited alt.games.sf2 and relived my wayward youth.
I loved the 8-bit NES. And even the SNES had some really cool games on it.
For a long time, the SNES was the most popular pre-dedicated-3D game console ever created, from a company that prides itself on creating games that concentrate on fun over flash. But to state "even the SNES had some really cool games on it?" Understatement #1.
And look at where they've gone. Nintendo dropped the ball on Metroid and Mario; in the meantime, Final Fantasy, Castlevania, and Mega Man are on Playstation.
What? The N64 and Game Boy have great first-/second-party games. IMO, they certainly haven't done poorly with any of them. If you're talking about the sparse releases of same-ole games featuring their most recognizable characters, it's called "keep 'em wanting more" (Pokemon excluded). Compare the Mario games to the Rockman/Mega Man games: Almost every Mario game is distinctly different, and nobody I've read or spoken with has ever suggested that they are all just blurry afterimages of previous efforts like Mega Man (which is also a great game series, but something that you will never see from Nintendo).
Granted, Final Fantasy et al. are enjoyable series, but even today Nintendo is thriving without them. Nintendo produces a lot of compelling exclusive content (heh). If Sony and MS rely exclusively on third parties, that's their concern.
And Zelda? Well, I heard the new ones were decent 3D remakes of the original, but that's it.
Oh, so that's what you've heard? Well, if I were to tell you my opinions on Zelda, you wouldn't hear that from me.
Why buy a game system that has like two or three decent games?
For some of us, those two or three games (understatement #2) justify the cost of owning the only system on which they run. And that's exactly Mr. Yamauchi's point: Quality is more important than quantity, so it's wiser in the long run to concentrate on attracting developers who share that philosophy. I really prefer this Nintendo over the NES-era Nintendo of yore, when even neatly-wrapped feces could be emblazoned with the multi-pointed Nintendo seal of approval.
No, I think Nintendo has a LOT of catching up to do before they can start talking about how other people don't know how to write games, or function in the gaming industry.
Nobody's forcing those other companies to listen to this one guy's opinion, but his company is doing so well (oh yes, it is) that he may be wiser than they/you/I think.
I'd normally hate to sound so apologistic for some big international corpo, but you have to give Nintendo credit for everything they've done for modern gaming. And I don't want to offend you or those who moderated you up, but I honestly thought your post was flamebait when I read it a few hours ago. Then I come back and it's scored 5, Insightful, and I had to post _something_.
The joke in Apple's (remarkably arrogant, but clever) old ad was that up until W95, MS-DOS-based operating systems were limited to eight.three filenames, and used a filesystem that depended too heavily (on behalf of the user) on paths. C'mon, you know this.
The Mac OS has never had such abhorrent restrictions (filenames can be 31 chars long including non-printing and symbolic characters, paths are all but invisible to the uninterested user). So, you may as well type, "Congratulations, Apple! Bravo." Case, spaces, and punctuation intact, BTW. Since before Windows even went 32-bit.
While irritating, it takes me all of 5-10 seconds to sort my mail and throw the junk mail in the trash. Hardly worth freeing up 10 seconds of my life a day just to allow the government to control one more thing.
I understand your point about gov't regs, but by throwing that junk mail into the trash every day, you're just perpetuating the endless cycle of waste. Even recycling junk mail for the ecologically responsible is a waste of time and resources, especially if you take the time to separate recyclable paper from other stuff (plastic envelope windows, envelopes that have glue or tape on them, magazine ads with perfume or cologne, etc.). Sure it's a waste of marketers' time to send you stuff you'll never read, and that's why you should be able to tell them (and be heard) that they shouldn't send it to you in the first place. They had to get that paper from some place, and guess what. They killed a tree to get it. It's not even necessarily about "saving the trees," it just makes good sense. (BTW, blasting empty or stuffed envelopes around the world in postal jets and trucks for petty revenge, does not.)
No gov't regulation? Gotcha; I have to agree with you here. Then put yourself on a blacklist, as has been mentioned elsewhere. I've been unsuccessful in my attempts so far, but I'm going to keep trying.
Slashdot Mirror
The major issue isn't exclusive rights to the Matrix games (MS only wants a 6 month lead, after which Interplay is free to publish it for other plats). It's the exclusive rights to certain features of games based on this license.
Goldeneye for N64 is published by Rareware. They hold second-party status with Nintendo for their consoles -- they make games for no one else. Interplay does not have the same status with MS, AFAIK. MS is only trying to limit how well the implementation of the Matrix games on the other consoles are.
The reason and result are obvious. Whereas previously it was preferred for, say, Sega to have exclusive rights to a particular title from a third-party dev, MS wants to show the world that only the BEST version runs on xbox. "It's available on other platforms, but why in hell would you want to play it like THAT? You can't even play it on the internet!"
If this were the PC world, it would be like MS paying Adobe to give the Windows Photoshop release a 6 month headstart over Mac OS versions, and the Mac version isn't allowed to do Gaussian blur. It is NOT like MS paying Adobe to make Photoshop exclusively for Windows.
< tofuhead >
--
While I agree wholeheartedly with this AC that the level of dedication required for traditional sports far surpasses what's required for current electronic games, I also think that electronic games can already be considered sports, in the same way that chess and card games are sports.
And the whole issue of useless skills is purely subjective. Come wartime, I'd hope that the diplomats trying to negotiate peace had good poker faces, the generals running my country's army had the skills of a good chess player, while the soldiers in the trenches had the hand-eye coordination and ability to deal with high-pressure physical situations of a quarterback. Of course, I'd be worried if press releases came from Washington that the President was worried about a possible Zergling rush of the White House.
< tofuhead >
--
It can go the other way, too.
Assuming the machines are identical, this is a good way to make sure the prize money doesn't go to the one with the most money to burn in the first place (read: the one with all the disposable income and free time required to purchase and maintain a hot gaming rig).
Compare in terms of competitive spirit:
(1) "Yay, I won because I'm good."
(2) "Yay, I'm glad I upgraded my sound card driver last night -- 0.5% less CPU util., f00! The GeForce 3 didn't hurt either."
< tofuhead >
--
I think Nintendo's only trying to gauge how they will price the NGC. Yamauchi has been frank about precious few release details, but console pricing is TBA in late May. This IGN update even points out that the price announce date is 5 days after E3.
They have a lot to consider. If the "all games, no CD/DVD" approach appeals to the general public, then Nintendo can afford to price the NGC as high as is competitive. If it gets a lukewarm response at E3 (for that or any other reason), they may try to fight a price war with Sony and MS, focusing on price in their marketing. That's a major factor with parents, if not with us wealthy geeks.
Even Yamauchi's announcements that NGC will be delayed in order to secure adequate chip supplies hint that pricing is still likely unsure within Nintendo. When (not if) NEC agrees to Nintendo's pricing for the Flipper chip, Nintendo will price the NGC.
Regardless, I'm getting an NGC for the Zeldariotroid games: Zelda, Mario, Metroid. Kids will buy it for Pokemon. Nintendo understands killer apps just as well as MS.
< tofuhead >
--
Two things:
First, the GC is far more powerful and easier to develop on than N64. (Plus a lot of cool stuff, like the controllers finally have built-in "Rumble Pak" functionality and no longer require 2 AAA battery cells). Read any comparative review of the current game consoles, and you'll find that graphics ability is a huge selling point.
Second, the GC keeps Nintendo on the map. Like you've noticed, nobody makes SNES games any more, because there are other consoles with larger market saturation and with better capabilities.
I actually would have liked to see [comercial *] dev on SNES games continue as well. (Actually, so would have Nintendo; a quick look at the N64 manuals and the Nintendo website will show that Nintendo, to this day, publicly considers the SNES a viable starter system.) But like I mentioned, market forces ensured that the SNES died, just like those consoles that preceded it.
* [Homebrew freeware games are still being developed, thanks to the emulator scene.]
< tofuhead >
--
ZELDA. METROID. MARIO.
Ignore Nintendo if you like, but you'll be missing out on the best Japanese-style first-party games available on any console. If you've never played either N64 Zelda game for more than half an hour, you're missing out.
Compare this with Sony, and let us know which of their first-party (heh) games are of the same calibre that Nintendo and Sega are capable of producing, at any "maturity" rating.
(BTW, WTF does "maturity" have to do with games??? "Maturity" is for smoking expensive contraband cigars and eating aged cheeses and sipping on fine wines, not for kicking your best friend's ass all over a damn monitor screen. Pokemon...Street Fighter...Q3A...what's the difference? You're competing in a virtual world, hopefully _escaping_ the world of "maturity" while you're at it.)
< tofuhead >
--
Some people are more careful about what they eat.
< tofuhead >
--
Umm, yeah...because not enjoying a piece of work == not having a clue. Of course...?!
< tofuhead >
--
Your point: Elitism exists. What's new?
The response to posts like this that you're looking for is, "You're an elitist."
< tofuhead >
--
Sounds like that /back title was taken from the RAMBUS company plan.
"Voting": Rambus was a JEDEC member
"Suing": SDRAM patent disputes
"Retiring": With even Intel distancing themselves from RAMBUS, what else are they going to do? I don't think demand for Nintendo 64 Expansion Paks is too high nowadays, what with GAMECUBE on the way.
< tofuhead >
--
Oops. Posted that anonymously. Dang Lynx^?^?^?^?clumsy fingers!
< tofuhead >
--
I don't get your point. Mac OS QuickTime has had a basic CD audio import feature since, what, version 2.0 or so, which dates back to the early-/mid-1990s. Are you sure a CD ripper is all that exciting to find in a modern OS?
< tofuhead >
--
Great links. Sorry for using the term "free" so freely, but I'm talking beer here, as was the person I was replying to. That's how Microsoft considers their Windows installations/licenses; everything is beer to them. Sell your retail-purchased, unused Windows license to a friend and somehow you've just pissed in MS's...well, you get it. Copy a linux distro to 500 CDRs and tell me if you've stolen linux.
That's what fists are good for...protecting your beer. Speech is best protected by speech, as your links prove.
< tofuhead >
--
Anyone else notice the box on that article titled "New in XP?" Under "Pros," it lists something quite surprising: "Stable and dependable." Besides that, it lists two other items that have been in previous Windows releases, not to mention other OSes.
CNet rocks.
< tofuhead >
--
Well then what else are they supposed to steal? Stuff they have paid for? Whoops, I forgot that with Windows EULAs, that's exectly what MS would like to have us believe they're doing, especially if they're doing so much as (gasp) buying Windows from a friend who got (read: bought) it with his PC but never once used it.
See, that's the great thing about free software: There's no paranoia over making sure you're "legal," because there's no way to steal it. Unless, of course, someone's trying to swipe my FreeBSD CDRs, in which case all their bruise are belong to my fist.
< tofuhead >
--
Well, Nintendo of Japan named the thing. Nope, it doesn't make sense to native speakers, like "X-Box" surely does.
However, at least we can take into consideration why it's not called "Game Boy Advanced." To a Japanese native, "adobansu" sounds a lot better than "adobansudo."
Secondly, "advance" can also be a noun. In that context, it sounds kinda cool (well, to me).
< tofuhead >
--
Yeah, yeah, replying to self, bad form, etc.
Just now got to check out shoryuken.com; they have a link to that tourney between USA and Japan. They pretty much tied at SSF2, Japan kicked it on SF3TS and Alpha 3, and the U.S. dominated on the (pfff) Marvel dialer game. Read into that (or my previous post, parent to this one) what you will.
< tofuhead >
--
Clearly! Does this number have 216 digits? No, didn't think so.
But if it did, it wouldn't be the Catholic Church who gave a damn, it would be Wall Street bastards and Jewish rabbis.
To newbie moderators: If you haven't seen the film, at least ask somebody who has lest you mod me down.
< tofuhead >
--
I used to play SF2 a lot, so I know where you're coming from. But I think there's an aspect to the "community" that you're ignoring.
Personally, I loved playing against friends, but I preferred playing against strangers, especially local superheroes. Of course, you walk into the wrong arcade (Sunnyvale Golfland) while the wrong people are there (certain nameless best-in-the-U.S. players that I won't mention) at the wrong time (tourney night) and you end up getting reamed, with so-called friends laughing at you the whole time. Oh, I digress.
Hmm, the point? I don't know. "Always ask if your opponent is 'ranked,'" I guess. Or something. Bah.
Oh, and don't forget, there are no stakes in net-play, or a "tourney" at your friend's house. I happen to like putting my money (all twenty-five U.S. cents) where my mouth is.
< tofuhead >
--
Capcom fighting games, at least, are not like this. A good player can dominate a machine indefinitely, limited only by the number of challengers willing to play him/her.
Yep, nothing beats the feeling of looking at your watch and saying to the next person in line, "you want my game? I have class in about 15 seconds." And there are plenty of places in the 408 area (at least, there were, when I was a local) that have inexpensive, <25 cent games, for a minimum entrance fee of about $2.00.
< tofuhead >
--
Face it, the Marvelization of Capcom's fighters was mere pandering to the American taste. The hard-core SF games are masterpieces, although many elite purists would say that the Street Fighter Zero/Alpha series aren't in the same league. Oh, and I'm not talking about the SF EX series.
In my SF-playing days (high school through college, SF2WW through SFA2), I witnessed a whole culture being born around this genre. There were classifications for people based on ability, e.g. people who overspecialized in one style of play or one type of character or who played and acted poorly were called scrubs. People who preferred huge flashy combos to strategic play were called dialers. Dialers, in particlular, were looked down upon by strategic players, because they lacked finesse and relied on sheer finger-speed. (I remember some dialers used to practice on Track and Field...go fig.) Perhaps the clearest, most direct example is this: Strategic players liked Virtua Fighter; dialers _lived_ Tekken.
When Capcom came out with X-Men (their first SF2-styled Marvel fighter), it was clearly an effort to appeal to dialers. It didn't take long for hard-core SF2 players to realize this. It was an answer to Midway's ridiculous finger-speed contest, Mortal Kombat. And Americans ate it up.
Incidentally, I should point out that SF Alpha 2 (American) is my all-time favorite fighting game, with Capcom's Warzard/Red Earth a somewhat-distant runner-up (because you fight huge-ass MONSTERS and gain levels and techniques like an RPG). It has the perfect balance of restricted options, damage control, speed, and finesse requirements. Also, it should be pointed out that in a recent USA vs. Japan Capcom fighting tourney, the Americans dominated the professional Japanese players at the Marvel-style games, while the Japanese players were able to beat the top American players (a certain Mr. John Choi included, whom I've never beaten =) quite handily.
In short, you can't blame Capcom for publishing so many inane titles for audiences that appreciate them. Ahh...I think it's high time I visited alt.games.sf2 and relived my wayward youth.
< tofuhead >
--
I loved the 8-bit NES. And even the SNES had some really cool games on it.
For a long time, the SNES was the most popular pre-dedicated-3D game console ever created, from a company that prides itself on creating games that concentrate on fun over flash. But to state "even the SNES had some really cool games on it?" Understatement #1.
And look at where they've gone. Nintendo dropped the ball on Metroid and Mario; in the meantime, Final Fantasy, Castlevania, and Mega Man are on Playstation.
What? The N64 and Game Boy have great first-/second-party games. IMO, they certainly haven't done poorly with any of them. If you're talking about the sparse releases of same-ole games featuring their most recognizable characters, it's called "keep 'em wanting more" (Pokemon excluded). Compare the Mario games to the Rockman/Mega Man games: Almost every Mario game is distinctly different, and nobody I've read or spoken with has ever suggested that they are all just blurry afterimages of previous efforts like Mega Man (which is also a great game series, but something that you will never see from Nintendo).
Granted, Final Fantasy et al. are enjoyable series, but even today Nintendo is thriving without them. Nintendo produces a lot of compelling exclusive content (heh). If Sony and MS rely exclusively on third parties, that's their concern.
And Zelda? Well, I heard the new ones were decent 3D remakes of the original, but that's it.
Oh, so that's what you've heard? Well, if I were to tell you my opinions on Zelda, you wouldn't hear that from me.
Why buy a game system that has like two or three decent games?
For some of us, those two or three games (understatement #2) justify the cost of owning the only system on which they run. And that's exactly Mr. Yamauchi's point: Quality is more important than quantity, so it's wiser in the long run to concentrate on attracting developers who share that philosophy. I really prefer this Nintendo over the NES-era Nintendo of yore, when even neatly-wrapped feces could be emblazoned with the multi-pointed Nintendo seal of approval.
No, I think Nintendo has a LOT of catching up to do before they can start talking about how other people don't know how to write games, or function in the gaming industry.
Nobody's forcing those other companies to listen to this one guy's opinion, but his company is doing so well (oh yes, it is) that he may be wiser than they/you/I think.
I'd normally hate to sound so apologistic for some big international corpo, but you have to give Nintendo credit for everything they've done for modern gaming. And I don't want to offend you or those who moderated you up, but I honestly thought your post was flamebait when I read it a few hours ago. Then I come back and it's scored 5, Insightful, and I had to post _something_.
< tofuhead >
--
The joke in Apple's (remarkably arrogant, but clever) old ad was that up until W95, MS-DOS-based operating systems were limited to eight.three filenames, and used a filesystem that depended too heavily (on behalf of the user) on paths. C'mon, you know this.
The Mac OS has never had such abhorrent restrictions (filenames can be 31 chars long including non-printing and symbolic characters, paths are all but invisible to the uninterested user). So, you may as well type, "Congratulations, Apple! Bravo." Case, spaces, and punctuation intact, BTW. Since before Windows even went 32-bit.
< tofuhead >
I understand your point about gov't regs, but by throwing that junk mail into the trash every day, you're just perpetuating the endless cycle of waste. Even recycling junk mail for the ecologically responsible is a waste of time and resources, especially if you take the time to separate recyclable paper from other stuff (plastic envelope windows, envelopes that have glue or tape on them, magazine ads with perfume or cologne, etc.). Sure it's a waste of marketers' time to send you stuff you'll never read, and that's why you should be able to tell them (and be heard) that they shouldn't send it to you in the first place. They had to get that paper from some place, and guess what. They killed a tree to get it. It's not even necessarily about "saving the trees," it just makes good sense. (BTW, blasting empty or stuffed envelopes around the world in postal jets and trucks for petty revenge, does not.)
No gov't regulation? Gotcha; I have to agree with you here. Then put yourself on a blacklist, as has been mentioned elsewhere. I've been unsuccessful in my attempts so far, but I'm going to keep trying.
< tofuhead >
LOL. Holy crap. I know that's your sig and everything, but it would make sense in your post even if it weren't. You planned that, didn't you? ^_-
But surely Prof Frink says more than just "glavin." "Gehoiten," maybe, or something similar.
< tofuhead >