Except pro wrestlers do require a great amount of physical strength, speed, and endurance. These so called "time attacks" don't require anything except for an emulator and patience. Seriously, anyone can do trial and error against a certain enemy in zelda until you get things right as quickly as possible. To simply re-record over and over again to achieve "perfection," imo, just doesn't require talent, imo.
"If everybody turns to an Xbox or a PlayStation for entertainment, who's going to need new PC equipment?"
What about a GameCube? What is it with people excluding GC from the console lists? GC is outselling X-box, yet I see things like this all the time: "Which console do you have? X-box, or Ps2?"
You honestly believe that Nintendo doesn't get any more criticism than Sony or Microsoft? I suggest you open your eyes.
And please, direct me to where I said that I wanted Nintendo to hold the largest market share. I said that if they want to increase their market share, then this is what they should do. And of course Nintendo wants to increase their market share: They get more users, more potential profit, and, from an artistic side, the chance to expose their games to more people.
People say I'm getting defensive. All I'm doing is speaking from the point of view of what Nintendo can do to expand as a business. I'd like someone to show me where I've been defensive.
Using an emulator and save states to redo every single move over and over again and compiling them into a single movie, imo, isn't talent. ANYONE can get a fast time with emulators, because you can continuously correct your mistakes as you make them, essentially erasing your errors. All that's needed is time. True speed runs are runs that are done WITHOUT emulation, WITHOUT taking out mistakes, doing everything as quickly as you can do without being able to bail yourself out by rewinding the game back with a save state. THAT takes talent. It takes dedication, time, patience, and a true mastery of a game.
Using an emulator to compile moves into a "perfect" run can be amusing, but, by no means, should it be praised, or considered talent, nor should it be recognized or publicly released, because it downplays the mastery of the true speed runs.
I mean they made up for less than 5%. In fact, during the last year they were partially owned by Nintendo, less than one percent (.5%, I believe) of Nintendo's profits were from Rare. Rare became a liability, so nintendo got rid of them.
I'm not getting defensive. I'm telling the truth: people ALWAYS need to complain about Nintendo. I saw thousands of people posting across the internet about wanting multiplayer in metroid. Now, they're getting it, and I'm sure I'm going to see thousands saying that Nintendo's selling out now, too.
No matter what, Nintendo is always criticized. They were criticized for making the smart business decision in selling Rare (Rare, during the past three years, had made up for less than % of Nintendo's profits), which has only produces one game since the sale, Grabbed by the Ghoulies. Ironically, it has already released two of its GBA games which were completed before they were sold to microsoft. And now, the revival of Banjo Pilot for the GBA has shown up! So Nintendo's systems, for now, are STILL getting more games from Rare than the X-box is! And Nintendo is making the smart business decision in staying out of online, for now, untill it becomes profitable and something affordable to all games. I hardly see anything wrong with Nintendo's business practices.
Now, on to what you said about my comment: It's not ridiculous. The company's image and reputation isn't going to change unless the COMPANY does something about it. I'm not saying Nintendo's going to go bankrupt. I'm not saying they're going to fail. What I'm saying is that if Nintendo wants to INCREASE its market share, then they're going to have to do stuff like this. I retain full confidence in their abilities, and I'm confident that they'll make this multiplayer thing work out.
People always need a reason to bitch about Nintendo.
"Nintendo is too traditional!"
"Nintendo should put multiplayer in Metroid!"
Now, it's:
"Nintendo is selling out!"
"What the hell is Nintendo thinking?! Putting multiplayer in Metroid. No one wanted that crap!"
People are ALWAYS criticizing nintendo for being too conservative and for not "changing with the times." Now that Nintendo is listening to these people, they're getting branded as sell-outs. Good god, people. If Nintendo wants to become #1 in the industry again, they're going to have to do stuff like this.
No, it doesn't mean that they're going to change the game formula at all! And no, it doesn't mean they're going to put less effort in their games! They're adding something which the fans asked for. And for the love of god, if anyone can pull off these types of things and still retain the feel of the franchise, it's Nintendo.
Now why don't you all wait until more about the game is revealed and until you can PLAY it before judging it?
Anyways, back on topic. I love the general consensus with exclusive 3rd party games.
Game sells badly: "...Ok.... Cube owners aren't buying this. Let's ditch this system! After all, it's the fans fault for not buying the game, not ours!"
Game is a hit: "Nice. It sold well on GC. Let's port it to the Ps2 and/or X-box!" (See: GOD:DAMM, which sold about 400,000 copies on the GC, and the X-box version sold less than 60,000. Yet, Atari is developing the sequel only for the X-box. Go figure. Two other examples: Tales of Symphonia, and Viewtiful Joe)
Actually, on second thought, this whole thing about SK going multiplatform is a hoax. To be more specific, it's an "insanity effect," a real-life publicity stunt set up to hint towards the unveiling of Eternal Darkness 2 at E3. Wanna know why?
1) Dennis Dyack has stated the relationship between Nintendo and SK is very, very strong. Numerous times, he has talked about how similar Nintendo and SK are: How they have the same philosophies, how they get along so much, how much they enjoy working together. When asked about 9 months ago if SK would ever leave Nintendo, he responded, "No, never, ever." and then explained about the similarities and joy of working together the two had with each other. In fact, Dyack stated just about 3 months ago, in an interview, that if you deal with Silicon Knights, you deal with Nintendo, and vice-versa. He refered to Nintendo as "we," in the interview, as well. (go check out some archived interviews at gamespy to see what I'm talking about.)
The relationship is too good for it to suddenly end like this. And with no reasons being released by SK or Nintendo, except for the same response from each that "We have mutually agreed to end the exclusivity contract," it just looks too suspicious.
2) This announcment was completly out of the blue. Not the SLIGHTEST warnings at all. Usually, rumors about breakups of this magnitude spread throughout the internet way before they happen. Just look at Rare: There were rumors going around for about a year and a half that Rare was going to be bought by MS, and look what happened. It was WAY too sudden. No hints of it, nothing. way too suspicious.
3) IGN is the only site to have "offically" reported it. They are VERY close to Dennis Dyack, who frequently hangs out on the IGN forums and communicates with users.
4) Planet GameCube, closely acquainted with Dyack, also claiming to have contacted Dyack about this, posted the news at 3:33pm. Also, while posting on the Planetgamecube forums yesterday, I noticed that Dyack was on the "Who's Online?" list. Either he was checking to see how people reacted, or he was checking to see how his plan was working. Gamerfeed also posted this news at 3:33 P.M.
5) This news was announced April 13th. The E3 press conference, where new titles are revealed, ends May 13th.
6) Including the day of the announcment (April 13th) and the day after the end of E3 (May 15th) you have a total of 33 days. Now, there wasn't anything about 33 days in the original ED, but it could have something to do with ED2, as it is very similar to the 3:33 thing.
7) Dyack has stated that if he hints towards there next game, ala: MGS, it will be in a much more tricky and sneaky method than he did last time, as people will be prepared.
8) There has still be NO official announcment. When Rare departed there Nintendo announced it (including press release) the day we knew or the day after. However, there have been no press releases, just an announcement from IGN, confirmation by Planetgamecube via telephone (supposedly), and several re-postings of the news on other sites, with PGC and IGN as their sources.
9) Dyack has said there is much more to the Eternal Darkness story, and that one day he would like to show it.
In fact, he said that the story for a sequel had already been completed, in case they were to do one.
Their "news" is perhaps the most slanted single-report I have ever read or heard in my life. In fact, they used the same type of slanted title with the Silicon Knights story, which they headlined "Silicon Knights breaks up with Nintendo," which would give the impression that they were jumping ship, and it did. Except Silicon Knights isn't leaving Nintendo, and Factor 5 isn't halting relationships with Nintendo or jumping ship, either.
Silicon Knights went 3rd party, and Factor 5 has halted production for all three current generation consoles (They did say they were working on games for the other systems a couple of months back). It doesn't take a genius to see it: Factor 5 is shifting it's focus to next-generation hardware development, not abandoning Nintendo.
It's no wonder Nintendo has a bad image, with the media slanting press releases and news articles the way they've been doing it, I'm amazed they even call themselves GC news sites.
I wish the media would get off of Nintendo's backs. Maybe then, the gaming community would, too.
That's the reason for the split up. Nintendo and SK both value quality over quantity: Both want to spend as much time to make a game as good as it can be. They share similar ideas about the industry. However, their styles are completely different: SK likes to make plot-rich, dark games, while Nintendo favors simplicity that appeals to everyone. Both companies obviously recognized this, as the agreement to end the deal and feelings between the two companies are quite mutual. This could be good, in the long run: SK is now free to develop the games it wants to develop. On the downside, they need to find a publisher, and that could determine which console they make the game for, which might not be what they want. But overall, this should help the industry. Best of luck to both Nintendo and Silicon Knights
Btw, you won't see either MGS: TTS or ED on Ps2 or X-box. The full rights of ED are owned by Nintendo (Check the ED credits if you don't believe me. The message reserving the rights to the game is in there, and it says the rights are reserved by Nintendo, not SK). I doubt Nintendo would want to let ED appear on the X-box and Ps2. And MGS:TTS's rights are controlled by Konami. However, Hideo Kojima went to Shigeru Miyamoto for it. Kojima wanted MGS:TTS made for just the GC, so it's not likely that'll change.
Iwata DOES want Nintendo to go back on top, but the thing is, what he's REALLY trying to say is that the industry needs to be shaken up with new innovative ways to PLAY games. The advancements in technology have reached a point where a graphics card that can display more polys at once, or a processor with greater clock-speed, has a relatively minute impact than what it did before.
Compare the games of the SNES to the NES: The SNES has higher quality sound, more colorful graphics, the ability to display more textures, the ability to add more input into a game, with more buttons on the SNES controller, longer, bigger games, bigger levels (compare Super Mario World to SMB 3).... overall, barriers were removed, the possibilities for games were broadened.
: Ok, now, compare the N64 and the PS to the SNES/Genesis:
The full shift to 3D graphics, and optical based media becomes the new standard, allowing developers to make games bigger than ever before. Among the features that become common in this era are: full motion video, 4-person multiplayer gaming on the N64, orchestrated soundtracks (there are several examples on both platforms), even more buttons on a controller than before, and the use of both joysticks and d-pads is introduced. These technological leaps remove all technical barriers that prevent the games to potentially portray the real-life world (by that, I mean the fact that now all 3 dimensions which we live in could be rendered in our games, surround sound that makes games' sounds be expressed from all directions is brought in, etc. Basically, now, the only things left to do are increase the power of the currently-existing technology)
Now, compare games from the N64 and the PS to the games on the DC, GC, Ps2, and X-box.
The difference in graphics is less noticeable than ever before, with the only changes being smoother textures, better SFX, more polys: basic upgrades of current technology that have always happened over time. It's even harder to notice differences in the sound and music areas of games. The controllers for today's consoles have just about the same amount of buttons as last generation, and support the same number of players. The biggest change made is that development has become more complex than ever, with game budgets ranging in the multi-million dollar ranges, easily, and even longer development times are present. Basically, the basic hardware upgrades (more ram, more storage), with increased difficulty and prices to develop.
What Nintendo wants to do is make hardware changes that can help games become better on different scales, like adding 3D, or four-person multiplayer, or making a portable system with two screens. To keep things fresh, and keep people's interests Yeah, there will be the hardware upgrades, there will be more memory, more storage, more polys. But in addition, these new dimensions will be added to the hardware, adding new functions to our games.
THAT'S what Nintendo is trying to do.
The only people who want online are the HARDCORE community: the guys who we all are: the guys who actually follow the news in the industry, and the guys who talk about video games on message boards all over the internet. The percentage of gamers who actually use online is less than 10%. Yeah, overall sales of online games are up, but really, you can't tell me that Madden's millions of sales this year (again) are due to online play in the Ps2, right? People are buying games which HAPPEN to include online features, that doesn't mean that they're buying to play online, or that they're playing online.
I find it really stupid how many people and companies think that online gaming is something that's being embraced and desired by everyone, despite the fact that games which heavily use online features, such as MMORPGs, usually peak at about 500,000 units in sales.
Of course, the sole exception to this is FFXI, which people buy just because of the FF name. The sad thing is, I actually know about five guys who bought the game, and now can't play it because they didn't know it's an MMORPG.
I'd like to see developers pay more attention to the online ACTIVITY of their games, monitoring that ratherthan the sales of their games which have online features. I'm sure they'll get a better idea of the popularity of online, then.
Ok guys, we've argued about the semantics of "meta-gaming" long enough. So the word was used incorrectly. big deal. We all know what was meant. Could we, maybe, start talking about the article, rather than the misuse of a word?
Or am I being too picky?
Can't MS release any numbers? I don't think they've released official sales figures since around September. I know they didn't release figures for Christmas, they just said "We outsold Nintendo the last two weeks of the year!" (of course, most Christmas shopping had already been done, and even so, the NPD revealed that MS ousold Nintendo by about two thousand units during that period, compared with the GC outselling the X-box by several hundred thousand units since the $99 price drop.)or something along the lines of that.
I think it's pretty pathetic. MS has not been trying to compete with Nintendo, and that's the reason why they're #3 worldwide. They've completely ignored Nintendo, except when they can say they're doing better, like in the Christmas example I showed above. It always seems to be that MS is trying to compete with Sony, yet, if MS simply cut the price when Nintendo went to $99, they might not be in this situation. It's rather arrogant of them, IMO. They ignore Nintendo as if Nintendo poses no threat, but with nintendo having the most experience, the most popular games, and a dedicated fanbase, I think it's rather foolish to ignore them. Also, all of Nintendo's resources, all of their money, is directed towards succeeding in the video game industry. While MS and Sony need to spread their resources out, and make sure that, if one sector of their company is doing badly, their other sectors do well enough to outweigh the loss, Nintendo only has to focus on one market: video games. It's a lot harder to maintain a grip on an industry when you have several others to worry about.
Sure, Sony and MS are much richer than Nintendo.
But when you consider the financial instabilities of Sony and MS, lately (Sony is losing tons, and MS, as always, is making money, but not nearly as easily or as much as it has before), the fact that they can only put so much of their money into each individual sector that the company is involved in, as well as Nintendo's practically perfect financial record, Nintendo has a bit of an edge.
With MS seemingly ignoring Nintendo, and Sony in big financial trouble, and taking huge risks with the resources they're pouring into the Cell project, the PsP, the Ps3, and the PsX, I see Nintendo having a very good chance to leapfrog to the top of the industry, once again. In my opinion, it's only a matter of time.
Well, uh... that's why they're the guys who make us the games. We say "Huh? There's no way to improve upon this game/franchise!" and then they come out with the Super Mario Bros. 3s, the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Times, and the Super Smash Bros. Melees of the game industry.;)
In other words, just sit back and wait for the magic to come to you. (That sounded odd. O_o)
Show me where Nintendo ever said that they should have gone with a different color or include a DVD player. I can imagine some NOA rep saying something about the color, maybe, but Nintendo has always stood by their decision to not incude DVD playback.
Um, they didn't include a DVD player because there's no point. It's a game machine, not a DVD Player. You want a DVD player? Go and buy one for 30 dollars. It's not that hard.:/. You want a GameCube? Go and buy one for 99 dollars. Really, this is the VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY. The ability to read DVDs shouldn't matter, especially with players being so cheap, now.
Plus, Nintendo uses a custom format, so they'd need to add more hardware into the Cube to play DVD, and piracy would be much easier. In other words, Nintendo didn't include DVD playing capability because it's not a necessary feature for a game console, and it would have just made the thing more expensive for the consumer and Nintendo. It's an obvious decision to make. I don't see why everyone is so stumped about it.:/
Seriously, I don't see how this can uphold in court: an emulator which copies the hardware structure of a game boy advance deliberately meant as a development kit or a way to get free GBA games just won't cut it. Either way, they're taking Nintendo's product and distributing it that directly interferes with Nintendo's business: If they market it as an emulator, it gets ruled against for the piracy of games: If it's marketed as a development tool, it gets shut down for a deliberate attempt at prevention of revenue for Nintendo: Development kits cost money to make, and this could legally be proven to unlawfully interfere with Nintendo's business practices.
Not to mention the fact that this "development kit" was designed for use with a Nintendo product which, by law, Nintendo owns all rights to, including the ability to deny and/or approve of who can develop for it. Saying that what they're doing is legal is just a load of bull
Even if Nintendo still makes millions, the law applies equally to everyone: It protects small companies from the loss of their products, and, depending on the size and/or stability of such company, potential bankruptcy. It also protects the large companies, like Nintendo, from being denied the profits of their products.
Whether you like it or not, the law just wouldn't be justified if it didn't apply equally.
"We'd really love to make a hardcore dark Zelda, but at the end of the day, that's something that needs to be discussed with Mr. Miyamoto and his group and that's his baby." Um... what? Miyamoto's baby? O_O. Did I just hear Denis Dyack give a subtle hint that SK is working on a Mario? Or maybe a Donkey Kong Platformer? Or maybe SK is working on Mario & Donkey Kong (formerly known as Mario vs. Donkey Kong) for the GBA? O_o
It couldn't be.... or could it? O_O
Read the comments on the planetgamecube.com forums (the thread is linked to from the news story, which is linked to in the/. announcement.) The guy is a PGC regular: He says it weighs 18 pounds, and swings great. Also said that it sounds great when it slices through the air.:)
Now, if only I could get one of those....
Slashdot Mirror
Except pro wrestlers do require a great amount of physical strength, speed, and endurance. These so called "time attacks" don't require anything except for an emulator and patience. Seriously, anyone can do trial and error against a certain enemy in zelda until you get things right as quickly as possible. To simply re-record over and over again to achieve "perfection," imo, just doesn't require talent, imo.
"If everybody turns to an Xbox or a PlayStation for entertainment, who's going to need new PC equipment?"
:|
What about a GameCube? What is it with people excluding GC from the console lists? GC is outselling X-box, yet I see things like this all the time: "Which console do you have? X-box, or Ps2?"
It gets kind of annoying.
You honestly believe that Nintendo doesn't get any more criticism than Sony or Microsoft? I suggest you open your eyes.
And please, direct me to where I said that I wanted Nintendo to hold the largest market share. I said that if they want to increase their market share, then this is what they should do. And of course Nintendo wants to increase their market share: They get more users, more potential profit, and, from an artistic side, the chance to expose their games to more people.
People say I'm getting defensive. All I'm doing is speaking from the point of view of what Nintendo can do to expand as a business. I'd like someone to show me where I've been defensive.
Using an emulator and save states to redo every single move over and over again and compiling them into a single movie, imo, isn't talent. ANYONE can get a fast time with emulators, because you can continuously correct your mistakes as you make them, essentially erasing your errors. All that's needed is time. True speed runs are runs that are done WITHOUT emulation, WITHOUT taking out mistakes, doing everything as quickly as you can do without being able to bail yourself out by rewinding the game back with a save state. THAT takes talent. It takes dedication, time, patience, and a true mastery of a game.
Using an emulator to compile moves into a "perfect" run can be amusing, but, by no means, should it be praised, or considered talent, nor should it be recognized or publicly released, because it downplays the mastery of the true speed runs.
I mean they made up for less than 5%. In fact, during the last year they were partially owned by Nintendo, less than one percent (.5%, I believe) of Nintendo's profits were from Rare. Rare became a liability, so nintendo got rid of them.
I'm not getting defensive. I'm telling the truth: people ALWAYS need to complain about Nintendo. I saw thousands of people posting across the internet about wanting multiplayer in metroid. Now, they're getting it, and I'm sure I'm going to see thousands saying that Nintendo's selling out now, too.
No matter what, Nintendo is always criticized. They were criticized for making the smart business decision in selling Rare (Rare, during the past three years, had made up for less than % of Nintendo's profits), which has only produces one game since the sale, Grabbed by the Ghoulies. Ironically, it has already released two of its GBA games which were completed before they were sold to microsoft. And now, the revival of Banjo Pilot for the GBA has shown up! So Nintendo's systems, for now, are STILL getting more games from Rare than the X-box is! And Nintendo is making the smart business decision in staying out of online, for now, untill it becomes profitable and something affordable to all games. I hardly see anything wrong with Nintendo's business practices.
Now, on to what you said about my comment: It's not ridiculous. The company's image and reputation isn't going to change unless the COMPANY does something about it. I'm not saying Nintendo's going to go bankrupt. I'm not saying they're going to fail. What I'm saying is that if Nintendo wants to INCREASE its market share, then they're going to have to do stuff like this. I retain full confidence in their abilities, and I'm confident that they'll make this multiplayer thing work out.
People always need a reason to bitch about Nintendo.
"Nintendo is too traditional!"
"Nintendo should put multiplayer in Metroid!"
Now, it's:
"Nintendo is selling out!"
"What the hell is Nintendo thinking?! Putting multiplayer in Metroid. No one wanted that crap!"
People are ALWAYS criticizing nintendo for being too conservative and for not "changing with the times." Now that Nintendo is listening to these people, they're getting branded as sell-outs. Good god, people. If Nintendo wants to become #1 in the industry again, they're going to have to do stuff like this.
No, it doesn't mean that they're going to change the game formula at all! And no, it doesn't mean they're going to put less effort in their games! They're adding something which the fans asked for. And for the love of god, if anyone can pull off these types of things and still retain the feel of the franchise, it's Nintendo.
Now why don't you all wait until more about the game is revealed and until you can PLAY it before judging it?
Note to viewers: for more details: see Capcom.
:)
Mega Man Legends, anyone?
Anyways, back on topic. I love the general consensus with exclusive 3rd party games.
Game sells badly: "...Ok.... Cube owners aren't buying this. Let's ditch this system! After all, it's the fans fault for not buying the game, not ours!"
Game is a hit: "Nice. It sold well on GC. Let's port it to the Ps2 and/or X-box!" (See: GOD:DAMM, which sold about 400,000 copies on the GC, and the X-box version sold less than 60,000. Yet, Atari is developing the sequel only for the X-box. Go figure. Two other examples: Tales of Symphonia, and Viewtiful Joe)
Actually, on second thought, this whole thing about SK going multiplatform is a hoax. To be more specific, it's an "insanity effect," a real-life publicity stunt set up to hint towards the unveiling of Eternal Darkness 2 at E3. Wanna know why?
1) Dennis Dyack has stated the relationship between Nintendo and SK is very, very strong. Numerous times, he has talked about how similar Nintendo and SK are: How they have the same philosophies, how they get along so much, how much they enjoy working together. When asked about 9 months ago if SK would ever leave Nintendo, he responded, "No, never, ever." and then explained about the similarities and joy of working together the two had with each other. In fact, Dyack stated just about 3 months ago, in an interview, that if you deal with Silicon Knights, you deal with Nintendo, and vice-versa. He refered to Nintendo as "we," in the interview, as well. (go check out some archived interviews at gamespy to see what I'm talking about.) The relationship is too good for it to suddenly end like this. And with no reasons being released by SK or Nintendo, except for the same response from each that "We have mutually agreed to end the exclusivity contract," it just looks too suspicious.
2) This announcment was completly out of the blue. Not the SLIGHTEST warnings at all. Usually, rumors about breakups of this magnitude spread throughout the internet way before they happen. Just look at Rare: There were rumors going around for about a year and a half that Rare was going to be bought by MS, and look what happened. It was WAY too sudden. No hints of it, nothing. way too suspicious.
3) IGN is the only site to have "offically" reported it. They are VERY close to Dennis Dyack, who frequently hangs out on the IGN forums and communicates with users.
4) Planet GameCube, closely acquainted with Dyack, also claiming to have contacted Dyack about this, posted the news at 3:33pm. Also, while posting on the Planetgamecube forums yesterday, I noticed that Dyack was on the "Who's Online?" list. Either he was checking to see how people reacted, or he was checking to see how his plan was working. Gamerfeed also posted this news at 3:33 P.M.
5) This news was announced April 13th. The E3 press conference, where new titles are revealed, ends May 13th.
6) Including the day of the announcment (April 13th) and the day after the end of E3 (May 15th) you have a total of 33 days. Now, there wasn't anything about 33 days in the original ED, but it could have something to do with ED2, as it is very similar to the 3:33 thing.
7) Dyack has stated that if he hints towards there next game, ala: MGS, it will be in a much more tricky and sneaky method than he did last time, as people will be prepared.
8) There has still be NO official announcment. When Rare departed there Nintendo announced it (including press release) the day we knew or the day after. However, there have been no press releases, just an announcement from IGN, confirmation by Planetgamecube via telephone (supposedly), and several re-postings of the news on other sites, with PGC and IGN as their sources.
9) Dyack has said there is much more to the Eternal Darkness story, and that one day he would like to show it. In fact, he said that the story for a sequel had already been completed, in case they were to do one.
At least it's not as bad as Duke Nukem Forever! :)
Their "news" is perhaps the most slanted single-report I have ever read or heard in my life. In fact, they used the same type of slanted title with the Silicon Knights story, which they headlined "Silicon Knights breaks up with Nintendo," which would give the impression that they were jumping ship, and it did. Except Silicon Knights isn't leaving Nintendo, and Factor 5 isn't halting relationships with Nintendo or jumping ship, either.
Silicon Knights went 3rd party, and Factor 5 has halted production for all three current generation consoles (They did say they were working on games for the other systems a couple of months back). It doesn't take a genius to see it: Factor 5 is shifting it's focus to next-generation hardware development, not abandoning Nintendo.
It's no wonder Nintendo has a bad image, with the media slanting press releases and news articles the way they've been doing it, I'm amazed they even call themselves GC news sites.
I wish the media would get off of Nintendo's backs. Maybe then, the gaming community would, too.
Thornado was canceled, and the game scrapped, a couple of months after the Cube launched.
Welcome to 2004.
That's the reason for the split up. Nintendo and SK both value quality over quantity: Both want to spend as much time to make a game as good as it can be. They share similar ideas about the industry. However, their styles are completely different: SK likes to make plot-rich, dark games, while Nintendo favors simplicity that appeals to everyone. Both companies obviously recognized this, as the agreement to end the deal and feelings between the two companies are quite mutual. This could be good, in the long run: SK is now free to develop the games it wants to develop. On the downside, they need to find a publisher, and that could determine which console they make the game for, which might not be what they want. But overall, this should help the industry. Best of luck to both Nintendo and Silicon Knights
Btw, you won't see either MGS: TTS or ED on Ps2 or X-box. The full rights of ED are owned by Nintendo (Check the ED credits if you don't believe me. The message reserving the rights to the game is in there, and it says the rights are reserved by Nintendo, not SK). I doubt Nintendo would want to let ED appear on the X-box and Ps2. And MGS:TTS's rights are controlled by Konami. However, Hideo Kojima went to Shigeru Miyamoto for it. Kojima wanted MGS:TTS made for just the GC, so it's not likely that'll change.
Iwata DOES want Nintendo to go back on top, but the thing is, what he's REALLY trying to say is that the industry needs to be shaken up with new innovative ways to PLAY games. The advancements in technology have reached a point where a graphics card that can display more polys at once, or a processor with greater clock-speed, has a relatively minute impact than what it did before.
Compare the games of the SNES to the NES: The SNES has higher quality sound, more colorful graphics, the ability to display more textures, the ability to add more input into a game, with more buttons on the SNES controller, longer, bigger games, bigger levels (compare Super Mario World to SMB 3).... overall, barriers were removed, the possibilities for games were broadened.
: Ok, now, compare the N64 and the PS to the SNES/Genesis:
The full shift to 3D graphics, and optical based media becomes the new standard, allowing developers to make games bigger than ever before. Among the features that become common in this era are: full motion video, 4-person multiplayer gaming on the N64, orchestrated soundtracks (there are several examples on both platforms), even more buttons on a controller than before, and the use of both joysticks and d-pads is introduced. These technological leaps remove all technical barriers that prevent the games to potentially portray the real-life world (by that, I mean the fact that now all 3 dimensions which we live in could be rendered in our games, surround sound that makes games' sounds be expressed from all directions is brought in, etc. Basically, now, the only things left to do are increase the power of the currently-existing technology)
Now, compare games from the N64 and the PS to the games on the DC, GC, Ps2, and X-box.
The difference in graphics is less noticeable than ever before, with the only changes being smoother textures, better SFX, more polys: basic upgrades of current technology that have always happened over time. It's even harder to notice differences in the sound and music areas of games. The controllers for today's consoles have just about the same amount of buttons as last generation, and support the same number of players. The biggest change made is that development has become more complex than ever, with game budgets ranging in the multi-million dollar ranges, easily, and even longer development times are present. Basically, the basic hardware upgrades (more ram, more storage), with increased difficulty and prices to develop.
What Nintendo wants to do is make hardware changes that can help games become better on different scales, like adding 3D, or four-person multiplayer, or making a portable system with two screens. To keep things fresh, and keep people's interests Yeah, there will be the hardware upgrades, there will be more memory, more storage, more polys. But in addition, these new dimensions will be added to the hardware, adding new functions to our games.
THAT'S what Nintendo is trying to do.
The only people who want online are the HARDCORE community: the guys who we all are: the guys who actually follow the news in the industry, and the guys who talk about video games on message boards all over the internet. The percentage of gamers who actually use online is less than 10%. Yeah, overall sales of online games are up, but really, you can't tell me that Madden's millions of sales this year (again) are due to online play in the Ps2, right? People are buying games which HAPPEN to include online features, that doesn't mean that they're buying to play online, or that they're playing online.
I find it really stupid how many people and companies think that online gaming is something that's being embraced and desired by everyone, despite the fact that games which heavily use online features, such as MMORPGs, usually peak at about 500,000 units in sales.
Of course, the sole exception to this is FFXI, which people buy just because of the FF name. The sad thing is, I actually know about five guys who bought the game, and now can't play it because they didn't know it's an MMORPG.
I'd like to see developers pay more attention to the online ACTIVITY of their games, monitoring that ratherthan the sales of their games which have online features. I'm sure they'll get a better idea of the popularity of online, then.
Ok guys, we've argued about the semantics of "meta-gaming" long enough. So the word was used incorrectly. big deal. We all know what was meant. Could we, maybe, start talking about the article, rather than the misuse of a word? Or am I being too picky?
If you honestly feel that insecure about playing Mario, it's YOU who has the maturity problem.
Can't MS release any numbers? I don't think they've released official sales figures since around September. I know they didn't release figures for Christmas, they just said "We outsold Nintendo the last two weeks of the year!" (of course, most Christmas shopping had already been done, and even so, the NPD revealed that MS ousold Nintendo by about two thousand units during that period, compared with the GC outselling the X-box by several hundred thousand units since the $99 price drop.)or something along the lines of that. I think it's pretty pathetic. MS has not been trying to compete with Nintendo, and that's the reason why they're #3 worldwide. They've completely ignored Nintendo, except when they can say they're doing better, like in the Christmas example I showed above. It always seems to be that MS is trying to compete with Sony, yet, if MS simply cut the price when Nintendo went to $99, they might not be in this situation. It's rather arrogant of them, IMO. They ignore Nintendo as if Nintendo poses no threat, but with nintendo having the most experience, the most popular games, and a dedicated fanbase, I think it's rather foolish to ignore them. Also, all of Nintendo's resources, all of their money, is directed towards succeeding in the video game industry. While MS and Sony need to spread their resources out, and make sure that, if one sector of their company is doing badly, their other sectors do well enough to outweigh the loss, Nintendo only has to focus on one market: video games. It's a lot harder to maintain a grip on an industry when you have several others to worry about.
Sure, Sony and MS are much richer than Nintendo. But when you consider the financial instabilities of Sony and MS, lately (Sony is losing tons, and MS, as always, is making money, but not nearly as easily or as much as it has before), the fact that they can only put so much of their money into each individual sector that the company is involved in, as well as Nintendo's practically perfect financial record, Nintendo has a bit of an edge.
With MS seemingly ignoring Nintendo, and Sony in big financial trouble, and taking huge risks with the resources they're pouring into the Cell project, the PsP, the Ps3, and the PsX, I see Nintendo having a very good chance to leapfrog to the top of the industry, once again. In my opinion, it's only a matter of time.
Well, uh... that's why they're the guys who make us the games. We say "Huh? There's no way to improve upon this game/franchise!" and then they come out with the Super Mario Bros. 3s, the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Times, and the Super Smash Bros. Melees of the game industry. ;)
In other words, just sit back and wait for the magic to come to you. (That sounded odd. O_o)
Show me where Nintendo ever said that they should have gone with a different color or include a DVD player. I can imagine some NOA rep saying something about the color, maybe, but Nintendo has always stood by their decision to not incude DVD playback.
Um, they didn't include a DVD player because there's no point. It's a game machine, not a DVD Player. You want a DVD player? Go and buy one for 30 dollars. It's not that hard. :/. You want a GameCube? Go and buy one for 99 dollars. Really, this is the VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY. The ability to read DVDs shouldn't matter, especially with players being so cheap, now.
:/
Plus, Nintendo uses a custom format, so they'd need to add more hardware into the Cube to play DVD, and piracy would be much easier. In other words, Nintendo didn't include DVD playing capability because it's not a necessary feature for a game console, and it would have just made the thing more expensive for the consumer and Nintendo. It's an obvious decision to make. I don't see why everyone is so stumped about it.
Seriously, I don't see how this can uphold in court: an emulator which copies the hardware structure of a game boy advance deliberately meant as a development kit or a way to get free GBA games just won't cut it. Either way, they're taking Nintendo's product and distributing it that directly interferes with Nintendo's business: If they market it as an emulator, it gets ruled against for the piracy of games: If it's marketed as a development tool, it gets shut down for a deliberate attempt at prevention of revenue for Nintendo: Development kits cost money to make, and this could legally be proven to unlawfully interfere with Nintendo's business practices.
Not to mention the fact that this "development kit" was designed for use with a Nintendo product which, by law, Nintendo owns all rights to, including the ability to deny and/or approve of who can develop for it. Saying that what they're doing is legal is just a load of bull
Even if Nintendo still makes millions, the law applies equally to everyone: It protects small companies from the loss of their products, and, depending on the size and/or stability of such company, potential bankruptcy. It also protects the large companies, like Nintendo, from being denied the profits of their products.
Whether you like it or not, the law just wouldn't be justified if it didn't apply equally.
... never mind... I misread it as "there's something," and not "that's something" :/
I can still dream, right?
"We'd really love to make a hardcore dark Zelda, but at the end of the day, that's something that needs to be discussed with Mr. Miyamoto and his group and that's his baby."
Um... what? Miyamoto's baby? O_O. Did I just hear Denis Dyack give a subtle hint that SK is working on a Mario? Or maybe a Donkey Kong Platformer? Or maybe SK is working on Mario & Donkey Kong (formerly known as Mario vs. Donkey Kong) for the GBA? O_o
It couldn't be.... or could it? O_O
Read the comments on the planetgamecube.com forums (the thread is linked to from the news story, which is linked to in the /. announcement.) The guy is a PGC regular: He says it weighs 18 pounds, and swings great. Also said that it sounds great when it slices through the air. :)
Now, if only I could get one of those....