GC's are cheap and easy to manufacture, resulting in a 4 million backstock of cubes last November. Nintendo was producing Cubes a LOT faster than Cubes were being sold. That doesn't necessarily mean Cubes weren't selling well.
Uh, where do you work, because it sure doesn't soudn like a regular store. Cubes are flying off the shelves lately, and GB Players have been selling well since they were released. Here's a resaon why someone might want a GB Player: They don't already have a GBA or an SP, and the GB player is a cheaper way to gain access to the GB library. That's just one of the many reasons they're selling.
Also, here's something that makes memory cards better than HDs: you can bring save data with you wherever you go. For instance, you can bring your memory card and your SSBM record with you to a friend's house to play SSBM. I'd like to see you lug your X-box's hard drive around to a friend's house.
WHY, WHY, WHY do I always see articles about the demise of Nintendo, when they're in EXCELLENT condition? Here are some examples:
1. Nintendo has NO DEBT.
2. Nintendo went FORTY ONE YEARS without posting a half-year net loss, and are on pace to go for forty TWO years without a full year net loss.
3. Nintendo has over eight billion dollars cash, and probably a couple more billion dollars in assets, making it an 11 figure company, with each cent of its money spendable for itself.
4. Nintendo will ALWAYS have dedicated fans who will buy their products, who will raise kids that will become dedicated fans, ensuring that Nintendo's products will ALWAYS sell.
5. The highest selling publisher of console games and handheld games, worldwide, is Nintendo.
6. GBA and GC are the only systems to see INCREASED sales in 2003.
7. Sony posted a net loss of over 1 billion dollars last fiscal year. MS lost money, as well. Nintendo posted a profit. Who's in bad condition, here?
8. Nintendo has maintained firm control of the handheld market for two decades, and it's stronger than ever.
9. Sure, Sony and MS are valued at over 50 billion dollars. However, they have to spread that money over several different markets: PC hardware, PC software, CD players, TVs, movies, video games, etc. Nintendo can focus all of its resources, all 10 billion + dollars on one market: Video games.
It's funny. I never hear complaints about MS losing billions on the X-box, nor about how they're in 3rd place in worldwide console sales. In spite of the skeptics, the crticism, and the reminders of every little thing that goes wrong, Nintendo is in a comfortable 2nd place in the console market, on top of the software charts, as always, and on pace to continue to profit yearly. Nintendo is doing much more than merely surviving: They're expanding, and it doesn't look like they'll be slowing down any time soon.
Ok, here's a list of all my Cube games (I love them all)
Animal Crossing - exclusive (Nintendo)
Beach Spikers - Exclusive (Sega)
Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg - Exclusive (Sega: platformer by Yuji Naka)
Burnout 2: Point of Impact
Capcom Vs. SNK 2 EO
Cubivore (known as Animal Leader in Japan)- Exclusive (Nintendo)
Def Jam Vendetta
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem - Exclusive (Silicon Knights)
F-Zero GX - Exclusive (Sega, yes, you read that right.)
Ikaruga - Exclusive, but it was also released for DC and arcades, but in japan only. GC version is available in all regions of the world
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time & Master Quest - port of the N64 classic, along with the addon, "Master Quest", which contains revamped dungeons.
Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - Exclusive (Nintendo)
Luigi's Mansion - Exclusive (launch title) (Nintendo) Short but fun.
Mario Party 4 - Exclusive (Nintendo)
Medal of Honor: Frontline
Metroid Prime - Exclusive (Nintendo)
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
NBA Street Vol. 2
Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II
Pikmin - Exclusive (Nintendo)
Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc
Resident Evil (aka REmake) - remake of the original Resident Evil. This remake, with completely redone graphics, new enemies, among other things, was only released for GC. (capcom)
Resident Evil 0 - exclusive (capcom)
Resident Evil 2 - port of RE2
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis - port of RE3
Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron 2 - Exclusive (launch title) (Factor 5)
Skies of Arcadia Legends - enhanced port of Sega's massive RPG for the Dreamcast
Sonic Adventure 2: Battle - port of SA2 (Sega)
Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut - Port of SA, also contains all the Sonic Game Gear games as unlockables (Sega)
Sonic Mega Collection - collection of all the Sonic titles from the Sega Genesis (Sega)
Soul Calibur 2 - multiplatform, but Link is a character exclusive to the GC version. (Namco)
Super Mario Sunshine - Exclusive (Nintendo)
Super Monkey Ball - Exclusive (Sega)
Super Monkey Ball 2 - Exclusive (Sega)
Super Smash Brothers Melee - Exclusive (Nintendo)
Timesplitters 2
Viewtiful Joe - Exclusive (Capcom)
Hope that helps. Check out reviews for all of those games to see which ones you'd like. Personally, I'd recommend buying a cube after November 17th, and picking up Skies of Arcadia Legends, Metroid Prime, Eternal Darkness, and Viewtiful Joe. For $99, you get the Cube and the Zelda collection disk, containing The Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: Adventures of Link, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a playable demo of Wind Waker, gameplay footage from Wind Waker, and a "The making of..." documentary on the Zelda series. Skies of Arcadia is being sold for ten dollars brand new at Best Buy, Eternal Darkness is being sold between 10 and 20 dollars brand new, Metroid Prime is a Players' Choice title, and therefore, costs only 30 dollars, and Viewtiful Joe retails for only $40. So, you get a new console, a documentary, a playable demo, a video demo, and eight AAA titles, for only $200. Enjoy!
Of COURSE! Nintendo only accounts for 60-70% of the video game industry in terms of hardware, and is only the top selling developer (and publisher)! Not to mention they continue to make 500 million dollars (or more) of profit per fiscal year, and have yet to post a quarterly loss since they've entered the video game industry. Oh, and they were only the Nikkei company of the year. YEAH! NINTENDO'S GOING THROUGH QUITE SOME ROUGHT TIMES! *rolls eyes*
I've been reading a LOT of posts in this discussion that say things bashing 3rd party developers for making crap games which don't sell on the GC... This is simply NOT the case. I recommend you all look at my journal entry, which contains the list of all my currently owned GC games. While about half of them are 1st/2nd party, there's PLENTY of 3rd party games on there, and I love all of them. In fact, I'd have to say my favorite game for the system (excluding Ocarina of Time, which is my fave game of all time) is Skies of Arcadia Legends, a 3rd party game. Then Metroid Prime, a first party title, and then Eternal Darkness, 2nd party.
The gamecube has an ABUNDANCE of great 3rd party software that DOES sell (as demonstrated by games such as Sonic Adventure 2 battle, a million seller, and Soul Calibur 2). The problem is, so much hype surrounds the first and second party titles that on the surface, it appears that 3rd parties get the shaft, which is false. Nintendo just gets so much attention, that it sometimes may seem that 3rd parties get overshadowed on the GC. It's not that 3rd party games aren't selling: it's that 1st party games ALWAYS are selling, making 3rd parties appear to lack in sales.
Look, I can understand how the users feel, and I understand how Rodberg and other developers feel, but there's a lot of people who are at fault...
#1: Rodberg.
As a PR representative, he has no business blowing up at the fans like that. Yeah, they may be jackasses at some times, but he has to deal with that. Flaming your potential customers isn't going to help.
#2: Sierra, for putting Rodberg in a position he obviously couldn't handle, in the PR dept.
#3: The fans. Some fans just can't understand that making games and running a business are very difficult. They accuse companies and developers of ignoring the fans, and they think they could do a better job at making a game or running the company than the pros do. Frankly, these people don't realize that each fan desires different things from a game. A developer needs to take all fans into account when developing a game, and while it is impossible to please everyone, they try their best to make a game that will satisfy their users. When there are complaints that conflict, they try and find a solution that will please as many gamers as possible. It's not just "Add feature A to make B number of people buy your game." It's more like this:
"Take into account suggestions A, B, C, D, and E, and using all their ideas, try to come up with an idea, F, that satisfies as much of suggestions A through E as possible, while retaining interest from as many current fans who plan to buy this game as possible, also taking into account costs (G), available resources (H), time schedule (I), hardware limits (kind of falls under H), size of production team (J), and other factors (K and on) in the making of such decision."
It's much more complicated to make games and run businesses than it seems. There are so many factors that the public has no need to care for, and, as a result, overlooks, resulting in this ignorant idea that developers can just add features that are requested. Making such modifications to the game/adding those features may make the product lose more users than it gains, or eat up the budget of the game, resulting in a loss of other features (dumbed down graphics/sound, shorter game, no tutorial mode, etc.), among other things. Frankly, these gamers who so aggressively bash companies need to grow up and learn the difficulties of these jobs (basically not possible), or, more realistically, need to just be ignored by the PR of the companies, because they just aren't worth their time.
By the way, I feel like a complete newbie asking this, but how do I indent on these forums? (face turns red in embarrassment):/
riight. Nintendo has about 8 billion dollars in cash, and if you factor in assets, probably over 10 billion.
What's with calling them a "toy" company? They make video game consoles. and they earn money from not just pokemon, but all of their games, and liscensing fees to 3rd parties on the GBA and GC. Sorry if I sound like a fanboy, but calling Nintendo a "toy company" just sounds a little bit insulting when I hear it. Yeah, Nintendo is losing marketshare in consoles, but so is Sony, because there were THREE consoles this generation, not just two. If you factor in the GBA, Nintendo holds over 55 percent of the market share in the video game industry... kind of big for a simple toy company, no?:) Ok, I'm done now.
here's the original announcement of the cell, claiming that 400 million dollars combined were already pledged the Cell.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-948493.html
Here's a news story that the Ps3 will NOT use the Cell processor.
http://ps2.ign.com/articles/394/394184p1.html
And here's an a news story that Sony spent 1.6 billion dollars on a Cell production plant.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/computers/componen ts/story/0,2000023499,20273860,00.htm
It was announced in March that a deal was struck between ATI and Nintendo, and reported on slashdot, as well.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=8103
I could go and find the ign link as well, but I'm too lazy.
No one is saying that Nintendo doesn't care about the profit. But I think everyone here will agree that Nintendo DOES care about the quality of their games more than Sony or MS does.
Nintendo DOES NOT MARKET TO KIDS. They market to EVERYONE. Seriously, I'm amazed at how people confuse a game playable by everyone to a game playable by only kids. A kiddie game is something like Elmo's Letter Adventures. It's made ONLY for kids to be played. A game like Super Mario Sunshine is made for EVERYONE. It's made to be enjoyable by kids, teens, AND adults. Just like Mario 64. Little kids played Mario 64, and they had fun, just like the millions of teens and adults that also played Mario 64.
Anyone who considers Nintendo to be kiddie really needs to open their eyes, because Nintendo makes games for everyone. When a game doesn't have a serious topic, or blood, gore, and swearing, it does NOT mean the game was made for kids. It just means that it was made for not ONLY teens and adults. Seriously, I'm sick of hearing the "Nintendo is kiddie" thing. Metroid Prime, Eternal Darkness, and resident evil are all hardly games meant for kids to play. Especially Eternal Darkness, which is the most mature game I've ever played. Rather than relying on violence to sell and appeal to a "mature" audience, the game rather uses a deep story and a system that messes with your head. Oh, and just so you know, even though Eternal Darkness was made by Silicon Knights, mainly, Nintendo had huge amounts of input on the project, and the game was also published by Nintendo. Nintendo also owns a 49% stake in Silicon Knights, I believe, so anyone who still calls Nintendo kiddie is just plain ignorant.
Open your eyes, people. The amount of "mature" content that is absent from a game does NOT determine the target audience. Nintendo makes games for everyone. It isn't Nintendo that's branding themselves with the kiddie image. It's the gamers. And the gamers need to open their eyes up.
The GC has TONS of anti-piracy protection.
1. Custom laser that can only read G.O.D.s
2. Custom media (G.O.D.)
3. System limited to only playing G.O.D.s
4. G.O.D.'s first layer of data is filled with garbage data.
5. G.O.D. is read outside-in
6. Barcode on the G.O.D.
7. Location of the BIOS
Also, neither the GC nor the GC software has been hacked. The only thing that's been done is that a few G.O.D.s have been dumped onto a PC. That's all. And with no way to play the pirated files, the effort, money, and time of StarCube has been wasted.
Slashdot Mirror
Whoops. Heh. I lost my post during a preview, first, so I kind of rushed re-creating it, and I guess I forgot to put "X-box Division" after MS.
GC's are cheap and easy to manufacture, resulting in a 4 million backstock of cubes last November. Nintendo was producing Cubes a LOT faster than Cubes were being sold. That doesn't necessarily mean Cubes weren't selling well.
Uh, where do you work, because it sure doesn't soudn like a regular store. Cubes are flying off the shelves lately, and GB Players have been selling well since they were released. Here's a resaon why someone might want a GB Player: They don't already have a GBA or an SP, and the GB player is a cheaper way to gain access to the GB library. That's just one of the many reasons they're selling. Also, here's something that makes memory cards better than HDs: you can bring save data with you wherever you go. For instance, you can bring your memory card and your SSBM record with you to a friend's house to play SSBM. I'd like to see you lug your X-box's hard drive around to a friend's house.
WHY, WHY, WHY do I always see articles about the demise of Nintendo, when they're in EXCELLENT condition? Here are some examples:
1. Nintendo has NO DEBT.
2. Nintendo went FORTY ONE YEARS without posting a half-year net loss, and are on pace to go for forty TWO years without a full year net loss.
3. Nintendo has over eight billion dollars cash, and probably a couple more billion dollars in assets, making it an 11 figure company, with each cent of its money spendable for itself.
4. Nintendo will ALWAYS have dedicated fans who will buy their products, who will raise kids that will become dedicated fans, ensuring that Nintendo's products will ALWAYS sell.
5. The highest selling publisher of console games and handheld games, worldwide, is Nintendo.
6. GBA and GC are the only systems to see INCREASED sales in 2003.
7. Sony posted a net loss of over 1 billion dollars last fiscal year. MS lost money, as well. Nintendo posted a profit. Who's in bad condition, here?
8. Nintendo has maintained firm control of the handheld market for two decades, and it's stronger than ever.
9. Sure, Sony and MS are valued at over 50 billion dollars. However, they have to spread that money over several different markets: PC hardware, PC software, CD players, TVs, movies, video games, etc. Nintendo can focus all of its resources, all 10 billion + dollars on one market: Video games.
It's funny. I never hear complaints about MS losing billions on the X-box, nor about how they're in 3rd place in worldwide console sales. In spite of the skeptics, the crticism, and the reminders of every little thing that goes wrong, Nintendo is in a comfortable 2nd place in the console market, on top of the software charts, as always, and on pace to continue to profit yearly. Nintendo is doing much more than merely surviving: They're expanding, and it doesn't look like they'll be slowing down any time soon.
X-box? That's CLEARLY based on the N64 layout. Just because it has curves in certain places doesn't make it an X-box based controller.
Ok, here's a list of all my Cube games (I love them all)
Animal Crossing - exclusive (Nintendo)
Beach Spikers - Exclusive (Sega)
Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg - Exclusive (Sega: platformer by Yuji Naka)
Burnout 2: Point of Impact
Capcom Vs. SNK 2 EO
Cubivore (known as Animal Leader in Japan)- Exclusive (Nintendo)
Def Jam Vendetta
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem - Exclusive (Silicon Knights)
F-Zero GX - Exclusive (Sega, yes, you read that right.)
Ikaruga - Exclusive, but it was also released for DC and arcades, but in japan only. GC version is available in all regions of the world
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time & Master Quest - port of the N64 classic, along with the addon, "Master Quest", which contains revamped dungeons.
Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - Exclusive (Nintendo)
Luigi's Mansion - Exclusive (launch title) (Nintendo) Short but fun.
Mario Party 4 - Exclusive (Nintendo)
Medal of Honor: Frontline
Metroid Prime - Exclusive (Nintendo)
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
NBA Street Vol. 2
Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II
Pikmin - Exclusive (Nintendo)
Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc
Resident Evil (aka REmake) - remake of the original Resident Evil. This remake, with completely redone graphics, new enemies, among other things, was only released for GC. (capcom)
Resident Evil 0 - exclusive (capcom)
Resident Evil 2 - port of RE2
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis - port of RE3
Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron 2 - Exclusive (launch title) (Factor 5)
Skies of Arcadia Legends - enhanced port of Sega's massive RPG for the Dreamcast
Sonic Adventure 2: Battle - port of SA2 (Sega)
Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut - Port of SA, also contains all the Sonic Game Gear games as unlockables (Sega)
Sonic Mega Collection - collection of all the Sonic titles from the Sega Genesis (Sega)
Soul Calibur 2 - multiplatform, but Link is a character exclusive to the GC version. (Namco)
Super Mario Sunshine - Exclusive (Nintendo)
Super Monkey Ball - Exclusive (Sega)
Super Monkey Ball 2 - Exclusive (Sega)
Super Smash Brothers Melee - Exclusive (Nintendo)
Timesplitters 2
Viewtiful Joe - Exclusive (Capcom)
Hope that helps. Check out reviews for all of those games to see which ones you'd like. Personally, I'd recommend buying a cube after November 17th, and picking up Skies of Arcadia Legends, Metroid Prime, Eternal Darkness, and Viewtiful Joe. For $99, you get the Cube and the Zelda collection disk, containing The Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: Adventures of Link, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a playable demo of Wind Waker, gameplay footage from Wind Waker, and a "The making of..." documentary on the Zelda series. Skies of Arcadia is being sold for ten dollars brand new at Best Buy, Eternal Darkness is being sold between 10 and 20 dollars brand new, Metroid Prime is a Players' Choice title, and therefore, costs only 30 dollars, and Viewtiful Joe retails for only $40. So, you get a new console, a documentary, a playable demo, a video demo, and eight AAA titles, for only $200. Enjoy!
Of COURSE! Nintendo only accounts for 60-70% of the video game industry in terms of hardware, and is only the top selling developer (and publisher)! Not to mention they continue to make 500 million dollars (or more) of profit per fiscal year, and have yet to post a quarterly loss since they've entered the video game industry. Oh, and they were only the Nikkei company of the year. YEAH! NINTENDO'S GOING THROUGH QUITE SOME ROUGHT TIMES! *rolls eyes*
Look, I can understand how the users feel, and I understand how Rodberg and other developers feel, but there's a lot of people who are at fault...
:/
#1: Rodberg. As a PR representative, he has no business blowing up at the fans like that. Yeah, they may be jackasses at some times, but he has to deal with that. Flaming your potential customers isn't going to help.
#2: Sierra, for putting Rodberg in a position he obviously couldn't handle, in the PR dept.
#3: The fans. Some fans just can't understand that making games and running a business are very difficult. They accuse companies and developers of ignoring the fans, and they think they could do a better job at making a game or running the company than the pros do. Frankly, these people don't realize that each fan desires different things from a game. A developer needs to take all fans into account when developing a game, and while it is impossible to please everyone, they try their best to make a game that will satisfy their users. When there are complaints that conflict, they try and find a solution that will please as many gamers as possible. It's not just "Add feature A to make B number of people buy your game." It's more like this:
"Take into account suggestions A, B, C, D, and E, and using all their ideas, try to come up with an idea, F, that satisfies as much of suggestions A through E as possible, while retaining interest from as many current fans who plan to buy this game as possible, also taking into account costs (G), available resources (H), time schedule (I), hardware limits (kind of falls under H), size of production team (J), and other factors (K and on) in the making of such decision."
It's much more complicated to make games and run businesses than it seems. There are so many factors that the public has no need to care for, and, as a result, overlooks, resulting in this ignorant idea that developers can just add features that are requested. Making such modifications to the game/adding those features may make the product lose more users than it gains, or eat up the budget of the game, resulting in a loss of other features (dumbed down graphics/sound, shorter game, no tutorial mode, etc.), among other things. Frankly, these gamers who so aggressively bash companies need to grow up and learn the difficulties of these jobs (basically not possible), or, more realistically, need to just be ignored by the PR of the companies, because they just aren't worth their time.
By the way, I feel like a complete newbie asking this, but how do I indent on these forums? (face turns red in embarrassment)
riight. Nintendo has about 8 billion dollars in cash, and if you factor in assets, probably over 10 billion. :) Ok, I'm done now.
What's with calling them a "toy" company? They make video game consoles. and they earn money from not just pokemon, but all of their games, and liscensing fees to 3rd parties on the GBA and GC. Sorry if I sound like a fanboy, but calling Nintendo a "toy company" just sounds a little bit insulting when I hear it. Yeah, Nintendo is losing marketshare in consoles, but so is Sony, because there were THREE consoles this generation, not just two. If you factor in the GBA, Nintendo holds over 55 percent of the market share in the video game industry... kind of big for a simple toy company, no?
here's the original announcement of the cell, claiming that 400 million dollars combined were already pledged the Cell. http://news.com.com/2100-1001-948493.html Here's a news story that the Ps3 will NOT use the Cell processor. http://ps2.ign.com/articles/394/394184p1.html And here's an a news story that Sony spent 1.6 billion dollars on a Cell production plant. http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/computers/componen ts/story/0,2000023499,20273860,00.htm
It was announced in March that a deal was struck between ATI and Nintendo, and reported on slashdot, as well. http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=8103 I could go and find the ign link as well, but I'm too lazy.
No one is saying that Nintendo doesn't care about the profit. But I think everyone here will agree that Nintendo DOES care about the quality of their games more than Sony or MS does.
Nintendo DOES NOT MARKET TO KIDS. They market to EVERYONE. Seriously, I'm amazed at how people confuse a game playable by everyone to a game playable by only kids. A kiddie game is something like Elmo's Letter Adventures. It's made ONLY for kids to be played. A game like Super Mario Sunshine is made for EVERYONE. It's made to be enjoyable by kids, teens, AND adults. Just like Mario 64. Little kids played Mario 64, and they had fun, just like the millions of teens and adults that also played Mario 64. Anyone who considers Nintendo to be kiddie really needs to open their eyes, because Nintendo makes games for everyone. When a game doesn't have a serious topic, or blood, gore, and swearing, it does NOT mean the game was made for kids. It just means that it was made for not ONLY teens and adults. Seriously, I'm sick of hearing the "Nintendo is kiddie" thing. Metroid Prime, Eternal Darkness, and resident evil are all hardly games meant for kids to play. Especially Eternal Darkness, which is the most mature game I've ever played. Rather than relying on violence to sell and appeal to a "mature" audience, the game rather uses a deep story and a system that messes with your head. Oh, and just so you know, even though Eternal Darkness was made by Silicon Knights, mainly, Nintendo had huge amounts of input on the project, and the game was also published by Nintendo. Nintendo also owns a 49% stake in Silicon Knights, I believe, so anyone who still calls Nintendo kiddie is just plain ignorant. Open your eyes, people. The amount of "mature" content that is absent from a game does NOT determine the target audience. Nintendo makes games for everyone. It isn't Nintendo that's branding themselves with the kiddie image. It's the gamers. And the gamers need to open their eyes up.
It's TROGDOR. :P
Strong Bad, Strong Sad, and Strong Mad are all brothers.
The GC has TONS of anti-piracy protection. 1. Custom laser that can only read G.O.D.s 2. Custom media (G.O.D.) 3. System limited to only playing G.O.D.s 4. G.O.D.'s first layer of data is filled with garbage data. 5. G.O.D. is read outside-in 6. Barcode on the G.O.D. 7. Location of the BIOS Also, neither the GC nor the GC software has been hacked. The only thing that's been done is that a few G.O.D.s have been dumped onto a PC. That's all. And with no way to play the pirated files, the effort, money, and time of StarCube has been wasted.