Nintendo was heavily criticized for not jumping into the realm of online gaming. I criticized them as well. I was sitting there playing my PS2 online and my Xbox Live thinking "Geez, I wish Nintendo would do this!" Nintendo's defense was that it "wasn't the right time." I called bullshit, along with many many others.
Now I'm ashamed that I had lost faith in them. Nintendo truly doesn't go with the majority. They really were waiting for the "right time" to do something unique with online (and specifically, wireless) technology.
Between the DS hotspots and the proposed online service for the Revolution, it just goes to show you that Nintendo will take whatever the competition is doing and find a unique way of adapting it.
Buy Canon. I love their printers. In reviews, they typically fair better than most and are consitantly high performers.
Combine that with the fact that their cartridges are cheap. My S540 is an awesome printer for normal documents as well as borderless picture printing. The black ink cartridge is a mere $10. Can't beat it.
I think you've missed the general point of the article. Don't look at how many consoles they've sold - look at how much money they've made off of them.
If you sell a billion consoles, yet lose money on them, you're still in the hole financially.
Now if you sell 150,000 of them and make money on each, financially you're ahead of the game.
The article doesn't argue console sales numbers explicitly, it argues that Nintendo is making a god-awful lot of money, which is what they're in business to begin with.
Not to exaggerate, but Nintendo has become a part of our culture - not just video games, but society in general. Most people know Donkey Kong, Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, etc.
As long as Nintendo can maintain this "awareness" that the general public has of them as being a major part of video games and entertainment in general, I can't see them fading away.
I was rather scared at the idea of Link being a wolf, at first.
My knee-jerk reaction was the exact same.
Then I thought back to Marjora's mask where you got to play different creatures - a Goron, a Deku-Scrub, a Zora, etc. The way Nintendo designed the gameplay mechanics and puzzles, it almost felt like you were playing a different game with each character. Each creature had their own strengths, weaknesses, and special abilities, which really opened up the game.
With Nintendo's track record of gameplay innovation, I bet the gameplay as a Wolf will be just as - if not more - entertaining as playing as link
I come off sounding like a real Nintendo fanboy, but you have to admit that they tend to pull off these strange twists pretty well. A wolf character would be cliche in the hands of many development houses, but the Big N should be able to pull it off pretty well. (at least, I hope!)
"...some people are still against Wind Waker's highly animated visual style despite having never played the game."
If you own a Gamecube and haven't played this game - please, try it. Even if you don't like the look of the cell-shaded graphics, don't let it discourage you.
After Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, I was shocked when they revealed the stylistic route they went with Windwaker.
However, right from the opening screen all the way to the final battle with Ganon, I loved the graphics. They were able to accomplish environments and effects that are very much unique to the cell-shaded universe.
For instance, there was a dungeon full of lava. I'm sure this would look awesome if they had done the realistic graphcs. However, seeing cell-shaded flames through a heat-induced haze was gorgeous. If you were to present the same environment using "realistic graphics", I'd probably prefer the cell-shaded.
We've all seen lava, water, mountains, and grass plains in real life (or on TV, or movies). But to see these same environments interpreted as cell-shaded is definitely unique, and dare I say, innovative.
Unlike buildings and bridges, no one is going to die if Netscape releases a quick-fix patch.
That's the luxury software developers have that civil engineers don't. Its not exactly possible to go back and fix a mistake you made while building a multi-million dollar bridge.
Netscape can release patches constantly if they want. That is, unless they want to prevent their customers from becoming confused and annoyed, at which point they can stop using their product.
So far, Live is still unique. Until Nintendo announces a monitored service, that is.
Here's the thing - I used to play a LOT of PC titles online. It was great, mostly because it was free. Then people start to cheat. They start to greif. Then they start acting like assholes, spewing insults, racist comments, etc.
What I like is the fact that I leave feedback on them, and the Live team will review this feed back each week. Those offending accounts are either suspended, banned, or have their voice-capablities removed.
Until Nintendo or Sony unveils a similar service (free OR pad, because I'll gladly pay for this) I still feel that Live is unique. Especially since it is a COMMON platform across all games. If a guy gets banned from Halo 2, he can't go on Ghost Recon 2 and do the same shit. If he's banned from Live, he's banned from it all.
...Because Microsoft pretty much told us the exact opposite until the time Live was actually launched...But if you can throw that your processor is nearly twice as high as the competitor's to the general public, they'll eat it up
I absolutely agree. When Xbox launched, it was all about the power. I guess that's one of the few advantages to launching your console later than the PS2.:)
I also agree that the public eats up hardware specs. This is usually the downfall of Nintendo - they push the fact that hardware power needs to be paired with great game-making. This round of the console wars, it seems like it may be a thorn in Microsoft's side as well. They have this great online service that really can help improve the online gaming experience, but it could all be for nothing if people ignore it and look at the PS3 specs.
I'm starting to get the feeling that they actually are trying to get themselves laughed out of the console market...
Is there anyone left that is really going to go out and buy an xbox 360?
I am. There's lots of titles that I'm looking forward to. Some originals, some sequals.
The key for me is Xbox Live. I own the GC, PS2, and Xbox - I enjoy each of them based on their respective strengths. The integrated and well-designed online experience of Live is well worth purchasing the console, for me.
You can downplay Live all you want, but to me that's key to Microsoft's strategy. For a measly $80 a year, you can an integrated online service that is monitored. They tweak the performance, they listen to feedback and suspend/ban accounts, and they offer some great downloadable content.
The Xbox 360 may not be as powerful as the PS3, but there's a lot more to a good console than just power.
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Now I'm ashamed that I had lost faith in them. Nintendo truly doesn't go with the majority. They really were waiting for the "right time" to do something unique with online (and specifically, wireless) technology.
Between the DS hotspots and the proposed online service for the Revolution, it just goes to show you that Nintendo will take whatever the competition is doing and find a unique way of adapting it.
Combine that with the fact that their cartridges are cheap. My S540 is an awesome printer for normal documents as well as borderless picture printing. The black ink cartridge is a mere $10. Can't beat it.
If you sell a billion consoles, yet lose money on them, you're still in the hole financially.
Now if you sell 150,000 of them and make money on each, financially you're ahead of the game.
The article doesn't argue console sales numbers explicitly, it argues that Nintendo is making a god-awful lot of money, which is what they're in business to begin with.
As long as Nintendo can maintain this "awareness" that the general public has of them as being a major part of video games and entertainment in general, I can't see them fading away.
My knee-jerk reaction was the exact same.
Then I thought back to Marjora's mask where you got to play different creatures - a Goron, a Deku-Scrub, a Zora, etc. The way Nintendo designed the gameplay mechanics and puzzles, it almost felt like you were playing a different game with each character. Each creature had their own strengths, weaknesses, and special abilities, which really opened up the game.
With Nintendo's track record of gameplay innovation, I bet the gameplay as a Wolf will be just as - if not more - entertaining as playing as link
I come off sounding like a real Nintendo fanboy, but you have to admit that they tend to pull off these strange twists pretty well. A wolf character would be cliche in the hands of many development houses, but the Big N should be able to pull it off pretty well. (at least, I hope!)
If you own a Gamecube and haven't played this game - please, try it. Even if you don't like the look of the cell-shaded graphics, don't let it discourage you.
After Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, I was shocked when they revealed the stylistic route they went with Windwaker.
However, right from the opening screen all the way to the final battle with Ganon, I loved the graphics. They were able to accomplish environments and effects that are very much unique to the cell-shaded universe.
For instance, there was a dungeon full of lava. I'm sure this would look awesome if they had done the realistic graphcs. However, seeing cell-shaded flames through a heat-induced haze was gorgeous. If you were to present the same environment using "realistic graphics", I'd probably prefer the cell-shaded.
We've all seen lava, water, mountains, and grass plains in real life (or on TV, or movies). But to see these same environments interpreted as cell-shaded is definitely unique, and dare I say, innovative.
That's the luxury software developers have that civil engineers don't. Its not exactly possible to go back and fix a mistake you made while building a multi-million dollar bridge.
Netscape can release patches constantly if they want. That is, unless they want to prevent their customers from becoming confused and annoyed, at which point they can stop using their product.
Here's the thing - I used to play a LOT of PC titles online. It was great, mostly because it was free. Then people start to cheat. They start to greif. Then they start acting like assholes, spewing insults, racist comments, etc.
What I like is the fact that I leave feedback on them, and the Live team will review this feed back each week. Those offending accounts are either suspended, banned, or have their voice-capablities removed.
Until Nintendo or Sony unveils a similar service (free OR pad, because I'll gladly pay for this) I still feel that Live is unique. Especially since it is a COMMON platform across all games. If a guy gets banned from Halo 2, he can't go on Ghost Recon 2 and do the same shit. If he's banned from Live, he's banned from it all.
I absolutely agree. When Xbox launched, it was all about the power. I guess that's one of the few advantages to launching your console later than the PS2. :)
I also agree that the public eats up hardware specs. This is usually the downfall of Nintendo - they push the fact that hardware power needs to be paired with great game-making. This round of the console wars, it seems like it may be a thorn in Microsoft's side as well. They have this great online service that really can help improve the online gaming experience, but it could all be for nothing if people ignore it and look at the PS3 specs.
I'm starting to get the feeling that they actually are trying to get themselves laughed out of the console market... Is there anyone left that is really going to go out and buy an xbox 360?
I am. There's lots of titles that I'm looking forward to. Some originals, some sequals.
The key for me is Xbox Live. I own the GC, PS2, and Xbox - I enjoy each of them based on their respective strengths. The integrated and well-designed online experience of Live is well worth purchasing the console, for me.
You can downplay Live all you want, but to me that's key to Microsoft's strategy. For a measly $80 a year, you can an integrated online service that is monitored. They tweak the performance, they listen to feedback and suspend/ban accounts, and they offer some great downloadable content. The Xbox 360 may not be as powerful as the PS3, but there's a lot more to a good console than just power.