My feelings are mixed on this. I am a very hardcore gamer, playing on all consoles and PC. I have played various MMO's as well, and have generally found that online play doesn't really add that much to the experience for me.
This certainly isn't a dealbreaker on the Wii for me. Honestly, the only game I care that has online is Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I don't really need online play for anything else. And it's not like this will affect demo downloads or the virtual console, so no worries there.
On the other hand, this might affect 3rd party support for the Wii. And as much as I like Nintendo's 1st & 2nd party offerings, theres a lot of games you miss out on with no 3rd party support. That part is certainly worrying.
I think you misunderstand the concept of innovation. Innovation is not just a matter of doing something no one has ever done before, but a matter of doing it differently than it has been done before. Certainly there have been attempts at motion sensing control, pointing devices and separate hand controls before (which has always struck me as the next step in control, it's silly to always keep both hands in the same position). The Wiimote+nunchuk is innovative not just because of what it does, but because of how it does it, and because of how it's designed.
After all, by your definition, the printing press wasn't particularly innovative. After all, people had been making books for years. All the printing press did was make it faster and more efficient. It didn't even make bookmaking better. After all, I don't know if you ever read an illuminated book, but they are gorgeous, especially in comparison to the drab, cookie-cutter text we have now.
The individual bits in the Wii remote may not be new, but they are certainly innovative.
I don't know the answer to your first question (about Drist), but as for the second, some of the songs they have the original recordings for. It is more expensive for them to get those, but they've done their best. The others will be done by Wavegroup.
Ummmm...the sticky bomb acts functionally the same as a Proximity Mine or Timed Mine, which have pretty much been standard in console FPS' since Goldeneye on the n64. They modified the idea, but it's hardly anything new, or even interesting by the time Halo arrived. And Goldeneye wasn't the first, they just set the standard.
They only have room for, at most, 5 3rd party characters (and Solid Snake already takes up one of those slots).
Only characters who have appeared in a game on a Nintendo console (home or handheld) are acceptable. (Sonic is viable due to 3 Sonic GBA games, and Sonic Rush on DS.)
There was a poll on Sakurai's blog, and Sonic came in first, I don't remember what the other characters were, but a few dedicated Nintendo fansites reported on it a month or so after E3 this year. I know for certain Megaman was in the top 10 requested.
Ummmm...according to MediaCreate, Sony sold at most 250,000 PSPs last month. According to NPD, Sony sold less than 150,000 PSPs last month. That's 400,000, and that's being generous (during the month of July Sony sold between 40,000 & 49,000 PSPs per week, I gave them 50,000 each week, then multiplied by 5, even though July only had 4 1/2 weeks in it, also I don't remember the exact NPD numbers, but I know the DS sold over 350,000 and the PSP sold about half as many as the DS).
Now, according to the report you linked, Sony shipped 300,000 PSPs to Europe. Combining the known numbers for Japan, the US and Europe, that puts it at 700,000 PSPs sold, and that's being extremely generous to Sony. Now do you see why sold numbers are much more valuable than shipped numbers. Sure, out of 100 million, 100 thousand isn't much, but out of 800 thousand, 100 thousand is quite significant. If you look at it that way, with them shipping 100,000 more units than they sell every month, then their total reported numbers become highly inaccurate. Unfortunately I'm at work, so I can't spend the time to pull up the links to verify my numbers, but www.joystiq.com reguarly reports the numbers, as does www.gamasutra.com . They give an accurate picture of exactly how many of each console was sold in each region on a weekly (Japan), montly (USA) or quarterly (Europe) basis. Sony's sold numbers almost never come anywhere near matching their shipped numbers.
They have confirmed that they will be using standard SD cards. They have said nothing about how these cards will need to be formatted, though, so it's likely you'll need a special card for the Wii because of formatting and DRM. Unless you can partition the card, with different formatting for each partition.
Nintendo has also hinted at being able to use USB harddrives to extend storage, but they haven't officially confirmed it yet.
According to what I've read, the game will have two doctors to choose from, the second one having a different special ability rather than Healing Touch, so you'll have a reason to play through it at least twice.
Well then I guess all those units of unsold DS's at my local store are not part of the shipped figure then? Is there a third figure, because that must mean that those units I see in store are not part of the shipped total?
One thing you need to remember is that Nintendo operates significantly differently from any other major console manufacturer they currently compete with.
Nintendo, like Sega, has always reported sold numbers, not shipped numbers. So no, the 21 million figure does not include the DS' sitting on store shelves, because those shipped numbers are essentially useless to Nintendo.
The reasoning behind this is simple. Nintendo is still the number one software developer for their platform. It is vitally important to them to know exactly how many hardware units are in customer hands so they can estimate how many units of software to produce. If they have shipped 40 million DS', but have only sold 21 million, and they release a game like New Super Mario Bros., their internal analysts can be reasonably sure that 60% of all DS owners will purchase this new game. Now, 60% of 40 million is significantly greater than 60% of 21 million. If they produce units based on their shipped figures, that's 11.4 million copies of the game that they've essentially wasted money on, and Nintendo is far too conservative a company to waste money like that. After they determine how many existing users are likely to purchase, they determine how many users are likely to purchase the console and the new game because of the game, then they add maybe 5% to that total to avoid shortages, and that's how many copies of the game they stamp.
Sony and Microsoft, on the other hand, are far more dependent on 3rd parties. Therefore they use the artificially inflated shipped numbers to encourage more 3rd parties to make games for their consoles.
Nintendo has always only reported sold numbers, not because they're being particularly open and honest, but because that number is vitally important to their business model. They even go so far as to report the numbers as conservatively as possible, only reporting numbers they can verify, since it's better to err on the side of caution by a few hundred, and save money they can then use for other products.
Just because it has a standby mode, does not mean that it is totally lacking in an off switch. The PS2 has an on/off switch as well as the standby button, in case you ever feel like turning it completely off. The Wii will very likely have something similar, or it might not.
So far the only 'launch' games that have been announced to have online play are: Red Steel, Call of Duty 3 and Need for Speed: Carbon. However, most developers have mentioned taking some advantage of the Wii's online service, but haven't said what, specifically, it'll be. I suppose we'll know more when Nintendo actually bothers to tell us what their online service will be like. Not that I'm complaining or anything, but the stellar lack of information can get on your nerves after a while.
It wouldn't. Which is fine, because I did not type Pinball, I typed Paintball. You know, Mario & friends (& enemies) shooting little balls of paint at each other. No one dies, so they can give it a (T)een rating, but you still get to run around and shoot people. And, being a Mario title, much like their Mario sports titles, each character is guaranteed to have a special "trick shot". It sounds silly as all get out, but I guarantee you it would break sales records.
I know you're trying to make a joke, but I'm willing to bet you that a game of Mario Paintball with all the Mario characters, would easily outsell Halo 3.
Nov. 17 - PS3 launches.
Nov. 12 - Gears of War ships.
The Wii launch likely won't be much more than a week before the 12th, if not the 12th. Not to mention Guitar Hero 2 ships in November, and FFXII ships Oct. 31. Shopping's going to be a real b*tch this holiday season.
You're wrong about two separate things in that comment.
While you're correct that 3D is a vector format and no more work is needed to take advantage of greater picture resolution, you forget several things. At higher resolutions, you need higher polygon count models, or the models begin to look blocky. The Wii can use those exact same models, it just doesn't require them. More important than polygons, though, is the textures. You have to design completely new textures, textures which would need to be much, much more in-depth at higher resolutions, or they will look blurry to the point of uselessness. The Wii can still use those more complex textures, but you won't be able to tell the difference because of the lower resolution.
So what it comes down to is, with HD you're required to have more polygons and more complex textures, which you can then port to the Wii with no problems. However, if you design specifically for the Wii, you can get away with fewer polygons and simpler textures, so a game developed for the Wii alone will be cheaper, whereas a game developed for the PS3 or 360 won't need new models and textures to be ported.
The second thing you're wrong about is the CPU and GPU just being die shrinks. That's very, very wrong. The CPU & GPU began development in early to mid 2005. They are based on the processors in the GC, but they are still being significantly modified and upgraded. Nintendo has paid IBM and ATI to design modified versions of the chips they originally provided them (well, the GPU was provided by ArtX, but that company was bought by ATI).
Because of this, and many other things, the Wii will cost Nintendo much more to produce than the $99 GC. In fact, Nintendo has already said that they will not charge more than $250 for the Wii, and it may very well be the first console they lose money on the sale of, but if so it will be by no more than $5 per console sold. I vaguely remember reading an article somewhere that says they began console production back in June, and that they hope to reduce production costs enough by release to make a profit on each console sold.
The Wii also hasn't been released yet. Which is not to say Nintendo would change their policy about this after release, but Nintendo is as concerned with piracy, if not more, as other game companies, so there's a chance they might consider it. If it works out for them, other companies will consider it, and price them accordingly.
Also, the Wii devkit is $2000. Which is still a lot of money to pay to work on homebrew, but if that's what you want to do, you're welcome to it.
Your arguments are valid to a certain extent, but they are also utterly useless.
First of all, what specific inalienable rights are you speaking of? Point them out to me specifically, because as far as I'm aware there is no inalienable right to compatibility. Yes, you have a right to own and do what you want with your property, but at no point does it say you have any right to compatibility. If any restriction, natural or artificial prevents you from getting total enjoyment out of a product, there is no recourse, legal or moral to that.
But beyond that, the simple fact of the matter is, money is the only reason any business exists. If they don't make money, they stop existing. Certainly, if a company providing a good or service ceases to exist, another company will step up to take it's place. That company will not sell their product at a loss, as that obviously did not work for the previous company. Which means your Xbox 360 would be running you about $800...and yet people balk at a $600 PS3 (also being sold at a loss). So instead they'd have to make a much weaker system that they could sell more cheaply, but no one would buy it because they wouldn't think it was good enough! The same complaint people are making about the much cheaper to produce Wii.
A company operates like any other organism, it's first priority is to its own survival. It has to make money, and it cannot violate the law. If the law changes to such an extent that it can no longer make money doing that, then it will simply stop producing that product. If no one can figure out how to make money with a similar product under the new laws, then all products in that category will simply cease to exist. It has happened to products before, and in time it's bound to happen again.
I'm not saying you shouldn't be upset when things don't work the way you want, or that you shouldn't complain. You should complain, because complaints are the only way that anyone knows improvements need to be made. But at no point should you dismiss the concerns of the other side as if they are less important or less valid than your own. The laws are not perfect. The companies are not perfect. You are not perfect. The optimal solution is one that allows those on both sides to survive and prosper.
Actually, the 360 is not inherently region coded. Any game actually developed by Microsoft or a subsidiary will not be region locked. Microsoft allows 3rd parties to decide whether they want games to be region locked or not, and most of them decide to do so. So you can't blame that one on Microsoft.
There have also been rumors about the PS3 not having region locking, but I don't know if that's been verified as true or not. I do know that in the Blu-ray specifications, Japan & the US are part of the same region now.
As for why region locking happens, I'll give you a scenario. Company A creates a game in Japan. It is well loved, and everyone imports it. Seeing the sales, Company A then translates said game and presses new discs to distribute to other regions, which costs them a great deal of money. No one buys the new translated game, because everyone who wanted it already imported it. That means all that money they spent localizing the game was wasted with no way to justify it from a business standpoint.
It's exactly that scenario that gets companies to region lock their games. As unlikely as it is, it's still a concern. The more prevalent the internet and import reviews become, the more likely this scenario becomes. Eventually you have companies that start leaving their games unlocked by region, but no longer bother localizing them. Then you have countless thousands of games that could be bought by millions of people, but never will be because they don't speak the language the game was originally designed in. So you'd still need a modchip to play your imported game with a fan translation loaded.
These are not insurmountable obstacles, no, but overcoming them requires money and effort that is not focused on the core business of making games.
I am a natural born collector. I don't see it as a disease, it's merely a personality trait.
I collect CCGs, RPG books, video games, legos, dolls, stuffed animals, artwork, books, DVDs, anime, comic books and manga.
I surround myself with the things I enjoy. I collect them, but not obsessively so. I don't spend hundreds of dollars on one rare card, but I'll easily drop $200 at once to get an entire run of a CCG I find interesting. I'll buy every book by a particular author and read all of them. I like stuff, I always have. I started out collecting coins and stamps, but that was started with my dad. There is nothing about coins or stamps that mean anything to me. Everything in the list above brings me enjoyment, so I collect it. I never get rid of anything because I often go back and read books I haven't read in a while, watch DVDs I haven't watched in a while, play games I remember from years ago, build a new deck with a new idea I never thought of before, or see something new in a piece of artwork I missed. If I got rid of those things, I'd miss out on what more they have to offer me as I age and my perspective changes.
That is the purpose behind being a collector. Anyone who spends money endlessly on an obsession is not a collector, they are an addictive personality, which is an entirely separate mental disorder.
You can replace the Prince of All Cosmos with Mario, and put Peach as the King of All Cosmos, and the game would play exactly the same (although, I admit, it probably would not have had nearly the sense of humor of Katamari Damacy). Nintendo didn't develop Ouendan, but it could easily have been a cheer squad featuring Mario, Luigi, Wario & Waluigi.
The simple fact of the matter is, Mario sells games. Nintendo doesn't put their franchise characters in a different type of game to strengthen the franchise. They put them in a different type of game, because when they come up with a new, innovative game unlike anything anyone has ever played, who's going to buy it? The same people that made Beyond Good & Evil such a success, those people who went mad over Psychonauts? No matter how good a game is, if you can't get people to buy it, it simply cannot be a success. On the other hand, people will buy a game with Mario in it, because they trust the Mario brand, regardless of the type of game it is (and yes, sometimes regardless of whether or not it's good), so Nintendo recycles its franchise characters into other types of games to give those games a chance.
Yes, I agree it would be nice to get some new IPs out there, after all the stories possible with Mario & Co are limited because of their established 'personality'. On the other hand, a lot of really great games exist because Nintendo can afford to take more of a risk with offshoot franchise games because they know they have a few guaranteed sales right off the bat. Mario Strikers is a great game, lots of fun, but with 3 excellent football simulations on the market, and at least 1 decent arcade football game on the market, do you really think anyone would have chosen it over something like FIFA World Cup if it wasn't a Mario title?
I enjoy reading. I like books. The only reason I stopped was because my job situation changed and I can't read at work any longer. I still alternate between reading and playing video games when at home.
Sorry, I'm at work, and trying to do 3 things at once suddenly. I also meant to say that Sony promised 2 million systems per month for launch, so that's 4 million by the end of the year. Nintendo promised similar numbers. Regardless, both systems are pretty much guaranteed to sell out this holiday.
I agree with you, just a couple things I wanted to point out, in case you care.
Metroid is pretty much an American phenomenon. It will sell systems in the US and possibly Europe, but in Japan it's basically a non-entity. Metroid Prime: Hunters made it into the Japanese top 10 for one week, and at that I was still surprised. It just isn't a game that appeals to Japanese gamers. That's another reason Zelda:TP is so important, it appeals to markets across the globe.
As for VC & WiiConnect24, no one actually knows anything about it. Every developer who's been asked about it basically gives the, 'I can't tell you or the Nintendo Yakuza will get me' response. We know they'll have retro downloadable games, new downloadable games, free online play, DS demos, and that it will somehow use friend codes. We know nothing else. They could have ladders, achievement scores, ignore lists, persistent accounts, subscriptions for VC. No one who knows is talking, so while it likely won't be as robust as Xbox Live, it may have some things that Live is missing.
Slashdot Mirror
This certainly isn't a dealbreaker on the Wii for me. Honestly, the only game I care that has online is Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I don't really need online play for anything else. And it's not like this will affect demo downloads or the virtual console, so no worries there.
On the other hand, this might affect 3rd party support for the Wii. And as much as I like Nintendo's 1st & 2nd party offerings, theres a lot of games you miss out on with no 3rd party support. That part is certainly worrying.
After all, by your definition, the printing press wasn't particularly innovative. After all, people had been making books for years. All the printing press did was make it faster and more efficient. It didn't even make bookmaking better. After all, I don't know if you ever read an illuminated book, but they are gorgeous, especially in comparison to the drab, cookie-cutter text we have now.
The individual bits in the Wii remote may not be new, but they are certainly innovative.
I don't know the answer to your first question (about Drist), but as for the second, some of the songs they have the original recordings for. It is more expensive for them to get those, but they've done their best. The others will be done by Wavegroup.
Ummmm...the sticky bomb acts functionally the same as a Proximity Mine or Timed Mine, which have pretty much been standard in console FPS' since Goldeneye on the n64. They modified the idea, but it's hardly anything new, or even interesting by the time Halo arrived. And Goldeneye wasn't the first, they just set the standard.
They only have room for, at most, 5 3rd party characters (and Solid Snake already takes up one of those slots).
Only characters who have appeared in a game on a Nintendo console (home or handheld) are acceptable. (Sonic is viable due to 3 Sonic GBA games, and Sonic Rush on DS.)
There was a poll on Sakurai's blog, and Sonic came in first, I don't remember what the other characters were, but a few dedicated Nintendo fansites reported on it a month or so after E3 this year. I know for certain Megaman was in the top 10 requested.
Now, according to the report you linked, Sony shipped 300,000 PSPs to Europe. Combining the known numbers for Japan, the US and Europe, that puts it at 700,000 PSPs sold, and that's being extremely generous to Sony. Now do you see why sold numbers are much more valuable than shipped numbers. Sure, out of 100 million, 100 thousand isn't much, but out of 800 thousand, 100 thousand is quite significant. If you look at it that way, with them shipping 100,000 more units than they sell every month, then their total reported numbers become highly inaccurate. Unfortunately I'm at work, so I can't spend the time to pull up the links to verify my numbers, but www.joystiq.com reguarly reports the numbers, as does www.gamasutra.com . They give an accurate picture of exactly how many of each console was sold in each region on a weekly (Japan), montly (USA) or quarterly (Europe) basis. Sony's sold numbers almost never come anywhere near matching their shipped numbers.
Nintendo has also hinted at being able to use USB harddrives to extend storage, but they haven't officially confirmed it yet.
Please tell me you were 'filled to the brim with girlish glee'. It will bring my life meaning.
According to what I've read, the game will have two doctors to choose from, the second one having a different special ability rather than Healing Touch, so you'll have a reason to play through it at least twice.
One thing you need to remember is that Nintendo operates significantly differently from any other major console manufacturer they currently compete with.
Nintendo, like Sega, has always reported sold numbers, not shipped numbers. So no, the 21 million figure does not include the DS' sitting on store shelves, because those shipped numbers are essentially useless to Nintendo.
The reasoning behind this is simple. Nintendo is still the number one software developer for their platform. It is vitally important to them to know exactly how many hardware units are in customer hands so they can estimate how many units of software to produce. If they have shipped 40 million DS', but have only sold 21 million, and they release a game like New Super Mario Bros., their internal analysts can be reasonably sure that 60% of all DS owners will purchase this new game. Now, 60% of 40 million is significantly greater than 60% of 21 million. If they produce units based on their shipped figures, that's 11.4 million copies of the game that they've essentially wasted money on, and Nintendo is far too conservative a company to waste money like that. After they determine how many existing users are likely to purchase, they determine how many users are likely to purchase the console and the new game because of the game, then they add maybe 5% to that total to avoid shortages, and that's how many copies of the game they stamp.
Sony and Microsoft, on the other hand, are far more dependent on 3rd parties. Therefore they use the artificially inflated shipped numbers to encourage more 3rd parties to make games for their consoles.
Nintendo has always only reported sold numbers, not because they're being particularly open and honest, but because that number is vitally important to their business model. They even go so far as to report the numbers as conservatively as possible, only reporting numbers they can verify, since it's better to err on the side of caution by a few hundred, and save money they can then use for other products.
Just because it has a standby mode, does not mean that it is totally lacking in an off switch. The PS2 has an on/off switch as well as the standby button, in case you ever feel like turning it completely off. The Wii will very likely have something similar, or it might not.
So far the only 'launch' games that have been announced to have online play are: Red Steel, Call of Duty 3 and Need for Speed: Carbon. However, most developers have mentioned taking some advantage of the Wii's online service, but haven't said what, specifically, it'll be. I suppose we'll know more when Nintendo actually bothers to tell us what their online service will be like. Not that I'm complaining or anything, but the stellar lack of information can get on your nerves after a while.
It wouldn't. Which is fine, because I did not type Pinball, I typed Paintball. You know, Mario & friends (& enemies) shooting little balls of paint at each other. No one dies, so they can give it a (T)een rating, but you still get to run around and shoot people. And, being a Mario title, much like their Mario sports titles, each character is guaranteed to have a special "trick shot". It sounds silly as all get out, but I guarantee you it would break sales records.
I know you're trying to make a joke, but I'm willing to bet you that a game of Mario Paintball with all the Mario characters, would easily outsell Halo 3.
Nov. 12 - Gears of War ships.
The Wii launch likely won't be much more than a week before the 12th, if not the 12th. Not to mention Guitar Hero 2 ships in November, and FFXII ships Oct. 31. Shopping's going to be a real b*tch this holiday season.
While you're correct that 3D is a vector format and no more work is needed to take advantage of greater picture resolution, you forget several things. At higher resolutions, you need higher polygon count models, or the models begin to look blocky. The Wii can use those exact same models, it just doesn't require them. More important than polygons, though, is the textures. You have to design completely new textures, textures which would need to be much, much more in-depth at higher resolutions, or they will look blurry to the point of uselessness. The Wii can still use those more complex textures, but you won't be able to tell the difference because of the lower resolution.
So what it comes down to is, with HD you're required to have more polygons and more complex textures, which you can then port to the Wii with no problems. However, if you design specifically for the Wii, you can get away with fewer polygons and simpler textures, so a game developed for the Wii alone will be cheaper, whereas a game developed for the PS3 or 360 won't need new models and textures to be ported.
The second thing you're wrong about is the CPU and GPU just being die shrinks. That's very, very wrong. The CPU & GPU began development in early to mid 2005. They are based on the processors in the GC, but they are still being significantly modified and upgraded. Nintendo has paid IBM and ATI to design modified versions of the chips they originally provided them (well, the GPU was provided by ArtX, but that company was bought by ATI).
Because of this, and many other things, the Wii will cost Nintendo much more to produce than the $99 GC. In fact, Nintendo has already said that they will not charge more than $250 for the Wii, and it may very well be the first console they lose money on the sale of, but if so it will be by no more than $5 per console sold. I vaguely remember reading an article somewhere that says they began console production back in June, and that they hope to reduce production costs enough by release to make a profit on each console sold.
Also, the Wii devkit is $2000. Which is still a lot of money to pay to work on homebrew, but if that's what you want to do, you're welcome to it.
First of all, what specific inalienable rights are you speaking of? Point them out to me specifically, because as far as I'm aware there is no inalienable right to compatibility. Yes, you have a right to own and do what you want with your property, but at no point does it say you have any right to compatibility. If any restriction, natural or artificial prevents you from getting total enjoyment out of a product, there is no recourse, legal or moral to that.
But beyond that, the simple fact of the matter is, money is the only reason any business exists. If they don't make money, they stop existing. Certainly, if a company providing a good or service ceases to exist, another company will step up to take it's place. That company will not sell their product at a loss, as that obviously did not work for the previous company. Which means your Xbox 360 would be running you about $800...and yet people balk at a $600 PS3 (also being sold at a loss). So instead they'd have to make a much weaker system that they could sell more cheaply, but no one would buy it because they wouldn't think it was good enough! The same complaint people are making about the much cheaper to produce Wii.
A company operates like any other organism, it's first priority is to its own survival. It has to make money, and it cannot violate the law. If the law changes to such an extent that it can no longer make money doing that, then it will simply stop producing that product. If no one can figure out how to make money with a similar product under the new laws, then all products in that category will simply cease to exist. It has happened to products before, and in time it's bound to happen again.
I'm not saying you shouldn't be upset when things don't work the way you want, or that you shouldn't complain. You should complain, because complaints are the only way that anyone knows improvements need to be made. But at no point should you dismiss the concerns of the other side as if they are less important or less valid than your own. The laws are not perfect. The companies are not perfect. You are not perfect. The optimal solution is one that allows those on both sides to survive and prosper.
There have also been rumors about the PS3 not having region locking, but I don't know if that's been verified as true or not. I do know that in the Blu-ray specifications, Japan & the US are part of the same region now.
As for why region locking happens, I'll give you a scenario. Company A creates a game in Japan. It is well loved, and everyone imports it. Seeing the sales, Company A then translates said game and presses new discs to distribute to other regions, which costs them a great deal of money. No one buys the new translated game, because everyone who wanted it already imported it. That means all that money they spent localizing the game was wasted with no way to justify it from a business standpoint.
It's exactly that scenario that gets companies to region lock their games. As unlikely as it is, it's still a concern. The more prevalent the internet and import reviews become, the more likely this scenario becomes. Eventually you have companies that start leaving their games unlocked by region, but no longer bother localizing them. Then you have countless thousands of games that could be bought by millions of people, but never will be because they don't speak the language the game was originally designed in. So you'd still need a modchip to play your imported game with a fan translation loaded.
These are not insurmountable obstacles, no, but overcoming them requires money and effort that is not focused on the core business of making games.
I am a natural born collector. I don't see it as a disease, it's merely a personality trait.
I collect CCGs, RPG books, video games, legos, dolls, stuffed animals, artwork, books, DVDs, anime, comic books and manga.
I surround myself with the things I enjoy. I collect them, but not obsessively so. I don't spend hundreds of dollars on one rare card, but I'll easily drop $200 at once to get an entire run of a CCG I find interesting. I'll buy every book by a particular author and read all of them. I like stuff, I always have. I started out collecting coins and stamps, but that was started with my dad. There is nothing about coins or stamps that mean anything to me. Everything in the list above brings me enjoyment, so I collect it. I never get rid of anything because I often go back and read books I haven't read in a while, watch DVDs I haven't watched in a while, play games I remember from years ago, build a new deck with a new idea I never thought of before, or see something new in a piece of artwork I missed. If I got rid of those things, I'd miss out on what more they have to offer me as I age and my perspective changes.
That is the purpose behind being a collector. Anyone who spends money endlessly on an obsession is not a collector, they are an addictive personality, which is an entirely separate mental disorder.
No, Nintendo thinks:
Game idea + Mario = Game that sells.
You can replace the Prince of All Cosmos with Mario, and put Peach as the King of All Cosmos, and the game would play exactly the same (although, I admit, it probably would not have had nearly the sense of humor of Katamari Damacy). Nintendo didn't develop Ouendan, but it could easily have been a cheer squad featuring Mario, Luigi, Wario & Waluigi.
The simple fact of the matter is, Mario sells games. Nintendo doesn't put their franchise characters in a different type of game to strengthen the franchise. They put them in a different type of game, because when they come up with a new, innovative game unlike anything anyone has ever played, who's going to buy it? The same people that made Beyond Good & Evil such a success, those people who went mad over Psychonauts? No matter how good a game is, if you can't get people to buy it, it simply cannot be a success. On the other hand, people will buy a game with Mario in it, because they trust the Mario brand, regardless of the type of game it is (and yes, sometimes regardless of whether or not it's good), so Nintendo recycles its franchise characters into other types of games to give those games a chance.
Yes, I agree it would be nice to get some new IPs out there, after all the stories possible with Mario & Co are limited because of their established 'personality'. On the other hand, a lot of really great games exist because Nintendo can afford to take more of a risk with offshoot franchise games because they know they have a few guaranteed sales right off the bat. Mario Strikers is a great game, lots of fun, but with 3 excellent football simulations on the market, and at least 1 decent arcade football game on the market, do you really think anyone would have chosen it over something like FIFA World Cup if it wasn't a Mario title?
I enjoy reading. I like books. The only reason I stopped was because my job situation changed and I can't read at work any longer. I still alternate between reading and playing video games when at home.
I just never understand this argument. Are you trying to say that adding Mario to a game spontaneously makes it bad?
Sorry, I'm at work, and trying to do 3 things at once suddenly. I also meant to say that Sony promised 2 million systems per month for launch, so that's 4 million by the end of the year. Nintendo promised similar numbers. Regardless, both systems are pretty much guaranteed to sell out this holiday.
Metroid is pretty much an American phenomenon. It will sell systems in the US and possibly Europe, but in Japan it's basically a non-entity. Metroid Prime: Hunters made it into the Japanese top 10 for one week, and at that I was still surprised. It just isn't a game that appeals to Japanese gamers. That's another reason Zelda:TP is so important, it appeals to markets across the globe.
As for VC & WiiConnect24, no one actually knows anything about it. Every developer who's been asked about it basically gives the, 'I can't tell you or the Nintendo Yakuza will get me' response. We know they'll have retro downloadable games, new downloadable games, free online play, DS demos, and that it will somehow use friend codes. We know nothing else. They could have ladders, achievement scores, ignore lists, persistent accounts, subscriptions for VC. No one who knows is talking, so while it likely won't be as robust as Xbox Live, it may have some things that Live is missing.