Iwata on Nintendo Revolution (IGN March 28)
- Thread starter Acert93
- Start date
Hovz seems to think that markets need to be monopolies. Obviously the fact that Nintendo's profits are what they're keeping them in the market, whether they "win" or not, is not important.
Until Nintendo turns a profit on whatever they do, they'll stay in the market. Simple as that. If they happen to be in third place in the next generation, who cares? They're making money. The console (or any other) market is not a race, it's business. If you make money, you stay, whether or not you hold a significant share of the market.
On the other hand, even a company like MS will finish their cash if they keep losing 3 or more billions each generation.
Until Nintendo turns a profit on whatever they do, they'll stay in the market. Simple as that. If they happen to be in third place in the next generation, who cares? They're making money. The console (or any other) market is not a race, it's business. If you make money, you stay, whether or not you hold a significant share of the market.
On the other hand, even a company like MS will finish their cash if they keep losing 3 or more billions each generation.
hovz said:
I dont think Hovz is beyond the pale with his suggestion... we've heard the same suggestion regarding Nintendo before from other people, and regarding other systems (sega Dreamcast comes to mind).
I actually agree... I was never really a Nintendo fanatic (i grew up on Sega) but I do like a lot of their franchises. I wish i could play those franchises on systems where I can access a WHOLE LOT OF OTHER franchises instead of purchasing a console JUST to play Nintendo franchises.
I think that is where he was leading.
Hmm, I'm guessing Revolution will either be.....
A Gamecube with a touch screen! It can use gamecube's controllers, is backwards compatible, and has the same dev kits.
Or...
A personal dev studio! Viva la Mario Paint 2! The Revolution hooks up to a computer monitor, and its default controls will be a keyboard and mouse, or some new device nintendo has created to replace those. The gamecube controller will be kept around for people who want to play actual games. Look for a partnership with Apple where this sells as the Mac Marionette. All of apple's products will include WiFi, and be able to communicate with the Revolution.
BTW, Sony might have to drop out of the market for financial reasons before Microsoft. Microsoft can afford to take loses in the market, Sony can't, so one major misstep could be the end of Sony.
A Gamecube with a touch screen! It can use gamecube's controllers, is backwards compatible, and has the same dev kits.
Or...
A personal dev studio! Viva la Mario Paint 2! The Revolution hooks up to a computer monitor, and its default controls will be a keyboard and mouse, or some new device nintendo has created to replace those. The gamecube controller will be kept around for people who want to play actual games. Look for a partnership with Apple where this sells as the Mac Marionette. All of apple's products will include WiFi, and be able to communicate with the Revolution.
BTW, Sony might have to drop out of the market for financial reasons before Microsoft. Microsoft can afford to take loses in the market, Sony can't, so one major misstep could be the end of Sony.
Ooh-videogames
Regular
hovz said:
Why even bother posting, if thats all you can come up with.
Iron Tiger
Regular
The point is, Nintendo wants to target non-gamers too. As many gamers as there are, there's still BILLIONS of people that don't game for various reasons. One of the reasons they are going to attack is the unintuitiveness of game interfacing. And the market will grow.hovz said:yea nintendo, your simplicity strategy has worked to great success, gamers dont want complex advanced games, thats why they sell millions of copies... thats why gamecube sucks and by the time the next gen cycle ends you will be in dead last in the console market.
u have to wonder how much of an idiot this satori guy is to believe the crap that leaks out of his mouth. considering the hardcore gamers are the ones who run out and buy multiple games a month id say u dont want to constantly release simplified garbage like mario kart double dash.
Iron Tiger said:The point is, Nintendo wants to target non-gamers too. As many gamers as there are, there's still BILLIONS of people that don't game for various reasons. One of the reasons they are going to attack is the unintuitiveness of game interfacing. And the market will grow.hovz said:yea nintendo, your simplicity strategy has worked to great success, gamers dont want complex advanced games, thats why they sell millions of copies..
u have to wonder how much of an idiot this satori guy is to believe the crap that leaks out of his mouth. considering the hardcore gamers are the ones who run out and buy multiple games a month id say u dont want to constantly release simplified garbage like mario kart double dash.
Well in his defence, it looks like Sony did a much better job at getting non-gamers to buy their console than Nintendo ever did.
Iron Tiger
Regular
There's a lot of different reasons why people might not play games. They don't have time, they can't afford it, they can't adjust to the interface, etc. Sony attacked the problem of gaming not being "cool". And they were successful in bringing in a lot of gamers with that. There's still plenty of reasons for not gaming for any company to attack to continue the expansion of the market. The Revolution hasn't arrived yet, so it's far too early to judge the successfulness of their strategy against Sony's.london-boy said:
BOOMEXPLODE
Regular
well why doesn't everyone skydive, or ride a motorcycle, or play crossword puzzles...different people like different things, that's natural and you're never going to get everyone on the planet into video games. and while a radically different controller might appeal to some new gamers, it might also alienate the existing gamers. can they create enough new gamers to offset that? they would have to, and that's a pretty tall order. just doesn't seem like a recipe for success.
I have nothing against GC I just like tease teasy. I actually enjoy playing madden/sports games on it more than ps2/xbox because of the controller. I often recommend GCs to casual gamers looking for a system. Personally I think its best system aesthetically wise and 2nd best graphics wise. But, 3rd best software selection wise.
That said I think its funny people see Nintendo as this poor "little guy". Doesn't anyone rememeber Nintendo's practicing of the 80's. Nintendo defined monopoly and sued sued sued to keep ahold of it. Nintendo made developers make all NES games exclusives or they didnt get to play ball. Nintendo also didnt like other companies even making 3rd party controllers.
1987-1991(?)
Nintendo Vs. Blockbuster Entertainment
Case: Nintendo sues the Blockbuster video rental chain for photocopying NES manuals. These photocopies of the manuals were then rented out with the NES games, obviously so the original manuals were not at risk of being lost or damaged when they were rented.
Outcome: Nintendo legally forces them to stop photocopying the manuals. I assume Blockbuster then included original copies of instruction manuals with game rentals.
1988
Nintendo Vs. Camerica Ltd.
Case: Nintendo claims Camerica, in making a wireless NES Advantage clone, violates their patents.
1989
Nintendo Vs. Camerica Ltd.
Case: Nintendo claims Camerica violated their patents in creating the Game Genie for the NES.
Outcome: Game Genie release is delayed for 2 years in the US (the Game Genie was successfully released in Canada a year before the US).
1989
Nintendo Vs. Tengen
Case: Nintendo sues Tengen over patent violations, because Tengen, in order to bypass the licensee lock-out chip, they simply copied the 10NES program which is in the US CIC lockout chip. They gained the info needed when they were a Nintendo licensee, and using this fact to trick the US Patent Office into allowing them to access the needed data
1991
New York State Vs. Nintendo
Case:Then-New York State Attorney General (I can't remember his name) sues Nintendo, claiming they have an illegal monopoly on the video game market.
Outcome: Nintendo agrees to give each Nintendo consumer a $5.00 certificate good on any licensed NES game; if you sunscribed to Nintendo Power, or sent in a product registration card for your NES or game to Nintendo, you probably got one.
1997
Nintendo Vs. Prima Publishing
Case: Nintendo sued Prima Publishing for allegidly copying a screenshot map of the N64 game "Goldeneye" from Nintendo's own official player's guide of the game and using it in Prima's own unofficial guide. According to a former employee of Prima, the map was very convincingly a copy of Nintendo's own map. There had been some level of tension between Nintendo and Prima since the beginning of the SNES era, over copyright and trademark issues, this was, reportedly, the boiling point which resulted in Nintendo taking Prima to court.
That said I think its funny people see Nintendo as this poor "little guy". Doesn't anyone rememeber Nintendo's practicing of the 80's. Nintendo defined monopoly and sued sued sued to keep ahold of it. Nintendo made developers make all NES games exclusives or they didnt get to play ball. Nintendo also didnt like other companies even making 3rd party controllers.
1987-1991(?)
Nintendo Vs. Blockbuster Entertainment
Case: Nintendo sues the Blockbuster video rental chain for photocopying NES manuals. These photocopies of the manuals were then rented out with the NES games, obviously so the original manuals were not at risk of being lost or damaged when they were rented.
Outcome: Nintendo legally forces them to stop photocopying the manuals. I assume Blockbuster then included original copies of instruction manuals with game rentals.
1988
Nintendo Vs. Camerica Ltd.
Case: Nintendo claims Camerica, in making a wireless NES Advantage clone, violates their patents.
1989
Nintendo Vs. Camerica Ltd.
Case: Nintendo claims Camerica violated their patents in creating the Game Genie for the NES.
Outcome: Game Genie release is delayed for 2 years in the US (the Game Genie was successfully released in Canada a year before the US).
1989
Nintendo Vs. Tengen
Case: Nintendo sues Tengen over patent violations, because Tengen, in order to bypass the licensee lock-out chip, they simply copied the 10NES program which is in the US CIC lockout chip. They gained the info needed when they were a Nintendo licensee, and using this fact to trick the US Patent Office into allowing them to access the needed data
1991
New York State Vs. Nintendo
Case:Then-New York State Attorney General (I can't remember his name) sues Nintendo, claiming they have an illegal monopoly on the video game market.
Outcome: Nintendo agrees to give each Nintendo consumer a $5.00 certificate good on any licensed NES game; if you sunscribed to Nintendo Power, or sent in a product registration card for your NES or game to Nintendo, you probably got one.
1997
Nintendo Vs. Prima Publishing
Case: Nintendo sued Prima Publishing for allegidly copying a screenshot map of the N64 game "Goldeneye" from Nintendo's own official player's guide of the game and using it in Prima's own unofficial guide. According to a former employee of Prima, the map was very convincingly a copy of Nintendo's own map. There had been some level of tension between Nintendo and Prima since the beginning of the SNES era, over copyright and trademark issues, this was, reportedly, the boiling point which resulted in Nintendo taking Prima to court.
Pozer said:
Actually, it looks like most of those are pretty valid. Any company as large as Nintendo, Sony, and MS is going to get into legal issues. Nintendo is a very strict company that is not very open. That is one of the reasons they choose to do the things they do. They would rather have their own platform that is built for THEIR game philosophies.
People need to realize that Nintendo, by doing their own thing, does not pay companies like Sony and MS licensing fees. They collect them instead. Instead of competing with other game companies, they have their own system designed for their own exclusives.
They also know there are millions of gamers who are willing to buy a their system to play Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and so forth. Until gamers get tired of these franchises they have no reason to go pay someone else to make games on their systems. Sony and MS are not going to give Nintendo early development systems or give them a leg up on stuff. Look at Sega--going 3rd party is not necessarily as easy as people pretend.
It is sour grapes that people cannot have their cake and ice cream. While it might be great for PS3 or X2 owners to get to play Nintendo games, Nintendo does not think it is best for their company. The fact they have over $7B in the bank makes me think they know what is profitable for them.
Now, I have my own opinions about their software and my personal tastes (I think ignoring online so far was a bad move, as is some of their public statements and lack of relationship with 3rd parties... I also think they underestimated the PSP) BUT so far Nintendo has proven the critics wrong. They keep turning out good games and they keep making money. Until they start losing money year after year there is no point ranting against them. They are in the market to make money. Their goal is not to make all consumers happy--just their customers and stock holders.
Obviously they could care less about most hard core gamers. They want Nintendo gamers. So far that has worked for them.
Acert93 said:
I hear this a lot with regard to Nintendo. How ironic, then, that so many actually FAULT Sony and Microsoft for wanting to make money, for being corporations that must make profits to continue doing business.
In any case, I don't agree that Nintendo is beyond reproach so long as it makes money. I believe that they, like any company, deserve their share of constructive criticism - and maybe more, as I myself have scratched my head often over the past 10 years over decisions they have made.
Time will tell if Revolution turns out to be what the market wants, and what Nintendo needs, to keep gamers' interest as the industry matures and evolves.
