My thoughts on the Nintendo situation. (I am a Nintendo fan)

[Kalin]

Simply put this numbers show the last acceptable (in this case - impressive) showing of Xbox (in terms of market share), before its premature (but wise from MS IMO) death.

A console is not going anywhere while one of the biggest gaming companies is pushing it, and it's not GCN, nor PS2 that will get the cold shoulder next year.

 

[GameCat]

I'm not so sure the revealing of Xenon will kill off Xbox completely. Besides a price drop could probably mitigate the effect. It will certainly kill off some of the momentum, but I'm not sure sales figures will be as low as for the cube.

And whether you like Mario or not, there is very little third party support on the cube, which is bad for the consumer. Choice is good. And Nintendo doesn't seem to be doing anything to attract more third parties to the cube really, their happy with collaborating with other japanese devs they already have good relations with to bring us the likes of Starfox assault and Mario Baseball.

 

[Guden Oden]

Heh not picking up a game because it has a charactor in it that u don't like or feel is childish is simply silly .

Uh-huh. Izzatafact?

So you on the other hand buy every game there is with characters you dislike, is that what you're saying?

I'm not alone in feeling Nintendo has gotten stuck in a rut here, if that's what you're thinking. Why else would the cube be parked in third and last position in the console race, even behind newcomer Microsoft? Nintendo has around 20 years of experience in the console business, Microsoft entered it only roughly three years ago and they still overtook the Cube. If that doesn't speak plainly enough of what's going on here then you're completely blind man.

 

[wazoo]

Obviously, the games on the cube don't offer much to the average us gamer, it's been selling about half of what xbox' has in the us since april or so.

However, not picking up Pikmin 2 if you have a cube is not excusable. That's like saying you don't like fun, that game is easily one of the best games on the cube. Seriously, buy Pikmin 2. Now.

I still have to buy Pikmin 2. Too many games to buy.

The problem as I see it with low sales of Nintendo games is that they all sell to the same audience. So many games to buy (if you belong to this audience) this fall means lower sales on a game by game basis.

 

[Kalin]

Hm, a little off-topic, but since no one here ever talks about Xbox's obvious (IMO) upcoming death...:

I'm not so sure the revealing of Xenon will kill off Xbox completely. Besides a price drop could probably mitigate the effect. It will certainly kill off some of the momentum, but I'm not sure sales figures will be as low as for the cube.

I don't think there has been any indication from MS, for them willing to support Xbox further. Announcing Xenon and not announcing explicitly good will to move more Xbox-es pretty much declares the end of its life-cycle.

Last November Xbox numbers were not as impressive at all, they were by far the last there. I'm pretty sure what caused the impressive Xbox numbers this year was Halo 2, an MS high-profile game. Something I don't see coming next year.

So from a gamers perspective it's not GCN or PS2 one should start worrying about...

 

[London Geezer]

Hm, a little off-topic, but since no one here ever talks about Xbox's obvious (IMO) upcoming death...:

I don't think there has been any indication from MS, for them willing to support Xbox further. Announcing Xenon and not announcing explicitly good will to move more Xbox-es pretty much declares the end of its life-cycle.

Last November Xbox numbers were not as impressive at all, they were by far the last there. I'm pretty sure what caused the impressive Xbox numbers this year was Halo 2, an MS high-profile game. Something I don't see coming next year.

So from a gamers perspective it's not GCN or PS2 one should start worrying about...

Bit of a contradiction, it can't be obvious if it's only in your opinion
But anyway, yeah i'm finding it hard to see a bright future for the Xbox, now that Halo2 has come out.
Besides, the Xbox has always been the one-game system, i guess it can float till its death with the sequel to the only game people wanted to play on it.

 

[Kalin]

You highlighted just the right words I think it's obvious to all, but haven't got anyone's opinion yet, except yours. I might be wrong...

 

[London Geezer]

You highlighted just the right words I think it's obvious to all, but haven't got anyone's opinion yet, except yours. I might be wrong...

Well i'm sure the Xbox will float to its death "comfortably", as in, it won't die overnight, but it won't do any better than it has done so far.

It will be like a comatose old man, just holding on steadily until they pull the plug, and that takes a bit.

 

[StefanS]

The problem as I see it with low sales of Nintendo games is that they all sell to the same audience. So many games to buy (if you belong to this audience) this fall means lower sales on a game by game basis.

That's good point, at least in my case. However,even I as a Nintendork am getting more and more infatuated with Nintendo's games. Looking over the GCN games library I can't help to notice, even though there're at least as many AAA games as on the other platforms, those titles are not even distributed. In some areas the library is extremely lacking:
There're virtually no good racers except for BO, BO2. The EA ports of the Need for Speed series are extremely poor hack-jobs with horrible frame rates.
Fighters are also scarce and except for Soul Calibur 2 they're mediocre at best.
and that list goes on and on.
The only thing the GCN really excels at is offline-multiplayer titles, which are overabundant.
If Nintendo as a company wants to increase their market-share they need to cater to a broad audience, not their specific group. Casual gamers want diversity instead of being tied down to a certain game scheme or character developement. Of course, Nintendo can continue this way and probably stay profitable for a while, but I am afraid their market share will continue to drop, until keeping black numbers will not be possible any more. The first red number quarter in Nintendo's history in 2004 should act as a warning sign.

 

[Farid]

I don't think there has been any indication from MS, for them willing to support Xbox further. Announcing Xenon and not announcing explicitly good will to move more Xbox-es pretty much declares the end of its life-cycle.

Actually, MS's release calendar show almost nothing worthwhile after Q2 2005, that could be interpreted, indeed, as a hint about MS's plans for Xbox.

 

[Guden Oden]

Well i'm sure the Xbox will float to its death "comfortably", as in, it won't die overnight, but it won't do any better than it has done so far.

As opposed to the N64 I guess, which completely crashed and burned in a rather undignified fashion once PS2 was released, especially in Europe.

 

[GameCat]

To be fair though, announcing is not the same as releasing.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

This thread is about Nintendo, so I won't bother with anymore Xbox/Xenon talk. Start a thread about it if you want guys.

Personally, I think the Cube is not making much money for Nintendo. The GBA/DS is what is bringing in 90% of their profits. I'm not saying that Nintendo is not a financially healthy company - they are, but that doesn't change the fact that their Cube strategy is horrible.

They need to do something to appeal to a larger audience. At this rate they're about to lose EA support, which would be pretty detrimental to their chances of ever regaining marketshare.

 

[London Geezer]

This thread is about Nintendo, so I won't bother with anymore Xbox/Xenon talk. Start a thread about it if you want guys.

Personally, I think the Cube is not making much money for Nintendo. The GBA/DS is what is bringing in 90% of their profits. I'm not saying that Nintendo is not a financially healthy company - they are, but that doesn't change the fact that their Cube strategy is horrible.

They need to do something to appeal to a larger audience. At this rate they're about to lose EA support, which would be pretty detrimental to their chances of ever regaining marketshare.

They have EA's support?
(Sorry, had to butt in)

 

[wazoo]

I do not think they will regain marketshare ever.

This being said, if they lose Ea support it is because EA games do not sell on the cube, which imply GC owners do not care about EA (or more precisely do not care on EA on the cube, to be fair).

Next gen, Ms will gain marketshare, sony will bleed money (they do already not make profit on the ps2 if I remember correctly the numbers) to defend its position. This is nothing Nintendo can do against that, beside creating its own niche market.

Nintendo is like Apple, once the biggest company of its sector, now a niche but highly profitable company.

 

[mattredd]

Well i'm sure the Xbox will float to its death "comfortably", as in, it won't die overnight, but it won't do any better than it has done so far.

As opposed to the N64 I guess, which completely crashed and burned in a rather undignified fashion once PS2 was released, especially in Europe.

Going OT

Well at least they had games like Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Mario 64, Zelda OoT, Zelda MM, Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, Conkers Bad Fur Day, F zero, Lylat Wars and Donkey Kong to play on. In my opinion the N64 was the best console for games ever and the only thing lacking in the GC is Rare's support.

 

[London Geezer]

In my opinion the N64 was the best console for games ever

Personally I think PS2 is up there for coffee. And DC for donuts.

 

[Guden Oden]

the only thing lacking in the GC is Rare's support.

Screw rare. They've not made a decent game in half a decade. Most of the stuff they made (everything except Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, really) was just more of the same primary colors glop that Nintendo is much better than them at serving up anyway.

What's missing for the cube is commitment from Nintendo to their 3rd-party partners and some old-fashioned SOFTWARE DIVERSITY...

 

[Readykilowatt]

How is what you said UNlike what the writer of the article was saying? To me it's pretty much the same thing only he specifically mentions the PS2 software sales at the end and you're talking about the GCN. But the beginning of the quote seems to be more platform agnostic and is really just talking about NPD's #s in general.

I think that he should not have mentioned the PS2 at all. I seriously doubt that the NDS would negatively affect the sales of PS2 software. It is far more likely that the NDS would negatively affect the sales of Gamecube software.

 

[London Geezer]

How is what you said UNlike what the writer of the article was saying? To me it's pretty much the same thing only he specifically mentions the PS2 software sales at the end and you're talking about the GCN. But the beginning of the quote seems to be more platform agnostic and is really just talking about NPD's #s in general.

I think that he should not have mentioned the PS2 at all. I seriously doubt that the NDS would negatively affect the sales of PS2 software. It is far more likely that the NDS would negatively affect the sales of Gamecube software.

NDS sales could affect anything, even the sales of pasta (more people will be playing NDS and not have time to eat pasta).... In the end the difference will be marginal. If anything it will greatly affect sales of GBA hardware and software.