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

[Almasy]

I won't speak on behalf of MP, becaue I never liked that series to begin with, but you shot your own argument in the foot IMO by listing Pikmin and Donkey Konga... they're unique little gems in GC's library (DK not so much overall but in Nintendo's library it sure is), much more so than Devil May Cry which, while clever and fun, isn't entirely unique, and ZotE is another Mech game, really, just with extremely good graphics.

And neither of those two games has "f'n mario" at all.

It seems that bias meter of yours in your sig is playing tricks on you. I would like to know what other action game has had the importance DMC has in recent years. Even more, what game on Nintendo consoles has had such a resounding importance in the development comunity. DMC was the first game to pull off that kind of action gameplay that had been lost in the 32 bit years. It was a truly revolutionary game in the action genre.

As for ZOE, you dismissing it as "yet another mech game, but pretty" is quite ignorant. Before ZOE, mech games weren´t as fast and smooth to control, nor did they have the personality Konami inyected into the genre. It´s gameplay, much like DMC, was unheard of in a mech game, while the graphics had such a distinct style that it broke the mold of what people came to expect from a mech game.

 

[London Geezer]

I won't speak on behalf of MP, becaue I never liked that series to begin with, but you shot your own argument in the foot IMO by listing Pikmin and Donkey Konga... they're unique little gems in GC's library (DK not so much overall but in Nintendo's library it sure is), much more so than Devil May Cry which, while clever and fun, isn't entirely unique, and ZotE is another Mech game, really, just with extremely good graphics.

And neither of those two games has "f'n mario" at all.

It seems that bias meter of yours in your sig is playing tricks on you. I would like to know what other action game has had the importance DMC has in recent years. Even more, what game on Nintendo consoles has had such a resounding importance in the development comunity. DMC was the first game to pull off that kind of action gameplay that had been lost in the 32 bit years. It was a truly revolutionary game in the action genre.

As for ZOE, you dismissing it as "yet another mech game, but pretty" is quite ignorant. Before ZOE, mech games weren´t as fast and smooth to control, nor did they have the personality Konami inyected into the genre. It´s gameplay, much like DMC, was unheard of in a mech game, while the graphics had such a distinct style that it broke the mold of what people came to expect from a mech game.

Agreedo.

 

[Tagrineth]

I won't speak on behalf of MP, becaue I never liked that series to begin with, but you shot your own argument in the foot IMO by listing Pikmin and Donkey Konga... they're unique little gems in GC's library (DK not so much overall but in Nintendo's library it sure is), much more so than Devil May Cry which, while clever and fun, isn't entirely unique, and ZotE is another Mech game, really, just with extremely good graphics.

And neither of those two games has "f'n mario" at all.

It seems that bias meter of yours in your sig is playing tricks on you. I would like to know what other action game has had the importance DMC has in recent years. Even more, what game on Nintendo consoles has had such a resounding importance in the development comunity. DMC was the first game to pull off that kind of action gameplay that had been lost in the 32 bit years. It was a truly revolutionary game in the action genre.

As for ZOE, you dismissing it as "yet another mech game, but pretty" is quite ignorant. Before ZOE, mech games weren´t as fast and smooth to control, nor did they have the personality Konami inyected into the genre. It´s gameplay, much like DMC, was unheard of in a mech game, while the graphics had such a distinct style that it broke the mold of what people came to expect from a mech game.

I always forget how old DMC really is... got my PS2 a little late. I suppose that's true, considering its age.

Edit: Although I do have to laugh a bit here, because DMC2 did indeed suck. I have yet to talk to a single person that honestly liked it.

I'm really not too into ZoE at all... the only reason I own ZoE2 is because I had to get at least one $5 game during Circuit City's screwup...

 

[Li Mu Bai]

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.

The fact is Johnny, it isn't losing any money for them either. It isn't a money pit, & the price drop last year was a calculated success to increase the userbase & make 1st & exclusive 3rd party sales incease in volume. In case you hadn't noticed, Nintendo doubles as a major software production house. As much of their profits are obtained with their 1st party sales, your 90% profit number from strictly GBA sales is laughable. When Nintendo 1st reduced the price, they were losing initially somewhere in the vicinity of 10-$20 per console. However, since the removal of the digital out & the move of major manufacturing to plants in China, they are breaking even or making a negligible profit at best. Losing EA support isn't a possibility btw, as they signed a contractural agreement to continue support with Nintendo quite some time ago. As well as some EA titles perform quite well upon the Cube sales-wise.

The first red number quarter in Nintendo's history in 2004 should act as a warning sign.

You mean this red quarter number?
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n10/news/040129e.pdf

Notice that Nintendo had already exceeded their operating income from the previous year ('03) with still 2-3 months left to elapse when this was made public. I find it incredible that most sites were focusing on the shortfall of the net income instead...which has everything to do with the devaluing dollar assets and is not related to the company's core business. Nintendo had forecasted when making profit projections 114 Yen/$.

Operating income reflects the performance of the business itself, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses. Net income will include things such as taxes, interest, and currency fluctuations.
So in the first half of the year when Nintendo got all that attention for reporting their first quarterly loss, (not yearly) they were profitable on an operational basis (meaning as far as the business of selling software, hw, peripherals, etc. they were maintaining profitability) but they had a charge of $400 million due to currency fluctuations, which is how they ended up with a net loss of about $25 million.

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.

Can I borrow your crystal ball wazoo? No one can use this generation as some sort of predicator as to what the next will bring. The market is simply to violatile to predict. After the Super Nes, not even the most gifted analyst or clairvoyant could've predicted that Sony would displace Nintendo & go on to dominate the market as they have. The tide can so easily turn within the breadth of one generation.

If they would grow Retro to the size of Rara, how could they make sure that the new people are as good as the current people?

Are you serious? By maintaining high hiring standard practises. Do the words talent evaluation, various experiences in high level programming languages, past software projects, etc. mean anything to you?

To be fair, I should note that Paper Mario 2 (332,000) is on its way to doing about as well as Paper Mario on N64 (503,000) in the US market, but I'm wondering why they made this the big Japanese Nintendo game this holiday instead of something with a little more punch like a true Donkey Kong sequel.

Johnny, a game called MP:Echoes was & is their big holiday title, & not PM:TTYD. Retro is Nintendo, despite their geographical location.

 

[Phil]

The fact is Johnny, it isn't losing any money for them either. It isn't a money pit, & the price drop last year was a calculated success to increase the userbase & make 1st & exclusive 3rd party sales incease in volume. In case you hadn't noticed, Nintendo doubles as a major software production house. As much of their profits are obtained with their 1st party sales, your 90% profit number from strictly GBA sales is laughable. When Nintendo 1st reduced the price, they were losing initially somewhere in the vicinity of 10-$20 per console. However, since the removal of the digital out & the move of major manufacturing to plants in China, they are breaking even or making a negligible profit at best. Losing EA support isn't a possibility btw, as they signed a contractural agreement to continue support with Nintendo quite some time ago. As well as some EA titles perform quite well upon the Cube sales-wise.

Li Mu Bai,

Is there any factual evidence or articles that confirm your claim?

thanks in advance!

 

[Fox5]

Losing EA support isn't a possibility btw, as they signed a contractural agreement to continue support with Nintendo quite some time ago. As well as some EA titles perform quite well upon the Cube sales-wise.

How come Burnout 3 got skipped over on the cube?

BTW, I think a large amount of nintendo's profits still comes from home consoles...or at least it did during the n64-gbc days.(I don't think the success of pokemon double nintendo's profits or anything, and it was about the only thing selling well on gbc compared to many well selling games on gbc)
For gamecube-gba It probably is close to 50-50, nintendo doesn't have many 1st party million sellers on either but gamecube games are priced higher. They probably cost more to produce, but disks are cheaper than carts.

 

[London Geezer]

For gamecube-gba It probably is close to 50-50, nintendo doesn't have many 1st party million sellers on either but gamecube games are priced higher. They probably cost more to produce, but disks are cheaper than carts.

They cost more to produce than what? The average PS2 game or the top one?

If we compare the first party Nintendo games (one would call them TOP titles for GC) to anything, then let's compare them to the top games on other platforms. HL2 was a hell of an expensive game to make for example, and still much cheaper than many newly-released GC games.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Li Mu Bai: Metroid Prime 2 is an American Nintendo game. It was developed by Retro.

 

[Fox5]

For gamecube-gba It probably is close to 50-50, nintendo doesn't have many 1st party million sellers on either but gamecube games are priced higher. They probably cost more to produce, but disks are cheaper than carts.

They cost more to produce than what? The average PS2 game or the top one?

If we compare the first party Nintendo games (one would call them TOP titles for GC) to anything, then let's compare them to the top games on other platforms. HL2 was a hell of an expensive game to make for example, and still much cheaper than many newly-released GC games.

I was saying that a gamecube game probably has higher development costs than a gba game, but sell for about twice the price.

 

[London Geezer]

I was saying that a gamecube game probably has higher development costs than a gba game, but sell for about twice the price.

Oh... Well isn't it kinda obvious?

 

[Fox5]

I was saying that a gamecube game probably has higher development costs than a gba game, but sell for about twice the price.

Oh... Well isn't it kinda obvious?

Yeah, but even with the higher development costs I bet nintendo makes more from selling a gamecube game than from selling a gba game.