Nintendo GOing Forward.

[Wynix]

This thread is about speculating the future of Nintendo and what decisions they might/should make about their hardware and software.

Currently Nintendo have the successful 3DS and the failure that is called the Wii-U, though even the 3DS is struggling to maintain momentum.
Additionally Nintendo have an introverted culture with bad third party relations.
There is also the rise of Android/iOS/WP gaming which has obviously eaten into their customer base and is likely to accelerate into the future with improvements in the ecosystems as these companies devote more resources to gaming.

Personally i think Nintendo should abandon the home console(after 2015) and focus on the 3DS successor.
They should also use the smartphones as a platform for advertising; Put demo's of their games onto each platform with advertisements for their console/games featured in the demo's, perhaps even releasing some F2P games on both the Nintendo console and smartphones and have the Nintendo version get daily bonuses/freebies(mention this in the game).

Concerning the hardware; They need to release it in 2016, have a mid-range mobile SOC with modifications to improve bandwidth.
It also needs to have a somewhat premium feel, the cheap plastic feel needs to go ASAP, if i can buy a $50 smartphone that feels higher quality then it's obvious you are doing something wrong.

 

[Goodtwin]

3DS is still doing very well, its at or near the top of the charts every week. Nintendo still has a very good hold on the portable market, and that is where I think Nintendo should focus going forward. Nintendo has already developed the technology to be able to stream the image between two screens with nearly no latency, so to me it makes sense for their next hardware to be a hybrid system. A portable with the ability to steam to the TV. A lot of Nintendo's moves suggest this will be their path going forward. So much focus on keeping things small and with low power consumption, not to mention Nintendo's recent fondness of Indies.

 

[Rodéric]

Nintendo wants to innovate, not imitate. It works often (DS, 3DS, Wii), fails sometimes (Wii U). I don't see Nintendo really changing about that, neither about putting game quality first and foremost.

I would think Nintendo will market its console better (Wii U marketing was terrible IMO, starting with its name, even Wii HD would have fared better.), and releasing it with major titles.

I don't know what will happen with the Wii U, I have one, I like it a lot, I play it with my wife, and that alone makes it worth buying.

 

[Wynix]

So much focus on keeping things small and with low power consumption

Nintendo doesn't need to focus on that anymore; The smartphone revolution has completely changed the landscape of low power computing devices.
Companies like Samsung, Apple, Qualcomm, Nvidia, AMD, Intel etc have all shifted priorities to the low power devices and investing tens of billions every year.

Nintendo wants to innovate, not imitate.

I agree, though they also need to imitate and imitate well.
3rd party relations, eShop and hardware are just some examples of the areas they could improve by imitating Sony or Microsoft.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Nintendo wants to innovate, not imitate.

Yes, they think they can only throw concepts of their own into their consoles. They're convinced they can go to an isolated island, develop a console devoid of any study about competition and/or market tendencies and/or predicted technological/social/economic evolution and then pull a wordlwide success with just that.

That's their No.1 problem right now.


And although I'm sorry for the loss of entertainment for you, your wife and (not many) others, I'd rather see a company like that go bankrupt or leave the business entirely.
I'd rather have that because then, their fantastic developer talent and great franchises could have a chance to end up in a platform I own or that I'm willing to pucrhase.




As for their next hardware projects, AFAIK Nintendo already gave up many details during shareholder conferences.
There's most probably a home console coming out around fiscal year 2016, but it'll be targeted at active ageing and assisted living. Wii Fit and its evolutions will probably be the driving concept of their next console.

They'll probably think of tons of different things to do with lots of different sensors. Lots of fun stuff to do, but for our parents and grandparents -> the opposite side of the teen/young adult age spectrum. By 2016, they'll use the crappiest/cheapest hardware they can get away with and most probably come short of PS4/Xbone's performance.

What will happen to the people working on Mario, Zelda, Metroid and Pikmin franchises when they shift their target audience is my main concern.

 

[Grall]

perhaps even releasing some F2P games on both the Nintendo console and smartphones and have the Nintendo version get daily bonuses/freebies(mention this in the game).

Why would you need freebies in a game that's already free? Ah. Right. F2P != free!

Fuck F2P. Seriously. The greedy son of a bitch who invented the concept should be torn limb from limb by wild horses. If it's one thing Nintendo does NOT need it's "F2P".

You only make F2P games if money is all you care about. F2P and gaming are anathema; F2P is all about nickling and diming the user in perpetuity, there's no way to make a meaningful, lasting game experience that way. Oh, you're out of free daily jumps in Super Mario, insert coin(s) to continue. W. T. F!

It also needs to have a somewhat premium feel, the cheap plastic feel needs to go ASAP

Wut.

if i can buy a $50 smartphone that feels higher quality then it's obvious you are doing something wrong.

IF you could, yes, but YOU CAN'T. You won't find ANY phone at $50 with a better overall quality and build than a Nintendo gadget, certainly not a smartphone. Seriously, what on earth are you talking about? Nintendo gadgets are some of the best made on the entire planet. The level of quality is absolute top notch. I dare you to name even one $50 phone that is better quality than a Nintendo device. Fundamentally, $50 phones are bottom of barrel dredge, so you won't find any. You can't.

 

[Rangers]

Nokia 520 can usually be had for about $50-$60, and i have a feeling that's what wynix was referencing.

Whether you define that as better quality feel than a Nintendo device I dont know. a certain element of preference but it's probably arguable.

Nintendo gadgets are some of the best made on the entire planet. The level of quality is absolute top notch

Didn't 3DS have/still has some screen scratching defect when you closed the lid? Hell rumors say the whole reason Amazon no longer sells Nintendo hardware directly was due to a conflict with Nintendo over 3DS returns with that issue.

Nintendo hardware may be OK but I wouldn't put them in league with Apple I suppose. It's serviceable.

 

[Grall]

How would the screen get scratched just by closing the lid...?

 

[Rangers]

http://www.giantbomb.com/nintendo-3...aw-top-screen-gets-scratched-up-by-bo-495995/

 

[Grall]

Ah, now I understand. Looks more like the screen is getting (lightly) crushed rather than scratched, but whatever. Tolerances are probably just a tad too tight in some units.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Nintendo wants to innovate, not imitate. It works often (DS, 3DS, Wii), fails sometimes (Wii U). I don't see Nintendo really changing about that, neither about putting game quality first and foremost.

The problem is whether their innovations can be competitive with the rest of the industry. Nintendo's ideas often aren't based on careful research before hand proving a high probability of success, but a 'put it out there and see' optimism. And they would probably do very well producing software for other devices, making that a reasonable suggestion.

eg. What is so great about WiiU for you and the missus? Two screen coop, right? What if Nintendo released a NintenoControl for mobile and developed local coop games that people could play together? Suddenly every mobile owner is a virtual GB owner, able to play Zelda or Pikmin or Pokemon. You could still have those coop game moments with Nintendo games, but so too could hundreds of millions of other people who aren't willing to spend $hundreds on a Nintendo exclusive box.

I don't think the end of Nintendo hardware would mean the end of the Nintendo experience. In fact the opposite, I think they'd become even more relevant to far more people who otherwise only known them by name.

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

You could still have those coop game moments with Nintendo games, but so too could hundreds of millions of other people who aren't willing to spend $hundreds on a Nintendo exclusive box.

I don't think the end of Nintendo hardware would mean the end of the Nintendo experience. In fact the opposite, I think they'd become even more relevant to far more people who otherwise only known them by name.

Well, that's the rub, isn't it? The shear amount of people that seem to be hoping that Nintendo fails in the hardware segment tell you there is a huge market for their games. Because the people hoping Nintendo fail aren't hoping they vanish never to be heard from again, they are hoping that Nintendo gets out of the hardware business and goes multiplatform.

Because while a huge number of people want to play their games - they want to do so without purchasing exclusive hardware for that sole purpose. They want to play them on their PS/Xbox's along with all their other titles and capabilities of those machines.

I imagine that Nintendo has done the math somewhere and decided that staying in the hardware business is ultimately more profitable for them - and the Wii reinforced that belief. I guess we'll have to wait to see how much the WiiU flop chips away at that determination.

 

[shredenvain]

Nintendo still makes well made hardware for both mobile and home platforms. The Wii u may be a disapointment in sales and also specs compared to the other next gen systems, but it is not going to stop Nintendo from making hardware. Nintendo has put out technically powerful systems 3 times. The Snes, N64 , and Gamecube. Out of these 3 systems only the Snes won it's gen in sales and that only happened late in it's life span. Nintendo can be stubborn when it comes to following the trends set by the competition. They have been behind in using disc based media, online gaming and Hd gaming yet they still seem to be successful. Nintendo's many wonderful 1st party IPs could suffer in quality if they were to go multiplatform. Instead of making the next Zelda for one system that they designed and uses their own dev tools they would have to make the game for 2 or more consoles with a design and tools they have never used before. I think they would be better of staying in the hardware business and suffer thru this trying time with the Wii U.

 

[Rangers]

I don't think the end of Nintendo hardware would mean the end of the Nintendo experience. In fact the opposite, I think they'd become even more relevant to far more people who otherwise only known them by name.

I've mentioned this before but I think Sega is the cautionary tale here. Companies seem to lose a lot of zest and relevance (and Fanboys, gets back to the zest I guess) once they stop making hardware. How many people probably thought "wow Sega will dominate as a third party!" or something like that? Instead, many years on they're borderline irrelevant.

Well, that's the rub, isn't it? The shear amount of people that seem to be hoping that Nintendo fails in the hardware segment tell you there is a huge market for their games. Because the people hoping Nintendo fail aren't hoping they vanish never to be heard from again, they are hoping that Nintendo gets out of the hardware business and goes multiplatform.

Because while a huge number of people want to play their games - they want to do so without purchasing exclusive hardware for that sole purpose. They want to play them on their PS/Xbox's along with all their other titles and capabilities of those machines.

I imagine that Nintendo has done the math somewhere and decided that staying in the hardware business is ultimately more profitable for them - and the Wii reinforced that belief. I guess we'll have to wait to see how much the WiiU flop chips away at that determination.

I wonder how much relevance Nintendo software even has to many people anymore? The whole generation that grew up on COD...that's the danger of being more and more marginalized, you are no longer needed as well.


Anyways my idea for Nintendo has been an Android style (not Android, of course) Micro console. Put in the most powerful mobile chipset available (so, probably at least PS360/Wii U power), a couple GB's of RAM, focus on emulation of that great back catalog of 2D SNES/NES titles, along with some latest and greatest high production value Mario Kart/Mario/Zelda in 3D, and best of all sell the thing for 149 or something. It would sip just watts of power of course, could be the size of a cube (Ouya) among other neat things.

Put it this way, it could not possibly sell worse than Wii U for 149. It literally couldn't.

Nintendo doesn't have anywhere near the smarts to pull this off imo, though. This is the company that more or less treats online like a fad in 2014.

I literally dont see anywhere else they could go. Anybody got a better idea? They aren't high tech enough to embrace something like VR (Plus it doesn't fit their IP). The gimmicks seem to be gone or no longer work (too be fair I never saw 3D coming as a gimmick they would try with 3DS, but also to be fair it didn't work out anyway). Although a console more powerful than the others would work, they are also too late to the game this gen and simply dont have the ambition, stomach, or development capabilities to do this anymore (hell they seem to blanch at even developing for the Wii U).

 

[Rodéric]

I'm not interested in classic controllers, I don't want long play sessions, I don't want to be stuck in a game, all those things are given to me by Nintendo...

Wiimote + Wii U GamePad, levels in Mario, again levels in Mario (switch to another when stuck)...

Asymetric gameplay is quite nice, played with my brother and wife the mini games from NintendoLands.

I think Nintendo could target the crowd that purchased its Wii and should try to. I'm not interested in a Sony or MS branded PC, and the games for those devices don't match my available time slots/attention, so there's room for something different and that's what people having purchased the Wii said IMHO.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

I
Anyways my idea for Nintendo has been an Android style (not Android, of course) Micro console. Put in the most powerful mobile chipset available (so, probably at least PS360/Wii U power), a couple GB's of RAM, focus on emulation of that great back catalog of 2D SNES/NES titles, along with some latest and greatest high production value Mario Kart/Mario/Zelda in 3D, and best of all sell the thing for 149 or something. It would sip just watts of power of course, could be the size of a cube (Ouya) among other neat things.

Yeah, Nintendo should totally make a new console with the same processing power as their currently-failing console. And then have it play lots of emulated games, just like their currently-failing console.
All this because Ouya is such an astounding success, and that would completely justify dumping all their 1st-party development and marginalizing the millions of users who bought a Wii U.


For the record, $150 should be an attainable price target for the Wii U if they take away the blu-ray drive, make it digital distribution only and don't bundle any games.
But you know what happens to consoles that only support digital distribution? They get a major boycot from retailers.

I'm not interested in classic controllers, I don't want long play sessions, I don't want to be stuck in a game, all those things are given to me by Nintendo...

Wiimote + Wii U GamePad, levels in Mario, again levels in Mario (switch to another when stuck)...

Asymetric gameplay is quite nice, played with my brother and wife the mini games from NintendoLands.

Yes, we understand the Wii U suits your preferences.
But you should also understand that you and the other people who bought the console aren't big enough as an audience to sustain a worldwide distributed home console and its software development.

I think Nintendo could target the crowd that purchased its Wii and should try to. I'm not interested in a Sony or MS branded PC, and the games for those devices don't match my available time slots/attention, so there's room for something different and that's what people having purchased the Wii said IMHO.

The casual crowd that purchased Wii is gone and it's not coming back to the home consoles. They all have smartphones and tablets to play Candy Crush, Flappy Bird and whatever other fad comes next

 

[liolio]

The casual crowd that purchased Wii is gone and it's not coming back to the home consoles. They all have smartphones and tablets to play Candy Crush, Flappy Bird and whatever other fad comes next

I also noticed that as far as kids are concerned they want wiimote, they have no interest for the new pad as they are also playing on Tablets.
Where it gets bothering for Nintendo is that the kids I know (all of them) like the DS and 3DS.
There was a "coup" to be done but Nintendo missed.

I think Nintendo still have market with kids and aficionados, next time around (soon I hope) I hope they release they manage a coordinated home and handheld console launch with the handheld living up to WiiUmote potential.

I also hope they realize that they need to achieve a low price, like 299$ for a bundle including the home and handheld consoles (199$ and 149$ stand alone). Wrt to the handheld it is time to move to digital download, kids are used to that nowadays, flash still costs too much compared to optical disks not too mention DLC.

WRT hardware it is time to move to ARM for both the handheld and home consoles. For both they should stick to off the shelves parts though that means a restructuring of their R&D department.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

WRT hardware it is time to move to ARM for both the handheld and home consoles. For both they should stick to off the shelves parts though that means a restructuring of their R&D department.

Move to ARM and be the only console not using x86? Would that bode well for porting multiplatform games?



As for the bolded part, I wonder if that's what made Nintendo screw big time with the hardware on this last generation.
Maybe they feel obligated to to give something to do to an incompetent hardware team (the ones responsible for CPU and GPU, at least), and that ultimately screwed the final result.

 

[Grall]

How many people probably thought "wow Sega will dominate as a third party!" or something like that? Instead, many years on they're borderline irrelevant.

When Sega went 3rd party I never thought they would exactly dominate. I did expect them to do considerably better than they have so far, since they'd be able to focus much more on software development. Instead they've mostly pissed away every opportunity to maintain their heritage.

That's their own failure, it wouldn't necessarily map to every other company wanting to go 3rd party. Also, Sega never had as great a lineup of franchises as Nintendo; they were more reliant of 3rd parties in their consoles, and I suppose, therefore more accomodating of the same as well. Nintendo has always been a Nintendo-first-and-foremost kind of company, because traditionally their games have been able to support such a strategy.

Now as you say generations of kids growing up on other consoles, CoD and GTA replacing Link and Mario, Nintendo's relevance is slipping fast. What has worked for them in the past doesn't anymore, but their company board hasn't adjusted its strategy to compensate. ...But, alas. Such is the way of things, isn't it. Companies come, and they go. It is sad, but eventually everything will turn to dust.

Anyways my idea for Nintendo has been an Android style (not Android, of course) Micro console.

Arguably, Nintendo has a micro console even now and it's not doing them much good. Regardless, going micro console without also going android isn't going to work for Nintendo, because they're shit at software development. Both wii and wuu's absolutely weakest points have been their resident software and lack of viable internet/multiplayer support. To think that nintendo could roll their own competitive, scaleable OS is nearly inconcievable, it would take them twenty years for gods sakes.

Put it this way, it could not possibly sell worse than Wii U for 149. It literally couldn't.

Actually I'm betting it could, but even if you're right, it's never going to sell great. And lacking a disc drive it's not going to make friends with the games retailers either, so chances are people wouldn't be able to buy it even if they wanted to (flash cards are way too small/expensive for modern games, unless all you want to run on your system is shit like candy crush or the likes.)

Nintendo doesn't have anywhere near the smarts to pull this off imo, though.

Nobody has the smarts to pull off what you suggest. PS360-level hardware in a home console is fucking obsolete, and have been for the major part of a decade. The only thing that kept PS360 selling is industry inertia and the prohibitive cost for any new competitor to try and break into the market. Actually, has MS yet to make back all the billions they lost in the early years of the xbox division's life?

This is the company that more or less treats online like a fad in 2014.

Yeah well, nintendo has always wished that both the internet as well as optical discs would suddenly just go away overnight, never to be seen again. They're hopelessly close-minded over there in Osaka.

I literally dont see anywhere else they could go. Anybody got a better idea?

Make a system that's on the level of the 4Bone that is easy to program and port software to. Embrace 3rd parties, and have an inclusive indie-friendly attitude. It's the only way. 3rd parties will never bother with a console that can't run current-gen games; they'll never spend the resources needed to cut their new games down enough so they'll run on the pitiful wuu hardware, much less any Ouya-style cube nintendo might release at an even later date. And without 3rd parties they can't survive, not in the long run.

 

[Rangers]

Yeah, Nintendo should totally make a new console with the same processing power as their currently-failing console. And then have it play lots of emulated games, just like their currently-failing console.
All this because Ouya is such an astounding success, and that would completely justify dumping all their 1st-party development and marginalizing the millions of users who bought a Wii U.


For the record, $150 should be an attainable price target for the Wii U if they take away the blu-ray drive, make it digital distribution only and don't bundle any games.
But you know what happens to consoles that only support digital distribution? They get a major boycot from retailers.

Wii U has no chance at 149, even 249 for that matter, as long as that albatross controller exists. And that controller will never greatly cost reduce, either, as it's a big hunk of glass. Nintendo themselves have admitted that (that they cannot currently reduce Wii U price from 299 because of the Wuublet). They packaged a old inefficient $150 360-esque chipset with a $150 controller, bottom line.

Who said Ouya was a success? Ouya doesn't have many things Nin-Ouya would. Such as 2-3X more power, a well known name on the side, money, marketing. And if Ouya was such a failure why are we now seeing a brand new high profile entry in the Fire TV?

Ouya had ZERO financial backing and even in many cases quality control. Yet still seems to exist okay, shockingly. If anything it's probably proof just how viable this model could be, as it's literally a kickstarted console that has already lasted a decent while. I was surprised when Ouya shot up the Amazon bestsellers list recently when it was flash saled at $70. Like, this thing is still around and kicking? And that's with a freakin Tegra 3.

I'm making an assumption they could get the Nin-Ouya down to $149 with a state of the art chipset and a quality controller, mind you. Amazon Fire Tv shows you can get close though (with a gen old, but still Ouya crushing, chipset). At any rate $199 should be the worst case.

You could also shoot for making it a FireTV style ultimate set top box as well, to add value. Fire TV's voice search is also an amazing idea. Again here though the problem would be the brick wall that is Nintendo.

Ok, I said there were no other options, but I just thought of another, get rid of the Wuublet, and try to get the Wii U down to $199 or lower...and pray

I suppose you could get much of the benefits of Nin-Ouya in that setup anyway. The thing is already pretty small and power sipping.

Lastly they can just keep doing what they are doing. I guess Wii U is still in stores, right? That counts for something I suppose. I think they did sell 80k in NPD last month. Granted this is after some extremely high profile releases AFAIK. And they do keep losing money.