Nintendo rips X360, PS3, and cellphone gaming

[Guden Oden]

Lazy,

You might want to stop and take note that no cellphone of the multi-purpose type has been particulary successful apart from those that play music, and that is because music is something universal with us humans. Most people aren't interested enough in gaming, let alone gaming on the go, to buy a cellphone that they can game on (see dysmal sales performance of ngage for example).

Gamers on the other hand care about breadth of software library, ergonomics, audio and video fidelity and to some extent, specs. A gaming cell is always ALWAYS going to suffer on all of these points compared to a well-designed portable gaming device, reducing the interest for consumers to buy them and manufacturers to make them, driving cell gaming into an early grave before it even has a chance to take off.

Then again there's the issue of battery life. Why burn out all the power in your cell playing tiger woods or whatever on it so you can't make any calls with it - which is the primary function of a cell mind you! That's just dumb, and people KNOW THIS.

 

[Metal]

Nintendo continues to amaze me at how much they are willing to hold themselves back in regards to what they could really do. They have the mascots (created in the 80's) to be the biggest 3rd party publisher on things like cell phones. You can't play the oversaturation of these mascots card to me as they have Mario Pinball, Baseball, tennis, etc as just an example on their latest platforms.

Cell phone gaming is the future for handhelds in my opinion. It's currently only held back by the tech.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Pokemon on mobile phone perhaps? Though the Pokemon franchise has sold lots of profitable hardware so keeping it exclusive they make more money it seems to me.

 

[Guden Oden]

Cell phone gaming is the future for handhelds in my opinion. It's currently only held back by the tech.

How are you going to be able to game on a tiny-ass stamp sized phone screen with crap resolution? It makes no sense.

 

[Sandwich]

"Hardware is irrelevant"

While Microsoft and Sony gear up their gaming consoles to turn into multimedia devices that also allow users to listen to music, watch films or surfing the net, Nintendo is reclaiming their roots. "Nintendo is an entertainment company. We don't own any film studios and we are no hardware company either. The Revolution is capable to play DVD films - but that isn't an important functions to us. We offer good interactive entertainment instead. But that's not a question of the hardware or power. This is all irrelevant. It's all about the games", Merrick said.

I'd say gaming has appealed more to greater crowds with every advance in graphics. We've had racing, sports and all types of games for decades. The most significant chances have been in improved representation of the game, not a change in gameplay or rules of, take for example, a football game.

"Nothing for average people"

The problem of the industry according to Merrick: "An average person today can't make head or tails of a video game." Instead of the usual input devices (controllers), Nintendo would be focussing on a sort of remote device similar to TV remotes average people are used to. "Wenn thinking about a gamer today, you picture a pale tennager, drinking cola and eating chips. This shouldn't be."

Merrick still lives in the '80s.
No company has ever gone bankrupt from underestimating their customers. Only a TV remote is a step backwards from a controller. Many non-technical people are NOT familiar with the remote. They get me to program their TV for them, because they only know where to find the volume and the switch channels.
Nintendo appears completely out of touch with their audience, if they think their GCs are bought by nerds.

Gamers don't need to understand hardware or games, but Nintendo should. You don't need any special skills to tell good graphics from poor graphics. The burden lies on the designers.
If you want to appeal to the average moron, you want the very best hardware to render the most realistic boobs possible and then get into making interactive porn.

 

[Teasy]

Nintendo is deeply deluded. They have a right to talk about their sucesses and their plans but to just blantantly rip on other consoles with flimsy arguments is not a right they have earned.

You're deluded if you can read those quotes and think that Nintendo are "ripping" on anyone. Though I'd bet all you did was read the title and make a rather silly assumption.

Can I just say this about Nintendo.

They are trying to make a revolution that nobody wants.

I think you're very wrong there, even on this forum full of hardcore gamers I've seen quite a few comments about gaming becoming boring and people looking forward to a change.

No company has ever gone bankrupt from underestimating their customers. Only a TV remote is a step backwards from a controller. Many non-technical people are NOT familiar with the remote. They get me to program their TV for them, because they only know where to find the volume and the switch channels.

He's quite obviously talking about the remote itself, not all the extra little buttons on a TV remote that most people never use. After all the Revolution controller isn't just like a TV remote. Its merely in the shape of a remote and actually has a similar number of buttons that people use to switch channels and change the volume, something you admit everyone knows how to do.

 

[pc999]

I really think that price is everythingh.

A low price will get the hardcore, which will buy it even if they already have a PS3/XB360, and new users will not buy a console for the first time if it cost too much, and I really think Rev can bring new gamers (or at least with a few additions with would be really great IMO).

If they can put a good price I think they can sell a lot of consoles (then sell games which make them a lot of proffit), so price should be now in the center of their strategy.

 

[oli2]

I think the only thing that Nintendo needs is a killer app for launch time that take advantage of this controller.
If they can bring something as new as was Mario64 for exemple, they will reach all their objectives ...

 

[pc999]

I think the only thing that Nintendo needs is a killer app for launch time that take advantage of this controller.
If they can bring something as new as was Mario64 for exemple, they will reach all their objectives ...

That would be enought for any console .
But if the controller is as good as they say, shouldnt be hard to have a killer app (or varios), once that even already made genres could be very different, so I am pretty confident we will see some killer apps at/near launch, with the M64 effect creatting a new genre for itself, coming from Nintendo and meybe from others second party too.

 

[Lazy8s]

N-Gage's installed hardware base alone will now grow tens of millions of units each year, making a very tempting market for game publishers. With the higher volume that mobile phones sell plus their ability to subsidize greater hardware cost from standard telephone subscription contracts, they'll be able to offer the best performance/price for any of their functions.

Extra batteries for a mobile phone make more sense, cost less, and are easier to carry than a separate toy with its own batteries.

Widening video functionality and demographics will increasingly drive the demand for larger screen mobile phones.

 

[Almasy]

Typical Nintendo PR, really. Nintendo seems decided on becoming a niche player, sounds like an interesting project, but these kind of statements are expected. Anyways, I´m skeptical grandmas are going to invest on any new kinds of entertainment, and traditional Nintendo franchises will suffer, so I´m not confident this is the best route for them to take.

Seems like a reasonable bet when you can´t compete on the same level though.