Frenetic Pony

RIP Nintendo, 1889-2016

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Please.... Atari made the worst decisions ever and will it's around, shambling like a walker, but it's still alive, Sega is OK, most of the "Elders" are still around...

 

They survived the Virtua Boy with barely a scratch, Sony back-stabbed them Game of Thrones style when they tried to release a CD-SNES and Sony released the PSX.

 

Frankly, I don't even see why this is a bad idea, China didn't really have any consoles before, as far as I know, so making a special one for them doesn't seem stupid.

I wouldn't really call Atari the same company after being purchased twice, going bankrupt, and now operating with the sum total of 10 employees, but I get your point.

One other thing to remember about Nintendo is that for almost 10 years they were the only console company making a profit on the selling of the actual hardware, rather than posting a loss and hoping to make it up with software sales later. They have a lot of cash laying around, I'm sure they'll do fine. I imagine that current management will be axed here soon though. Japanese companies tend to take a pretty dim view of posting a loss while American companies seem to be quite happy losing money for years and years.

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Nintendo pursuing the BRIC-type market seems like... a totally reasonable business strategy? Obviously there are some unique challenges, and it is possible they won't succeed, but it isn't clear to me how this is a priori a horrible decision.

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Yes, diversification of business is indeed a silly business move. Who has timed to be concerned with the 1 billion+ potential customers in China?

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I forget where I was reading it, but apparently Nintendo has so much cash they can afford to operate at a 257 milion dollar loss every year for 40 years.  As much as I think they're making terrible decisions, I don't think designing consoles for China will kill them.  When the Chinese government lifted the ban on consoles Nintendo's stock rose dramatically, so this isn't much of a surprise.

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It's those cards they used to make pre 1970, Forbin. They printed money!

 

Geez, revisiting Wikipedia, I forgot how many insanely different business ventures Nintendo got themselves into before video games.

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I forget where I was reading it, but apparently Nintendo has so much cash they can afford to operate at a 257 milion dollar loss every year for 40 years.

I was thinking of posting exactly this, but was worried that I had subconsciously made that fact up or something.

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Anyway... Yeah. Nintendo will never recapture the hardcore audience until they figure out what it is people like about online and social gaming. Or hire someone who already understands it. Arguably the latter is easier, but Nintendo's so fucking insular that I doubt it'll happen for a long while. That said, do they really care? That's the important question. Maybe they're just going to Give Up on what used to be their core audience. Maybe at this point they see it as a lost cause. I don't know.

 

I don't have much to say in this argument that hasn't already been said, but I felt that Nintendo has made an effort to reach out to the 'hardcore' market by buying Platinum games and publishing Bayonetta 2 after Sega stupidly dropped them in favour of more Sonic games.

 

Which I always think is a weird move, as a Nintendo 10 or 15 years ago would never touch an IP like Bayonetta.

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I just read this thread as complaining that "Nintendo is going to do something not targeted at meeeeeee"

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I forget where I was reading it, but apparently Nintendo has so much cash they can afford to operate at a 257 milion dollar loss every year for 40 years.

 

Hypothetically, if they decided to do whatever they wanted for, say, 10 years with no commercial concerns thanks to a safety net of an non-fatal 2 billion dollar loss, what would people want to see, or expect, them do? (For "hypothetically", read "this doesn't have to make exact economic sense, fuckers".)

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I'd want them to make the absolute most state of the art handheld without settling for lesser parts, but still sell it for the price they do now. No more compromises (either 3D ~or~ a second thumbpad), shortcuts and bad interfaces. Complete availability of all classic Nintendo titles on the eShop. And just keep making great quality games.

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I think some brand new IP completely independent of their existing franchises would be awesome. As far as the big Nintendo franchises go, I can't think of anything new they've put out since Animal Crossing and Pikmin on the Gamecube (excluding the Wii Sports/Fit/Play type stuff). Nintendo used to regularly blow my mind with a lot of their new and innovative IPs but it seems like the post Gamecube Nintendo has been more content to just continue putting out sequel after sequel for their established franchises (which are admittedly pretty damn good most of the time) along with a host of mini-game compilations. 

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I think some brand new IP completely independent of their existing franchises would be awesome. As far as the big Nintendo franchises go, I can't think of anything new they've put out since Animal Crossing and Pikmin on the Gamecube (excluding the Wii Sports/Fit/Play type stuff). Nintendo used to regularly blow my mind with a lot of their new and innovative IPs but it seems like the post Gamecube Nintendo has been more content to just continue putting out sequel after sequel for their established franchises (which are admittedly pretty damn good most of the time) along with a host of mini-game compilations. 

Yeah, but so did a lot of other companies as well. It's just the nature of the industry for larger companies, less new IP, it's too costly/risky.

It's a shame too, but at the same time, and this has been stated enough by everyone, if they would at least do something interesting with their existing IP, more people would be happy.

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I'd want them to make the absolute most state of the art handheld without settling for lesser parts, but still sell it for the price they do now. No more compromises (either 3D ~or~ a second thumbpad), shortcuts and bad interfaces. Complete availability of all classic Nintendo titles on the eShop. And just keep making great quality games.

This would probably be at the top of my list. I'd even go so far as to say give us Gamecube games on it, too. At least 720p resolution, upscale that shit beautifully. Don't fucking just make it bigger and blurrier. Do some shit that makes sense. I'd even take Wii ports to modify the games to work with traditional controls (if and only if it makes sense, gameplay wise).

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Yeah, but so did a lot of other companies as well. It's just the nature of the industry for larger companies, less new IP, it's too costly/risky.

 

I was more replying to Ben X's hypothetical "if they could do whatever they wanted to do" scenario. In that scenario, I would love to see some new IP. And even under real world circumstances, it sounds like they have more than enough money in the bank to invest in some new IP. I just really don't see a new Nintendo IP being any more of a risky venture than half of the other random crap they've put out. They're Nintendo. They convinced 10's of millions of people to buy the balance board.

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If we're being all hypothetical about building shit, let's make a real life NintendoLand.  A sprawling several thousand acre theme park dedicated to all things Nintendo.  Mario rides, Zelda themed mazes you can explore, the most baller arcades you have ever seen, giant live action recreations of some of their games most iconic moments.  Mothafuckin real life Mario Kart Races!  Animal crossing petting zoo.  Imagine all the fun stuff you could pack into a water park that was Nintendo themed. 

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Hypothetically, if they decided to do whatever they wanted for, say, 10 years with no commercial concerns thanks to a safety net of an non-fatal 2 billion dollar loss, what would people want to see, or expect, them do? (For "hypothetically", read "this doesn't have to make exact economic sense, fuckers".)

 

I would want to see them give me a bunch of money so I would never have to work again. Then I would thank them, and tell them to get back to work.

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I want them to stop making New Super Fucking Mario Bros. Actually in general, I want them to make less games a year of their franchises. They release way too much for any normal person to keep up with.

 

I also want them to start their Taxi business again.

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I just want Nintendo's online crap to be at least as good as the Xbox360's. Real match making, real account purchases that are attached to me, not the console, a friends list that's worth using.

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If we're being all hypothetical about building shit, let's make a real life NintendoLand. A sprawling several thousand acre theme park dedicated to all things Nintendo. Mario rides, Zelda themed mazes you can explore, the most baller arcades you have ever seen, giant live action recreations of some of their games most iconic moments. Mothafuckin real life Mario Kart Races! Animal crossing petting zoo. Imagine all the fun stuff you could pack into a water park that was Nintendo themed.

It's actually kind of nuts that this seems reasonable. I mean, Disneyland is just the same thing but based on movie IP. And of all gaming companies that exist, Nintendo is the only one where this would make sense.

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Genetically engineer real Pokémon.

 

Serious answers:

 

1) take more opportunities to actively promote and make use of the eshop. Nintendo's done a really good job of going from being a physical-only company (remember the wastelands of Wiiware?) to releasing absolutely everything digitally. Nintendo has traditionally been very reluctant to ever reduce the prices on their games, but if they were willing to do the occasional flash sale or bundle deal the way thast services like Steam or PSN have been doing, I feel they could really clean up.

2) let other studios make non-canon experiments with Nintendo IP. Kind of like the new Zelda game being made by the Dynasty Warriors peeps, but actually appealing. Secret desire: let Valve design a Zelda dungeon, since Portal basically IS a Zelda dungeon.

3) bring Nintendo into other mediums and bring the existing examples thereof to other territories. ie: get someone to make a documentary about the Nintendo/Universal legal battle over Donkey Kong, or take another whack at making movies and cartoons again. There's been a Mario manga running in Japan for more than twenty years that would probably be at least as well-received as the Pokémon and Zelda manga that have been brought over.

4) take the plunge and fix your online services. Go the extra mile and bring Swapnote back as an improved standard messaging feature across all platforms. Miiverse is great, now make it better.

5) acquire or build relationships with more second parties, as with the current Platinum situation. This could even be a good way to introduce the western world to the Japanese independent game development scene, which is virtually untapped here.

6) Pokémon LOMA. You will make a quadjillion dollars.

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They're Nintendo. They convinced 10's of millions of people to buy the balance board.

I did. I was 25 at the time and I trekked across South London to buy an £80 set of scales. And despite the flak it gets (as does the Wii in general) it's a quality bit of kit. I really wish they'd release an app that would just display the weight on the board. The amount of times I've had to go into the daily evaluation process just to weight some luggage is embarrassing.

I really couldn't care less what Nintendo do. A more robust online infrastructure would be great but despite the general feeling from the Internet, I really feel they've never stopped putting out fantastic software. The 3DS is just on fire in terms of variety and quality. The iteration with Mario and his series irks a bit but I'm not forced to play NSMB. And you can't argue with 3D Land and World.

I just had a friend round for some Mario Kart and Rock Band but that seemed like too much energy and hard work so we fired up Wii Sports Resort for a round of golf. And then some table tennis. Then some archery. And finally, cycling. It's a great game! Trying to sync our pedalling on a tandem, our Miis in little vests gulping from flasks of water, had us in fits.

I don't know. I guess my point is that they've never stopped churning out great games, even if the form they take isn't catering specifically to 18-30 year old males. Over-zealous tutorials and repeated unskippable dialogue aside (fuck you Animal Crossing) I'm quite happy for Nintendo to keep producing unusual joyous shit.

Edit. Agree with Tegan's points, especially 4. Swapnote was great, and I miss its little green notification light :(

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I think some brand new IP completely independent of their existing franchises would be awesome. As far as the big Nintendo franchises go, I can't think of anything new they've put out since Animal Crossing and Pikmin on the Gamecube (excluding the Wii Sports/Fit/Play type stuff). Nintendo used to regularly blow my mind with a lot of their new and innovative IPs but it seems like the post Gamecube Nintendo has been more content to just continue putting out sequel after sequel for their established franchises (which are admittedly pretty damn good most of the time) along with a host of mini-game compilations. 

 

Rhythm Heaven?

 

That's what I want, really. I love crazy Nintendo, and I'm looking forward to them being backed into a bit more of a corner and pulling out the weird-ass shit.

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As far as the big Nintendo franchises go, I can't think of anything new they've put out since Animal Crossing and Pikmin on the Gamecube (excluding the Wii Sports/Fit/Play type stuff).

 

Dillon's Rolling Western, Pushmo, and Flingsmash come to mind. They tend to keep new IPs small, and often avoid risks by attaching an existing IP to something that should have been an original property (ie: Kirby's Epic Yarn was originally supposed to be a new franchise starring Prince Fluff).

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