RIP Nintendo, 1889-2016

[SecretAsianMan]

That's what I want out of Nintendo.  More weird experimental type stuff.  More things that push the idea of what a game is and how you can play it.  I want them to stop chasing the "hardcore" audience because they're clearly not suited for it anymore.  I didn't buy a Wii to play a crappy port of CoD or Dead Rising or whatever.  I bought the Wii on the promise of innovation and fun.  Give me more of that.

 

 

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

 

The thought makes me cringe, but you are probably right.  Also I predict that at least one pro team will call themselves Team Rocket.

[syntheticgerbil]

Christ, can they please fucking make Swapnote work again? People enjoyed my crappy doodles and now I don't get any more compliments in life.

[Ucantalas]

I feel like a 5 year old. When Swapnote was there I never used it, but now that its gone I want it.

[Tanukitsune]

I just remembered something, back in the day, when Squaresoft announced they would work for Sony and Nintendo would stick with the expensive and antiquated cartridge system for the N64... I also thought it was the end for Nintendo.

[Merus]

I also remember the DS being seen as the last gasp of relevance for a Nintendo desperate to stave off Sony's inevitable takeover of their market. Not so much confusion over the Wii, though, people remembered the last time Nintendo did something that seemed odd and didn't immediately assume it was Nintendo that didn't get it.

 

Like, I can't see Nintendo being an ascendant force in the premium console market any time soon, but I'm not going to rule out their moving into developing markets because it's all about the execution, not the strategy.

[Frenetic Pony]

There's been something huge bothering me about people talking about Nintendo on the internet.

 

And that's somehow the impression that Nintendo is a small privately owned company existing just for the heck of it like Mojang is. Well, it's not. It's a publicly owned company and guess what happens to publicly owned companies that continue to lose money, they're sold! Or even dissolved\sold piecemeal entirely if they have as much money on hand as Nintendo does. Investors aren't going to sit there and watch what is ostensibly THEIR money being washed down the drain just for sake of keeping a failing company alive.

 

Which is why when I say Nintendo will have to turn it around soon to survive, I actually mean that.

[Merus]

How long has Sony had, though? Nintendo has a product that sells well and sizable assets. They've announced a strategy of diversification to bank some of that sweet, sweet China money. If they have to start having a firesale, they'll probably start with the baseball team.

 

I mean, this Chicken Littling is fun so long as you recognise that it actually is Chicken Littling. This isn't serious analysis or based on anything particularly real, and until someone turns up who has actually read Nintendo's annual reports then silly speculation is where it'll stay.

[Frenetic Pony]

How long has Sony had, though? Nintendo has a product that sells well and sizable assets. They've announced a strategy of diversification to bank some of that sweet, sweet China money. If they have to start having a firesale, they'll probably start with the baseball team.

 

I mean, this Chicken Littling is fun so long as you recognise that it actually is Chicken Littling. This isn't serious analysis or based on anything particularly real, and until someone turns up who has actually read Nintendo's annual reports then silly speculation is where it'll stay.

 

Just predicting that if their next console isn't a hit, well.

 

I don't go in for... media fun. Or rather I think it's fun to try to be accurate, and not about the obvious. That would be boring to predict the sky is blue. And I'm not saying Sony is doing well... but at least they're turning around, while NIntendo slides down the deep hole. Which wouldn't be bad so bad if they weren't seemingly content to slide down while making decisions I can't agree are going to turn things around.

 

Heck people want Microsoft to sell of the Xbox division, and that's doing a lot better (in some ways) than Nintendo is.

 

I just want to see some sign that Nintendo will actually turn it around, like AMD or Sony. They're doing what they can, Nintendo's strategy is "let's make the Wii again but for poor people!" I mean, it's not Bear-Sterns. But the world isn't a kind place to single business companies who's only business is failing. If you're a billionaire are you really going to watch your money be thrown down the toilet to keep betting on someone that fail continuously?

 

If they can make something somehow clever... which I don't think they can then I'll be happy to say they are fine. I just don't see anything though.

[Thrik]

Just predicting that if their next console isn't a hit, well.

 

I don't go in for... media fun. Or rather I think it's fun to try to be accurate, and not about the obvious. That would be boring to predict the sky is blue. And I'm not saying Sony is doing well... but at least they're turning around, while NIntendo slides down the deep hole. Which wouldn't be bad so bad if they weren't seemingly content to slide down while making decisions I can't agree are going to turn things around.

 

Heck people want Microsoft to sell of the Xbox division, and that's doing a lot better (in some ways) than Nintendo is.

 

I just want to see some sign that Nintendo will actually turn it around, like AMD or Sony. They're doing what they can, Nintendo's strategy is "let's make the Wii again but for poor people!" I mean, it's not Bear-Sterns. But the world isn't a kind place to single business companies who's only business is failing. If you're a billionaire are you really going to watch your money be thrown down the toilet to keep betting on someone that fail continuously?

 

If they can make something somehow clever... which I don't think they can then I'll be happy to say they are fine. I just don't see anything though.

 

We have no idea what exactly Nintendo is planning with regards to its overall strategy, and any moves into developing markets won't necessarily have any impact on us in the west whatsoever. I mean, do you really think that Nintendo is just going to write off what has historically been one of its biggest markets? It's still pumping out industry-leading games in terms of quality, and it's doing its best to redeem what was a fairly ill-planned console launch — much like it eventually managed to do with the GameCube, primarily with great games that made it worth the price of entry for those alone.

 

Nintendo has more than enough capacity to expand its hardware range beyond one handheld and one home console, especially considering that it built a huge new R&D facility during the past few years. Thinking along the lines of 'because they're doing X they won't do Y' is rampant speculation, and most likely erroneous because it just doesn't make sense. Nintendo might not get everything right, but it tends to be very responsive to shifts in the market and to date has always come back stronger. Indeed, from what I've seen Nintendo is due to return to profitability this next financial year due to changes made since the Wii U's future started looking dim.

It's also worth bearing in mind that this is far from the first time that Nintendo has made a bit of a blunder. What Nintendo tends to do in such situations is not let its momentum suffer, and instead carry on with business as usual while making moves towards new hardware that will do better. I would imagine that in addition to its ongoing development on Wii U games, Nintendo is also deep into R&D on its successor. But the Wii U only launched two years ago, so it's clearly too early for any announcements regarding that.

 

Even if Nintendo is currently in 'write off the Wii U and do better next time' mode, I would imagine that a successor will appear after no less than four years — but probably not as long as six years or more. That would most likely satisfy Wii U owners because by that point they'll have gotten a wonderful selection of first-gen HD Nintendo games (which is really what many of us wanted from the Wii), and it'll put Nintendo in an excellent position to disrupt Microsoft and Sony because they'll only be halfway into their hardware cycle at most.

[BigJKO]

So.. we all agree that Nintendo is doomed.

 

RIP Nintendo 1989 - 2045. "Should've made iPhone games," reads their tombstone. 

 

[Architecture]

Or rather I think it's fun to try to be accurate, and not about the obvious.

In all seriousness, nothing I've read from you has been accurate.

[lobotomy42]

If I had my druthers, Nintendo would release exactly one new game every month, each on its own proprietary hardware designed from-the-ground-up just for that game, which would be totally different from every Nintendo game that had ever come before it.  (All old IP would be banned from usage, at least for a decade or two, although I suppose the virtual console re-releases of old games can stay.)  I want to see Nintendo's take on a family-friendly open-world RPG with the Nintendo Sword and Shield peripheral with better-than-realistic motion mapping in the actual sword.  A racing game that requires the use of an in-home treadmill.  A platformer controlled exclusively via singing certain notes into a microphone.  A camera-tracked stealth experience that requires the player to sit as still and silently as human possible to hide, and then lots of activity to move again.

[tegan]

If I had my druthers, Nintendo would release exactly one new game every month, each on its own proprietary hardware designed from-the-ground-up just for that game, which would be totally different from every Nintendo game that had ever come before it. 

[Winnipeg Fats]

First - am I correct in assuming Nintendo "dying" means they leave the hardware market and sell Mario games on other platforms?

 

Every time I think Nintendo can survive anything I think about Sega.  I was a Genesis kid, and the Dreamcast was is one of my favourite systems of all time.  When they left the hardware market part of me died with them.

 

In my weird emotional child brain I don't want to see Nintendo systems stop getting made.. Although I have stopped buying them, so my rational adult brain says they should shutter the hardware side today and start putting classic and new games on Steam and sell USB controllers for Windows and Apple.  I'd buy an N64 library and good controller in a heartbeat if it were available.  Hell, I'd keep a NES, SNES, GC and N64 USB controller beside my couch all the time if it meant I could boot up those games in a good and licensed emulation environment.

 

So in summary I both want Nintendo to leave hardware and I want them to keep making systems forever. Because nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

[Twig]

Okay I figured out what it is I really want Nintendo to do with infinite money and no worries about failure.

 

Basically what Winnipeg... Fats (THIS NAME!) just said, but taken to the extreme. I want Nintendo to strongarm every single developer and platform holder into making their content open to every single platform, so that I have the perfect choice of where and when I want to play my games. I want the "hardware" from now until the end of time to just be the controllers. Maybe specific additional pieces, like the Occulus Rift, too. But no more exclusivity to this or that console. I want complete opennness.

 

Okay so really I just want all games ever to be available on PC, but ideally there would still be "Playstation" living-room PCs, such that if that's what someone wants to use, they can. But they can also plug in a Wii remote. Or a flight stick. Or a 360 controller.

 

OH MAN wouldn't that be rad yes it would shut up.

[syntheticgerbil]

And that's somehow the impression that Nintendo is a small privately owned company existing just for the heck of it like Mojang is. Well, it's not. It's a publicly owned company and guess what happens to publicly owned companies that continue to lose money, they're sold! Or even dissolved\sold piecemeal entirely if they have as much money on hand as Nintendo does. Investors aren't going to sit there and watch what is ostensibly THEIR money being washed down the drain just for sake of keeping a failing company alive.

They are public in Japan, and they went public in 1962, way before they ever knew what a video game was. Are you positive public companies in Japan work the same way as the United States and if Japanese stockholders share the same values? It's well known Japanese corporate structure is very different, so would the stock market there follow?

 

RIP Nintendo 1989 - 2045. "Should've made iPhone games," reads their tombstone. 

 

1989?!

[Merus]

Every time I think Nintendo can survive anything I think about Sega.  I was a Genesis kid, and the Dreamcast was is one of my favourite systems of all time.  When they left the hardware market part of me died with them.

 

I think what people forget is that Sega completely fucked up the Genesis era - they took their lead and squandered it by manufacturing and releasing three separate add-ons to it, draining their money and the goodwill of developers. The Saturn was a poorly engineered monster and made the situation bad enough that if the Dreamcast wasn't a smash hit, they'd have to fold. The Dreamcast was only a modest hit.

 

Nintendo has not blown a bunch a bunch of money on pointless add-ons that won't sell - they usually try a few, but they've had hits. Customers still care about Nintendo, and the 3DS is a solid revenue source at this point. So Nintendo aren't going to follow Sega into the dark.

 

As for leaving the hardware business, I think it's more likely that Nintendo will leave the software business, honestly. They've got great game designers, but their firmware is pretty terrible, whereas their hardware is basically always pretty solid. They came into games via hardware, and if they leave games (for instance, if they start making devices for the fitness market) that's how they'll leave.

[BusbyBerkeley]

Okay I figured out what it is I really want Nintendo to do with infinite money and no worries about failure.

 

Basically what Winnipeg... Fats (THIS NAME!) just said, but taken to the extreme. I want Nintendo to strongarm every single developer and platform holder into making their content open to every single platform, so that I have the perfect choice of where and when I want to play my games. I want the "hardware" from now until the end of time to just be the controllers. Maybe specific additional pieces, like the Occulus Rift, too. But no more exclusivity to this or that console. I want complete opennness.

 

Okay so really I just want all games ever to be available on PC, but ideally there would still be "Playstation" living-room PCs, such that if that's what someone wants to use, they can. But they can also plug in a Wii remote. Or a flight stick. Or a 360 controller.

 

OH MAN wouldn't that be rad yes it would shut up.

 

They already have those and they are called computers

[Twig]

I honestly think you didn't read my post.

[SecretAsianMan]

I certainly never read your posts.

 

I'm assuming this post is appropriate since I don't read your posts.

[tegan]

I really wish the Wii U had a more extensive Virtual Console service, because if I could just play every classic Nintendo game on either the gamepad or the woefully unappreciated Wii U Pro Controller, I'd be in heaven.

[Twig]

Well hey if it's a trend maybe I'll stop reading my posts, too!

[tegan]

I haven't read your posts since you switched from the Scott Dewitt drawing of Doctor Wily to Iago.

 

Nyohohoho

[syntheticgerbil]

Maybe Nintendo should have made the WiiU come with a fucking Pro Controller instead of charging $50. They already expected us to bring all the Wiimotes, they could have thrown us a bone.

[SecretAsianMan]

Maybe Nintendo should have made the WiiU come with a fucking Pro Controller instead of charging $50. They already expected us to bring all the Wiimotes, they could have thrown us a bone.

 

Or at least kept compatibility with the Gamecube controller.