Nintendo: "We are thinking about a new business structure"

[Hyve]

Chances are this won't put Nintendo back in the lead, not yet anyway.

If they're only just now deciding to change, it could be ~18 months before these changes have any major impact on their company, and if they've only recently started looking at Mobile / Smart Device Gaming, then they're already well behind.

It's good to see them attempting to catch up, and it's the smart thing to do, but I don't foresee an easy ride to victory for them.

[Vankrys]

It's good to see them attempting to catch up, and it's the smart thing to do, but I don't foresee an easy ride to victory for them.

they are? what will they do?

I can see them focussing their effort on the mobile gaming, which they are the leader, but further investing tens of millions of $ in the WiiU in an attempt to save the plateform could be risky.

[jibbyjackjoe]

Nintendo putting their franchises on other non-nintendo platforms completely devalues them. We'll have $10 crappy iphone mario games that won't sell, and will play like crap (Sega's franchises are my source).

Also, I wish people would stop saying kiddie games. Games for kids =/= kid friendly games. I'm pushing 30 here and have no interest in any FPS.

[Vespian]

Nintendo putting their franchises on other non-nintendo platforms completely devalues them. We'll have $10 crappy iphone mario games that won't sell, and will play like crap (Sega's franchises are my source).

Also, I wish people would stop saying kiddie games. Games for kids =/= kid friendly games. I'm pushing 30 here and have no interest in any FPS.

It's the focus of the company, so you couldn't possibly suggest that they are adult games. They are kiddie games that are slightly adult friendly, not visa versa. Nothing wrong with kiddie persé, but their characters are lacking depth more and more, the way they are being abused for title after title after title. Adult could be about more depth into their current stories, not just titties.

As a 29 year old male who really enjoyed pokemon when he was little. Most of us grow up and Nintendo can't build an empire on those that can't let the past go.

[jibbyjackjoe]

I disagree. You see, the one thing that inventing new characters allows you, is freedom of character. If you pick Mario or Zelda, you are stuck in an archetype, or you are stuck making the character secondary to the gameplay. In the case of Mario definitely the latter. Mario has been a characterless puppet, being abused by all sorts of games, some of which are fun, some of which are not. As I said before, the problem with Nintendo is rehashing of characters. They don't have enough and by using them over and over they beat the living crap out of any individuality those characters used to have.

The advantage of a NEW IP, which Nintendo lacks, is that you can create a setting and character from the base.

Um, I disagree with you. Lets look at super mario 64 vs mario sunshine. That gameplay was SO DIFFERENT. The type of game (platformer) is still the same, but that's what we're talking about...platformers.

And then, lets compare mario sunshine to galaxy. HOLY CRAP. What an experience. That game is genius.

Those games are not even close to being the same. The characters are familiar and established, but the settings...the settings are completely different.

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It's the focus of the company, so you couldn't possibly suggest that they are adult games. They are kiddie games that are slightly adult friendly, not visa versa. Nothing wrong with kiddie persé, but their characters are lacking depth more and more, the way they are being abused for title after title after title. Adult could be about more depth into their current stories, not just titties.

As a 29 year old male who really enjoyed pokemon when he was little. Most of us grow up and Nintendo can't build an empire on those that can't let the past go.

Why, so I can play CoD? No thanks...
You should look into the competitive Pokemon scene. You may actually be surprised at how HARD it is.
The focus of the company is good games that are family friendly, not kiddie games. There are some worlds in Mario 3D world that made me rage quit.

Can you please point me to adult games? What do you play that makes you feel more grown up?

[Vespian]

Um, I disagree with you. Lets look at super mario 64 vs mario sunshine. That gameplay was SO DIFFERENT. The type of game (platformer) is still the same, but that's what we're talking about...platformers.

And then, lets compare mario sunshine to galaxy. HOLY CRAP. What an experience. That game is genius.

Those games are not even close to being the same. The characters are familiar and established, but the settings...the settings are completely different.

What parents need to know
Parents need to know that Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a nearly all-ages platformer with only mild cartoon violence. Mario is the quintessential video game protagonist, an unquestionably good soul journeying to save his princess from an evil monster named Bowser. He fights enemies, but only those of the cartoonish, non-human variety and using whimsical attacks, such as ground pounds, spins, and special abilities that let him turn into a rolling boulder or use a dinosaur’s tongue to grab and swallow up foes. Several situations force players to put on their thinking caps to solve tricky platforming problems and figure out how to beat clever bosses. If you let your kids play the original, there’s no reason not to let them play this one, too. It’s worth adding, though, that Mario is possibly the most commercial video game property in existence, and once a child begins on this plumber’s path, there’s really no turning back.

What's it about?
Poor Peach, Mario’s perpetual princess in distress, is kidnapped by the beastly, shell-backed Bowser yet again

Why, so I can play CoD? No thanks...
You should look into the competitive Pokemon scene. You may actually be surprised at how HARD it is.
The focus of the company is good games that are family friendly, not kiddie games. There are some worlds in Mario 3D world that made me rage quit.

Can you please point me to adult games? What do you play that makes you feel more grown up?

Seriously, who in the world would call himself a gamer, if you play COD. It's like ..shooter nr 99 and Quake still does it best. Ok I'm not really serious, but I don't play COD. In fact, I stay away from anything that's serialized to death, like Mario, like COD, like FF, etc.

The point is not just that mature lies in blood, gore or porn, but also in things like the emotional message of the journey that is the game.

[Dhrizzle]

Not having EA is surely an amazing coup for Nintendo?

Losing one of the largest 3rd party developers can only make them weaker against Playstation and X-Box, especially when you consider the popularity of their sports' franchises.

[jibbyjackjoe]

they are? what will they do?

I can see them focussing their effort on the mobile gaming, which they are the leader, but further investing tens of millions of $ in the WiiU in an attempt to save the plateform could be risky.

The wii u is going to stay around. The game cube wasn't too successful either, but they didn't abandon it. That would literally piss off 5.5 million people who own a system.

The system isn't the virtual boy, with almost no sales. It sells tens of thousands a week. That isn't an outstanding number, but it isn't nothing.

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What parents need to know
Parents need to know that Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a nearly all-ages platformer with only mild cartoon violence. Mario is the quintessential video game protagonist, an unquestionably good soul journeying to save his princess from an evil monster named Bowser. He fights enemies, but only those of the cartoonish, non-human variety and using whimsical attacks, such as ground pounds, spins, and special abilities that let him turn into a rolling boulder or use a dinosaur’s tongue to grab and swallow up foes. Several situations force players to put on their thinking caps to solve tricky platforming problems and figure out how to beat clever bosses. If you let your kids play the original, there’s no reason not to let them play this one, too. It’s worth adding, though, that Mario is possibly the most commercial video game property in existence, and once a child begins on this plumber’s path, there’s really no turning back.

What's it about?
Poor Peach, Mario’s perpetual princess in distress, is kidnapped by the beastly, shell-backed Bowser yet again

Head shot, double kill, yadda yadda. Same FPS from last year...

[Vespian]

Head shot, double kill, yadda yadda. Same FPS from last year...

You try to battle my argument by pretending I play COD? Or just because COD is in existence thus my argument is false? Respect. Here's the bible, I hear it contains the truth and nothing but the only truth.

BUHUHUHUHU BUT THEY DO IT TOO.

YES, WHICH MAKES IT TRUE ABOUT BOTH << Not JUST true about COD.

[tankbug]

It's the focus of the company, so you couldn't possibly suggest that they are adult games. They are kiddie games that are slightly adult friendly, not visa versa. Nothing wrong with kiddie persé, but their characters are lacking depth more and more, the way they are being abused for title after title after title. Adult could be about more depth into their current stories, not just titties.

As a 29 year old male who really enjoyed pokemon when he was little. Most of us grow up and Nintendo can't build an empire on those that can't let the past go.

They are solid games with no specific target audience, that's how they keep selling. You can't take Mario and give him an background as Vietnam-vet and recovering alcoholic. The game is not to learn about Mario's internal struggles, think more "arcade". It's about what you can do, not why. People enjoy these games as well. And it's not just nostalgia. Look at "recent" simple, shallow games like Angry Birds, popular as fuck. And if racing games still sell, well....they can be as adult as you'd like, but still lack everything but the driving part. You are a car, wroom wroom!

Nintendo puts their RPG into Zelda, and that works fine.

[Remilia]

Hrmm, how about that... For some strange reason, mentally, BluRay never became a thing for me. I mean, I own a BluRay player and several discs for it, and on some level I understand how cheap and information-dense the technology is. But subconsciously, to me it will always be some tech fad that went the way of BetaMax. And I have no idea, because I've never had that issue with any other technology. Maybe because, for my own practical purposes, there is no difference between it and a regular DVD?

Blueray isnt any different from a dvd aside from the amount of information it can hold. More information means higher quality. Bigger games, better graphics.

It is slightly different. Bluray has a higher read rate with a lower RPM, has potential of 4 layers embedded into it leading up to higher storage capacity than 25Gb but also requires more expensive hardware to read up to that 4th one. The read rate of it is still horrendous though. Peaking at 50Mbps(?) while your 7200 RPM harddrive (depends on what storage / density really), already sits at 70+ Mbps while stuff like 4TB hard drives sit around 150Mbps. Then your modern SSDs sit around 450-500+ Mbps.

Higher end SDXC already have read / write rates up to 70Mbps+ at 128GB and a stupid expensive 256GB each for such a smaller form factor. If it comes down in prices for manufacturers I can imagine it being more useful as a storage device for games.

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Apology if it's already posted

EA source

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/201...ates_ea_source

EVERYTHING MUST BE BROWN AND DARK AND GRITTY... Ugh... They say this while making games like Plant versus Zombie.

[Dhrizzle]

EVERYTHING MUST BE BROWN AND DARK AND GRITTY... Ugh... They say this while making games like Plant versus Zombie.

I wouldn't call Mass Effect, Dragon Age or SimCity BROWN AND DARK AND GRITTY. Mostly they're quite shiny and sparkly.

[Kalyyn]

I wouldn't call Mass Effect, Dragon Age or SimCity BROWN AND DARK AND GRITTY. Mostly they're quite shiny and sparkly.

Dragon Age's primary color was brown (dirt, shanty houses, monster skin, etc) and the game usually had you wading waist-deep in blood.

[Verdugo]

and the game usually had you wading waist-deep in blood.

That one is red.

You know, like Mario.

After being beaten into unrecognizable pulp.

I hate that bastard...

[Remilia]

I wouldn't call Mass Effect, Dragon Age or SimCity BROWN AND DARK AND GRITTY. Mostly they're quite shiny and sparkly.

Bar Sim City, the point of the brown dark gritty etc etc was the game had to always have this stupid dark atmosphere where everything is exploding, dieing, etc and please don't point out a tiny thing in the game and take that 'everything' to the extreme then go, it's not everything!

Not every game has to be like that, seriously. I've already made a similar statement about this previously in the thread.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...3#post24874533

[Rennadrel]

Go the way of Sega, stop with the consoles and start with the games.

And look where that has brought Sega to, their games a crap

[draykorinee]

Losing one of the largest 3rd party developers can only make them weaker against Playstation and X-Box, especially when you consider the popularity of their sports' franchises.

Seriously, how blatant do I need to make the sarcasm on that post.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Dragon Age's primary color was brown (dirt, shanty houses, monster skin, etc) and the game usually had you wading waist-deep in blood.

Blood for the Blood God?

[Rennadrel]

Chances are this won't put Nintendo back in the lead, not yet anyway.

If they're only just now deciding to change, it could be ~18 months before these changes have any major impact on their company, and if they've only recently started looking at Mobile / Smart Device Gaming, then they're already well behind.

It's good to see them attempting to catch up, and it's the smart thing to do, but I don't foresee an easy ride to victory for them.

The thing is though, they aren't behind in the portable gaming business. They are the only company who has consistently sold over 30 million portable gaming systems. Their biggest failings have come from their online structure more then anything. The web browser for the DS and 3DS are both horrible and they barely make any attempt to have a competitive store pricing structure. I am one of many people who feel that many of the virtual console games are horribly overpriced and most of them are crappy ports to boot. Nintendo sells more portable gaming systems then anyone else, including a majority of the smart phone markets manufacturers do with their products.

[Verdugo]

always have this stupid dark atmosphere where everything is exploding, dieing, etc

Thats not dark, thats hollywood action.