Nintendo Games Losing Popularity

Re: RE: Nintendo games losing popularity

Chaos Jackal said:
Don't expect to see a 3DS outside. It's not a phone, it's a rather large handheld, as big as the biggest Samsung or Sony phones. Its games are also ongoing, needing time and dedication in most cases. Plus, there's always that long-rooted belief that you will be laughed at if you carry a handheld around. You won't be made fun if you carry a phone, that's a common sight, but a handheld... that's nerdish. Tell me, are PSPs are PSVitas a common sight? I don't think so.
Nintendo is a gaming company, not a mobile company, and it also happens to be a company that specializes in handhelds. Handhelds are a completely different consumer base than phones, an entirely different field. Nintendo is doing well in that field, and has been doing so for many years now. It's not losing to smartphones, because simply we're talking about a different thing here.
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I agree about carry around handheld thing. *what I meant before, it is possible for Nintendo, if they want to make a smartphone. Which will still have the quality of games they have now.*

But I do not totally agree about your part about handhelds being different than phones.

Technology keeps developing, in a very unpredictable way. Years ago, there were internet computers and phones as seperate devices but look how it has become now. It's possible, really soon, that handheld games and smartphones will merge too.

Customers, some of them demand changing, some others just follow the trend. Based on the market so far, companies change to what people demand, and/or manipulate the group of followers to think they need/want it.

Some company *smartphones and games* succeed for now with the 'manipulating' part, I believe. With really small development and just working to make their device to be better in the same area for year after year. Nintendo have the most significant change, imo, and still keep experiment in many aspects of their devices *for now handheld*.

Nintendo can make a smartphone like gaming device with both of aspects in top quality. And I eagerly wait for it, and if they never make it. I'll maybe still be their fanboy fangirl, since unlike other companies, Nintendo never dissapoint me in quality and 'fun-experience' that they offer to me.
 
For the record, if Nintendo did make a smartphone, I would be all over that. >_> I don't really expect them to do so, however.

I was linked to a somewhat interesting article about the "failure" of the Wii U the other day; it's a bit out of date, but I think it does hit home on a lot of why the Wii U didn't do so well, but also why it doesn't mean the company is going to die or anything like that. In the month since that article's come out, Nintendo did release earning statements basically confirming that the Wii U didn't do so hot.

Personally, I kind of see the Wii U now like the 3DS was a couple years ago: a system with unnecessary additions (in the 3DSes case, 3D; in the Wii U's case, the clunky tablet controller) at a high enough price point that made people think twice about buying one, combined with a sore lack of strong titles at release. Both consoles opened up with Mario games, but by and large, Mario games aren't the sort of games you buy a console for; you might pick them up when you already have one, but I don't think most people are going to plop down a few hundred dollars to play the latest Mario platformer remake. Wii had Twilight Princess at release, and that was very good. 3DS started picking up sales once better games came out, and I think that will happen with the WIi U, too; the new SSB will help, as will possible Mario Kart, and definitely whenever the new console Zelda is released.

In any event, I'm definitely not giving up on Nintendo, but like I did with the 3DS, I'm waiting to pick up a Wii U until there's games there that actually seriously interest me, probably the SSB release.
 
lovandra said:
But I do not totally agree about your part about handhelds being different than phones.

Technology keeps developing, in a very unpredictable way. Years ago, there were internet computers and phones as seperate devices but look how it has become now. It's possible, really soon, that handheld games and smartphones will merge too.

Customers, some of them demand changing, some others just follow the trend. Based on the market so far, companies change to what people demand, and/or manipulate the group of followers to think they need/want it.

Some company *smartphones and games* succeed for now with the 'manipulating' part, I believe. With really small development and just working to make their device to be better in the same area for year after year. Nintendo have the most significant change, imo, and still keep experiment in many aspects of their devices *for now handheld*.
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While what you say is true to some extent, it doesn't change the fact that smartphones and handhelds are a different category. Even if a company did make a handheld with the qualities of 3DS and Xperia Z1 (which is currently highly unlikely, considering developing expenses and the market cost of the product), it wouldn't change the fact that people would buy it for different reasons. A gamer, casual or hardcore, would pick it for its handheld qualities and only rarely use its smartphone apps, probably only the phone. On the other hand, someone who isn't really a gamer would buy the device for the smartphone qualities, and maybe pick a game or two along the way that he will play once in a while. We're talking about a completely different target audience here, and that's perhaps the reason why we won't see such a device for a long time. Because it will be too expensive to make and too expensive to sell, and it wouldn't make much profit since half the customers wouldn't buy games and the other half wouldn't buy apps (remember, games and generally software selling are part of a device's success). Take it like this. Smartphones and handhelds all have internet access, of a better or worse quality. What does this mean? That PCs and laptops don't sell?
 
I agree to your point too jackal :). It's possible, but still maybe not trully a good idea.
 
I guess a lot of people use phones to play games because gaming isn't really their passion. They just want to kill time while waiting for a bus or waiting in line or something. People who do spend money on games for dedicated systems have a passion for gaming. The Gameboy was popular among casuals mainly due to Tetris as it was a great game that killed a lot of time.
 
Good News! Nintendo just announced they are going to be releasing their own mini games on smartphones. They won't be releasing their full games on phones but rather short, simple, free to play mini games which will possibly feature characters like Mario. I think it's a good way to advertise their games on their systems.

UPDATE: Never mind. This was reported by Nikkei and not Nintendo. Also Nintendo denied it would bring mini games to phones. Sorry for the false rumor.
 
8bitCelebi said:
Good News! Nintendo just announced they are going to be releasing their own mini games on smartphones. They won't be releasing their full games on phones but rather short, simple, free to play mini games which will possibly feature characters like Mario. I think it's a good way to advertise their games on their systems.
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Micro transactions... micro transactions everywhere.
 
WanderingWolf said:
8bitCelebi said:
Good News! Nintendo just announced they are going to be releasing their own mini games on smartphones. They won't be releasing their full games on phones but rather short, simple, free to play mini games which will possibly feature characters like Mario. I think it's a good way to advertise their games on their systems.
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Micro transactions... micro transactions everywhere.
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Umm no. How did you even get that idea? They are trying to advertise their actual games.
 
I think Pokemon will always stay in many peoples hearts because the idea is original.
 
Teal said:
WanderingWolf said:
Micro transactions... micro transactions everywhere.
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Umm no. How did you even get that idea? They are trying to advertise their actual games.
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When even AAA games are using micro transactions now, and the mobile industry is FULL of them, you can bet that Nintendo is going to have micro transactions in the game. It doesn't really have anything to do with advertising their main games either.

Just slap a Pokémon City building game onto the App Store, have a premium currency, have Mario as an Easter egg, have an advertisement for their other games every 3 minutes. And done. 80% of games on the App Store today.

Plus, the games are free to play. I wonder how Nintendo will make money off of them...?
 
According to the article, it's not actually new games or anything, just Wii U and 3DS demos, like the ones that are already available for free in the e-shop. Nothing new, just another platform to advertise their demos on. And there wouldn't be micro-transactions because the full version of the game would still only be available on the 3DS/Wii U.
 
I've had long discussions with friends about this since I've been a die-hard Nintendo fan for my entire life.

On the topic of mobile devices, I honestly don't think Nintendo is going to get anywhere with them. I personally have zero interest in playing any serious games on my phone in the near future because games I play on my phone are there for a quick break from homework, not something I'll invest hours into. While my views may differ from the rest of the world's, I would be surprised if anyone truly wants to play the next Mario or Zelda on their phone rather then with a console for designed for those games. This is obviously why Nintendo is merely going to be offering "mini-games" on phones, but again, I'm not really seeing mobile devices as a way to "save" the company.

On the topic of Wii U's failure, a lot of things went wrong that Nintendo needs to patch up as best they can for now, and then get a new console out in a number of years and without the same mistakes. Most people say that it's the the lack of 3rd party games that caused the Wii U to fail, but I actually disagree to an extent. Nintendo just didn't hit the ground running when the console first came out, and because of that, people have lost interest. Sure, they got Pikmin 3 out fairly quickly as well as a couple of other solid games, but heck, even the new big Mario title (New Super Mario Bros U doesn't count) came out way too late. They needed to have Smash, Mario Kart 8, and a new Zelda to kick off their next-gen console...and instead, we got none of those (and they STILL aren't out; Smash doesn't even have a release date, and Zelda hasn't even been announced!) Combined with a lack of third party games, nobody wants the console.

The only reason I own one right now is because again, I'm a die-hard over-the-top Nintendo fan, and because I knew I was going to buy it eventually for Smash and decided I might as well get one now to play WWHD and Pikmin 3. I wish I could say Smash is going to sell the Wii U and bring Nintendo out of this ditch, but it's honestly too late at this point. Right now, they need to get Smash, Mario Kart, and Zelda (and maybe even something like a new Metroid, which people are crying out for) out ASAP so they can move some consoles and at least make the best of the situation. I'm hoping that with their next console, they realize the need to make it far more powerful in terms of processing/frame rates, and to get their popular games out on launch or shortly after launch.
 
Athena said:
According to the article, it's not actually new games or anything, just Wii U and 3DS demos, like the ones that are already available for free in the e-shop. Nothing new, just another platform to advertise their demos on. And there wouldn't be micro-transactions because the full version of the game would still only be available on the 3DS/Wii U.
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There's just one problem with the whole Nintendo bringing demos and mini-games to phones and whatnot: it's not true.

I'm not even sure it would be a good idea in the first place. Obviously you can't just port recent Mario or Zelda titles, as they require at least some sort of dedicated hardware. So what Nintendo would essentially be doing is wasting precious resources porting parts of their subpar games to a platform where there's no way they'd be able to make a profit without assuming there's some amazing marketing effects at play or without resorting to freemium horrors. At best they could try to port some select DS games like they Mario vs Donkey Kong series, but I'm not sure what exactly this would accomplish apart from bringing a few rays of sunshine to the desolate freemium wasteland that seems to be the modern mobile market.

About the topic at large: I'd like to point to a recent Metro articile which points out that at the time Nintendo's market valuation was bigger than all of Sony (which makes a lot more than just video games). Nintendo's stock has taken a dip since it recently announced a net loss, but it's recovering again, so this'll probably still be valid. So basically: Nintendo's far from dead. The Wii U might not be the succes Nintendo had hoped for, but don't forget that we're expecting a new Mario Kart and a new Super Smash Bros. relatively soon, and the 3DS is still doing amazingly well considering the extraordinary amount of doomsday prophesies at its launch.
 
I've been holding back here because as I said before, logical arguments won't change why this thread was made, but I wanted to point something out:

Blah said:
On the topic of Wii U's failure, a lot of things went wrong that Nintendo needs to patch up as best they can for now, and then get a new console out in a number of years and without the same mistakes. Most people say that it's the the lack of 3rd party games that caused the Wii U to fail, but I actually disagree to an extent. Nintendo just didn't hit the ground running when the console first came out, and because of that, people have lost interest. Sure, they got Pikmin 3 out fairly quickly as well as a couple of other solid games, but heck, even the new big Mario title (New Super Mario Bros U doesn't count) came out way too late. They needed to have Smash, Mario Kart 8, and a new Zelda to kick off their next-gen console...and instead, we got none of those (and they STILL aren't out; Smash doesn't even have a release date, and Zelda hasn't even been announced!) Combined with a lack of third party games, nobody wants the console.
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That. That is what happens when nintendo follows the pack (like many apparently want them to do, with smartphones, DLCs and such), instead of doing their own thing, as they usually do. Everyone was expecting the next generation of consoles, and nintendo released wiiU with only a few original games (not even new IPs, but sequels) and a lot of ports of incredibly popular and old games (so they were already played by most interested people in other platforms).

Nintendo tried to get ahead of the behemoths of sony and microsoft, and ran straight into a wall by releasing a console without a decent supply of titles. There was no need to release it before or at the same time as PS4 and XBone, and I'm positive that had nintendo waited until development on their big titles was done to release WiiU with ports, remakes, smash bros, MK, pikmin 3 and the rest, they would have fared much better, especially after the disappointments brought by the other consoles.
 
Did anyone see this article published today?

http://www.examiner.com/article/nintendo-admits-wii-u-problem-is-gamepad-but-plans-to-stick-with-it

They held a financial meeting to figure out why they had such lackluster sales over the holidays. They're blaming it on the Gamepad. I blame it on calling it a Wii. They should have let that name die with the regular Wii system. Most uneducated consumers out there (okay, so, most consumers) think the Wii U is just an upgrade to the Wii, that has a special tablet-like controller.

Reading this article worries me. I really hope Nintendo can survive and put out another home console in the next 5 years or so. They just need to pump out the games for the Wii U to boost sales. I know Smash Bros. and perhaps Mario Kart 8 will bolster sales, but will it be enough? Time will tell. I really think the only thing that can save them, unfortunately, is to match pace with Sony and Microsoft when it comes to system performance capabilities (processor speed/graphics) and online gameplay. They would get more third party support that way.
 
All I ask is that, if Nintendo is going down, to take its IPs with them.

I mean, are Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon really that inventive, or are they just becoming the same thing, the dreaded R word? I bought my WiiU - well, it was a gift for a friend who, because of a rather long story, no longer communicate with - and it had Wind Waker already on it. I admit, it was quite fun, playing a GCN game I never played. But I felt that it could have been something more. Super Mario 3D World was also a day one purchase and, while nothing new, is quite fun for my girlfriend and I. I'm hoping the WiiU becomes something amazing, especially since my girlfriend can pick it up and play. The Wii I felt was trash and part of the reason why Nintendo is in this mess, and I had it since launch. The GameCube I bought in middle school and I remember loving it for the amazing Double Dash, Melee, and the like.

Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. are the reason why my system is staying. My girlfriend loves those game series, plus Yarn Yoshi for her. I love my 3DS dearly. Pokemon X/Y (maybe R/S remakes and a Z) will keep my Pikachu 3DS long running. But when a new Mario or Zelda game is announced, I don't feel like it's anything brand new. Granted, I haven't been playing much of anything sans Pokemon X/Y.

Perhaps I'm growing out of 'video gaming' as a whole. I'm finding it almost obnoxious to trade Pokemon due to not having Box/Transporter. Animal Crossing is getting annoying with the DLC and everyone wanting the same unorderable things. Hell, even Borderlands 2 felt like a chore, GTA:V just felt average - like a gigantically bloated movie, and Bioshock Infinite wasn't as amazing as expected. The PS4 and Xbox One don't seem anything special than an Xbox 360 or PS3. And these indie games, gimmie a break.

The only reason I'd like Nintendo to, if they do, take their IPs with them is to maybe show people what they were. A family gaming system. But that too is disappearing. Now video games are "super serious" that require "innovative, epic storytelling" and becoming interactive movies. But I'm not all doom and gloom. If Nintendo can show everyone why we want their family friendly faces in our living rooms, so be them. But they need to be INVENTIVE. How many times can Link save Zelda? How many new mushroom species will Mario ingest?

Nintendo needs a "Frozen" - something that will make everyone go, "oh right, Nintendo!"
 
It's not just the gamepad that's part of the reason why the Wii U is failing, it's also a lack of third party support and Online Multiplayer on popular IP's. You see this on Sony and Microsoft's consoles but not on Nintendo's main console being the Wii U which is why the PS4 and XBOX One are selling like hotcakes but in terms of the PS4 and XBOX One, PS4 is the console of choice this gen even If it is the last of the console wars since there's a shift towards mobile gaming these days or consoles focusing more on Online Multiplayer. PC gaming seems like it's stayed relatively the same until MMORPG's came around to change the way we play PC games.

Nintendo's market is in handhelds for them to save themselves money as they've already jumped ship from the console market since they're using the console market as beta testing for the next handheld device or smartphone to play games on. It's not that people are "growing out of video gaming" it's that we keep getting force fed with rehashes of the same popular IP's on a constant basis without utilizing IP's that aren't getting used simply because they're too risky to sell in a stagnant global economy when those unused IP's can turn around to make a profit for Nintendo which Iwata and Miyamoto lack the balls to do. It probably wouldn't kill them to release a new Star Fox or F-Zero game with Online Multiplayer on the Wii U If they wanted.

It's ironic that people beg video game companies to bring out certain titles that never make it outside Japan or they're simply never made and companies like Nintendo say, "Oh no, a game like (insert random game title) would never succeed elsewhere!..". Then they wonder why they're not making as much money as they used to back when they gave people what the people wanted instead of giving people what the company wants to give out. It's almost like these companies WANT to fail miserably. At least Nintendo is finally looking into third party support for their consoles and handhelds but it makes you wonder what took them so long, sales figures perhaps?

We've reached a point in graphics where the shock value just isn't there anymore for a "next-gen console" so what do video game developers and producers need to focus on more? gameplay and fun factor as long as they keep glitches to a minimum but that might not be working anymore either. The gap between fantasy and reality in video games has widened to a point where there's too much realism over fantasy where Sony and Microsoft are notorious for this as they appeal more to the hardcore gamer base than the casual gamer base from Nintendo. If there's one company that's arguably going to take their IP's down with them it's Capcom depending If they refuse to get all their IP's bought out by Konami or some other Japanese video game company but unless Nintendo gets bought out by Sony they aren't going down without a fight.

Do Japanese Nintendo fans feel the same way we do about the current state of Nintendo in the video game industry as a whole or are they pleased with what Nintendo gives them? Is the couch experience still a thing there or are they starving for the online experience like we are? These are the kind of important questions that need to be directed toward Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Japan through official social media outlets and other ways to get their immediate attention on this. Nintendo did make a recent argument about why they refused to embrace online capabilities simply by saying that they wanted to deliver the old "NES feeling" instead of offering both. Do the online servers that they want to use cost too much or are they just making a blatant excuse not to invest in the online experience?
 
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