Nintendo looks for fresh opportunities after Wii U flop

I think it's time for Nintendo to bow and make games for Sony and Microsoft. It's the end of an era.

You're right Strangerland...my bad.....I mean you never know, the day may come when Harrison Ford hones in on your gaming skills and asks you to save the planet.

Seriously though, it was a suggestion, not an ultimatum.

Or.....you could throw away the games and go camping/canoeing/fishing/bird watching/hunting REAL things....no...not people.

Why does it have to be one or the other?

Aren't people jumping the gun on this? Sega had multiple failed consoles before becoming a third party developer. In case people forgot, the Wii won the last generation EASILY!! Relax people.

Or.....you could throw away the games and go camping/canoeing/fishing/bird watching/hunting REAL things....no...not people.

The WiiU is not a bad console. The problem is and has been for the last 2 generations is lack of games. Nintendo has 8 version of Mario Kart and how many version of Mario? People will always like the Nintendo core characters but it needs third party support if it's going to do anything. I don't mean ports either. They need exclusive awesome games.

That goes for for Sony and Microsoft too. My favorite game series came out on 4 platforms recently (MGS Ground Zeroes). I have a PS3 and a 360. Why would I get a PS4 or a Xbone for somewhat upgraded graphics?

Competition and the world of Gaming has changed, and they're struggling to keep up. Additionally Nintendo repeatedly takes steps in the wrong direction. For example, they had at one point taken legal steps to prevent "Let's Plays" (aka free advertising).

The trends of the current gen is less towards "heavy" or time intensive games (so anything that takes several hours to complete or requires at least an hour or two of focus to "sit down and play with") and more towards quick on-the-fly gaming (such as on a tablet, a la Angry Birds).

The thing is, a tablet does the internet/media end really well and the game part...satisfactory for most people. Basically the tablet/smartphone is a tool many people have anyway that happens to play games pretty well.

3DS and Wii-u's games are fine, but the internet/media/additional part is extremely lackluster. So, it's a game console (of course) but doesn't do anything else.

Additionally there just isn't really a need to go from Wii to Wii-U in my opinion. Innovation in earlier nintendo systems were worth the jump for the most part... now, the consoles come so quickly it makes more sense to skip a generation every time. NES to SNES was a huge graphcis jump. (Compare, say the early NES Mario Bros to the later Donkey Kong Country on SNES) We don't see this kind of difference anymore from console to console.

OOooohhh! Touched a nerve there, did we? Most of the games you named there are also available on the other platforms - with better graphics to boot. The games unique to Nintendo are kiddie. Ki-id-ie.

I guess it was all those "haters" irrationally choosing a platform that had games that appealed to them rather than buying a console with the same kiddie games version after version.

Yeah, because Need for Speed, R:Racing, Eternal Darkness, Resident Evil, Medal of Honour, Turok Evolution, James Bond, Rainbow Six, Conflict Desert Storm, Baldurs Gate and countless other games are really kiddy. If you are aiming to slander the Mario, Zelda, Pokemon and Donkey Kong series' you might want to take into consideration that those games are outselling "adult" games like Halo, Medal of Honour, Call of Duty, Battlefield and so on. If you don't like them, that's your call, but using your dislike of them in this argument only invalidates your point. Let's not forget that "kiddy" games such as the Zelda franchise have been popular with gamers of all ages since the 80's, and that isn't changing any time soon. Same with the Mario franchise. The Pokemon franchise has been staying strong for almost twenty years, and shows no signs of weakening any time soon. Then there's the Metroid and StarFox franchises. Both immensely popular. Metroid is the older, but StarFox is just as successful, and has been since it's SNES debut.

Nintendo will weather this storm. It wouldn't be the first time, and it won't be the last. They'll pull through, turn things around, and they'll show the world why Nintendo is here to stay, and why it should stay.

watch The Game Theorist @ youtube where they discuss why Nintendo Wii U failed for now, or did it really fail? is it Nintendo's fault or the gamers? But hey! it's just a theory, a GAME THEORY!

thanks for reading!

Links:

Game Theory: Are Gamers Killing Video Games? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxhs-GLE29Q&list=PL35FE5C4B157509C9

Game Theory: Wii U is the New Virtual Boy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS1p7W5dmBE&index=13&list=PL35FE5C4B157509C9

They were only behind on graphics since Wii. The N64 was more powerful than the PS1 and the gamecube performed more than ps2 (the game rebel strike set the polygon record). It's just haters being haters.

Yeah, I suppose graphics wasn't the only thing Nintendo has failed at. Otherwise Nintendo would have been leading the others back in the GameCube days, yet we find:

Despite Nintendo's efforts, the GameCube failed to reclaim the market share lost by its predecessor, the Nintendo 64. In terms of overall hardware sales, it remained far behind its direct competitor the PlayStation 2 – and slightly behind Microsoft's Xbox – throughout the lifespan of all three consoles. The console's "family-friendly" appeal and lack of support from certain third-party developers skewed the GameCube toward a younger market, which was a minority demographic of the gaming population during the sixth generation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameCube#Market_share

I guess it was all those "haters" irrationally choosing a platform that had games that appealed to them rather than buying a console with the same kiddie games version after version.

Knox, might want to read a bit more :

http://www.japantoday.com/category/business/view/sharp-returns-to-full-year-profit http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/28/us-panasonic-results-idUSBREA3R0J720140428

Anybody seeing a pattern here? Sony fails to keep up, Panasonic, Sharp, Nintendo...

@Fadamor

They were only behind on graphics since Wii. The N64 was more powerful than the PS1 and the gamecube performed more than ps2 (the game rebel strike set the polygon record). It's just haters being haters

The biggest "knock" I've heard about Nintendo is that they're always one generation behind when it comes to graphics. The only thing the Wii had going for it was the controllers - Sony and Microsoft both had better graphics. When the next round of consoles came out, they ALL had motion controllers and Nintendo's entry was STILL dead-last in graphics. The advantage the Wii had evaporated but the disadvantage was still there as strong as ever.

China? Nintendo must be desperate. The ban was lifted but they still have a lot of restrictions. Like machines must be built in Shanghai free trading zone (which amazes me that Japanese companies still want to build stuff in China). And restrictions on anything that promotes or incites obscenity, drug use, violence, or gambling (which would actually give them an advantage over Microsoft's consoles as Nintendo gaming devices are more family/kids oriented).

Nintendo has taken criticism from "the market" repeatedly for the past 20 years. I can remember as far back as the N64 and people were quick to criticise it.

Nintendo always finds a way to pull through, and they have their war chest of IP to back them up!

Rest in peace Nintendo.