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[Zynx]

Goddammit, every time I see a Games Radar feature they're just attention whoring.

I'm actually glad they've put such drivel to my attention. Now I can start never clicking on links that lead to the site, secure that I'm not missing anything intelligent.

 

[agent069]

Spoiler

lol

You're missing one part of the problem here, 400-600$ isn't the same than 250$. Sure Nintendo didn't even try to make a machine with decent power, but out of that list, Wii Sports is the only million seller (we doubt than both alan wake and ND's game will be as succesfull as wii sport, sales wise, not talking about the game qualities here), is the Wii really a mistake? In a few years both the PS3/360 and Wii games will look like crap compered to the high end PC games.

The more powerful machine doesn't mean the more successful machine (the original GB, PS2, etc...) the Wii is the number one seller nowadays, Nintendo didn't spent much money on the hardware and the games, hell if they continue like that they will win this gen, and they've never made as much money as now (historical record this year, all with the wii launch, if the Wii continues to be successful those number will be blown away in the next several years).

 

[UltimaKilo]

Obviously not many mistakes...

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=NTDOY.PK

look at the 52 weeks.

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

The Wii would be getting alot of the same games that the 360 and PS3 are getting if it had better graphical abilities. They can't go with the "everything the other guys have only better plus our own stuff" route. Wii fans have to deal with not being able to find many next gen multi-platform titles on their system and learn to accept the rather Gamecube-ish style software library.

 

[Grampa Simpson]

Obviously not many mistakes...

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=NTDOY.PK

look at the 52 weeks.

This one works better:

http://quotes.nasdaq.com/quote.dll?...TDOY&symbol=NTDOY&timeframe=1y&charttype=line

I bought in December. I am a happy boy.

 

[theviolenthero]

7. Outsourcing 1st party games on the Gamecube & the Capcom "6".
Wario World,Star Fox Assault,Mario Baseball,etc...
The Capcom 6 was a complete disaster(besides Viewtiful Joe).

6. Not enough "Players Choice" GBA or DS games.

5. Original GBA system.
Horribly designed system.

4. No online play.

3. Not enough demo's for games.
Every DS/Wii game should have a demo availible!!
There are ALOT of DS games that i wanna play but the only way to play them is to actually spend $20+ on the actual game.
This is hugely important considering the Wii's control scheme.

2. Quantity/Maturity of games.
If they want more games & mature games they're gonna have to make them their damn self!!

1. Showing the comptetition innovations to early.
Rumble Pak,Analog controls,etc...
They needed to wait to the last minute to announce these features.

 

[seat]

3. Not enough demo's for games.
Every DS/Wii game should have a demo availible!!
There are ALOT of DS games that i wanna play but the only way to play them is to actually spend $20+ on the actual game.
This is hugely important considering the Wii's control scheme. v

Sigh...

 

[theviolenthero]

Sigh...

I think you missed the "ALOT" part.

Where's demo's for Puzzle Quest,Lunar Knights,Wario,Lost in Blue 2,Pogo Island,Konami Classics,Quickspot,Cake Mania,Meteos Disney,Diddy Kong Racing,etc....

These are the games that need demo's right now!

 

[UltimaKilo]

This one works better:

http://quotes.nasdaq.com/quote.dll?...TDOY&symbol=NTDOY&timeframe=1y&charttype=line

I bought in December. I am a happy boy.

I wish I would have bought at $17.50 a share. Would have been a very wealthy person right now. And the stocks are not slowing down anytime soon I feel...

 

[Satter]

I read the article in its entirety. I must say that most of it deals with mistakes made long ago. The one current gripe seems to fall in line with what a fanboy would say than a "balanced" opinion.

Wasn't Gameradar the same people who said Shiggy was the second most overrated person in the videogame industry?

It all sounds like bitter tears to me. Those sweet sweet bitter tears of frustration and helplessness.

 

[Salazar]

I bought a DS and Yoshi's Island yesterday, and was so converted I traded in Crackdown to get Advanced Wars this morning. Haven't played it yet. Whatever else Nintendo is doing or has done wrong, they (very unexpectedly, but completely) own me and my wallet until Mass Effect.

 

[Pureauthor]

5. No front/back light on first GBA

What, how was this a mistake again? They got to sell the exact same system twice when the GBASP came out.

 

[bananabread]

Somebody needs to edit in and quote this article on the first page so fewer people make the mistake of clicking on the link and giving this guy hits.

 

[Hero]

I think the article started off pretty poorly. I mean, listing the Wii right off the bat is just wrong. I'm sure you were trying to go for an approach that nobody else in the media is really pushing for, but the Wii isn't even a year old. How can you determine that a failure?

Also, I didn't understand this part:

Because what do you do next? Five years from now, when the PS4 and NextBox show up, they're going to jump in hardware power again. And then Nintendo's left with a machine that looks two generations old instead of one. And if Nintendo bites the bullet and gives the machine a visual kick in the pants, well there goes its whole mantra that graphics don't matter.

So we're assuming that five years from now, Microsoft and Sony are going to make new machines, but Nintendo won't? Are you serious? There's a few things wrong with this kind of statement.

- Going by the trend, the Playstation brand lasts longer than 5 years.
- Going by the previous system, the Xbox only had a shelf life of 4.
- Nintendo has released more home systems than either Microsoft or Sony.

The rest of the Wii thing is just wrong, but I'm not going to comment on that one further.

Virtual Boy: Okay. This was pretty easy, as I'm sure you won't find too many people that would defend this piece of hardware.

Online: Friend codes suck. So does paying for what essentially is P2P 'online networking.'

Kiddy image: Again, nothing we haven't heard before. Nintendo's mission statement is to appeal to all ages, not just the teen to young adult crowd.

Third parties: Yeah, Nintendo used to rule third parties with an iron fist.

Nintendo 64: Yeah, another easy target. Biggest problem was the cartridge, okay. But a system that gave two of the most important titles in console gaming can hardly be called a total failure.

Sony: Yes.


The problem with your article is exactly what Jinx said, it lacks focus. I'm not really sure what the overall point of it is. Top seven Nintendo mistakes that lost them money? Top seven Nintendo mistakes that the company wishes it could sweep under its rug? It just seems that you're trying to start up a controversy with beginning the article with the Wii, but afterwards you just seem to say everything that the whole industry has been saying for many years.

I would've listed Nintendo not killing the GBA when it launched the DS as mistake, at least as far as North America is concerned. Another one that I don't think anyone would've disputed was launching the Gamecube without a Mario game. Or using indigo as the official system color. Etc, etc.

 

[Satter]

I bought a DS and Yoshi's Island yesterday, and was so converted I traded in Crackdown to get Advanced Wars this morning. Haven't played it yet. Whatever else Nintendo is doing or has done wrong, they (very unexpectedly, but completely) own me and my wallet until Mass Effect.

Before you start playing Advance Wars you better make sure you've set aside 12 hours of uninteruption. The game is like a time machine to the future. 1 hour will seem like 2 minutes.

 

[Schlep]

It's amazing to me that a professionally run site not only decides it's a good idea to contribute to the whole perception of gaming being immature, but actually embraces it. You guys have all the resources you need to do in-depth articles and special features. People who were there for each event could have been interviewed, and you could've taken an objective view, letting the history do the talking. Instead you plagiarized a post from GameFAQs.

 

[No.1]

A good feature.

I like Nintendo, but the majority of the problems raised in the article are so true.

If the Wii fails to impress and to put an impact on the market then Nintendo would eventually fall behind Sony and Microsoft, and God Nintendo release some of the most stupidest features for consoles that they themselves show little support for - the E-reader, online adaptor for GC and what about the rumble pack device for the DS? Oh, yeah online. They sometimes feel a tad out of touch with the industry sometimes.

Nothing too impressive has come out for the Wii that makes you realise that motion controls are where it's at. Wii Sport is nice, but it is inaccurate - so other than that, there's very little that shows off its power.

 

[Deku]

Nothing too impressive has come out for the Wii that makes you realise that motion controls are where it's at. Wii Sport is nice, but it is inaccurate - so other than that, there's very little that shows off its power.

Nothing impressive has come out of the PS3 either and nothing impressive was out on the 360 until the 2nd half of 2006.

I fail to see the point.

 

[legend166]

How can you sit there with a straight face and say that Nintendo is out of touch with the industry, when they practically OWN the industry.

They account for over 25% in revenue for the entire industry. If anything, they understand it more than anyone.

 

[Meesh]

Giving Sony the cold shoulder was a good thing actually...they ended up humbling Nintendo which in turn forced them to look for alternative methods of entertainment within the game industry.

The first and biggest being the DS, which many people wrote off right from the word go, and then the Wii...again proving so far that people want more than pretty graphics. They want immersion beyond what the uncanny valley has to offer.

I agree that not backing online on day one was a huge misstep...we're still looking for that promised online...

Virtual boy...to me that's a no brainer, damn thing gave me headaches...

 

[cartman414]

Giving Sony the cold shoulder was a good thing actually...they ended up humbling Nintendo which in turn forced them to look for alternative methods of entertainment within the game industry.

Going with Sony would have quite possibly meant Sony having control over Nintendo.

 

[Dilbert]

And ironically we've heard more of the PSP <-> PS3 connectivity than the DS <-> Wii, probably because Sony has a motive to try and tie PSP with the PS3 to boost sales.

In anycase, since we know nothing of DS <-> Wii connectivity (unlike the other connectivity discussed) it's a bit early to call it a dumb idea.

Let me be more clear: Connectivity, no matter who implements it, is a dumb idea.

 

[linsivvi]

that's what it kinda says, though, right? it's tentative. the word is "potential".

Even if Wii stops to sell a year from now, it can still be hardly called a mistake, since it would've supressed GC by then, and generated lots of cash for Nintendo. There's no way anyone could spin Wii as a mistake, potentially or in your f*cking dream world.

 

[Seraph830]

Wii is the funnest gimmick/mistake ive played in a long time.

 

[AdmiralViscen]

Let me be more clear: Connectivity, no matter who implements it, is a dumb idea.

In every way? Downloading PS1 games and shit through PS3 sounds nifty, at least.

The problem with connectivity is its features can never be good enough to make non-dual-owners feel screwed... So it winds up lame. Games like FSA (or concepts like PS1 downloads) that fully embrace the dual-owners and cater only to them come out great.

 

[Conrad Link]

Why would Nintendo not want to give 3rd parties the Mii and online stuff unless it wasn't ready? When did this become the case?

"lolz hey guys lets ruin all this good work we've done by holding stuff back just to spite 3rd parties, I mean it worked so well last time not having them support us so much!"

:\

And for such a big mistake the N64 certainly had a good number of the greatest games of all time on it.

Man as a gamer I hope we get some more mistakes again this gen!

 

[No.1]

Nothing impressive has come out of the PS3 either and nothing impressive was out on the 360 until the 2nd half of 2006.

I fail to see the point.

Shame I wasn't comparing the Wii to other consoles. L2Read? As far as I can tell, none of the consoles have really shown anything impressive; though Nintendo is trying to market a new niche for gaming than the other two that's why I mentioned it. Personally, I don't think Nintendo's lineup has showcased too many motion-sensing games - and when you have games such as SPM, Fire Emblem and SSB not using any of the features then you have to ask when is the innovation going to come out? I hope there's some sort of Pikmin or Nintendogs game that shows off the system a bit better.

Then you have WiiConnect24 that is currently half-arsed with very little purpose to it. Sure, Nintendo promised all these cool ideas when you have your Wii on 24/7, but hey we haven't seen shit. The same goes for the Wii Channels - ah, you want to make a channel that's worth using? Oh, shit, of course I can vote!!

As for Nintendo's marketshare - they've been lucky in areas. Things have hit off well for them, but they've been forced to rely on first party titles for the last two generations. Without that, they would've cut dry years ago. I personally don't mind the lack of online, but the company's inability to secure third party titles in the past was the major issue with the GC lineup - and at the moment, the Wii has a fairly dry patch too, with first party titles being the only strong titles to watch out for this year (unless you count RE4 and etc.).

But whatever, I'm enjoying my Zelda box (I mean Wii).

 

[linsivvi]

How can you sit there with a straight face and say that Nintendo is out of touch with the industry, when they practically OWN the industry.

They account for over 25% in revenue for the entire industry. If anything, they understand it more than anyone.

Well, as JDSN pointed out, it's the same site that called Miyamoto, David Jaffe and Hideo Kojima the most overrated people in the industry, so why even bother?

Why do people feel compelled to post idiotic articles from all over the net and then go on defend it?

 

[GremlinInTheMachine]

An incompitent writer begs for attention and tries to ape Smith's shtick. What an exciting thread.

 

[cartman414]

In every way? Downloading PS1 games and shit through PS3 sounds nifty, at least.

The problem with connectivity is its features can never be good enough to make non-dual-owners feel screwed... So it winds up lame. Games like FSA (or concepts like PS1 downloads) that fully embrace the dual-owners and cater only to them come out great.

Bingo.

Hopefully any future DS/Wii connectivity features will be nifty and seamless to really add value to the overall package. The install bases of the two systems guarantee more people will be able to experience said features right off the bat.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

In every way? Downloading PS1 games and shit through PS3 sounds nifty, at least.

I'm no enemy of connectivity, but that seems a particularly poor use. Things can downloaded to PSP without a go-between.

 

[tnw]

Funny how this article seems so retrospective about nintendo's screwups because they're still pretty fresh in my mind.

I miss the SNES and the mid 90's

 

[Coen]

But whatever, I'm enjoying my Zelda box (I mean Wii).

I remember that line! It used to be about Halo and it was just as stupid and ignorant back then.

The article's completely pointless. Six out of seven points made have been mentioned over and over again and the seventh and last point just isn't very insightful. Even disregarding the fact that it's just impossible to predict whether or not Wii will be a mistake at this point, the arguments used to defend it being a mistake when Wii fails are faulty.

If anything, Nintendo's strategy with DS and Wii indicates that there are different ways to impress an audience than to just make your games look better. I'm sure Nintendo won't be as knowledgeable about HD graphics and sound or online infrastructure, they do have a technical advantage when it comes to motion-based controls which can be immensely refined in next generation controllers. And that's just what they got going for them now. Clearly, Nintendo has proven itself capable of thinking outside the box and coming up with new ways for people to be entertained by videogames. Nothing stopping them from doing it again for the next generation of hardware. Yet this article argues that there's no way for Nintendo to go than to improve on technical capabilities of the console. Someone clearly missed the point of DS and Wii entirely.

 

[A Black Falcon]

The list in the original post is horrible... while half of it is decent, the sheer volume of nintendo-bashing, and N64-bashing, in the other parts negate any good points in the article. On the good side, the point I most strongly agree with is the online gaming one. Nintendo has a truly awful online gaming policy, no question about it. Lack of a decent online gaming service for the Western market is probably the issue Nintendo on the strongest (there are reasons to explain why they have the policy they do, though. Not going to get into it here, but it has to do with differences between what Japanese people want from online gaming and what Western audiences want -- Nintendo isn't designing the service for the West.)... The Virtual Boy and Mortal Kombat I can also understand (though other than losing Gunpei Yokoi, the Virtual Boy debacle didn't really matter at all in the long run; the MK thing was more influential, and Nintendo's censorship needed to stop, though its impact was as much about Sony and Sega's successful efforts to capitalize on it was it was about Nintendo's actual actions.), and maybe the third parties issue (when it was on top Nintendo certainly did treat third parties quite badly -- falling behind was a wake-up call Nintendo needed. They had been so arrogant and monopolistic in the NES days... that's not a good thing for any company.), but nothing else. Numbers 1 and 2 are completely, utterly wrong, and numbers 2 and 7 just stupidly bash the N64 controller and the Wii, with absolutely no justification.

The Wii will die off and it was a mistake? That sounds like something people were saying a year ago... but given its massive success now and clear signs that that's not about to change, it's ridiculous to even try to say it now.

The N64 controller was bad? No it wasn't. It's my favorite gamepad ever, actually, and for many good reasons. Six buttons, awesome dpad (underused perhaps, but great quality), great analog stick (yes, it degrades fast. It's still the best.), trigger button (triggers >>> shoulder buttons)... what more can you ask for from a gamepad? Dual analog and two shoulder buttons per side? Dual analog is not overly useful and two shoulder buttons per side is one of my least favorite gamepad "innovations" ever...

The N64 should have had a CD drive? No to that too. Oh, yes, if the N64 had had a CD drive, Nintendo well might have won the console generation because they might not have lost Square and Enix. But... Mario 64 with early-PSX-game load times and area size restrictions because of CD speed and loading? Load times in N64 games? NO! No, I like it the way it is... yes, Nintendo lost because of it, but the benefit of less loading makes it worth it.

The SNES CD with Sony should have been released? At Number One? Ah, that was not going to happen, period, ever. Nintendo would have had to be insane to continue on with it with what Sony wanted to do... and you even mention why. Sony wanted complete control over game relases -- all the rights, etc. Nintendo could have gotten shut out of games on their own system, perhaps... Nintendo and Sony had irreconcilable views on the money and rights issues, and Sony wasn't just going to give in to Nintendo. Given that fact, how can this be a 'mistake'? Nintendo wouldn't have won much of anything worth having from the deal... So Nintendo abandoned the issue. As for Phillips, et al, as Nintendo looked into it more and realized that a CD drive really wasn't what they wanted after all... and as I said in the last paragraph, they were right. (and as I said earlier, it allowed Nintendo to rethink its business, and the industry, and finally come up with the product to change things, the Wii. Which most definitely will NOT fail like this article suggests.)

The N64 may have spawned some of the best games ever made, but honestly, how many systems can make the same claim? Sure we adore Ocarina of Time, Goldeneye 007 and Super Mario 64, but most of the other titles are crap. This entire console generation was like watching a king get quartered in front of the entire village. And you know what? Our number one mistake explains why it's all Nintendo's fault.

I won't even begin on this particularly stupid bit of Nintendo trolling... the N64 was a great console, with a large library of good and great games. Pretend that they didn't exist all you want, but it certainly doesn't make a comment like that defensible. The Nintendo 64 is my favorite console, I think... or at least one of the best, certainly. Despite the graphics in some games, its games are mostly just as fun now as they ever were... great system...

As for a list, I think that there are two completely different kinds of lists that can be made, depending on what you consider a "mistake". Is a "mistake" "something which harms Nintendo's market share", or "something they did that you don't like"? By the first defintion, the SNES/N64 CD would probably have to come in first -- losing Square and Enix doomed them, and with a CD drive they might have been able to keep at least one. But by the second definition, I wouldn't even put that on the list... I like the N64 the way it is, darnit!

Anyway... my list, using mostly the SECOND definition. (the numbers don't really mean much)

1. Denial of online gaming. This has been addressed before here and elsewhere, but it's a huge, huge problem... maybe some day NOA will actually manage to convince NCL that Western audiences DO expect competent online services (my model would be Battle.net, but Xbox Live is great too), but until that day comes, this is a huge, huge issue right now. DS online is horrible, and Wii online like that would be truly tragic.... This won't affect Nintendo's success in Japan much, I think, but it eventually will factor in in the West.

3. Angering the third parties. Had Nintendo's relations with Square actually been GOOD in 1996, maybe they wouldn't have completely stopped making any games for Nintendo platforms, cartridges or not... but no, Square's leadership and Yamauchi developed up a big feud, and they had had problems for some time, so that was impossible. Stupid restrictive stuff like "you can only release five games per year" and "you can't release games on competing systems" that they did in the NES days sure didn't help either. Nintendo has done a lot to mitigate this problem in more recent years, so it's not nearly so big of an issue anymore, even if it's not completely gone.

3. Not having any games out in Japan for the N64 for several months after launch. A lot of people bought it, played Mario 64, and ... then what? Sold it. They needed momentum there that they never got... the N64 was fairly successful in the US (look at total sales charts -- the N64 sold just a few million fewer units less in the US than the SNES had. Of course, the PSX ended up selling many more, but compared to other Nintendo systems, it's the NES to SNES drop that is the largest, followed by the N64 to GC one...), but elsewhere... maybe this is representative of the "angering the third parties" thing and the "Nintendo's arrogance wasn't gone and they could not quite see that their policies were flawed" point I made earlier, but it's true.

4. Ignoring Europe, I guess. Everyone did it, and many still do, but Nintendo was worse... yes, Nintendo certainly could have tried a LOT harder (or tried at all, really). As it was, they deserved to lose every console generation there... if you release games that late, what do you expect people do to? Go buy Sega Master Systems, evidently.

5. Dropping their second parties. So... the companies made Eternal Darkness (my favorite GC game), Excitebike 64 (exceptional game!), and the Rare N64 classics, and you get rid of them all? What the heck? Oh, I know the reasons, but still, I don't think they did the right thing there in the end...

What else... hmm, can't think of anything... I could say "the Gamecube", but that was a first attempt at what they perfected with the DS and then the Wii -- something to attract anyone. It's not Nintendo's fault that it didn't catch on; Nintendo's support for the GC was strong, even if many of the games weren't as original as their previous N64 versions. There's not much you can do about that really... and I didn't mind the original non-backlit GBA...

In comparison, here's my "What Nintendo Should Have Done To Succeed More List".

1. Do whatever it takes to keep Square in 1996. ("Lower fees? CD drive? Okay!")
2. Failing that, do anything to keep Enix, despite Square's pressure on Enix to follow them away from Nintendo. (Enix likely would have accepted carts at the right price...)
3. DVD playback in the GC. Irrelevant in practice, but it'd have been a great PR move. "Gaming only" didn't work.
4. More hardware plants, so they could better keep up with DS and Wii demand. Supplies could be higher while still maintaining the "it is hard to find" thing... Nintendo is too conservative here.
5. Actually try to succeed in Europe and take the region seriously. They didn't even win with the NES there as far as I know!

Other than #1 (ie, if it had required a N64 CD that I wouldn't want), I wouldn't mind if they had done/do those things...

 

[onegoodlogan]

Correct list:

7: Virtual Boy Hey this looks cool!
6: Virtual Boy Sweet Mario Tennis!
5: Virtual Boy That was a good match.
4: Virtual Boy Well time to quit playing...
3: Virtual Boy Whats wrong with my eyes?
2: Virtual Boy Mommy? I can't see! Mommy!?!
1: Virtual Boy OH GOD, MOMMY IS DEAD! WHY NINTENDO, WHHYYYYY!?!?!

 

[UltimaKilo]

The list in the original post is horrible... while half of it is decent, the sheer volume of nintendo-bashing, and N64-bashing, in the other parts negate any good points in the article. On the good side, the point I most strongly agree with is the online gaming one. Nintendo has a truly awful online gaming policy, no question about it. Lack of a decent online gaming service for the Western market is probably the issue Nintendo on the strongest (there are reasons to explain why they have the policy they do, though. Not going to get into it here, but it has to do with differences between what Japanese people want from online gaming and what Western audiences want -- Nintendo isn't designing the service for the West.)... The Virtual Boy and Mortal Kombat I can also understand (though other than losing Gunpei Yokoi, the Virtual Boy debacle didn't really matter at all in the long run; the MK thing was more influential, and Nintendo's censorship needed to stop, though its impact was as much about Sony and Sega's successful efforts to capitalize on it was it was about Nintendo's actual actions.), and maybe the third parties issue (when it was on top Nintendo certainly did treat third parties quite badly -- falling behind was a wake-up call Nintendo needed. They had been so arrogant and monopolistic in the NES days... that's not a good thing for any company.), but nothing else. Numbers 1 and 2 are completely, utterly wrong, and numbers 2 and 7 just stupidly bash the N64 controller and the Wii, with absolutely no justification.

The Wii will die off and it was a mistake? That sounds like something people were saying a year ago... but given its massive success now and clear signs that that's not about to change, it's ridiculous to even try to say it now.

The N64 controller was bad? No it wasn't. It's my favorite gamepad ever, actually, and for many good reasons. Six buttons, awesome dpad (underused perhaps, but great quality), great analog stick (yes, it degrades fast. It's still the best.), trigger button (triggers >>> shoulder buttons)... what more can you ask for from a gamepad? Dual analog and two shoulder buttons per side? Dual analog is not overly useful and two shoulder buttons per side is one of my least favorite gamepad "innovations" ever...

The N64 should have had a CD drive? No to that too. Oh, yes, if the N64 had had a CD drive, Nintendo well might have won the console generation because they might not have lost Square and Enix. But... Mario 64 with early-PSX-game load times and area size restrictions because of CD speed and loading? Load times in N64 games? NO! No, I like it the way it is... yes, Nintendo lost because of it, but the benefit of less loading makes it worth it.

The SNES CD with Sony should have been released? At Number One? Ah, that was not going to happen, period, ever. Nintendo would have had to be insane to continue on with it with what Sony wanted to do... and you even mention why. Sony wanted complete control over game relases -- all the rights, etc. Nintendo could have gotten shut out of games on their own system, perhaps... Nintendo and Sony had irreconcilable views on the money and rights issues, and Sony wasn't just going to give in to Nintendo. Given that fact, how can this be a 'mistake'? Nintendo wouldn't have won much of anything worth having from the deal... So Nintendo abandoned the issue. As for Phillips, et al, as Nintendo looked into it more and realized that a CD drive really wasn't what they wanted after all... and as I said in the last paragraph, they were right. (and as I said earlier, it allowed Nintendo to rethink its business, and the industry, and finally come up with the product to change things, the Wii. Which most definitely will NOT fail like this article suggests.)



I won't even begin on this particularly stupid bit of Nintendo trolling... the N64 was a great console, with a large library of good and great games. Pretend that they didn't exist all you want, but it certainly doesn't make a comment like that defensible. The Nintendo 64 is my favorite console, I think... or at least one of the best, certainly. Despite the graphics in some games, its games are mostly just as fun now as they ever were... great system...

As for a list, I think that there are two completely different kinds of lists that can be made, depending on what you consider a "mistake". Is a "mistake" "something which harms Nintendo's market share", or "something they did that you don't like"? By the first defintion, the SNES/N64 CD would probably have to come in first -- losing Square and Enix doomed them, and with a CD drive they might have been able to keep at least one. But by the second definition, I wouldn't even put that on the list... I like the N64 the way it is, darnit!

Anyway... my list, using mostly the SECOND definition. (the numbers don't really mean much)

1. Denial of online gaming. This has been addressed before here and elsewhere, but it's a huge, huge problem... maybe some day NOA will actually manage to convince NCL that Western audiences DO expect competent online services (my model would be Battle.net, but Xbox Live is great too), but until that day comes, this is a huge, huge issue right now. DS online is horrible, and Wii online like that would be truly tragic.... This won't affect Nintendo's success in Japan much, I think, but it eventually will factor in in the West.

3. Angering the third parties. Had Nintendo's relations with Square actually been GOOD in 1996, maybe they wouldn't have completely stopped making any games for Nintendo platforms, cartridges or not... but no, Square's leadership and Yamauchi developed up a big feud, and they had had problems for some time, so that was impossible. Stupid restrictive stuff like "you can only release five games per year" and "you can't release games on competing systems" that they did in the NES days sure didn't help either. Nintendo has done a lot to mitigate this problem in more recent years, so it's not nearly so big of an issue anymore, even if it's not completely gone.

3. Not having any games out in Japan for the N64 for several months after launch. A lot of people bought it, played Mario 64, and ... then what? Sold it. They needed momentum there that they never got... the N64 was fairly successful in the US (look at total sales charts -- the N64 sold just a few million fewer units less in the US than the SNES had. Of course, the PSX ended up selling many more, but compared to other Nintendo systems, it's the NES to SNES drop that is the largest, followed by the N64 to GC one...), but elsewhere... maybe this is representative of the "angering the third parties" thing and the "Nintendo's arrogance wasn't gone and they could not quite see that their policies were flawed" point I made earlier, but it's true.

4. Ignoring Europe, I guess. Everyone did it, and many still do, but Nintendo was worse... yes, Nintendo certainly could have tried a LOT harder (or tried at all, really). As it was, they deserved to lose every console generation there... if you release games that late, what do you expect people do to? Go buy Sega Master Systems, evidently.

5. Dropping their second parties. So... the companies made Eternal Darkness (my favorite GC game), Excitebike 64 (exceptional game!), and the Rare N64 classics, and you get rid of them all? What the heck? Oh, I know the reasons, but still, I don't think they did the right thing there in the end...

What else... hmm, can't think of anything... I could say "the Gamecube", but that was a first attempt at what they perfected with the DS and then the Wii -- something to attract anyone. It's not Nintendo's fault that it didn't catch on; Nintendo's support for the GC was strong, even if many of the games weren't as original as their previous N64 versions. There's not much you can do about that really... and I didn't mind the original non-backlit GBA...

In comparison, here's my "What Nintendo Should Have Done To Succeed More List".

1. Do whatever it takes to keep Square in 1996. ("Lower fees? CD drive? Okay!")
2. Failing that, do anything to keep Enix, despite Square's pressure on Enix to follow them away from Nintendo. (Enix likely would have accepted carts at the right price...)
3. DVD playback in the GC. Irrelevant in practice, but it'd have been a great PR move. "Gaming only" didn't work.
4. More hardware plants, so they could better keep up with DS and Wii demand. Supplies could be higher while still maintaining the "it is hard to find" thing... Nintendo is too conservative here.
5. Actually try to succeed in Europe and take the region seriously. They didn't even win with the NES there as far as I know!

Other than #1 (ie, if it had required a N64 CD that I wouldn't want), I wouldn't mind if they had done/do those things...

I am not reading all of that. You have too much time on your hands. :lol

 

[cartman414]

On point post ABF, except that Nintendo's third party controls were helpful at least early on when it came to reversing the videogame crash trend.

 

[deepred]

Sony's CD resources led to the defection of Square, countless exclusives that Nintendo never saw and for the first time ever, a sound beating at retail. Sega's own inept ability to provide gamers with quality products essentially left the whole industry open to Sony's powerful charge.

What ????
Playstation destroyed Saturn because it had "quality products" ???
What about marketing ? What about Sega's financial difficulties ? What about FF7 exclusivity ?
For **** sake, I hate when so-called journalists say that "good games" make a console's success. That's retarded.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

Spoiler

lol

:lol Help me Tom Cruise!

 

[A Black Falcon]

On point post ABF, except that Nintendo's third party controls were helpful at least early on when it came to reversing the videogame crash trend.

That is perhaps true, but but the real key was the licensing system that meant that Nintendo had control over releases and made money from all software released for their system. Before that, the company only made money off of the hardware and their own games, and there were not licenses... Nintendo's new system was crucial to the future success of the industry. The 'you can't make games for the competition' rule was really bad, though, and they were eventually forced to give up on it... and even if it helped a bit, the five game limit quickly became a problem. Sure, some companies set up subsidiaries like Ultra/Konami to help deal with it, but still, it was stupid.

What ????
Playstation destroyed Saturn because it had "quality products" ???
What about marketing ? What about Sega's financial difficulties ? What about FF7 exclusivity ?
For **** sake, I hate when so-called journalists say that "good games" make a console's success. That's retarded.

I missed that one... "quality products" was the reason? Really? That's absurd... the Saturn's game quality wasn't the problem. Finances, marketing, design (playstation as the 'console better at 3d', which was the new thing everyone wanted; Saturn's 2d strength didn't matter), popular discontent with Sega after the failure of the 32X and the underperformance of the Sega CD... those were more important. Above them all, however, was the one central issue that had been tearing Sega apart -- the internal war between Sega of America and Sega of Japan. Sega of Japan "won" by the early Saturn days, and it destroyed Sega's chances of any future success in the US... the internal conflict had already managed to knock Sega from the #1 spot in the US console market in 1992-1993 to second behind the Super Nintendo by late 1994 or early 1995, and it just got worse with the release of the Saturn.

Though I will admit, the Playstation did have a better launch lineup than the Saturn did... but it wasn't that that led to its victory. It helped, but Sega's self-implosion and flawed tactics were more important. The Saturn just wasn't the console that America wanted. The final US sales result of 35-20-2 (millions, PSX-N64-Saturn) reflects all of that...

 

[bud]

You're missing one part of the problem here, 400-600$ isn't the same than 250$. Sure Nintendo didn't even try to make a machine with decent power, but out of that list, Wii Sports is the only million seller (we doubt than both alan wake and ND's game will be as succesfull as wii sport, sales wise, not talking about the game qualities here), is the Wii really a mistake? In a few years both the PS3/360 and Wii games will look like crap compered to the high end PC games.

The more powerful machine doesn't mean the more successful machine (the original GB, PS2, etc...) the Wii is the number one seller nowadays, Nintendo didn't spent much money on the hardware and the games, hell if they continue like that they will win this gen, and they've never made as much money as now (historical record this year, all with the wii launch, if the Wii continues to be successful those number will be blown away in the next several years).

why do you talk about sales and other numbers so much?

gaf these days is all about sales :/

 

[Miburou]

I stopped reading at "jerkholish moves.". Oh wait, that was the end of the article.

Interesting article, but most of it isn't new. With the Wii selling so well, it's pretty hard to call it a mistake even if it eventually turns out to be one. Reading this forum, it would seem that almost every single Nintendo fan is in love with the waggle, so it's really hard to say something negative about the Wii and not get attacked.

 

[Hammer24]

A crappy site posting a sensationalist article to attract hits?

No, never.

.

 

[cvxfreak]

And ironically we've heard more of the PSP <-> PS3 connectivity than the DS <-> Wii, probably because Sony has a motive to try and tie PSP with the PS3 to boost sales.

In anycase, since we know nothing of DS <-> Wii connectivity (unlike the other connectivity discussed) it's a bit early to call it a dumb idea.

Thanks to WiFi connectivity it won't be so bad.

Pokemon Diamond/Pearl and Battle Revolution on Wii connect, and thanks to no wires and painless connecting, connectivity is a nice feature to have, but only if Nintendo's not willing to ride certain games completely on the concept altogether. In the end it really should just be an extra feature that works well but isn't needed nor is used to sell the game. For Pokemon the concept itself just comes naturally. But for the Crystal Chronicles sequel for example probably not.

 

[Satter]

Let me be more clear: Connectivity, no matter who implements it, is a dumb idea.

What if Nintendo were to come out with a DS channel for the Wii where a person could download DS demos straight from their Wii to their DS?

 

[linsivvi]

What if Nintendo were to come out with a DS channel for the Wii where a person could download DS demos straight from their Wii to their DS?

Can't they do this over PC instead? They could create a PC software that acts as a bridge between your PC and your DS.

 

[Satter]

Can't they do this over PC instead? They could create a PC software that acts as a bridge between your PC and your DS.

Yes, they could. But why would they? Having this feature exclusive for the Wii would give people more incentive to get a Wii. Especially since the DS is so insanely popular.

 

[andthebeatgoeson]

it's fantastic insights like these that keep me coming back to GAF for feedback on our editorial content!

Well, it's fantastically written lines like this that prevent me from visiting your site:

will be super played out and exploited.

Wow, that 'super' really drives home the point. You mostly recited fanboy opinion and really didn't get me to look past the first page. No real insight into what makes waggle a fad but you claim it.

So, if you want some insight into your editorial content, here's some: We can get fanboy rants right here with better comedy. Why don't you expend more energy to delve into why you expect the number selling console in all 3 territories to lose steam and not correct problems that most would attribute to working with a new control scheme.

You claim there is a large risk that the control schemes won't improve? Why? Did that happen with the DS and the touch screen? Rumble? Motion feedback? Let's name all of the new control inputs over the last 20 years and mark which ones did not significantly improve over time. Why does that argument keep coming up over and over. Implementation of the touch screen, rumble, analog controllers and motion feedback all had an early learning curve but improved significantly with time.

Another complaint: your article turned me off from the beginning. I pointed out the word 'super' just to drive home the point that we should expect articles to have better professionalism.

 

[linsivvi]

Yes, they could. But why would they? Having this feature exclusive for the Wii would give people more incentive to get a Wii. Especially since the DS is so insanely popular.

It's not about incentive, it's just reinforcing jinx's point of connectivity being a dumb idea. Nintendo has already quietly introduced DLC (Picross, Jet Impulse) and shared, used-created contents (Mario vs DK), through Wifi, there's really no need to use Wii to serve as a download station (though it could act as one). Limiting what the DS can do to give people more incentive to buy a Wii does not make it a smart idea. As if people would buy a Wii just for downloading DS demos anyway.

Now, if you can download VC games from the Wii to the DS, and you only need to pay it once to play the game on both machines, that would be a connectivity feature worth having. Not very likely to happen though, because it will potentially take sales away from brand new DS games.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

It's not about incentive, it's just reinforcing jinx's point of connectivity being a dumb idea. Nintendo has already quietly introduced DLC (Picross, Jet Impulse) and shared, used-created contents (Mario vs DK), through Wifi, there's really no need to use Wii to serve as a download station (though it could act as one).

Considering DS can't go online without buying a separate browser, and once running the browser couldn't be made to reset into the "download play" mode to try out such a demo, there really isn't a way for DS to do it alone.