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How can Nintendo win back marketshare with their next home console?

EulaCapra

Member
- They should first ditch whoever nodded in agreement in finalizing the 3DS and Wii U names along with nitwits who thought of the "New 3DS" moniker.
- Actually spend marketing money in the largest territory, North America. It's the failure to promote and market on a CONSISTENT basis that Tomodachi Life is underperforming compared to Japan and Europe when you look at the larger install base here in the States.

Mario Kart 8 and Smash Wii U have gotten the airtime and buzz that it deserves, but there's just so much dead space in-between months where nothing is being promoted. All momentum gained just tapers out.
 

Servbot24

Banned
Go hardcore
Release a powerful console, advertise it as such, get same architecture as the others, make some exclusivity dlc deal with a few big 3rd party games
Ditch gimmicks, Pro controller only

This would be the nail in Nintendo's coffin. As much as many of us would enjoy this console.
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
Most people are saying, basically, "make a PlayStation that plays Nintendo games." That's what people have wanted since the N64 days.

There are various components to all this, so I'll just state the most important one: make a console third parties actually want to develop for.

Nintendo's biggest problem is that it has basically never played ball with third parties. Even during the NES and SNES days the only reason Nintendo got third party support is because publishers were forced to play their game due to Nintendo's gigantic market share. As soon as publishers found a way out the deal, they never came back. Nintendo hasn't fully adjusted since.

In that regard Nintendo kinda just gave up around 2005/2006. The Wii and Wii U have been partly focused on offering low-wattage machines for the Japanese market, an objective the AAA publishers don't give a shit about. For the PS4 Sony has basically done the opposite. The PS3's early troubles were due to it being a very Japanese platform right at the time Microsoft turned the console game industry into an American industry. In response Sony allowed PlayStatoin to become an almost entirely American operation with Cerny, the focus on western studios, the move to x86, etc.

Nintendo did what they did because they don't think there's enough room for a third competing console in the AAA market, and I think they're right, especially seeing how stagnant the core console gaming consumer base has become. To that end they've focused on a different audience which worked with the Wii, but Nintendo really let that drop around 2010. Now mobiles have taken up that market.

For starters I think for there to be enough marketshare in the traditional console market for Nintendo to grab, either Sony or Microsoft would have to seriously fuck up. One of them would have to make huge mistakes at the same time at which Nintendo makes moves with freaking clairvoyance.

After that, Nintendo would have to, generally speaking, start acting like a company that get's most of its revenue from North America, instead of a Japanese company that happens to release stuff in North America. Before it even builds the damn console, start talking to developers all over the world to negotiate what they want with what it can provide (probably while still being profitable or near-profitable on hardware). This might require Nintendo to let go of the Japanese console market -- which may already be a lost cause, when designing its hardware. It should still definitely develop the games it does, which remain internationally successful, but it should take overseas developers into heavy consideration when designing the hardware and infrastructure. Japanese developers will probably follow the success of Nintendo's own software (or go multiplatform).

This would also probably require Nintendo to give NOA a lot more power, which is unlikely to happen. Some might reference the N64 era when Nintendo's software output actually was a lot more NA-centric. Back then the western side was run by a guy who was in deep with the Yamauchi family. Something tells me some kind of Kyoto-style family business politics still play heavily into how Nintendo operates, and that previous era was a result of one westerner making it inside. Sony on the other hand is a much more internationally-run company. Nintendo being a Kyoto-based company is probably a very central factor in how it behaves in regards to the rest of the world, but it's something I don't have a lot of knowledge on.
 

Mr_Moogle

Member
Nintendo should pay Apple to design their hardware for them.
Make the hardware look cool and have Apple branding to attract widespread marketshare. Nintendo left to focus on making quality games.

I'd like to see a Nintendo/Apple collaboration but it will NEVER happen. Nintendo are notoriously protective of their brand and business model. They will never allow another hardware company to come in and dictate how their console is designed.
 
Well for starters they have to make a console that is on par with the competition from a power perspective. Can't blame the 3rd parties for ditching the wii u when its almost a full generation behind spec wise.
 
Make Virtual Console a subscription service. For $50 a year, you get access to all of Nintendo's NES, SNES, N64, GB, GBA, and even Gamecube and Wii games, and they could make deals to get other non-Nintendo games and even consoles available on the service. This could evolve into something like Playstation Plus and Games with Gold once the Wii 3 has enough games to do so, except unlike the other two, basic online play wouldn't be tied to the subscription. Also, this new Virtual Console service would work on both their next console and their next handheld.

This wouldn't make their console an instant success, but it's a feature that nobody else on the market could match.
 

Crema

Member
start acting like a company that get's most of its revenue from North America, instead of a Japanese company that happens to release stuff in North America. Before it even builds the damn console, start talking to developers all over the world to negotiate what they want with what it can provide (probably while still being profitable or near-profitable on hardware). This might require Nintendo to let go of the Japanese console market -- which may already be a lost cause, when designing its hardware. It should still definitely develop the games it does, which remain internationally successful, but it should take overseas developers into heavy consideration when designing the hardware and infrastructure. Japanese developers will probably follow the success of Nintendo's own software (or go multiplatform).

I agree with this but it will never happen.

Iwata taking over NOA is a pretty clear sign he doesn't want any powerful figures in the company emerging from outside of Kyoto.
 

Tobor

Member
Nintendo has a major branding issue. They have absolutely zero appeal outside of children and die hard Nintendo fans. Casuals who purchased Wii's are not coming back, and the remaining core gaming market will have nothing to do with the brand. And we know they won't mess with the brand.

I don't see a way out. They'll continue to milk hardcore fans as the userbase keeps dropping. Then they'll either be purchased or go third party.
 
Most people are saying, basically, "make a PlayStation that plays Nintendo games." That's what people have wanted since the N64 days.

There are various components to all this, so I'll just state the most important one: make a console third parties actually want to develop for.

Nintendo's biggest problem is that it has basically never played ball with third parties. Even during the NES and SNES days the only reason Nintendo got third party support is because publishers were forced to play their game due to Nintendo's gigantic market share. As soon as publishers found a way out the deal, they never came back. Nintendo hasn't fully adjusted since.

In that regard Nintendo kinda just gave up around 2005/2006. The Wii and Wii U have been partly focused on offering low-wattage machines for the Japanese market, an objective the AAA publishers don't give a shit about. For the PS4 Sony has basically done the opposite. The PS3's early troubles were due to it being a very Japanese platform right at the time Microsoft turned the console game industry into an American industry. In response Sony allowed PlayStatoin to become an almost entirely American operation with Cerny, the focus on western studios, the move to x86, etc.

Nintendo did what they did because they don't think there's enough room for a third competing console in the AAA market, and I think they're right, especially seeing how stagnant the core console gaming consumer base has become. To that end they've focused on a different audience which worked with the Wii, but Nintendo really let that drop around 2010. Now mobiles have taken up that market.

For starters I think for there to be enough marketshare in the traditional console market for Nintendo to grab, either Sony or Microsoft would have to seriously fuck up. One of them would have to make huge mistakes at the same time at which Nintendo makes moves with freaking clairvoyance.

After that, Nintendo would have to, generally speaking, start acting like a company that get's most of its revenue from North America, instead of a Japanese company that happens to release stuff in North America. Before it even builds the damn console, start talking to developers all over the world to negotiate what they want with what it can provide (probably while still being profitable or near-profitable on hardware). This might require Nintendo to let go of the Japanese console market -- which may already be a lost cause, when designing its hardware. It should still definitely develop the games it does, which remain internationally successful, but it should take overseas developers into heavy consideration when designing the hardware and infrastructure. Japanese developers will probably follow the success of Nintendo's own software (or go multiplatform).

This would also probably require Nintendo to give NOA a lot more power, which is unlikely to happen. Some might reference the N64 era when Nintendo's software output actually was a lot more NA-centric. Back then the western side was run by a guy who was in deep with the Yamauchi family. Something tells me some kind of Kyoto-style family business politics still play heavily into how Nintendo operates, and that previous era was a result of one westerner making it inside. Sony on the other hand is a much more internationally-run company. Nintendo being a Kyoto-based company is probably a very central factor in how it behaves in regards to the rest of the world, but it's something I don't have a lot of knowledge on.

On point again! Your posts are always insightful RedSwirl :p

I'm not entirely sure they should abandon the unique "gimmick" approach, but they need a way to not reject or hamper the experience for third party as well. It needs to be effortless to push content onto the platform.
 

Rezae

Member
They need to catch lightning in a bottle again like they did with the Wii. They won't/can't compete toe to toe from a technical standpoint, and I don't see them suddenly flipping a switch and having an awesome online/digital presence. They need a gimmick again, and they need a title that'll sell it. Hardcore gamers will never flock back to them. They need to recapture the mass market appeal.
 

letaint

Banned
Not sure if it's been said ITT, but Nintendo hasn't yet lost this gen. It's not over yet. With a proper marketing push and a Wii Sports Resort 2 (now in HD!) they could probably once again trounce everyone. The good games on Wii are not what sold the Wii.
 
ill preface my solution by saying im a long time Nintendo fan and most of my favorite games were on Nintendo consoles (owned nes-wii, no wii u or handhelds).

honestly Nintendo needs to understand their place in the console market. the company with current leadership and market strategy cant compete with Microsoft or Sony. that being said, Nintendo needs to make a unique TRADITIONAL controller, and design a moderately competent console by "next-gen" standards (idk what next-gen hardware wise is for 2015+). the next Nintendo console needs to be made with the minset that'll play second fiddle to the other two big console makers systems.

also since Nintendo doesn't even bother consulting with third parties about console hardware input, and going with the fact that regardless of if they did next time; the next Nintendo console wouldnt try and compete spec wise Sony and MS's hardware.so the next Nintendo console should just be focused on first and second party only, anything else is a bonus. add a nice price range $275 or lower and i think thatd be decent.

so my short list:
-better designed online UI, and more online features for games
-unique Nintendo twist on a traditional controller, no gimmicks tho. (think gamecube controller X pro controller)
-budget next-gen hardware, needs to be competent for Nintendo, not competitive in comparison to Sony and MS
-decent stream of 1st and 2nd party games
-marketed as second console
-$275 price or lower
-less geared towards children, more geared towards adults AND children second
 

Tobor

Member
Not sure if it's been said ITT, but Nintendo hasn't yet lost this gen. It's not over yet. With a proper marketing push and a Wii Sports Resort 2 (now in HD!) they could probably once again trounce everyone. The good games on Wii are not what sold the Wii.

Dude, it's over. Sony could go out of business tomorrow and the Wii U would still never be able to catch the PS4.

The fat lady has sung. The credits have rolled. Your tray table is in the locked and up right position. It's ovahhhhh.
 
Not sure if it's been said ITT, but Nintendo hasn't yet lost this gen. It's not over yet. With a proper marketing push and a Wii Sports Resort 2 (now in HD!) they could probably once again trounce everyone. The good games on Wii are not what sold the Wii.


Lmao
 

AmyS

Member
Bring back these brands for Japan and the western world:

super_famicom_super_nes_logo.png


But obviously go beyond the "Super".

Switch to Nvidia "Denver" ARM 64 + Pascal graphics (2016-2017).
 
Not sure if it's been said ITT, but Nintendo hasn't yet lost this gen. It's not over yet. With a proper marketing push and a Wii Sports Resort 2 (now in HD!) they could probably once again trounce everyone. The good games on Wii are not what sold the Wii.

U_wat.gif
 

CHC

Member
If it was basically a Gamepad not tethered to a plug-in console, that could output wirelessly to an HDTV, I'd be all over that. Splitting up games between the Wii U and 3DS can't really be that big a benefit, especially considering they're barely making money on the hardware. Playing off-TV on Gamepad is so close to a portable experience that I wish they'd just bridge the gap and making a unified portable / home console.
 

Laconic

Banned
Nintendo has a major branding issue. They have absolutely zero appeal outside of children and die hard Nintendo fans. Casuals who purchased Wii's are not coming back, and the remaining core gaming market will have nothing to do with the brand. And we know they won't mess with the brand.

I don't see a way out. They'll continue to milk hardcore fans as the userbase keeps dropping. Then they'll either be purchased or go third party.

They aren't even smart enough to do THAT.

I WANT to give them another $250 for an N3DS.

But I want the regular version.

A version that EVERYFUCKINGWHERE ELSE ON THE GOD DAMNED PLANET gets.

But I do not?

Fuck right off, Nintendo... fuck right off.

Across the last two gens, I bought a DS, a 3DS, a Wii, and a Wii U.

I won't be giving them another dime, next gen.

Sodomize Nintendo with a Steam shovel, for treating me as less than the rest.
 

HowZatOZ

Banned
With the discussion that Nintendo could only make a real comeback if Sony or Microsoft fuck up enough, I could potentially see Nintendo slotting in at second place with how Microsoft has handled things.

Yes, the Xbox One is still doing perfectly fine and will continue to do so (no doubt Windows 10 will change things up), but in terms of gamer loyalty it seems they have screwed that up. As I said, I could see Nintendo slotting themselves in at second place, offering a console just as powerful as the PS4 (maybe even better thanks to GDDR5 being cheap now).

We are seeing now the struggle that the Xbox One is having with its internal tech, so if Nintendo plays their cards right they could bring in a console far more powerful that is capable of this lauded 1080p/60fps. If they design it with the Western market in mind like Sony did with the PlayStation 4, making it easy to develop on for third-party and themselves it could mean better game development timelines and further third-party support. Having handheld tied in would also secure their gimmick, much like PS4 has Vita second-screen and Xbox has Kinect/SmartGlass.

Of course, this is all armchair talk and we don't really know what the hell Nintendo is doing. For all we know they could be developing a console that lets us talk to ducks.
 

Tobor

Member
They aren't even smart enough to do THAT.

I WANT to give them another $250 for an N3DS.

But I want the regular version.

A version that EVERYFUCKINGWHERE ELSE ON THE GOD DAMNED PLANET gets.

But I do not?

Fuck right off, Nintendo... fuck right off.

Across the last two gens, I bought a DS, a 3DS, a Wii, and a Wii U.

I won't be giving them another dime, next gen.

Sodomize Nintendo with a Steam shovel, for treating me as less than the rest.

How many plastic figurines did you buy though? ;)
 
1. Give it a name that doesn't sound like an ambulance.
2. Avoid software droughts, even at the cost of a late release.
3. Stop assuming that Mario is a system seller.
4. Don't isolate it from the competition. Sony and Microsoft branded their consoles as "the next generation", while the Wii U was left behind. This should never happen again.
5. Pray Sony and Microsoft do something as stupid as Nintendo did with cartridges in the N64 era.
 
Nintendo has a major branding issue. They have absolutely zero appeal outside of children and die hard Nintendo fans. Casuals who purchased Wii's are not coming back, and the remaining core gaming market will have nothing to do with the brand. And we know they won't mess with the brand.

I don't see a way out. They'll continue to milk hardcore fans as the userbase keeps dropping. Then they'll either be purchased or go third party.

I can see this becoming a reality. I'm not sure any company is realistically positioned to compete with with mobile phones in the handheld space. These phones are $650+, and are sold at massive subsidiaries. I can't see Nintendo's next handheld outperforming the 3DS, which won't outperform the DS. So as you said, it's either lighting in a bottle, or they just keep milking the dedicated :/ which I'm sure isn't a very sustainable business model.
 

Branduil

Member
They should start by not pissing off their hardcore fans with things like region locking, digital purchases tied to physical systems, the botched youtube thing, etc. That would be a start.
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
If the next system were to focus more on the hardcore, it will definitely end up like the GC or the Wii U... The best they can do is attract the Wii crowd.

I don't see Nintendo gaining back the core home console market anymore... It ended during the reign of the PS1.
 

Laconic

Banned
You need to chill out bro. Sorry the US Market didn't lap up the regular sized 3DS when they had the chance.

Naaah.

You could stop with the apologetics, though.

I've been a paying Nintendo customer for decades.

They deserve a red hot poker jammed up their economic nether region.

How many plastic figurines did you buy though? ;)

None.

But I'm not 8 years old anymore, either.

And those PsOS don't even have Kung Fu grips.
 

legend166

Member
- Clear marketing message
- Modern online ecosystem (accounts, crossbuy, cross-platform friends list, weekly deals, etc)
- Industry standard development pipelines
- Price competitive (no more $300 machines, Nintendo)
- Get over the obsession with making the system as small and as quiet as you can (I appreciate it, but it completely hamstrings their hardware design)
- Keep making good games
 

Juanfp

Member
Get more third party support, try to improve that with the Wii U to change the thought of many people so when the next console come out they would'nt see it as a nintendo games only console.
 
in reality, how many years pass before nintendo tries and releases a new console?

i say 2 more years at the very least, if longer than that then idk if nintendo comes back into home console market. in 2016, 2017, 2018, sony and ms consoles hit their stride in terms of features nd software, also install base will be significant. so how does nintendo compete with a new console, even if its released as early as 2017, or if nintendo waits, how do they compete after tbe wii u and such a long hiatus. seems like a lose lose type of scenario
 

AmyS

Member
If anything I think going back to that would be confusing.

What I'm saying is Nintendo needs to resurrect the Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System brands, in a modern sense. From name, casing and hardware components.

Get developers and publishers really excited to work on the platform. $249 ~ $299 price point. A clear leap beyond PS4. Game assets can be scaled back for the new handheld / common Nintendo OS.

A serious and sensible online network. Market towards both the hardcore and mainstream gamers, with children and casual gamers included but secondary. Needs an outstanding but fairly conventional controller with some nice new features yet zero gimmicks.
 

LOCK

Member
A new console brings a new name and brand so I'm not worried about that, and also new upgrades to all their software infrastructure .

For their next console they need to be on par with their rivals and have relations with Western developers.

That's about it.
 
Hmmm... From reading all of these replies:

In order for Nintendo to be successful, they need to capture both casual and hardcore to buy, and 3rd parties to develop. And to appeal to casual, you need family friendly image, newest thing in the world hype (like wii, kinect and ps4). To hardcore and 3rd party, you need a powerful easy to port system with a large user base who buys.

Then the conclusion is: what about debranding into a new name to ditch the family friendliness look and to release mature games with? They can utilize the same hardware, with the new brand run by mostly western developer to cater to the dudbros and western majority. The major "Nintendo" label can continue to work like it is now, with the subbrand disposable if it fails. They can also ditch the weird naming schemes this way.

Downside is they need to hire a lot of people, and that costs a lot of money.

IDK. Just throwing it out here.
 

sörine

Banned
Better branding, better novelties, better 3rd party incentives, better tools and support, better system sellers, better promotion, better pricepoints. There's a lot of room for improvement but I don't think recovery's an impossibility for Nintendo. They've still sold ~60m hardware units this gen so far, the "right" sort of Nintendo platform(s) still has significant consumer pull.
 

120v

Member
i think the painful truth (for us hardcore gamers) is, if they want to go back to marketshare dominance, they need to go back to the original Wii strategy: offer something sony and MS can't deliver which will appeal to a very broad base. something that appeals to, yup, the dreaded "casuals".

i know neogaf would rage to no end at this, but objectively speaking that's probably the soundest strategy to come up with, seeing as to how they tried it before in the modern market and it worked. though how they do it this time is above my paygrade to ascertain
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
And if Nintendo decides the core western AAA developer is lost to them (it may very well be), it still needs to try to make a platform that grabs developers, just a different kind.

If Nintendo had instituted the Wii U's current indie policies (or the PS4's) on the original Wii from 2006 I feel like it would have had a much more vibrant library of games that actually suit Nintendo platforms. Indies and even mobile developers today are making games usually more in-line to what Nintendo resonates with. I think Nintendo's relationship with Platinum has a lot to do with the kinds of games it makes.

On top of this, small developers are getting pissed at the mobile market. Apple simply didn't know how to (or didn't initially care to) keep a video game market under control. I think it would be quite prudent for Nintendo, while developing its next round of hardware and figuring out its software ecosystem, to seek out a ton of these guys and talk to them about what they want. Nintendo needs more situations like what happened with the Gunman Clive developer finding more success on 3DS than mobile. It needs to provide small developers with a platform that has stability, discoverability, and a userbase that actually cares about buying games. Microsoft is screwing up a bit in this area. Sony is doing well but in my opinion has still been slow about it, only lightly scraping the cream of the crop that exists on PC. I think Nintendo has an opportunity to dig a bit deeper.

Something could happen if Nintendo did this while also encouraging a singular ecosystem between handheld and console -- which we think it will do, where you might buy once and play everywhere. When you think about it, this all sounds a lot like what Amazon is trying to do in gaming with the Fire devices, but from a company that has 30+ years of experience in video games and Mario games on its platforms.

Two main obstacles stand in the way of something like this though:

1) Again, Nintendo's insular Kyoto nature. The company might respond more strongly to the kinds of games indies make, but it's had a hard time recognizing any developer that doesn't have an office. Nintendo has gotten better at recognizing the little people, but it could definitely improve. Furthermore, the culture barrier that separates it from big western companies could be separating it from small western companies just as much. That barrier is a main reason Japanese indies (a potential opportunity for Nintendo and Sony) haven't become well-known worldwide outside Studio Pixel.

2) Consoles naturally being behind PC when it comes to getting the indie games first. Right now a lot of the most interesting ones are currently playable on PC and slowly awaiting a console release. If Nintendo is a little sweeter to these devs it might get a bit of initiative on Sony but I'm not sure how much. The main reason consoles can't get the initiative on PC here is because on PC developers can release games before they're done. "The Next Minecraft" is only going to occur on a platform that allows early access alphas and betas, and I don't know if any console manufacturer would do that.
 

StevieP

Banned
The amount of responses that say "make a console like everyone else. Then third parties will be back with their aaa killing games and ______.... profit!" is truly, truly predictable and disappointing.
 

Sandfox

Member
What I'm saying is Nintendo needs to resurrect the Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System brands, in a modern sense. From name, casing and hardware components.

Get developers and publishers really excited to work on the platform. $249 ~ $299 price point. A clear leap beyond PS4. Game assets can be scaled back for the new handheld / common Nintendo OS.

A serious and sensible online network. Market towards both the hardcore and mainstream gamers, with children and casual gamers included but secondary. Needs an outstanding but fairly conventional controller with some nice new features yet zero gimmicks.
And that sounds really confusing to me. I also think a lot of the other things you listed would hurt more than help.
If the next system were to focus more on the hardcore, it will definitely end up like the GC or the Wii U... The best they can do is attract the Wii crowd.

I don't see Nintendo gaining back the core home console market anymore... It ended during the reign of the PS1.

Nintendo needs to increase their presence in order to get new people interested in their HW. IMO they should try to make something that is truly mainstream and all ages while continuing to branch out as a company.
 

Verendus

Banned
I think they need to buckle down even more in the face of adversity. A lot of the trouble Nintendo faces right now isn't their fault. The market change was sudden, and no one could have predicted what would happen. It's more that consumers sent the incorrect signals, and they couldn't have anticipated what would happen.

The fact is that Nintendo IPs are the strongest in the gaming industry, and they can carry an ecosystem quite comfortably. Replayability in games is a huge thing, and one Mario game can last someone many months, so the argument used by detractors regarding sparse releases doesn't make sense. This isn't like playing a generic AAA production where you'll tire out after ten hours. It's about longevity, and Mario has lasted for decades already, which tells you the most significant fact. People loves these games, and always play them. The difference in the meticulously planned mechanics allows for several playthroughs which are dynamic.

A lot of people talk about third party support, but that's hypocrisy at its finest. How many times do you see complaints about the same generic big game amongst the hardcore community? Why does Nintendo need these games? So they can pretend to be someone else? Here's a truth that people are uncomfortable to accept, Nintendo doesn't need to be someone else. They don't need to appeal with media content. They don't need to say we're going to be the same. They don't need to do any of that. Nintendo is Nintendo. People play games, that's what it comes down to. Nintendo has games, and they just need to make people aware of that. It's that simple.

A great man once said, never give up. That's how you overcome adversity. I truly think Nintendo will be able to do it, and a few years from now, this period will be looked back on regret by many for mocking the fathers of the modern gaming industry.
 
Hardware this. Hardware that. Sod that. Take a leaf out of Valve, Google & Apple's book and have a storefront with a universal OS as the platform.

NintendOS. Nintendo eShop.

The hardware(s) can play second fiddle.

Unreal Engine 4 doesn't support the Wii-U because they dropped PPC support from the code base. I could see the same thing happening for many newer next generation engines as well. With the PS3 and XBox 360 being phased out, who wants to support PPC for just one console?

Hardware is still very important component that is needed to win over developer support. Nintendo can do whatever song and dance routine that they want, but if they don't have sufficient hardware that is easy to develop for, then developers won't care. And that is the bottom line. Even if it means losing backwards compatibility with the Wii-U, Nintendo needs to drop their legacy architecture completely and start fresh with their next generation hardware. They have to make sure that their next system has good support from middleware software.

Yeah, good online infrastructure and possibly even cross compatibility with their next gen handheld system would also be a plus too. But Nintendo has to learn to bend over backwards a bit for what third parties want.
 
I think they need to buckle down even more in the face of adversity. A lot of the trouble Nintendo faces right now isn't their fault. The market change was sudden, and no one could have predicted what would happen. It's more that consumers sent the incorrect signals, and they couldn't have anticipated what would happen.

The fact is that Nintendo IPs are the strongest in the gaming industry, and they can carry an ecosystem quite comfortably. Replayability in games is a huge thing, and one Mario game can last someone many months, so the argument used by detractors regarding sparse releases doesn't make sense. This isn't like playing a generic AAA production where you'll tire out after ten hours. It's about longevity, and Mario has lasted for decades already, which tells you the most significant fact. People loves these games, and always play them. The difference in the meticulously planned mechanics allows for several playthroughs which are dynamic.

A lot of people talk about third party support, but that's hypocrisy at its finest. How many times do you see complaints about the same generic big game amongst the hardcore community? Why does Nintendo need these games? So they can pretend to be someone else? Here's a truth that people are uncomfortable to accept, Nintendo doesn't need to be someone else. They don't need to appeal with media content. They don't need to say we're going to be the same. They don't need to do any of that. Nintendo is Nintendo. People play games, that's what it comes down to. Nintendo has games, and they just need to make people aware of that. It's that simple.

A great man once said, never give up. That's how you overcome adversity. I truly think Nintendo will be able to do it, and a few years from now, this period will be looked back on regret by many for mocking the fathers of the modern gaming industry.

That...........was beautiful!

I do agree that Nintendo being another Playstation/Xbox is not what's best for them since they still have an image problem that's not going to attract the Playstation/Xbox main demographic even if they have a system stronger than PS4.
 

sörine

Banned
The amount of responses that say "make a console like everyone else. Then third parties will be back with their aaa killing games and ______.... profit!" is truly, truly predictable and disappointing.
Placating traditional AAA 3rd parties is an obvious non-starter. That's only a sure road to ruin for Nintendo.

They need 3rd parties to fill out the schedule but people are going at this backwards. 3rd parties will come if Nintendo delivers successful massmarket platforms, what Nintendo needs to do is drive a successful platform first. Like they did with Famicom/NES, Game Boy, DS and Wii.
 
IMO, they don't just need to have a good console full of great games, they need to push their IPs to the general public.

They need at least a new Mario Cartoon, and hopefully films of Zelda, Metroid, or Star Fox.
 

Log4Girlz

Member
I will say this. Whatever Sony or MS bring out next gen? Zzzz. It'll be boring. Great, but predictable. I'm far more interested in what Nintendo has up their sleeve. For the good or bad.
 

John Harker

Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
This would be the nail in Nintendo's coffin. As much as many of us would enjoy this console.

Yup. Wouldn't and shouldn't happen.
Would destroy them. They simply don't have the resources to compete at that level... They couldn't sustain the loss on hardware Theyd have to take to get to a competitive price point for their auidence, and they couldn't spend the mass amounts of disposable cash it takes to bring that product to market and make it successful.

It's simply unrealistic from a business perspective.
Differentiate or die. More powerful sure. But to leap current gen to satisfy the demands here? I'm skeptical. Sooner everyone grasps that the happier they'd be with the eventual product.
 
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