Don't bother. You were right with your quotes.
The slides clear up the translation, but the plan is still nonsense.
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Nintendo Financial Meeting LiveTweets - 1. Surprise 2. QOL 3. France 4. ??? 5. PROFIT
- Thread starter Nirolak
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Don't bother. You were right with your quotes.
The slides clear up the translation, but the plan is still nonsense.
It’s good to see them try things outside of gaming to diversify what they’re offering and the QOL-stuff is potentially exciting, but I think Nintendo is again failing to understand what their problems in the gaming market are.
Honestly, if don’t turn it around with their next console, they might as well just stop home console hardware altogether. Their home console hardware sales have been in decline since the very start, even though the market consistently grew. Yes, the Wii is an exception, but by now I think everyone agrees that the Wii was a fluke. Nintendo should stop chasing the Wii audience and accept that it has moved on, be it to other consoles, mobile or out of gaming altogether. While Nintendo failing to communicate properly to their target audience is certainly a big part of the problem, the even bigger problem behind it is that the audience they’re targeting has moved on. Nintendo’s insistence on recapturing that audience is pathetic; they’re gone, just let it go. The WiiU fits perfectly in their pattern of declining sales, market share and third-party support, and if the pattern continues with their next console, they’ll be so extremely irrelevant (even more irrelevant than they already are) that they might as well just stop, as they’ll have dug themselves in a hole so deep they couldn’t climb out of it with even the longest ladder in the world.
If Nintendo had been serious about wanting to turn the WiiU around, they would’ve cut the gamepad loose and priced it at a more family-friendly price point. The gamepad is dead weight at this point, partially because Nintendo continually fails to market it properly (which they say they’re going to fix by creating more compelling experiences for it, while also releasing a big AAA game next month that does literally nothing with it), but also because nobody, including Nintendo itself, really seems to know what to do with it and because the market evidently just doesn’t need or want it. Cutting the gamepad loose would allow a price cut without necessarily diminishing their profit margin per WiiU sold. Sell the gamepad as a peripheral and I bet both the WiiU and the gamepad would be doing better than they are now. Instead of doing any of that, Nintendo seems content with just sitting the WiiU out and trying to shove the gamepad down people’s throats again, hoping that it will somehow catch on at some point.
I also don’t think the DS-brand will carry another handheld. The handheld market is in decline and the more casual audience is moving on to mobile for their on-the-go gaming. Releasing another DS-handheld under the DS-brand will probably result in a very steep drop in sales, due to brand confusion, brand fatigue (DS, DS lite, DSi, DSi XL, 3DS, 2DS, 3DS XL, NewDS, NewDS slim) and the decline of the handheld market in general.
Combining their consistently shrinking home console with their very likely to shrink handheld won’t do them any favours, it’ll just raise the entry price to the full experience, which leads to less sales for both.
So I don’t really get what Nintendo is trying to do here. Perhaps it doesn’t really help that they’re being incredibly vague, implying that they don’t have any specifics to share with us because they themselves haven’t fully worked it out yet, which is concerning.
Honestly, if don’t turn it around with their next console, they might as well just stop home console hardware altogether. Their home console hardware sales have been in decline since the very start, even though the market consistently grew. Yes, the Wii is an exception, but by now I think everyone agrees that the Wii was a fluke. Nintendo should stop chasing the Wii audience and accept that it has moved on, be it to other consoles, mobile or out of gaming altogether. While Nintendo failing to communicate properly to their target audience is certainly a big part of the problem, the even bigger problem behind it is that the audience they’re targeting has moved on. Nintendo’s insistence on recapturing that audience is pathetic; they’re gone, just let it go. The WiiU fits perfectly in their pattern of declining sales, market share and third-party support, and if the pattern continues with their next console, they’ll be so extremely irrelevant (even more irrelevant than they already are) that they might as well just stop, as they’ll have dug themselves in a hole so deep they couldn’t climb out of it with even the longest ladder in the world.
If Nintendo had been serious about wanting to turn the WiiU around, they would’ve cut the gamepad loose and priced it at a more family-friendly price point. The gamepad is dead weight at this point, partially because Nintendo continually fails to market it properly (which they say they’re going to fix by creating more compelling experiences for it, while also releasing a big AAA game next month that does literally nothing with it), but also because nobody, including Nintendo itself, really seems to know what to do with it and because the market evidently just doesn’t need or want it. Cutting the gamepad loose would allow a price cut without necessarily diminishing their profit margin per WiiU sold. Sell the gamepad as a peripheral and I bet both the WiiU and the gamepad would be doing better than they are now. Instead of doing any of that, Nintendo seems content with just sitting the WiiU out and trying to shove the gamepad down people’s throats again, hoping that it will somehow catch on at some point.
I also don’t think the DS-brand will carry another handheld. The handheld market is in decline and the more casual audience is moving on to mobile for their on-the-go gaming. Releasing another DS-handheld under the DS-brand will probably result in a very steep drop in sales, due to brand confusion, brand fatigue (DS, DS lite, DSi, DSi XL, 3DS, 2DS, 3DS XL, NewDS, NewDS slim) and the decline of the handheld market in general.
Combining their consistently shrinking home console with their very likely to shrink handheld won’t do them any favours, it’ll just raise the entry price to the full experience, which leads to less sales for both.
So I don’t really get what Nintendo is trying to do here. Perhaps it doesn’t really help that they’re being incredibly vague, implying that they don’t have any specifics to share with us because they themselves haven’t fully worked it out yet, which is concerning.
10?, try 5 D:
To go third-party obviously.
It just makes sense, and it would mean I could play Nintendo games without having to buy shitty outdated 2005 hardware.
All of their problems would disappear and I'd be a happy man.
Typical GAF response? Typical GAF response.
Sho_Nuff82
Member
Nintendo's only gaming related announcements were
- DS Virtual console for Wii U
- More Wii U games from Nintendo, some will even use the gamepad, and we promise they'll move systems this time
- We will have unified network id....probably on our next console in 2017. Leaving us only 10 years behind again.
- We're thinking about a gaming discount program, but we're not sure how that will work yet
- Our next platforms will be closer in architecture
- We're doing mobile, but we're not really, but really our devs can do anything, even games, but that doesn't mean that Mario is coming to mobile, but we're not saying that they can't use our strongest IP. NEXT QUESTION
- We need to target kids more, but we're not to follow the trends of what kids are actually playing these days
Non-gaming announcement
- We have a thing coming in 2015 that will be better than other things that people are excited about, but you don't wear it
Now, keeping in mind that the focus of this meeting was to reassure investors after the disappointing Q3 numbers, what exactly did they outline that will ensure a return to profitability? They literally said nothing. There is no plan for a Wii U revival, they plan to stay the course. They will release DK, Mario Kart, and Smash this year, announce Zelda at E3, and watch the thing get pulled from shelves in Europe in the early part of 2015.
Can't be out yet, I've been looking for it.
This is sure an interesting slide.
There may be more to all this than we're necessarily grasping.
[Edit] Beat!
Artificially intelligent personal assistant? Think Google Now/Siri but more advanced/ambitious. Like the computer on Star Trek. That is the only thing I can think of that fits the criteria of being the next big thing after wearables that could also improve your general quality of life.
ultratruman
Banned
I still believe Iwata knows the Wii U is a total lost cause, but in order to ameliorate angry investors and maintain goodwill among people who've bought the system, they're going to keep talking about MK8/Smash/Zelda as being 'restorative software' until they're ready to launch their new consoles.
It's not like they can't afford it.
This company. Sigh.
So Iwata points out that the Wii U is struggling. That they're not resource rich by only having 5,000 employees. Announces some Quality of Life platform, which sounds like a huge distraction for them.
Innovative gampad play is becoming a focus, and I admire them for not doing a 180 and making a gamepad-less SKU. But this innovation starts with Mario Kart? As far as we know, that game uses the touch pad as a horn! And they couldn't even be bothered to use the second screen at all for Donkey Kong? What the hell.
I think that innovative gameplay use is actually supposed to be the video of the Wii U booting faster. Which really has nothing to do with the gamepad at all, considering it's just as beneficial to those that use the TV.
DS Virtual Console on Wii U? Yeah okay. It does sound like a way to leverage the gamepad. But DS on 3DS? Apparently they never considered the technical hurdles despite backwards compatibility. Same with Wii games on Wii U.
Everything else really sounded like a long term strategy, for their next console(s). No great announcements with 3rd parties to revitalize the U. Only extremely vague fluff. I guess they're going to ride the storm out until they can release new hardware. I hope the Wii U stuff they are going to put out will be backward compatible for their next-gen platform. These games aren't going to reach the broadest audience possible, so hopefully there's that?
So Iwata points out that the Wii U is struggling. That they're not resource rich by only having 5,000 employees. Announces some Quality of Life platform, which sounds like a huge distraction for them.
Innovative gampad play is becoming a focus, and I admire them for not doing a 180 and making a gamepad-less SKU. But this innovation starts with Mario Kart? As far as we know, that game uses the touch pad as a horn! And they couldn't even be bothered to use the second screen at all for Donkey Kong? What the hell.
I think that innovative gameplay use is actually supposed to be the video of the Wii U booting faster. Which really has nothing to do with the gamepad at all, considering it's just as beneficial to those that use the TV.
DS Virtual Console on Wii U? Yeah okay. It does sound like a way to leverage the gamepad. But DS on 3DS? Apparently they never considered the technical hurdles despite backwards compatibility. Same with Wii games on Wii U.
Everything else really sounded like a long term strategy, for their next console(s). No great announcements with 3rd parties to revitalize the U. Only extremely vague fluff. I guess they're going to ride the storm out until they can release new hardware. I hope the Wii U stuff they are going to put out will be backward compatible for their next-gen platform. These games aren't going to reach the broadest audience possible, so hopefully there's that?
Colonel Mustard
Banned
Iwata just watched the movie Her, confirmed.
HUELEN10
Member
Due to wanting development parity for third-party developers and the fact that IBM's chips aren't the cheapest at all times, I don't expect them to keep on with the PowerPC architecture anymore at this point; I expect Wii U games won't be BC, and wouldn't be surprised if their price on the used market went up in years to come.
The Horror the horror
Banned
If this were coming from Sony, it'd be one thing. Sony isn't cheap and they understand that strong hardware complements intuitive software. With Nintendo, who has recently gone the cheap route in both areas, I suspect we're going to see more smoke & mirror applications concealed behind a simple and lovable presentation.
My big takeaway from all of this seems to be that Nintendo knows they can't solely rely on gaming as their chief source of revenue.
Between introducing this 3rd platform/device/system, and going on about licensing out their IPs, I guess they want to make sure if their hardware/software doesn't light the world on fire they have money coming in from somewhere. Hopefully.
It isn't a bad move, if they can pull off expansion on either of those projects well.
Between introducing this 3rd platform/device/system, and going on about licensing out their IPs, I guess they want to make sure if their hardware/software doesn't light the world on fire they have money coming in from somewhere. Hopefully.
It isn't a bad move, if they can pull off expansion on either of those projects well.
evilromero
Member
They're failing to be critical of the software they release, which is very troubling. It's the mentality of, "we made incredible experiences but they didn't sell. So let's try something completely different." That's my takeaway.
So instead of trying to boldly revitalize what it is they are known for, they choose to branch out into other areas where they are not known. Just brilliant.
Well, I mean kind of and kind of not
Not like they haven't been doing fitness devices and applications/software for more than half a decade. Now they aren't tying it to a 200-300 dollar console as well probably.
And assuming licensing would be handled by their partners or whoever they decide to team up with. They have a stable of recognizable and note-worthy characters that could do decent in other areas of entertainment.
This is what I got from it too.
The wild thing tho is....Nintendo could have did that with the Wii U. I mean does Wii Fit games still need the board? Why the need to have two separate pieces of hardware?
In a sense they already do this with the board, motion controls, gamepad. If its separate consoles...I see that as a waste of resources.
Look at MS and Kinect games. They fall into the Wii Fit type of games...but its on a more powerful machine with a great online setup and a nice amount of storage. Not to mention there are no controllers needed. And I'm pretty sure all the folks that buy PS3, 360, PS4, XBO are not single and have no other family members, friends. Even if Kinect games dont appeal to the person buying the console, there has to be someone in their life that it does appeal to.
Bottom line is Nintendo came with a console that just didnt compete and there are/was some other issues affecting 3rd party, muti platform games.
Please explain why they couldnt do this with the Wii or Wii U? It was there from the Wii....they just need to make better consoles, get the multi plat games on their consoles (and dont let them be gimped, incomplete versions) and have a better online experience. Whats gonna happen is if their gaming side actually falls flat...they have the QoL thing to fall back on. To me thats the reason for the separation. Smart move if it pays off for Nintendo either way....but I dont think some of us gamers are gonna be too happy if my last scenario happens. I know the way Apple runs things...stuf bought from their App Store has to meet strict guidelines before Apple gives the OK. I dont think dev, publishers make inferior, incomplete versions of multi plat games and Nintendo doesnt know anything about it. If they do...they need a better QA person. Somewhere down the line Nintendo is OKing this stuff. And somewhere down the line the multi plat game differences are because of Nintendo's hardware.
Someone posted the Wii U has a blu ray type player. The discs are made in house by Nintendo and Panasonic.
For all we know....that could be a reason for multi plat games having issues.
Carlos Lima
Member
I was thinking.... Wii sounds like "oui" that means "yes" in french. Maybe that has something to do with it?
They can't even support two platforms adequately with software, how the hell are they going to be able to create and support a third platform/device/system/nonweaable QOL thing? THAT NEEDS SOFTWARE TOO!
I think the endless and almost constant droughts should have taught us now that Nintendo is not good at efficiently creating software! Their big plan is to starve the existing 3DS and WiiU of even more resources to 'leapfrog' to some completely mysterious non wearable device that is not described or explained at all?
MyBodyisReady
Neo Member
The Wii U was an attempt to bring back the core audience and you all shunned them by not buying the system.
It was a VERY BAD ATTEMPT to be fair. They didn't take into account what core gamers or developers who develop for core gamers want at all.
Osiris
I permanently banned my 6 year old daughter from using the PS4 for mistakenly sending grief reports as it's too hard to watch or talk to her
Because it was a fucking atrocious attempt that deserved contempt, not reward.
And yes, I said was.
"Dead man walking"
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Okay because we have 4 or 5 threads ongoing on this subject I'm going to lock this one and recommend people fold discussion into one of the currently active threads. If you posted recently and hoped to have someone reply to you because you thought you made good points, feel free to cross-post in the other threads. Cheers.
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