Welcome Our First Article Writer 1337pete, he brings to us a very controversial, and debatable, but true topic.
It is not Nintendo who has abandoned you. It is you who has abandoned them.
There's several things I like to point out about Nintendo.
First, what Nintendo is doing now isn't that much different from the 8-bit days. Consider the Game Boy. It was based off of Intel's 8080 chip, a relic from 1974 and had a terrible black-and-cabbage screen capable of displaying only 4 shades of gray. It was even released against the considerably more powerful Atari Lynx. And yet, it's one of their most successful systems. In fact, if you add up the total sales of the entire Game Boy line starting from the original family bible-sized model all the way up to the Game Boy Advance Micro, you have what may well be the most successful console of all time (118.69 million units worldwide for the Game Boy, 81.47 million for the Advance, according to Wikipedia).
It's a brilliant design philosophy when you think about it. It's not necessarily good hardware, it's just good enough.
Now consider the N64. It was boasted to be more powerful than its competitors, at least because it had twice as many bits. It certainly had better anti-aliasing techniques, even if the result often just blurred the textures as oppose to making them clearer.
So blurry.
When you think about it, the only reason the SNES won out against the Genesis was more due to incompetence on the part of Sega than good strategy on the part of Nintendo. But the N64--despite it being profitable (to my understanding)--it hardly shared the same success as Sony's PlayStation. Even when the GameCube released with many technical improvements over the N64, making it easier for developers to program games and actually using a disc system (albeit, still a proprietary format), and although the machine was fairly powerful, it still did not perform as well as Nintendo's older 8-bit hardware.
Now when we look at Nintendo today, clearly they're back to their old "good enough" technique. And it's a phenomenon. But when you think about it, catering to hardcore gamers is what Nintendo was doing during the N64 and GameCube days, and it didn't turn out too well for them. Now their hardcore fans are begging for more substantial games, and I know this issue has been touched upon, but my problem stems from the most recent report from the NPD group. Check out this month's sales list versus last month:
May 2009 Software Sales
1. UFC 2009: Undisputed (360) -- 679,600
2. Wii Fit (Wii) -- 352,800
3. EA Sports Active (Wii) -- 345,800
4. UFC 2009: Undisputed (PS3) -- 334,400
5. Infamous (PS3) -- 175,900
6. Pokemon Platinum (DS) -- 168,900
7. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) -- 158,300
8. Punch-Out!! (Wii) -- 156,900
9. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (360) -- 120,700
10. Wii Play (Wii) -- 109,800
June 2009 Software Sales
1. Prototype (360) -- 419,900
2. UFC 2009: Undisputed (360) -- 338,300
3. EA Sports Active (Wii) -- 289,100
4. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (Wii) -- 272,400
5. Wii Fit (Wii) -- 271,600
6. Fight Night Round 4 (360) -- 260,800
7. Fight Night Round 4 (PS3) -- 210,300
8. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) -- 202,100
9. Red Faction: Guerrilla (360) -- 199,400
10. Infamous (PS3) -- 192,700
Source: 1up.com
Notice something odd (other than Wii Play not being in the top ten for the first time since its release)? In May, Punch-Out!! debuted at number 8 and now it's off the charts completely.
So what happened? I would argue that Punch-Out!! is Nintendo's answer to the hardcore fans pleading for some table scraps. And yet, it seems hardcore gamers aren't buying it.
How will Nintendo respond to this? "Listen, you supposed 'hardcore Nintendo fans.' You asked for it. We delivered it. You didn't buy it. But look how well Wii Fit is doing!" Honestly, how can you claim that Nintendo has abandoned you when you don't buy or even just play the few games they actually do make for you? Is it Nintendo that has abandoned you, or is it you who have abandoned them?
This reminds me of an old saying: "Living in a democracy, if you don't get up off your ass and go vote, what right do you have to complain?" Seriously. Think about it.
Read more...
