Nintendo Next-Gen

Long live the Mighty N forever!!!!

You know, it would be great to see Nintendo keep going strong into the future. It's a shame that Sega didn't stand the test of time with their consoles.

I wonder what N's strategy will be in the next gen console wars? I think that maybe if they keep it simple, they might have a good chance of success. Something that?s less powerful then their competitors systems, without any of the extras, but with well-designed games, could be the key for them. If they could make a cheaper machine with a wide appeal to a younger demographic, they could clean up? maybe.

quote:

I wonder what N's strategy will be in the next gen console wars? I think that maybe if they keep it simple, they might have a good chance of success. Something that?s less powerful then their competitors systems, without any of the extras, but with well-designed games, could be the key for them. If they could make a cheaper machine with a wide appeal to a younger demographic, they could clean up? maybe.

You just described the Gamecube (aside from the less powerful part - it does have some weaknesses tho'). The lack of convergence is what's killing them this time around, I think. Still going strong in Japan, however.

Their image needs work too. Sony are cool - Nintendo are not. Having Resident Evil does not suddenly make your console more 'adult' - and next time, design a less offensive controller. It's comfy, sure, but a control pad should be like steering wheel -- it should be able to accomodate all types of genres.

Personally, I hate Nintendo's vague-ness. It's always 'we cant show you, because everyone will copy us' or 'wait till E3.' Even at last years E3, they were like 'wait till next E3.' Get f*cked, Ninty. I bought your console for the exclusives and niche games but start treating PAL territories right, and you'll get somewhere.

I hope they do pull something great out -- Sony have won for the 2nd time around and if they do it a third time, we'll end up with a Monopoly.

The first time Nintendo went wrong was when they couldn't come to an agreement with Sony about the disc player for the SNES, thus sony created the Playstation. I also agree that their controller needs improvement, for once microsoft actually thought about japanes people having small hands so they created a smaller controller for the japanese. I think Nintendo should have looked at what works, not just what looks the best or weirdest.

i have a gamecube and an xbox, and i think the gamecube controller is much better than the xbox one...i reckon its better than sony's as well...

quote:Originally posted by palantir

I wonder what N's strategy will be in the next gen console wars? I think that maybe if they keep it simple, they might have a good chance of success. Something that?s less powerful then their competitors systems, without any of the extras, but with well-designed games, could be the key for them. If they could make a cheaper machine with a wide appeal to a younger demographic, they could clean up? maybe.

Sounds like the handheld market to me. And yes, nintendo is cleaning up there. The iQue also fits into this category, except Nintendo only released that in china...

I'd love to see Nintendo lower the bar a little. Stick with the gamecube hardware for the next 2 to 3 years, and maybe focus on some online capability. Nothing like XBOX live, more like a cheap distribution system for small cheap games, expansions etc. This would also allow them to distribute Gameboy content (with the gameboy player). Damn, the could even sell downloadable SNES games for $5 a piece (and a GC SNES emulator), and plenty of people would fork out the cash for games they could (and do) already emulate on their PCs...

You may have noticed that I'm not looking forward to the next round of consoles. I think its all getting a little ridiculous to be perfectly honest. :D

cheers

yeh, i think its a bit ridiculous too...the consoles aren't around long enough to have a successor in my opinion...a bigger gap between console is what i reckon

What fascinates me is that Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo lose so much money trying to get their hardware into peoples houses (undercutting hardware costs etc) and then they race to provide the next generation of painfully expensive, over-spec'd machines.

Are they all racing to bring out their consoles because the first to be released will be the most successful?

Its been proven time and time again that games drive sales. Why not just focus on the games? Sure you've gotta have an install base, but if you have 5 exceptional titles released in one year, and your hardware is 3 years old (ie. cheap) you'll do well. Or am i missing the point?

Something to think about - the PSOne market is still very active. Do you think Sony is losing money on their PSOnes? No. Do you think Sony is making money from PSOne sales? Hell yes.

cheers

This blog entry by [url="http://www.costik.com/"]Greg Costikyan[/url] has an interesting view on the whole idea that Nintendo aims for the younger market - it may be just a difference in Japanese to the Western cultures..

quote:"I question whether they're intended for kids. Japanese popular culture is different from American popular culture. In Japan, the main audience for manga (comic books) and anime (animation) consists of--adults. In other words, the Japanese do not relegate whole artforms to the status of "kid stuff" they way we do--even though they often use an art style for highly adult material (the whole genre of tentacle sex comes to mind) that would immediately set the "this is for kids" neurons firing in a Westerner. (Well, until the first genital penetration, anyway.)"

I agree with that, but it does bring Sony's Playstation titles into the question, since it comes from the same culture that brought us the Nintendo... Greg's blog [url="http://www.costik.com/weblog/"]entry can be read here[/url].

I don't know about you guys but to me graphics are very important. Sure gameplay is the most important but it still needs to look good right?

I find that when i look for a game to purchase for $90 + (which is the average on console nowdays) i want more than just gameplay, ie Graphics.

Let's face it if all we wanted was gameplay then we would still be playing Metal Slug and Commander Keen and there would be no need to have such powerful hardware like ATI gfx cards, let alone state of the art consoles.

By the sounds of it Bullet, you have 'good graphics' and 'high end graphics' slightly confused. I still think that old 2D games have better graphics than a lot of 3D crap that is churned out now. Games like Heart Of Darkness, Metal Slug, Guilty Gear X all have fantastic graphics. They are all 2D as well. A lot of my favourtie 3D games of all time hardly have the most advanced graphics, yet they hide it so well with their style. Rez jumps to mind imediately. Sure it is nice to see the latest and greatest 3D engine appear with top of the line per-pixel shaders and shadow triangle culling, but without a decent style to back it up, what does it matter?

Nintendo and Sony seem to do two different things to get the same result. Nintendo make what they know and are used to. Western audience fall in love with the simplicity of it. Sony try to appeal to Western audiences by making games that are more for the older players. Neither is right or wrong. They have their ways of doing it, and they both seem to be surviving well enough from it.

Commander keen, gameplay? HAHAHAAH... sorry.

I'm sucked in by sweet graphics as much as the next guy. But if there isn't excellent gameplay there behind it, there isn't much point (for me).

The legend of Zelda (wind waker) is an interesting case study. That game has excellent (tried and tested maybe) gameplay, but a simplistic cartoony style. Almost every review i read for the game started with something like this; "at first i was worried by the cutesy art style, but" ... the reviewers then go on to say what a fantastic game it is.

Now i'm not bashing the style, i love it, but it is a damn simplistic style (which probably made the art departments life a whole lot easier). Despite this however, it averaged a score of 95% (gamerankings.com). This is one of the few examples where gameplay seems to have won over graphical splendur.

cheers