The president of Nintendo of America explains why this year's hardware sales are a good sign of things to come.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/28958
Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime sought to spin Wii sales numbers in a good light in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times.
When asked about the console losing steam, Fils-Aime viewed it not as something negative, but rather a positive progression leading up to the release of Wii U. "The Wii is now approaching 40 million homes here in the United States, so from a penetration standpoint we're beginning to top out in terms of the total number of systems sold," he said. "That's why it makes so much sense to prepare for the launch of the Wii U."
Although Fils-Aime didn't offer any new information regarding the Wii U, he did comment that despite consumer hesitance, the Wii U "is going to bring gaming to a whole new experience."
Just because you are moving on into a new generation doesn't mean you have to abruptly pull the plug on your current console months and months before that new generation even begins. Has Sony done that with the PS1 or PS2 when the next system came out? But Nintendo has done this with every one of their systems since the N64. With the N64 and Gamecube it could be excused I guess because those systems didn't sell so hot, but with the Wii being the market leader and still selling a huge amount of hardware, there is just no excuse to have abandoned it like Nintendo did.
Its not like the Wii U is even out yet anyway. It's still many months away, but the Wii has been a dead corpse drifting downstream for quite awhile now (except for the small breath of life it got from Skyward Sword). If the Wii U had launched already I guess this would be okay, but it hasn't.
This year doesn't look much better, with only Xenoblade and Rhythm Heaven out this year IIRC.There's also Mario Party 9 and PokéPark 2, though I'm not surprised those were forgotten (I'm probably the only person anticipating Mario Party 9). However, we don't always know about Nintendo releases far in advance, so there could always be surprise announcements.
I'm not saying this excuses what's going on, because they really need to give the Wii at least some support, but Nintendo has finite development resources. They're trying to cover the Wii, 3DS and Wii U all at the same time, and I don't blame them for putting most of their money into the platforms that still have life left in them.
I'm not saying this excuses what's going on, because they really need to give the Wii at least some support, but Nintendo has finite development resources. They're trying to cover the Wii, 3DS and Wii U all at the same time, and I don't blame them for putting most of their money into the platforms that still have life left in them.
Yeah, I'm not accepting that excuse anymore. Sony and Microsoft don't seem to have any problems ensuring that their consoles have support until the next one arrives (with the exception of the PSP, but considering that device has had better 3rd party support than the Wii has had and continues to do so, I can forgive that). Nintendo has spent this entire console generation making games on the cheap that have sold tremendously well. They've built up a tremendous war chest of cash from the Wii and DS. While they've dumped a lot of that back into R&D, I can't help but wonder how they still can't manage to "have the resources" to support their platforms. Nintendo of all companies has no excuse on that.
Microsoft openly abandoned the Xbox a good 5 or 6 months before Xbox 360 released (I think they even said they were ceasing support), and third parties followed suit. Sony was different with the PS2 because it dominated and was close enough to GCN and XBX to get easy ports.
Quote from: xcwarrior
For as bad as 2011 was for NIntendo of America, Reggie needs to go. If he had any kind of spine, he should have been making phone calls to get some more titles of relevance to the Wii platform. Someone's gotta pay, and frankly it should be him.
Off with his head!
The fact is the only calls anyone at Nintendo has been making have been to developers is to get them on board for Wii U and 3DS software.
When was the last time any J/RPG or RPG was given a huge advertising budget here in the states?
With that being over a year ago, I don't particularly recall it... I jumped onto Youtube to look at the single commercial that popped up... not something I really remember seeing - although I've really gotten away from watching commercials on TV, so I may not be the best one to judge that comment. :D
I don't remember seeing much on TV, either, but FF XIII got a lot of internet-based advertising (so has its sequel, for that matter).
But, you seem to know more about this than I do - so I'll concede to your point - the most recent J/RPG to get a huge marking push was Freakin' Final Fantasy. A year ago. Via Internet ads.
And we're being told that a massive advertising campaign behind Xenoblade (a.k.a. that game most people can't even figure out how to pronounce, vs. the biggest RPG franchise outside of Japan) would have had any useful repercussions?
Two years ago, actually. It released in 2010. :P: : I let the first time you said that go, but you just had to say it again. ;)
In all fairness, there are few marketing machines in gaming more effective than Nintendo's (relatively speaking, I'd put Atlus, Blizzard, and Valve's ahead of them). If anyone could make Xenoblade a major mass-market title (which, given some of the World of WarCraft-inspired influences Xenoblade has, it's meant to be), it would be Nintendo. But I do see where you're coming from.Personally, I've always thought Nintendo couldn't market themselves out of a wet paper bag...
If Nintendo had released it in the states and pumped the airwaves full of advertisements for it... "hardcore" gamers would have still ignored the kiddie/casual Wii. It's what they do.
When was the last time any J/RPG or RPG was given a huge advertising budget here in the states?
When was the last time any J/RPG or RPG was given a huge advertising budget here in the states?
JRPG? Dragon Quest IX last year.
RPG in general? The Skyrim beta... two months ago.
DQ9? There we go... A well celebrated RPG series from one of the highest rated RPG developers with some of the best reviews of ANY game genre, all on a Nintendo system with a huge marketing push.
I bet it TORE UP THE charts like a teenage virgin on his prom night, eh?
While DQ9 pushed some great sales in Japan, to some extent the UK (oh, hey, look who got Xenoblade/Last Story without rebellion from the fan base) and overall world-wide, I don't recall it being a huge seller here in the states. Someone go find the sales-week numbers for DQ9's release in regards to systems sold...
Through December 31/10, DQIX had sold 1.02 million "outside of Japan" (source: Nintendo financials by way of Siliconera (http://www.siliconera.com/2011/01/27/heres-how-much-dragon-quest-ix-sold-overseas/)).
I tell you what, give me $1,000. In two months, I'll give you $1,001. You just made $1 profit, so that was worth it, right
One token game (an RPG at that, one that isn't even Fallout/Mass Effect "mature") isn't going to make a dent in that shell any more than having an exclusive, M-rated GTA title on the handheld did.
... that's out of the question then maybe 60/40 or in a worse case 50/50. It pains me to see casual games getting the lion's share of Nintendo's attention.
(http://supertrainstationh.com/hardcore_chart.jpg)
/Pac-Man joke
And yes Kairon, that includes Animal Crossing under "traditional".
"Would Nintendo have made this if they didn't have the new audience they got with the DS and Wii?"
Was anyone butt-hurt when SEGA stopped making consoles? No.
*raises hand*Was anyone butt-hurt when SEGA stopped making consoles? No.
Actually, yes.
@defalcos
Don't forget they could also just play the unopened Wii games on their backlog. Or the Wii gems they skipped because it came out at the same time as God of Assassins' Duty: World at Warcraft.
I think of Sega, and then I turn to Nintendo and say, "please, for the love of god, stay profitable."
I think of Sega, and then I turn to Nintendo and say, "please, for the love of god, stay profitable."
For the foreseeable future, you got nothing to worry about.
@defalcos
Don't forget they could also just play the unopened Wii games on their backlog. Or the Wii gems they skipped because it came out at the same time as God of Assassins' Duty: World at Warcraft.
EDIT: I hate this forum's programming bugs with a burning passion. I had to copy and paste the following paragraphs into 3 separate programs before I could get them to display even close to correctly here (the forums kept wanting to bold everything).
I suppose I would probably fall under your B category, thedefalcos. When I begged my parents to get me a Wii for my birthday in April 2007, I truly believed in the dream of the Wii and the possibilities afforded by the Wii Remote. I played Zack & Wiki, and I was astounded by the many different purposes you could put the Wii Remote to. I praised this to my coworkers at work at the time, who were considering getting a Wii.
Then the years rolled on, and nothing further was really done to push the innovative uses of motion control in games, probably partially because the technology largely didn't work until Motion+. I was frequently unsatisfied with the software library on the Wii. With notable exceptions, I've found Nintendo's 1st party Wii releases lacking. I won't go into the whole "core" and casual" nonsense. I've moved on from that state of mind. I just find the quality and quantity of their software largely lacking, as well as being notably shorter or overly-simplistic than I'd like. Each year, fewer games that appeal to my sensibilities were released on Wii. I got a PS3 and 360 to help me fill in those gaps, and I haven't regretted that decision since.
@defalcos
Don't forget they could also just play the unopened Wii games on their backlog. Or the Wii gems they skipped because it came out at the same time as God of Assassins' Duty: World at Warcraft.
*raises hand*Was anyone butt-hurt when SEGA stopped making consoles? No.
Actually, yes.
I'd rather have a head-to-head duel between Nintendo and Sega ANYDAY over this mess of a three-console war that's been going on for the last 10-12 years. I wanted so badly for the Dreamcast to succeed, but it just didn't happen. I think more creativity and innovation was sparked when it was just Nintendo and Sega, too. Maybe it was just all of the crazy IPs that came out, but whatever. The 16 to 64-bit era of games was absolutely incredible. I'll never forget all of the memories I had with Nintendo/Sega... or even Nintendo/Sony during the 64-bit wars.
I wish we could go back to that, though. Sure would be nice to have a head-to-head battle again -- I'm sure this is what most "dude-bro" gamers think is occurring now anyway. Nintendo doesn't really matter in their minds, as it's mainly Sony vs. Microsoft for them.
But anyway, yes, I was hurt when Sega decided to stop making consoles. Dreamcast was awesome... and Microsoft is NOT a good replacement for them.
I think of Sega, and then I turn to Nintendo and say, "please, for the love of god, stay profitable."
I think of Sega, and then I turn to Nintendo and say, "please, for the love of god, stay profitable."
Didn't Nintendo just recently have its first unprofitable quarter in like 30 years or something like that? And this happened under Reggie/Iwata's watch, so... As senile as Yamauchi may have been in his final years, Nintendo never had an unprofitable quarter under his watch.
Isn't it paradoxical that only when Nintendo has achieved unparallelled success with the Wii that now and only now do they suffer their first (in decades) quarter loss? How is that even possible?
Isn't it paradoxical that only when Nintendo has achieved unparallelled success with the Wii that now and only now do they suffer their first (in decades) quarter loss? How is that even possible?
Isn't it paradoxical that only when Nintendo has achieved unparallelled success with the Wii that now and only now do they suffer their first (in decades) quarter loss? How is that even possible?
I blame the weak American dollar. This isn't Nintendo's first unprofitable quarter in recent memory, but past quarters like this frequently had the exchange rate as a major reason too. I believe this is Nintendo's first annual posted loss? Well, a weak American dollar and strong yen for an entire year is a major factor cutting into their earnings I think, in conjunction with a pretty dangerous transition to two new platforms and probably some really expensive R&D costs trying to out innovate their own successes of the DS and Wii.
Wait a quarter with less profits or no profits period?
Then the company's new best selling product had to be sold at a loss to move any units at all.
@defalcos
Don't forget they could also just play the unopened Wii games on their backlog. Or the Wii gems they skipped because it came out at the same time as God of Assassins' Duty: World at Warcraft.
You know what really bugs me about that? I am a middle and high school teacher and I hear waaaay too often that the Wii sucks because it doesn't have those games you mentioned. I even heard one of them say, with agreement from others, "If it doesn't put a gun in my hand, I don't want to play it." Urgh! I even had one student sell his copy of Skyward Sword he got for Christmas (before he even opened it) for a pair a freakin' sunglasses. Didn't even care to know if the game was fun or not. And they're a bunch of hypocrites, too. Most of the time they will play Wii sports up at the school all the while loudly proclaiming that they never play the Wii. It's an image thing or something.
Unfortunately, most of the people who read this forum have already played the Wii backlog and everyone else wouldn't dare be caught reading something with Nintendo on it. Remember when it was COOL to play a variety of games on a system no matter what genre it was? The same guys I hung out with as a kid would play Contra and Double Dragon with me one day and then the next day could sit for a spell and take turns playing Tecmo Bowl, Castlevania, or Dragon Warrior. It was all the same to us because it was ALL FUN.