The key to all of this might be in Nintendo Direct, as Iwata aims to "construct a seamless flow" that guides viewers through videos and demos.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/29129
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata wants to eschew the idea that Nintendo is "cautious, conservative, or even negative about business on a network," as he responded to investors at the recent Financial Briefing Q&A.
"Our answer [to that notion] is, in short, that we will make a bold attempt when the time is ripe," Iwata said. "Unless the timing is right, we will lose the consumers who do not have an Internet connection. We have not gone so far yet because our developers have a belief that our products should be available to as many people as possible."
This online strategy is furthered by the fact that the company's latest system, the 3DS, has a much higher connection ratio than their past handhelds. Even better, users in Japan watched the latest Nintendo Direct presentation on their 3DS systems.
"If we can construct a seamless flow in guiding consumers to watch the Nintendo Direct presentation on their Nintendo 3DS and then voluntarily try 3D trailers and demo versions (that were introduced in "Nintendo Direct"), this is a fairly powerful and efficient system," Iwata said.
The implication is that future Nintendo Direct presentations will not only feature the streaming presentation, but also allows viewers to seamlessly move between the presentation, 3D trailers, and demos, making the presentations not just informative, but also interactive.
"We have a strong impression that the foundation for business on a network for us to take on various challenges on it has been steadily put into place today," Iwata added.
This process might have been slow moving, but it has been accelerating rapidly over the past few years. Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto noted that Flipnote, an animation application on the DSi, has become a 'hidden hit' among children, revealing that "millions of children who do not communicate on the Internet use this software." (Editor's Note: I can vouch for this, my niece and her cousins use this like crazy.)
"We are taking on various challenges including how to operate the system of note exchanges by children freely in a safe manner," Miyamoto added. "In short, we trust the great potential of the network, but we are still in pursuit of originality through trial and error."
This all comes back around to Iwata's defense of Nintendo's online strategy. He finished his reply to a question about their online future by saying: "Furthermore, if the collaboration between the forum for communications and the place for new information on games starts to work well, we will be able to figure out a vital response to the concern you sometimes shared that Nintendo may be behind the social age."
"Unless the timing is right, we will lose the consumers who do not have an Internet connection."
So they would lose about two consumers, big deal.
Just like they'll introduce HD when the "time is ripe"...which of course is also about 7 years too late.
Just like they'll introduce HD when the "time is ripe"...which of course is also about 7 years too late.
Chozo, you do know that about 23% of Xbox 360 owners have never taken their system online? That is over 15 million systems just with the Xbox 360 alone.I can vouch for this. I've never used my Xbox online before- I've only ever had one system update because of a disc that came with Xbox magazine.
Chozo, you do know that about 23% of Xbox 360 owners have never taken their system online? That is over 15 million systems just with the Xbox 360 alone.
Chozo, you do know that about 23% of Xbox 360 owners have never taken their system online? That is over 15 million systems just with the Xbox 360 alone.
If I had a 360 I wouldn't take it online either, because you have to pay a monthly fee in order to do so. If you could play online for free I'm sure that percentage would be lower.
The Xbox 360 and PS3 had robust online systems since launch and they are both more successful than the Wii.
The Xbox 360 and PS3 had robust online systems since launch and they are both more successful than the Wii.
How are we defining success here?
Chozo that kind of attitude is why you are not running Nintendo.A consumer is a consumer no matter how small. Nintendo is looking at the big picture. Nintendo has a giant instal base with the Wii they don't really want any people being left behind now do they?
Nintendo wanted to shed their kiddy image with Silicon Knights and even more Perfect Dark, but Rare jumped ship. Silicon Knights provided the content, but after they heard what wii was like they ditched Nintendo.
Capcom had even more lax support this time as well, because they were both lazy releasing bad ligh gun games, and because wii is underpowered.
Rare didn't "jump ship." Nintendo sold them to Microsoft.
Rare didn't "jump ship."
What a smart company does is anticipate where things are going and get in at the start. Nintendo has been a reactionary company since the N64.
Chozo that kind of attitude is why you are not running Nintendo.
If Nintendo was looking at the big picture they would look less at the five people in America who won't buy the Wii U because they're not online and more at the potential millions of people who are online and would potentially be turned off by an archaic out-of-date online implementation. They can't have BOTH customers. They have to pick one and these days the majority are online. Fussing over the small minority that is not is ridiculous.
Reactionary has ended up in profits every single time, unlike other companies.
But truly, Nintendo will never be like how you want them. The SNES generation is gone for good. Accept that.
Looking at Nintendo objectively, Iwata's comments aren't surprising in the least. Actually, they are right in line with their thinking. Until a majority of their consumers use it, they will not support. Plain and simple.
Everyone having this conversation in this forum is tech-savvy. But this group constitutes a small percentage of Nintendo's hoped-for customers. It's easy to think a company should care only about whatever group you belong to and have them make decisions accordingly. But they are fishing in a much bigger pond, and we are but tiny minnows. Embrace it. Accept it. Enjoy the magic they offer, and get your tech fix elsewhere.Memory might not serve me correctly but I think Nintendo stated 3 or 4 years ago that the vast majority (+70%) of Wii's sold had gone online. To say that Nintendo is keeping pace with the ability of their customers, or the potential consumer base, seems very, very wrong in 2012.
Nintendo's position with online "not being ready for the mainstream" seems to be at odds with other things they've done over the years. For example, was the mainstream ready for the introduction of the D-pad? Was the mainstream ready for the analog stick? Was the mainstream ready for motion gaming and so on? Nintendo didn't hold off on introducing any of those other things for fear the market wasn't ready for it, they just did it and it was successful. So this paranoia over online which has been successfully adopted by the competition for many years makes no sense.
Having "too small" storage wasn't the problem really. If the Wi launched with SDHC card and USB hard drive support (and Wii's file system being able to recognise either of those are the primary location for all data) then all the "cleaning the fridge" related nonsense wouldn't have happened.Nintendo's position with online "not being ready for the mainstream" seems to be at odds with other things they've done over the years. For example, was the mainstream ready for the introduction of the D-pad? Was the mainstream ready for the analog stick? Was the mainstream ready for motion gaming and so on? Nintendo didn't hold off on introducing any of those other things for fear the market wasn't ready for it, they just did it and it was successful. So this paranoia over online which has been successfully adopted by the competition for many years makes no sense.
The key is that this has been successfully adopted by the competition. With those other examples Nintendo led the way and it was their idea. But with online they were dragged kicking and screaming into it. They did NOT want to do it on the Gamecube back when everyone else was and have been playing catch-up ever since. Nintendo almost always screws up stuff that they themselves didn't come up with. I don't know if it some weird pride thing where to do someone else's idea well would suggest that someone else can have a good idea or what.
If the market is ready for "bold" online then it suggets that Nintendo were wrong about holding off online on the Gamecube and screwing around with friend codes and having too small of storage on the Wii. No good.
