Topic: Nintendo's got 700 Problems, but.......

[BlackNMild2k1]

a bitch ain't one!! ummm...

He didn't list them, so why don't we list them for him.

http://www.siliconera.com/2010/04/11/nintendo-teams-had-difficulty-coping-with-explosive-growth/

The last five years have been an explosive period of growth for Nintendo and their quest for expansion outside of the traditional game-playing audience. Under the leadership of president Satoru Iwata, the company that was once close to falling dangerously out of touch with the industry has been able to wrestle its leadership position back from Sony Computer Entertainment and help pave the way for the future of the business as a whole.  However, the journey to the top, as one can guess, has been far from easy. A report at Japanese industry site Gamesbusiness.jp sourced from  Nikkei’s print tabloid further reveals that Nintendo’s growth was almost too fast for the company’s understaffed management to be able to cope with.

Part of the reason for this, the report states, is that the rapid spread of the Wii and DS globally and online expansion efforts resulted  in a greatly increased workload for a number of Nintendo branches. The  company’s network development department in particular voiced dissatisfactions with their workload. Furthermore, Nintendo’s software development teams were so busy creating sequels to existing popular  I.P., they were unable find the time to dedicate themselves to the  development of new franchises.

At the start of 2009, Iwata compiled a list of Nintendo’s internal  problems. The list, shockingly, amounted to nearly 700 items.[...]

So what were some of the generalized problems listed in the article....

1.) Understaffed for explosive growth since 2004
2.) Networking staff overloaded
3.) No time for New I.P.'s
4.) 3rd party Relations
5.) Communication (or lack of) between branches

So I thought, maybe we can fill in alot of the blanks and cmaybe come up with a list of 700 problems for Iwata to fix.

I'll let the next poster get it started.

[ThePerm]

lol this is duh stuff, i think i said years ago nintendo needs to set up new teams. Especially here in the the English speaking world. NOA needs to be doing more, and ALLOWED to do more.

[King of Twitch]

6) Storage solution








...oh

[stevey]

7) Incompetent Engineers

If Nintendo didn't horribly paint themselves in a corner with the OS, there would have been a real storage solution. (and brawl's online mode would've already been fixed)

[Caterkiller]

7) Incompetent Engineers

If Nintendo didn't horribly paint themselves in a corner with the OS, there would have been a real storage solution. (and brawl's online mode would've already been fixed)

Whats the "OS"? Online system?

[Peachylala]

lol this is duh stuff, i think i said years ago nintendo needs to set up new teams. Especially here in the the English speaking world. NOA needs to be doing more, and ALLOWED to do more.

Nintendo has Next Level and Monster, but they are not owned by Nintendo, and I don't think they want to be. Retro is owned by Nintendo though.

Less said about NST, the better m'kay?

7) Incompetent Engineers

If Nintendo didn't horribly paint themselves in a corner with the OS, there would have been a real storage solution. (and brawl's online mode would've already been fixed)

Whats the "OS"? Online system?

Operating System...?

[ThePerm]

Hopefully, Retro has something announced at e3 that will make us cream our pants. I just wish Nintendo had at least 2 more Retro caliber developers(like it used to with Rare and SK). I think it needs more fully owned subsidiaries than second parties(cus second parties are filled with betrayal and backstabingness)

[Peachylala]

Oh my, I wonder what happened to those douche-bags that left Retro? (did they ever amount to much?)

Monster Games needs to be Nintendo owned and making a new F-Zero game, NAO.

[Spinnzilla]

7.)They get stopped by the police because they're young and black and their hats realy low.

[TJ Spyke]

Oh my, I wonder what happened to those douche-bags that left Retro? (did they ever amount to much?)

The three who left (design director Mark Pacini, art director Todd Keller, principle technology engineer Jack Mathews) formed Armature Studio in mid-2008 and announced a deal to make games for Electronic Arts, but I can't find any mention of what games they are actually working on.

Nintendo Software Technology (NST) used to be pretty good, they made some great N64 games, I don't know why their quality dropped on the GameCube.

[Dasmos]

What 64 games did they make that were so special?

[Pale]

I like seeing that the networking staff comment.  It's the closest admission of issues I've ever seen from Nintendo I think.  The fact that they know it's a problem should mean that they have since been trying to fix it.  So here's to hoping Wii 2 will have the killer online presence we've all been wanting.

[noname2200]

I hope that "get another Yokoi" is on the list. I love Miyamoto, and Nintendo does have other talented developers besides Miyamoto, but I feel that Yokoi brought a nice counter-balance to Miyamoto. While not all of his stuff worked out, it was certainly helpful to have someone with an obviously-different slant at Nintendo.

[TJ Spyke]

What 64 games did they make that were so special?

I just looked and saw they only did two N64 games. One was pretty good though, Pokémon Puzzle League. They also made the GameCube launch game Wave Race: Blue Storm, which was pretty good. Actually, most of their games have been pretty good.

[Stratos]

8 ) Actually localize their games here in the West. (Soma Bringer, ASH, Tact of Magic, Fatal Frame 4, Disaster)
9 ) Lack of good prizes in the Club Nintendo store.
10) Better VC support.
11) Actually finish Kirby Wii...lol

[NWR_insanolord]

12. Making sure everyone's clear on how to spell the names of their games

[Mop it up]

13. Need more Mario games.
14. Need less Pokémon exposure.

8 ) Actually localize their games here in the West. (Soma Bringer, ASH, Tact of Magic, Fatal Frame 4, Disaster)
9 ) Lack of good prizes in the Club Nintendo store.

Neither of these are anything NCL would be concerned with since they focus on the Japanese market.

12. Making sure everyone's clear on how to spell the names of their games

Apparently they've hired TJ Spyke for that.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I'm surprised no one mentioned this but...

#21.) Swirly slide from Iwata's office to the Money Vault for quick mid day swims in the sea of green and gold.

[Ian Sane]

3.) No time for New I.P.'s
4.) 3rd party Relations

It's very good to hear that Nintendo acknowledges these.  These two things would be my big beef with Nintendo these days.  Yeah there are other problems but these are the big ones.  They could fix everything else but if these two were still the way they are it would make little difference.  The only problem is that these were problems before the Wii made it big.  It was stuff that needed to be addressed a LONG time ago.  But I'm just happy to see Nintendo acknowledging that they need to fix stuff up, even though they're in first place.  700 items?  If I listed 700 items I would be accused of trolling.
 
It seemed like with the Wii Nintendo didn't acknowledge any of their problems, they just targetted this new market that wouldn't know the difference and sidestepped the whole issue.  My concern was that they didn't learn from their mistakes because they found a way to succeed without fixing them.
 
Now I guess it all depends on if they actually address these items.  If they do, the Wii 2 will be the obvious slam-dunk choice for both non-gamers and core gamers.  A Nintendo that doesn't shoot itself in the foot will be like the Galactus of videogame companies.

[Guitar Smasher]

It seemed like with the Wii Nintendo didn't acknowledge any of their problems, they just targetted this new market that wouldn't know the difference and sidestepped the whole issue.  My concern was that they didn't learn from their mistakes because they found a way to succeed without fixing them.

Except that they acknowledged their very biggest problem - increased competition and a shrinking market - and found a way to succeed despite industry proclamations of their doom.

You ignored this problem, and ironically, the fact that they found huge success will likely make it easier for them to address the problems you see.  Like you said, if they keep aiming for those missed opportunities, Wii2 could be huge.

[nickmitch]

15) US fans still bitching about Earthbound 2.

[Shaymin]

16) Have the Rolling Stones killed
17) Along with Matt Cassamawhateverthehellhisnameis
18) Diving board for money pit is loose

[Chozo Ghost]

Nintendo's main problem is they experienced explosive growth and weren't really ready for it. They went from the 3rd place GC to 1st place practically overnight, and they didn't have the infrastructure and everything they needed in place in order to accommodate that. It would be kinda like some kid running a lemonade stand one day, and the next they're the CEO of Minute Maid.

[ThePerm]

Nintendo "hey we dont need to be everyones first pick of console, buy our console as your second console"

Xbox Owners have Wiis too
PS3 owners have Wiis
Wii owners buy 2 Wiis for different rooms

hey wait a second...if all those people owned a Wii..........they'd be the most sold system.

and thats what happened. Totally planned.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Nintendo "hey we dont need to be everyones first pick of console, buy our console as your second console"

Xbox Owners have Wiis too
PS3 owners have Wiis
Wii owners buy 2 Wiis for different rooms

hey wait a second...if all those people owned a Wii..........they'd be the most sold system.

and thats what happened. Totally planned.

It's exactly what we (myself included) called would happen when all the devs and analyst were saying that Wii would be everyone's second console.
I'm sure if someone were to look hard enough, there are many quotes basically saying

"If 2/3's of 360 owners bought a Wii and 2/3 of PS3 owners bought a Wii and everyone else that was gonna buy a Wii bought a Wii, wouldn't that make Wii a distant first place even if you combined the 360 & PS3 totals?"

Everyone saw it coming, but couldn't admit to the writing on the wall. it's was so obvious what was about to happen that the analyst and devs didn't see it coming even though they were repeating it over and over again.