Topic: E3 2011 Predictions

[King of Twitch]

Not announcing games ahead of E3 obviously means they are going third party. Wii is the blue ocean Titanic run aground on an iceberg of disinterest, and hardcore gamers are Leo DiCaprio.

Just let go already, Jack.

[Chozo Ghost]

I think Nintendo's policy was influenced from the early years of the Wii when there was legitimate shortage of games for reasons that were justifiable, but as time went on and the Wii continued its explosive sales growth despite the shortage of games it reinforced this idea that having only a small number of high selling games like Wii Play, Wii Sports, Wii Fit, etc. is the way to go. So now at this point the shortage of games is no longer due to an accident, its something that's actually become policy within the company itself.

Its like how you can train a mouse to push a button and it will receive a piece of cheese. Well, that works fine sometimes, but what happens when the cheese is replaced with a jolt of electricity? The problem is that things change, and even though this policy of restricting games is working right now at this moment, it doesn't mean its going to work a year from now. Nintendo adopted this policy because due to inadvertant shortages and how successful the Wii was in those days they put two and two together and thought this was a recipe for success, but this is probably a logical fallacy.

[Stogi]

You guys are unfairly judging the situation. I saw the interview and it looked more like Reggie side-stepping a question about a lack of software rather than setting a new policy.

The only policy I see is the same one we've seen for years: not to announce a game way ahead of it's released date.

[Chozo Ghost]

Reggie doesn't side-step questions; the questions side-step Reggie.

[broodwars]

The only policy I see is the same one we've seen for years: not to announce a game way ahead of it's released date.

Which is and always shall be an idiotic policy.  How are you supposed to inspire consumer confidence when we're in the midst of a 6-month 1st party drought (no, I'm not counting that PoS Mario Sports Mix) with only the vague promise of a game releasing this year that's probably not going to ship on time?  It's not even the first time this generation we've had a lengthy period of nothing from Nintendo, and it's not as if they're lacking in manpower to produce games year-round.  Nintendo probably doesn't need to reveal everything "way ahead of its release date", but they need to throw us something (especially when it's looking very much like they only care about 3DS this year).  Let us know they're bringing Last Story and Xenoblade over, etc.  I don't ask for them to give us everything right now.  Just give us something to indicate that you care about your home console, Nintendo.

[Stogi]

You sound like an "unappreciated" wife.

[Ian Sane]

I remember last gen Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire came out the same month as Wind Waker.  You know how I remember?  Because I played Pokemon for a few weeks and then Zelda came out and I never went back to Pokemon.  I remember at the time thinking how odd it was to release two huge titles so close to each other.

But the point of that is Nintendo released a major GBA and Gamecube title around the same time and neither game was a flop due to cannibalizing their sales.  Hell I bought BOTH so there you go.  Another time this happened was when Metroid Prime and Fusion had a simultaneous release.  Yes there was marketing potential in doing that but Nintendo wasn't strapped for resources or anything like that.  You go through their entire history since the Game Boy launched and they were always able to support both their handheld and console without blatantly neglecting one.  So if Reggie is saying they can't do it now he either is incompetent for not being able to do what his predecessors could or he is full of **** and Nintendo is half-assing it because they think they can get away with it.

With the Wii Nintendo has more of less half-assed it each step of the way and they've just made fistfuls of money.  So where is the incentive to do better?  If you can become rich by doing the bare minimum I can see why you would continue to want to do that.

[NWR_insanolord]

Not announcing games ahead of E3 obviously means they are going third party. Wii is the blue ocean Titanic run aground on an iceberg of disinterest, and hardcore gamers are Leo DiCaprio.

Just let go already, Jack.

At least 7 out of every 10 applauds I give are to Zap. The rest of you need to step up your game.

[Stogi]

How is making an innovative console that everyone wants to play --- scratch that -- wants to and can play half-assing it?

I didn't hear about 360's or PS3's being put in hospitals. In fact, all I've heard is marines shooting to pieces RROD xbox's.

[Oblivion]

How is making an innovative console that everyone wants to play --- scratch that -- wants to and can play half-assing it?

I didn't hear about 360's or PS3's being put in hospitals. In fact, all I've heard is marines shooting to pieces RROD xbox's.

QFT.

[Chozo Ghost]

How is making an innovative console that everyone wants to play --- scratch that -- wants to and can play half-assing it?

Because even though the Wii is an innovative console that everyone wants to play and can play, it isn't a console that has enough of the sort of games we WANT to play.

[Mop it up]

Because even though the Wii is an innovative console that everyone wants to play and can play, it isn't a console that has enough of the sort of games we WANT to play.

Speak for yourself.

[Stogi]

How is making an innovative console that everyone wants to play --- scratch that -- wants to and can play half-assing it?

Because even though the Wii is an innovative console that everyone wants to play and can play, it isn't a console that has enough of the sort of games we WANT to play.

Sounds like buyer's remorse.

[ThomasO]

I'm pretty sure that 95% of ideas or (even working prototypes) that Nintendo comes up with are rejected or are shelved until later, like in most if not all game companies. It's not a good idea to reveal a game extremely far in advance. If anything goes wrong that prevents its development, it doesn't look good for the company. Case in point, Sadness.


I personally don't understand the "pics or it didn't happen" mentality with some gamers, as if Nintendo is just so unreliable that you must have proof that a AAA game is under development. What ever happened to surprises? Wasn't that what made E3 2010 so awesome? And this whole "I have nothing to look forward to" bullshit. From what I've seen, it doesn't matter anymore if a new game becomes announced. Yeah, you'll dream about it everyday but as soon as it's released you'll drop it and look for some other game to fawn over until that one releases. If there isn't one, then you'll act like Nintendo hasn't been doing anything ever. As if the entire library of the Wii exists only in the future, not in the present.


From what it looks, it probably wasn't a good idea to release DKCR, Kirby's Epic Yarn, GoldenEye, Epic Mickey, and all the other games at the same fucking time, some of which released only mere months after they were announced. It seems to only matter if they're spaced out evenly between E3 conferences, like Kirby in October, DKCR in February, and so on. You'd rather wait an extra 3 months to play something because then "it'll look like a constant stream of games?" Or maybe "Nintendo is stifling the sales of 3rd party developers by releasing all their great products at once?" Really, what the hell do you want?


If you really think Nintendo doesn't do ****, sell your Wii and your collection of 20+ games that you were obsessed about and then only played for two weeks after purchase, or shut up and GTFO. If you're a gamer, PLAY THE DAMN GAMES. Don't bitch incessantly about the immediate future and act like Nintendo owes you because you bought and enjoyed their products.

[Stogi]

You know what's a better example than Sadness for Nintendo's new policy?

Project H.A.M.M.E.R.

[NWR_insanolord]

The funny thing is now that we have Motion+ they could actually do something pretty cool with the Project H.A.M.M.E.R. concept.

[Chozo Ghost]

How is making an innovative console that everyone wants to play --- scratch that -- wants to and can play half-assing it?

Because even though the Wii is an innovative console that everyone wants to play and can play, it isn't a console that has enough of the sort of games we WANT to play.

Sounds like buyer's remorse.

I don't regret buying the Wii. It just has failed to live up to the hype and the promises that were made by Reggie, Miyamoto, Iwata, and others. We were promised there wouldn't be a game drought like there was on past Nintendo consoles and that they were taking measures to ensure a drought didn't occur. 5 years later and the Wii is still facing a game drought, so Nintendo lied, and if a Wii owner does have buyer's remorse they have every right to have it because they may have purchased it based on those promises which Nintendo failed to deliver.

Need I also point out that even among the games that were delivered there are examples which were extremely disappointing. Wii Music and Metroid: Other M immediately come to mind.

Or maybe "Nintendo is stifling the sales of 3rd party developers by releasing all their great products at once?" Really, what the hell do you want?

That would only be an issue if the 3rd party support was actually even there. Since there isn't much 3rd party support, that is actually all the more reason why Nintendo needs to step up their own 1st and 2nd party efforts in order to fill in the void.

I also believe that 1st party games actually attract 3rd party developers rather than drive them away. For whatever reason, 3rd parties generally seem to only make games after Nintendo has already led the way. That's why we have 3rd party casual games like Just Dance and so on because this trail has been blazed by Nintendo with Wii Sports and so on. But that's as far as it goes. Nintendo has not and probably will not make a hardcore game like Halo or Killzone, and its worth noting that this is the sort of game severely lacking on the Wii. So you can't say Nintendo games scare developers away, because the sort of games Nintendo makes are exact same games 3rd parties emulate on the Wii, and the games Nintendo doesn't make are the ones virtually non-existent.

So in my opinion Nintendo needs to blaze more trails so that third parties will follow, because 3rd parties are too lazy or too afraid to blaze those trails themselves.

[broodwars]

How is making an innovative console that everyone wants to play --- scratch that -- wants to and can play half-assing it?

Because even though the Wii is an innovative console that everyone wants to play and can play, it isn't a console that has enough of the sort of games we WANT to play.

Sounds like buyer's remorse.

I don't regret buying the Wii. It just has failed to live up to the hype and the promises that were made by Reggie, Miyamoto, Iwata, and others. We were promised there wouldn't be a game drought like there was on past Nintendo consoles and that they were taking measures to ensure a drought didn't occur. 5 years later and the Wii is still facing a game drought, so Nintendo lied, and if a Wii owner does have buyer's remorse they have every right to have it because they may have purchased it based on those promises which Nintendo failed to deliver.

Need I also point out that even among the games that were delivered there are examples which were extremely disappointing. Wii Music and Metroid: Other M immediately come to mind.

Yeah, pretty much this.  I don't regret asking for a Wii for my birthday back in April of 2007, but I do regret that history has repeated itself.  While the Wii's current drought is nowhere near as bad as the legendary ones the GameCube and N64 had, it's still pretty lame.

And apparently, if I have a problem with this game drought, it's all my fault for not replaying games I've already conquered and set aside for a later time.  Sorry, but that's unrealistic.  I have all 3 consoles, and you don't see the 360 and PS3 (or even the DS!) going through the kind of droughts we routinely see on Nintendo home consoles.  Year-round, something of interest is coming out, be it in boxed retail or on the platforms' respective digital download platform...every platform manages this except the Wii, year in and year out.  No, I'm not going to replay things I've already beaten when there are new games on the other platforms I could be playing right now.  I want the Wii to have new software to play, as aside from the occasional Virtual Console title the thing just collects dust 9 months out of the year.  There are some times I don't feel like playing a PS3/360 game and want to play a Wii game, and there's very rarely anything new worth playing on the console outside a few releases a year.

[NWR_insanolord]

It's not a coincidence that the system with the worst droughts is the system with (by far) the worst third party support. Nintendo's certainly at fault in a few ways, predominantly in how they time their releases, but a console depending more or less solely on one developer is always going to run into those kinds of problems at times.

And as for Xenoblade and The Last Story, honestly, how confident are you that those games would sell enough in America to justify the significant cost of localizing them? I really hope they will bring them over, but there's one thing you can be damned sure of: if Nintendo isn't confident of that, they will absolutely not do it. They are a very conservative company, and it's very rare for them to take unnecessary risks.

[Stogi]

Well blame that on your beloved third parties. That's just the fact of life. Until Nintendo expands their studios to accomadate making more games all year round, this is what you get. You've been duped again. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

That said, I haven't done the research, but I'll bet you anything that they're have been more first/second parties released this gen than last gen.

[broodwars]

And as for Xenoblade and The Last Story, honestly, how confident are you that those games would sell enough in America to justify the significant cost of localizing them? I really hope they will bring them over, but there's one thing you can be damned sure of: if Nintendo isn't confident of that, they will absolutely not do it. They are a very conservative company, and it's very rare for them to take unnecessary risks.

Honestly, I don't think they would.  Nintendo has done a crap-tastic job of courting 3rd parties, but especially those who make Role Playing Games.  And I'm not just talking about Square-Enix, but the lower-budget companies as well: Atlus, Gust, Nippon-Ichi (NIS), etc.  For the record, they've been this pitiful at attracting RPG developers for 3 generations now, and after a few years of waiting I think the RPG audience in the West has moved on to the far greener pastures of the HD consoles.

That said, given that Nintendo has ensured that they are the only developer still making RPGs for their consoles, I think they're obligated to actually release them outside Japan.  It's a bit of a monetary liability, but when I can go to a given game store and see low-budget localizations of incredibly niche games like the Persona games; Hyperdimension Neptunia; and recently Ar Tonelico 3 sitting on the store shelves as premium items people buy, Nintendo has no excuse.

[NWR_insanolord]

The thing is, there haven't been that many good RPGs (not counting the Western variety) on the HD consoles either. They're all going to the handhelds.

[Oblivion]

Probably because handhelds have lower productions costs and less work.

[Dasmos]

Not announcing games ahead of E3 obviously means they are going third party. Wii is the blue ocean Titanic run aground on an iceberg of disinterest, and hardcore gamers are Leo DiCaprio.

Just let go already, Jack.

At least 7 out of every 10 applauds I give are to Zap. The rest of you need to step up your game.

Same here. I want to know who is smiting the guy so I can, in turn, smite them.

[NWR_insanolord]

Probably because handhelds have lower productions costs and less work.

That, and they're made primarily with the Japanese market in mind, and handheld gaming is a lot more popular than consoles are in Japan.