Topic: The Wii U and next Gen: What can Nintendo do?

[broodwars]

I think Nintendo's goal is to have Smash Bros. out by the end of the fiscal year, but I don't know that they'll hit that mark.

Given all the production difficulties with that game that Nintendo's been implying over the last 6 months or so, I just don't see that game coming out before Fall 2014 at the earliest.

[Kytim89]

If Nintendo wants to win in this generation then they need to break out the war chest and start funding games from fledling developers and start reaching out to strategic third party developers to support the Wii U. They can not afford to sit on the fence and support casual games and expect the hardcore fanbase to want the Wii U.

[azeke]

The rising cost of game development could work in Nintendo's favor. If game companies can not find a way to drive costs down of the next five to ten years then a significant portion of the game industry will go bankrupt.

It's kinda sad when Nintendo fans start hoping for a new gaming crash hoping for Nintendo look good in comparison to others who are simply dropping dead.

Many independent and mid-tier developers will look to consoles that are the cheapest to make games for.

Because that's what totally happened with Wii. Also there are no middle ground anymore.

[ShyGuy]

My hope for the coming generation is that the big publishers will destroy themselves with their blockbuster philosophy and the indies will continue to grow.

[shingi_70]

My hope for the coming generation is that the big publishers will destroy themselves with their blockbuster philosophy and the indies will continue to grow.

But than the ndies would jut take their place and t would be a self perpetuating cycle. Honestly at this point the AAA game industry is too big to fail like the film industry.

[Fjurbanski]

The industry itself is too big to fail, yes, but EA, Square, and other companies are not.

[Caterkiller]

Despite Sakurai's crippling condition I would assume with Namco they are having the easiest time as far as next gen Nintendo development.

What Nintendo needs to do is just release a consistent flow of good games and keep rattling cages. So far we have Bayonetta 2 and Sonic Lost World. Both of which have been causing melt downs. Doesn't matter how little they sale or how questionable the quality could be, they got people pissed off and talking. I expect at least one more of these at E3 and many more throughout the generation.

[Kytim89]

My hope for the coming generation is that the big publishers will destroy themselves with their blockbuster philosophy and the indies will continue to grow.

Think of it as a ship sinking and Nintendo is the only rescue ship nearby for help. If you are familiar with the concept of Social Darwinism then you will realize that a massive culling of the gaming industry is going to occur in the next couple of years. Companies like EA and Sqaure Enix will not survive in their current form. It is going to get nasty and unforgiving.

[ShyGuy]

I agree with Kytim89. The production cost of most retail games is going to exceed their potential market, leading to massive losses on the part of the big publishers.

[pokepal148]

and thus indies are the future...

[Sarail]

All of these new indie studios are very reminiscent of when all the big boys were start-up devs for NES/SNES gens. So, I wholeheartedly welcome them in.

I really do want to see EA die in a fire, though. They're a scourge to this industry. I hope this next gen and crazy expensive game development causes them to implode. The fireworks in the sky are going to be fun to watch.

[ShyGuy]

When you have to sell five million copies to break even, there is going to be a lot of flops.

[Kytim89]

I do not want EA to go bankrupt, however, I would like to see them get into a financial situation where their business attitude that has made them famous has to be put aside for them to survive.

[Sarail]

I do not want EA to go bankrupt, however, I would like to see them get into a financial situation where their business attitude that has made them famous has to be put aside for them to survive.

I do...because I feel it's the only way there will be competition again in the sports genre of games. Not that I care for American football, but EA having the sole rights/license to make NFL games is ridiculous. Any studio should be able to make an NFL game. ANY.

[NWR_insanolord]

EA makes the best hockey and soccer games, bar none. I'm going to buy NHL 14 and FIFA 14 this year despite my hatred of EA because those games are so damn good.

[ShyGuy]

Hey Insanolord, you see the sweet Hockey action in The new Mario and Sonic Olympics?

[Fjurbanski]

Ain't no hockey like Delfino Plaza hockey.

[Sarail]

HITZ GET.

EDIT: J.P., yeah, I definitely would, too, this year, but I have a busted PS3. And I, honestly, would rather spend my money this late summer/fall on Nintendo's offerings and any third party offerings on Wii U/3DS than fixing my PS3. If EA would bring NHL and FIFA to Wii U this fall, I'd definitely pick up those as well. But... ya know. 

[Bizzy_Fatso]

ShyGuy:  Yes, we all know Nintendo needs that killer hit.  But Pikmin 3 is not that hit.  I believe that hit will be whatever Retro is working on...

I don't know if I'd pin my hopes on Retro at this point.  Haven't most of the people responsible for the excellent Prime games already jumped ship?  DKCR is a decent game, but that and a couple of Mario Kart 7 levels don't exactly establish Retro in its current state as a powerhouse studio in my mind.

[Rubber Band AI]

"Next gen" is a term that used to be factual and has turned into a term bros use to justify new hardware. I am no longer a bro, and a machine's power does not define its "next gen"-ness to me. I think Nintendo thinks similarly, which is why they've abandoned the great hardware arms race in favor of unique experiences and tight gameplay.


Factually, the Wii U is their next gen console. Whether or not bros agree with that is irrelevant. It will have the games I want to play. That is all that matters. And hey, the games look better than any other console I own (including Xbox 360, by a long shot). I really am not sure what the problem is, other than we are still waiting for the killer apps.

[Ian Sane]

The NES was effectively the Big Bang for Japanese videogame development.  Prior to that the Japanese videogame market was pretty much just arcades.  There was no Atari 2600 or Intellivision or Colecovision in Japan.  So all the best Japanese devs were young, hungry and creative back then.  I can see why one would want another crash to clear out the old dinosaurs.  But here's the problem: Nintendo is one of the dinosaurs.  They're trying to sell the Wii U on a cookie-cutter 2D Mario game and mini-game compilation.  While they're making better stuff than contemporaries like Sega and Square Enix, they're not really cutting it.  The Japanese gaming industry has just gone so far down the shitter that Nintendo is the best by merely being okay.  If there is a crash Nintendo is going down too.

Nintendo's creative output is so generic these days that they're either old men afraid to do anything but the safe bet or they're creatively bankrupt and are relying on shallow controller gimmicks to provide the illusion of a new experience.  Nintendo is not young, hungry and creative like the indies.  They are old corporate giants and if they survived a crash it would be entirely because of their good financial planning but they wouldn't be leading some new gaming revolution.  Don't confuse what Nintendo was (and realistically what Sega, Square, Capcom, Konami, etc. were) for what they currently are.  They are not the flagbearers of creativity and innovation in game design.  They're a conservative company that makes safe product for the mass market.

[ThePerm]

So apparently the Xbox One processor is only 1.6 ghz in clockspeed. The xbox 360 processor has twice the clockspeed. The reason why they can get away with this? Out of Order Execution...    Does that sound familiar to anybody?


the xbox one has 8 cores while the wii u has 3 though... still we will have some lazy devlopers complain about it. They will complain until the more amazing looking games come out.

[ymeegod]

As for as I know Xbox One is cpu is still In Order.  OOE really only had an advantage when there was only one core/thread but nowadays it's all about multicores and threading which is why 0oOE was dropped in the 90's by IBM--doesn't make any sense with modern processors.

MS still haven't released on specs on the CPU though--most of the stuff is just leaks which "might" be true.

[Ceric]

...
Out of Order Execution...
...

Yes, Windows ME actually.

[pokepal148]

The NES was effectively the Big Bang for Japanese videogame development.  Prior to that the Japanese videogame market was pretty much just arcades.  There was no Atari 2600 or Intellivision or Colecovision in Japan.  So all the best Japanese devs were young, hungry and creative back then.  I can see why one would want another crash to clear out the old dinosaurs.  But here's the problem: Nintendo is one of the dinosaurs.  They're trying to sell the Wii U on a cookie-cutter 2D Mario game and mini-game compilation.  While they're making better stuff than contemporaries like Sega and Square Enix, they're not really cutting it.  The Japanese gaming industry has just gone so far down the shitter that Nintendo is the best by merely being okay.  If there is a crash Nintendo is going down too.

Nintendo's creative output is so generic these days that they're either old men afraid to do anything but the safe bet or they're creatively bankrupt and are relying on shallow controller gimmicks to provide the illusion of a new experience.  Nintendo is not young, hungry and creative like the indies.  They are old corporate giants and if they survived a crash it would be entirely because of their good financial planning but they wouldn't be leading some new gaming revolution.  Don't confuse what Nintendo was (and realistically what Sega, Square, Capcom, Konami, etc. were) for what they currently are.  They are not the flagbearers of creativity and innovation in game design.  They're a conservative company that makes safe product for the mass market.

And what makes Microsoft and Sony any different