Messages

26

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: February 08, 2017, 06:22:49 AM »

Gratuitous political cheap shot removed

Ha, fair enough. It would appear that some people have maybe taken some of my comments perhaps a little too seriously and are getting a bit worked up by them, so I would like to genuinely and sincerely apologise for the offence or outrage I may have potentially inadvertently caused. It was never my intention to upset anyone, honest. We're talking about video games on the internet. I often forget that people take this more seriously than I do.
That being said, I'll try in future to keep to the topic of the thread, that being the success (or lack there, of) of the Nintendo Switch with as little sass as I can manage. And if anyone would like to have the more fruitful and positive discussion on how Nintendo can turn it all around, I'll be happy to have that too!

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: February 07, 2017, 06:53:19 PM »

The fact that you feel the need to gloat is absurd and does not sit well with your heroin addict analogy at all.

Any gloating (which will of course be made in jest) is entirely motivated by my making a valid hypothesis built on logic and reason and then being roundly shouted down and chastised.

Please remember that those who have allocated money towards the purchase of such a device have done so knowing that Nintendo could indeed screw up.

I am one of those that have allocated money towards a purchase. I'm paying close to £500 on launch day. In fact, I actually considered buying a second one today because I'm already getting another set of joycons before MK 8 comes out, I'd get another grip, dock AC adapter. I'd basically be getting another Switch for less than £100.

Gratuitous political cheap shot removed

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: February 07, 2017, 05:50:25 PM »

We get it, you are right, Nintendo is doomed.

I may remember you favourably, my child, when the gloating doth commence.

Also, you give a strong impression of a hater.

This is a thread about the potential success of the Switch. My post is pertinent to said success. I have tried to conduct myself using only cold hard logic. Any deviation from this is borne out of frustration at a company I truly love continuing to make awful decisions.


How about this, let's say you and I are cousins, and we have a third cousin that is addicted to heroin. I'm pointing out the dangers of heroin addiction and getting upset when he won't stop. You, on the other hand, are getting angry with me for giving said heroin addict a hard time and not being more optimistic about how the addiction might turn out.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: February 07, 2017, 06:46:57 AM »

Less than four weeks until Switch Day and it's still very easy to preorder a Switch for launch day (in the UK at least) not sure how well it's going in the rest of the world...

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Nintendo Gaming / How would you rate the Nintendo iOS/Android games?

« on: February 04, 2017, 02:12:46 PM »

I assume this is the right place to discuss Nintendo's foray into mobile gaming? Anyway:


Miitomo: 3/10
Super Mario Run: 6/10
Fire Emblem Heroes: 8/10


Obviously I've not played a whole lot of FE Heroes, but what I've seen so far I really like. My one major problem with Nintendo's mobile games is the constant requirement of an internet connection. I can kinda understand why this might be necessary with Android, but there's no need to punish us iOS users. Personally, I think it will have a noticeable impact on sales. Anywho, I'm really interested to see what they release in the future. Obviously we're getting an Animal Crossing game supposedly in the next few months, but I'd also like to see Warioware or Rhythm heaven. Also I'd like to see one of their racing IPs on there. I think this is ultimately where their future of mobile gaming lies, so it's going to be fascinating to watch how they proceed over the next few years.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Fire Emblem! All day, every day! Now on your mobile phone!

« on: February 03, 2017, 06:31:49 PM »

My ID number for Fire Emblem Heroes is: 6867996198

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Fire Emblem! All day, every day! Now on your mobile phone!

« on: February 03, 2017, 06:17:57 AM »

Anybody else download the app yet?

My ID: 9768128247

I downloaded it but it won't install for some reason. Having difficulty deleting it too. I'll get it sorted and post my ID. In other Fire Emblem news, has anyone here ever bought one of those fan-translation SNES carts? I've been looking at them on etsy. They're a bit pricey but they look super cool and it would be a great way to play some of the games that were never localised outside of Japan.

33

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Run The Series: Mario Kart

« on: February 02, 2017, 04:23:23 AM »

Boo, no Mario Kart Arcade GP? :C I've actually been to two seperate arcades in october that had different entries in that series.

Who here hasn't bought an old Wii on the cheap and modded it out to play Tri-Force Arcade games?

34

TalkBack / Re: I Am Setsuna Coming to Switch at Launch

« on: January 24, 2017, 05:17:57 AM »

Darn, I was hoping to pick this up as a physical release. Oh well, I'm now planning on FOUR launch day games!

I'm going to get this too, although with the Switch, I'm going to try really hard to only buy one game and not buy another one until I'm ready to move on. So i'll get this, but not until I've finished Zelda.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: January 23, 2017, 05:16:56 AM »

Because revenue like it or not is our primary indicator of how much money is coming into a business.

...right? But so what? Revenue speaks more of the size of a company rather than how well it's run. You keep clinging to this revenue argument like it proves something. All it proves is that Nintendo is a larger company than Valve. Well who said otherwise?

As for that Valve source, I don't have it.

...OK.
 

Here's my counterpoint: Even at this latest rumored amount of $3.5 billion, that's Valve at their high point. Nintendo is at $4.46 billion at their low point. Have a look at Nintendo's revenues going back to 2008.

Again, this merely speaks of the size of the company. We will not argue that Nintendo is a bigger company than Valve. Nintendo, as a company, does so much more than Valve. IP licensing alone must be worth a fortune. Until very recently they owned a baseball team. They make toys and hardware and all sorts of things. I would be surprised if Valve's revenue was higher than Nintendo's. But when you directly compare the areas where they offer a similar service, Valve with Steam are clearly doing far better than Nintendo.

If you were around for the Gamecube, then you know that you don't bet against Nintendo. We will see this play out again.

I agree that Nintendo will eventually bounce back. I'm just pretty sure it won't be with the Switch. I think it'll come after.

To conclude, you are basically only here to state unfavorable facts about Nintendo.

Take a look at Nintendo over the last 5 or 6 years. They've gone from having a handheld console that sold 150m units to one that sold 60m units. They've gone from having a home console that sold in excess of 100m units to one that barely sold 13m units. Perhaps you and others here think this is acceptable. Maybe I hold Nintendo to a much higher standard than you and a lot of others do. If you want Nintendo to return to prosperity then you first have to identify the causes of their demise. Yes, this will involve bringing "unfavourable facts" to the forefront, but it is necessary to identify the problems before you can solve them. I believe Nintendo is repeating some of the poor practices that have caused their hardware sales to dwindle. I ultimately believe that one of the most important things a company can do is offer good value for money. I do not believe Nintendo are doing this with the Switch.

And we'll laugh at you if they sell more than 5 million units in the first 12 months.

Nintendo need to sell significantly more than 5 million in the first 12 months to be on a path to success. I know I predicted 5 mil, but if this thing sells 6 or 7 mil that's not exactly something to celebrate. Either way, I stand by what I predicted, a reasonable launch month and then it'll fall of a cliff.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: January 22, 2017, 05:48:47 PM »

Miyamoto, I think you're underestimating the Switch's potential to attract attention and instantly provide fun. The ability to play two players anywhere is an incredible idea. Because...

Kids may have cell phones these days, but can you imagine a couple buddies playing MarioKart in the cafeteria? You could easily see other kids fighting over who's next because everyone wants to play. And soon enough, it'll be on everyone's wish list.

Dude, if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But that price point? Those games... that aren't there? Times have changed, playing habits have changed. I just can't see this thing catching on.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: January 22, 2017, 05:44:14 PM »

Nintendo first party games don't go on sale that often because they don't have to.

Neither do Sony or Microsoft. They do it because they like money.

Games don't go on sale out of the goodness of developers' hearts, they go on sale because they stop selling. That's not Nintendo being greedy, that's Nintendo being in a better market position.

There are Nintendo games (Mario Kart, Splatoon, etc) that will sell incredibly well, and there are Nintendo games that will sell moderately/poorly. Nintendo could boost the sales of these games by lowering the price (like you suggest Sony and Microsoft do), but they choose not to. They would sooner sell a small number of units at a high price, than a larger number of units at a fairer one. sounds a bit like greed to me.

Other developers would keep things at full price if they still sold at that price.

Another important factor that we need to add to this is the rate of sale. Steam, PSN and Live are willing to go lower year on year to reach the widest audience possible.

You'll notice that there are lots of sales on the eShop for third party games.

]And they are noticeably less frequent and less favourable when compared with their PSN / Live equivalent.

Nintendo's prices are higher because people are willing to pay them.

Some people. Look at Nintendo's software sales over the last 10 years. They've been a lot a better. Grease the wheels, incentivise your audience with  generous offers/sales. There's a reason why the competition does it, it works!

38

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: January 22, 2017, 05:31:18 PM »

I know you said profit...

Then why are you talking about anything else? Valve and Nintendo, although operating in a similar market are vastly different companies. One area where they do overlap is the digital distribution of games, so let's take a look at that shall we?


First of all, let's start with Steam. Valve are quite cagey on sales/revenue and being a private company, they are under no obligation to reveal exact sales figures/revenue/profit details (I would be very interested to read the article/press release that you site claiming that "in Valve's best year (2014) their revenue was 1.5 billion, please post a link), but Steam Spy puts the figure for 2015 at $3.5 billion.
http://gearnuke.com/steam-sales-2015-valve-generated-total-3-5-billion-paid-games/




Now let's take a look at Nintendo with regards to online distribution. according to this article from Nintendo Life, it states that in 2015 the Nintendo eshop generated a revenue of just over 3 Billion yen, or or $270 million
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/04/nintendos_eshop_revenues_hit_a_new_high_driven_by_dlc_and_generation_i_pokemon


The article also states that 2016 was Nintendo's best year for online distribution but I don't have the Steam numbers for comparison.


So, going by 2015's numbers we have:


Steam revenue: $3.5 Billion
eShop revenue: $0.27 Billion


Also worth noticing is that some months on Steam eclipse the entire year of eShop. Also, GTA V alone accumulated half the revenue of the entire eShop.

As far as Sony and Microsoft are concerned, it's still not very comparable.

I'll just leave this little doozy here for anyone who may have forgot, courtesy of Eurogamer and many other outlets:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-04-28-sonys-psn-is-making-more-money-than-all-of-nintendo


Nintendo is a truly huge company and their revenue will reflect that, but good business management is what dictates profit... or lack thereof in Nintendo's case.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: January 21, 2017, 08:01:48 PM »

According to insanolord these things are, well, y'know, more or less the same:


Xbox winter sale:
https://majornelson.com/2016/12/22/the-official-list-of-deals-on-xbox-stores-countdown-to-2017/


Playstation winter sale:
https://blog.eu.playstation.com/2016/12/22/the-playstation-store-january-sale-starts-today-and-its-our-biggest-ever/


Nintendo eshop winter sale:
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2016/December/Nintendo-eShop-Sale-Happy-New-Year-Sale-1170230.html

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: January 21, 2017, 07:44:08 PM »

I own all the current platforms and am exclusively digital on all of them. I've spent plenty of time on their various digital storefronts. I really don't see a substantial difference between how Nintendo does things and how Sony or Microsoft do.

I find this quite baffling. I too own all three platforms and purchase mainly digital. The prices on Live and PSN are generally equally competitive but there is no parity with Nintendo. I find it strange that anyone would have difficulty noticing that. With Nintendo, first party games rarely go on sale and when they do the discount is minimal. Also with Nintendo, games will stay at launch RRP for years after release, something that seldom happens with Microsoft or Sony. Also, Microsoft and Sony are constantly having amazing sales (I've literally got nearly 300 games on my 360 HDD) compared with eshop discounts on shovelware that nobody wants even if it is cheap. Honestly, to spend just 15 minutes looking through each service and to come to the conclusion that they are all equal is just ludicrous, outside of these boards you would struggle to find anyone to agree with that. But then you probably think that borrowing a NES rom for a month is equal to having 4 full recent games that you can play whenever you want, so why am I even bothering?
 

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: January 21, 2017, 07:21:08 PM »

It's hating if you focus on Nintendo doing things like that and ignore Sony and Microsoft doing similar things, regardless of how well-reasoned you think your arguments are. You are beyond delusional if you think Sony or Microsoft or basically anybody else in this industry are somehow less "greedy" than Nintendo.

I focus on Nintendo because this is a Nintendo forum and I love them and want them to be better. To suggest that Nintendo are no worse than Microsoft or Sony is just factually incorrect and I would suggest it is you who are delusional if you think otherwise. We could argue the point or you could use Amazon/Google to educate yourself.

42

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: January 21, 2017, 06:34:46 PM »

Hey, remember when Nintendo required you to pay $60 a year for their online service just to watch your $9 a month Netflix subscription on your Xbox 360? That was horrible.

No I don't remember when they did that, also I think you did get a few other perks for your $60 annual fee other than the privilege of accessing Netflix. Now that I think about it, I do remember Nintendo charging me "500 Wii Points" to download a web browser though. Oh, and compared to the plethora of free games that Sony and Microsoft offer for subscribers,  Nintendo's paltry one NES or SNES game a month is beyond tightfisted. Yet another example (if one were needed) of how Nintendo operates when compared with Microsoft and Sony.
Does it still count as "hating" when I offer well-reasoned arguments for my opinions?

43

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: January 21, 2017, 03:14:58 PM »

Considering she's a developer with hands on the actual tech, I'd say she has a more informed opinion of the hardware than you.

Being a developer really doesn't qualify her to speculate on specific hardware component costs. I doubt Nintendo sat her down and carefully went through the details of individual deals and patent licenses that have been set up for the various bits of hardware in the device. You only have to look at the thing to see it's going to be a real struggle to really bring the price down even over a few years.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: January 21, 2017, 03:09:18 PM »

If you're trying to argue Nintendo's greedy and Sony and Microsoft aren't then you are most definitely a hater, or at least not paying attention to what they do.

How about this for a simple comparison, google the Playstation winter sale, then google the Xbox winter sale, then google the Nintendo winter sale. Have a good look at them and see if you can spot the odd one out. Or better yet, take a $100 and see how far that could get you on the PSN store, Xbox store and the eshop. Again, see if you can spot the odd one out.

45

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: January 21, 2017, 02:48:25 PM »

Knowing what an evidently greedy company they are

Other pessimism-preening aside, this sentiment never fails to inspire awe at how some people manage to view to world. Calling a company greedy is like calling a priest religious.

And yet Steam, Microsoft and Sony all manage to thrive and far exceed Nintendo when it comes to turning a profit precisely because they are not greedy. There is nothing naive in thinking companies should treat their customers fairly and offer them great value for money. It's what sells products.


 

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: January 21, 2017, 02:44:54 PM »

Syrenne mentioned on RFN that the materials in the Switch are a lot more likely to become less expensive, whereas the Wii U tech was never profitable for Nintendo.

This is entirely conjecture/wishful thinking. What makes the components of the Switch any more likely to become less expensive than those of the Wii u?

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: January 21, 2017, 01:34:15 PM »

When we look at price we can see that unlike the Wii U, most likely Switch's price will go down as time goes on. Also, game prices will get cheaper.  2 years from now a $99 switch is going to be really appealing.

I think the Switch will have the exact same problem as the Wii U, in that the elaborate hardware makes it very difficult to significantly bring the price down even over many years. It's one thing for chips to get easier/cheaper to produce but when you start factoring in touch screens and what-not it becomes a lot harder.


You can take it to the bank that Nintendo's next "console" will be a glorified dongle that plays all Nintendo games and offers mass media and retails for $99.99. And guess what? It'll be another 100 million seller. Nintendo's just going to make some costly mistakes before they realise what makes money and what doesn't. But you'll have it by 2020. It's so obvious even Nintendo can't avoid it. Oh and just to repeat, the future of Nintendo portable gaming lies in an iOS/Android suite with optional bluetooth controls. Why spend hundreds of millions on R&D only to produce a product that is inferior to what is already available?

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: January 21, 2017, 11:36:06 AM »

I was also thinking about pricing with the Wii, and how common thinking before the price reveal was that it would be $199 maximum because of the technology involved.  But, Nintendo hit just the right price point.  Maybe their market research is again correct, even if the pricing of the 3DS and Wii U were mistakes.

I think that Nintendo ended up regretting the low Wii launch price. Knowing what an evidently greedy company they are, I bet they wished they raised the Wii price by at least $50 at launch, failing to take into account that it was precisely the low price point that helped sell the console. This is probably why the 3DS and Wii U were so overly priced at launch.


I had no idea what the price would be when I predicted the demise of the Switch back in December, but I assumed $250 at the most. The $300 price tag only cements the console's doom. I can't feel too bad for Nintendo though, because all of this was entirely avoidable. You would think that a multi-billion dollar company would employ some people with a bit of basic common sense at the top.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: January 19, 2017, 05:44:31 PM »

Depends on how you measure success, and I think "success" for Nintendo's sake is going to be selling out day 1 and continuing to sell through the stock they have on shelves throughout the year.

I think Nintendo will definitely sell through their launch allotment (2 million) by the end of March, but I also think a year later in March 2018 Nintendo will be lucky if they're at 5 million.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: January 19, 2017, 05:36:12 PM »

What a classy, non-condescending way to phrase that question.

What a totally not-at-all passive-aggressive way of avoiding said question.