Topic: Rick’s Rant - Episode 5: Powers Strikes Back

[RickPowers]

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blogArt.cfm?artid=17604

 

There’s no way I’m letting that Nation guy hog the “out of retirement” spotlight.  Sure, he might have the family and still be a “long-winded … opinionated blowhard”, but deep down he’s just depressed that he was never as cool as good ol’ Rick.  You wouldn’t think two years would make that much of a difference between “cool older guy” and “over-the-hill family man,” but it does.  So if he thinks he can jump back in because the water’s warm, he’d better think again, because the shark is back in the ocean!    

While I’ve been gone from Nintendo World Report (formerly Planet GameCube) for some time now, I continued blogging on technology and games for my good friend Andru Edwards and his network of sites until last year.  I took some time out for myself and made a series of sweeping life changes, but when I ran into Justin Nation on Facebook I figured it was as good a time as any to put the band back together.  This might just be a one-time reunion, or maybe I’ll go out on tour.  Who knows?    

Unlike Nation, I’m not going to bore you all to tears talking about how old I am or how hard we had it back in the day.  I’m here to continue my tirades on Nintendo, calling them out on decisions they’ve made and continue to make, and I’ll do it out of love.  Or at least, do it out of some deep-seated need to be right all the time.  It’s only because I’m almost always right anyways.  Speaking of which, I clearly whiffed on my diatribe regarding the selection of “Wii” as a product name.  Yes, it was non-sensical, and yes, Nintendo still faced all of the challenges I outlined.  And as the title of my editorial suggested, we did indeed get over it and led Nintendo to where it is now, quite literally writing themselves blank checks.    

But let’s move on.  My last editorial for NWR was about Nintendo whiffing on their PAX ’06 appearance.  Since then, Nintendo has changed in some ways, but has also stayed the same.  I waited in line for my Wii in November ’06 (along with Andru) just like a lot of Nintendo’s hardcore fans, because it was clear Nintendo was trying to innovate in the gaming space.  Two years later, I hardly turn my Wii on any more.  It’s currently at my girlfriend’s house, where she and her sister use it to “play” Wii Fit.  I figured it was better off over there than gathering dust on the shelf at my place.    

Does that make Wii Fit a brilliant move by Nintendo to capture the casual market?  Absolutely.  Business-wise, Nintendo struck gold with their “blue-ocean strategy”;  they’re attracting a whole new market with games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit.  Nintendo owns the casual market right now, and they’re perfectly happy selling to people that will turn the Wii on once a day to work out, or once a month when they have a kegger on campus.  They make enough money on the console (and controllers, and peripherals, and licensing) that they really don’t care much about the attach rate.  And that’s where their fatal flaw lies: Nintendo doesn’t know how to transform this casual market into consumers that will buy more software.    

The Wii is priced to be an impulse purchase for the market they’re tapping.  Nintendo is quite happily boasting about being  responsible for 99% of the industry’s growth, but were they really?  If Wii owners bought it for Wii Sports alone, or for Wii Fit, can you really claim to have grown the segment?  Until Nintendo can prove that they can convince those people to buy more software, more GAME software, they’ll continue to get the same eye-rolling response they did when they made that statement.  A rising tide is supposed to raise ALL the boats, not just the ones owned by Nintendo.    

Sadly, Nintendo doesn’t realize that not only could they have it all, but they’re at risk of losing the casual market with the same strategy that got them there in the first place.  The same people that lauded the Wii’s ability to get gamers off the couch and active are starting to realize that those games have little depth, and are only fun for such a brief time that their benefits are minimal.  Even Wii Fit owners are coming to the conclusion that it’s no replacement for “real” exercise.  If the dearth of entertaining software continues out of Nintendo, they’re seriously at risk of losing that same market they’ve fought so hard to attract, through what I call “Wii fatigue.”  I suspect that for every Wii they sell, someone stops using theirs.  Those Wii’s aren’t getting traded in though, so Nintendo still has an opportunity to capture those hearts again.    

Which leads me into my closing statement: I received some very disturbing news recently and turned to gaming as a way to ease the pain.  With all the gaming systems I had access to and all the games I could play, I went back and spent time with my old friends Donald and Goofy.  I loaded up Kingdom Hearts 2 (via my PS3), and enjoyed every moment with these childhood friends.  I passed up playing with Mario, or Link, or any of my former favorites.  Square-Enix recently released an updated Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories for the PS2, which used to be a Game Boy Advance title.  Why did Nintendo not pursue having this game on the Wii?  The audience for a game like Kingdom Hearts should be right up their alley.  Instead, they’re satisfied with having an upcoming DS game while Square-Enix releases similar games on the PSP and mobile phones.  This is a gaming franchise perfect for the casual market built by Wii, with recognizable characters from outside the gaming world, and Nintendo let it get past them.    

Nintendo is fat, dumb, and happy.  They’re in a place right now where they have become complacent in their success with casual gamers (similar to their GameCube-era complacency), and it’s showing in the kinds of product they’re selling.  Uninspired and shallow Wii Remote experiences; third-party shovelware that is a slap in the face to those that still remember the Nintendo Seal of Quality; Wii-makes of N64 and GameCube games that hearken back to a time when Nintendo was more innovative; plastic, high-margin accessories that do nothing but inspire even more plastic, high-margin accessories from licensed vendors.  Nintendo used to inspire the best kind of copy cats, people who would steal Nintendo’s innovative ideas and release software that raised the level of competition.  Now the only competition they inspire is for the space in the box that holds all my plastic crap.  Nintendo is slipping into the realm of being merely an expensive toy manufacturer, a purveyor of plastic and digital bits, the equivalent of gaming junk food.  Nintendo hasn’t just partnered with McDonalds, Nintendo has become McDonalds - the 800-pound gorilla selling whatever you’ll buy to anyone who will walk in the door, empty calories in a pretty white box.    

At least now you have a scale in your living room to weigh yourself afterwards.

[Kairon]

Nice to see you back, but... I'm sorry to say you're out of touch with Nintendo's accomplisments this generation Rick. (please don't fire me!)

[Editor’s note: Rick’s opinions are entirely his own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Nintendo World Report and its staff. –JL]    <P>
Speaking of which, I clearly whiffed on my diatribe regarding the selection of “Wii” as a product name.  Yes, it was non-sensical, and yes, Nintendo still faced all of the challenges I outlined.  And as the title of my editorial suggested, we did indeed get over it and led Nintendo to where it is now, quite literally writing themselves blank checks.    <P>

If you were wrong about that, aren't you humbled to consider how wrong you might be on other things?

They make enough money on the console (and controllers, and peripherals, and licensing) that they really don’t care much about the attach rate.

The Wii is said to boast a 6.0 attach rate, higher than the PS3 and slowly catching up to the XBox360's attach rate. Why does the Wii have a lower attach rate than the XBox 360? Because the Wii hardware outsells the XBox 360 hardware so consistently that new owners constantly drag down the Wii's attach rate. High attach rates are a bad sign actually because they mark a niche product. New users, which you want, cause a lower attach rate... too bad the PS3's lower attach rate comes with lower install base too.

And that’s where their fatal flaw lies: Nintendo doesn’t know how to transform this casual market into consumers that will buy more software.

Nintendo has repeatedly stated that their intention is to do EXACTLY THIS. See: bridge titles.

Besides, did you see the recent December NPD numbers? Mario Kart Wii sold to TONS OF NEW OWNERS. Even the three-year old Mario Kart DS climbed back into the top 10 sales for December because the CASUAL DS owners bought up the Kart Racer, a beloved Nintendo franchise from the SNES, in droves.

Nintendo is quite happily boasting about being  responsible for 99% of the industry’s growth, but were they really?

Yes. 49% of all software sold in 2008 was for Nintendo platforms.

Until Nintendo can prove that they can convince those people to buy more software, more GAME software, they’ll continue to get the same eye-rolling response they did when they made that statement.

Stop eye-rolling. See sales for 2008.

A rising tide is supposed to raise ALL the boats, not just the ones owned by Nintendo.

It's not Nintendo's fault if the other boats are hole-ridden. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

Which leads me into my closing statement: I received some very disturbing news recently and turned to gaming as a way to ease the pain.  With all the gaming systems I had access to and all the games I could play, I went back and spent time with my old friends Donald and Goofy.  I loaded up Kingdom Hearts 2 (via my PS3), and enjoyed every moment with these childhood friends.

I agree, Kingdom Hearts needs to be on the Wii. I am holding out for KH3 being on the Wii.

Nintendo is slipping into the realm of being merely an expensive toy manufacturer, a purveyor of plastic and digital bits, the equivalent of gaming junk food.

Wow, so toys are digital junkfood? You really haven't followed Nintendo's, and even Miyamoto's, unifying theme throughout their history: entertainment for everyone, evoking emotions and smiles from regular people instead of evoking drool from cloistered gamers, and using innovation to surprise and expand, not dig themselves deeper into a hole.

I understand these are your opinions, but... this amounts to anecdotal evidence, personal dislike, and a lack of perspective. Just like Steven Kent's recent, and unfortunate, apology-not-apology about his being so utterly wrong about the Wii... which he didn't sound apologetic for by the way, I can't help but feel that this editorial is an artifact of a misguided, outmoded, and unenlightened viewpoint. You know, like clinging to the idea that the earth is flat.

[Pale]

I think this editorial combined with Cai's response brings up an interesting comparison of a persons view from the outside and a person's view who adamantly follows Nintendo.

I know Rick used to be super into Nintendo, but it's obvious he hasn't paid near as much attention as he used to.

I'm not sure what I'm getting at here, other than saying "it's interesting."


One clarifying thing on the PS2 Chain of Memories release.  That game was actually developed a couple years ago.  It released as part of the Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix in Japan.  That came out in March of 2007 there, so development was some time prior to that.  Hence the Wii was barely even out, so I'm not sure it's necessarily fair to say that Nintendo didn't go after that particular game.

That said, Kingdom Hearts 3 BETTER be on the Wii.  Square has made it obvious that they are ok with releasing different exclusives across different systems, which means its well within Nintendo's power to secure that game.

I've said this a million times, but they just need to get the game on Nintendo systems, then give Square access to Nintendo IPs, and it would be a combination of Disney, Square, and Nintendo.  Donald, Cloud, and Link could team up to kick some ass.

[D_Average]

At least now you have a scale in your living room to weigh yourself afterwards. <P>

Nice...   

[Stogi]

It's good to see you back Rick!

Kairon, can I gravel at your feet? Seriously, your responses were my own.

[Nick DiMola]

I have to agree with Cai here, this feels misguided and just ... wrong. The argument presented here is so tired, I'm just sick of it already. Somehow plenty of us have found a nice array of games to enjoy. Sure not all of them are epic blockbusters, but games don't need to be in order to be good.

Prior to the release of the Wii, Iwata talked about his vision of the future of gaming, and part of that was variably priced games that reflect the scope and budget of the title. This generation we have seen this vision become a reality with a variety of Wii software. There are a number of shorter, more focused games that offer a reasonable amount of gameplay for a reduced price. The model works for me, and has actually opened the door for a number of developers to stray from big budget games and make more niche products. Combine this with the advent of WiiWare and the Virtual Console, and the Wii lineup is one of the best in Nintendo history, believe it or not.

That's ok though, no one else has to see it but me. While the rest of the industry bitches up a storm about the Wii lineup and continues making dust-collecting jokes, I'm getting in some of the best gaming in a long time.

[Khushrenada]

Man, bad timing. With Bill's farewell speech, there's a lot of discussion going on about negativity on these forums and against Nintendo and concerning the staff. This wasn't the best time to release an editorial like this. Not to mention, it just seems to exasperate the hardcore/casual debate. Like Stogi said, Kairon replied with any points I'd have brought up.

[RickPowers]

The interesting thing about numbers, Kairon, is that they lie.

You mentioned that the high sales rate of the main Wii console is bringing down the attach rate.  The question then becomes, how many games are selling to the hardcore Wii fans to bring the average attach rate down?  An average is a truly deceptive number, statistically speaking.  (Be careful with blanket statements like "high attach rates are bad because."  Try telling a third-party developer that high attach rates are bad.)

For example, an average can suggest a very positive result (as in this case), and it's completely wrong if you end up with a bi-modal result set.  And while I don't have the numbers to completely back it up (yet ...), the discussions I've had with retailers and gamers suggests just that; Casual gamers are making up one bell curve, with "core" gamers making up an entirely different bell curve.  Your suggestion that Nintendo is trying to create "bridge titles" suggests Nintendo's own admission that this is the case.  The core gamers are still an incredibly outspoken minority, and their purchases are skewing the results.

It's funny that you bring up Mario Kart to defend your point, because I would point to it to defend mine.  How many games outside of Nintendo's stable are making up that high attach rate?  If I were to suggest that out of a six-game attach rate, those games are likely to be Wii Play (because of the cheap Wii-mote), Super Mario Galaxy, Twilight Princess, Wii Fit, Metroid, and Mario Kart ... how happy do you think third-parties are likely to be with that?  49% of all software sold in 2008 was for a Nintendo platform.  And how much of that was made by Nintendo?  Give me that number, and I'll think about conceding your point.

Wow, so toys are digital junkfood? You really haven't followed Nintendo's, and even Miyamoto's, unifying theme throughout their history: entertainment for everyone, evoking emotions and smiles from regular people instead of evoking drool from cloistered gamers, and using innovation to surprise and expand, not dig themselves deeper into a hole.

Not only have I followed Nintendo's mantra of making games accessible, but I was one of their biggest supporters.  The problem is that they've realized, much like the TV networks, that they can spend less money (thereby making more money) by giving us shallow game experiences and a nifty plastic add-on ... the gaming analogue of Reality TV.  Link's Crossbow Training?  Seriously?  Look at all the ridiculous plastic add-ons for Wii Sports, the yoga mats that I can buy in Best Buy on any given weekend.  You don't see those accessory manufacturers trying to make stuff that works with other games. 

Nintendo made a conscious, deliberate business decision this generation to lower quality control on third-party submissions, because the market they wanted to tap into wanted the illusion of choice.  Illusion ... because even the least educated consumer knows you won't go wrong buying a game made by the company that made the console.  Not to mention that if they're going to ask a sales clerk for advice on what to get, they'll steer them towards a AAA title every time.  Meanwhiles, sales of games like Boom Blox suffer because of the halo effect from other third-party drivel. 

So while Nintendo is making money hand over fist, a great deal of it is either from their own AAA titles, hardware (either controllers/balance boards or controller "shells"), and of course, licensing.  Third parties have been VERY vocal about how their software isn't selling.  If you're going to tell me that Nintendo has no control over that, you'd be wrong, because it hasn't been as much of an issue in other console generations.  This one in particular is unique, and it's due to these decisions.  Yes, Nintendo grew the games business, but only for themselves, despite having had the power to grow it for everybody.  Yes, the third party titles have, by and large, sucked, but I think there's blame to be shared all around.

I will say this, Nintendo has been outrageously successful, and they did it entirely on their own.  And if they can keep that up, good for them!  But if the third-party support evaporates because they can't make money too, they'll be back where they were with the Nintendo 64.

[D_Average]

Somehow plenty of us have found a nice array of games to enjoy. Sure not all of them are epic blockbusters, but games don't need to be in order to be good.

True but there are still plenty of others who are just bored with what some consider "Wii gems".  Its not like we're forcing ourselves to dislike Wii games, nobody wants to spend $250+ on a console they'll never use, its an investment.  Its just very disappointing for many of us b/c we can imagine so many good titles the Wii could provide.

[Kairon]

Thnak you for your response Rick! I'm ecstatic that we can have a rational discussion about this and that my quickly posted reponse won't be the cause for an internet flame war! Once again, the maturity of NWR posers shines through, so I thank you.

Unfortunately, now I have to take a 2-hour drive to another city to accompany a bud on a job interview... so I'm afraid that I'll have to return to this thread (and not a separate blog post, I assure you this time) to continue our discussion and further explore the issues at hand.

Somehow plenty of us have found a nice array of games to enjoy. Sure not all of them are epic blockbusters, but games don't need to be in order to be good.

True but there are still plenty of others who are just bored with what some consider "Wii gems".  Its not like we're forcing ourselves to dislike Wii games, nobody wants to spend $250+ on a console they'll never use, its an investment.  Its just very disappointing for many of us b/c we can imagine so many good titles the Wii could provide.

There certainly are. As much as we'd like it to be the case, the Wii is NOT the PS2. But I think the Wii has exposed the diversity of gamers, and of viewpoints, and I think it would be faulty to think that one way of looking at the Wii is prevalent without examining it further.

[NWR_pap64]

Man, bad timing. With Bill's farewell speech, there's a lot of discussion going on about negativity on these forums and against Nintendo and concerning the staff. This wasn't the best time to release an editorial like this. Not to mention, it just seems to exasperate the hardcore/casual debate. Like Stogi said, Kairon replied with any points I'd have brought up.

My point exactly. But Kairon defended himself well. I won't even argue it because I want to chill regarding the Nintendo negativity.

[NWR_Lindy]

Man, bad timing. With Bill's farewell speech, there's a lot of discussion going on about negativity on these forums and against Nintendo and concerning the staff. This wasn't the best time to release an editorial like this. Not to mention, it just seems to exasperate the hardcore/casual debate. Like Stogi said, Kairon replied with any points I'd have brought up.

Just because there's concern about this site being biased against Nintendo in the forums doesn't mean we're going to shy away from all Nintendo criticism.  And again, this is Rick's opinion and not NWR's opinion.  I figured it would be interesting to see how he would defend such an unapologetically extreme stance in a forum thread.  Rick is also an "outsider" to the scene at this point, and outside opinions are always welcome.  Outside opinions either get everybody thinking in new ways, or galvanize already-held beliefs, both of which are positive things.

[Ian Sane]

Welcome back Rick!

The general vibe I get from this rant is that Nintendo is coasting.  I agree.  My beef with that is that as a gamer it's a damn insult.  Nintendo's legacy is based on quality.  Not targetting everyone.  Not being accessible.  Their legacy is based on making the best damn games there are.  They have compromised that key piece of their identity that made them special in the first place.  To me that's unacceptable.  It's the one thing I never wanted them to do.  The fact that they're successful or not is of no real concern to me beyond me wanting them to remain in business so they can make the games I like or attract better third party support to their consoles.  I don't like how they have been successful with this business model but that's entirely because I feel it will just encourage them to continue in this direction.

Rick seems to be taking that a step further and arguing that Nintendo shouldn't do this even from a business point of view.  I don't know if I agree with it because I don't have all the facts.  Quality and sales don't always go hand in hand.  I do know that Nintendo doesn't really deserve their number one spot.  They don't have the best lineup of games.  If you base it on quality the Wii doesn't deserve to be number one.  Knowing that there is always the risk that suddenly the Wii userbase will realize that and then Nintendo is in trouble.  I don't know if that will ever happen though.  Nintendo didn't really learn from their mistakes though, they just targetted a new audience.  They do the same annoying Nintendo stuff.  The old market would never have given the Wii the time of day but they sidestepped that issue by targetting a new one.  I think that will be a problem in the future.  I know they've made a lot of money but isn't targetting a new group instead of winning back the old group just a quick fix bandaid solution?  What does Nintendo do if they lose THIS market?  The can't just find a new untapped group to target again.

If they ever lose the non-gamers I think they're screwed if they don't shape up.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I think I'm going to stay far away from this.

[D_Average]

I agree with Ian and Rick.  In short, Nintendo has trimmed their hair and gone casual:

[Nick DiMola]

Somehow plenty of us have found a nice array of games to enjoy. Sure not all of them are epic blockbusters, but games don't need to be in order to be good.

True but there are still plenty of others who are just bored with what some consider "Wii gems".  Its not like we're forcing ourselves to dislike Wii games, nobody wants to spend $250+ on a console they'll never use, its an investment.  Its just very disappointing for many of us b/c we can imagine so many good titles the Wii could provide.

Well I can't argue with opinion; however, just because you don't like the "Wii gems" doesn't make them bad games, and it doesn't mean that the Wii has only "third-party shovelware that is a slap in the face to those that still remember the Nintendo Seal of Quality."

I can level with your other point though. There are PLENTY of amazing game ideas just begging to be made, someone just needs to take the initiative and do it. I'm hoping Wii Motion Plus will aid developers in realizing some of the dream projects, and we will see even more unique and innovative titles on Wii.

[NWR_Lindy]

It's funny that you bring up Mario Kart to defend your point, because I would point to it to defend mine.  How many games outside of Nintendo's stable are making up that high attach rate?  If I were to suggest that out of a six-game attach rate, those games are likely to be Wii Play (because of the cheap Wii-mote), Super Mario Galaxy, Twilight Princess, Wii Fit, Metroid, and Mario Kart ... how happy do you think third-parties are likely to be with that?  49% of all software sold in 2008 was for a Nintendo platform.  And how much of that was made by Nintendo?  Give me that number, and I'll think about conceding your point.

I will throw this article out there:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=21917

"When Klotz looks at platform-by-platform, the Wii numbers are most significant. "13 percent of the SKUs that were released on the Wii account for 80 percent of the sales." The other platforms, he says, are closer to the 80/20 principle.

And in 2008, Wii produced some especially stunning numbers, according to Klotz: "When you're looking at the Wii, what's really interesting is, when you look at 2008, the top ten SKUs accounted for 44 percent of the sales. There were 432 titles available in the market for the Wii... strictly retail."

"You're looking at 422 titles that are competing for the remaining 56 percent of the sales," Klotz tells Gamasutra. He compares that to the PS2, PS3, and Xbox 360, where the top ten games only account for 31 percent to 32 percent of the sales.

"Those top ten games are such a huge piece of the Wii business," says Klotz. "And if you look at the top ten titles for the Wii, it's Mario Kart, Wii Fit, Wii Play.

"It speaks to the amazing job Nintendo does, producing games for their own platforms," concludes Klotz."

Quality and sales don't always go hand in hand.  I do know that Nintendo doesn't really deserve their number one spot.  They don't have the best lineup of games.  If you base it on quality the Wii doesn't deserve to be number one. 

Ian, please refrain from making these types of outlandish comments.  I can see where this thread is going and I don't like it.  It doesn't have to go that direction.  Thanks.

[NWR_DrewMG]

I lean more toward Ian & Rick's opinion as well, but it doesn't bother any more.  I've pretty much come to accept that the Nintendo I loved so dearly all those years essentially doesn't exist anymore.  And that's fine.  It's not like I'm running out of games to play between third parties on DS, 360 games, and classic titles I missed.

[NWR_insanolord]

Is there a reason this is an editorial as opposed to a blog?

[RickPowers]

Did IanSane just agree with me?  I might have to rethink this entire argument. 

Thanks for the link to the Gamasutra article, Lindy.  I knew I had seen the numbers before, I just couldn't remember where from.  The memory is the first thing to go, kids.

So the issue here is two-pronged.  First, there are a LOT of third-party titles, because there's so much money to be made from the installed base that a third-party simply can't say no.  Plus, it's so easy to make games for the Wii, that there's a lot of people doing it.

Second, the quality of the third-party titles doesn't come close to approaching first-party efforts, and further, that's it's a more or less intentional effort on the part of Nintendo.  Partly because it brings in licensing monies, and party because poor third-party software pushes people towards first-party software.  As support for that viewpoint, I can only point to the disastrously bad Super Monkey Ball for Wii.  That game should have been a home-run, and in an era where Nintendo was quality testing third-party software, it would have been.

The maddening thing about it is that because the money is rolling in, Nintendo doesn't see a problem.  Nintendo used to be for Quality over Quantity, and now they've got the other way.  They've been successful, business-wise on both sides of that fence.  What's I'd really like to see them do is knock the fence down and raise the bar now that they've got everyone's attention.

Is there a reason this is an editorial as opposed to a blog?

I wish I could say it was because the NWR staff wanted me back, but also wanted to disavow everything to do with me.  That would certainly help my mystique.  But the honest truth is, I posted it to the wrong place. 

[GoldenPhoenix]

Is there a reason this is an editorial as opposed to a blog?

That is what I was thinking. It seemed odd to have this show up on the main news page.

[Halbred]

You know, I have a pretty good collection of Wii games. And yeah, I barely every play them anymore, even the ones I still have to beat (Galaxy with Luigi, Corruption on Hard, etc.). This is more a product of sloth, than dislike, though. I'm gonna be honest here. Remember a few months ago when I was singing the PS3's praises from the top of the mountain? Well, now that I've beaten most of my PS3 games, I haven't been playing IT as much, either.

Now I find myself going back and forth between the two. Wario Land one night, Portal the next, that kinda thing.

Can't say I'm enthusiastic about the Wii's upcoming lineup, but I can say the same for the PS3. Aside from RE5 in March, there's nothin' for me. So I think the Wii (and the PS3, and probably the 360) goes through fits and starts of software releases. My PS3 collection grew very quickly not because I bought the system at a time of high release volume, I just had a lot of games to catch up on that had been out for a long time. I've had my Wii since Day One, so I've been steadily buying new games as they come out.

So it's an artificial comparison. I have just as many Wii games as PS3 games, and now I play each system about equally. If anything, I play my Wii more now because I'm really trying to catch up on my VC games. In fact, that's my current "theme." Downloadable games! Castlevania 3 one night, Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 2 the next...

[KDR_11k]

250$ an impulse purchase? Geez, people must have a lot of money over there.

[removed a part that essentially said the same thing as Kairon, including the boats with holes metaphor]

Kairon, attach rates simply go up as a system has been out for longer, it's normal that the 360 has a higher attach rate than the other two systems and does not indicate that it's more or less niche. All three systems are performing pretty much equal in that arena.

Sadly, Nintendo doesn’t realize that not only could they have it all, but they’re at risk of losing the casual market with the same strategy that got them there in the first place.  The same people that lauded the Wii’s ability to get gamers off the couch and active are starting to realize that those games have little depth, and are only fun for such a brief time that their benefits are minimal.  Even Wii Fit owners are coming to the conclusion that it’s no replacement for “real” exercise.  If the dearth of entertaining software continues out of Nintendo, they’re seriously at risk of losing that same market they’ve fought so hard to attract, through what I call “Wii fatigue.”  I suspect that for every Wii they sell, someone stops using theirs.  Those Wii’s aren’t getting traded in though, so Nintendo still has an opportunity to capture those hearts again.

Without evidence to the contrary I suspect that the "Wii fatigue" mostly applies to veteran gamers. The new gamers seem quite comfortable to play the same games over and over because they are fun (as your anecdotal evidence would support and I have the same experience). Back when I was a kid our game system could only play one extremely simple game (Pong) and yet we kept using it for a long time. On the SNES I got new games so rarely that the current Wii situation is much more plentiful in comparison yet I kept playing.

Which leads me into my closing statement: I received some very disturbing news recently and turned to gaming as a way to ease the pain.  With all the gaming systems I had access to and all the games I could play, I went back and spent time with my old friends Donald and Goofy.  I loaded up Kingdom Hearts 2 (via my PS3), and enjoyed every moment with these childhood friends.  I passed up playing with Mario, or Link, or any of my former favorites.  Square-Enix recently released an updated Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories for the PS2, which used to be a Game Boy Advance title.  Why did Nintendo not pursue having this game on the Wii?  The audience for a game like Kingdom Hearts should be right up their alley.  Instead, they’re satisfied with having an upcoming DS game while Square-Enix releases similar games on the PSP and mobile phones.  This is a gaming franchise perfect for the casual market built by Wii, with recognizable characters from outside the gaming world, and Nintendo let it get past them.

Well, for one S-E probably went PS2 for the large market there and would have been fairly hard to sway. The other problem would be that RPGs are not "casual" friendly, recognizable characters won't help there because a "casual" gamer doesn't want to slug through dozens of hours of low-challenge story-based gaming. Many "casual" gamers were gamers in the Atari or arcade era but were alienated by something that happened between then and now, some suspect the rise of the movie-like story game to be at fault here. When you want to relax for 20 minutes or so after work an RPG does not work, the fun density is so low that playing for 20 minutes wouldn't give you much entertainment.

third-party shovelware that is a slap in the face to those that still remember the Nintendo Seal of Quality

Er, besides nostalgia have you ever checked the quality that seal approved of? The NES era was also home to some of the worst shovelware to ever disgrace the earth.

If I were to suggest that out of a six-game attach rate, those games are likely to be Wii Play (because of the cheap Wii-mote), Super Mario Galaxy, Twilight Princess, Wii Fit, Metroid, and Mario Kart ... how happy do you think third-parties are likely to be with that?  49% of all software sold in 2008 was for a Nintendo platform.  And how much of that was made by Nintendo?  Give me that number, and I'll think about conceding your point.

I don't get how that invalidates the point that new gamers are buying games too and not just using it as a "Wii Sports player". Yes, third party games don't sell well (with a few exceptions) but that comes to no surprise, the third party games fail catastrophically at meeting the demands of the new market. It's not Nintendo's job to remold these customers into core gamers, it's the job of the game developer to appeal to them. They have demands and it seems the third parties are completely oblivious to them, operating in complete birdman mode (copy the surface instead of understanding the underlying).

Link's Crossbow Training?  Seriously?

What, lightgun games suddently not good enough to be "real games"? That was a completely valid genre in the arcade days. Yes, the use of Link is silly but they didn't exactly have any known franchise at hand that would fit for this. And hey, the people who played the game liked it.

Nintendo made a conscious, deliberate business decision this generation to lower quality control on third-party submissions, because the market they wanted to tap into wanted the illusion of choice.

Nonsense. Their standards have not lowered, they have been pretty damn low ever since they decided that third party support is important (which means the GC and GBA were affected). Remember Charlie's Angels (GC)? Remember Superman 64? The only standard Nintendo applies is "doesn't crash or wipe out the console's save data". Never been different.

Meanwhiles, sales of games like Boom Blox suffer because of the halo effect from other third-party drivel.

Maybe EA shouldn't have attached their name to so much crap, eh? Either way, I think the game had a bigger issue with having no appealing theme. It looks like a game for children (and AFAIK it was designed to be one, too), why would adults buy that? Children aren't "casual" gamers.

Third parties have been VERY vocal about how their software isn't selling.

Oh yes, I remember the complaint from that 2k CEO, especially the annotated version with the review scores listed.

But if the third-party support evaporates because they can't make money too, they'll be back where they were with the Nintendo 64.

From what I've seen the third parties who took the Wii seriously instead of using it as a garbage dump did make money. Yes, the sales weren't gigantic but most of the games weren't designed to be AAA blockbusters anyway and could survive on fairly small sales. I think the de Blob devs were pleased with the sales, as was Suda 51. Red Steel is getting a sequel. We Ski too.

Second, the quality of the third-party titles doesn't come close to approaching first-party efforts, and further, that's it's a more or less intentional effort on the part of Nintendo.

Um, what? How does Nintendo reduce the quality of third party games? They're not witholding anything like on the N64, the **** that results is completely the fault of the third parties. Iwata already said that 4th and 5th string dev teams will not stand a chance against Nintendo's best.


On another note, don't articles like this go into the staff blog or is there something different about an editorial?

[Urkel]

I was going to stay away from this thread because it was nothing I haven't seen before, but then I saw this...

Second, the quality of the third-party titles doesn't come close to approaching first-party efforts, and further, that's it's a more or less intentional effort on the part of Nintendo.  Partly because it brings in licensing monies, and party because poor third-party software pushes people towards first-party software.  As support for that viewpoint, I can only point to the disastrously bad Super Monkey Ball for Wii.  That game should have been a home-run, and in an era where Nintendo was quality testing third-party software, it would have been.

Now this is a new one. You're suggesting Nintendo is deliberately encouraging third parties to make sub-par games in an effort to funnel people burned on crappy games towards their own first party efforts?

And since when did Nintendo ever quality test 3rd party software, aside from making sure the game actually ran?

[RickPowers]

Now this is a new one. You're suggesting Nintendo is deliberately encouraging third parties to make sub-par games in an effort to funnel people burned on crappy games towards their own first party efforts?

And since when did Nintendo ever quality test 3rd party software, aside from making sure the game actually ran?

No, I said that Nintendo is allowing third-party software into the marketplace without what used to be a more stringent quality control process because it makes them more money, and makes their software look superior.  They're not encouraging bad games, but they're not discouraging them either.

And Nintendo did indeed quality test 3rd party software through the GameCube era.  No, that doesn't mean that there weren't disastrous failures of that process, but it was less of an issue.  Nintendo used to be able to deny you releasing the game if they just didn't like the game idea.

By the way, apparently I'm not the only one noticing these trends.  http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-10149797-17.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

And while it's not Wii-related, I suspect we're going to start seeing articles like this one about Wii Fit or Wii Sports soon as well.  Mostly due to Nintendo being a huge target, but there's some glimmers of truth here.  http://ds.ign.com/articles/948/948080p1.html