I love how people misconstrue what Nintendo has said over and over and over and over and over and over again and again and again and again and again.
At no point in time did Nintendo ever say "graphics do not matter." Never. This is the invention, paraphrase, miscontruction, misdirection, and contortion of the Internet at work. It is no different than any other urban legend or game of telephone. Everyone adds on their own little twist, or changes a word here or there with what they believe to be a synonym, and it builds up over time. Purple Monkey Dishwasher.
This is why I'm so tired of hearing it.
What they did say - and this is all there is to it - is that graphics will hit a ceiling.
That is ALL.
It is that simple, it is that clear. There is nothing more or less to it. They didn't say graphics don't matter. They didn't even say they have peaked. They have said that, in looking to the future, graphics will indeed reach a point where they cannot be surpassed, no matter how much technology evolves.
At some point, we can't bump map the bump maps. We can't shade the shaders. We can't add more polygons, we can't make MORE shadows when they aren't there, and the bloom lighting is going to make my eyeballs explode. Nintendo has simply acknowledged that no matter how great the graphics are now, at some point they will hit the wall, we won't have anywhere to go, and at that point, there's nothing that can be done to improve them. And they understand that their presence in this industry - which just got secured quite solidly for several more years, if not decades - means that they will most definitely be around when that time comes.
And if that is the case, then what is the rush to get to that limit? ESPECIALLY for Nintendo, who has been in the business longer than Sony and MS combined, and will surely be there alongside them for a long time. Nintendo is being smart about it from their own internal business perspective, which is basically saying "we can slow down, because there's no need to race to that finish line immediately."
And why do they think this? Well, if the PS3 isn't a good enough example, I don't know what is. Here we have a system with supposedly the most awesome specs ever dreamed of, and it's sitting on the shelves because of the high cost to consumers. Factor in the cost to Sony - who is losing a nice bundle on each system - and it's pretty easy to see why Nintendo has gone this route.
It's like in an RPG game where you start out and you need money. And every time you think you have enough, you suddenly find Silver Armor and it costs 4000 gp, and you've only got 7932, which is a LOT for where you are, and you need at least three Silver Armors (because your stupid Black Mage can't wear it), so you suddenly need 12,000 gp. Yet, a few hours later in the game, gold is totally useless. You'll be sitting on a stockpile that you'll never be able to deplete. And at that point, all that "omfg I need money!" moments are gone forever.
We're about halfway through the game, if you want to continue that metaphor. Hell, we might be 60-70% through. After Gears of War, what is still needed? I guess maybe you could have more enemies on the screen, or you could throw out a lot of animated sequences going on in the background. But in terms of graphics, what do you do after that? Do you make the draw in distance longer? Do you have 100s of enemies? Do you make the lighting better?
I just don't see what it is all these graphics nuts seem to think is missing. We're going to have the Unreal and Crytek engines running around that can render near photorealistic stuff. So what's after that?
Nothing. At some point these companies are going to reach the end of their developmental cycles, and it's going to be nothing more than EA like upgrades every year. Now the lighting uses better blending in matter. You don't notice it as a gamer because who the f*ck stands around looking at how light dissipates in water, but I guess it's comforting to know someone thought of it.
Back to Nintendo - they recognize all of this in a very simple way. 1) They will continue to be in the business. 2) They too will someday manufacture a system capable of HD graphics utilizing amazing engines. 3) The race to get there has an end, and in the short term, it requires paying for expensive and experimental hardware. 4) This causes development time to be increased, which drives up costs. 5) All of this is bad for your bottom line, and only serves to cause delays and frustrations to your customers.
This is why Nintendo opted for the Wii's graphical "shortcomings" (in a relative sense compared to the 360 and PS3) - because it has too many potential downfalls to really damage a company.
And yet despite ALL of that, at NO TIME did Nintendo ever say "graphics don't matter." NEVER. They have said HD will have it's time. They have said they will value gameplay and controller interfaces to a higher degree, and they have said they will focus on the games. I've noticed that people love to do this - if you don't say A you are saying B, and that's just retarded. You could MAYBE say Nintendo was downplaying the importance of graphics, but even that is a stretch.
You can faithfully say "I like chocolate" and not imply you suddenly hate vanilla. I realize that is a very difficult concept to understand, even for big time graphics man, but that is the case. It's one of the simplest rules of language, and I'm sorry you aren't smart enough to get it. And that is the deal here. That is the only deal here, and that is all the deal will ever be. I don't even need to go and defend Zelda's graphics, or talk about how the Gamecube was a very powerful system, or any of those other things. There's no need at all, because it has nothing to do with the discussion at hand, which is little more than a man whining and whining and whining.
This attack needs to stop. It's the product of stupid fanboys and money hats, with a lot of people saying a lot of bullsh*t they know that they can't back up unless they grasp at some imaginary straws. Yes, imaginary. You are making this sh*t up at this point, people.
What I wouldn't give to inject a huge dose of common sense into the gaming industry like it was a mushroom that made you giant.
Topic: Nvidia says Nintendo is talking nonsense (Read 11132 times)
