I can understand Nintendo fans not liking certain points in that article, but you cannot deny some things; That Nintendo's market share has diminished in every generation. They had over 90% in the NES era, probably about 55 to 60% in the 16-Bit era, then about 35% in the 32/64-bit era, and now they've dropped further.
Yes, there profits are still very good, but they aren't nearly what they could be. Nintendo wants to be profitable, right? Then why not give the majority of the people what they want? Would you honestly be that upset if Nintendo actually made a few new franchises that catered to the older gamers? Before I go further, I should comment that it isn't necessarily true that only older games like those games. I have a 14 year old younger brother who is a bit, well, obsessed with games such as Halo or Grand Theft Auto. The problem with Nintendo's thinking is that they still think that younger kids like their games. That isn't as true nowadays. Most kids like the "cooler" games, not the fun, happy, bright-and-colorful games.
And it isn't as though he doesn't like Mario games or anything; he just hates the newer versions of them. He played Super Mario World for hours and hours, and beat every level when he was younger. But the appeal is no longer there, and from what I've seen from my peers and from his friends, those characters don't have the same appeal to the general gaming public. To Nintendo fans, they still have that same appeal and that makes it difficult to understand that some people have lost interest.
Secondly, third-party support has dropped since the peak, and even then it wasn't quite to the standards of other consoles. Very few multiplatform games sell better on Gamecube than on the other systems. Off of the top of my head, I can think of the Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee game, Burnount and Burnout 2, and Soul Calibur, which undeniably had the most copies sold because of Link. Aside from those, most third-party games bomb on the GCN and it is not simply because Nintendo makes so much better games.
Despite my misgivings, I do not expect Nintendo to go away or be bought out. They have around $8 billion in the bank and made about $298 million dollars in profits last year, and expect to make over $600 million this year. But it is concerning, and one day Nintendo's market share could shrink to the point where they are no longer profitable.
Oh and to the last poster's comment about FFVII fans who can't spell for their life... I am an FFVII fan, and I can spell better than 99% of the people online ^_~. Oh, and I don't need the flames about liking FFVII. It isn't even in my top 20; I just like the game. If you don't like Final Fantasy VI, then you can flame me about that. That game is in my top 5 =). And if anyone is wondering, my first system was a SNES, second system was a N64, then a GCN, then a PSX. Oh and Gameboy, Gameboy Pocket, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, and Gameboy Advance SP. I am a Ninty fan, but I think that not recognizing that Nintendo could do a lot of improving is foolhardy.
Topic: "The Trouble With Nintendo" (Read 44255 times)
