IGN: "Has Nintendo Cooked the Golden Goose?"

[mike_intellivision]

SnowFlow said:
Might be a bit overboard but IGN does make some very good points in that article.

Nintendo had a massively lackluster holiday line-up with Wii Music (just a poorly executed game), and Animal Crossing (good for a spring/summer/early fall game). I know Nintendo has to have the games ready to release them but wow that was just really poor planning on their part. Nintendo was saved buy Mario Kart and Wii Fit though which luckily had massive legs.

Last but certainly not least Nintendo absolutely needs to bring back their seal of QUALITY. Devs like Data Design, Majesco, and Conspiracy games are polluting the shelves and hiding quality games in a sea of junk. If a devs doesn't have many resources they should focus on one or two GOOD games not ten mediocre games.

 

Two notes. First of all, Animal Crossing (3.00M) and Wii Music (2.55M) may not be all gamers "cup of tea" but their sales are not to be dismissed.  Not many games cross the 2-1/2 millon threashold (eight for PS3, 13 for Xbox 360 -- and at least one PS3 and two Xbox 360 games have been bundled in that group.

Second, the Nintendo Seal of Qualty only serves to peave third-party developers. That (as well as other practices) caused everyone to make a "bee line" to Sony in 1995. Nintendo still is working to get some of those developers back almost 15 years later. Neither Sony nor Microsoft have "quality seals" and the PSX and PS2 saw their share of junk as market leaders (heck, a lot of the Wii junk is actually PS2  ports).

But you are right that Nintendo needs to show more for the 2009 Holiday Season -- and they probably will.

Mike from Morgantown