| RolStoppable said:
1) Developers (i.e. the creative heads) are often not interested in business. Those who say that Japan has fallen behind and needs to step to its game up (whether they are American, European or Japanese developers), are talking in terms of sales numbers and relevance, not bottom line. I am fully aware that not everything in Japan is rosy either, but overall they are in better shape than the West despite selling fewer copies of their games. 2) My generalisations aren't wrong, but they are indeed spiteful. That's because of the general reaction of these gamers in response to Wii U's processing power as well as the meltdowns that were caused by the Bayonetta 2 announcement. 3) It's clear that Nintendo wants this demographic, but that doesn't mean that it's the right thing to do. Especially because their business has been in free fall ever since they opted to change their strategy from what made the Wii and DS successful in the first place. 4) All Nintendo needs to do is to get the third party multiplatform games on their console. As it stands, approximately 98% of the big budget games that third parties make appeal to the older teen crowd. There's really no point for Nintendo to majorly invest in additional projects for this demographic, especially when every other segment of the market is widely underserved. Funding a game like Bayonetta 2 every now and then is more than sufficient, if the third party multiplatform games are there; and if the multiplatform games are missing, then no amount of Nintendo developed older teen crowd games are going to make up the difference. 5) Regarding the people who actually bought a Wii, I blame third parties for the disappointment that was caused among gamers. We hear it all the time that third parties cannot compete with Nintendo on their own platform. Making M-rated games was their chance, because Nintendo doesn't make them, so third parties would have had this demographic all to themselves. But third parties failed to make quality games and market their games on the Wii. 6) See point 4. I am sick of the notion that the older teen crowd must get so much attention when it already gets so much attention. If they aren't happy about what Nintendo does, it's no biggie, because there are two other console manufacturers that cater to them, plus PC gaming. But there's no alternative to what Nintendo does. |
I'm not trying to flame you at all, but honestly, a lot of what you say sounds emotional rather than practical. You're assigning responsibility for Nintendo's situation to everyone but Nintendo, which just makes no real-world sense. They are responsible for themselves. Third party developers cannot be blamed for concentrating resources where they could produce games for two consoles rather than one. That's just smart management. Consumers cannot be blamed for their taste in gaming. With regards to what they want, consumers are ALWAYS right. That's one of the golden rules of business.
I used to own a video rental store. In the first year, I ordered a lot of quality films: Golden Globe winners, film festival winners, subtitled films, and indie films that won multiple awards--all of which rented like crap. 80% lost money per copy. In my second year, I concetrated on direct-to-video releases by Segal, Van Damme, and anything with a rap star in it. I couldn't keep those in stock. The point is, the customers might have had horrible taste, but from a business standpoint I was the one who made the mistake. That was my responsibility and I failed to understand my market.
I'm also not sure why you keep saying "older teens" because that's only part of who we're talking about. It's also people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, people who drifted away from Nintendo after the SNES.
Look, the essence of my argument is pretty simple. Nintendo consoles are almost always the best for kids and families. They START OUT with most of the people who become gamers already in their grasp. From a business standpoint, that's awesome. But then people get older and their tastes begin to vary. Some of them like what Nintendo does so they stay. Some of them want something else and they realize that Nintendo seems to have little interest in keeping them so they jump ship. There is no reason that has to be the case.
Nintendo has always made people chose which one they want, which means Nintendo is responsible for letting those people go. They can't blame that on third parties. Other publishers and developers are not responsible for Nintendo's business. If Nintendo wants third parties then they're going to have to convince them that it would be in their best interest to stay. If they want to keep their customers from jumping then its up to them to take action to keep them. No one else is responsible for Nintendo except Nintendo.
Personally, I see no reason why Nintendo can't produce two or three mature rated games. Not only would it let the core customer know that they are serious about winning back that demographic but it would also let third parties know that Nintendo has an eco-system that would support mature games. It would be a win-win situation.
