Nintendo to offer Wii DLC and you have to pay for some online games X_X

[Bodhesatva]

Stever89 said:

Bodhesatva said:

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Not that I disagree, but if they do so, this just gives Nintendo license to keep the Wii around for 10 years. Nintendo isn't upgrading when they're 1) market leader 2) making tons of money unless their hand is forced by a competitor.

It's a bit like the DS situation: the DS won't see a successor until the PSP does.

And if Sony and Microsoft keep the PS3/360 around for 10 years just so that they don't lose tons of money, Nintendo can go from "making tons of money" to "being the second largest company in Japan." And that doesn't really change the frame of reference, does it? If, on a scale of 1-10, the current PS3/360 economic strategy is a 1, then the Wii strategy is a 9. If we do manage to stretch this generation out 10 years, then perhaps Sony and/or MS will eek out a 3 on that rating scale, while Nintendo will eek out... an 11, or something. That shift makes the market as a whole look better, but it doesn't change the fact that the specific market strategy employed by MS/Sony is inferior.

Lastly, it's important to note that I'm not just talking about this particular generation, but long term. Even if they stretch this generation out to 10 years, what about next generation? And the generation after that? Profits have been shrinking generation after generation for Sony, year after year for third party developers. This isn't a PS3/360 problem, they're just specific and very relevant examples of it. It's an industry problem that has been building for over a decade, and will continue to get worse until a remedy is found.

I personally suspect that remedy will be "stop making such expensive games and live with lower end graphics and tech," but we'll see if the magic fairy dust does arrive some day.

You make some really interesting points, and I surely don't disagree with you, though my (bad) sarcastic posts might show otherwise. I don't know what the solution is, but I feel that if they (console manufacturers in general) want to do well, then they have to realize that success has nothing to do with the power of the console. The features of a console also have little to do with a consoles overall success as well. Being able to cater to the masses, and not alienate them, is more important overall, and is what has lead to the success of every console. Nintendo has just redefined what "masses" means.

And developers need to realize that gameplay is definitely the most important thing about games. Many Wii games get hammered because they lack deep single player modes, though it seems COD4 had a short single player mode, but it's multiplayer makes up for it. The same goes for (current) Wii games, and it's obvious that these "party" games are a lot of fun to play, thus gameplay is important

I personally don't like paying for online gaming, which is why I tend to stay away from such games (MMOs mostly, though LotR online looks great, and my roommate has it), but I can at least understand why paying for MMO's might be necessary. Also, MMO's usually are regularly being added to, so it's not as big of a deal to pay for it.

Right, MMOs are another great example.

Look at WoW. Now, Blizzard is making tons of money -- 550 million in profit last year -- but they also saw 1.2 billion in revenue.

That's really telling, isn't it? That means they spent 650 million dollars on something. Even being nice and assuming Starcraft 2 and other non-MMO projects cost 350 million dollars just last year (not over their lifespans, mind you, just last year's development, and including taxes), then that means WoW's upkeep and continued development cost around 300 million dollars. Again, I suspect that's a conservative estimate, as Blizzard doesn't have too many fires stoked at one time to make this math particularly complicated.

Now, imagine taking away the subscription fees. Now, figure out how to make that revenue back to cover a 300 million-dollar-a-year game.

 

 

 

 

 

In short, as games become increasingly complicated and expensive to develop and maintain, companies absolutely must find methods to make more money beyond 50 dollars for the initial purchase of the game. If it's not subscription fees, fine. Figure out another way to make 1 billion dollars a year off a game, and we're set.