John, what do you make of Malstrom´s latest post?..he talks about what he think is wrong with Nintendo.Let me put it here.
One of the big things that helped people get behind Nintendo with the DS and Wii was that people believed in the company. They believed Nintendo cared about putting out quality game experiences. People were even defending the Virtual Boy. “At least it was DIFFERENT and INNOVATIVE.” Nintendo’s interests coincided with the customers’ interests. No longer is this the case.
There are too many examples of Nintendo not caring about putting out quality game experiences. If it were due to business concerns, this might be excusable. However, it isn’t. It is over ideological concerns among the developers at Nintendo. Here are a taste of few of them:
-2d Mario gets a C string team and a low budget. 3d Mario gets the A team and a massive budget.
-The most hated Zelda game, Wind Waker, gets to be the first ‘HD Zelda’. Iwata’s announcement said, “We want Wind Waker to be seen by more people than it had on the Gamecube install base.” Translated, that means Nintendo likes Wind Waker and wants more people to play it. They assumed Wii U console would be far more popular than the Gamecube console.
-3DS is designed around ’3d’ because old fart Nintendo developers have invested their lives in 3d gaming technology and still refuse to admit the Virtual Boy was a failure. (This is not hyperbole.)
-Sakamoto destroys the Metroid franchise with Metroid Other M. Instead of giving people a game they want to play, Sakamoto puts forth a game where he gets to be ‘narrative director’ and ‘creative god’.
-Pikmin 3 is a sequel to the failed Pikmin series of games on the Gamecube. Pikmin 3 wasn’t made because people wanted it. It was made because Nintendo developers wanted to make it. In 2008, Miyamoto said that Pikmin 3 would be a good fit for Wii because of the pointer. That was horseshit as Pikmin 3 was delayed so it could be made ‘right’. Meanwhile, the 2d Mario of NSMB U doesn’t get delayed but thrown out there at launch because Nintendo developers don’t give a shit about 2d Mario.
-No account system.
-Internet gaming sucks on the Nintendo consoles. No one asked for this Miiverse crap. Nintendo thinks it is ‘special’ because it is ‘different’. But it doesn’t do the job we want it to do.
-Wii U is a Gamecube HD with Wii branding. This was intentional. Nintendo is trying to direct the market to want games their developers wish to make. It is the market that tells you what games to make. The developers don’t get to tell the market what games it will have. It seems like Nintendo developers have been too distant from the Real World. Can you imagine a normal person with the gall of telling the labor market of what job it will be in demand? Of course not. The labor market tells you what jobs are in demand, not the other way around. And if people could tell the labor market what jobs would be in demand, it would all be the same type of job: a job that is a leisurely office job where they get to be ‘creative’. Nintendo developers being leisurely (recycling Gamecube games) and being ‘creative’ is a function of the workers trying to tell the market what job skills it demands. They are entirely upside down.
I can go on and on with the litany of complaints, but it boils down to Nintendo losing its company reputation with the crap it has been putting out (and it has been putting out crap). When people say, “No account system!”, they aren’t just talking about the account system. They’re saying they don’t trust the company itself.
The issue isn’t about ‘finding the right game’, the issue is a reputation problem.
I hear that the Wii U might get a version of Minecraft. This is laughable. Who is running this company? Minecraft is the most influential video game since Tetris. And yet, Nintendo ignored Minecraft forever. Why? I know exactly why. It is because Nintendo developers, such as Miyamoto, thumb their nose at PC games especially indie games that are made by one person. These stupid, childish developer ideologies are hurting everything. Nintendo should be reminded that GTA 1 and 2 were PC games before the franchise exploded. Call of Duty was a PC game too before the franchise exploded. Nintendo may not be able to get big industry third party games with their bizarro Japanese hardware mentality, but they can still get third party indie games where the system requirements are much, much less. Unfortunately for Nintendo gamers, Nintendo assumes they are trash and don’t even bother trying to get them onboard. Sony, however, is.
I am not a mind reader. I do not know what goes on in Iwata or Miyamoto or anyone else at Nintendo’s minds. All I can see are actions. The thoughts going on that made Nintendo think that the 3DS and Wii U would be ‘break out hits’ are some of the craziest science fiction and fantasy I can ever imagine. All I am doing is wondering, “How did they think this was a good idea???”
Nintendo developers and certain hardcore gamers might be on the same page. However, the mass market and Nintendo developers are not on the same page. There is a gulf between them. And it is not the mass market’s job to do what the Nintendo developers wish to do. It is the other way around. This is the issue I see that is wreaking havoc throughout Nintendo output for the latter part of Generation 7 and, so far, all of Generation 8. I know I sound like a grouch for articulating it, but look at the sales. Something is very, very wrong. Maybe everything said here is completely wrong. Maybe the issue is something else. But one this is for sure, Nintendo needs to stop doing what it has been doing for 3DS and Wii U and needs to change its thinking, whatever thinking that may be.
