Why Nintendo is super important.

[gigantor21]

WagnerPaiva said:

gigantor21 said:

Your first argument--about how Nintendo saved the industry in the 80's--doesn't really mean much in a 2014 market. Back then, Nintendo was the face of gaming, with the NES as the undisputed king. Now, the gaming landscape is much bigger and more fragmented. Not only do you have multiple companies competing with Nintendo in the console space, but you also have handhelds, browser games, a resurgent PC market, and smartphone and tablet gaming. There have never been so many options avaliable to people who want to play games, and with the rise of the indie scene the big publishers and hardware makers are no longer the gatekeepers they once were. Thus I have a hard time seeing how it can't survive if one company exits the business.

And in case you were wondering, I've never played COD or Battlefield before, and I'm in my mid 20s. And while I don't think the industry NEEDS Nintendo more than any other company, I would be very upset if they went under--mainly because they serve as a counterweight to the sort of industry excesses that Sony and Microsoft are happy to go along with.

We never had to worry about the WiiU being always-online or blocking used games--something that Nintendo didn't get nearly enough credit for when the Xbox One was first revealed. Nor is the WiiU meant to be a funnel for other non-gaming services Nintendo wants to push use towards. There is no "Nintendo Music Unlimited", they aren't trying to condition us towards cloud gaming, and they aren't trying to push exclusive Zelda TV shows or Nintendo-branded fantasy football apps. Plus their games are complete experiences, as opposed to being "games as a service" or DLC delivery packages.

Call me old fashioned, but I honestly don't give a shit about a lot of the non-gaming functionality in these boxes. PCs and mobile phones often do a better job with them anyway, and more and more of them are being built into smart TVs as it is. Hell, I heard recently that Toshiba is going to have PC gaming streaming built into their smart TVs this year. Thus it's nice having Nintendo around as a purely game-centric company, as opposed to the unwieldly electronics behemoths of Sony and Microsoft.

The industry will be a lesser place without Nintendo. But it will survive, one way or another.

I agree with everything you said. Of course video games are here to stay, but I think Nintendo is still charming and appealing enough to be vital in the industry, and I like the fact that they make a real effort to have a diferent console, love it or hate it, the WII was unique, and the WiiU is pretty unique as well. 

So, I want to see Nintendo around, always doing this: making left turns and shaking things up.

As do I, which is the main reason I don't want them to go third party. While I would love nothing more than being able to play Pokemon on the Vita, I don't want Sony and Microsoft to be the only ones dictating the direction of the dedicated hardware market. It's bad enough that mobile phones have eaten into the handheld market as it is.