| Shadow1980 said: I disagree. I don't think they did what was needed with the GC, or the N64 for that matter. As I've said repeatedly these past couple of weeks, the only reason the N64 and GC got crushed by Sony was bad hardware decisions from Nintendo. Sure, the N64 and GC both had better specs than the PS1 and PS2 respectively, but that didn't mean much because of the format. Third party support for Nintendo was severely reduced starting in the fifth generation because third parties wanted CDs because of the greater storage capacity and lower costs, but Nintendo gave them a cartridge-based system. So, the devs packed up and left for Sony's new CD-based system. The fact that Nintendo went with a proprietary miniDVD-based format with the GC didn't exactly improve the situation, what with the format having only a third the capacity of a single-layer DVD. If Nintendo had just gone with CDs with the N64 and regular DVDs with the GC, Nintendo probably would have won those generations as all the third parties wouldn't have left them for Sony. Nintendo's problems derive from hardware design decisions that, while they may fit Nintendo's needs, do not fit the needs of third parties. Trying to once again come up with something radically different from the competition — and that something is unlikely to attract third parties — and hope it becomes the next Wii is just too damn risky. If their next system fails, then what? Wait unti 2023 and hope they still have the cash to make a "true" tenth-gen system? I believe now is the time for a modern-day resurrection of the NES model, the same model that made them household names in the first place. They need to do it while they still can. While they may not dominate, they could at least have something that's guaranteed to sell. They have several years to prepare for this, as the ninth generation likely won't start on Sony and MS's end until 2018. If you believe the opposite and that Nintendo can't compete directly with MS and Sony and should yet again try an unconventional system, I'd like to hear why. |
I'll just chime in and say that Nintendo should drop backwards compatibility and go with PC components with their next console. Nintendo has been working with ATi/AMD since the Gamecube and I'm sure they can find a powerful & reasonably priced x86 solution for Nintendo's next console.
