spemanig said:
Like, good marketing is obvious, but good marketing at who? Better gimmick as in what? Another hardware gimmick, because that's not happening. At least nothing as drastic as the gamepad and the Wii Remote. I think the new system will have a new gimmick that will help make it a success, but it will be a firmware gimmick, selling the idea of a family of systems and the membership program rather than a specific hardware quirk. If Nintendo wants a wider content audience, though, they need a wider array of exclusive content. I always say this, the best Nintendo is like Apple with hardware and firmware, and like Disney with software and multimedia presence. They'll have the Apple part down with the NX, but my worry is that they will be slow to be like Disney. On the multimedia side, they are doing everything I've said they should. They have announced a theme park, and they are in talks with various companies with various deal involving their IP in TV and movies. That's all great. What's not great is how they handle their software. Not the quality, but the variety. It's the equivilant of if Disney only made their animated movies and nothing else. They have ABC, they have Marvel, they have Star Wars. They have Pirates. Disney can appeal to multible demographics with all those acquisitions. They were big before, but are a monolithe now. Nintendo needs to do the same things. I'll say it again, they either need to buy Capcom outright, or they need to purchase a controlling stake in them/sign a major exclusivity deal with them for games like with the Capcom Five, only this time with bigger IP and this time actually go through with it 100%. That handles the Marvel aspect. They need to invest in some major western studios. Either build their own like they did with Retro or buy a bunch like Square did with Eidos. They will never be able to retain good third party support if their isn't an audience on NX willing to buy the types of games that 3rd parties make, and Nintendo doesn't provide any incentive for anyone who likes those types of games to play on Nintendo platforms. Sony does with its IP and Microsoft does with its IP. It's high time Nintendo does the same. Square and Eidos are the literal ideal situation for Nintendo to replicate. Buy a full blown studio like that and get them to make first party western IP like Eidos does with Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Hitman, and Thief. Nintendo as the Apple and the Disney of video games would make them the force. Only one makes them merely a force. Far less potential to dominate. I also think it would be wise to open Nintendo World Stores in malls across the world, not just NYC, as that would severely cut dependance on retailers, but that's for another day. |
Capcom has like two franchises that sell anything, Resident Evil and Monster Hunter, and Nintendo already has one of them basically exclusive (Monster Hunter), and they've had Resident Evil exclusive in the past and it did nothing for them.
Disney/Marvel are successful because they have very valuable IP that appeal to the West first and foremost.
Nintendo has no interest in being a giant media conglomerate anyway. They are a very conservative Kyoto-based company (meaning they are conservative even by Japanese standards). Nintendo *likes* being a small, tightly controlled company by its board of directors, one that has a very insular culture. The staff at NOA probably have to ask permission from Japan to take a shit.
What I think might be more realistic is maybe going after key available movie or product licenses that are just sitting around not being used. That means maybe you look at the James Bond or Mission: Impossible IP for a game series. GoldenEye brought Nintendo a lot more adult/teenagers who didn't give a crap about Mario/Pikachu but that's partly why the N64 sold about the same as the SNES in the West at least (too bad the Japanese side of Nintendo didn't keep up their end of the bargain and the system did terribly in Japan). You need to find character IP that are underused and time less, Marvel's characters are like that, they were a goldmine that no one was using for a long time.
Retail is a bad idea too (see Sony shutting down the Sony stores).
Also the iPhone very much was a blue ocean product, there was no full touchscreen phone like that before the iPhone that worked like that and every smartphone since then basically has copied the iPhone layout. Before that, the popular "high end" phone meant the flip-out Motorola Razr or if you were a business type the Blackberry with a physical keyboard. But those types of things come around very, very rarely, iPhone is bigger than just that moniker, it's a product that's literally changed the world and propelled Apple into being the most profitable company in the world.
