By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Nintendo - NX power - View Post

potato_hamster on 29 September 2015
Edit Thread
Soundwave said:
potato_hamster said:


If you really think that's Nintendo's best play - to take their ball, go build their own playground, put up huge walls around it, and sustain themselves off of the dwindling number of Nintendo fans until it becomes unsustainable, but what then? How is that really growing their business? They're just finding ways to leverage more money out of their existing fans.

Tell me this, how is an NX portable more appealing than a 3DS to a potential buyer? Because they're missing out on the Wii U-style games that they may or may not be interested in? I'm failing to see that as a reason to spend $100 more on a new platform.


There isn't an alternative play IMO. 

What you want is a magic PS4 competitor with a distinct library, and then I suppose the handheld is what? Like a PS3 level (because that can't just stay at the 3DS tier either). 

So OK, now you have two discreet platform that Nintendo has to somehow primarily support on their own. Japanese developers will support the handheld but probably pass on the console, just like they don't suppor the Wii U. 

Western developers will never give a shit about Nintendo. That's more the REALITY of the situation. Even putting aside the fact that the PS4/XB1 will have a three year head start at minimum, the fact is all these lovely "third party killer apps" really means hyper violent action games and sports games from Western developers, a genre type that doesn't fit very well with Nintendo's Disney-styled content. 

So unless Nintendo betrays what they are as a company and starts making Uncharted/COD knock offs and dramatically tones down the Marios/Yoshis/Kirbys/etc. of the world they'll always be labelled the kids company any time they try to directly compete against the Sony/MS. 

You'll have the predictable situation where Madden NFL or Call of Duty will come out and the PS4 version will sell 1 million+ opening month, the XB1 at 800k, and the NX version will probably be way down at 80,000 (probably being generous here too). And then the excuses will start from developers predictably about how they can't put as much effort into the NX version or how this year they're skipping the NX because of demographic issues, blah, blah, blah. 

Nintendo IS their own unique part of the market for better or worse, denying it doesn't magically change it. 

Also who says Nintendo would mandate completely seperate builds for each game? More likely how it'll actually work is a developer who doesn't want to make two different versions can just go ahead and target the portable spec and then if they want they can make the game run at a higher resolution for the console spec and that can be the only real difference. 

It's probably not a good idea to ask me what I want out of Nintendo. I don't want them to have a PS4 competitor because I won't buy it. I also don't want them to have a home console at over $179 or a handheld over $119 because I won't buy those either. I don't have a Wii U or a 3DS, but I do still use my WIi and DS.

I don't pretend to have the answers for Nintendo. I don't pretend to know what Nintendo can do to make themselves sustainable as an industry leader in the future. I can only go by what I do know, which is my experience working with Nintendo, and based off of that knowledge along with my other industry experience, what will and won't work. First off, allowing a single developer take their portable version and do a super lazy upscale port will do nothing but hamper the image of the platform. All it takes is one screen shot of a game looking like pixelated trash on a 1080p TV and the console would be done for. How can you possibly instill consumer confidence that your new console is better than the old one if the new one objectively looks worse than a Wii U game? That would be game over.

I don't think for one second that a unified platform is the answer to Nintendo's prayers. It seems to me like a band-aid to a stab would. It might stave off their further decline for another generation, but I don't see it attracting a new audience, and I definitely don't see it attracting third parties. Personally I think that's a shame, because Nintendo should have a place in this industry, but Nintendo needs to stop shooting themselves in the foot, and consistently do things to make people like me interested in their product. Splatoon was the closest thing in a long time to pique my interest, but the rotational map/dlc/incomplete nonsense absolutely killed it for me. It seems to me that Nintendo just can't seem to put something out that either a) isn't a new coat of paint on something I've been playing for 20 years b) a new idea that shows a heap of promise but comes up short in ways that are completely unnecessary. It kills me to see them trip over themselves time and time and time again. And here we are with the NX on the horizon and it appears to be more of the same.