| Azzanation said: This is where you fail to understand. You are not looking at this as a whole. The Console industry has always been this way, it started when companies were choosing to be different all the time. Did you game during the Nintendo and Sega era? If so, then you would have seen how different companies were back then. Always trying new things to break the market open. The issue we have today is, the market has reached its peak. Unless these manufacturers go full experimental mode with their next line up of consoles, I can't see that happening. It's too risky and many have fallen straight out of the industry for trying to innovate. These companies are playing it safe now, unfortunately playing it safe only keeps the same customers, it doesn't create new customers. I also don't ever expect Nintendo to put their games on other platforms, not unless they are on the verge of closure, and even then, they probably would rather just die than give up their IPs. In saying that, what I mean is that Nintendo will find ways to please shareholders if they start to fall behind targets. Nintendo have been smart with their approach over the years. They develop affordable hardware and have focused on a market that has been lacking AAA gaming and that's the portable hybrid market. That will soon be flooded with options as the years progress. Its only going to get harder for Nintendo as more competition arrives. As for Sony following Microsoft's way, it's pretty simple. Sony are not doing enough for their shareholders, and they know they can't compete with Nintendo in the portable market, they have tried many times. Sony are not set up for that style. They have designed their structure to make high budget AAA experiences, it will all need to be shuffled around if they start focusing on Nintendo's way of gaming. Xbox might not be doing as good as the other two in raw sales figures; however they are set up for the future, they can adapt and evolve a lot quicker than Sony and Nintendo if the digital, PC, Streaming future started to explode tomorrow. |
Yeah... no. Big budget AAA experiences and more reasonable budgets are not mutually exclusive things. If hardware sales are stagnant and software sales only increase marginally, then you simply have to look at ways to keep your costs under control instead of having development costs make big jumps each generation.
Microsoft isn't set up for the future. Digital is nothing special and available on all major gaming platforms, so I don't know why you even mention it. PC is always there and steady because there's no such thing as generations in PC gaming, so a sharp increase in popularity is just as unlikely as a sudden implosion. Streaming is what Microsoft had high hopes for, but it's not taking off; input delay and lack of game ownership are big reasons why and these are inherent flaws that can't and won't be fixed.
Kristof81 said:
But they did ... They didn't in Japan, where the law is very strict, and terminating an employee is possible only in extreme cases. |
But they did not.
Don't make the same mistake as this biased Polygon article that conflates developers with non-development staff. People who work in marketing and translating aren't anywhere close to as valuable as developers and we've seen the results of Nintendo's change in translation practices already, because these layoffs date back about a decade. Since then the quality of translations in Nintendo games hasn't changed in a measureable degree despite the switch from having their own translators to contract work with third party companies.
Legend11 correctly predicted that GTA IV will outsell Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I was wrong.
