All games which are developed or published by Nintendo should at least get an English localisation and be released worldwide simultaneously

That's the only improvement I want from one of the world's largest and richest gaming companies.

Before starting I'd like to clarify that yes, I like Nintnedo among other gaming companies but they're very far to be immune for criticing, also my preference has nothing to do with childhood memories or something like that, in fact, even thoght I played a lot on SNES and N64 form a friend, I've never owned a Nintendo system before the Gamecube in 2004...before I had a Megadrive, Playstation, Playstation2, and PC.

I think Nintendo has mainly 3 problems, 2 of em' imo are also partally connected to each other.

1.Ability to Communicate (the most underestimated imo)

A company communicates with all of its aspects, from product design, to its employees, from its costumers to its suppliers, its policies ecc. and all of these aspects and activities contribiute to create, consolidate or modify the company image. Before the actual generation of consoles, Nintendo has voluntarily cosely tied its image to its iconic characters, istead of  to what the overall experience on Nintendo systems was about, also the design of N64 and Gamecube was more toy-like compared to all of their competitors. These factors had contributed over the years to determine the childish image that N still has got in the eyes of many. It doesn't matter that N64 and GC had games such Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Quake, Turok, Mortal Kombat, Killer Instincts, Conker and later Resident Evil, Rouge Leader, Eternal Darkness and Metroid Prime...the fact is that Nintendo's comunications efforts were incoherent and one-sided, and many of these games remained unknown to mass potential buyers.

As for the situation of today, they have made some huge progress providing to Wii and to DS a true visual identity system, infact the abstatc image of Wii or no more related to a character but to its experience, more specifically the experince that is shown on Wii ads: a group of people of different age and gender, having fun playing toghether, often mimicking real-life gestures. These type of advertising is very useful to sell consoles and expanded-crowd games, but what about other games? Even in these case Nintendo is focusing it's communication only some of the aspects of Wii experience, while the others are neglected, and what is the result?

-Most of Wii best sellers are still from Nintendo-classic IPs or from new "casual" games, this means that also most of 3rd party serious efforts are to create Party games more than mainstream games (sure I think 3rd parties are mainly responsable for this but Nintendo is not helping),

-Many, less informed Wii users don't know what good games are coming out, also a lot of people is not even aware of many of the Wii Channels services (like Virtual Console)

-Even Nintendo itself has problems making good numbers out of mainsteream games whitout the Mario or Zelda character in it. (take Metroid Prime/Other M and Fire Emblem as examples).

That said, I know it's unthinkable to properly advertise each game but there are different forms of communication. 1st of all Nintendo MUST improve its online infrastructure and interface in order to provide their customers with a flow of content and information. It's undeniable that Nintendo online service is years behind Sony and Microsoft and I'm always talking about communication, not online gaming. Now, that's probably not possible during current generation but on Wii Nintendo could at least have tied (as I said in another thread) to bring demos and informations on discs and bundle them in consoles and games, this in order to work out distribution problems and to reach an high % of users.

I hope Nintendo will better consider these problems form now on, not for them, but for me as a consumer, since -I repeat- this kind of action could have a positive return on 3rd party support imo.

As for the other 2 problems, since this is getting quite long, I'll post em' later, I've got to go now

I would also call for a more communicative Nintendo. The way they operate seems almost mystical compared to other companies because they never really talk about what they're up to except for at E3, and this also leads to a vastly diminished Nintendo presence in the media because they never talk about anything, or if they do, it's all stuff we've all heard before

They can demistify their own thought processes without risking copycats. There's a fine balance there that can and should be struck

I would also call for more balanced scheduling. Their software lineup always seems to be feast-or-famine, which leads me between periods of having to choose between great games and having to scrounge through mediocrity (though the great games i didn't choose initially help to avert that, and hidden gems abound in the lower tier so that i've actually only picked up a few truly mediocre games)

i agree with people who say more japan only games should be localized, thats a huge one

i also agree that nintendo systems should primarily play games as well, no need for multimedia centers.

finally, personally, i think nintendo should keep focusing on what they are doing and not copy ms or sony. no need to.

ps. keep making amazing music for your games, the output now is good, but it could be better (this is my biggest complaint)

I second everthing that has been said. The main areas of improvement I would love to see from Nintendo are:

1) More releases from their long time ips. F-Zero, Star Fox, etc. Some here have stated that Big N should buy more studios to make this happen but I really don't see why. They have shown the willingness to work with third partys on their ips. Wario Land: Shake It! and Kirby's Epic Yarn from Good-Feel, Metroid: Other M from Team Ninja, Mario and Luigi series from AlphaDream, etc.

Nintendo should continue working with third partys and let then have a crack at more established ips like Mario and Zelda. Capcom is a great example here. I haven't played the Oracle games yet but The Minish Cap was great. Besides buying studios is a great expense and doesn't always work out. Recent example: Bizarre Creations (creators of Geometry Wars and Blur) was closed down this month by Activision. Also, Nintendo should continue collabarating with third partys on games that are sure to expand the userbase and are overall good games such as MH Tri.

 2) More communication from Nintendo. They are a very secretive company and I'm sure some of the reason why is due to being copied by their competitors. Look Nintendo you can keep a lid on hardware  but why keep a lid on software? Can't you just release some info on Pikmin 3 please. A screenshot, 30 second gameplay clip, at this point I'd even take a CG clip! So yes, please more interaction with your fanbase.

3) Better overall online infrastructure. DSL/faster connection is now more widely available ( hey, DSL wasn't aval in my area till 2002) and more and more people are now online and eager to interact with their fave method of entertainment: tv, movies, books, video games, etc. Heck the official Nintendo website forums were taken down one year ago I believe and haven't come back. I believe Nintendo said they were going to revamp the forums and bring 'em back but come on now how long does it take to put together a nice forum. I never signed up for it but still, I'm sure the users were not happy.

The Wii's Shop Channel is not very user friendly. It seriously needs a major facelift. Big N did bring back the demos so that's a start but overall the layout is outdated. I would love to see a XBL type interface where its easier to see new releases, demos, etc. Nintendo should also put more of their weight behind indy WiiWare games. I would like to see a spotlight type page on the Shop Channel were they show screenshots, videos, interviews with the developers, etc. I know they have the Recommended section but it's severely lacking. For example, MotoHeroz is an upcoming WiiWare game that looks real good and it would surely sell more if Nintendo would showcase it a bit. How hard is it to post some general info on the shop channel. NOA does a great job showcasing upcoming WiiWare games in Nintendo Power but most NP subscribers are core or Nintendo fanboys (and i mean fanboy in the good sense, I'm an NP sub) and the rest of the Wii userbase will probably never hear about MotoHeroz wich is sad.

Overall Nintendo does a lot of things well and it shows: they survived the 16 bit war with Sega, Sony's PS1/PS2 era and even after the GC was not the hottest seller (even though they turned a profit third place is still third place) Nintendo dusted themselves off and came back stronger then ever with the Wii. But there is always room for improvement and Nintendo should use their brand awareness to continue their success by making some of the most wanted improvements true.

PS. Please bring over Xenoblade and The Last Story and put EarthBound on the VC :)

Honestly I read about a third of the OP. I may get back to reading it later. But fact is us fans aren't very good at running Nintendo. Almost every fan has a different idea of how Nintendo should be run.Some of us agree on some things but disagree on others.

In my opinion Iwata, Miyamoto and Reggie can run Nintendo far better then I can. Though I gotta admit I do predict alot of Nintendo's moves. Fact is Nintendo often knows best look at how many fans bitch and whine every generation at how Nintendo is changing or doing this right and that wrong. But by the end of every generation Nintendo always ends up more profitable then expected.

If I were to run Nintendo I would hope to run it in a similiar fashion as it is run today. No chaznges , no rules. I would hope to run it half as good as Iwata. But of course I can't compare myself to Iwata that would be like comparing Pong to PS3! Or VHS to BluRay I am just not capable of doing what Iwata does!

P.S - Gumby trucker the thread idea is great. But you'll very soon get alot of whiners in here or fanboys. Your article was pretty good but we see threads similiar alot at least a few times a generation. These threads while intellectually based often lead to flame wars and trolls. You'll get alot of views and alot of replies but alot of it will end up being attacks on Nintendo or for Nintendo. This is how wars are started.

However if you want a war to be started and for flamers and trolls to duke it out with Nintendo fans and logical thinkers. Then you've done a great job. (Also note I love to stir up the pot a few times a year with similiar threads) So don't take it as me saying you shouldn't do so!

-Edit I finished reading, good thread but comments above still apply

I'd make a long post, but most of what I might have wanted to say has already been said by Mr. Kahn, Rolstopable and the Sound of Rain guy. Fantastic write up OP, I'll be keeping an eye  on this thread and hopefully more constructive criticism comes out and everything remains interesting. 

Same here, the 3 (Mr. Khan, Rol and SOR) said it best. Everything has it's risk, it's how you do it ultimately brings the best/worst outcome from a company and so far Nintendo's doing a fairly awesome job at it.

And speaking about telling what Nintendo should do, like being the head honcho (aka Iwata), Jay/Cee7 (can't resist, mate) said it right,  could be last person to tell what Nintendo has to how to handle their franchise (even though I still stongly want to). My suggestions could be(more lke will) more fan-based than professional strategist.

^ Fixed. :D

Outside of the online functionality (which they've fixed now with 3DS), I'm pretty happy with what Nintendo is doing. The Wii is the best console they've developed since the SNES imo.

ONLINE, ONLINE ONLINE, god in heaven their whole outlook on online needs to change. Yes they are taken it more seriously with 3DS, but I dont have one so that doesnt really help my Wii. More N64 VC games, NO friend codes or at least have them like 3DS, get rid of that stupid size cap on your DLs so publishers can actually put good games on WiiWare (like Scott Pilgrm, Lara Croft, etc) and not MORE shovelware(caterpillar ABCs?? really?)

Headsets, that Wiispeak was retarded. i know you dont wanna fell like copying someone Ninty but IMHO unless you can find a alternative to headsets, just make them so people could chat online, like everyone else. 

Motion plus. I hated that your controller wasnt intially 1-1, hell it wasnt even close. then motion plus came and its all good. but support the damn thing, the last game was Flingsmash, what the hell was that?? and the next game will be Zelda and who knows when will see that in stores

3rd party support, this is not fully Ninty's fault, but they could have tried a bit harder. (which they are with the 3DS). The whole 3rd party thing has been beaten to death, its not like most of us got a Ninty console for the great 3rd party support(thats what I have PS3 for).

So I only really have a problem with Online(make it better) and Motion Plus (support it). Everything else is fine