''Look at pretty much every game site article and expert opinion you can find before the Wii launch.''

I guess buying Nintendo Stocks when I saw the reveal video was nigh on genius from me then >_>

EDIT: I must have lived in wonderland when I heard everyone praising Nintendo for their genius. Sure, Wii topped even the highest expectations, but many did see it as a console that could be successful.

''lso, look at how much hate NSMBWii got from the industry too.''

You must be out of your mind!!! Everyone predicted MASSIVE sales! Have you heard of New Super Mario Bros on the DS!? Kinda made the predictions easy didn't it.

Hi,

1.          I deem Nintendo fail not because of a Project Café but because of Mr. Iwatas statements at GDC. There the translated coverage let him claim that the cheap iPod style games are a threat to the gaming industry and Nintendo’s business. This is arrogance which was held against his predecessor Mr. Yamauchi. If people like the 1$ games then this is how it is. You have to do what the market wants and not demand the market buy what you do. (Also the same thing could have been held against Wii games: their success let $50M budget games fail).  (Also those 1$ game developers stay in business.). This arrogance forebodes Nintendo inability to cater or care for people and thus get out of business.

2.          Looking at 2D Mario sales vs 3D Mario sales let suggest people want 2D Marios. Nintendo going for 3DS and purportedly for a 6 inch display on controller with Project Café as well as looking back at VirtualBoy 15 years ago and statements Mr. Iwata made according to Malstrom allured to by previous posts here let suggest Nintendo is going for 3D games and thus not the market.

a.          3D games are not bad. They allow much more to do than 2D games, they allow stories to be experienced a Jump’n Run does not. A Jump’n Run is much more a game than 3D games are. When I played Super Mario 64 I couldn’t envisage playing Jump’n Runs anymore. Thus Nintendo too would like to go for stories and experience rather than casual detractions.

b.         3D games didn’t necessarily sell less because of appeal. New Mario probably sold because of its name people know (adults remembering their childhood, girls having gotten that video games are “Mario (Bros.)”). “Galaxy” many probably couldn’t do anything with. Super Mario 64 may not have sold very very much because of circumstances: competition from PlayStation, then Germany ’s  No. 1 print magazine readers complaining about N64s blurry textures probably leading to less interest in Germany. I was in rage about that magazines continuous down-writing of N64 in their readers section: I found Super Mario 64s textures very fitting and then who cared? A certain small number of people influencing many people.  Assuming this a worldwide phenomenon this would have less people buy Super Mario 64. Later when searching for an explanation for few sales it was attributed to easiness of pickup and judging distance for jumps in 3D. Probably this is not the case. By the way: I liked Super Mario 64s freely adjustable camera and already disliked Banjo-Kazooies Auto-camera attempt (eg. when going up circular hills). However this would take more action than one would care to invest.

c.          Galaxy is a bad platformer IMO: mechanics as good as always but very bad gameplay: Exploration and continuous big worlds in Super Mario 64 where replaced by small planetoids with enemies. Jumping on Gumba mushrooms in Super Mario Land already was what detracted from a truly great experience: Just Jumping and running and liking the game. The first Gumba was a hurdle to master for the first time playing a controllable video game and unnecessary. What wasn’t possible on N64 due to hardware constraints, Nintendo brought back on Wii and I didn’t like it.

3.          Project Café could be a game console for cafés where not 4 people playing together at homes but 10 or 20 people enjoying a game together. Or it could be the console for now-called hardcore gamers: There is only 1 blue ocean. You can’t do it twice. If Nintendo did it with Wii, there is no more Blue Ocean. Wii until now sold around half of what PS2 did and does. If Wii is Blue Ocean what is PS2? Rather X360 and PS3 combined are the PS2s successor. Wii is its own market and maybe Nintendo wants to tap the X360 & PS3 100 million hardcore market with Project Café. They still can have the casual market years later as Kinect shows.

planetLars 

There is only one blue ocean, but to say that Nintendo tapped anywhere near all of it with the Wii or the DS is ludicrous

Ahh, so the 'nintendo is doomed' attitude is based, not off the rumours of the next hardware, but off your own assumptions as to what software will be released on the rumoured hardware?

It is partly based off of the software direction Nintendo is taking with 3DS and quotes from Iwata and Nintendo developers, which is giving hints about what Nintnedo wants to do. Which is the same method Malstrom used to accurately predict the Wii sucess before it was revealed, and the insanity of Other M before that game had concrete details revealed.

I guess you were in the minorit before the Wii launched. I personally remember the endless bashing of Nintnedo that I read in magazines and gaming sites, and the "Nintnedo has gone insane" threads in forums.

About NSMBWii, you're right, that wasn't hard to predict that it would sell. But the industry hated it, and called it a DS port. And sites accused Nintnedo of being lazy.

It does not work for every kind of game. You and Nintnedo seem to think that it is elements of 3D Mario that keep 2D Mario fans from liking it. That is no the case at all. It is the very fundamentals of the game itself. 3D Mario is a totally different game than 3D Mario, period, the transition to 3D transformed if beyond recognition. No 'fixes' to 3D Mario will ever change that, but will only risk pissing off 3D Mario fans. I for one hate that the levels in the galaxy games are so confined when you had these fun open playground levels in Super Mario 64.

Also, have you played 2D racing games. I have plenty on my Megadrive, and I have F-Zero on my SNES. The gameplay is exactly the same as 3D games, only you can see better in the 3D games. The transition from 2D to 3D in racing games is NOTHING like 2D to 3D platformers. If you say it is, then you are plain and simply wrong.

The truth is that the masses will never want "hardcore" (3D Mario is not hardcore, neither are games like Killzone and CoD, games like Starcraft are hardcore!, Core is a better word) games, they play games for different reasons than core gamers, they will NEVER convert to gamecube-style games.

One person on the internet "reasons" and reaches a definite conclusion, without taking into account that there is a whole company with lots of resources behind these kind of decisions.

This happens again and again. Of course Nintendo have considered everything and have reacted accordingly. I'm not saying they are infallible, because they aren't, but don't you think you outsmarted a company that makes billions and have dozens of people dedicated exclusively to analysing the market.

You can give your opinion, but don't present it as a fact. Saying "project Café will fail" at this point is just stupid.

How about Nintendo not wanting to make money? Malstrom sort of criticises Nintendo for going hardcore. Perhaps they are not going hardcore but doing what they like to do which is story games thus doing exactly what the Malstrom article relayed Nintendo should do: create games they like (which would result in good games assuming Nintendo staff is healthy).

Nintendo's job is not to make games they enjoy creating; Nintendo's job is to create games that will reach as wide an audience as possible and be very accessible.

A developer embracing "his vision" is one of the worst things that could ever happen to a game (Other M). Videogames are not interactive stories, they are interactive games. The problem arises when they blur the line and force story into something in which it is not necessary.