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Forums - Gaming Discussion - What are your thoughts on Nintendo?

S.T.A.G.E. on 16 May 2013
curl-6 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
curl-6 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:

I know. The Wii broke the market by intoducing people who dont game into gaming (thats a lot of people and easily explains going from 20M+ in sales to 99M). The financial momentum died because of two things:

1: Limited supply that kept demand high for a couple years.

2: The Kinects entrance caused the casuals to turn their heads in the of the direction of the 360 when the PS3 was outselling it by 4th quarter 2010. It sold 360's like hotcakes and the Wii's fire went stagnant in 2011 because of it. I wouldnt be surprised if the Kinect has outsold the original Xbox by now.

The Wii went stagnant in 2011 for one reason, and it wasn't Kinect or supply; games simply stopped coming. It was doing just fine right up until then. 

What the? Skyward Sword, Last story (in japan, 2012 WW), Xenoblade chronicles, Just Dance? 

It was Kinect. 

Yes, they should've followed up with a Wii Sports resort 2 and bundled it with a couple more Wiis but they didnt. As soon as the the Kinect rose in sales the popularity of the Wii in America shrunk down terribly. It gave Microsoft the best two years casual sales. Microsoft knew what it was like to have a taste of Nintendos new audience they found.

In 2010 the Wii had tons of popular hits like Mario Galaxy 2, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Goldeneye 007, Sonic Colors, Epic Mickey, Wii Party, and Just Dance 2, and a slew of excellent cult games like Monster Hunter Tri, Sin & Punishment, No More Heroes 2, Red Steel 2, and Tatsunoko vs Capcom.

In 2011, it was barren. There was Skyward Sword, Kirby's Return to Dreamland, and Just Dance 3 at year's end, but those were about the only big hitters, with the rest of the year bare. If The Last Story, Xenoblade, Pandora's Tower had all been localised a year earlier than they were, (and if Project Zero 2 had come to the US along with Japan and PAL) it wouldn't have been so bad, but as it was support went from plentiful to dry almost overnight.


There were less games and that is a given, but the Wii's consoles sales went stagnant due to a lack of casual titles moving into the final days. 2010 was a peak year for the Wii after they had the best E3 of their whole generation. The amazing sales came from the casual titles and Mario Kart Wii had still been selling bundles as well with the wheel well from 2009-2012. Th Kinect stole Nintendo's thunder in America in 4th quarter 2010 and had people wrapping around street corners to get it up until 2012. Casuals only focus on the latest trends. Nintendo and Microsoft capitalized on it and Sony failed to care for some odd reason, but I guess I should be thankful they focused on the core.



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curl-6 on 16 May 2013
S.T.A.G.E. said:

There were less games and that is a given, but the Wii's consoles sales went stagnant due to a lack of casual titles moving into the final days. 2010 was a peak year for the Wii after they had the best E3 of their whole generation. The amazing sales came from the casual titles and Mario Kart Wii had still been selling bundles as well with the wheel well from 2009-2012. Th Kinect stole Nintendo's thunder in America in 4th quarter 2010 and had people wrapping around street corners to get it up until 2012. Casuals only focus on the latest trends. Nintendo and Microsoft capitalized on it and Sony failed to care for some odd reason, but I guess I should be thankful they focused on the core.

Wii still outsold 360 over holiday 2010 though; only after 2011's lack of games did sales collapse.



S.T.A.G.E. on 16 May 2013
curl-6 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:

There were less games and that is a given, but the Wii's consoles sales went stagnant due to a lack of casual titles moving into the final days. 2010 was a peak year for the Wii after they had the best E3 of their whole generation. The amazing sales came from the casual titles and Mario Kart Wii had still been selling bundles as well with the wheel well from 2009-2012. Th Kinect stole Nintendo's thunder in America in 4th quarter 2010 and had people wrapping around street corners to get it up until 2012. Casuals only focus on the latest trends. Nintendo and Microsoft capitalized on it and Sony failed to care for some odd reason, but I guess I should be thankful they focused on the core.

Wii still outsold 360 over holiday 2010 though; only after 2011's lack of games did sales collapse.


 I know the Wii outsold the 360, it was 2011 when their numbers started slumping, thats my point. When you turn the heads of the casuals the demand goes to the next fad.



RCTjunkie on 16 May 2013

I like them. A lot. They defined a lot of my childhood and continue to have an impact, despite my lack of funds making me unable to keep up with Nintendo trends anymore. One day, soon.



WHO IS JESUS REALLY?

curl-6 on 16 May 2013
S.T.A.G.E. said:
curl-6 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:

There were less games and that is a given, but the Wii's consoles sales went stagnant due to a lack of casual titles moving into the final days. 2010 was a peak year for the Wii after they had the best E3 of their whole generation. The amazing sales came from the casual titles and Mario Kart Wii had still been selling bundles as well with the wheel well from 2009-2012. Th Kinect stole Nintendo's thunder in America in 4th quarter 2010 and had people wrapping around street corners to get it up until 2012. Casuals only focus on the latest trends. Nintendo and Microsoft capitalized on it and Sony failed to care for some odd reason, but I guess I should be thankful they focused on the core.

Wii still outsold 360 over holiday 2010 though; only after 2011's lack of games did sales collapse.


 I know the Wii outsold the 360, it was 2011 when their numbers started slumping, thats my point. When you turn the heads of the casuals the demand goes to the next fad.

Software moves hardware, it's only logical that when support suddenly disappears for a platform, console sales will slump. You're overestimating how many Wii buyers were casuals. Plenty of core players bought Wii too.



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Alphachris on 16 May 2013

I grew up with Nintendo. The NES was my first console ever and I got it when I was 7. Super Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Duck Tales, Megaman, Castlevania, Punch-Out... fond memories

The SNES was a huge improvement. Super Mario World and Zelda: A Link to the Past where almost perfect games at that time. Super Castlevania, Turtles in Time, Mario Kart, Street Fighter 2, Act Raiser, Terranigma...

But the N64 was another story. I was thrilled when I heard about the next Zelda and Mario 64... but after having played the games with a friend I was very disappointed in the beginning. Zelda has once again dropped the eagle view and was 3D and Mario 64 lost the two-player Mode and was also 3D... I decided to wait fo the console to drop in price... and then I have played the PS1 with a friend. I had never considered the console as an option, but I was deeply impressed. At my next birthday I got a PS1.

Final Fantasy 7 + 8 + 9, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Soul Reaver, Vagrant Story, Suikoden 1+2, Tomb Raider, Front Mission 3, Parasite Eve 2, G-Police, Colony Wars, Spyro, Crash Bandicoot.....

The third party support was amazing. And the cutscenes were awesome. After playing all these games, especially story-centric games like JRPGs or Legacy of Kain I started to feel Nintendo games lacking. They have high production values, but they simply lack the storytelling and character development.

I also skipped the Gamecube and went with the PS2. But I bought a used N64 to be able to play Mario 64 and Zelda. I enjoyed Super Mario 64 and got all stars, but once again I couldn't play Zelda because I was still disappointed that they changed to third person view. I simply could get into it although Zelda was my favourite franchise before.

When I found out that the Wii had the Virtual Console I bought it. But the controller are simply awful. I found out that I despise motion control and gimmicky controls. (I do not like the PS Move or the Vita controls with that damn back touchscreen and the camera either).

I am now mostly a singleplayer gamer who expects a game to have a minimum amount of story and character development. So games like Mario Kart, Smash Brothers or Mario Party are not really an option for me anymore. Super Mario Galaxy and New Super Mario Bros Wii were good games, but Nintendo puts too much focus on gameplay and too little focus on the gameworld, characters and story...

Don't get me wrong, the Mario games are good. But I can get a better entertainment factor from games like Ratchet & Clank or Jak & Daxter, where I found a combination of suberb gameplay with funny characters and dialogues.

So while I hold fond memories of Nintendo I can see some troubles with them. Nintendo tries to innovate with Hardware while it is their software that would need innovation... especially on the story and character front. Nintendo games are still great for handhelds and I will certainly buy the 3DS after i have finally finished my backlog... but on the console front I feel that Nintendo needs to improve their games to be able to compete with the HD twins and their successors. At least, they could try to introduce some more mature games with dialogues and a more serious story approach if they don't want to change their established franchises. Because if Nintendo can show that more mature games can sell on a Nintendo console they wouldn't probably have that much problem with getting third party support for their consoles.



zorg1000 on 16 May 2013
S.T.A.G.E. said:
curl-6 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:

There were less games and that is a given, but the Wii's consoles sales went stagnant due to a lack of casual titles moving into the final days. 2010 was a peak year for the Wii after they had the best E3 of their whole generation. The amazing sales came from the casual titles and Mario Kart Wii had still been selling bundles as well with the wheel well from 2009-2012. Th Kinect stole Nintendo's thunder in America in 4th quarter 2010 and had people wrapping around street corners to get it up until 2012. Casuals only focus on the latest trends. Nintendo and Microsoft capitalized on it and Sony failed to care for some odd reason, but I guess I should be thankful they focused on the core.

Wii still outsold 360 over holiday 2010 though; only after 2011's lack of games did sales collapse.


 I know the Wii outsold the 360, it was 2011 when their numbers started slumping, thats my point. When you turn the heads of the casuals the demand goes to the next fad.

I agree with both of you, Wii sales slowed because of lack of software and Kinect being seen as a Wii successor



When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.

S.T.A.G.E. on 16 May 2013
curl-6 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
curl-6 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:

There were less games and that is a given, but the Wii's consoles sales went stagnant due to a lack of casual titles moving into the final days. 2010 was a peak year for the Wii after they had the best E3 of their whole generation. The amazing sales came from the casual titles and Mario Kart Wii had still been selling bundles as well with the wheel well from 2009-2012. Th Kinect stole Nintendo's thunder in America in 4th quarter 2010 and had people wrapping around street corners to get it up until 2012. Casuals only focus on the latest trends. Nintendo and Microsoft capitalized on it and Sony failed to care for some odd reason, but I guess I should be thankful they focused on the core.

Wii still outsold 360 over holiday 2010 though; only after 2011's lack of games did sales collapse.


 I know the Wii outsold the 360, it was 2011 when their numbers started slumping, thats my point. When you turn the heads of the casuals the demand goes to the next fad.

Software moves hardware, it's only logical that when support suddenly disappears for a platform, console sales will slump. You're overestimating how many Wii buyers were casuals. Plenty of core players bought Wii too.


Core players are a minority. Even the PS2 had casuals, but the Wii attracted non gamers who would never game. The PS2 and 360 have a similar split crowd between them but even a cross section of those twenty million play COD. Look at the Xbox 360 sales and the PS3 sales and you'll see they pretty much are somewhere near that of the PS2 together, or possibly beyond it at this point. The PS2 gamers didnt run after the Wii in unision, non-gamers did. Kinect took them away. Kinect Adventures sold twenty million units because of being bundled with the Kinect, much like the Wii had Kinect Sports for their little test tool for casuals and gamers alike to enjoy. Microsoft enjoyed a fraction of what the Wii had for a short period of time. Kinect was considered the fastest selling device out of the gate, and you know why just as much as i do. Core gamers dont bring those lofty yet empty sales. Follow the bread crumbs.



curl-6 on 16 May 2013
S.T.A.G.E. said:
curl-6 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
curl-6 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:

There were less games and that is a given, but the Wii's consoles sales went stagnant due to a lack of casual titles moving into the final days. 2010 was a peak year for the Wii after they had the best E3 of their whole generation. The amazing sales came from the casual titles and Mario Kart Wii had still been selling bundles as well with the wheel well from 2009-2012. Th Kinect stole Nintendo's thunder in America in 4th quarter 2010 and had people wrapping around street corners to get it up until 2012. Casuals only focus on the latest trends. Nintendo and Microsoft capitalized on it and Sony failed to care for some odd reason, but I guess I should be thankful they focused on the core.

Wii still outsold 360 over holiday 2010 though; only after 2011's lack of games did sales collapse.


 I know the Wii outsold the 360, it was 2011 when their numbers started slumping, thats my point. When you turn the heads of the casuals the demand goes to the next fad.

Software moves hardware, it's only logical that when support suddenly disappears for a platform, console sales will slump. You're overestimating how many Wii buyers were casuals. Plenty of core players bought Wii too.


Core players are a minority. Even the PS2 had casuals, but the Wii attracted non gamers who would never game. The PS2 and 360 have a similar split crowd between them but even a cross section of those twenty million play COD. Look at the Xbox 360 sales and the PS3 sales and you'll see they pretty much are somewhere near that of the PS2 together, or possibly beyond it at this point. The PS2 gamers didnt run after the Wii in unision, non-gamers did. Kinect took them away. Kinect Adventures sold twenty million units because of being bundled with the Kinect, much like the Wii had Kinect Sports for their little test tool for casuals and gamers alike to enjoy. Microsoft enjoyed a fraction of what the Wii had for a short period of time. Kinect was considered the fastest selling device out of the gate, and you know why just as much as i do. Core gamers dont bring those lofty yet empty sales. Follow the bread crumbs.

11 million sales of Smash Bros Brawl. 10 million sales of Super Mario Galaxy. "Non-gamers" don't play these games, and few PS3/360 core games have sales as high. There were plenty of core gamers on Wii.

Consumers go where the compelling software is. Wii stopped getting games, Wii stopped selling well, simple as that. Had a 2010 level of software continued, the Wii would have continued to sell well. Kinect was not the reason for its slump.