Mummelmann said:
I'm still here! Already started my rebuttal, gonna take some time to find the actual meat in there that warrants a response amidst all the mindless text....
* He doesn't "believe" in demographics.
* He thinks, apparently in all sincerity, that everyone should have the same taste in gaming as him, including me, a staggering show of incredible elitism.
* He thinks that the development cost of a game is affected either way by how many copies you print... no comment needed there.
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Boom! Definitely captured most of my initial thoughts on the JL response. The highlighted responses were the biggest points I saw (and funniest for the third one.) I'll provide some feedback to JL based on what I read.
"If Call of Duty games sell more on 360 & PS3, then just lower the amount of copies you make for the other platform." This made me laugh out loud so hard. As if printing copies is the primary expense of producing a game.
"Wii DID start a new era in gaming. Wii DID cause a full-turn revolution. Alongside the DS.
This cannot be denied as we see the adventures of Microsoft's Kinect, Sony's PlayStation Move, & Apple's & later Google's emergence in the gaming realm through the smartphones & tablets."
Really? Where are all the new motion controlled games? The big sellers? Yes PS4 and X1 support their motion systems but its very clear neither is focusing on them for games and clearly nintendo pretty much isnt as well. Motion games will have their occasional place but the Wii was no revolution. As I see it the Wii's motion control revolution turned out to be a fad.
"Horsepower is an excuse because that has never gotten in the way of a developer before.
It didn't get in the way of the Sega Genesis. It didn't get in the way of the Sony PlayStation 2."
Absurd. First of all, the difference in power between the two examples you mentioned and their competitors was nowhere near as large as the difference between the Wii and its competitors.
Second, sure some games might be possible to downport but not all games. How can you not realize this? Horsepower is most certainly a valid excuse for refusing to downport a game. You can only gimp a piece of software so much before it becomes a technical mess or compromises the designers original vision.
Third, porting is not always about the nominal profit a company might make but the ROI. Could Rockstar port GTA V to the Wii U? Sure. But if it costs them $1 million and developer resources that could otherwise start working on GTA VI that will make a much larger ROI, then its a bad idea to port.
"There's a reason why I call the 3rd Party "The Kids". I should call them "The Brats".
God these analogies are so bad. Related to the last point, THERE IS NO THIRD PARTY CONSPIRACY! If Nintendo has a bad relationship with some third parties that's one thing, but regardless companies don't make decisions based on grudges and childlike behaviors you are describing. ROI. They are focused on ROI. Third parties know that the majority of their customers are on PS, XBOX, and PC. That's where they are going to prioritize their investments. Some publishers may test the water with Nintendo, e.g. Ubisoft, but if the ROI doesn't meet their expectations they will refocus on their more profitable platforms.
"They make games for EVERYONE. Not "Casuals" Not "Hardcores". EVERYONE. From 5 to 95."
JL, your argument against the labeling of casuals and hardcores is completely wrong. While those terms may not be great terms there is not one single gamer as you like to say. There are different demographics, markets, and market segments that all have completely different interests, habits, and preferences. To say that people who only play wii sports and wii fit are the same as gamers who play bioshock, last of us, etc is insane. In fact among the "hardcore" demographic there are hundreds of other segments. There is not one type of gamer as you say.
That brings me to my next point. JL, you're living in a bubble. I don't know if your game collection profile is complete but based on what I see you havent played a single non-nintendo game in your life. Sure, if you look at mine you won't find any nintendo games because I havent owned a nintendo console since the NES and GB and havent really played a nintendo game in full since Goldeneye, however, I am not oblivious to the appeal and success of Nintendo. I understand that there are millions of gamers elsewhere who love nintendo games. I am not oblivious that nintendo makes good games even if they aren't my cup of tea. But based on your comments you appear to be oblivious that other developers make games that millions of people love just as much as you love nintendo. There are plenty of developers (Rockstar, Bungie, Remedy, Bethesda, Naughty Dog etc.) who make fantastic, incredible games that are nothing like NIntendo. Again, do you not realize that you are only one of many gaming demographics. Can you not comprehend that there are people out there who like things you don't like, that don't like things you do like? This is why there is no Unity! There will be no everyone's console. PC gamers will never trade their high end machines, mods, keyboards, and mice to exclusively game on Nintendo. PS and XBOX gamers will continue to buy those consoles for their Uncharteds, Halos, Gears, and Gran Turismos in addition to the incredible third party games.
"Jacking up console prices to $400, $500, $600. Making you pay an extra bill for online play when it used to be free.
Trying to restrict the purchase of used games. Trying to restrict the ability to share games.
Disabling the ability for console to work offline. Microtransactions ruining the gaming experience.
Commercials inside games. Advertisements on home screen of console. The abandonment of local multiplayer.
Focus on superficial Achievements over the natural discovery within the gaming experience.
Building & releasing fragile shoddy consoles that overheat & chew up your game discs."
Please. Let's look at Nintendo. Here is a $250 console, now please buy several wiimotes, nunchucks(not included with wiimote), plastic racing wheels, balance boards, pro controllers, oh and lets not forget hard drives because we refuse to include reasonable storage in either wii or wii u. Lets censor everything you do on our console and delete communication apps. I could go on but the point is no one is innocent here. I certainly don't like the moves microsoft attempted or now having to pay online for PS plus however, im am no longer upset given the value I get now. Two free games each month and dedicated servers with xbox gold, literally hundreds of games yearly with PS plus. And achivements? Really JL, you're going to complain about achivements? Again, I revert to my previous point, if you don't like it, it doesnt mean other people don't as well. To some people, what Microsoft and Sony is doing is not damaging the industry. Too bad if you don't like it.
This was not in your response to Mummel but you and others have said something similar multiple times before and its so ridiculous I have to address it. "The weakest console always win each generation." So many things wrong with this statement.
First, its not even fully correct. At the very least SNES was more powerful than the Genesis.
Second, a sample size of 7 generations is not sufficient to determine any meaningful significance to such a trend.
Third and most importantly, correlation does not imply causation. You should know this JL. You could at least try to make an argument about how the weakest console is usually cheaper or debuts earlier and that is what contributes to it's dominance but even then I could come back and dismiss it by introducing a multiple of other factors.
Lastly a comment about the PS4/X1 launches and why your Unity revolution is in more unlikely than you can tell by just weak hardware sales alone.
Nintendo has two major interralted issues right now with the Wii U and its competitors launches. First, Nintendo has very little third party support and it very likely may get worse. This has been discussed ad nauseum but ill quickly restate. First off, while the Wii U is certainly not as relatively underpowered as the Wii U its certainly the weakest of the three consoles and obviously much weaker than most PCs. Second, the Wii U is now the odd man out in terms of architecure. It will never make sense to lead with a Wii U when the three other platforms have similar architectures. Worst off, the weaker power and different architecture may discourage developers from even experimenting with a Wii U port.
Second, the Wii U is at a disadvantage because of a lack of a network effect. Nintendo's critical error last generation to limit their focus on online gaming will haunt them this generation and possibly further into the future. Like any social network, Sony and Microsoft have built a pretty powerful network effect of gamers on their consoles. Gamers on both consoles and PCs all have their own friends list, achievements, gamer history, and digital content accounts. Nintendo will struggle mightly to get any of these gamers to switch. While the start of a new generation is certainly the easiest time to switch since multiplayer gaming doesn't span console generations, the aforementioned factors in addition to brand loyalty will make it almost impossibly difficult to convince these multiplayer gamers to switch to the Wii U. This is why Nintendo has openly stated that they will allow cross platform multiplayer gaming. Because they have everything to gain from this and nothing to lose; hence why Sony and Microsoft will disallow it. This is further exacerbated by the third party issues mentioned above. The Wii U is outright missing the sports sim genre. No Fifa 14, Madden 14, NHL 14, NBA 2K14, and of course no MLB the Show 14. Across other games and genres they're missing NFS Rivals, racing sims, Battlefield, Destiny, The Crew, The division, and many more. How does this related to the network effect? These are all online games that thrive on the online communites built around them. Even the Wii U's only major multiplayer game, (COD Ghosts) sold peanuts compared to the X1 and PS4 versions. According to this site both the PS4 and X1 versions have sold over 1 mil while the Wii U hasn't even broken 100k. The Wii U is already behind in its network effect for these games despite the one year head start. How long till the only real 3P supporters of the Wii U(Ubisoft and WB) break support as well?
In conclusion, I'm not dooming Nintendo here even if I sound harsh. I still believe Nintendo may be able to shift around 40 million units and sell plenty of Nintendo software to keep them profitable, but there will be no unity, no revolution, no domination. Sony and Microsoft will hold their own as they have the past two generations while Nintendo will excel at making Nintendo games for Nintendo fans. Why not just sit back and enjoy those games instead of wishing and hoping that everyone comes to sit at your nintendo table.