prayformojo said:
No, he isn't. That's like saying people who want universal health care hate America. Usually, those who are most passionate and vocal are those who care the most. I am in the same boat as this guy. I am 34, and thus, the ORIGINAL Nintendo gamer. Those consoles and games and characters and worlds, are MY childhood. They hold a special place in my heart and anyone else my age, probably feels the game way. And THAT'S why I am so pissed off about what Iwata did to this company. If I weren't so into them, why would I care? I wouldn't. I'd be like...pfft, fuck them...let them release Mario 30 and another cartoon Zelda that no one wants. I'd support what Iwata is doing because he's ruining everything that made them great imo and if you don't believe me, the sales are more than enough to prove that point correct. I would be ok with them staying in hardware ONLY if they get it together and give us a modern SNES which would basically be a PS4 made by Nintendo. But if Iwata wants to continue dodging reality and ruining a once mighty company, than no, I'm NOT going to be ok with it and YES, I'm going to be vocal about it. Being a fan means caring about whatever it is that you are a fan of and anyone who supports the concept of the Wii-U, is imo, not a fan. |
Mr. Rubin is not a fan of Nintendo and has probably never been a fan of Nintendo or its software. This is not an issue about him being passionate about supporting technologically advanced consoles or ones with better online capabilities. My reasoning is that when he co-founded Naughty Dog in 1985 (known as Jam Software at the time), his company did not become a Nintendo developer (despite Nintendo being the dominant player at the time) and they did not ever develop for a Nintendo console. They started with the Apple II (which is understandable considering they were a startup at the time) then moved to Sega Genesis, and then to 3DO (a very expensive system to develop for btw compared to SNES), and then to Playstation; after which he sold the company to Sony.
What he does with his own money is irrelevent. Microsoft former CEO and current chairman Bill Gates said he would never buy Apple products for himself or for his family (and they were not allowed to buy them either) as does Microsoft's current (soon to be former) CEO Steve Ballmer; Ballmer went on to laugh off the iPhone and Gates said the iPad was insignificant. My point is that, it is no surprise that those who have stake in competing companies end up rediculing their competitors products and disallowing their families from buying; and unlike what you are saying it does not mean that he is not a fan of their product. And just to prepare you for the future, I can bet you that Jack Tretton, Mark Carney, and Andy Gavin will not have nice things to say about Nintendo consoles either.
As for your comment that anyone supports the Wii U is not a fan, well I have to say that I really like Nintendo and Iwata and I have a Wii U and I am a fan of what they have done and I see a future in it if Nintendo plays their cards right. They have the least expensive console to produce (which will give them the ability to aggressively price the system in the future), they have a great selection of first-party games coming to the system, and the Gamepad does give the system a unique edge (if only they show it off better), and an overall reliable system. Also, the Zelda Wind Waker remake (which is a stop gap so that players have something to play until they can finish development on the next orginal Zelda game for the system; also if you play the original Zelda games on the NES and Zelda on SNES and compare it to games such as Final Fantasy on those system you will realize that Zelda was never about being non-cartoonish and realistic) and Mario game that you are talking have gotten high praise from almost every review outlet and fan out there; and over the 28 years that Mario franchise has existed on their home consoles and portable system Nintendo has only released 18 mainline Mario games on all of their systems combined (which hardly compares to the yearly release rate of Call of Duty, God of War [before Sony gave it a break], Assasins Creed, and EA's sports series [which hardly change at all]we get on the same platforms) and these Mario games proved very popular to players and critics alike and from what we have seen in history Mario games have legs. Also, on your point about sales, you should look at how well recent Mario and Zelda games are performing on the 3DS (by the way Zelda on the 3DS is not realistic either) along with other games like Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem, Luigi's Mansion, Pokemon X & Y, etc have performed. These sales clearly contradict your point that people do not want these games anymore or that Nintendo is heading in the wrong direction.
I also want to say that Iwata brought Nintendo to its best financial shape. He headed the comapny during developement of the Wii, DS, and 3DS (the latter two also had a rough start; and one went to become the best selling handheld console of all time and the other is right now the leading console in terms of sales). Furthermore, under him we got amazing games like Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, the Wii series of games, Kid Icarus: Uprising, and fantastic Fire Emblem game, Xenoblade Chronicals, and many others. Beyond that he looks out for his workers, despite a single year of losses (in 2011), he refused to layoff people from the company as a sign of respect to those who work for them and also the ensure that in the future the company does not have to worry about being underemployed especially in their software departments. He also has made numerous efforts to constantly engage with fans and keep them in the loop through Nintendo Directs and Iwata Asks sessions. Based on his track record, I am more than willing to give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt that he will come through with Wii U, and I feel he has been and continues to be fantastic for Nintendo.
Lastly, I want to say that Nintendo has not had always had the most poweful system. The NES was not as powerful as Master System, the SNES had a slower processor than Genesis; and their protable systems were also less powerful than competing systems. But they had the price advantage and they had software to back it up. Therefore your point about Nintendo needing to release a PS4 hardware clone is irrelevent. This generation is just starting, and Nintendo's less expensive system could prove to be good competitor in 2014 especially if they do a further price reduction when key 2014 titles launch. The sales of Wii U increased in a large way after the last price cut, so there does appear to be interest in the system; Nintendo just needs to further reduce the price of the system.
Now I have written a large piece in which I justified what Nintendo is doing and that is because I think their general direction is good for this generation but they just need some tweaks to their strategy. However, as a fan, I can easily criticize them and Iwata as well. While I stated that Iwata has done an overall great job at Nintendo he has made some mistakes; his biggest mistake regarding the Wii U was underesimating the time it takes to make an HD game as well as promising investors 100 billion yen operating profits during a console transition when your home console just lost momentum and will most likely require price adjustments. Nintendo's also needs to stepup their online system, but they are slowly but surely adding the missing gaps in their system (they did this by removing size restrictions and many developement restrictions with the introduction of eShop on 3DS, they have added an ID system which will launch later this month on 3DS and has been available since day 1 for Wii U, they have created Miiverse as a means of social networking in games and they are bringing to multiple platforms, they are going to unify the 3DS and Wii U eShop balances later this months, and they are building more first-party games with online multiplayer capabilities [although they can do better on this end] and social intigration).
