pakidan101 said:
@Impulsivity and RedHarvest
Saying that adding even more technology with HD graphics will make games great is also a straw man argument.
I understand the argument and everything, but it seems easy to argue your POV now with the hindsight of 2 years of the Wii being in the market. Remember 2006? People were ready to just laugh at the idea that Nintendo were still trying to be in the market, let alone be successful.
For two straight gens, they were the more powerful console and for two straight gens they were either a far away second place or dead last. And you both are still arguing that a more powerful, HD console will work for Nintendo? With or without motion controls, an HD Wii after suffering from two miserable generations (though somewhat profitable) would be devastating for Nintendo due to the costs.
If Nintendo Wii HD was just as expensive as the PS3 or 360, who is going to buy it? Everybody will flock to the other systems or just not buy any at all, causing another video game crash.
You guys are thinking that the power and the graphics are what makes the games. That is, imo, a load of crap. The graphics, achievements/trophies are all icings. In the end, there is a reason why video games, movies and books are different. Books are the most basic forms of entertainment, telling stories to entertain but require your imagination. Movies are the next step, with pictures in motion to replace your imagination. Video games are the next step, but not because it is better than RL (I mean c'mon, how can it replace the graphics of real life) but because of manual input, or the idea of affecting the character and the story. Nintendo finally understands this and are taking advantage of it.
If you are thinking that Nintendo games need high end graphics and online to effectively entertain people, then you just don't understand Nintendo and it is not for you. They have their icons not only survive, but thrive through so many gens that it isn't necessary for them to use graphics to appeal to millions...they just need a medium to paint their story for you to listen and a controller for you to tell the story the way you want to.
Don't worry, nothing is wrong with you. So what if the majority of people (or near majority, seeing that they are about 2% away from 50% marketshare) don't care about your vision of "high-end technology is the proper way to play games" ideology...you guys should choose what you want to play and enjoy it. But don't think that Nintendo is not better off at what they are doing right now and should follow Sony and Microsoft's way...they are doing what they needed to do to not only stay alive in the industry, but to excel to the top.
In other words, it isn't Nintendo....it's you. And I say this in the nicest way because there is nothing wrong with what you want...it is wrong, though, to expect Nintendo to change for you. |
Right now the Wii has the lowest percentage of any winning console period. They ARE in 1st, but they are not blowing the others out of the water as the winner has done historically.
The PS2 has sold 100 million more then both competitors combined, the Wii is not even at the cumulative total of its competitors much less at 80% PS2 domination. The PS also blew away the Saturn and N64. The SNES only had one competitor, but still managed a very nice 60% market share. The NES had an even higher market share after its run.
The Wii would not just be where it is now, but would be a decent contender for the PS2 mantle (a dominant system) with better graphics. Yes you can say "oh but its successful without them so clearly graphics are not importnat" but its still behind the HD consoles in total sales. More people seem to care about graphics then don't care about graphics given that HD consoles and games still sell better overall.
If either Sony or Microsoft dropped out it is in no way a given that Nintendo would even be in first. Nintendo is benefiting from MS and Sony canibalizing each other and splitting the best games to two semi identical platforms. There are more gamers interested in good graphic then not (the sales show that, even if they are split) and the HD gamers buy more games (look at the PS3 and 360 attatch rate). GTA4 is still by FAR the best selling game, the only reason Mario Kart can pass one of the 2 SKUs up is because of the split between 2 HD consoles. A lot of Wii fans are mistaking the market for casual games being solidified behind Nintendo and the market for other games being split for a Nintendomination moment where casual is forever king.
More likely if one of the HD players would drop out and solidify the HD market it would be ahead of the Wii especially on software sales.
As to the last 2 gens going badly for Nintendo, Nintendo's woes can be largely traced to not choosing the standard format of the era (CD and then DVD). It was hard to port the games to much smaller sizes to fit on the propriatary media and so a lot of devs didn't. How are you going to get GTA3 down to a tiny less then 2GB mini disk? Certainly not be using the same version you created for the PS2.
The Wii+HD graphics and DVD media could almost certainly be pulling in a plurality of sales and then some. It would be a Wii HD at a similar price point would be at about 60-65% of total sales (I would still own one and so would a lot of Wii owners who have since sold them killing an additional new Wii sale).
I also don't see why people keep making the super expensive arguement. When the Wii came out the 360 was already 300 dollars, its down below the Wii price at 200 now. HD graphics do not require a 500 dollar PS3 price point. I'm not suggesting the Wii add in a Blu Ray Drive, big Hard Drive and other components that make the PS3 so expensive. A Wii that resembles the 360 arcade (but with the wifi and other features it has no obviously) would have come in at 300 dollars and sold as well or better. It WAS functionally well over 300 dollars for over a year due to retail markups and ebay markups if anyone remembers.
