Going completely against the grain here...

I think people dramatically over state Nintendo. Sure, they have made plenty of innovations but these ideas certainly wouldn't 'vanish' or never be seen if Nintendo wasn't around. It has absolutely nothing to do with the company of Nintendo merely the people working for Nintendo generating ideas. You don't think these people would land elsewhere?

People act as if Nintendo is just light years ahead of the competition? Hardly.

Nintendo has lived off of a core group of fans and generally regarded as a very positive child oriented system. (IE: I personally have bought Nintendo systems just because they were a Nintendo system with Mario, Zelda, etc games...Gamecube sticks out). I think most software on Nintendo systems dating back to the N64 (Outside of Nintendo software) has been pretty mediocre as a whole.


I think you may lose some of the charm and nostalgia of not having a Nintendo...but truly the games would drastically improve IMHO.


I think that the argument that Nintendo 'invented' ______ or 'introduced' ______ is just a cop out argument. It's acting as if Nintendo had Einstein moments that no one would have discovered at any point down the road. Which is abundantly false IMO.

Sony,  most definitely.  Microsoft that's debatable.  Sony has tons of high quality game developers and has proven to release multitudes of AAA games  through their developers.

The only significant series with longevity and selling power is Gran Turismo. It's strange how you came into here claiming people are overrating Nintendo, then go and do the same thing with Sony. Sony's 1st party software largely consists of games with very limited appeal (and shooting things); you will not see Grandma playing Uncharted. To compare their 1st party offerings to Nintendo's is just ludicrous.

That's the key.  Sony simply has multiple development groups like 'Team Ico' and Naughty Dog Studios.  However, if Sony no longer had a vested interest in gaming (aka, wasn't making consoles/handhelds), why would they need all those studios anymore?  It would be like owning a bunch of production contracts with noted film production groups that were making you a nice bit of money after you sold the Movie Studio they were making those movies under.

Nintendo is in somewhat of a different state.  Yes they own/have contracts with other companies much like Sony.  But they also make much of their own games internally.  Many games like Mario Galaxy, Zelda Wii and Metroid: Other M are designed by Nintendo itself and not a secondary company.  Often times made or produced by the very people who designed the console itself.

Can you elaborate on this?

Many of their innovations were not even close to being obvious. This is unlike, say, the cartridge to disc media switch that the Playstation made. You've gotta wonder:

Would we have had the D-pad standard? Joysticks were the norm.
Rumble feedback on controllers?
A microphone on a handheld?
The Wii remote? Even after seeing it, nobody thought this would work.

They're like the only gaming company with such lasting "discoveries." I find it hard to believe all of this makes for a mere cop out argument.

In fact, that's not a bad name for these - "Einstein moments" indeed. Who is to say there would not have been someone to replace Einstein, had he not been born? You can downplay his achievements in much the same way.

edit: Saw this part:

But, uh, when talking about Nintendo, aren't we talking about the people working for Nintendo? Why even bother discussing this if we assume the brains of Nintendo don't even stay in the company?

Yes, it is very important that Nintendo makes hardware. The software guys work with the hardware guys to determine what will go into the next console. If they weren't working together we wouldn't have gotten the Wii remote and Mario Kart Wii wouldn't exist as we know it today.

Back in the N64 days, I would have been playing Mario 64 on a d-pad rather than an analog stick, as the PS1 didn't come with an analog stick at first, and Mario 64 was a launch title.

ok, argue against this. Nintendo always has their software group feedback ideas to their hardware group. Had Nitnendo only created software (which was the argument, not that they didn't exist) and their hardware guys gone over to the other company (Sony/Sega, and now Microsoft) would they have invented half the things they did? OR, would the software guys (like Miyamoto) said, "I wish we had rumble, but we don't make hardware" and nothing happened.

edit: double post