Should Nintendo pull a Sega and switch to just making games?

By Kreuger
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Grand Master

Kreuger

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I came across this article on Escapist that talks about Nintendo's future and found myself agreeing with a lot of what Ben says. Especially that Nintendo should stop developing consoles. I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks.

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Grand Master

Lord Method Man

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Worked out great for Sega, didn't it.

 

Stale, old gaming analyst talking point that bloggers give themselves handjobs over each time they recycle an article about it. Not much worth discussing.

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Grand Master

compl3x

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Careful, OP, saying anything even remotely negative about Ninty on here is likely to get you flamed.

 

 

Nintendo aren't in the same sort of financial mess that Sega was in.Nintendo has the money in the bank to weather this storm, the question might be "why bother"? I think Nintendo is going to be in third place platform wise this entire generation, and unless they pull out some amazing ###### with the Wii U, it might be a bit of a write-off for them.

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Grand Master

LaP

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Sega is no more. It is now Sammy-Sega and is mostly a pachinko machine maker.

 

So i sure do hope NIntendo doesn't make like Sega.

 

I'm surprised there's still people who think Sega was extremely successful as a publisher. For one the company we used to know doesn't exist anymore. For two unless i'm wrong most of the revenue of the Sega-Sammy holdings come from pachinko/pachislot machines.

 

The most important segment of the company is Sammy's Pachinko / Pachislot segment. In the past 80% of profits was generated in the Pachislot business.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Sammy_Holdings#Operations

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Grand Master

Draconian Guppy

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Agreed, even though the Wii U isn't all that great, it IS selling and Nintendo does have the financial backing to make an uber spec'd console, the question is, how would it set itself apart from the XB1 and PS4?

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Grand Master

LimeMaster

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Sega is no more. It is now Sammy-Sega and is mostly a pachinko machine maker.

 

So i sure do hope NIntendo doesn't make like Sega.

 

I'm surprised there's still people who think Sega was extremely successful as a publisher. For one the company we used to know doesn't exist anymore. For two unless i'm wrong most of the revenue of the Sega-Sammy holdings come from pachinko/pachislot machines.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Sammy_Holdings#Operations

Sammy is Sega. In fact, all the games they release nowadays don't mention the Sammy part at all, so Sega still exists even if they aren't as popular as they used to be. :)

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Grand Master

LaP

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Sammy is Sega. In fact, all the games they release nowadays don't mention the Sammy part at all, so Sega still exists even if they aren't as popular as they used to be. :)

 

It is the other way around i think. Sega is Sammy.

 

It's a name. The name of a subsidiary. Of course between Sega and Sammy (both were making games before) they will use the most popular name for the video games division which is Sega. But the guy at the head of the holding company (Hajime Satomi) is the past CEO and founder of of sammy. Sega is now a subsidiary probably under Sammy control. Not sure they can do whatever they want.

 

Sammy Corporation, Japan's largest slot machine maker bought out ailing videogame maker Sega Corporation in 2004 for $394 million. Hajime Satomi heads the newly combined $4.5 billion (sales) group, now called Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. with its main businesses being those of Sammy Corporation and Sega Corporation. As a result, Sega Sammy Holdings had grown by 2005 to become one of the top 60 enterprises in Japan, based on recurring income.

This is different than Square-Enix which was formed as the result of a merge between two great rpg developers and publishers. Unless i'm wrong (and i could be finance and business is not my cup of tea) Sammy did buy Sega and merged its own kinda weak video games development studio with Sega whose name was more popular. Anyway the last time i've seen the sega logo at the beginning of a game was a long, long time ago.

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Grand Master

LimeMaster

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It is the other way around i think. Sega is Sammy.

 

It's a name. The name of a subsidiary. Of course between Sega and Sammy (both were making games before) they will use the most popular name for the video games division which is Sega. But the guy at the head of the holding company (Hajime Satomi) is the past CEO and founder of of sammy. Sega is now a subsidiary under Sammy control.

 

This is different than Square-Enix which was formed as the result of a merge between two great rpg developers and publishers. Unless i'm wrong (and i could be finance and business is not my cup of tea) Sammy did buy Sega and merged its own video games development studio with Sega whose name was more popular. Anyway the last time i've seen the sega logo at the beginning of a game was a long, long time ago.

Hmm, OK. Thing is, I've never seen the Sammy branding appear in any recent Sega game, so the merge really doesn't matter as even though Sammy bought Sega and changed it to Sammy-Sega, it seems that the Sega brand is stronger than Sammy's and means that it could technically be that Sega is Sammy.  This is proven by the fact that a lot of people didn't even know that Sammy existed until you mentioned it. :)

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Grand Master

DrunknMunky Veteran

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Definitely not. SEGA never recovered and I'm sure Nintendo would struggle too. Their strength comes from the marriage between hardware and software.

 

I think Yahztee is stuck in the past himself ironically, if he thinks SMG was the last good game from Nintendo that pushed the boundaries of their games. Just about every IP they own was improved upon during the Wii's lifetime.

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Grand Master

LaP

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I perfer this news headline from forbes: Microsoft should give xbox one to nintendo

http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2014/02/18/microsoft-should-give-xbox-one-to-nintendo/2/

 

Nah i still think a merge between Nintendo and Valve could potentially be a lot more fun. The fanboys war would totally explose. That would be so fun to see this happens.

Definitely not. SEGA never recovered and I'm sure Nintendo would struggle too. Their strength comes from the marriage between hardware and software.

 

I think Yahztee is stuck in the past himself ironically, if he thinks SMG was the last good game from Nintendo that pushed the boundaries of their games. Just about every IP they own was improved upon during the Wii's lifetime.

 

I tried the last Mario game and it is a really fun game. One of the best game i played lately. Not enough to make me want to buy that crazy tablet controller but still great fun.

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Grand Master

+Warwagon MVC

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Well they can't do any worse. Plus they have some really good franchises they could release on other systems and make a butt load of money. Metroid 51 anyone?

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Snake89

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Nah i still think a merge between Nintendo and Valve could potentially be a lot more fun. The fanboys war would totally explose. That would be so fun to see this happens.

 

I tried the last Mario game and it is a really fun game. One of the best game i played lately. Not enough to make me want to buy that crazy tablet controller but still great fun.

I agree with what your saying.

That's mostly why i come to Neowin now is to laugh at the fanboys.

Also it would be pretty epic to have a team fortress game with Nintendo characters.

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Grand Master

theyarecomingforyou

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Nintendo has produced pretty terrible consoles ever since the N64 yet their games have been very strong. People love their games but just aren't willing to buy a console for the privilege. Releasing games multi-platform would dramatically increase Nintendo's reach and eliminate the liability that is maintaining a console. Releasing games on Steam alone would reach an audience of over 75 million, which is dramatically more than the next gen consoles can boast.

 

As for the Sega comparison, Nintendo has a much stronger games catalogue and much better finances. I won't be buying any Nintendo console or games in the foreseeable future - if Nintendo were to release games on Steam then I would strongly consider getting them.

 

PS - It would be really good to see Nintendo launch a Steam Machine and release its entire catalogue on Steam. That would be a low-risk, high-reward venture.

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Grand Master

Livin in a box

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People are forgetting that their 3DS is still hugely successful. If they began development on other platforms, particularly on smart phones and tablets, they'd essentially be shooting themselves in the foot...

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Grand Master

Jason S. Global Moderator

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People crave instant gratification these days... Nintendo doesnt sell 5mil consoles like the PS4 and suddenly it's a dud. Isnt safe to say that Nintendo isnt a competitor to the Xbox or PS?

 

i really like the Wii U. Nintendo really messed up w/ marketing and big software titles. I really hope they catch up this year w/ DKCR and Mario Kart, among others.

 

edit - btw, remember when all those people thought the 3DS was a dud in its first year? now look where it is... history repeats...

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Grand Master

compl3x

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People crave instant gratification these days... Nintendo doesnt sell 5mil consoles like the PS4 and suddenly it's a dud. Isnt safe to say that Nintendo isnt a competitor to the Xbox or PS?

 

i really like the Wii U. Nintendo really messed up w/ marketing and big software titles. I really hope they catch up this year w/ DKCR and Mario Kart, among others.

 

edit - btw, remember when all those people thought the 3DS was a dud in its first year? now look where it is... history repeats...

 

 

I think you might be glossing over some important pieces of info.

 

The massive downgrades in the Wii U and 3DS sales forecasts and the three years of loses at Nintendo is worrying people. It's not a sudden realisation that the Wii U is a dud.

 

It's also worth nothing that I think Nintendo had to offer a pretty significant price drop to get those 3DS units moving and the fact they've redesigned it twice (once to 3DS XL & a 2DS) suggests a bit of a confused product.

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Grand Master

jerzdawg

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Ive said the same thing over and over in threads but Ill say it again here.  The people who sit down and play with the Wii U and their first title games know that its a great product.  Is it worth the $300... thats up for debate.  As already mentioned the marketing for this thing was almost non-existent.  To this day people dont know that the Wii U is a different console from the Wii.  DirtyLarry said it perfectly, its a great console as long as its not your primary gaming method.  There just arent enough games (at the moment) to make it interesting enough to buy.  If they would have launched with Mario, Zelda, SSB, Mario Kart I really do believe we'd be singing a different tune.  As far as the original question goes.... no.  Sega is all but dead in my eyes, Sonic has become a joke at best with the stupid releases over the years.  I really want the Wii U to succeed because the games I have purchased New Super Mario, Mario World 3d, Lego City undercover and just today Donkey Kong... are excellent games that just cant seem to sell consoles.

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