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

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

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.

 

That would be over kill and leave their calendar empty for years. It'd be like asking MS or Sony to release Halo, Gears, Forza and Fable or KZ, GT, GoW and LBP all at launch. Sure it'd be amazing for the first month but then the worst drought imaginable.

[Praetor]

Nintendo should continue to build great hardware and release even greater games; for me their problem is marketing (worse then Sony and MS), the Nintendo Network (needs better services) and the game catalog needs more top games to sell the console. Sega problems started to show when Sony entered in the console game: Sega was left behind and never recovered while Nintendo had managed to dodge the problems, so having Nintendo being just a publisher is a big shoot in both foots and legs (one must learn with rivals mistakes).

 

Having said that, Nintendo, Sega, Capcom and Namco are my top favorite japanese videogame companies.

[The Evil Overlord]

I have a dream...

 

Pikmin on the PS4 :p

 

Nah, I don't think Nintendo's there, yet, they took a hit, but that doesn't always mean dead and buried

[dead.cell]

Look, I don't really care if Nintendo decides to go one way or the other, nor do I expect them to give up making consoles.

 

However, I see a lot of you referencing what happened with Sega. This really bothers me because Nintendo is leagues above Sega in terms of development quality, hands down.

 

I mean, I know I don't speak for anyone beyond myself, but I haven't seen a Sega game within the past 5-10 years or better at least that has made me go, "Daaaaammn... you know what? I want that!"

 

Seriously, I doubt that if Nintendo chose to get out of the business of making a home console, that they'd have any issue whatsoever as far as game development.

 

Personally, I think they should still keep making consoles though. Hopefully, they get their ass handed to them though and learn to make a product people want instead of ignoring the competition and pretending we're going to drop money just for the Nintendo name alone.

[theyarecomingforyou]

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.

But the same can be said about the XB1 and PS4, both of which have substantially better graphics, better developer support and better online facilities. Consoles don't exist in isolation and the Wii U just doesn't stand up against the competition. That and it has a bulky, awkward controller that has terrible battery life.

 

The Wii U was Nintendo's attempt to recreate the gimmick that made the original Wii a runaway success. It didn't work. The question therefore is where does Nintendo go from here? One option would be to ditch the controller, which was expensive and gimmicky, and relaunch it at a much lower price point - it would also need to be rebranded, as the Wii U name was confusing to a lot of consumers. Another would be to ditch making consoles altogether and focus on their games, which have always been Nintendo's strength. People don't buy a Nintendo console to play multi-platform games - they buy it for Nintendo's first-party games.

 

Microsoft and Sony are both committing billions of dollars to the console wars and the amount they will make back is minimal, if they make anything at all. Nintendo just can't compete with that and it shouldn't even try. As I've said, I won't be buying any Nintendo consoles or games as things stand but if Nintendo released them multi-platform I would likely pick up many of them. I mean, Steam is ideally suited to casual games like Mario and Donkey Kong.

[Praetor]

The name Wii U doesn't help either, because it just causes confusion to people (instead of relating to a great console, people think it's the same stuff).

 

off topic: theyarecomingforyou: ok, now who are those guys/gals in your sig? :laugh:

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

I said it in another thread so I will say it in here...

 

The WiiU is perfect for those people that do not expect anything less and anything more except the classic Nintendo experience. I picked up one last night (again), and besides the fact I have to wait 4-6 days for my Nintendo Network ID to get sorted because they have the absolute worst way of handling ID's in the history of gaming consoles, I am truly psyched to be playing the new Donkey Kong as it is classic DKC but with great visuals. I got the Zelda Wind Walker HD bundle so have that to play (when my ID is sorted of course), I am really looking forward to the latest Super Mario 3D World, and finally one of the main reasons I picked the WiiU up, Mario Kart 8.

 

Seriously if I only play those 4 games, plus some of the classic Virtual Console games, I am going to be content with my purchase.

 

With all that said, would it be fantastic if I could play those games on one of the other consoles? Sure it would. But then I fear it would no longer be the same quality of games. I personally believe Nintendo proves something with their first party games, and that is no one can do it quite like them, they are the epitome of what video games should be, and that is fun first and foremost, and I personally believe them releasing their own hardware let's them be them. They control everything.

 

I think all they really need to do is go all out with the first party titles. Realize 3rd party developers are going elsewhere, embrace it, and just kill it with the titles that only they can deliver. Gobble up some developers. Just really step it up.

 

That does it for me. I am off to play some Tropical Freeze. :punk:

[+virtorio MVC]

Their hand-held devices are fine, but I'd rather they were putting out games on existing living room consoles. I really want to play a couple of Wii U games, but I'm never going to buy a Wii U.

[+Asmodai MVC]

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?

Nintendo is still the king of handhelds so it would be dumb of them to exit hardware right now. The Wii U is going to be a flop relatively speaking but Nintendo only needs to sell what they make since they don't sell them at a loss anyway. The only way they would lose a bunch of money is if they couldn't sell what they've manufactured or they cut the price below what they cost to make to try to compete. A better idea for them is just to ride it out for a little while. Design a new console and release it in two years or so. That will make the Wii U cycle kind of short at only 3 or so years but it will be way too soon for MS or Sony to launch a new console. Since their console won't be out for a few years they can base their GPU off newer tech for example possibly using the 20nm Pirate Islands based GPU on a SoC with a muli-core 20nm IBM Power based core that's competitive with the Jaguar ones in the Xbone and PS4. That would make it potentially backwards compatible or they could simply ditch Power like everyone else did and go with a Puma+ (Jaguar's successor) so it would edge out the Xbone and PS4. If they come to market 2 years or so later it shouldn't be too hard for them to edge out the best PS4 and Xbone specs, they don't need to DOMINATE. If they're a little better that should be enough to sell consoles and if they're close it will ensure they're good targets for cross platform releases (unlike the Wii U which has a large performance gap from the PS4 and Xbone). They'll still have all their amazing platform exclusives and by then they could release the 3DSNext too as a companion device. It's WAY too early to give up on hardware for them but yeah the Wii U specifically is going to be a fail. The N64 sold less than 1/3 of original Playstation yet Nintendo survived. The Gamecube sold just over 1/7th of the PS 2 and came in third overall globally behind even the original Xbox yet Nintendo is still here. It's WAY too early to count them out.

[Xilo]

Nintendo is so out of touch with gamers that they have no idea what they are doing. They need to get out of the console business and stick to games and handheld. The only reason people even buy Nintendo's consoles are for the Nintendo 1st party games.

[Praetor]

Nintendo is so out of touch with gamers that they have no idea what they are doing. They need to get out of the console business and stick to games and handheld. The only reason people even buy Nintendo's consoles are for the Nintendo 1st party games.

 

and that is enough for them, it seems; why compete with MS and Sony? That way they can differentiate and be in a reign apart from them.

[Xilo]

and that is enough for them, it seems; why compete with MS and Sony? That way they can differentiate and be in a reign apart from them.

I hope you realize that Nintendo lost a ton of money due to the WiiU.

[madd-hatter]

I'd give them one more gen before coming to this conclusion with their home consoles.

 

It seems to me that they understand where they are failing. Perhaps they will make a comeback.

 

They do have very good brand recognition and consumer rapport.

I'd argue that their brand recognition is still much stronger than Xbox overall. (People over 30 are much more likely to know of Nintendo than Xbox.)

Also, historically, Nintendo does well with the Asian markets and ABSOLUTELY DESTROYS the handheld market.

 

Considering handhelds alone... No, no way Nintendo goes to "just making games."