Random Gaming Thoughts

[BogusMeatFactory]

@BogusMeatFactory

Are you saying that the reason Wii U had disappointing sales (along with the NGC before it) was because of bad advertising?

Actually, it's both of those. Nintendo games are only available on Nintendo consoles, so if you want to play them, you have to buy that console. And Nintendo did manage to tap into a massive and largely untouched market that has since migrated to mobile and social media platforms.

Thanks for the reply, I edited my previous post. I guess we agree then. Nintendo's Wii success was a good business that lasted 6 years but that untouched market has since long gone and they didn't decide to pick Nintendo's mobile platform. As for the future, I am just going to guess that Nintendo's 10-15m fanbase that decide they want to play exclusive games is just not large enough to keep a console manufacturer going on.

Bad advertising and poor communication is definitely a culprit for the poor sales. When the system was announced, people did not know if the game pad was an add-on or if this was a brand new system. The name itself was just as confusing and added to that. The commercials and advertisements seemed canned, phony and full of, "Families play together," that seemed disingenuous. They didn't put as much time into that recently tapped market like they did with the Wii and it caused a lot of confusion and loss of those people. They did not get as much carry-over from the Wii, because of it.

I would not say that there is such a small Nintendo fan base. The New Super Mario Bros. franchise sold almost 30 million globally on both DS and Wii, yet only 4 million on the Wii U. Why is that?

New Super Mario Bros. U sold more in the U.S. than in Japan and is a continuing sign of the struggling game economy in that nation. There is a much larger focus on mobile gaming in Japan and all the Japanese companies are feeling that hit.

[Ack]

@BogusMeatFactory

Are you saying that the reason Wii U had disappointing sales (along with the NGC before it) was because of bad advertising?

Actually, it's both of those. Nintendo games are only available on Nintendo consoles, so if you want to play them, you have to buy that console. And Nintendo did manage to tap into a massive and largely untouched market that has since migrated to mobile and social media platforms.

Thanks for the reply, I edited my previous post. I guess we agree then. Nintendo's Wii success was a good business that lasted 6 years but that untouched market has since long gone and they didn't decide to pick Nintendo's mobile platform. As for the future, I am just going to guess that Nintendo's 10-15m fanbase that decide they want to play exclusive games is just not large enough to keep a console manufacturer going on.

Nothing is large enough to keep console manufacturing going, so the whole industry is moving towards mobile. That's just how it is in video games right now. Fastbilly and I have speculated back and forth about about how much longer we'll be seeing dedicated consoles, and truth is, we don't expect it to be much more than a decade or so.

In the last generation, Nintendo reached out and captured that casual crowd when they could and helped bring them into gaming. Now they intend to go for mobile, where most of that casual crowd has gone. It makes the most sense, as mobile gaming is huge in Japan, many people already own smartphones for communication purposes so no additional hardware is required, mobile-based companies are seeing exponential profit growth, and consoles aren't what they used to be. Small companies are raking in millions and billions, and a lot of folks are flocking in that direction, just as so many flocked to video games in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including Nintendo. You complain about Nintendo constantly, but everyone will likely either go this way, has gone this way, or will go/has gone towards the PC and digital distribution networks. Microsoft has done both already, even though their digital distribution system totally sucks. Hell, Sony has a whole division for mobile hardware and software which they formed in 2001.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Is all this talk about gaming going mobile mean that the N-Gage was ahead of its time!? Let's bring the N-Gage back! N-Gage 2: Electric Boogaloo!!!!!!

[Ack]

Is all this talk about gaming going mobile mean that the N-Gage was ahead of its time!? Let's bring the N-Gage back! N-Gage 2: Electric Boogaloo!!!!!!

...yes.

So was Sega.net, the Satellaview, the TurboExpress, Game.com, Cybiko, Tapwave Zodiac, GP32, Gizmondo, GP2X, Pandora, Shield Portable, etc.

[Exhuminator]

I don't think Nokia could have known the turnover rate on phones would become this annual thing like it is now. Trying to make a mobile platform that could stick around for five years like a normal dedicated gaming device would be tremendously challenging given the turnover rate in today's phone market. Even if the N-Gage had gained a foothold in gaming, from a technological perspective as an actual phone it would have obsolesced too quickly.

[BogusMeatFactory]

I don't think Nokia could have known the turnover rate on phones would become this annual thing like it is now. Trying to make a mobile platform that could stick around for five years like a normal dedicated gaming device would be tremendously challenging given the turnover rate in today's phone market. Even if the N-Gage had gained a foothold in gaming, from a technological perspective as an actual phone it would have obsolesced too quickly.

But the N-gage had not one, but TWO Elder Scrolls games! Who would have thought it could fail with that!?

[Exhuminator]

It's actually really surprising the amount of third party developers Nokia was able to get interested in the platform during its short lifespan.

[fastbilly1]

I don't think Nokia could have known the turnover rate on phones would become this annual thing like it is now. Trying to make a mobile platform that could stick around for five years like a normal dedicated gaming device would be tremendously challenging given the turnover rate in today's phone market. Even if the N-Gage had gained a foothold in gaming, from a technological perspective as an actual phone it would have obsolesced too quickly.

But the N-gage had not one, but TWO Elder Scrolls games! Who would have thought it could fail with that!?

It also had a surprisingly good MMO in Pocket Kingdom. Which was kinda like Archmage meets Dragon Force.

[isiolia]

It's actually really surprising the amount of third party developers Nokia was able to get interested in the platform during its short lifespan.

Probably one of the main failures was trying to make it a single device/series of devices, like I think you were saying. To me, a big reason that phone/tablet gaming has taken off like it has is because they aren't dedicated devices. Kinda like PC gaming can be, at least for games on the lower end of system requirements.

Either way, it's not as though Nintendo is leading the charge for Japanese game companies branching out to mobile. I think some are starting to outsource more, like Nintendo's partnership - SE spinning off mobile FFXI to Nexon for instance.

[Soldier Blue]

Has anyone used this gamecube controller before? Seems like a good alternative to the HORI Controller, but the dpad seems kinda cheap??

http://www.ebay.com/itm/201347705304?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT