Yesterday's Nintendo press conference was probably the most subdued and honest of the three major events this week. While they didn't have anything really earth-shattering to offer up, the Gameboy Micro, the Revolution's game-downloading capabilities, and the new Zelda Trailer were all welcome news from a company that has been very quiet of late. Commentary, photos, and speculation available from:
Nintendo,
Engadget,
USAToday,
GamesIndustry.biz,
1up.com,
Gamespot,
Cube.IGN,
NYT,
BBC,
Gamasutra, and
CNN. Specific coverage on the new Gameboy Micro is available from
Gamasutra,
GamesIndustry.biz, and
CNN. My two cents about Nintendo's conference are available below.
I have high hopes for the Revolution, but to be honest Nintendo's press conference was very underwhelming. Even given that the PS3 isn't going to be on store shelves for another year, what Sony showed on Monday was literally jaw-dropping. Even if there was some liberal use of pre-rendered footage in the presentation, the press conference put on by Sony was designed to fire the imagination and get people excited about the possibilities of the next generation. Nintendo offered us Nintendogs. And a new Game Boy Advanced. Yes, I think that downloading old games onto your Revolution is a cool idea, but a...uh...friend of mine tells me that I can emulate those games on my PC for free.
Perhaps all this is just worrywortism. Nintendo has never failed to be innovative in the past, and their support of the DS and quirky games like Warioware is proof that not everything has to be same-old same-old in this ever more business-like industry. They have more than a year to get their ducks in a row, but I'm afraid that Sony and Microsoft may have already beaten them to the punch. In the end, it's not just about making fun games. You have to sell them too.
So you say you wanna revolution (Score:2, Interesting)
Don't be so easy on them (Score:3, Interesting)
I think they're going the way of Sega and Atari. If they keep it up they won't be able to keep producing their own console.
Smart? (Score:5, Interesting)
My question is if Nintendo and Sony are going to have U.S. launch dates at around the same time as Japan, or is the PS3 going to be out months and months before, like the PS2?
Reading too much into it, I think (Score:5, Interesting)
been a mild success, though the majority of Xbox owners don't use it, but PS2
online was a fizzle.
Honestly, I think Nintendo has been trying harder than anyone to innovate. The
DS lineup is really out there: Nintendogs, PacPix, Electroplankton. Weird,
wonderful stuff. But maybe the rest of the hardcore gaming market has gone too
much over the top, expecting desaturated military shooters, which is what
everyone is announcing at E3 this year.
People like to cite Nintendo as the loser of the current generation, but that's
far from true. They dominate the handheld market both in hardware and game
sales. And though the Game Cube is the third place console, the big games for
that console are all coming straight from Nintendo, with each one pulling in
awards and selling like crazy.
Personally, I think Nintendo's biggest difficulty is that they lean much too
hard on old franchises: Metroid, Zelda, Mario, Kirby, and so on. They were once
fresh, but no longer. Hopefully some of Nintendo's experimentation will result
in a brand new hit for them.
Is it just me... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Oh yay...BLAH (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, assuming you can get one that'll actually still play decently and consistently. The last NES I played would periodically replace chunks of graphics with random characters. And while controlling an @ instead of a Mario was novel at first, it gets annoying eventually. Even my SNES(es) are a bit worn - sometimes it takes several tries to get a cartridge to load.
I agree that $20 a game is ridiculous, but if they lowered it to, say, $3-5 or several for $20, I'd snap one up and collect them all.
Re:Don't be so easy on them (Score:3, Interesting)
Nintendo On (Score:3, Interesting)
if you check out NintendoOn.com [nintendoon.com] it points mysteriously to an IGN article [ign.com] containing a link to a video that it calls a hoax. However, we know that IGN is in cahoots with Nintendo (Gamespy being the online content provider for DS and presumably Revolution). Also, if you check out the video, it's got amazingly high production values for a hoax.
Go Nintendo (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Portability: The light weight and small form factor of the GC allows it to be toted around to a friends' house if you want to, or for it to be brought with you for weekend trips.
2. Load Times: The GC has much better load times then both PS2 and XBox. So much less that many games appear to have no load times at all.
3. Lower Price: A new GC can be had for 100 $CDN right now. XBox still costs around 200 $CDN, which is about double the price.
4. Better Controllers: While this is a matter of taste, I believe the controllers are much better on the GC. The buttons are much better laid out, allow easy movement between the buttons, and allowing the buttons to be easily located. One exception is that stupid z button.
I think the GC is one of the most underrated systems of all time. It lost out because people are afraid to buy something that looks kiddie, even though it is anything but. I hope Nintendo grabs more market with the Revolution. I also don't think that the Revolution will scare away 3rd party developers with some weird control scheme. Remeber, it is going to be backwards compatible with GC.
Re:If PSP was eating my lunch, I'd be quiet too (Score:5, Interesting)
Newsflash: They also don't have an NES, Sega Master System, SNES, Genesis, Playstation, PS2, Dreamcast, Xbox, any form of a Game Boy, or a DS. As far as Nintendo's concerned, they're either small children with very deep pockets, or people who probably weren't buying a game system in the first place.
They still have a commanding lead, as the opposition is new to the market, has no previously existing game library to fall back to, and designed a system focused on delivering the complete home console experience to your handheld, slow loading times and all. (Really, look at Wipeout. It's abysmally slow to load tracks, and that's just suicide on a handheld.)
Sure, I have a PSP. I even play games on it. But it feels more like I bought Lumines, and a PSP for it, than when I bought my GBA, and Castlevania, Metroid, and a few other titles for that. The handheld experience I'm used to, including a lightning-fast startup and seconds-to-gameplay, just aren't there, and as a result, it's going to take some truly spectacular titles to make the whole thing worth the wait between levels.
Re:Don't be so easy on them (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyone notice this tidbit? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Risky strategy (Score:5, Interesting)
What are you basing the "lower power" comment on? The specs i've seen show the Revolution being pretty much on par with the 360. (Four cores at a slightly lower speed vs. three cores at a slightly higher speed.)
Perhaps you're listening to the marketing-speak? Sony and Microsoft both claim their new consoles will be a jazillion times better than the old ones, while Nintendo only claims its will be two or three times better, but so far this exactly mirros the claims made by all three companies for the last generation. How many times can people be taken in by Microsoft and Sony's inflated figures before they get a clue?
On Nintendo (Score:5, Interesting)
The PSP and the DS do not exactly target the same market. The DS has two primary purposes - as a special controller for Revolution and as a handheld console for people who don't normally play games. That's why a lot of the upcoming titles are puzzle games and things like Animal Crossing.
Online capability: strange, even though X-box has Live, that didn't stop Gamecube from completely owning it in terms of worldwide sales... and Microsoft just started to turn a profit on X-Box???
Remember that Gamecube's primary customers are parents looking for family-friendly games. What if pedophiles started hanging out in Pokemon Online? The American media would eat it up and Big N would be dead in the water in a month. Definitely not something to be rushed into.
And as for those saying that Nintendo will stop making hardware: have you ever played with a Gamecube? Ergonomic controllers. Next to no load time. Sharp graphics. All in a small, light, durable box. $99 CDN. Sony and Microsoft wouldn't know how to pull that off, even if they had any interest in doing so.
If I want to play Ultimate Online Gorefest 2005 (complete with five-minute load screens before each level) I'll go play on my computer. However if I have some friends over and want to jump right into a really fun game, nothing beats Nintendo.
Re:Don't be so easy on them (Score:2, Interesting)
MS comes out saying XB360 is "100 times more powerful" than XBox.
Sony comes out and says PS3 is "30 times more powerful" than PS2.
Nintendo comes out and says that Revolution is "5 times more powerful".
So therefore Nintendo is teh suck making cheapy machines.
What these people miss, since they're clueless fanboys, is that those are made up out-of-their-ass numbers. Show me the math behind them?
Besides, for as accurate as a made up number goes, consider this. PS2 had a resolution of 320x480. GCN does 640x480. Twice the resolution. Twice as powerful already. Now, PS2 has a 300mhz CPU, GCN has 485mhz CPU. Another factor of 1.5! And GCN is PowerPC based, just like the Macs, so that makes it thrice as good as anything else by standard slashdot logic. So, the GCN is already 2x1.5x3, or 9 times as powerful as the PS2. So 9x5 makes Revolution 45 times more powerful than PS2!
Meh, who cares. Truthfully, the GCN is more "powerful" than the PS2, a side by side comparison of the games bear that out.
Nintendo are purposefully undercutting XB360 and PS3 on price. Which is really, really smart. I dont own a widescreen HDTV yet. If I did, it would be in the living room. That's where 360 or PS3 would go - just like XBox and PS2 are now. But, Gamecube's are cheap. Each of my kids have one. I have one in my office/lounge room. Gamecubes outnumber XBoxes 3 to 1 in my house.
My friends who have kids have the same situation. One XBox or PS2 for the "family" (basically just functioning as a DVD player since they won't let the kids monopolize the good TV for games), multiple Gamecubes in the kids bedrooms.
If these are a much lower price point, Revolutions will outnumber XBoxes in my house.
Anyhow, I'm no fan of hardware or corporations. I like games. Nintendo knows how to make and market games. Sony and Microsoft know only how to crush competition and dominate the market. There are three aisles of PS2 games at Best Buy, and one aisle split up between GCN and GBA. 90% of the PS2 games are pure crap, however, to the clueless consumer, it makes it look which is the obvious horse to bet on.
We'll see in a year or two what happens to Nintendo. I'm sort of rooting for them, since they're the only company left dedicated to gaming hardware, and not World Domination.
20 Years of Nintendo Content (Score:2, Interesting)
Take my computer for an example, an aging Pentium 3@450mhz with 192mb of ram. For me, trying to emulate games like GoldenEye or Ocarina of Time results in a sound studdering, 5 frames per second, 300 pixel wide window of disapointment.
While I already own a Nintendo64, having to unhook my Gamecube, hookup the 64, and be limited to the games I already own kind of sucks. Sure there are lots of second hand game shops where I could get n64 games for a dime a dozen; but depending on their condition and all things considered, I'd rather have my NES+SNES+N64 all on one console.
With the power now available in these nextgen consoles, I'm glad all 3 contenders are offering the backwards compatability I've been wishing for for years. Just the thought of playing some SMB3, then in a matter of seconds be traversing Hyrule in Link to the Past, then jumping into a good ol round of multiplayer on GoldenEye, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside.
Kudos Nintendo for continuing to give me reasons to believe in you.
Re:oh please (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:oh please (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:would be nice (Score:5, Interesting)
Nintendo makes games with the WTF factor that you can throw down with some friends of varying skill levels and all have a blast. Warioware is another perfect example of this. "This looks lame" quickly makes way for "This game is awesome", despite the lack of plot or "mature" content.
Revolution, just like anything else, is going to be dependent on games before system specs, and if Nintendo keeps on innovating we will all be around to do this again at their next launch.
Donkey Konga (Score:3, Interesting)
I just got both of those last night. Holy crap what fun. Super monkey ball is a lot of fun too.
I'm outside their target demographic at 33 though I bet.
Best Design of the Three (Score:2, Interesting)
I can totally see my floor girls having Bubble Bobble night in my room.
Re:Don't be so easy on them (Score:2, Interesting)
Personally I think it's just because Nintendo doesn't like lying to the customer to get them addicted to numbers that can be fudged or made up depending on the phase of the moon. They'd rather get them hyped about the new games and/or gameplay. So they say something to entice the geeks (and to make media happy), but focus mainly on things that will get people interested.
Honestly, they showed software for the PS3 and Xbox. Woop-de-doo - it's Tekken 6 (or 9, or 54, or whatever), Halo 70145 (or whatever number it is) - blah. Let me guess - it looks just like the previous ones - but better!
Geez. Wonder when these companies are going to take the smart developers' hints that gamers really, really don't like numbers for sequels. Hell, even Final Fantasy uses roman numerals.
The main problem with the way that Sony and Microsoft are throwing out sequels is that if you miss one of them, you don't care. If I don't buy Halo 2, and just play Halo 3, will that be any different? Probably not. But you can't skip, for instance, a Zelda game. You'd know you missed something, because Majora's Mask is a completely different game than Wind Waker, than Twilight Princess will be. Ditto for the Mario games.
All that said, Xbox outsold Gamecube, and who made a profit?
Only in certain markets. GameCube demolished the Xbox in Japan, and the Xbox only managed to catch up to the GameCube in 2004. The Xbox's real success was in 3rd party titles, but that still doesn't guarantee that MS made much money, because they were basically giving away licenses to encourage development.
Anyway, c'mon: as of Jan 2005, the difference between the GameCube and Xbox in terms of consoles sold was less than 2 million out of 20 million, with almost all of that difference coming from the US market. It ain't much of a difference (considering Sony's at 80 million, they're both sitting at around 15%).
Interestingly enough, GC might actually win overall, as Xbox 360 will kill Xbox sales, and GC's still got the next Zelda. Especially in Japan, Zelda's huge, and Xbox is nonexistent in Japan. I actually think in the end, the GameCube will finish in 2nd place.