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Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata Announces Online Gaming Network

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Re: Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata Announces Online Gaming Network

#21

Post by betterth »

schraeds wrote: post #7
InclinedPlane wrote: post #5

They are the better part of an entire decade late on this. And now they have to compete against entrenched competitors with that much more development, improvement, and network effect accumulation in their favor. To be honest, I sort of wish Nintendo would just give up making consoles and stick to making and release games for other systems.

The Wii had much success in the market without much if any online presence. Nintendo has always been precautions of online due to their younger user base, but obviously they need to be in that space. The good new for Nintendo is that its not Millions (xbox live or PSN) vs Zero, Nintendo has millions of consoles out there, and Wii U will probably sell millions of consoles as well, especially with the added value of an…

How many people are going to want a WiiU when their iPad and iTV do similar things... they best price the WiiU extremely competitively! But how can they release a quality touchscreen controller without it costing bank? Controllers WITHOUT a screen, but still full of sensors already cost consumers $40-$60! Add in that screen and all the bits to power it... how can this controller cost less than $100/pop? How could they sell a multiplayer budget family console with $100 controllers?

People vastly underplay the importance of cost in consoles. Family game developers will target any platform families use. An expensive WiiU will finish the job that an expensive 3DS started -- it will kill Nintendo.

Re: Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata Announces Online Gaming Network

#22

Post by freehunter »

betterth wrote: post #20
freehunter wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you of the belief that Nintendo needs to bow out of the hardware business? I could see this line of thinking in... 2004? But in the last 5 years Nintendo has seen wildly uncontrolled profits rolling in from the DS and Wii. The 3DS is beginning to pick up now too, after a slow launch. Nintendo has a viable, innovative product in the gaming industry. They make games for their platform because their platform is…

Why are you of the belief that Nintendo needs to bow out of the hardware business? Because 2011 was incredibly rough on Nintendo -- they lost $500 million last year. Even Nintendo says that Apple and Facebook (iOS and Facebook games) are a huge reason for this first-in-a-generation-loss, and let's face it, they're doing jack shit to accommodate a changing industry. What has Nintendo done for a long time? A console, a…

R&D isn't free. Companies lose a lot of money at the start of a hardware cycle, this always happens to everyone. The Wii has sold 90m units and unlike their competitors, Nintendo makes a profit on every unit sold. In the past year they've had the 3DS and the Wii U in development. That's an investment.

iOS isn't the competitor to the Wii U. Making the Wii U more "iOS-like" would not change a thing (except lose more money for Nintendo). While the handheld market is dying, the console market is very much alive, and Nintendo has no competition.

Every generation, someone declares Nintendo dead. This happened even with the NES, when entering the video game market was a death sentence for any company. Something tells me you don't know a single thing about the console industry.

Re: Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata Announces Online Gaming Network

#23

Post by zinkem »

chaostheory wrote: post #2

They are really late to the game. Apple, Google, and Amazon are still on a trajectory to eating Nintendo's lunch completely. Until Nintendo announces specifics for developers as well as the percentage take they'll get, it's hard to get excited. I'd be really surprised if they even allow indy devs in like the App Stores, and also if they don't charge 4-10k per dev kit.

Nintendo doesn't need developers, they own the most beloved franchises in gaming.

Re: Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata Announces Online Gaming Network

#24

Post by InclinedPlane »

schraeds wrote: post #7
InclinedPlane wrote: post #5

They are the better part of an entire decade late on this. And now they have to compete against entrenched competitors with that much more development, improvement, and network effect accumulation in their favor. To be honest, I sort of wish Nintendo would just give up making consoles and stick to making and release games for other systems.

The Wii had much success in the market without much if any online presence. Nintendo has always been precautions of online due to their younger user base, but obviously they need to be in that space. The good new for Nintendo is that its not Millions (xbox live or PSN) vs Zero, Nintendo has millions of consoles out there, and Wii U will probably sell millions of consoles as well, especially with the added value of an…

"All Nintendo needs to do to catch up in the online space is sell a bunch of consoles."

Selling consoles is not synonymous with people using their online service. Moreover, there is no guarantee that even Nintendo will be able to sell a significant number of consoles.

There are several huge competitors in online gaming currently, with more competition arriving and maturing every day. XBox Live, Steam, and Battle.net all have tens of millions of users and offer a robust set of features: social networking (friends lists), online game purchasing and digital distribution, online multiplayer and grouping with friends, text and voice based chat, achievements systems, etc.

Digital distribution and selling of non-physical items have enormous profit margins and low per-item operating costs. They are clearly the wave of the future for all software, especially gaming, yet Nintendo is only just now barely even flirting with the idea. "Catching up" to Steam and XBL doesn't just mean achieving the same number of online users, it means achieving the same level of revenue and the same level of brand credibility from the rest of the industry.

Re: Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata Announces Online Gaming Network

#25

Post by mkr-hn »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #24
schraeds wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Wii had much success in the market without much if any online presence. Nintendo has always been precautions of online due to their younger user base, but obviously they need to be in that space. The good new for Nintendo is that its not Millions (xbox live or PSN) vs Zero, Nintendo has millions of consoles out there, and Wii U will probably sell millions of consoles as well, especially with the added value of an…

"All Nintendo needs to do to catch up in the online space is sell a bunch of consoles." Selling consoles is not synonymous with people using their online service. Moreover, there is no guarantee that even Nintendo will be able to sell a significant number of consoles. There are several huge competitors in online gaming currently, with more competition arriving and maturing every day. XBox Live, Steam, and Battle.net…

All Nintendo has to do is add online play through this network to the next Mario game.

Re: Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata Announces Online Gaming Network

#26

Post by InclinedPlane »

Tiktaalik wrote: post #16
evo_9 wrote: post #12

Is it simply hubris that makes a Japanese company like Nintendo think they cannot release their IP's on other platforms? Look at Sega, they were almost done before they stopped developing expensive hardware to ultimately released their games on all platforms. Nintendo's stash of IP's far exceeds Sega's and everyone elses except Disney. Nintendo should be raking in cash from all directions at this point, their strateg…

These last two quarters are the only ones in Nintendo's long history in which they haven't made a profit. Nintendo does rake in cash from all directions. They're a very successful company and they have an excellent business model. Sega going 3rd party was their only option other then to go bankrupt. The situation is not comparable.

The situations are very much comparable. Nintendo may have a lot more buffer than Sega did but it is still fighting an uphill battle now.

The time to pivot is not when you've hit rock bottom, it's not even when you have peaked, it's when you've past the inflection point, well before you've peaked. And Nintendo is already well past that point. They are seeing incredibly robust competition for every aspect of their business: casual and party games, motion based games, mobile gaming, etc. The core strength of Nintendo, which has aided them in past attempts at pivoting, is their 1st party IP: Zelda, Mario, Pokemon, Metroid, etc. But that will only get them so far, and won't save them if they make serious strategic blunders or fail to keep up with the competition. Nintendo still has options now, but will they still have those options in 5 or 10 years?

Re: Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata Announces Online Gaming Network

#27

Post by InclinedPlane »

freehunter wrote: post #22
betterth wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you of the belief that Nintendo needs to bow out of the hardware business? Because 2011 was incredibly rough on Nintendo -- they lost $500 million last year. Even Nintendo says that Apple and Facebook (iOS and Facebook games) are a huge reason for this first-in-a-generation-loss, and let's face it, they're doing jack shit to accommodate a changing industry. What has Nintendo done for a long time? A console, a…

R&D isn't free. Companies lose a lot of money at the start of a hardware cycle, this always happens to everyone . The Wii has sold 90m units and unlike their competitors, Nintendo makes a profit on every unit sold. In the past year they've had the 3DS and the Wii U in development. That's an investment. iOS isn't the competitor to the Wii U. Making the Wii U more "iOS-like" would not change a thing (except lose more m…

"iOS isn't the competitor to the Wii U."

iOS is the competitor to everyone. It's easy to pretend that niches aren't connected, but they are. With every brand of entertainment it's about money and time. You can't spend money and time that you've already spent elsewhere. If iOS games are first past the gate and successfully use up everyone's money/time allocations for gaming then they win. Regardless of whether they are competing against other touch-based games, casual games, or first-person shooters, MMOs, and even movies.

People have been declaring Nintendo to be on the ropes for the last few console generations. But that doesn't excuse the fact that Nintendo is facing far more serious competition than they ever have before, and they don't appear to be keeping up. Nintendo's previous problems were of the "not making as much money as fast as other companies were, for a while" sort, now they are seeing actual losses. Nintendo got lucky with the Wii. They innovated their asses off and came up with something that resonated with a new, larger gaming market. But now their innovation has stalled out, while that market segment is being cannibalized by other folks.

If Nintendo were trying something truly innovative (like the DS or the Wii) then perhaps there would be justification for people to mute their criticism to some degree, and give them the benefit of the doubt, but that doesn't appear to be the case. They appear to be flailing and clueless, that's not a good sign.

Re: Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata Announces Online Gaming Network

#28

Post by freehunter »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #27
freehunter wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

R&D isn't free. Companies lose a lot of money at the start of a hardware cycle, this always happens to everyone . The Wii has sold 90m units and unlike their competitors, Nintendo makes a profit on every unit sold. In the past year they've had the 3DS and the Wii U in development. That's an investment. iOS isn't the competitor to the Wii U. Making the Wii U more "iOS-like" would not change a thing (except lose more m…

"iOS isn't the competitor to the Wii U." iOS is the competitor to everyone . It's easy to pretend that niches aren't connected, but they are. With every brand of entertainment it's about money and time. You can't spend money and time that you've already spent elsewhere. If iOS games are first past the gate and successfully use up everyone's money/time allocations for gaming then they win. Regardless of whether they a…

> But now their innovation has stalled out, while that market segment is being cannibalized by other folks....

...he says, on the eve of the next generation of consoles, four months before they'll be fully detailed and fleshed out.

When E3 rolls around, come back to this post and we'll see who was right.

Re: Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata Announces Online Gaming Network

#29

Post by foobarbazetc »

evo_9 wrote: post #12

Is it simply hubris that makes a Japanese company like Nintendo think they cannot release their IP's on other platforms? Look at Sega, they were almost done before they stopped developing expensive hardware to ultimately released their games on all platforms. Nintendo's stash of IP's far exceeds Sega's and everyone elses except Disney. Nintendo should be raking in cash from all directions at this point, their strateg…

Comparing Sega to Nintendo these days is like comparing DuckDuckGo to Google.

I.e., idiotic.

The worst thing Nintendo can do is to release their IP on other platforms. That's like saying Apple should start releasing software for Android.

Re: Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata Announces Online Gaming Network

#30

Post by peterb »

chaostheory wrote: post #15
peterb wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nintendo already support Indy games in WiiWare. My boys 7 & 10 love their 3DSs & Wii and rarely use the the iPod touch or XBox. Nintendo is after a younger market. There is lots of room for them. They have been pronounced "nearly dead" many times.

I don't feel that they'll ever die either. It'll just be another Gamecube period that they're entering. Their indy catalog pales in comparison to their competitor's catalogs. Not to mention the pricing sucks in general

How many indy games target 4-10 year olds? Pricing doesn't matter as long as it is an affordable birthday present for grandma, grandpa, aunts, etc.
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