A puzzle has presented itself. Why has Nintendo jammed many of its ‘heavy hitter’ games like Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid: Other M and other games all within Quarter 2?
But you have the ever lovable, courageous, handsome, and awesome Malstrom to remove the puzzle. Do you have a guess reader? Make it, and I will answer the puzzle below.
Short Answer:
Reeling from the disaster that was User Generated Content, Nintendo has lost valuable time and its competitors are anxious to take advantage of Nintendo not pursuing motion control software with their own motion controls. Nintendo’s competitors are aiming at the ‘immersion’ or Core side of gaming with their motion controls (well, maybe not Natal, but no one knows WTF is going on with Natal). Sensing this hole, Nintendo is now furiously pushing Motion Plus and making Motion Plus software. The non-Motion Plus software (i.e. the old Core games) are being pushed out in the summer so Nintendo can focus on the new core. If Nintendo does not plug in the gaping hole of the lack of motion control games, Nintendo’s competitors have an opportunity to escape their shrinking Core Market box. Nintendo’s success in this endeavor will make or break their disruption.
Long Answer:
In the past few years, Nintendo changed the direction of the Wii to User Generated Content which has strangely not been covered by our incredible game journalists. Games were coming out of Nintendo were designed to include User Generated Content in some way. Wii Music would be the flagship title.
The reality is sales. Despite anyone’s opinion, even Miyamoto or Iwata’s opinions, sales have the final say. If something sells, it is right. If something doesn’t sell, something is wrong. Any business will change what they are doing if they discover their strategy is leading to a rapid decline in sales unless the business happens to be named Sony.
In 2008, Nintendo released the flagship titles Wii Music for the Expanded Audience and Animal Crossing: Wii for the Core Market. What both had in common was the embrace of User Generated Content (there were some other new Nintendo games coming out with User Generated Content like the Warioware game for the DS). The dramatic decline of Wii sales in 2009, after being sold out for most of 2008, could be placed in part of games like Wii Music and Animal Crossing: Wii being duds and not selling as Nintendo hoped.
As for E3 2008, well, you know it was bad when the president of the company makes a public apology for it.
At E3 2009, Nintendo noted the decline in Wii sales but thought nothing of it as they expected sales to rise again later in the year as more software was released. The software they showed there was somewhat a mixed bag. (Prior to E3, I write down a list of things Nintendo could do that would be right and things that would be wrong. One of them was ‘Super Mario Brothers 5 for Wii’ which would be considered E3 2009 becoming a ‘homerun’. So that game, alone, made E3 2009 a homerun. People doubted, but 2d Mario moves hardware and excites customers. Nintendo likes their customers getting excited.)
The mixed bag at E3 2009 was some more User Generated Content games (which we knew weren’t going to do anything for the system). But the oddest change was the uber core games shown off such as Metroid: Other M and Super Mario Galaxy 2. It seemed as if Nintendo had green lit these ‘core’ games to counter whatever went on at E3 2008.
(And there was the Vitality Sensor announcement which was odd because no software was shown. We can’t say anything about this until we see some software.)
Nintendo has proceeded with the strategy of making games for their Core Market and games for their Expanded Market. You can clearly tell which is which. The exception, perhaps, would be Mario Kart Wii which Iwata called a ‘bridge game’. (That ‘bridge game’ has insane sales.) Games like Mario Galaxy 2 or Other M were clearly for the Core Market.
But contrary to hardcore gamers’ claims on the message forums, Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M are very weak games (weak in terms of pushing Wii momentum). It has been several years since the Wii launch. These ‘Core Games’ are not really Wii games but Super Gamecube games. The problem with Super Gamecube games is that they do not differentiate from the values of Nintendo’s competitors. The only difference between the Wii’s Core games and the games on the other consoles is that the Wii’s Core games are not HD.
This is why the Wii was so heavily criticized for not being HD in 2009 and why, to the gullible, a Wii HD looked “logical”.
These new core games are going to fall flat. Aside from the Gamecube audience, the Wii did not succeed based on Core games. The Gamecube audience is already well there on the Wii. With the exception of Pikmin 3, all the major Gamecube games are represented on the Wii from Super Smash Brothers Brawl (from Super Smash Brothers Melee) to Super Mario Galaxy (from Super Mario Sunshine) to Mario Kart Wii (from Mario Kart: Double Dash) to Metroid Prime 3 (from Metroid Prime 1 and 2) to even Animal Crossing Wii (from Animal Crossing on the Gamecube). 3d Mario and Metroid are already represented on the Wii. The Wii does not need another 3d Mario or another Metroid. To those who say, “But it sold pretty well,” imagine if Nintendo put out a sequel to Mario Kart: Wii. Would it sell? Somewhat. But people who want Mario Kart already have Mario Kart. Games on the scale of massive phenomenons like Wii Sports truly need a sequel. No one is going to buy a Wii for Mario Galaxy 2 or Metroid: Other M.
Worse, Nintendo’s competitors have revealed their ‘motion controls’ at E3 2009. This means that Nintendo’s competitors may be the ones who define motion controlled core (immersive) gaming. So far, Nintendo has done very little on the Wii with motion controls outside of Wii Sports and Wii Fit. If you do not like sports or fitness games, you are out of luck. Companies like Sony are increasingly becoming in a position to siphon off people who bought a Wii to have new game experiences with motion controls. The PS3 had a price cut and a revision and began upping its momentum in mid 2009.
Worse of all, the Wii audience would refuse to transition to a new Nintendo console no matter what doodad Nintendo put in the console. Many people bought the Wii expecting motion controlled games with Wii Sports being only the teaser of things to come. Nintendo has been acting like Wii Sports is the only motion control game they wanted to make. And with User Generated Content, the potential consumers saw in the Wii died causing Wii’s sales to flounder.
There has clearly been a shift in Nintendo’s strategy lately since E3 2009. They are heavily pushing Motion Plus where you can buy it in bundlees with regular Wii-motes. Iwata is even phoning developers such as Sandlot to tell them to put in Motion Plus. It is clear that Nintendo is going for a Motion Plus direction (and to keep their competitors into their shrinking Core Market box). I expect Motion Plus to take center stage at E3 2010.
So if this is Nintendo’s recent direction, what do they do with those traditional core games? Get them out ASAP. Get them out before the 2010 holiday season.
If Galaxy 2 and Other M were going to push momentum of the Wii, Nintendo would have positioned them more for the holidays. What I think we are seeing is Nintendo (finally) converting the Core Nintendo games to the new values of the Wii. Zelda Wii will be an example of this in part since it will use Motion Plus.
What we are witnessing is the last hurrah of the Nintendo Core. From now on, the Core games are going to draw on values of the New Generation. They will be using Motion Plus and whatever else. They will not resemble ‘Super Gamecube’ games.
Like someone throwing out stale food from a pantry to bring in new food, Nintendo is putting out all the ‘old Core’ games now. The ‘new Core’, the core games to utilize the values of the Wii, will likely take center stage at E3 2010 with Zelda Wii (and other Motion Plus games not yet revealed).
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