Nintendo will learn nothing from the 3DS

I’m seeing many comments going around that say the following:

“These below-expectation 3DS sales should teach Nintendo a LESSON about releasing a system so expensive!”

“…or without strong first party games.”

“…or relying too much on 3D.”

“…or something else!”

Nintendo will learn nothing. In fact, in the future, Nintendo will re-create reality as to the real reason why sales are not what they are. “How do you know this, Malstrom?” It is because 100% of Nintendo’s past (within the business of video games) is doing just that.

Did Nintendo learn from the Virtual Boy? Clearly not, as Nintendo was praising the Virtual Boy and even wanting to rerelease its games. In Nintendo’s Bizarro World, the reason why the Virtual Boy failed was due to ‘bad advertising’ or other factors. It wasn’t that consumers didn’t want ‘virtual reality in 3d’, oh no!

Did Nintendo learn from the DS or Wii? Clearly not or Nintendo would have continued this successful direction with the DS’s successor. Iwata is on record in an Iwata Asks for directly saying the 3DS is a totally different direction from the DS and Wii.

Did Nintendo learn from the Gamecube? Clearly not or else Nintendo would not keep making Gamecube games for the Wii and 3DS. What is the 3DS but an excuse for Nintendo to make only Gamecube-esque games?

Did Nintendo learn from the N64? Hell no. Nintendo LOVES the N64. Even though Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time both flopped in their jobs of selling the system worldwide (not just in the United States), Iwata and Miyamoto recently (on a recent Iwata Asks) consider the two games responsible for the Nintendo decline as the best Nintendo games ever! Is it any wonder that Nintendo is eager to ‘remake’ these games again and again?

Did Nintendo learn from the failure of 3d Mario? You damn well know they didn’t. In fact, to this very day Nintendo is in a complete denial about 3d Mario. 18 years passed without a Super Mario Brothers game on the home console. And to this day, Miyamoto believes the reason why people do not play 3d Mario is because of accessibility, not disinterest.

Did Nintendo learn from the decline of Zelda that something needs to change? No way. Zelda will be developed with the gameplay skeleton of ‘puzzles’ and talking to bland NPCs. It is not so much a Zelda game but a generic PC adventure game with Zelda characters. Nintendo incorrectly believes Zelda is a ‘game of secrets’ which is a similar mistake Atari made when they made the Swordquest games (bet you didn’t know that).

Nintendo’s belief is that they are with the program, and they need to convince the customers that their way is the way. This is why Iwata keeps hammering about ‘surprise’ and that ‘you cannot ask customers what surprises them’. What is really going on is that Nintendo is interested in pursuing what’s fun for them, not what’s fun for the customers. What’s fun for customers is often not fun for developers.

Let me ask you a question. Do any of Nintendo’s developers, including Miyamoto, come across to you as a game player? Do they come across as someone who loves playing games? To me, they come across as haughty video game professors. They spend most of their time thinking about games and theorycrafting. As Mario Kart proves, you do not need to re-invent the gameplay wheel with each new game. “But if you do not reinvent the gameplay of each game, Malstrom,” says the reader, “how would you differentiate the games?” How about through the content?

Nintendo is not a content company. They just want to tinker with gameplay ideas and constantly re-use content. This is why Nintendo can only find success in brand new audiences or in younger players (who the content is fresh with). Nintendo’s core has been and continues to be in decline. You cannot honestly say that Zelda and Metroid are more popular today than they were a generation ago.

At the end of the day, Nintendo will declare the 3DS a huge success and blame any unfortunate sales issue with the Japanese earthquake, the price, or some other alternative matter. Nintendo will never, EVER blame the 3d for it. Take it from someone who was waiting decades for Nintendo to wisen up that turning Super Mario Brothers into 3d is not the correct way to go. To this day, they still do not accept that despite all the evidence contrary.

It’s obvious the 3d nature of the 3DS is pushing people away, not attracting them. All my complaints about 2d Mario vs. 3d Mario was really just a microcosm to illustrate Nintendo’s sick obsession with 3d. And now it is possible for Nintendo to destroy their handheld market because of it.

Will Nintendo learn from it? No. They didn’t learn when 3d destroyed their home console market, why should they learn when it destroys their handheld market?