Pardon the dramatic title.
It’s been an interesting generation for video game consoles. Alas, it
seems the best days are behind us.
I remember a time when Nintendo would promise interesting and exciting
software like Wii Fit, Wii Sports Resort and New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
They would raise the bar of games and introduce concepts like the Wii
MotionPlus that truly opened new paths of gameplay.
As a consumer, I find it infuriating that Nintendo would so blatantly let
these promises go unfulfilled. What could Nintendo have done with the
MotionPlus? Amazing things. I believed for a time that they made the Wii
Remote Plus because they finally intended to keep their promise and give
us more than just Wii Sports Resort. What we’ll get instead is a Wii Play
sequel and a Zelda sequel, and neither is treated very seriously by
Nintendo.
Puzzles be damned, but Skyward Sword should at least be ready by now. We
should have it by now. But instead of calling attention to the first true
Zelda game built specifically for the Wii, Nintendo would rather talk
about a 3DS remake of Ocarina of Time. They would rather share info on
THAT game.
Truly, being a Wii customer right now is frustrating and infuriating. The
games we DO have ahead of us are being neglected in favor of the 3DS (and
now Project Café come E3), so that when they release they’ll be quickly
swept away and forgotten. Nintendo will be too busy paving the way for the future to care about those of us who’re left feeling unsatisfied.
You make an excellent point about Skyward Sword. This is a brand new Zelda game. So why is Nintendo talking up a portable port? It would be like Nintendo ignoring Twilight Princess while talking up a Link to the Past port on the GBA.
Here is what I suspect: Nintendo is in a panic that their handheld market is not as strong as they thought. We have seen Nintendo’s home console market fall apart, but the handheld market has always remained strong. Now with the 3DS, this may no longer be the case. So Nintendo is doing everything it can to spotlight the 3DS and its software.
Remember Reggie saying that the launch of 3DS and Pokemon was taking up Nintendo’s plate and people would have to wait until E3 for Wii news? Apparently, it appears Project Cafe may not have been slated to have been unveiled so soon. It doesn’t make sense to make a game console playable a year before it releases unless you were unsure about the product.
Emailer, you are not alone. I am hearing the same sentiment from many Wii gamers. I’m not sure if Iwata is doing the decision making on this, but whoever is doing it is taking a ‘rational’ path but it is the wrong path. The audience that Nintendo absolutely must have if they want any future selling games consoles are the Wii gamers. Pulling this stunt is, as you said, ‘infuriating’ these people.
I wonder what the game console market will look like in five years from now. The 8th Generation could be a depressing state of affairs for everyone. I expect Microsoft and Sony to steal everything in Project Cafe, totally punk Iwata, and then isolate Project Cafe by paying third parties not to publish their games on the system (as was done with the Gamecube).
I don’t know about you, emailer, but I have gone through this before. I went through it with the N64. I found most of the N64 to be infuriating and how Nintendo squandered the SNES to be very disappointing (there wasn’t even a Super Mario Brothers 5! Just some games with monkeys!).
It is that infuriating feeling, you speak of, is why I celebrated the collapse of Nintendo from N64 and Gamecube. I remember going into a store, one day, seeing the Gamecube sitting on the shelf there and thinking, “Look how the mighty have fallen. Your market fate is exactly what you deserve.” Of course, back then I was thinking Nintendo was just ignorant that not every game had to be 3d and that people did want Super Mario Brothers. Today, I know that Nintendo realizes this but do not want to make the necessary games.
So I celebrate this Nintendo decline in a similar way I did with the N64 and Gamecube. The point has been made. No one can ever point to the games I play (such as 2d Mario or simple sports games), point to me, and say, “Video games are no longer for you.” I can easily point to the Wii and say, “There’s my console. Look what it did. Look what this market can do.”
Nintendo is actually in a worse position today than they were after the Gamecube. Gamers like you and myself no longer trust Nintendo. By doing this Project Cafe market test at E3, Nintendo is losing the trust of the Wii audience. Nintendo will be unable to get these people to buy their new console. Who will Nintendo blame? The marketers of course. You think Nintendo would ever blame themselves? Hahaha. They’ll fire Reggie before Iwata or Miyamoto fault themselves.