Email: re: The Anti-Console

Hi Sean, been following your blog ever since i first read the blue ocean articles a few years back. Figured this would be a good time to mail you, as i’ve been pondering Project Cafe (or Cliche as you call it) for a few hours Today, just days before the E3 announcement. I know this probably wont change your mind (you are very strong minded and a natural skeptic for new ideas i’ve noticed), however in the hope that you feature this mail i hope your dear readers take note.

“We haven’t seen a home console try to mimic elements of the handheld console before.”

Yes, you are right, but why is that? Is it not because handhelds often lack the functionality of their bigger siblings? History has shown that people don’t mind ports as long as they are functional. Have you seen Super Mario played on an iphone? Its almost impossible to time sprint, jump and directions with that kind of interface. The Gameboy was great because it compensated for poor black and white graphics by having a built in speaker, long battery life, and conventional D-pad + A&B buttons. They were good trade offs. 

Nintendo will keep motion controls, so i don’t think you should be worried about that. Motion Controls were one of the defining features of the Wii, and they have hit such a low price point, pioneered a new market (the blue ocean), and let developers get used to their interface. Nintendo are not the kind of company to let go of their hit ideas Mr Malstrom, you know that as well as i do. Motion controls will stay, but keeping with Nintendo tradition there will be a ton of Xbox 360 ports coming to Project Cafe, with conventional controller configurations. The streaming and camera functions will give the games new life, which will help 3rd parties continue to recoup their immense investments into this last generation.
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Only an integrated hardware and software developer would do a home console that can mimic the handheld. Sega toyed with something similar (or not) with the Dreamcast. (Watch me get emails from people who though I just said Project Cliche is going to be a Dreamcast.)Nintendo’s direction of an integrated hardware and software is wrong. It is no different from the Sony direction or Microsoft direction. It is exactly the same.

“Why do you say that, Malstrom?”

The big picture of Nintendo doing its ‘integrated hardware and software’ is “Nintendo integrating with itself”. That is all it is.

Microsoft’s direction was integrating with itself. Microsoft is an OS and network company. Microsoft is very big on integrating Xbox Live with their system. It is Microsoft integrating with itself.

Sony’s direction was integrating with itself. Sony is a computer manufacturer and a general entertainment company (that makes movies). So Sony made the PS3 use all of this from the Cell chip to Blu-Ray and putting the company’s general entertainment onto the system.

What made the DS and Wii successful was not hardware/software integration. It was product/customer integration. Consumers could integrate these products into their daily lives. They could weigh themselves with Wii Fit everyday. They could play Wii Sports when people came over for dinner.

You don’t hear Nintendo talking about fighting ‘disinterest in video games’ anymore. Iwata is on record for saying they are intentionally doing a different direction away from the DS and Wii. My question is: “Why?” What is so wrong with the DS and Wii?

From my viewpoint, Nintendo left behind their original customers when they left behind making games like Super Mario Brothers. I will bet you money they intend to leave behind the Wii Sports customers (of which I am one).

I don’t want Xbox 360 ports with new controller configurations. I don’t want sloppy seconds from the HD Twins. If I wanted to play those games, I would have bought those consoles. What I want is Nintendo to follow the direction they placed out at E3 2006. I want the mission to grow gaming.

Motion controls will not stay except in technologically. I like the one-hand controller of the Wii. I could play games like Wii Sports and point at the screen. With this Project Cliche, it appears to be readopting the old controller. And this old controller is what pushed me away from gaming.

But all this is premature. We’ll find out what Nintendo is up to in the next few days. But the direction of the company has lately been pushing people like me away. Remember, I have no alternative to the Nintendo console. The Sony and Microsoft consoles are not for me. I will be stuck playing the DS and Wii for the next generation. How long? 5 years? 10 years? 15 years? 20 years? Remember I was stuck playing old consoles for over fifteen years.

I’ve told you how if I ever had a question for Miyamoto when the Seventh Generation began, I would ask, “Why do you hate me?” Clearly, the guy hates me since he stopped making Super Mario Brothers and other games that caused me to buy the NES. And today, I am still stuck with the same question. I loved the Wii for games like Wii Sports and Mario 5. Project Cliche’s direction is not going to make those games possible (with the 3DS Mario, we know Miyamoto will try his hardest to delay and not make 2d Mario). I cannot play a new Wii Sports with a motion controller that has a screen on it. So again, the question I’d have to ask people like Miyamoto is, “Why does he hate me?” Does he not want me to buy his console?

You’d think the guy would be grateful. It was people like me, who shoved tons of quarters into Donkey Kong when it came out, that allowed him to have his career. Instead, the original customers are always left behind. When Nintendo says, “We must do something new,” what they are really saying is, “Our customers are disposable.”