Malstrom,
It looks like you were right about the console cycle being self imposed by Nintendo.
http://www.gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=161562
Apparently Nintendo of Europe wanted to show off Xenoblade at E3, but Nintendo of America wouldn’t let them since they don’t have any interest in actually releasing the game.
I just look at that and am constantly thinking that they aren’t releasing the game, or any other games to make people feel like they need a new system.
Well, it worked, I’m going to find and buy some classic game consoles, and correct the biggest mistake I ever made in my life. Selling my Sega Genesis.
There has been many theories as to why NOA is not releasing Xenoblade. One more isn’t going to hurt.
NOA’s marketing plan for the Wii now can be summed up as ‘poor Latinos’. At the Q/A with investors, Fils-Aime answered the ‘growth’ for the Wii in the future will come from Hispanics. Fils-Aime says this is a good fit because Hispanics have ‘family values’ which is what the Wii is all about.
When I read that answer, my face fell in my hands. If I was actually present at that Q/A, I’d be laughing. Fils-Aime is speaking this decade’s popular cliche. As if anyone in Seattle would know a damn about what ‘Hispanics’ want in the first place.
Xenoblade does not meet the NOA marketing strategy of ‘family games for poor Latinos’. Therefore, Xenoblade does not get released. That’s all there is to it.
I’m going to post another email I got:
Hi Malstrom!
I still want to hear your opinion about the decline of Final Fantasy and the Japanese RPG in General. I suspect that it has to do in great part with the stupid “Game God” phenomenom. Since you´ve seen lately many Spoony videos, I give another one:
http://spoonyexperiment.com/2011/06/14/e3-2011-final-fantasy-xiii-2/
And you know? I agree with most of what he says: The latest FF is HORRBILE.
It´s beyond boring, when I played it I felt like a rat in cartwheell pusshing “X” most of the time, and ocasionaly the “L Trigger” to do some stupid paragrim shift. The story was beyond ridiculous, and demanded that the “player” looked for other sources to understand it. Really, if I wanted to read something, I would read something more interesting and productive (like your site) than a fucking instruction manual for the HISTORY of a game. And those “Game Gods” think of themselves as the ultimate God´s gift to creativity, when they can´t do simple storytelling right? I hate the characters, I hate that I´m not the hero, but something of a faraway bystander. And as Sponny, I don´t want to hate a game, I really want to like it.
It´s sad what´s happening to gaming, and it´s sad to see the genere I loved die. I learned English (I grew up in Mexico) because of Final Fantasy VI, for god´s Sake!
(The bold in above is my emphasis.)
If it is true that NOA refuses to publish Xenoblade because it doesn’t fit the ‘marketing strategy to sell Wii to Hispanics’, then the above email is a refutation of that. I assume since the emailer grew up in Mexico, he is Hispanic (not everyone in Mexico is Hispanic, not by a longshot). And the emailer LOVES Final Fantasy VI.
If Final Fantasy VI was published by NOA and Reggie was in charge, the emailer would never have seen the game. Final Fantasy VI would not fit the ‘family game’ for ‘Latinos’ (what NOA means by that, I have no idea).
I live in south Texas. I did not realize my neighbors and some family members were ‘Hispanic’ until politicians told me so. To me, they were always my neighbors. And they are the entrepreneurs and business builders I know personally.
Hispanics are no different than any other person. What people want is the best games. Hispanics, too, want access to the best games. Hispanics are not a bunch of ‘casual gamers’, i.e. ‘retard gamers’, who only want games that fit Reggie Fils-Aime’s marketing plan.
It’s very troubling that the ‘marketing strategy’ for game companies appears to be ethnic and racial segmentation. Currently, NOA’s marketing plan is for ‘Hispanics’. What’s next? A marketing strategy for blacks? A marketing strategy for people of Irish descent? Where does this end?
The earlier Wii attempts to sell to women and to older people I saw as a restoration of what gaming was. Women were always part of gaming. The entire family was.
Why should Wii customers buy a Wii U if this is how they are to be treated? NOA doesn’t seem to understand this. But the market will make them understand.
In all honesty, I do not expect Reggie Fils-Aime to be around too much longer with how Nintendo is performing. Most of Nintendo’s sales come from America. I’ve seen all of Reggie’s predecessors. They had salad days too. But where are they now? All gone.
Good luck for the emailer with his Genesis. As for myself, I’m eyeing the Atari 7800.
From my gaming perspective, Nintendo was a third party company. Come to think of it, gaming was more fun when Nintendo was third party.