When Nintendo made the NES and SNES, they were acting out of necessity. The goal was to make games that sell.
Then something changed. It became clear that Nintendo was intentionally making games that didn’t sell. This is the Era of the Virtual Boy. Why would Nintendo do such a thing?
I think this was the point when Nintendo began to believe their own mythology. The NES and SNES were not successful because Nintendo focused on making customers, oh no. The NES and SNES were successful because Shigeru Miyamoto was a genius as were many on the creative side. This is the strangest idea that has ever entered a company.
The customers are the potters and the market is their clay. It is the customers who shape, mold, and define the market. All game companies can do is hope to make customers. The reason why the market has its type of games is because customers defined it that way.
But under Game God Mythology, it is the developers who are the potters, the molders, the shapers, of gaming. And what role are the customers to have in all this? Why, the customers are the clay. It is the customers job to be grind up, twisted, and re-arranged in the order the Game God chooses. This is why the Game God blames the customers when the game does not sell. The customers are not supposed to question the Game God but only comply.
Somehow, someway, Nintendo went from the SNES to the Virtual Boy. It is so obvious this wasn’t a mass market product. But under Game God Mythology, the Virtual Boy didn’t fail in the market. Why, the market failed the Virtual Boy. In the 3DS Iwata Asks, Miyamoto blames the marketers for the failure of the Virtual Boy! Talk about delusional!
Well, that wasn’t the traditional console, was it? So out came the N64 following the same Game God Mythology. Nintendo believed that their ‘genius’ would shape and define the market. The N64 was a failure, but it wasn’t a failure of the games. In the most Twilight Zone moment, Nintendo insanely praises the N64 games and blames everything that isn’t the games for the N64’s failure. The N64 was released too late, it used cartridges, it didn’t have the right marketing, you name it.
So we come to the Gamecube which follows an identical direction of the N64. This time, Nintendo had ‘third parties’. Nintendo had optical discs. Yet, the Gamecube was a spectacular failure. Does any of the blame have to do with the Gamecube games? No. Everything else is blamed. The Gamecube came out ‘too late’. The Gamecube wasn’t ‘marketed right’. People at NOA and NOE are fired (replaced). A new Nintendo president comes in. But people like Miyamoto never get blamed. I was stunned during the Gamecube Era when Miyamoto was trotted out on the stage and written about as if he was a genius. If he was such a genius, why is his philosophy for gaming destroying the company?
Nintendo’s sales were so bad that they had to do something different. This came the DS and Wii direction.
Instead of the premise that the software developer was a god, the premise was that the non-customers were the gods. The goal was to turn the non-customer into a customer. Nintendo looked at their most successful console, the NES, for ways to do that.
They wondered, “Why did our Gamecube direction fail?” They concluded it was because of the lack of accessibility (because it certainly couldn’t be rejection of the games, oh of course not). The purpose of the Expanded Audience games was to bring them to the Gamecube-esque games. There is no doubt that Nintendo hoped the Wii Sports gamer or Super Mario Brothers 5 gamer would move on to Aonuma Zelda or Mario Galaxy.
Nintendo did not want to make the Expanded Audience games. They only did so in an attempt to funnel customers to their Gamecube-esque games.
While Wii was a business success, it was not a victory for Nintendo’s Gamecube-esque philosophy. But perhaps they only needed to try again harder.
What does Malstrom want?
I want Nintendo to continue their direction with the Wii and DS (which were very successful for Nintendo). Nintendo doesn’t want to do this as insane as it sounds. Instead of continuing what worked, Nintendo decides to try the Gamecube-esque direction again with Wii-esque marketing and branding.
Hence, the 3DS and Wii U. Both are Second Comings of the Gamecube. Yet, they are marketed as if they are continuation of the DS and Wii (which they are not).
3DS and Wii U are Neo-Gamecubes Costumed As DS and Wii Successors
Nintendo has the same exact marketers from the DS and Wii Era doing the 3DS and Wii U marketing. They cannot blame the marketing for any failure this time.
And the 3DS and Wii U will be released before their competitors. Nintendo will be unable to blame ‘time of release’ for their failures.
Nintendo is going to run out of excuses. The only thing that has not been blamed is Nintendo’s Gamecube-esque philosophy of gaming. Despite the Game God Mythology and all their laboratory experiments, Nintendo does not understand video games as well as they thought. And this is becoming very clear to everyone today. This is why Nintendo’s reputation has rapidly eroded as a video game company. Their behavior is not creating respect but only bewilderment and laughter.
People say, “Malstrom, Nintendo’s marketing is all wrong. The 3DS sounds like a new DS model. The Wii U sounds like a new Wii model. People are getting confused.”
That’s the point. This was intentional. Nintendo is deliberately trying to sell a Gamecube under the marketing and brand of the DS and Wii (which were not Gamecubes).
It shows Nintendo doesn’t respect their audience. They believe if they just slap a sticker of ‘3DS’ on a portable Gamecube, the DS audience will move over. But this isn’t happening. And the Wii U sticker is being slapped on a Gamecube-With-Steroids. But people can see it for what it is.
The 2d Mario ‘issue’ is a very crucial micro-cosm of this. Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 and Super Mario 3d Land were designed to get 2d Mario to play 3d Mario. It isn’t happening. A normal company would rearrange its philosophy based on customer behavior. But with ‘Game God Mythology’, Nintendo believes its philosophy on gaming is infallible. Gods are never wrong after all.
What I would like investors or journalists, who have access to Nintendo executives, to start questioning Nintendo’s philosophy of gaming. If their sales are so poor, then perhaps Nintendo needs to change its philosophy of gaming. Perhaps Nintendo needs to stop focusing on 3d games. Perhaps the hardware/software integration is incorrect when it comes to creating a satisfying consumer experience.
Today’s Nintendo is not the Nintendo of the Wii and DS. I want that Nintendo back. But Nintendo will resist because that would mean giving up the Game God Mythology once and for all. When you believe you are a god, you will never accept the customer as your equal.
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