To those who don’t remember, during the Gamecube days everyone had ‘advice’ for Nintendo which was always intentionally incorrect. I’m surprised gamers haven’t caught on to the pattern these marketers have been working. Remember when Wii was in its height that every game journalism organization was shouting from the rooftops that Nintendo needs to stop making games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit and only make games during their glorious Gamecube days like more 3d Mario or Windwaker Zelda. I’m not surprised that marketers, which we often call ‘game journalists’, give out intentionally incorrect advice to Nintendo. What always surprises me is how Nintendo actually accepts their advice!
Here is the first one from an “analyst” at Screen Digest who is being paid marketing money to say:
“We would like to see Nintendo be more aggressive in ‘hinging’ off its devices using its online platform – Nintendo Network – onto third-party devices as Microsoft is starting to do with Xbox Smartglass and Sony is doing with PlayStation Mobile.
“Neither of these solutions is significant at present but it does show that these companies are willing to engage users on the most popular third-party connected devices to drive relevance for their own products.”
Harding-Rolls also expects Microsoft and Sony to more widely adopt subsidised pricing models for new hardware. “This will keep the platforms relatively competitive,” he said. “Nintendo will be late to adopt a subsidised pricing strategy but could be forced to examine it if Microsoft and Sony push forward with it.”
So apparently Nintendo is not to make games people want to buy the hardware in order to get access to those hit games. Nintendo’s strategy should be to put its software (OS at least) on third party hardware. Why would anyone suggest this? Just to get Nintendo to put out software on third party hardware to grease the skids for Nintendo going third party? The analyst isn’t even talking about games at all (even though this business is all about gaming).
Then he suggests Nintendo subsidize the pricing which translates to ‘lose money selling the console’. This is definitely a marketing ploy from the Game Industry whose third party game companies desire subsidies for the hardware so it makes them easier to sell the software. They don’t care how much money Microsoft and Sony lose.
So Screen Digest believes Nintendo’s path to success is to put their OS software on third party hardware and lose money on their consoles. No mention of games.
I actually expect Nintendo to do this.
The other story is from Gamespot’s “Is Nintendo trapped in its own legacy?” If it is, it is news to me. Everything Nintendo has done with the N64/Gamecube/3DS/Wii U has been AGAINST their legacy.
When was it for Nintendo’s legacy to put out expensive hardware?
When was it for Nintendo’s legacy to put out big ass controllers that frighten people away?
When was it for Nintendo’s legacy to try to force everything we love about Mario into a 3d caricature?
When was it for Nintendo’s legacy to keep re-define Zelda and Metroid that don’t match anything of what made the games popular to begin with?
When was it for Nintendo’s legacy to put out half-assed 2d Mario which had previously been the flagship for Next-Gen capabilities?
When was it for Nintendo’s legacy to re-release games no one wants such as Wind Waker HD?
I never left Nintendo. It is Nintendo who left me. They keep going on these crazy 3d jihads or ‘Japanese-Culture-Celebration’ crusades. They keep trying to force control configurations on their audience instead of allowing them a choice. This integrated hardware and software strategy has always been a big dud. The Nintendo console is just a box we buy to get to Mario.
Anyway, Gamespot says Nintendo’s problems are all because they are following their legacy too much. Hah hah hah. Unbelievable.
For the last two decades, Nintendo has ventured forth alone. Third-party developers have flocked toward Sony and Microsoft, forcing Nintendo to pick up the slack.
This line alone tells us this is a marketing piece. Third party support has always been strong on Nintendo handhelds. How was the PSP third party support? How about the Vita? And Microsoft doesn’t even have the balls to put out a gaming handheld.
The piece says that it is a mistake for Nintendo to keep using games like Mario, Zelda, and Kirby. However, there is an exception. Did you catch it, reader? Listen carefully:
Nintendo has earned goodwill by periodically reinventing its most enduring properties. Mario has been as malleable as he is portly, pushing the bounds of platforming in every 3D adventure he undertakes. Kirby and Donkey Kong are just as flexible. The pink puff can be found in a delightful world constructed of yarn or floating in a dangerous land as you use the stylus to guide him to safety, while his simian pal might fancy the rhythmic tapping of a plastic bongo drum. It’s these forays into previously unexplored realms that keep aging Nintendo franchises feeling fresh despite their years of digital work, but they are rare exceptions to the rule.
I bolded the above. The games Gamespot thinks are great and that Nintendo should keep making more of are…
-3d Mario games (which always sell inferior to the 2d Mario games. Always)
-Kirby Epic Yarn (which sold poorly)
-Kirby Canvas Course (which sold poorly)
-Donkey Kong Jungle Beat with the bongos (which also sold poorly)
That is the direction Gamespot wants Nintendo to go. You can make only two conclusions about this. Either this Tom McShea character is extremely stupid or this is a marketing piece deliberately putting out ‘bad advice’. You never hear these same people tell Microsoft to stop making Halo.
Having been around all these years, I make a distinction between dumb witted gamers who live on message forums and analysts/journalists who are performing the job of marketers. The analyst and the journalist cited here do not believe what they say. Their job is to present a narrative to the public, including third party game developers, to get them to believe certain things. It is the Game Industry’s wet dream to manipulate gamers enough to demand Nintendo to stop making Mario, Zelda, and Kirby games. The Game Industry still can’t compete against them.
What I’ve learned over these years is just how arrogant the people inside Nintendo are. They don’t want to hear that ‘your 3d transition was never successful and has become nothing more than a sick, sick obsession’ or that ‘it used to be impossible to identify a Nintendo game as oriental because it used so many international themes, now it seems Nintendo only wants to use oriental themes which hurts international sales’. They don’t want to hear that. They DO want to hear people like that marketer-posing-as-journalist at Gamespot saying, “We love 3d Mario, bongos, and Kirby yarn. We need more of that stuff. And don’t you dare do that mainstream stuff like Wii Sports or old school gaming of the past.” This is how Nintendo keeps falling prey to the mistakes.
Right before the American newspaper industry fell apart, it became clear that the companies were going against the consumers. “You don’t like how I do my reports?” one journalist would say, “well here is MORE OF IT.” Market corrections means employee corrections. That is part of the reason why newspapers fell so fast in America as everyone ran away trying to find alternatives.
With Nintendo, the market forces were saying the DS and Wii direction and philosophy were the right way to go. Market forces were also saying that the N64 and Gamecube direction and philosophy were not the right way to go. Virtual Boy really was market forces telling Nintendo to really not go that direction or philosophy. “You don’t like this? Too bad. HERE IS MORE OF IT!” Nintendo plops the DS brand and even a 2d Mario game onto a 3d stereoscopic handheld thinking everyone will be tricked. They weren’t. Nintendo plops the Wii brand and even a 2d Mario game onto a Gamecube philosophy home console that revolves around ‘connectivity’ thinking everyone will be fooled. They weren’t.
And now the Nintendo President is wasting his valuable time drinking tea and talking ‘culture’ for Iwata Asks (not even talking games). While he waxes on about company philosophies and ideologies, where are the games? Or better put, where are the QUALITY games? Where are the masterpieces? And who allowed Aonuma to get in front of the camera wearing a hoodie in a business jacket? What the hell is going on inside this company?
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