Well, to be fair about only 10% of this e-mail is about ponies so I’ll
get to that first.
I watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and I like it. But it *is*
just a show, and not a way of life. I don’t like the “brony” term
being used to describe anyone that watches it, and reading what
amounts to testimonials with phrases like “closet brony” and “I became
a brony when…” make me cringe.
And if you’re interested, it actually *is* being dubbed and heading to
Japan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG25PeqXiws
So, a show that was influenced by anime is basically going to now
fully meta-morph into one. LOL!
Anyway, time to get to the next topic… Nintendo. Ugh, I could go on
and one here forever but I’ll skip right to the point.
The Wii U is dying. It’s seen as a joke by third-parties and many are
denying ports or jumping ship altogether. It’s too expensive. It has
no games (people are tired of NSMBU by now), and nobody seems to be
really excited for anything upcoming. There seems to be much more
support both now and in the near-future for the 3DS, which is actually
a system worth owning and selling decent numbers.
I want Nintendo to succeed, I really do. But aside from NSMBU (which
would be beaten within two weeks at max and shelved, likely
indefinitely), there is absolutely nothing compelling me to buy a Wii
U.
I don’t have a lot of money, so I tend to get one next-gen system (and
sometimes handheld) and stick with it. But even with the Wii
generation it has costed me, because I’ve missed out on many good
games that had no chance of being ported to the Wii, and sometimes I
think I would have been better off getting a PS3 or 360. The same
exact thing is already happening to the Wii U and it’s only mere
months old, with developers basically laughing that the Wii U is a
pile of crap and too weak to run their games (see:
http://kotaku.com/the-wii-u-wont-be-getting-unreal-engine-4-462919060).
To tell the truth, I could have lived without the 3D Marios and Zeldas
this generation to play things like XCOM, GTA IV, Catherine… the
list could go on and on.
If I buy a Wii U, sure I’ll end up having fun with the (eventual) 3D
Mario and Zelda and Super Smash Bros. titles, but that’s about it.
While my PS4 and 720 friends keep playing stuff that I really want to
but can’t. And no, it’s not really about console exclusives. This
generation, many games were always, ALWAYS released for both the PS3
and 360 (with the Wii rarely getting a watered-down port). The thing
is, this time around the Wii U is supposedly powerful enough to run
newer games but by the looks of it, it still won’t get them because
it’s “too big of a risk” for developers.
I’m getting fed up at Nintendo basically living in the stone age, and
I know I’m not the only one. Unless they do something soon, I think
it’s only going to be the 3DS that will save Nintendo this generation
because they seem to actually *care* about that system (Virtual
Console aside).
If I had to explain Nintendo’s problems in the fewest words possible, this is how I would do it:
Nintendo has not fully converted from their N64/Gamecube philosophy. The success of the DS and Wii were a repudiation of the N64 philosophy of gaming. Nintendo has realized this and is very unhappy. With the 3DS and Wii U, Nintendo is trying to obtain the success of the DS and Wii without repudiating the N64 philosophy.
Those four sentences are the best synopsis of The Nintendo Problem. It is why the 3DS and Wii U were intentionally named like their predecessors. Until Miyamoto, Iwata, and the council literally reject the N64 concept of gaming, the error will continue. We saw in recent interviews of Miyamoto praising the N64 era despite it destroying Nintendo’s market. In other words, Nintendo still has a way to fall.
When I look back at the Wii, I realize now that Nintendo wasn’t interested in expanding the number of gamers. They were only interested in expanding the number of N64 gamers.
Above: The most destructive console ever made. Not only did it destroy Nintendo’s market, the console’s philosophy continually destroys future consoles.
The other big problem with Nintendo, and it is one investors should know, is that Nintendo is no longer interested in being a global company. They want to be a JAPANESE COMPANY. Nintendo is more about Japanese pride than about producing best selling video games. Nintendo games and hardware used to take Western sensibilities in mind. Today, they don’t care. If the West doesn’t like the style of Wind Waker? Too bad. Here are three more games with it!