Nintendo Considering "New Business Structure"

@blazehedgehog said:

You make it sound like there weren't any other really bad Sonic game after that. Also, you are forgetting that they mentioned 4 game franchises: Aliens was the other core franchise they wanted to focus on, and look how well that went.

Finally, the problem with SEGA is not that they don't have good franchises (Fantasy Star, Yakuza, Valkyria Chronicles, etc) other than Sonic, but that they don't care about the western market, even when its huge. They make the absolute minimum to support SEGA of America and SEGA of Europe. They lost the Bayonetta IP due to bad support. They even have a launch game for next generation, but they don't want to sell it in the west because they can bother to put subtitles on it.

But I digress... Even when Nintendo follows SEGA in its decision to abandon the console manufacturer market, I have confidence that they are competent enough to make it work. Their IPs have a pretty strong presence in the west too, so they don't even need to work hard to sell Mario or Zelda games.

Personally, I think Nintendo should sweep the Wii U under the rag. Now that the next generation is here, Nintendo is trying to play catch up, now more than ever, but doesn't have the support of the 3rd party, the sales to lure them in or the marketing of the Wii... They should put all their guns in the handheld market, which is were most of their money comes from anyway. At this point, they would have to invest heavily on R&D if they want to create something to compete with the PS4/XB1/PC.

same boat, played that game a little with my brother because he got an Wii U but i wish i didn't have to buy an Wii U just to play more of it.

This isn't Modern Nintendo at all; the N64 and Gamecube were massively more expensive to develop for. I remember hearing that a PS2 devkit was something like $2500, but a Gamecube devkit was $15000.

That being said I can't imagine it's that expensive, what with how Nintendo's warming up to indie developers. Those types of people don't have a lot of money to spread around. I can't imagine Renegade Kid is more willing to spend money on Wii U devkits than, say, Capcom.

Making hardware a generation behind isn't really a bad thing, though. Sony and Microsoft set literally millions of dollars on fire launching the 360 and PS3 and even though they started turning a profit on those systems three or four years ago, I don't think they've recouped everything they spent just getting them out the door in the first place. And now they're starting the process all over again with the Xbone and PS4.

Nintendo, on the other hand, is sitting on a billion dollars in the bank because they're deliberately not as bombastic with their hardware. It's easy for the consumer to say how much better Sony and Microsoft are, because all you see is pretty graphics. But that stuff comes at a significant cost. The Wii U flagging is but an unfortunate misstep Nintendo, but if the Xbox One or Playstation 4 were in this position it would practically be an apocalypse scenario for Sony or Microsoft.

Nintendo is a very strategic company. Even when they take risks, it's not as though the entire company is on the line. It may look lame or silly to you, but that's only because Sony and Microsoft are so willing to dance on the razor's edge. Nintendo's always been about playing it safe and taking their time to let the fruits of their labor fully ripen.

That was the entire problem with the Wii U; they had one year to prove to the world that it was worth owning, but they were just too slow. That uphill battle is now probably too steep to surmount.

Nintendo, however, will persevere. Even if the Wii U is out, the company itself is nowhere even close to the same desperate position Sega was in when the Dreamcast was cut off.

I have to disagree @patrickklepek. As others have said, sega is still around which i doubt they would if they had continued making hardware.

Also Nintendo has the benefit of having a very, very strong first party lineup. I imagine wherever they would go, their fans will go too.

But hey all speculation, etc etc.

Except for the part where Sonic is still one of their highest-selling franchises. A couple years ago when Sega posted a huge loss, they specifically named three best selling "core franchises" that they were going to redouble their focus on: Total War, Football Manager, and Sonic.

A lot of people have this image in their head that Sonic is still scraping the bottom of the barrel but that really bad Sonic game is 8 years old as of this year. Sonic's not completely out of his rut, but Sega's made a pretty good effort at digging him out with games like Sonic Generations.

@ruthloose:

I got nothing against the guy, but there's too much at stake.

With the Japanese social landscape becoming increasingly hostile (maybe too strong a word) to console gaming, I am not surprised that Nintendo would be considering a larger focus on mobile gaming.

I personally wouldn't mind seeing some Zelda or Metroid games on iOS, but I'm loathe to see those games dumbed down for touch controls.

It seems to me that Nintendo's best action is to fully dedicate themselves to creating handheld devices and games that go along with it. The Wii U is a bust; that is pretty clear now and no amount a fanboy arguments will change that. The system is going the way of the Sega 32x, Saturn, and the Dreamcast--meaning its only a matter of time before the system dies. Nintendo is already slowing down the amount of units being made this year and I'm sure a major price drop is coming soon as well.

However, the 3DS is clearly Nintendo's hardware of the current video game generation. Their handheld games sell like their console games used to. The company should be grateful they have that to fall back on and commit to it. Unlike Sega whom failed in the handheld medium, before they failed in the console medium, leaving them no choice but to become a third party developer and make software.

Nintendo is a company that needs a major restructuring. New people, new sensibilities, new ideas. The fucking cloistered, paternalistic Japanese corporate culture cliché has been strangling them for well over a decade, resulting in ever-diminishing output, increasingly budget product, and a business strategy that consists of little more than trying dumb, niche shit and hoping something sticks (both in terms of software and hardware). They're dying anyway so the worst that could happen is a little ambition and risk expediting their demise.

Want to improve WiiU Sales? Put in compatibility to play DS and 3DS games on that thing. Tell me that wouldn't sell.

The problem with Nintendo stepping out of the hardware business is that Nintendo's strategy is to build new hardware and then throughout the lifetime of that hardware go through a checklist of franchises they are willing to bring back and make changes to those franchises informed by the changes they made to the hardware. They are trying to appeal to players by building one game for each significant franchise, a game they hope will be must-play enough for each person that they will buy the hardware.

This is different than other publishers and console manufacturers who are trying to fill slots in each quarter and trying to figure out how frequently they can produce sequels to popular franchises without completely sacrificing the quality that the players expect. Which is why you often see a trilogy of games plus often one extra right near the end of the console cycle.

Moving out of the hardware business means that Nintendo is reliant on other companies hardware innovations. Nintendo stated with the WiiU they were happy because they had 100% control over the screen on the controller, so Nintendo doesn't even love the fact that you could be playing their games on whatever screen you happen to own because they don't have control of the image quality. For them to hand over hardware control completely to another company would be a pretty crazy step for them.

From the statement they made it sounds like they haven't given up on the hardware business, and with the sales of the 3DS they definitely don't want to be getting out of the handheld business. It sounds like for the moment they are taking a harder look at producing phone / tablet games to appeal to their stock owners, but they would be looking to produce new games that fit touchscreens rather than releasing classics with on-screen controls.

True, but...Sega kept beating the Sonic 3D game dead horse long after people didn't want it anymore.

At this point, Nintendo feel's like an athlete still playing way past their glory days. At a certain point, you've got to hang it up and that's okay.

Also they seem to be a pretty lean company. According to wikipedia they only have 5200 employees. Whereas Sony for instance has 150k employees. Now of course Sony has a ton more products and higher revenue, but if you compare Nintendo's total equity of $10 billion with Sony's total of $28 billion it seems like Nintendo will be okay for quite some time.

Nintendo had a good run, but no amount of bowing will save them this time. Its time to hang it up.

Sega hasn't done great because of Sega, not because they went 3rd party.

NSMB sells a lot better than anything else they do. NSMB Wii U will have a ton more sales than 3D World, guaranteed.

They should have had Smash Bros, a new Zelda, Mario 3Dworld, and other stuff available a lot sooner. I have no idea why they though another 2d Mario platformer and a bunch of 2nd party games already widely available on other consoles would be enough.

Now I feel bad for not buying a WiiU...
I don't think Nintendo's core design of the console is bad, however... In fact, I want to get it more than an XBO or a PS4... they just don't have enough value there for many people (myself included) to spend $300+ on it. If it went down to $200 this past holiday season, they would have went flying off the shelf, I'm sure.

Sorry admittedly I stopped reading your post after that doosey of a first paragraph. Let's go over some of your points 1) Online gaming: Ummm are you not aware that games have been online capable since the mid 90's? 2) High definition graphics: do you really think high definition graphics weren't a thing before the 360 and Microsoft just invented them for it? Come on man.

Try releasing some games for the Wii U first?

Please, Microsoft has innovated the console market more than Sony and Nintendo combined these last 2 generations. Online gaming (Xbox Live), high definition graphics, achievements, matchmaking, digital distribution through an online store, Xbox Live Arcade, Indie games on consoles, TV & Movies through a game console, demos for every game, gamerscore, etc.. All were seen first on Xbox.

Sure, Nintendo innovated as well, but definitely not as much as MS has. Not to mention, the aspects of the market that Nintendo innovated haven't had as big of an impact on the console market as MS's innovations have. Motion controlled gaming, while big during the original Wii's lifespan, has not significantly changed gaming much at all. On the other hand, MS's innovations have significantly changed the entire landscape of console gaming. For example, without digital distrubution through Xbox Live Arcade, and now the Playstation store, new content (add ons/microtransactions) would not be possible. Add ons are a part of pretty much every game that gets released now. Most of the big releases now have season passes. It was Xbox Live and Xbox Live Arcade that started these changes. Then you have online multiplayer. Almost every game released now has an online multi-player component.

The overall market is very different from what it was when the original Xbox launched and that is mostly due to the innovations that MS brought to the console market.

Nintendo can do one of 3 things. They can cut the price of the WII U significantly, down to like 100 bucks, in hopes that such a move will spark a huge wave of new buyers. They can phase out the Wii U and release a true next gen system as fast as humanely possible, so it will be on level ground with the PS4 and Xbox One. Lastly, they can stop producing console hardware altogether and put all of their focus into the handheld markets and producing games for the Xbox One and PS4.

As much as Nintendo may hate the idea of becoming software only on the console side, it could potentially be a great move as Nintendo could sell a LOT of copies of its 1st part software on next gen consoles. At the same time they would be getting rid of all the costs associated with hardware. Its a FAR safer business strategy than producing your own hardware. Nintendo could focus on doing what it does best, creating great games.

Surely nintendo can weather a poor generation after the success of the wii? I'm sure in a few years they'll bounce back with some other crazy new device. I would be very sad if they got out the hardware game as they're really the only games company that really does try new things every generation.

The article's title makes everything sound so unnecessarily ominous.

If Nintendo decides to spread out over multiple devices, good on them. Im pretty sure thats what helped them build their war chest to begin with. Having been buying systems since before time I can say I was always excited to play the arcade ports of nintendo games on my atari 2600, 5200 and colecovision.

jumping ship on dated console tech would free up resources to do what they do best, make games.

And yet he has put a face on the company that gamers have positively responded to and changed the industry from announcing new games at certain peak times of the year to the entire calendar. I think he is smart, but something has got to give as it concerns the Wii U. We need a Virtual Console subscription service and soon.

@so_hai: I dont know. I like Iwata. He always seems earnest. I think he deserves the chance to try and steer Nintendo into a new direction.

Iwata must be removed. The bungling of the Wii's successor to this extent is more than enough reason to have him put aside.

Very sad news to hear, but I have faith they'll bounce back... they always do.

I feel like the reason they're failing is due to not making it as powerful as the other two next-gen systems. Now, I'm not saying the Wii U looks bad, far from it, I'm simply saying that because of the power, the games aren't there because developers don't want to spend money create games on a system that can't do what the PS4 and Xbox One can, so therefor gamers find it a hard sell.

If developers had, I don't know if I'd be in the minority, but I'm pretty sure I would buy that same game on either a PS4 or Xbox One; Assassin's Creed 4 as an example. That being said, I do intend on getting a Wii U at some point, and I hope Nintendo's console doesn't fail. I really don't want Nintendo to get exclusively into handhelds because um... I wouldn't ever play them again. I don't like playing on handhelds that much.

I don't think Nintendo will do a full on Sega, at least not yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if they step out of the home console game and focus on their handheld market and probably move more into phone junk.

Not sure if that means the end of huge AAA first party games from Nintendo or if they'd be willing to put those out on other platforms. Something tells me Nintendo has a bit too much pride for that, and would just stick to handheld releases for the foreseeable future, which is disappointing. Although you never know, they still have to answer to shareholders and I'm sure more than a few of them have had the same thoughts.

Interesting times are coming!

I've owned every Nintendo Console including the WiiU, and I enjoy playing it but I do wish that there was more 3rd party support. From the moment that Nintendo announced the WiiU specs and name, I seen this coming. I agree gameplay is king, but why release a console that you know will be underpowered compared to your competition. Did they name it WiiU thinking people would buy it for brand familiarity ? Surely someone had to have thought this through a little better.

They'll be okay, i think, if they cut the Wuu loose and focus 100% on hanbdheld gaming in future. They are in good position to do so as DS sales, across all varieties, is till very strong for them. The numbers are pretty clear that people definitely want, and are willing to pay for, gaming focused handheld devices with reliable controls. Speculation about smartphone style touchscreens monopolizing the market was overblown. Yes, smartphones do very well on the couple bucks for a 5 minute diversion sorta cheapo game, but they aren't making any headway on for realsies real video games.

People want handhelds with buttons, Nintendo. That's your angle. Gogogo. Also piss off with the region locking.

This. What Sony and Konami did with MGS Peace Walker. Same game on both devices, sync saves, console gets nicer graphics. Throw in rare pokemons for each platform to encourage people to buy both versions, similar to what they did in the past with different versions of the same game (gold/silver etc).

Hell yes! That, and the Animal Crossing game with the kind of online you ACTUALLY want. (Personally, I sorta like the current format with regard to single player stuff, but the online in New Leaf is TRASH.)

Uhmmmm I'm not sure I can fully support you on this one, Nintendo have been churning out the same games for the past 20 years... have neglected online completely and whilst they did pioneer motion control as 2nd screen experience has been in the pipe line for ages and companies are looking to support it... just not on the Wii U.

Sony have done the 2nd screen thing soooooo much better and it's completely optional, which means your Playstation doesn't have an unnecessarily expensive controller included in the box. I think Nintendo have no idea where the industry is going and they're playing catch up as opposed to innovating.

Seems like two choices to me.

Drop the home console completely and sell on both Xbox and Playstation, and in that partnership keep the handheld systems under your own control. Take advantage of the hardware that is out there and instantly sell millions of copies of everything you make software wise. If they really wanted to try an add-on thing every few years they could, such as the wiimote or the screen based controller they are using now.

OR

Partner with Apple and make Apple Nintendo TV a thing and go all digital with games. Put out an affordable machine that plays Nintendo games and iTunes/TV stuff in the $200-300 range and then sell a Nintendo based controller add-on every 5-10 years, such as the motion based or screen based addon. You again accomplish the goal of taking hardware units largely out of the mix, they will sell, and open yourself to a huge market of customers. There also would be a greater breadth of games available due to the backlog of iOS titles and Nintendo would no longer have to develop an OS, as you would just slightly modify whatever the latest flavors of iOS are out there. They could even keep the 3DS a thing, again putting iOS on it and adding in iTunes and iOS game support.

I hope this forces Nintendo to get their shit together. How about a proper online ecosystem that includes you vast library of ds games that currently can't be bought. This has been coming ever since Nintendo started to rely too much on a casual gaming audience.

Go away (and play some Dreamcast, because apparently you missed some things).

Perhaps somewhat harsh, mainly due to my recent runnings-in with Nintendo's idiocy first-hand with the aforementioned 3DS stuff.

My girlfriend got me a 3DS XL for Christmas, I was ecstatic, as you can imagine, I've wanted one for ages with all the amazing games it has, and the backwards-compatibility so I can play all the amazing regular DS games I missed on those gorgeous new big screens. I'm from the UK and she's American, she got me the limited edition year of Luigi NTSC 3DS with M&L Dream Team pack-in, and I love it, the game is amazing, and I love the M&L design.

I was prepared to import all my games and buy all of them on the Eshop, I did my research on that particular subject and that's fine, I got a $50 eshop card and grabbed Mario Kart 7, for both the online play and the fact I really wanted to play it with my friends who have owned 3DSes for years.

So I go to their house, start it up, ecstatic to finally play a new handheld Mario Kart after playing the crap out of Mario Kart DS back when it came out. They started up their download play and...Nothing.

Disappointed, I go home to look this up and find out that not only did the almighty Nintendo region lock the console, which is stupid on its own, they region locked multiplayer functionality. In other words, unless the game specifically supports it, I can not play a single multiplayer 3DS game with them. Even if they both got a copy of MK7, we'd only be able to play it online, because a HANDHELD game doesn't support cross-region local multiplayer. The only game I've seen that actually does is Pokemon X/Y.

So if I had a PAL 3DS and tried to play it with my girlfriend and anyone else when I went to America, again, I wouldn't be able to, I'd have to own multiple 3DSes and multiple copies of the same damn games just to be able to play games with everyone I want to.

It's pathetic, and sums up modern Nintendo in a nutshell, they've gone too far, they need to be put down, even Microsoft doesn't region lock. I was incredibly happy when I saw this news, I was eagerly awaiting the day when their business practices as of late would come back to bite them in the ass.