I mean, the Wii U is flopping, and their selling it at a loss. Could it be Nintendo's last home console?

I'm totally okay with them focusing all their resources on the DS/whatever next handheld will be.

How many more?

HOW MANY MORE?

THIS THREAD

I'm convinced your name and this post is a joke based on Internet stereotypes.

Though, if you're serious, Nintendo -could- go third party and do fine. Will they? Probably not any time soon.

WELCOME TO GIANT BOMB!

Although... I realize that this makes me sound like a big asshole for shutting you down right out of the gate, but we've had a thread about this almost every day now, so I don't think your post is going to spark a great conversation. Please check the forums to make sure what you're about to create hasn't already been discussed.

Platinum will save Nintendo.

Metroid will save them.

Nintendo still make a profit, moreso than the other companies, so um no, dumb

X will save Nintendo.

That's simultaneously an argument and a template for people who want to keep this train rolling.

How many more of these "Nintendo is doomed/Is Nintendo doomed/Can Nintendo go third party/Why Nintendo needs to..." threads do we have to endure?

And just so that I'm not a complete spamming asshole here, Nintendo's business model is based on hardware and software sales. If they were to cease the hardware end of their business, that would mean not only putting everyone on the hardware end out of work, but the loss of any and all revenue taken in from hardware sales. This would also impact their ability to develop software, as a smaller bottom line would also affect the number of games that they could develop internally or finance externally (ex: Bayonetta 2). They would also have to struggle with developing on hardware that they do not know as well as hardware that was developed in-house, and would also likely need to sacrifice smaller or more niche franchises fro the sake of their better sellers.

They would, in theory, become Sega 2.0, bumbling around for years while adjusting to the realities of being a third-party development house, losing key staff members along the way. They have the benefit of Mario translating far better in the modern era than Sonic ever did, but that's a small consolation when Mario titles essentially become the company's lifeblood without the support of hardware sales. Ask yourself; would you want to see a New Super Mario Bros. title released every year?

If only :(

They are selling the Wii U at a loss, but barely. As I've heard, they make their money back after one game sale.

why exactly would you presume that?

Okay, even if we were to humor you, and outside of fanboy ranting. The only rumor from investors and analysts are "stock owners want company X to buy out company Nintendo" and that's been either Microsoft or Apple for the past 7 years to buy out Nintendo. And they also brought us the idea of Wii HD, and that hasn't come along even if you consider Wii U that It's never best idea to take their opinions.

And then there's Sega, the best example of just giving away their license to weird hit or misses for the past 12 years when actually a lot of their staff have moved far away from Sega and no almost no one is left there.

The truth is, Nintendo treats third parties horribly and when people put effort into making games on their consoles they get pitiful sales. Call of Duty 3 was the best selling game of the CoD series on the Wii, even when Activision put in online multiplayer on the rest of the games after that.

If they'd actually make a fucking Metroid game. Despite Super Metroid and Metroid Prime being two of the best goddamned games ever made, Nintendo doesn't seem to want to make anymore. Hey, let's rehash Mario instead! Again! That'll never stop printing money, right? Right?

At this point I want Nintendo to go third party on the console stuff and concentrate all of their hardware stuff on the 3DS. I just want to play their games with a normal controller.

It's not like the Wii U is the first Nintendo console to under preform. People need to settle dowwwwwnnnnnnnnnn

We got a Metroid game three years ago. Unfortunately it's sales weren't up to par.

Though sometimes I wish people would realize that Nintendo is more than just Mario, Zelda, and Metroid. It's weird how people both criticize Nintendo for going to the same franchises over and over and yet scream at them when they don't make new games in those same franchises fast enough.

paging darji

Exactly. Didn't they make Pikmin 3 earlier this year?

lol

Almost as dumb as the ' Will Atlus port PE5 to the 3DS?' threads.

Nintendo would rather commit sodoku than develop games for the competition.

Could they? Sure. Will they? Unlikely. But you never know. If Nintendo's next piece of hardware tanks then I could see them pulling a Sega. To be honest I want them to stay in their weird bubble now that they've finally started putting out better games like Fire Emblem, Luigi's Mansions and Zelda this year. As long as I get a new proper 2D Metroid game and none of that Metroid Other M nonsense before Nintendo kicks the bucket I will be happy.

*there

What these threads always devolve into. Also, aren't there like 10 of these threads that have shown up in the past week?

I think we're finally at the point where I won't be surprised if there's a Nintendo topic that asks if they should leave the video game business altogether and just go back to making hanafuda cards.

I haven't played Other M yet. I really need to do that.

Still, it didn't seem like something that Metroid people actually wanted. A story-driven linear Metroid game? Bollocks! It really seems like Nintendo doesn't know what to do with the franchise anymore. Nintendo themselves have only made two Metroid games since Super Metroid. Retro made Prime, an American division made Hunters, some English dudes made a pinball game out of it, and then they gave it to Team Ninja to make an action game.

When I say that I want another Metroid game, I mean something along the lines of the first three, Zero Mission, and the original Prime. Atmosphere, exploration, a story that has to be shown to you and pieced together rather than directly told to you in a traditional manner, and no speaking characters whatsoever beyond an introductory monologue. I'm not going to go nuts and say that Other M and Fusion aren't "true Metroid games" or something like that, but they're not really what I'm looking for. Fusion, at least, is a game that I really like, but it's too linear. Prime 2 comes pretty close to what I want most of the time, but I don't like it as much for three reasons - the dark world, other beings talking to you, and the dark world. And Prime Hunters just sucked from top to bottom. Don't bother playing that.

In Super Metroid, it's you and only you versus the whole of Zebes. I want that element of Metroid to come back.

Activision and EA will each buy half of the company and the holy trinity of franchise milkers will finally form into one massive entity and begin making/milking "Mario & Luigi's: Battlefield of Duty" forever. This will as a result mark the beginning of the end of days.

As much as I enjoy Zero Mission (which I consider my favorite game in the series), I'd honestly prefer if Nintendo continues down the path of Fusion and Other M. Of their biggest core franchises, it has a universe that's most ripe for mature storytelling (not "mature" as in tits and blood, but as in something more complex than, say, Mario). The writing in Other M isn't very good, but that had mostly to do with the script writer not being a good writer; the actually story and plot were great concepts, and the game has some legitimately interesting characters. And I prefer it when Samus has more personality than woman in a metal suit that makes grunting noises while jumping around. Her interactions with other characters in turn help make her more interesting. And more personality and sense of character is something I've wanted out of the series since even before Fusion.

So guys, if they just make a new Fire Emblem game for the Wii U then everything will be fix. They are holding out for now because XCOM: Enemy Within came out and they don't want Fireaxis to feel bad. It will be fixed soon.

@ilikepopcans: i would die and go to heaven and then die AGAIN and go to superheaven if that happened.

also i bought the wonderful 101! haven't played much but i DID buy it!!

They could.

So could Sony.

So could Microsoft.

Sega could put out the Dreamcast 2 and school everyone.

Nintendo + Steam.

Reggie + GabeN.

Make it so.

@hailinel: (I don't like getting rid of quote trees but that one's going to get huge. Also I don't feel guilty for a second about derailing this thread. Also this seems far more productive than our last Metroid argument)

And more personality and sense of character is something I've wanted out of the series since even before Fusion.

Wouldn't you say that Super Metroid and Prime already had tons of personality and character on their own, though? OK, there weren't any actual characters in the game, but the world itself was a personality and a character in both games. There were tons of details to infer from some of the imagery in Super Metroid. Most notably, the decaying corpse near Kraid's boss door. Oh God! This place has been explored before! And someone was good enough to get down here - and I'm good enough to get down here, but who's to say I'm better than this poor guy? Prime is a little more concrete than that, what with the scanning in codex entries and all, but all of those details build up to a picture of a world and a race that valiantly but fruitlessly fought back against the decay of the world and their minds.

It's the lack of real concrete details about the universe around you that really kept me interested in the earlier Metroid games. It kept my imagination going. That's not ruined by the games elaborating on their fiction - if anything, it quiets a certain curiosity that I've had since childhood - but it can never actually satisfy the excitement of imagining what the rest of this universe was like. You mean military dudes all wear weird-looking blue skin-tight suits? All I had were pieces gathered from a few different games, no full picture. How many other things actually do that well? And not only give you scant details, but give you most details through images and short codex entries whose lore might not actually be reliable because its writer was both super philosophical and on the verge of insanity?

Also remember that the only time we've had a good Metroid story delivered in a traditional manner was Fusion. The other two, Prime 3 and Other M, have, er, problems. At least one of those problems is the size of a planet. A giant glowing blue planet. Fuck you, Dead Space 3.

For the record, I didn't know about all the other Metroid media surrounding the franchise until I was in high school. I still haven't looked into any of it and don't really want to.

I know you're a big fan of 101. Is it really that good? I have a soft spot for Kamiya since he made my fave game ever, but I'm not sure if I'd want to dish out 60 bucks for that game.

IF ONLY D':

@aegon: I'm not DarthOrange, but if my word mean anything. I absolutely adored 101 and would recommend it to anyone with ANY love for Kamiya. He really doesn't disappoint.

P.S. If you played Bayonetta and thought that ending was nuts, You ain't seen nothing yet. ;)

That's more characterization of the environment that Samus is in; not of Samus herself. As much as I've liked to imagine what the universe is like myself, I also want more out of Samus, and out of other characters that inhabit that universe. The writing in these games could and should be better; if anything, I just want a better balance between the details of the universe and the details of the characters.

I would say that it is worth it for the story alone. The gameplay also takes some pretty interesting turns throughout. Once you get used to the combat and leave the more crowded city areas (basically the stuff after the quick look) it starts to really pick up. It took me around 15 hours to make it through on my first playthrough and it does have a new game plus, tons of collectables, and challenge areas so in terms of bang for your buck it doesn't get much better. I really would have thought that the price on the game would have dropped by now but I guess that it is selling just as well as all the other games on Wii U.

@darthorange: Alright, cause I do want it, but yeah...not for 60 bucks.

Really? One underperforming system and you think Nintendo, one of the biggest companies in the industry, one of the godfathers, the pioneers, are going to suddenly stop making home consoles?

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

@viciousbearmauling: Bayonetta 2 will be the death of me. Thanks for reminding me of the situation!

Nintendo is odd place and so are their fans. I'm reading Platinum and Metroid would save them and that's ridiculious. Wii Fit, Mario Kart, Mario Part art and Wii sports are still making ridiculious money, money that even Sony or Microsoft can bearly touch. So when it comes to their hardcore games they still expect them to sell as good as Mario Kart and then publicly bow in shame when Wind Waker makes half of what Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time makes. But they are not ending Fire Emblem series, in fact those games sell worse then metroid. The thing is Nintendo isn't preventing hardcore gaming, Pokemon still sells a FUCK Ton, but as a fanboy it does feel like we are being drip feed the franchises we love.

But then again we are talking about Nintendo first party, a world where Pushmo, Drill Dozer and Rhythm Heaven had 2 sequels. Third Party is a serious problem. There should be no excuse for Nintendo not being able to port over Bastion, Braid or Super Meat Boy onto their console. That's a fucking crime, right now Steamworld Dig is on steam and those guys are gonna be swimming in money after the port that over onto other console other then 3DS eshop.

Fire Emblem Epic Yarn. Make it so.

Could they? Yeah

Should they? Definitely yes

Will they? No

Yes, they could, but so could Sony or Microsoft. I don't think they will, nor do I think they need to. They're not in as bad a position as some would like to believe and try to convince others.

They are in terms of the console market. Wii U sales are on Dreamcast level, the new Mario game is not only the worst selling 3D Mario but also the one with the lowest Attach rate of any Mario game. I do not think it is wise for Nintendo to bring out another console. They either should concentrate fully of the handheld business as long this is still possible or go 3rd party. And this is not a hate speech but more an analysis of the current console Market situation.

@crithon: We were being facetious about Platinum and Metroid. I love Platinum, but their games aren't going to turn the Wii U into a money printer.

@flappy: Trust me, I'd love to see a hardcore game be the best selling game in the world, especially a game where you get everyone wonderful costumes and transform them into a giant first to punch aliens. Just even the most modest glance at sales numbers and well it's an odd thing. Nintendo is still kicking butt with some franchises, but all the hardcore franchises aren't really as big as we are making them out to be. I'm not sure if seeing these numbers helps, because most of these sources can be spotty, and also most video game companies say "units ship" or "sold to retail" and "attached rates." Blah blah blah. I don't know, I mean I'm amazed Fire Emblem still gets made.

Actually now I want numbers on europe now, because with Barvery Default getting early release doesn't europe get mostly nintendo's JRPG early?

Nintendo isn't in the same state as Sega was when they made the decision to abandon hardware and focus on being a third-party developer. Nintendo doesn't need to make that transition any time soon, even if the Wii U sells at a Dreamcast level.

Super Mario 3D World has been out less than a month, and the NPD numbers only reflect the first 8 days that it was on sale. It's pretty premature and naive to judge the game based on that.