@hailinel: ***WARNING*** - Little of this essay has anything to do with the topic of the OP, but is instead a response to Hailinel. I'm offering this one thing, and after that, I'm done...because arguments between the two of us usually go south or turn into stalemates, so I'm just going to throw this up and call it for my side.
_________________________________
You mentioned Aonuma and Zelda. It has nothing to do with Aonuma being at the helm. It has to do with the brand recognition of "Zelda" among gamers. Only those who keep themselves "in-the-know" about games would know something like Aonuma or Miyamoto being at the helm of something. However, those of us "in-the-know" also know the importance of Miyamoto. He's involved with EVERYTHING in one way or another. Aonuma? He touches Zelda and that's about it. The loss of Miyamoto's presence would be a devastation for Nintendo, as there would be a true lack of leadership and direction around there (although some could argue that it's already that way). You assume that a franchise like Pokemon, which sells upwards of 20 million copies at any given game release, is something where the majority of 20 MILLION people give a shit who the developer is? They look at the name "Pokemon" and that's it. Meanwhile, you mentioned Intelligent Systems. Ya know, I had to actually look up who that was. I had no clue. They do Fire Emblem. Interesting enough, you yourself pointed out that Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon sold a lifetime total of 250,000 copies. Numbers overall for Awakening look to be around 1 million? When it comes down to it, the only two franchises that are Nintendo exclusive that sell gangbusters are Mario ANYTHING and Pokemon. Beyond that, Zelda gets an average of about 4 million sales, Metroid is...well, it's amazing to me how that franchise continues to exist with numbers that low...and Donkey Kong is up and down.
Also, if you look at sales numbers for Nintendo-exclusive franchises, the popular ones (Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc) have some interesting stats to them. In the last 15 years, only two Zelda games have sold "gangbusters," meaning they've sold over 4.8 million copies. Those two are Ocarina and Twilight, and both of them rode a train of hype with the consoles they were coming on (OoT was the first 3D Zelda, TP was the first "realistic" graphical overhaul in 8 years on a console with a gimmick). You can tell that is the reason for the high sales because Skyward Sword still hasn't broken 4 million in sales. If Nintendo was multiplatform, they would sell double and possibly triple that number off brand recognition alone. That is serious money. Mario itself is a fucking ridiculous smash when it lands. Super Mario 3D Land...on a HANDHELD...has sold more than the highest selling Zelda game of all time (OoT). New Super Mario Bros. has sold almost 30 million copies. 30 MILLION! THAT'S FUCKING INSANE! Imagine how many more would be sold if it wasn't a console exclusive.
I understand what you are saying: Nintendo makes unique hardware, and in turn, the games they make cater to that. However, that's the problem with the mentality: the games cater to the console rather than the games cater to the player overall. You can have innovation in games without having to rely on making motion controls, a giant tablet controller, a memory expansion pack for your console, and a million other different things. Nintendo fights so much to be unique in the industry with the Wii, but then produces a console that is going to be best known for the rest of eternity as a shovelware system that had few actual games and tons of minigame collections? I would only call their monetary situation with the Wii successful, not the console as a whole itself. Did it influence the other two companies out there to make motion controls? Yes. How successful have they been? The Move seems dead as hell and Sony hasn't really shown shit with their new camera thingie, and the Kinect is now a required piece of surveillance equipment in order to use the Xbox One.
What I'm saying is, looking from a pure numbers standpoint, the only thing that seems to keep Nintendo floating above water at this point is releasing Pokemon and Mario games...because it damn well isn't Zelda or Metroid. If they weren't Nintendo's first party games...if they were genuinely in the same climate as the rest of the game world, these are IPs that companies would say unperformed, failed, and would get axed from their list. If anything, the only thing Nintendo hardware is good for...is to keep those games going.
Log in to comment