The Dreamcastification of Nintendo....

.... and so it begins!

To be fair, this was the result of Nintendo launching the 3DS without adequate support in the way of launch titles. Consoles don't sell themselves... software sales consoles, IMHO.

With the Wii sales screaching to a halt, the 3DS plummeting the profit line and the Wii U being just a catch up to the competition, what can they do except go off grid for a little while and dump a ton of money into R&D?

I really don't think the core gamer market will embrace the Wii U with any significance. Could this be the end of the line for Nintendo?

They peaked with the N64 anyway.

(Foghorn noise)
Weeee Yooooooo!!!!!

I fully expect that Mario, Zelda, and Metroid titles will be available on the Playstation 4 and the Xbox 720.

^^^

Isn't there a rumour about the next console being based around a joint format?

Oh yeah, the PlayWii 360. When is that coming out, again?

If so, I have not heard it.

I wouldn't count them out just yet.

People were predicting Nintendo's demise during the GameCube era too.

But it will never again dominate the handheld market like it did in past generations... with the Game Boy, the Game Boy Advance, and the Nintendo DS...

Nintendo made a huge mistake by underestimating the impact of smartphones (and the iPhone, particularly) on the video game industry.

The 3DS will find a little niche but I don't see it getting phenomenal sales like the DS did. That time is over.

However, the Wii U has lots of potential in my opinion. If I were Nintendo, I would have withdrawn from the handheld market and devoted all resources to software and hardware development for the next console.

They still have plenty of important IPs to make money off of... Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Star Fox, Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Pikmin, Nintendogs, Kid Icarus, Pokemon, F-Zero, etc...

Consoles

It'd just be Microsoft and Sony IIRC.

Xbox 360 is overall better system specs then PS3 rick.

Sorry, how do you define this? This is usually code for "people like me".

I think it's self evident what I mean. People who buy the bulk of the games today. People who buy titles like Assasin's Creed, Call of Duty and Bioshock. The people that AAA game developers target. Am I one of those people? Yeah, sure....

... what's your point?

I don't think it's self-evident all. Are you really sure that adults like yourself buy (or have bought for them) more games than young kids? More games than the group of people who buy games (some of which don't consider themselves to be "gamers" at all) on their smartphone?

Also, "AAA game developers" is a nonsense term. I think you'll find that companies like Blizzard or Valve don't target console players, and produce games of as good (or better...) quality than EA or Ubisoft or Activision or Nintendo.

I think the companies that are going to do best are those that realize that *everyone* plays games now, in one way or another, and what you call "Core gamers" (which I guess means, those who play the games that are popular on the 360?) is becoming a smaller and smaller portion of the overall games market.

So, my point is, what YOU like (or "core gamers", which you is just proxy for yourself) is not necessarily very important to the success of a company that makes video games.

While there is indisputable truth to what you say, I don't think that it's neither here nor there to my core point. The average gamer are 30-37 year old males. Yes, casual games are very popular, but AAA game developers that make games for consoles like the PS3, 360 and Wii U make games for that market. I dint think the Wii U will garner much appeal to those gamers.


.... Oh.. And Blizzard is Activision. While Valve does have a thriving PC community via Steam, they do indeed make games for console gamers too.

Yes, ActivisionBlizzard is the same parent company. However, the studios, that is to say, the designers, artists, programmers, testers, etc, are completely separate. These are different game "developers" in every sense of the word.

Vivendi owns lots game companies (including ActivisionBlizzard), but we don't consider all the games their child companies make to be from the same studio.

Valve makes PC games and ports them to console in order to get more revenue. Activision used to do the same thing, but now they make games targeted to the console, with the PC as the afterthought.

And finally, I think it's pretty ridiculous to think that Nintendo is making any attempt whatsoever to target the demographic you describe with the Wii U. Just like the Wii, they are avoiding direct competition for the same consumers and going for different segments of the market. So, I just don't see your statement having much relevance at all to the viability of the console.

You're dreaming.

Nintendo was able to make a profit off the GAMECUBE of all things.

They won't see Wii level success again, but the WiiU will be at least as successful as the N64.

My personal prediction is to see the Nintendo DS discontinued in a year or less. They make good profit on the hardware but are struggling to separate the 3DS from the DS as a generational improvement in consumers eyes.

Nintendo 3DS = Virtual Boy 2?

MAybe you're right... The interface of the Wii U is so radically different that it will take a lot more than a simple port to get those sort of games to work on it's sysyem... but almost every piece of games journalism I'vwe read on the new console seems to imply that Nintendo is going after the hardcore gamer market once again. I certainly don't think the casual market will go for it like they did the Wii.

I guess time will tell.

System specs on The WII U won't support the type of games hardcore gamers like like the mass effect fallout dragon age etc.

The specs are fully good enough to make good games. If these "hardcore gamers" really cared about specs, they'd be buying PC titles. If any console has showed us that specs aren't all that important to "hardcore gamers", it's the Xbox 360. It came out almost 6 years ago, and was frankly nothing too amazing at the time, but it's still doing very well.

We've also seen this same back-and-forth with the gamecube and the Wii and pretty much every version of the gameboy since it had any competitors... the market has shown that graphics horsepower is pretty low on the list of reasons why people buy a particular platform.

I don't think this is right. I visit a lot of gaming websites daily and the average age of the so-called 'hardcore gamer' seems to be in the teens to 20s.

Your 30 to 40 year old still remembers the NES/SNES era or the heyday of PC gaming and would either not be into games anymore or would buy a Wii for nostalgia or for their family. They might own one of the other two systems as well, but they are probably gonna care more about game play than graphics.

The guys who call themselves 'hardcore gamers' are more likely to be the teenagers who routinely engage in console flame wars over whose system is better or who think older games suck because they don't have cool graphics.

it seems to me that Nintendo either needs to re-think the direction they are going with consoles, or give it up

Console gaming is for luddites anyway.

In every way, PC gaming is far superior. And, as Robotech Master has already pointed out, smartphones are starting to emerge as a major gaming platform.

The look and feel of Battlefield 3 has me considering the PC version. The recent appearance of BF3 on the PS3 leaves me with a feeling that it will be more of the same old shooters, but the PC version is something special.


... I just can't get used to the keyboard interface. WASD is not for me.

There are several things I like about PC gaming in the way of innovation, but I don't know if it's enough for me to give up gaming on my couch with a controller in front of my 55" 1080p HDTV.... possibly in 3D very soon. Yeah, I could buy a rig and hook it up via HDMI and buy a controller, but who wants to do that every time I pop in a game?

I agree that smartphones are the wave of the future and given the rate of memory and storage capacity increases, you'll see bigger and better games on smartphones... but the AAA experience is far off, IMHO. Smartphones will be the realm of casual games for a while to come.

When I say AAA, I mean games made with teams of 50 or so people, with creation budgets in the millions of dollars and retails between $50-$100.

I have a 360 controller for my pc and it just stays plugged in all the time.

As for the tv, get a 1080p monitor and a signal splitter for the cable, have one running into the monitor and the other into the tv and you won't ever have to do anything but change the channel on the tv.

Once you get used to it, Shakka, his eyes open.

My FPS experience started with Rainbox Six for the PC. Shortly thereafter, a friend bought Goldeneye for the Nintendo.

I felt like murdering the world.

http://www.destructoid.com/rumor-wii-u-is-in-development-hell--210892.phtml

Dude... I'm actually kind of sad. I still hope that they can turn things around and produce a viable console, but I just don't see it happening. Wii U in 2012, Xbox 720 and PS4 in 2014 and then that's it for Nintendo.

Most new hardware goes through a period of 'development hell'.

The PS3 was notoriously hard to program for initially.

That said, Nintendo is in for some rough times. They still have one great release for the Wii on the way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Skyward_Sword

Coming out November 20th! Can't wait. Between that and Elder Scrolls V, my holiday months are gonna be busy.

After that, I don't give a damn what Nintendo does in the future. I've been happy with all the consoles I've bought from them. Loved my NES. Had a great time with my GameCube and the Wii. Played the shit out my friends' SNES and N64 systems.

I'm sure Wii U will still have plenty of great gaming experiences on it. They don't necessarily have to compete with Sony and Microsoft in console sales. They just need to find their niche audience and continue to make a profit.

Other than the DS, I haven't given a crap about Nintendo since the SNES. I stand by my belief that youll be seeing Mario and Zelda on the Xbox 720 and the PS4.