Atari Founder Warns Nintendo May be on The Way Out

[Sizzle Montyjing]

I believe that renewable fanbase are children. That is the same fanbase they have catered to since their inception, and they are the only game company to cater to said demographic since Microsoft and Sony for the most part seem to ignore their existence on a daily basis.

As somebody who volunteers around children often, I can tell you they're not playing nintendo titles. From what I've seen, biggest demographics for nintendo are adults and late teens. Most gaming kids are playing COD and Battlefield.

 

[Dragonbums]

I believe that renewable fanbase are children. That is the same fanbase they have catered to since their inception, and they are the only game company to cater to said demographic since Microsoft and Sony for the most part seem to ignore their existence on a daily basis.

As somebody who volunteers around children often, I can tell you they're not playing Nintendo titles. From what I've seen, biggest demographics for Nintendo are adults and late teens. Most gaming kids are playing COD and Battlefield.

I also volunteered as a summer camp for years, and has also volunteered for watching kids after school and I can tell you that there are always that group of kids that had a DS/3DS on them with Mario and Pokemon.

Also, if the summer camp you volunteer in question bans electronics in general then it's pretty hard to gauge out whether they actually like Nintendo games.

At least for my camp the devices (up until half way through summer because after multiple thefts they were banned indefinitely) kids played them during break time.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

I also volunteered as a summer camp for years, and has also volunteered for watching kids after school and I can tell you that there are always that group of kids that had a DS/3DS on them with Mario and Pokemon.

Also, if the summer camp you volunteer in question bans electronics in general then it's pretty hard to gauge out whether they actually like Nintendo games.

At least for my camp the devices (up until half way through summer because after multiple thefts they were banned indefinitely) kids played them during break time.

I do a year long thing with the scouting organisation, and none of them seem to really like Nintendo, or at least didn't own and/or didn't play on them. But, I'm in the UK, so it could be a difference with that, or with how Nintendo does have the handhold market pretty nailed down, and kids who enjoy videogames are more likely to bring a handheld on camp with them.

 

[Dragonbums]

I also volunteered as a summer camp for years, and has also volunteered for watching kids after school and I can tell you that there are always that group of kids that had a DS/3DS on them with Mario and Pokemon.

Also, if the summer camp you volunteer in question bans electronics in general then it's pretty hard to gauge out whether they actually like Nintendo games.

At least for my camp the devices (up until half way through summer because after multiple thefts they were banned indefinitely) kids played them during break time.

I do a year long thing with the scouting organisation, and none of them seem to really like Nintendo, or at least didn't own and/or didn't play on them. But, I'm in the UK, so it could be a difference with that, or with how Nintendo does have the handhold market pretty nailed down, and kids who enjoy videogames are more likely to bring a handheld on camp with them.

I guess it's different demographics then. Here in the US, the kids still go crazy over Mario (and the parties my parents hold with kids involve go apeshit over the NSMB games on my Wii.) so that along with summer camp, I think they have a good base for the new generation of young kids.

 

[Kittyhawk]

Bushell knows his stuff, but what he says will fall on deaf ears of some. Nintendo, I love their games and was raised on them, and where gaming is going its really sad to see Nintendo not wanting to dive and get dirty with us. They'll be left watching others play and have impact on the industry like they used to do.

Sure, Nintendo have lots in the bank but rich shareholders can easily pull their money out anytime, then they'd be up crap creek somewhat. It might never happen, according to some.

 

[EstrogenicMuscle]

Nintendo doesn't need the console market to "stay relevant". It has the best market out there right now, the handheld market.

The handheld market is big in the West, and even bigger in Japan. In fact part of the failure of the Wii U is the mere fact of the decline of the console market in Japan. Since handhelds sell better than consoles anyway, shouldn't we be more worried about Sony and the Vita? The Vita has been out longer than the Wii U and has sold far less.

And rest assured, sales of the Wii U will pick up. Especially with titles like Super Smash Bros. Wii U. Stuff like Wind Waker HD is already helping sales of the device to pick up.

Why do I get the feeling that a lot of these folks are also people still hanging on to a market grudge against Nintendo from when they held a market monopoly in the late 80s and early 90s? Even PBS was doing corporate busting specials on them back in the day. Atari is certainly a company that Nintendo helped destroy. Or rather, keep from rising again after they brought a game market crash on themselves. Atari struggled to get back into the market after the crash in no small part thanks to Nintendo. And Nintendo's filibustering of the industry of sorts I think is also to blame for SEGA's constant struggle and failure to get a foothold in the industry.

The NES revived the video game industry. But it also left a lot of people sore. And I'm sure Atari was one of those people.