Nintendo Admits Xbox Live and PSN Are Too Far Ahead

[EHKOS]

Make games that make me want to play online.

No no, please, no. I'd love for them to have Mario Party online, and maybe Pokemon, but I don't want them to make games with tacked on multiplayer.
Besides, they'll take a piece of the game and withhold it from people without friends or internet, like Pokemon and Animal Crossing. *sniff* DAMMIT NINTY, NOT EVERYONE HAS A SOCIAL LIFE!

 

[Signa]

Here's an idea, copy Steam. There's reason why it's so popular, so do what neither MS or Sony is doing.

Also, this.

To be fair, that was a bit of a throwaway comment. Steam is more than just a social service, and running a console network online is going to depend on more than the features of its UI. That said, aiming for Steam-without-the-online-store is a good start, because the chat/friends/stat tracking/achievements features are the most basic things we should be aiming for in a next-gen online service.

Steam WITHOUT the online store :S

Why wouldn't you want Big N to copy their store? good prices, discounted sales to drum up interest in old games...... don't see why you'd want to exclude that!

Plus can you imagine a Retro bundle....... mmmm

I'm just being realistic. The Steam model as a store on a closed platform such as any of the big three's consoles is not really possible. The hard drive space alone needed to handle more than just a couple games would drive the cost of the machine through the roof. Add in the issue of delivering these games digitally, and the likelihood becomes a "when hell freezes over" deal.

 

[t3hmaniac]

On the plus side: at least Wii U releases can't be splintered and things hidden behind paywalls quite so well. How much you pay starts and ends at the cash register.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Just make it work, Mr. Iwata. I don't need it to compete, I just need something that works. I honestly don't care more for Live or PSN, I don't need them to be powerhouse combatants. Steam works just as well--an account, a friends list with a chat function, maybe some stats and achievements, and we're rolling. Embrace this stuff--we want it. We do. One upping at the go is not the way forward, when you're an entire cycle behind.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Well, if you want people to use your online system and buy more stuff from the shop...

I have one suggestion for the e-shop: STOP SELLING ANCIENT VIRTUAL CONSOLE TITLES AT 4+ DOLLARS EACH. (Link's Awakening DX was 7 fucking dollars last year). It's a horrible ripoff. People know it's a horrible ripoff. Most of the games that are in the e-shop are absolute garbage, and those that aren't are 15+ years old; they aren't worth 4-8 dollars each. Maybe 1-3 dollars each.

Make the Virtual Console cheaper, integrate some better social functions into your network, and you can put together something that isn't a joke. (and stop with the "Friend Code" business. it's outdated and highly inefficient)

 

[Tipsy Giant]

I'm just being realistic. The Steam model as a store on a closed platform such as any of the big three's consoles is not really possible. The hard drive space alone needed to handle more than just a couple games would drive the cost of the machine through the roof. Add in the issue of delivering these games digitally, and the likelihood becomes a "when hell freezes over" deal.

Of course the way around that issue is making the Wii quite open, allowing users to plug in their own external hard drive to download games to and have a steam like service, where you can delete the game from your hard drive but your account has the game linked so you can re-download at any date....... It's not impossible, it's just difficult and everything worth doing is difficult!

 

[Signa]

I'm just being realistic. The Steam model as a store on a closed platform such as any of the big three's consoles is not really possible. The hard drive space alone needed to handle more than just a couple games would drive the cost of the machine through the roof. Add in the issue of delivering these games digitally, and the likelihood becomes a "when hell freezes over" deal.

PS3's come with a minimum of like 150 gb now. And you can buy 500 gb models for not much more.

Add to that the fact that you can just put your own hardrives in if you fancy.

Hardrive space isn't an issue for the next gen of consoles. High capacity reasonably fast HDDs are dirt cheap now. Like £15 for 500 gb cheap.

Just Keep it SATA and keep it open, also allow it to read from normal USB based externals.

No problems.

I'll believe it when I see it. I will not underestimate Japanese arrogance.

I do know they announced an online store and USB storage for the Wii U, but how well that will be implemented remains to be seen. I was extremely underwhelmed by the Wii store, and the DSi and 3DS stores sound ridiculously overpriced.

 

[Signa]

I'm just being realistic. The Steam model as a store on a closed platform such as any of the big three's consoles is not really possible. The hard drive space alone needed to handle more than just a couple games would drive the cost of the machine through the roof. Add in the issue of delivering these games digitally, and the likelihood becomes a "when hell freezes over" deal.

PS3's come with a minimum of like 150 gb now. And you can buy 500 gb models for not much more.

Add to that the fact that you can just put your own hardrives in if you fancy.

Hardrive space isn't an issue for the next gen of consoles. High capacity reasonably fast HDDs are dirt cheap now. Like £15 for 500 gb cheap.

Just Keep it SATA and keep it open, also allow it to read from normal USB based externals.

No problems.

I'll believe it when I see it. I will not underestimate Japanese arrogance.

I do know they announced an online store and USB storage for the Wii U, but how well that will be implemented remains to be seen. I was extremely underwhelmed by the Wii store, and the DSi and 3DS stores sound ridiculously overpriced.

I doubt Nintendont will be the ones to do it, but DD on consoles isn't as ludicrous as it might seem.

Oh believe me, I was actually kinda excited over the idea of a Steambox when those rumors were circulating. It can be done, but I've been speaking this whole time on what I think Nintendo will or should do. I might have been roping Sony or MS in a few points too, but that's because they don't operate that differently from each other on these matters. Steam is so great because Valve just thinks differently than other companies. It's that difference that has pushed them ahead while everyone else is trying to figure out how to hold onto their old business models.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Can't play games with other people? That's ok, we'll just force you to talk with them instead. That's just as good, right? Right!

 

[Steve the Pocket]

"We also believe that the Miiverse will serve the purpose of giving people an opportunity to discover other games that they haven't yet started playing."

That sounds suspiciously like Evil Marketing Guy speak for "We're going to spam all our customers with ads!" Or more likely, "We're going to recruit our customers to spam each other with ads every time they play a game, just like Facebook apps!"

just make the online component more like what Steam is, why not have Valve help them develop their online interface?

Better yet, just use Steam. Thousands of users already signed up and ready to use it, and potential cross-platform co-op with PCs. You know, for those five-year-old games they're apparently going to finally get ports of.

 

[harvz]

Well this is what happens when your console aims for the larger chunk of the population that doesn't really play games instead of the people who you aimed at for all those formative years, they move away, play different games and on different consoles and generally ignore your console because they want some decent quality graphics that weren't considered old when the console came out, a proper controller that doesn't want to be something between a nun-chuck and a wand while failing at both (pre-motion plus) and games that aren't sports or shit.

Now, I think its great that they want to rejoin the, for lack of a better term, proper games market but I do think that, for better or worse, nintendo live in their own little bubble where they ignore anything the western markets say and chalk it up to "Well, the western market aren't interested in Japanese games anymore".

One of the biggest issues with trying to get back in on this market is that they will need to have an online service with full party/speech support but i do fear that if they dont step out of their bubble that they will fail at it, chalk another one up for "Westerners hate Japan" and go back to presenting 80 yr olds with their wiimote.

 

[SpAc3man]

Its a good thing they haven't thought about having to compete with Steam. None of the console online services come close.