Pachter: "Nintendo Is Doomed"

[teh_Canape]

People said the same things about Sega 13

alas, Sega became a martyr with the release of the Dreamcast

basically, what we're seeing now is just a small little something until they're second come

IT WILL HAPPEN

AND IT WILL BE GLORIOUS

AND PEOPLE WILL REJOICE

AND THIS SONG SHALL BE HEARD


it's almost beautiful *teary eye*

on a serious note, yes, you are right, but come on, it's Nintendo, it pretty much saved the whole industry on it's own =P

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Well Pratcher is clearly an idiot, but that the same time Iwata's comments come as a bit of a surprise to me. I would've thought Nintendo would be more open to the the concept of lower cost games. Maybe it's just the browser based social games he doesn't see a future in, although that still seems odd.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I think he has a valid reason to be worried, as I have heard many Gamers complain that companies are wasting time trying to appeal to different people--not a bad idea for a business mind you--and are leaving their core base out in the cold. I'm not entirely behind this statement, but I've heard it enough to believe that it must have some small truth to it.

Oh, and let's not forget that Jeff Brown pretty much backed up exactly what Iwata-san said. "Social gaming as a whole aggregates into a business that is undeniably big money. When it's that big you are forced to pay attention." So, in order to pay attention, you need to cut funding from other departments, other projects (you know, the ones that have proven to make you money from your core supporters), and dump all the money into "paying attention" to this new market. Once you think you've figured it out, you buy up all the small studios you can, lay off half their work force to save costs, then force the other half to do just asmuch work, then yell at them when, for some reason, the games they make under your company name aren't nearly as good when they worked alone. You then proceed to fire them and move on to the next trend, motion controls.
Hm...maybe Iwata-san knows what he's talking about after all...

 

[Caligulove]

I think Pachter revels in hyperbole, and uses it to stir up support and attention for his cause.

Wasn't this one of the many commentators who said that PC gaming was dead?

 

[Ghengis John]

Wait. last week. in 2010? Is there some kind of time-warp going on here?

 

[azurine]

Nintendo? doomed?

ya mean the same "Nintendo" that made Mario, Zelda, star fox, Metriod, Donkey Kong, and Kirby? the guys who have Pokemon? the guys who practically made the term "video game" common? THAT "Nintendo"?

did i fall into an alternate universe?

 

[Mr.Amakir]

Aint he the guy who claims that RTS-games are single player and turn-based?

On an unrelated note, the ReCaptcha gave me this:

Göttingen disme?

I'm just lucky it didn't require me to have the umlaut in that word.

Well it's no problem for me since my keyboard looks like this.

Spoiler

 

[Callate]

Pachter: "Did you know that making provocative statements about the long-term future is an excellent way to get lots of exposure without ever being held to responsibility or credibility for what you say?"

I wouldn't make any bets on how things will turn out on the "handheld devices" market until Sony releases their phone, even in the short term. As far as the "Facebook Game" market goes, Iwata might well have a point that the market is nearing over-saturation.

 

[mjc0961]

Personally, I think Iwata's comments bear some consideration, but it's a bit too early to determine whether or not he's right. That said, claiming that Nintendo is "doomed" seems like an incredibly rash judgment.

Of course it is. It's Pachter. He's either stating the obvious or completely wrong. This time, he decided to be completely wrong. I mean come on, the 3DS just came out in Japan and is selling like hotcakes. I see an article in the "latest content" box right now that says "3DS Breaks Nintendo's UK Preorder Record." Plus on the games front, they have Pokémon Black and White coming out this weekend and will probably make yet another pile of money off that (they already did in Japan).

Yep, Pachter is right. Nintendo is doomed, with all of their hardware and software selling so well. *insert eye roll here*

Oh, and don't even get me started on EA. I still can't figure out why people think they aren't "evil" anymore. They're just as "evil" as they always were. They've just gotten better at distracting you with new (but crappy) IPs.

Oh, and let's not forget that Jeff Brown pretty much backed up exactly what Iwata-san said. "Social gaming as a whole aggregates into a business that is undeniably big money. When it's that big you are forced to pay attention." So, in order to pay attention, you need to cut funding from other departments, other projects (you know, the ones that have proven to make you money from your core supporters), and dump all the money into "paying attention" to this new market. Once you think you've figured it out, you buy up all the small studios you can, lay off half their work force to save costs, then force the other half to do just asmuch work, then yell at them when, for some reason, the games they make under your company name aren't nearly as good when they worked alone. You then proceed to fire them and move on to the next trend, motion controls.
Hm...maybe Iwata-san knows what he's talking about after all...

Spoiler: This is for you.

 

[JDKJ]

Why do you keep running stories about this guy? If I want to read ill-informed and erroneous opinions about gaming I can just visit the forums.

Or you could just watch Fox News, either way works

You win the internet with that one.

 

[Trolldor]

We are seeing a surge of 'casual gaming' for the general populous, but that doesn't mean 'rich gaming' is going to fade away.

If anything, there will be greater money in making quality, deep titles either because 'serious gamers' (Ie, people who want in depth games) will be more keen to buy them in an over-saturated market, or gaming will become more embraced by the public, and deeper more complex games will be embraced by a larger audience.

My first game was Ski-free, as far as I can recall.
Now I'm planning a review of Dawn of War II - Retribution.

Playing a casual, easy game doesn't mean you won't ever pick up something a little more indepth.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

"None of my predictions are correct, but most are close. The nature of my work is like a game of horseshoes, where close counts." - Michael Pachter

I wonder what qualifies as "close" to doomed? Semi-doomed? Quasi-doomed? Who knows?

The Diet Coke of Doomed! Just one calory not doomed enough!

 

[BabyRaptor]

Nintendo is doomed in the same way the cigarette industry is doomed. There are people who think it's evil and should be destroyed, there are people working to destroy it, but is it ever actually going to die? No.

 

[Lexodus]

Zynga can fuck off. I'm so tired of goddamn farmville applications, every time I block them they keep coming back. And what the fuck anyway? BLOW ME, I'M A FARMER, I'M GOING TO PLANT SOME SHITTY DIGITAL VEGETABLE, IT'S OKAY, NOW I HAVE TO WAIT AN HOUR BEFORE I CAN DO ANYTHING ELSE! That's how all those shit facebook games go. And then if you want a chance in the competetive games, you've got to buy extra game coins for fuckloads of money but you still have to wait an hour to do anything and you get absolutely nothing to show from it.

 

[sir.rutthed]

Ya. If there's one thing Nintendo sucks at, it's innovation. Not surprised they're afraid of the new tide of games.

 

[Zorpheus]

If Nintendo can survive the Nintendo 64 and the Virtual Boy, it can survive basically anything.

 

[Drake_Dercon]

Nintendo is doomed until Iwata changes his mindset. Nah, I lie. They occupy a niche market that seems to be almost as large as the other ones, and somebody will always want pokémons brown and rainbow. However, I think I know what Iwata is getting at. This stream of low-cost high-attention means that someday the entire escapist community may be considered snobs. In our time snobs are in a position of dominance. Someday, we won't be.

 

[Logic 0]

THAT FOOL!

Nintendo's power will only increased with the release of the 3DS and besides their highly popular.

 

[Atticus89]

If Nintendo is doomed, the worst that could happen is that they go third-party like Sega did.

Making predictions is easy.

 

[OutforEC]

Doomed 'long-term'? Can he be any more ambiguous? *Everyone* is doomed if the term is long enough...