Satoru Iwata Re-Elected as Nintendo President

[Toadfish1]

This will displease Michael Pachter.
I'm ambivalent.
I'm sure he's a nice guy, but a new CEO might actually be willing to pull the plug on the WiiU and let Nintendo focus solely on the 3DS.

So you honestly believe that pulling the plug on the WiiU and giving a huge fuck you to the ~8-9 million of your most faithful consumer is a good idea? You know what that would mean to Nintendo? People buy a Nintendo product because they know they will get Nintendo games on it. Pulling the plug of a console that is barely 2 years in would be suicide. People would lose faith in Nintendo and not buy future products because who guarantees them that he next product won't have the same thing happen to it if it's not successful, which in turn will make that product less successful. People will wait rather than buy to not live trough the same faith as the poor fans that got the WiiU.

First off, its 6 million, not nine. Nine would be a modest failure, not the shambling trainwreck that is the WiiU.

Second of all, by not acknowledging their mistakes and just getting rid of the WiiU, they're currently giving the finger to anyone who thinks that being up to date in hardware is a reasonable expectation for a console. They're telling everyone that when you buy a Nintendo console, now or in the future, that console will have fuck all third party support or impressive looking games, and be a Mario Machine, and not a cheap one either. THey are telling that to the marketan d pissing off people who listen and care. And that's the bigger market. Know how I know? Cause the WiiU has only sold six million consoles.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

So with the lack of any new blood and new ideas, Nintendo will continue to steer their company right into that iceberg.

At which point they will carve right THROUGH the iceberg because the "new blood" recruits are off in the back playing with themselves while all the experienced personnel are doing their jobs. Y'know, seeing how pretty much every veteran designer over at Nintendo keeps coming up with new and exciting ideas regularly, whether they be long-established franchises or new ones, it made me realize that the term "new blood" has been reduced to nothing more than a meaningless buzz term in order to make something derivative seem more unique and interesting than it really is just because it has a brand new name slapped on the box. As Miyamoto and Nintendo have said before "a new franchise must be more than just a name." Most designers should start taking that to heart.

 

[KazeAizen]

" or "1080p gaming? Nintendoes that."

Slight correction, if Nintendo were to advertise that then they'd be slapped with false advertising. The Wii U can't do 1080p native, or FullHD. It can upscale to 1080p, just like how the Xbox 360 and PS3 could, but it can't naturally do it.

Ah I wasn't aware of that, but regardless, I stand by my point, they need next year when all those games come out to launch a seriously aggressive marketing campaign.

So their only chance is to wade into a battlefield they are hilariously outclassed in? Yes, the sort of games that the WiiU is making allow them to hit 1080p 60FPS easily, much like the Ps3 was able to hit that back in 2008 with Wipeout HD. But the specs render them woefully outdated compared to the PS4 and Xbone, and if they try to claim they are capable of better visuals they'll be laughed out of the market.

As for trying to push their "hardcore" games, I doubt a single non die-hard is going to be fooled that Dynasty Warriors Zelda is anything other than Dynasty Warriors with skins slapped on, and thus about as worth playing as any Dynasty Warriors Extreme Alpha Legends Whatever, Bayonetta will continue to be played by a small group of people who need to see a therapist, and Splatoon will be treated with the respect a tech demo for a downloadable game like that deserves.

There is so much cynicism here I can't even begin to process it.

I wasn't aware optimism could make 1 GB of RAM equal to 8 GB's of RAM.

Its more of the second half of the statement. Still I'm trying to see why this is an issue and why people care about the specs.

 

[AJ_Lethal]

Second of all, by not acknowledging their mistakes and just getting rid of the WiiU, they're currently giving the finger to anyone who thinks that being up to date in hardware is a reasonable expectation for a console. They're telling everyone that when you buy a Nintendo console, now or in the future, that console will have fuck all third party support or impressive looking games, and be a Mario Machine, and not a cheap one either. THey are telling that to the marketan d pissing off people who listen and care. And that's the bigger market. Know how I know? Cause the WiiU has only sold six million consoles.

I'm sorry, but that's the most blatant display of cynical stupidity I ever heard. The Wii U is waaaay past the point of no return to axe it (not to mention it's now breaking even; less reasons to drop it); pissing off your current userbase of 6 million (a fuckload of people if you can't be arsed to math) -which is EVERYTHING you have to rely on for now- just because you desperately want to get ahead of competition is a rather dumb as shit decision. If you don't believe me just look at Sega: that same nilly-willy idea you are having is what drove them to rapid-fire consoles until "hit the spot" is what killed them.

 

[Nixou]

Second of all, by not acknowledging their mistakes and just getting rid of the WiiU, they're currently giving the finger to anyone who thinks that being up to date in hardware is a reasonable expectation for a console.

Why, yes, they are.
And they're RIGHT to do so
First because "Up to date in hardware" means the N64 and Game Cube, two very powerful consoles in their prime, which were crushed by less powerful, cheaper, competitors, while the "hardcore" crowd remorselessly followed the herd.
Then because "Up to date in hardware" means for Nintendo re-entering an arm race where they would be hopelessly outspent into bankruptcy and oblivion by much larger companies.
And on a more general scale, because:
"Up to date in hardware" means filling consoles with expensive components that guarantee that console video games are thrown in the sterile upper-class ghetto where PC gaming was trapped 15 years ago.
and also
"Up to date in hardware" means adding even more incentive for AAA devs to waste innumerable work hours and tons of cash trying to capitalize on the GPUs functions while neglecting things like level design, saturating the market with expensive bland games.

 

[Rellik San]

" or "1080p gaming? Nintendoes that."

Slight correction, if Nintendo were to advertise that then they'd be slapped with false advertising. The Wii U can't do 1080p native, or FullHD. It can upscale to 1080p, just like how the Xbox 360 and PS3 could, but it can't naturally do it.

Ah I wasn't aware of that, but regardless, I stand by my point, they need next year when all those games come out to launch a seriously aggressive marketing campaign.

So their only chance is to wade into a battlefield they are hilariously outclassed in? Yes, the sort of games that the WiiU is making allow them to hit 1080p 60FPS easily, much like the Ps3 was able to hit that back in 2008 with Wipeout HD. But the specs render them woefully outdated compared to the PS4 and Xbone, and if they try to claim they are capable of better visuals they'll be laughed out of the market.

As for trying to push their "hardcore" games, I doubt a single non die-hard is going to be fooled that Dynasty Warriors Zelda is anything other than Dynasty Warriors with skins slapped on, and thus about as worth playing as any Dynasty Warriors Extreme Alpha Legends Whatever, Bayonetta will continue to be played by a small group of people who need to see a therapist, and Splatoon will be treated with the respect a tech demo for a downloadable game like that deserves.

There is so much cynicism here I can't even begin to process it.

I wasn't aware optimism could make 1 GB of RAM equal to 8 GB's of RAM.

By that logic, those people who care about specs are playing on a PC with 64gigs of RAM and looking to upgrade to DDR4 later this year... after all I wasn't aware optimism could make 8gigs of ram equal to 64gigs of RAM. If specs were everything, then no console would see ever, when people can buy a better gaming PC for around the same price if they are reasonably smart about it.

The thing is, people don't really care about specs on consoles and those that do are just laughed at by the PC Master Race and rightfully so. Right now we have 2 consoles claiming to be more powerful but are so poorly optimised they can't manage consistent frame rates half the time and have almost nothing of value in terms of exclusives to offer at the moment.

Nintendo can maintain a solid frame rate and have built up a decent library of games for everyone, they need to push that aspect, not pushing the "hardcore" but pushing for everything, the self proclaimed "hardcore" are CoD playing morons, the real Hardcore game on PC, so obviously the "hardcore" isn't Nintendo's market, however... PC Gamers and people who want a console for family time are and heres why:
Of all the consoles Wii U offers PC Gamers experiences they literally can't get anywhere else, experiences there is nothing analogous too on their platform and people looking for a family entertainment system will eat up 4 play same/split screen co-op for fun.

 

[Dragonbums]

So with the lack of any new blood and new ideas, Nintendo will continue to steer their company right into that iceberg.

Well it's about time they joined up with the rest of the gaming industry.

 

[Foolery]

" or "1080p gaming? Nintendoes that."

Slight correction, if Nintendo were to advertise that then they'd be slapped with false advertising. The Wii U can't do 1080p native, or FullHD. It can upscale to 1080p, just like how the Xbox 360 and PS3 could, but it can't naturally do it.

Ah I wasn't aware of that, but regardless, I stand by my point, they need next year when all those games come out to launch a seriously aggressive marketing campaign.

Wind Waker HD is native 1080p. At 30fps. Just saying. The art style helps immensely though.

 

[Toadfish1]

" or "1080p gaming? Nintendoes that."

Slight correction, if Nintendo were to advertise that then they'd be slapped with false advertising. The Wii U can't do 1080p native, or FullHD. It can upscale to 1080p, just like how the Xbox 360 and PS3 could, but it can't naturally do it.

Ah I wasn't aware of that, but regardless, I stand by my point, they need next year when all those games come out to launch a seriously aggressive marketing campaign.

So their only chance is to wade into a battlefield they are hilariously outclassed in? Yes, the sort of games that the WiiU is making allow them to hit 1080p 60FPS easily, much like the Ps3 was able to hit that back in 2008 with Wipeout HD. But the specs render them woefully outdated compared to the PS4 and Xbone, and if they try to claim they are capable of better visuals they'll be laughed out of the market.

As for trying to push their "hardcore" games, I doubt a single non die-hard is going to be fooled that Dynasty Warriors Zelda is anything other than Dynasty Warriors with skins slapped on, and thus about as worth playing as any Dynasty Warriors Extreme Alpha Legends Whatever, Bayonetta will continue to be played by a small group of people who need to see a therapist, and Splatoon will be treated with the respect a tech demo for a downloadable game like that deserves.

There is so much cynicism here I can't even begin to process it.

I wasn't aware optimism could make 1 GB of RAM equal to 8 GB's of RAM.

By that logic, those people who care about specs are playing on a PC with 64gigs of RAM and looking to upgrade to DDR4 later this year... after all I wasn't aware optimism could make 8gigs of ram equal to 64gigs of RAM. If specs were everything, then no console would see ever, when people can buy a better gaming PC for around the same price if they are reasonably smart about it.

The thing is, people don't really care about specs on consoles and those that do are just laughed at by the PC Master Race and rightfully so. Right now we have 2 consoles claiming to be more powerful but are so poorly optimised they can't manage consistent frame rates half the time and have almost nothing of value in terms of exclusives to offer at the moment.

Nintendo can maintain a solid frame rate and have built up a decent library of games for everyone, they need to push that aspect, not pushing the "hardcore" but pushing for everything, the self proclaimed "hardcore" are CoD playing morons, the real Hardcore game on PC, so obviously the "hardcore" isn't Nintendo's market, however... PC Gamers and people who want a console for family time are and heres why:
Of all the consoles Wii U offers PC Gamers experiences they literally can't get anywhere else, experiences there is nothing analogous too on their platform and people looking for a family entertainment system will eat up 4 play same/split screen co-op for fun.

Thank you, man from a place where money is infinite. However, people who actually are budget conscious feel that a $300 machine like the WiiU does nothing to justify itself compared to the $400 machines like the Ps4 and Xbox One.

 

[AJ_Lethal]

" or "1080p gaming? Nintendoes that."

Slight correction, if Nintendo were to advertise that then they'd be slapped with false advertising. The Wii U can't do 1080p native, or FullHD. It can upscale to 1080p, just like how the Xbox 360 and PS3 could, but it can't naturally do it.

Ah I wasn't aware of that, but regardless, I stand by my point, they need next year when all those games come out to launch a seriously aggressive marketing campaign.

So their only chance is to wade into a battlefield they are hilariously outclassed in? Yes, the sort of games that the WiiU is making allow them to hit 1080p 60FPS easily, much like the Ps3 was able to hit that back in 2008 with Wipeout HD. But the specs render them woefully outdated compared to the PS4 and Xbone, and if they try to claim they are capable of better visuals they'll be laughed out of the market.

As for trying to push their "hardcore" games, I doubt a single non die-hard is going to be fooled that Dynasty Warriors Zelda is anything other than Dynasty Warriors with skins slapped on, and thus about as worth playing as any Dynasty Warriors Extreme Alpha Legends Whatever, Bayonetta will continue to be played by a small group of people who need to see a therapist, and Splatoon will be treated with the respect a tech demo for a downloadable game like that deserves.

There is so much cynicism here I can't even begin to process it.

I wasn't aware optimism could make 1 GB of RAM equal to 8 GB's of RAM.

By that logic, those people who care about specs are playing on a PC with 64gigs of RAM and looking to upgrade to DDR4 later this year... after all I wasn't aware optimism could make 8gigs of ram equal to 64gigs of RAM. If specs were everything, then no console would see ever, when people can buy a better gaming PC for around the same price if they are reasonably smart about it.

The thing is, people don't really care about specs on consoles and those that do are just laughed at by the PC Master Race and rightfully so. Right now we have 2 consoles claiming to be more powerful but are so poorly optimised they can't manage consistent frame rates half the time and have almost nothing of value in terms of exclusives to offer at the moment.

Nintendo can maintain a solid frame rate and have built up a decent library of games for everyone, they need to push that aspect, not pushing the "hardcore" but pushing for everything, the self proclaimed "hardcore" are CoD playing morons, the real Hardcore game on PC, so obviously the "hardcore" isn't Nintendo's market, however... PC Gamers and people who want a console for family time are and heres why:
Of all the consoles Wii U offers PC Gamers experiences they literally can't get anywhere else, experiences there is nothing analogous too on their platform and people looking for a family entertainment system will eat up 4 play same/split screen co-op for fun.

Thank you, man from a place where money is infinite. However, people who actually are budget conscious feel that a $300 machine like the WiiU does nothing to justify itself compared to the $400 machines like the Ps4 and Xbox One.

You can build a decent PC rig for $400 if you look in the right places. And you can get a refurbished Wii U for around $200 *snort*

 

[Randomosity]

Anyone remember how the PS2 was pretty much half as powerful as the X-box? Anyone remember how the PS2 got totally crushed in the market because the X-box was so much more powerful? No? That is because the PS2 dominated that generation, despite not being as powerful. I'm not saying the Wii U is gonna be some dynamite seller, but lets not try and bring specs in as some sort of perfect explanation as to why it's lost. Go back to the NES days. Specs have never been the deciding factor for console performance. The most powerful system in any given generation has never "won" that given generation. So can we please move beyond the whole specs jargon and actually take a real look at what is really causing the problems.

 

[Roxas1359]

Anyone remember how the PS2 was pretty much half as powerful as the X-box? Anyone remember how the PS2 got totally crushed in the market because the X-box was so much more powerful? No? That is because the PS2 dominated that generation, despite not being as powerful.

See there's one thing to also keep in mind though when came to the PS2 that many people seem to forget. The PS2 also served as a cheap DVD player in a time in which DVDs were still too expensive for people to get, along wit DVD players. That's the main reason why it dominated so much in Japan, because in Japan Sony sold it as a cheap DVD player that just so happened to play games. They tried the same thing with the PS3, but it didn't work out too well for that. Now I agree that the Wii U isn't gonna bomb because of it's specs. But when it comes to the least powerful console dominating, that's only happened 3 times. With the PS1, while it was a 32-bit system graphically, it had better storage than the N64 and Saturn, as well as a better sound chip. The PS2 had better disc space, and actually had more memory than the GameCube did, but the GameCube had a better CPU when compared to the PS2. What people need to do is not just see one technical aspect of the system before saying it was the "weaker" system between all of them because there are things that the weaker system does better than the supposed stronger one, and visa versa.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Anyone remember how the PS2 was pretty much half as powerful as the X-box? Anyone remember how the PS2 got totally crushed in the market because the X-box was so much more powerful? No? That is because the PS2 dominated that generation, despite not being as powerful. I'm not saying the Wii U is gonna be some dynamite seller, but lets not try and bring specs in as some sort of perfect explanation as to why it's lost. Go back to the NES days. Specs have never been the deciding factor for console performance. The most powerful system in any given generation has never "won" that given generation. So can we please move beyond the whole specs jargon and actually take a real look at what is really causing the problems.

I would like to think this resurgence of obsessions over power is due to a lot of formerly PC-only devs hijacking the console scene and bragging about their beloved processors and CPUs and a lot of other crap nobody but the most obsessed people care about. Considering how many devs are in no hurry to upgrade to the PS4 or XB1 and how the first year of both of them has become typical glorified tech demo doldrums as well as not giving that supposed booster shot to the industry that they claimed, it's becoming abundantly clear that the call for new hardware was because the designers clearly can't pace themselves. They've already wasted billions in the last gen over useless BS, why should anyone trust them not to do the same? I think the entire industry really needs to examine itself lest we have a lesser version of '83 on our hands.

 

[Scorpid]

Nintendo is so weird. Its executives are also celebrities and charming personalities to boot, AND they're Japanese that are celebrities in America.

 

[solamon77]

This will displease Michael Pachter.
I'm ambivalent.
I'm sure he's a nice guy, but a new CEO might actually be willing to pull the plug on the WiiU and let Nintendo focus solely on the 3DS.

So you honestly believe that pulling the plug on the WiiU and giving a huge fuck you to the ~8-9 million of your most faithful consumer is a good idea? You know what that would mean to Nintendo? People buy a Nintendo product because they know they will get Nintendo games on it. Pulling the plug of a console that is barely 2 years in would be suicide. People would lose faith in Nintendo and not buy future products because who guarantees them that he next product won't have the same thing happen to it if it's not successful, which in turn will make that product less successful. People will wait rather than buy to not live trough the same faith as the poor fans that got the WiiU.

Pulling the plug prematurely is exactly the kind of behavior that saw Sega out of the console hardware business. No, Nintendo needs to ride this one through, start pumping out some AMAZING games, learn something, and do better next time.

 

[Lightknight]

It is interesting. It seems as though the PS4 hit the XBO so hard (not that Microsoft didn't hit themselves hardest of all) that consumers see the options as PS4 vs WiiU. Though, the WiiU and XBO are pretty close to one another, sometimes switching places week by week.

Looking at the XBO's games list though, there's little to be excited by whereas Nintendo's promises are finally rolling out or appear likely to be flowing soon. It's interesting the the XBO is playing the ugly twin to both consoles in the decoy effect. Price/performance against the ps4 and games against the WiiU.

 

[VG_Addict]

I can't believe people STILL want Nintendo to discontinue the Wii U. It's finally getting games.

Pulling the plug prematurely on a console is what led to Sega's exit from the console business.

Good thing these people aren't in charge of a business.

 

[Sean951]

Why on Earth would they discontinue the Wii-U? I've used mine more since Mario Kart 8 than I had the previous 9 months combined. Sure, we'd play Mario when I had a large group, or Nintendoland for some drunken hide and go seek, but Mario Kart + beer = a good time.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

I still think nin would be better off to get out of the console biz and sell normal games for 80$ a pop and portable ports for 40-50$ a shot.

All the 3D Zelda games on the PS4 for 40$ a pop(albeit for the newest) SIGN ME UP!!!!
As for peripherals nin can make up whatever they want just give MS/Sony a 10% cut off the profits of the peripheral.

The older I get the more I loath exclusives...... just put it out on all platforms and up the price a bit already....

AS for the comparisons with Sega, Sega stopped producing consistent quality titles long before the Dreamcast failed.

 

[Lightknight]

I can't believe people STILL want Nintendo to discontinue the Wii U. It's finally getting games.

Pulling the plug prematurely on a console is what led to Sega's exit from the console business.

Good thing these people aren't in charge of a business.

I think people want to have Nintendo games on other consoles rather than having to pay the Nintendo machine tax to play the ten or so games the generation puts out.

If they were going to do anything, it should have been to drop the gamepad except as an optional peripheral and patch the games they can to function without it. That would drop the console price by $100 (the price to replace one is $140 before tax but we'd need to replace it with a controller).

But I've been saying they should do that since last year this time. Even at a $100 cheaper than the ps4 the power disparity is so great that they're really not making an argument for why I should pay the tax now instead of at the end of the generation.