The Console Wars
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- yoshi_pc
http://www.time.com/time/asia/ma…
Great article about Nintendo, thnx SF. " Yet, for a company whose executives claim a Disney-like imaginative edge as its most important asset, the place seems to be suffering from game-development gridlock. Not even Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo's legendary creative director and gaming deity—Miyamoto created Mario and Zelda—has been able to break the slump."
If you're Miyamoto, how do you out-do yourself? Two of the most addicting games ever made under your belt. What is the future of gaming?
- mitsu0
"According to many experts, Nintendo's most likely route is to eventually follow Sega's lead: get out of the brutally competitive console business and focus on software."
i disagree with this. Iwata's statements in this article show he knows the secret to making good video games:
"Online video games have been a false start so far, Iwata asserts, which is why he has no plans to lead Nintendo in that direction. The current path taken by game developers toward more cinematic graphics, richer story lines and complicated controls is a blind alley that, he says, will only worsen the current "nothing's new" ennui felt by many consumers."
here, nintendo's biggest setback is revealed:
"the company has historically treated outside game companies more like competitors than partners, requiring them to accept unfavorable licensing deals and demanding a greater editorial say in game content. "
many years ago, when 20-somethings were't all proficient in programming in C++, this was acceptable. Today, with this not being the case, Sony has taken a lead in the console wars because they understand the fundamental importance of having a huge number of 3rd party developers in order to propagate their growing library of games.
i think for nintendo to be successful again in the console market, they need to swallow their pride and make it easier for 3rd party developers write games for thier system. in addition, they might want to reconsider their target demographic, which seems to be, ironically, the atari generation.
- Kyuss0
'Disney-like imaginative edge as its most important asset'
Well that is their problem right there.
- Mimio0
It's strange that they're also snubbing future plans to develop online gaming. I would imagine it's going to be a big thing in the next generation of systems.
- mitsu0
"It's strange that they're also snubbing future plans to develop online gaming. I would imagine it's going to be a big thing in the next generation of systems."
no, i think that's a good move. sure some games are served well as an online experience, but shifting the companies focus towards that market is a waste of time and money.
besides, the pc platform so far is the best choice for online gaming. always has been and will contine as such for a while.
nintendo knows its roots and knows it needs to stay true to them to compete with playstation. but again, where they need help is in the number of titles they put out. it's not enough to just have ports of popular games that already exist on other systems. exlusive titles like the Resident Evil series are great moves, but they really need more of these to stay afloat. home development kits would be a bold and strong move for them, but that is likely to never happen.
- shutdown0
it's too hard to predict the future of games because the technology changes so much that you can't keep up.
I still want to see "virtual reality" make a come back. It was so big in the early 90's yet it fizzled away to nothing.
surely the technology is available to create affordable VR units and that would take gamers to a whole new level...especially online
- smellvetica0
i'd disagree with what mitsu says about consoles future not being in online environments..
in 3rd world countries without web access and where pc's are so expensive, sony are going to offer the chance to access the web via your ps2, thus giving access to thousands who may not be able to afford it otherwise.
- gabriel_pc0
I've always hated online PC gaming because it was all about whoever had the fastest machine or best hack for the game. Playing online with a console makes it so that everyone is playing the game with a similar performance experience (except for those geeks that hack their consoles).
- AD0
i always felt that Nintendo missed the boat in terms of developing games strictly for adults. With generations of kids who grew up with Pac-Man and pong now in their 30's, its clear many many adults now play videogames.
I think Nintendo has made some great games but I can't think of one Nintendo game geared solely for adults and older youths like ViceCity, ManHunt etc.
By the time they took on the Resident Evil series it seemed old and not nearly as mature as other titles on the PS2.
I know when the Cube came out I went for a PS2 for this reason. So at least it was the case for me. maybe i'm wrong but you can't deny that the market for video games has long since stopped being only for kids
- ecnalab0
I disagree that Miyamoto is in a slump, Mario Sunsine is a great game.. so is Zelda and Pikmin.
I wouldn't play most of the Playstation games, most are crap and the graphics are not as good as the Gamecubes'.
A friend of mine raves about Viewtiful Joe. And I'm addicted to Metroid Prime... I like Nintendo games thats why I bought the Gamecube.. I'm no expert on this matter, but all I can say is Im happy with my Gamecube.
- mrdobolina0
I only buy games for the PS2 if they can be played online. It makes the games last longer.
Case in point: I bought Tony Hawk Underground, you can download custom skaters, tricks, parks and your face and map it to your skaters head. All features that wouldnt work if the playsteez was unable to go online.
- AD0
"Mario Sunsine is a great game.. so is Zelda and Pikmin. "
that's what i'm talking about.
I don't know I like games like Vice city and I think the numbers show that so do many others
those games are good Nintendo games though (except the Mario - I'd much rather play Ratchet and Clank or Jak2)
- mrdobolina0
all this is why the gamecube is only 100 bucks now...
- mitsu0
"i'd disagree with what mitsu says about consoles future not being in online environments.."
there are a ton of game devlopers out there that would agree with you. in all actuallity, that is THE only future for gaming. humans progress toward whatever is perceived as better as if it were instinctive.
take hollywood movies. when we saw special effects in movies like star wars for the first time, we thought, "oooh, wow, i wonder what it will be like in the year 2000? the future of movies is in special effects!" and sure enough it is. and while many of us realize that it's not special effects that make movies great, they continue to pump out more vin deisel and fast n' furious clones than you can shake a light saber at.
it's the same with games... we all see so much potential for realistic environments and online play... "it's the wave of the future!" but when they start saturating the game market with this crap, we'll have the same effect as in the movie industry.
too many developers out there don't realize what makes games fun and that's why retro games are still populari'm not at all against online gaming though. i've been playing team fortress classic, which is an online mulitplayer mod of the half-life engine, for over 3 years now. but i don't think that for games to be better they need to be online. i'm a huge fan of the final fantasy series, but i'll never buy final fantasy ix online as winning is just a matter of who spends more time on the game... sounds like a lame concept to me.