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Interesting article and comments...could Nintendo be about to have same fate as Sega?
starry_rune
Posts: 9,006 Forum Member
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http://www.seganerds.com/2015/06/29/nintendont-is-nintendo-destined-for-the-same-fate-as-sega/ 
also Sega apologise to fans
http://www.seganerds.com/2015/07/23/sega-says-fan-reactions-to-their-apology-proves-they-made-the-right-first-step/
Could we be about to see a console which is a Nintendo > Sega collaboration?
also Sega apologise to fans
http://www.seganerds.com/2015/07/23/sega-says-fan-reactions-to-their-apology-proves-they-made-the-right-first-step/
Could we be about to see a console which is a Nintendo > Sega collaboration?
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Comments
Tendo have a bottomless pit of cash.
They have more money, Stronger franchises which they treat with care, There handhelds are still selling well & they seem to have a plan going forward with the NX.
All Nintendo really need to do to is come out with a system thats equivalent with the PS4/XB1 in terms of performance & regain interest from 3rd party's Which equivalence with the other systems would help achieve as games would be easier to port & have performance/looks parity.
The biggest failure of the Wii U in my opinion is that while the exclusives it has are largely great, Thats more or less all it has which is fine but most people aren't going to rush out to buy a new system to play the handful of exclusive games that come out each year with no big 3rd party titles to play in between.
If the Wii U was on parity with the PS4/XB1 & it had 3rd party games like MGS5, Arkham knight, Fallout 4, Tomb Raider, COD, Battlefront etc... alongside the Mario titles & other great Nintendo exclusives it would be doing a hell of a lot better than it currently is.
The gamepad also seems to have turned more people off than it brought in & has never really been used that well on a consistent basis.
If the NX is the same story, Underpowered compared to the competition with little/no 3rd party support then Nintendo are going to hit trouble... There not going to be in danger financially that Sega were for a time (Where people were been laid off & offices closed/moved/downsized) but they are going to reach a point when the question about making hardware or focusing on software will need to be asked internally.
I have a wii u and I do think it's a great system (I much prefer cartoony looking games to re
a list is looking ones). There's probably 10-15 games on it that I want to play which will keep me going for at least the next 18 months
The Wii U is also in profit.
All they need to do is release a powerful console that can rival the likes of PS4 and I think they'll be at the top again.
Move on 9 years and you've got Sony and Microsoft who've noticed this and decided to create their own versions, and while Sony haven't quite got it right just yet, Microsoft created the Kinect (and are now looking at creating an immersive environment by projecting the visuals to the area around you). Nintendo in the meanwhile have replaced the controller with quite possibly the largest controller I've seen, and it's lost it's USP.
The graphics problem is something they need to address as well. I know quite a lot of gamers and it's all Microsoft or Sony. If they have a Wii (or even rarer a Wii U) then it purely because it's either a party machine or they have kids. Nintendo are trying to aim themselves at the kids and family market, and times have moved on now. You can be cutesy, but also have amazing graphics, and considering kids are now growing up immersed in HD and realistic looking graphics then they need to take note so people don't think they're going backwards. If you look at the PS 4 and XBox one, they've all moved on in terms of hardware and capability, the Wii U hasn't really done all that much.
The other problem with Nintendo is they find something that works and then do it to absolute death and only innovate when they have to, and then they always want to be the first out. A prime example of this is where handhelds are concerned. Nintendo launched their DS just before the PSP was released, and while it was successful (and totally battered the PSP) they're still flogging it years later. The problem is they only think of some way of updating it when a competitor brings something out, and even then the upgrade isn't a massive one.
They're also living in complete denial of smartphone and tablet gaming. While Sony (mainly due to them having the Vita) and Microsoft acknowledge the threat, Nintendo don't see it as a threat. This is a massive oversight because even low-end phones are becoming increasingly powerful and can throw graphics around that are at least 6th generation console in terms of quality. Given that most ages now have access to smartphones and they all play games (some more so than others), then they'd do well to start releasing titles on those platforms. They just seem to think that people will stick with their DS, and sadly that's not happening.
Nintendo has the potential to set the world alight, but in order for that to happen they need to completely change the way they operate, and they're too set in their ways for that to happen.
It could also be potentially worse.
Anyway, why would sega do that...they have no engineers...they are 'just' a publisher now
Also if 2 people fail in the hardware game, why would collaboration make it a winner. It is more likely to be double failure.
No Sega make ridiculous business decisions
Mega cd 32 x Saturn ... Etc etc
The Mega CD was wonderful. The 32 X was quite bad though.
Do you remember the 32X CD's? You needed both add ons to play them!
nothing wrong with the saturn at all. just got destroyed by the playstation
Nintendo may have a $5 billion dollar cash pile, Blackberry had more than that and look what happened.
I think the only way Nintendo will survive is through the handheld market, this project NX they have mentioned should be brought forward to this year. Other than Nintendo there are very few developers and publishers are support the Wii U. What I find all the more pertinent is that Nintendo and its divisions are still struggling with HD level graphics, Mario Kart had seen several recodes to manage that illusive "60FPS".
Its been reported for many years that Ninty has really struggled with HD resolution, it might explain why Wind Waker was re-released just to test the water. I don't think they will be finished as a company, unless this NX pulls something out of the bag then they will be left as a handheld only operation.
Nintendo might be making money on Wii U, however I dare say that is driven by its own titles rather than third party ones.
Of course it'll be due to its own titles. People were going out and buying the console when Super Mario Brothers was released, then when Mario Kart was released, again when Super Smash Brothers was released, etc.
Nintendo make amazing games and handheld consoles but are held back by making their main console and ultimately attracting third party games.
I read something not long ago which said that Yu Suzuki once said that only 1 out of every 100 programmers at Sega were good enough to properly program the Saturn & that 3rd party studio's didn't have time to figure it out when they were been pushed to release games as quickly as possible... Something the Playstation been so easy to work with allowed them to do.
That was something Sega really worked to improve for the dreamcast which was much easier to work with for developers.
yeah, i remember reading about that too. still, there is a decent amount of good games on that system, but i seem to remember it being expensive when it came out which also wouldn't have helped it against a cheaper playstation.
Good article about all that here:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/14/sega-saturn-how-one-decision-destroyed-playstations-greatest-rival
There was also a problem that they changed the specification fairly late on in its development when they found out what the specs of the playstation were & how much more powerful it was compared to the original specs of the saturn.
I also recall there been some multi-platform games that ran or played worse on the Saturn & that also moved many 3rd party dev's away from it.
I was a sega kid at the time, I'd had a Master system & then a mega drive & was looking at getting a Saturn for Christmas in 1996, But I went to the Autosport show at the nec that year & they had a Playstation running the Formula 1 game & my mind was made up as soon as I played it that I was going to ask my parents for a Playstation instead.
I still planned to ask for a saturn the next year, But then kids at school started talking about the N64 & games like Goldeneye & Mario 64... Then I saw F1 World Gp on TV & a few days later a bundle in the Choices video store down the road that had the F1 game & Goldeneye so I opted to go for the N64 instead.
I never actually got to play a Saturn until I brought one 5-6 years ago & while there are some really good games that I have that I enjoy it kinda made me glad that I didn't get one back in 96/97 because I don't believe it was/is as good as the PS or N64.
It was the same with the Dreamcast, I didn't get one at the time it was new & never got to play one until I got one in 2006 but buying one made me glad I didn't get one at the time in favor of the PS2.... Some good games, A couple great games but the PS2 just had a better library.... I'm not keen on the DC's controller either.
One thing I fear for with Nintendo though is that the upcoming younger generation don't have the same affinity for them as older gamers (say 20-40 year olds) do. Mario, Samus, Link, Donkey Kong are part of our childhood and that serves Nintendo very well (lots of young parents buying their young kids a Nintendo console off the back of the nostalgia).....but do 10 years olds LOVE Mario now? I get the feeling they have more affection for Minecraft, Skylanders, Angry Birds. Anyone with kids or who works with kids able to confirm/deny this? I think Pokemon may still be popular but not the phenomenon it was 15 years ago!
I can only speak for my own kids but they LOVE Nintendo stuff - not just the games, but also the Amiibo, the toys, the OSTs, and even the old cartoon as well. There's a mass of user-generated content out there as well which they lap up.
Yes, they're mad for Angry Birds, Minecraft and Disney Infinity as well, but Nintendo means a massive amount to them.
Remember that Nintendo has the best selling handheld console which every kid must own by now so they're still getting their Marios and Links and stuff.
3 x 2DS and 2 x Wii U in my house alone.
They are finally embracing the smartphone phenomenon (yuk) but their new NX system is well into development. Unreal Engine 4 support is supposedly in (so it should be multi-plat friendly) and rumours that it will be sharing titles such as Dragon Quest X and XI with the PS4 suggest a comparable level of technical capability. Combine that with Nintendo's usual level of innovation and I'm pretty optimistic about the future.
The numbers aren't spectacular, but for a machine that's receiving very little 3rd party support, it's doing pretty ok.