How Nintendo Could Win It All 245
ElFozzie writes "In a huge piece on mobile gaming, Pocket Gamer reports on the latest battles in the handheld console market and reveals why Nintendo might just have the right strategy to win this war. From the article: 'Let's go back the beginning, the games. It's all about the games, Nintendo's faithful fans will argue, and the DS has great, mad and unique games where the PSP so far has, at best, competent-to-very-good PS2-lite fare. Yes, but it's not that simple. See, I was there in the mid '90s playing the genre-defining Mario 64 and the breathtaking Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, perhaps the two greatest games of their generation, on the Nintendo 64. And I remember Sony going on to win that war, and PlayStation becoming the de facto shorthand for 'video games'."
Heck.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Wii Will Be A N64 Size Second Console (Score:0, Interesting)
The Wii hype was crazy with talk of how it would revolutionize(no pun intended) console gaming. But what I saw at E3 was no big deal. And almost everything was not really that much different than playing with a normal controller. I can see myself getting over the initial enthusiasm for the Wii very quickly.
I can see the Wii as being something cool you turn on when you have some friends over. But for mainline, day to day gaming I don't think it really can hold up against the massive amount of amazing stuff I saw on the PS3 at E3.
I will certainly get a 499 PS3 for the majority of my gaming. And I hope the Wii is no more than 200 bucks. Any more and I will be happy to just play it at friends houses and pick one up later. I will be picking up a 1080p TV in the coming months now that prices are coming down so much and even if the PS3 did nothing but play BluRay movies at 1080p I would still pick one up.
Re:Some things that will help (Score:3, Interesting)
Nintendo has said before the DVD player will be an attachment, which has made some people think it will be an entire external drive that plugs in. My theory is that there is a reason for this. Gamecube discs spin backwards from DVDs and CDs. This is one reason why almost no one has pirate Gamecube discs. Since the Wii is backwards compatible, it too will probably spin backwards for at least Gamecube discs and possible Wii ones as well. Accordingly, I think that the Wii's main drive will be entirely incapable of spinning in the usual direction as an anti-piracy measure, necessitating the external reader for DVDs.
It's a theory, that's all, but see if it doesn't turn out to be true.
Re:Heck.... (Score:5, Interesting)
It's the single greatest device I've ever bought, and Microsoft had nothing to do with its greatness. Hell, they try to prevent it.
Re:I don't like... (Score:3, Interesting)
Isn't anyone else ticked off at the fact that there are under 10 games worth owning for the Gamecube?
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/gamecube/ [gamefaqs.com]
There's at least 10, I could find at least 20 or 30, but you can do your own research. Likewise for the N64.
How about the miserable excuse they called WindWaker (did anyone actually die once playing through it?)
That "miserable excuse" sold millions of copies, and got almost universal acclaim from the majority of people that played it.
How about the crappy controller that makes it impossible to truly master Smash Bros Melee.
To be blunt, some of us actually have some skill. Personally, I can use the controller well enough to massacre the CPU players and people of medium skill, but i've seen other players that are far, far better. Try hunting down videos of tournament matches or Home Run Contest high scores sometime.
They named it the Wii, people. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
You say that like it's a bad thing. I also notice pretty much everyone has stopped the lame jokes about the name, except for whiny trolls like yourself.
For the next generation, I'm going to bet on the system that gave me the innovative and enjoyable games THIS time around, and it wasn't the Gamecube.
So don't buy one. Nintendo won't miss you, I promise.
You know how Nintendo can win the next generation war? GAMES.
He can be taught!
The real power behind the console... (Score:2, Interesting)
The PS1 and PS2 outsold its competition due to its superior library. No one gives a damn about the hardware. If the PS2 broke down, people would buy another because of their gaming library.
The DS is outselling the PSP because... of its library. The PSP library is not exactly diverse or as interesting. More importantly, the DS's library hits more demographics than the PSP does (thanks to the Brain games, to Nintendogs, and the rest). PSP's software keeps hitting the same demographic. Since handhelds do not follow the console cycles, whoever wins the handheld war will be the victor for probably the next ten years.
The victor of the console war will be the one with the largest library? Which console had the most playable games at E3 this year? Nintendo. Which console will have the most available software upon launch? Most likely, Nintendo.
Nintendo's dirty little secret is that, not only has the company completely restructured in the last few years, Nintendo has been expanding their software development studios like crazy in both Japan and America. Nintendo intends to flood the market with quality content.
Xbox 360 and PS3 have a big strike against them with software creation. By jumping on the HD bandwagon, their games will take more time to be made, are riskier to make, require bigger teams, and are much more expensive. The Wii is extroadinarily cheap to develop for. The Wii's development kit costs around $2000, cheaper than even the PSP's.
The fact is that third parties are interested in making money, not playing fan boy. The Wii is very attractive to publishers as it represents a low cost revenue stream which is desperately needed today. The Wii is very attractive to developers because of the controller and the innovation it allows.
The Wii will end up putting out more software, on a faster basis, than either Sony and Microsoft's machiens. Even worse for them, the Wii attempts to have the largest gaming library ever with the NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, and Turbographix 16 games on the Virtual Console.
No one cares about the console itself. People care about the library. People buy the PS2 today not because they like Sony but because it gives them access to a large game library. Nintendo realizes that with the N64 and Gamecube, they were competing too much on a hardware basis. Now, Nintendo is focusing and investing heavily in the software.
Then, add in the vast price differences of a $600 machine, $400 machine, and a less than $250 machine. Nintendo is definately re-surging. The most comical part is if Nintendo does take the top spot, analysts will have so much egg on their faces. It was only a year or two ago when people were asking if Nintendo would leave the console business...