Simplistic title, no? Sorry I couldn't think of anything clever, but I kinda decided to write this blog on a whim, so I wasn't able to really prepare myself or layout a plan for this particular blog; but I shall write it nonetheless!
Well, I'm sure most of you at least have a vague idea of what's been going on with Nintendo within the last year or so, and you all probably already have your opinions by now, and this blog is simply me stating my opinion. I can't stress the 'opinion' part enough because I'm probably treading dangerous waters writing this blog to begin with and unfortunately I didn't pack a life jacket, but nevertheless, I feel the need to get my thoughts out into the open and this is one of the best places to go to do that, so without further ado I shall begin.
Well, according to the many articles I've read across GIO, IGN and Polygon, the Wii U's sales aren't going to hot, and up until here recently, there have not been that many "blockbuster titles" released for the console yet. While this stuff may be true, does it really signal Nintendo's doom as many have already begun to predict? Personally I don't think so, and no one else, save for the higher ups at Nintendo,can really say for certain if it is or not. These aforementioned articles have gotten gamers of all kinds to flock to the comment sections to debate said matters, from Nintendo fanboys, anti Nintendo haters, and bystanders like me who are just trying to get a word in amidst all the strife among all the fanboys and trolls.
Sadly enough it seems like these silly flame wars appear in more than their fair share of Wii U related articles instead of intelligent discussion. Alas this happens in pretty much any article relating to that of one of any of the Big Three's consoles, but that's not the point I'm trying to make. Fanboys will be fanboys and trolls will be trolls. Sometimes people find it necessary to spew more hate than they do nice things to say, and that's okay. Just human nature I suppose. Regardless when it comes to Nintendo, nowadays, everything is a lot more hostile than usual.
Honestly, I don't think that Nintendo is doomed to fail. Not any more than Sony or Microsoft. I mean the two of them have had their fair share of trouble since they stepped onto the gaming scene. After all, the PS3 had quite a bit of financial trouble at launch, and before Halo happened it looked like Microsoft's Xbox would've never really taken off. My point being is that, while Nintendo is struggling, it's certainly not something that I believe they can't make it out of. Sure the Wii U isn't as profitable as it needs to be right now and the games are really only now starting to show up, but the Wii U is only a year old, and if the 8th generation of consoles lasts anywhere near as long as the 7th, I'd say Nintendo has quite a bit of time to recover. In the mean time, it can live off the 3DS's sales and perhaps while the Wii U may possibly never match the success of it's predecessor I believe it will one day find success, and Nintendo will be around for generations to come. That doesn't mean there aren't still things to learn from the Wii U's early troubles. I imagine Nintendo will definitely be better prepared for the 9th generation, but depending on just how long it does take them to recover and make the Wii U into a success they're really going to have to come out swinging if they want to be successful out of the gate.
Here's how I think they can go about doing this:
- Ship a console with a standard controller on par with that of your competition. Don't tilt all your weight towards a fad (such as the second screen gaming the gamepad is going for) until it's been proven that it will sell. No sense taking the unnecessary risk, I think.
- If you simply must have second screen gaming, allow people who purchase your handhelds to use those as their second screen device for their home console. Smartphones and the like wouldn't hurt. Investing heavily in creating an entirely new separate peripheral for second screen gaming is kind of silly when most of your customers probably already own one of your handhelds or a smart phone, and those can most likely be just as easily adopted for the same purpose as the gamepad.
- This is perhaps my most important suggestion, make having powerful hardware a priority, but don't lose focus of what your fans really love: the games
- Exclusives are what sell consoles, but third party support is a huge deal. Make a console that's easy to develop for. If anything can be learned from the PS3, it's that developers need to be able to actually make their game work as good on your consoles as it does on other consoles.
And finally, while Mario and Zelda are great, don't be afraid to dig deep into your giant catalog of exclusive IP's and do your best to bring them into the spot light. It's a risk that could earn you new fans and even bring back old ones.
Oh, and as for the talk of Nintendo going multiplat that should be used as a last resort, only once all other resources have been exhausted, and to be honest, I don't think it will ever get to that point, for any of the big 3 for that matter.
Well, I kinda feel like I'm rambling at this point, so I think I'll just wrap this all up as best I can. Do I think Nintendo is doomed? Certainly not. Do I think they have room to improve? Definitely. Do I think they'll ever go multiplat? Most likely not. And as for the arguments going on in the comments, *shivers*...well I'd rather not talk about those any more. I've seen my fair share of flame wars, but in my honest opinion with the stuff I've seen in the comments. I certainly won't be going back haha.
-Fin
What did you think of the blog? Do you agree with my opinions? Do you vehemently disagree? Let me know what you think.