Poor Nintendo?
E3 came and went. In the aftermath of the press conferences and the floor coverage from all the major sites, I am left with one burning question. What does Nintendo have to do for the core gaming audience to cut them some slack?
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These cries of treachery must seem somewhat hypocritical to Nintendo. Their last two generations of home consoles underperformed significant. The section of the gaming world that they relied on for support (those who are now also complaining about the Wii) disappeared. You could certainly argue that a few of Nintendo’s choices were ill-advised. The high price of cartridges for the N64 was prohibitively expensive for the youth skewed demographic of the general audience but the almost total abandonment of the GameCube must have been an unpleasant surprise for them.
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But Nintendo never made games for these players. They didn’t abandon these customers. Like Fisher Price and Sesame Street they chose a young target audience. Their games have always had a bright, family friendly esthetic. It is a decision which has segregated them from the market they created as members of the market matured. With their ‘real’ games being shunned by much of the traditional gaming audience it is their casual offerings which are garnering them attention (and money) from the public but scorn from gaming world.
major franchise.
Tags: E3, Nintendo
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I understand why the N64 lost so much ground. The quality games were few and far between and nobody wanted to spend $70-80 when the Playstation and Saturn were offering disc-based software for $40-50. I was a game store employee in 1997 and I saw the looks on customers’ faces when browsing the N64 shelves.
But what was wrong with the Gamecube? Nintendo may have stuck to their guns as their core consumers grew up, but there was a ton of high-profile Teen/Mature content on the system. It just wasn’t made by Nintendo, unless you count their publishing of Eternal Darkness. I remember how irritating it was to hear people call it the “Kiddycube” when I knew that they hadn’t played a single GC game.
As far as E3 2009, the sense I get from the journos is that they’re just as excited by New Super Mario Bros Wii as they are about more “adult” games, but the attitude and demeanor of Nintendo press conferences is dreadful. I think Nintendo needs to re-examine who they think is watching E3 coverage because it’s sure as shit not the Wii Fit crowd. But now that they’re on top, I don’t think they have any reason to change their ways. Why fix what ain’t broke (especially when you’re RICH)?
The N64 sold poorly because of what Feit said. The Cube sold poorly because Nintendo rarely released any games for it and the QUALITY third party support had all gone to PS2/Xbox, most likely because of the N64′s failure – which in turn damaged people’s faith in Nintendo.
But I love my Cube. Its awesome. As for the Wii, well, support is now picking up for it, and more and more great games are getting announced. The first two years saw a few A+ titles from Nintendo and some third parties, but the majority were pap.
I think most cries made were of the “Please restore our faith in you” kind. I know mine was. Just a shame it took them 2 or 3 years to actually do it.
Wasn’t the design of the Cube for kids? I’m sure I read an interview where someone proudly stated that it was designed to be kicked under the bed or dropped out the window and when it was rediscovered a few months later it would still be in working order.
The Cube was designed as the perfect console to bring friends together, as the handle was actually meant to BE a handle, making it easier to take places and play.
Great feature, but just not great enough.