
Nintendo, One Year Later - shawndumas
http://ignorethecode.net/blog/2014/10/30/nintendo_one_year_later/
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bithush
In a would where companies just release their old (very successful) games on
mobile devices with awful touch screen controls hacked in I am so glad
Nintendo do not do that. Sure it would make them some money to sell Mario on
the iPhone but god damn is it a horrible experience IMHO.

Nintendo have good years and bad years. The Wii U wasn't the success they
hoped it would be. But they took a chance with the Gamepad. That is what I
like about Nintendo, they do things differently. Sometimes it works sometimes
it doesn't.

Now give me a 1080p60 F-Zero game on the Wii U please :)

~~~
ekianjo
> they do things differently

Only the Nintendo of recent years. They were famous for NOT innovating much
before. The SNES was just another 16 bits console (albeit quite powerful), the
N64 did not even ride on the CD technology, and the Gamecube did not have much
points of differentiation versus the Xbox 1 or PS2.

~~~
paublyrne
I'm not sure that's really fair.

\- Nintendo experimented with a CD add on (with Sony) for the SNES. It
eventually became the Playstation. \- They released the Double Density Drive
addon for N64 (probably a failure). \- Mario 64 was the first really 3D
platformer, and was groundbreaking. \- The weird looking controller for the
N64 had an analogue stick before anyone else. \- Rumble packs \- N64 came with
four ports for four-way split screens

They're just off the top of my head.

~~~
cookiecaper
It's not fair. Nintendo has a long history of innovation. They may not have
foreseen every shift in gaming, but absolute prescience isn't a pre-requisite
for innovation.

In the cases where Nintendo "lagged" others, it was mostly for good reasons;
an example is the shift to optical media, which Nintendo resisted because they
didn't want the user to have to wait for load times. Ultimately, cartridges
were proven to be untenable long-term, but that doesn't mean Nintendo was "not
innovative" in their principled choice to prioritize user experience over
giving game devs extra space.

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WoodenChair
Nintendo (IMHO) is missing out on a huge potential revenue source by not
releasing its old IP on a Windows/Mac/iOS/Android version of the virtual
console. Sega seems to have been at least mildly successful re-releasing
Genesis era games on these platforms. Do they really feel re-releasing
something like say Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) for iOS would detract from Wii U
sales?

Nintendo has the best back catalog in the industry, and with today's
microprocessors, emulation makes that catalog fully portable.

~~~
jzelinskie
I'm fairly certain that Nintendo is simply scared to release their IP on a
platform that they do not control. The last (and only) time they did was the
Phillips CDI which they now entirely cease to acknowledge. That and the fact
that their IP drives the sales of their hardware.

~~~
Apocryphon
It's almost as if Nintendo and Apple have very similar cultures that cause
them to always act as iconoclasts, choosing formats and channels different
from their competition, and betting big on innovation. It's remarkable how
both the original Wii and iPhone were both released within a year of each
other. What I don't understand is why both companies like to use the same
distinctive off-white color. Maybe it makes their products look like
porcelain, something classical and timeless.

~~~
Thimothy
Yeah, I have always chuckled at the irony that the apple followers criticize
Nintendo for not releasing its IP on other platforms. Because, of course, I
can install OS X on my custom computer and Safari on my Android.

The strategy of Nintendo makes as much sense as Apple's, and anyway, I have
always though that it is far more likely for Nintendo to launch an Android
smartphone where you could play their games (And only there).

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mcphage
> I think it’s fair for Apple writers to complain about the fact that a lot of
> people who have no clue about how Apple’s business works make crazy
> pronouncements about what Apple should do. But I do think that they should
> measure their own expertise by the same yardstick.

John Gruber is very guilty of this. He understands Apple very well, knows how
they work, and how they think. But every time he discusses Nintendo, I see the
same mistaken thinking about the company that, were a similar mistake made
about Apple, would earn a "filed for future claim chowder". Like Apple,
Nintendo does things differently than its competitors. But that doesn't mean
that they do things similarly; nor do they face the same challenges.

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eden-san
Consoles are very likely to thrive for the next generation. China finally
lifted the ban on game consoles and I'm starting to see Xbox One / PS4 being
sold in different retail stores.

Even though it's still a tough sell for most Chinese (remember, no one pays
for games here, at least not upfront), they'll come around.

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jtruk
Mario Kart 8 is an curious example to cite. The game was sold with a free
download of another game - and choices included many top tier first-party
titles. That's a very unusual tactic. It's a great game, but I'm sure this
will have been a big driver for sales.

I wonder if the tallies for the other games (e.g. NSMB-U, Nintendoland, Z:WW)
include those sold as a pack in, or free download?

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-
selling_Wii_U_vide...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-
selling_Wii_U_video_games)

~~~
LukasMathis
You're right, I forgot about the fact that it was "bundled" with an additional
game. Personally, I only found out about this after I bought it; I'm not sure
how much the bundling helped Mario Kart's game sales. But it's a fair point.

I didn't want to pick Nintendo Land because the way it was sold is not
entirely straightforward. For example, some copies were bundled with a
controller.

I didn't want to use NSMB or 3D World as examples because Mario platformers
are often outliers when it comes to sales. I guess The Wind Waker HD would
have been a good example, because it sold really well despite being an HD
remake of an older game.

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Rapzid
Hahaha, I'm going to read the rest of the article but am I the only person
having trouble taking the author seriously after the opening sentence where
the other takes seriously the idea that Nintendo just make iOS games? Enough
so to lead a post by addressing it?

~~~
msherry
You do realize that the second sentence was "I thought, and still think, that
this would be bad for the quality of Nintendo’s games, and bad for their
bottom line", right? Or are you trolling?

