Nintendo’s Resurgence
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The Switch, of course, did it perfectly. Daaaaaad don’t want to go out I haven’t reached a save poi... oh wait. Can’t play Switch because your mother is watching TV? Yes you can. Want to play Mario as a fun, motion controlled casual scroller? Yep. Want to play Mario as the single best speed-running title around with a pro controller? That too.
The Wii was a fantastic toy! Well executed motion controls, with games that took advantage: The kind of game that a six year old and sixty year old could play against each other in a fair match.
The DS, a plasticy clamshell with the heritage of the bomb proof gameboy, was in the hands of kids everywhere, that graphics by necessity somewhat simpler, but no less satisfying.
And then: the Wii U. It was not whatever the aforementioned things were, or maybe it was in a failure-of-execution sort of way. I never saw a kid particularly excited about playing the Wii U. Too much video game, not enough toy.
The Switch doesn’t have gimmicks, it has features. It’s not a primarily first-party console, it has hundreds of indie games on the Eshop from a dollar up. It’s not great because it can be played in the hand and on the TV, it’s great and it can do those things.
Nintendo has always been going strong, knows exactly WTF they're doing, executes with precision more or less, and is pretty much always successful. A resurgence in attention has nothing to do with the company.
Nintendo owns its survival on handhelds. Pokémon prints money since 1996.
Wii U was probably profitable. Not a success like a company like Nintendo needs, a strategic misstep that didn't impact their fortunes significantly. Hardware-wise it was a very direct descendant of the Wii (and gamecube). Relatively low development cost. The games developed for it are being ported to the switch to great success.
The Wii itself was still a G3 PPC chip, just add a few hundred Mhz
It also had more RAM (which allowed the "Twiizers" attack over a decade ago)
All the Wii-centric functionality (USB, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, SD card, etc) was abstracted away inside an ARM co-processor inside the GPU. Named "Starlet" by the homebrew community
Wii software was then written that would simply poke at the API's it exposed to add that functionality
It might be possible for Creatures Inc and Game Freak to have The Pokemon Company create a Pokemon game for PlayStation (it's not known how ownership/control is divided), but it couldn't use the name Pokemon, the Pokemon logo, or any of the existing Pokemon characters.
And regardless of who owns Pokemon, Nintendo is the one selling Game Boys and DSes to play it on.
It's a complicated arrangement, but they're definitely banking off the success of the franchise directly and indirectly.
Perhaps, but I'd definitely class the Wii U as a misstep - sold poorly and clearly wasn't the right device for the market at that time. I really don't think Nintendo was sure at all what it was doing with the Wii U.
I've seen some theories that the reason the Switch has been so great is that given the relative failure of the Wii U they didn't have time to screw up the Switch with the usual supply of badly implemented software features that Nintendo have a bad habit of doing. Unlike the Wii, 3DS etc there is no step counters, web browsers, virtual console, streaming services, audio recorder, pointless low quality stereo cameras etc at launch on Switch - just a simple, lean focus on fun games. The 3DS and Wii were especially bad for pointless built in extra software. I'd honestly be perfectly happy with my Switch if none of those features, perhaps with the exception of Virtual Console, ever come back.
I also love how Nintendo are really embracing the indie game community with the Switch, a pleasant surprise given the less than brilliant relationship Nintendo has had there in the past.
PlayStation is easy. One, two, three, four. Not hard to tell the difference. Xbox is a bit stranger, but still easy to tell apart because against its numbered and we’re used to numbered things being different from each other.
But Microsoft is headed down a Wii U-like path with the Xbox One... even as a gamer (who admittedly doesn’t own an Xbox), I have no idea if the Xbox One S is newer than the Xbox One X or what the difference actually is, and it’s not intuitive that the Xbox One S is actually appreciably different than the Xbox One other than being smaller.
Sony may find themselves in a similar pickle if people stop buying PlayStation 4 games because they’re unsure if they work on their PlayStation 4 Pro Or vice versa.
Perhaps? Man, the virtual console is a major draw for me. I only have a few games on it, but I view it as integral to the device. Every Nintendo platform needs a way to play the first four Super Mario titles, the early Zeldas, Metroid and Super Metroid at a minimum.
Toys aren't just for kids, just like fun isn't just for kids.
(In case you didn't get it: All of those words once meant or possibly still currently mean the opposite of the way in which they're being used in this comment. Language is what you make of it.)
It seems that you're approaching this from a mathematical logic standpoint - if we have a definition of A, then either each X is A or is not A, and since (1) definition of "toy" is based on certain characteristics and the set of "video game consoles" all have the same values for these characteristics, then they either are toys or not.
However, the things we're discussing here are based on subjective feelings and nuance, and are also recursive - in this domain, we assign the statement "X is A" a higher probability just because people in general agree with the statement "X is A" (think Wittgenstein's "meaning is use").
Using mathematical logic in such domains is not very constructive.
Just because something is for one group, doesn’t mean that it’s illegal for another group to use it.
Yeah, I think the Switch is for children. I think it’s designed to appeal to kids and be sold, primarily, to kids. I also think that a lot of adults appreciate it regardless because a good toy can appeal to more than just the young.
If you think adults can gain no value from a toy, you are definitely not living the happiest life you could live.
No. This is, in fact, the point of contention here. I've heard ads and people calling boats, cars, tools, new games, and so on toys. A few dictionaries I checked agree. Several people in this very thread have the same opinion.
So the more sandboxy a game is (Minecraft) the more it is a toy, but the more you are on rails or limited in what you can do (Tetris), the more it is a game.
These are some of its recent toys, and to their credit it seems to me they deeply understand (like Disney) how to serve as a home for beloved characters and re-release new twists on their adventures across decades.
Other characters, now homeless with their platforms and companies shut down, now make appearances in the Nintendo-world.
Well, my kids love it, and it hits a few of the points you mention. My 8 year old son loves the fact he can play with a few friends (or his sister and a couple friends. They play Minecraft on it all the time, and when it's just him and someone wants to watch TV, he uses the Wii U tablet to play without a TV. It really is the midpoint between a Wii and the Switch. Add to that stuff like Just Dance and New Super Mario Bros (which allows 4 players at once, in coop or less than cooperative styles), and it really is a good toy for groups of kids.
"Wouldn't it be great to have a home console that you can take away to the other room for when someone else wants to use the TV?"
The difference is that the tech with the Wii U wasn't good enough yet to make a really great product. With the Switch it is now cheap enough to make a really high quality product.
Switch feels like a lesson learned.
Turn it on, you pick up your game right where you left off in about 5 seconds. Controllers sync in seconds, the dock as a charger and TV connector is seamless, the joycons work beautifully, the mobile experience is top-of-the-line. It comes out of the box ready for multiplayer, something no console has done since maybe the SNES. And the initial software releases are diverse, fantastically produced and incredibly enjoyable.
This is the part where Nintendo's fundamental DNA as a toy company comes into play. It's their job to generate joy, not wow with consumer electronics. It's like every interaction with the system is designed to instill confidence and a preparation for fun. The system is powerful enough for general computing, but they've cut out all that stuff and focused it on gaming. It doesn't even come with a web browser.
There's some knocks against Nintendo for not getting on-line play, and I think that's true. But philosophically, Nintendo wants you to get together with your friends, because that's more fun. I can imagine whiteboard meetings at Nintendo where they analyze the shortest path to joy and maximization of player fun as serious discussions.
I just hope they can keep the software coming so they can sustain this. Nintendo deserves to be top dog for a while. This is a great time to be a gamer and this makes Sony and Microsoft just look like their going through the motions at this point.
When I see how people react to their phones now that they are used to handhelds - with the constant feeling they've lost control and breaking changes are inevitable - it's only a matter of time before Nintendo wins other markets.
I had one of those come up but surprise surprise I never hooked it up to the cell network. Why would I? Just cost a whole bunch of money for something I’m not really going to use.
Look at what happened with Apple. They managed to get “special deals“ from the carriers to allow the new Apple Watches to be on for ‘only’ $10 a month. Of course it was something like $17 or $18 after all the taxes and fees. And they were had been Android smart watches you could add to your plan for only five dollars a month before hand… but the carriers were nice enough to “fix” that.
I’m not a huge online gamer, but even if I was I don’t feel like $20 a month just to use my switch. If I want to do that I’ll use the free tethering I have.
If I had kids? I don’t see why I would pay $20 a month for each of them either.
The idea of putting cell radios and everything seems nice but the truth is that in the US it’s worthless because it’s so expensive to use.
As for a web browser? I have my phone. Frankly I’m happy that the switch is nothing more than a gaming machine. I can sort of see the idea of using it for Netflix watching since it has a decent size screen.
I can’t imagine myself ever opening the web browser once. Featuritis one of the problems that Microsoft had this generation. The WiiU had it also. It’s nice to have a focused device.
- Unlike their competitors, Nintendo is not diversified in the least. Microsoft could lose a billion dollars a year on the Xbox and wait for a profit. Nintendo can't. So they try to position their products as complimentary to the other consoles.
- Internal culture has zero tolerance for self-congratulation. Apparently there was a memo once about the success of the Wii, and the person was disciplined.
- Very HQ centric. Nintendo of America is only considered a marketing/translation arm. They get virtually no decision making ability.
Also unlike their competitors, Nintendo was founded in the 19th century.
https://kotaku.com/the-traditional-games-nintendo-continues-...
Or rather it was Koi-Koi, payed with Hanafuda cards.
I think that is a really big problem for Nintendo going forward. For a long time now I have gotten the feeling the Japanese executive decision making apparatus is very very out of touch with the American / European consumer demands. They understand the Japanese gamer market but they have continued to "not get" the western marketplace at all. The fact they depend on strong sales of their first party franchises should be a strong indicator that Nintendo is not a healthy organization. That will work for awhile as they sell of nostalgia but newer kids don't have the same attachment to Mario, Zelda, Metroid etc. The Nintendo online story is still a joke compared to Sony and Microsoft.
Nintendo seems to be thriving despite this but it might just be the larger than life people like Miyamoto that are preventing this
What makes you think this? I know plenty of children who have been exposed to Mario, Zelda, etc. relatively recently and they’re just as attached as you might consider “older kids” to be.
I disagree heavily.
The toy view the japanese executives take is radically different than american videogame companies, that allows them to have a cult like following.
Nintendo is also extraordinarily cash rich.
They don't need the western market, its just a bonus.
The switch was a system tailor made to the japanese aesthetic of not having large tvs, not caring about online games, and long commutes.
I remember there was an interview a few years ago with a flat out mentioned that when building an online service they never looked at Xbox live. At all.
That’s how you get to the point that in 2017 you launch consul that doesn’t support cloud saves and ties purchases to the hardware instead of a single account. If something goes wrong with my switch all my purchases die with it. I have to send it in to Nintendo and have them fix/replace it and move my purchases over. And of course if something happens (including a bad software update) I could lose all my progress in all my games.
Sony and Microsoft of had solutions to this forever. You have to pay money for the cloud save back up (which really annoys me) but my games are tied to an account and not the hardware. When my Xbox 360 died? I just bought a new one and all my stuff re-download it. When I bought a PlayStation 4 Pro I could easily move all my stuff from my PS4.
There are a few things were Nintendo could make some small adjustments and make life MUCH easier. I know numerous parents would love the ability to buy a game once and play it on two or three consoles (one for each kid) the way you can with stuff on iOS or the PS4. Instead you have to pay 60 bucks a kid.
I love Nintendo for making fun, interesting, colorful, lighthearted games. It’s nice to have something other than the latest major zombie shooter to play.
But in some ways they still live in 1993.
Before that, was on this project to look at Gameboy Advance cartridges and that was kind of a weird racket. All these numbers are from memory and could be wrong. Your development company had to pay something like $10 a cart to Nintendo (which seemed a bit excessive when the retail price was ~$30 for Nintendo carts and other cd/dvd consoles charged $10 per disk and the retail price for those was $50 to $60, PC gaming I think we got about 50% of each sale at something like Best Buy for full price sales so losing $10 of $15 pre retail sale to Nintendo is a huge margin) and reserve production at the official Nintendo plant a year in advance at that point, so you had to correctly predict how many carts you needed or you could lose big because you made too many and had unsold carts or didn't make enough and needed to wait months for an opening in production to meet demand which would be nicer problem to have. So Nintendo may be just too attached to making money off per unit sold to give it up for online convenience.
I believe your purchases are tied to your account, but can only be used on your "active" console, which you have to deactivate (or get deactivated by Nintendo if you don't have access to it) before being able to use them on another console.
This mode has almost killed all Japanese CE companies because the rest of the global market did no longer buy in to the 'paternal' model.
Nintendo is one of the last Japanese companies working in such a mode. And because they always go against the mainstream, they may just be different enough to make it matter.
I just got a Switch and ... wow. What a fantastic piece of tech that's unique in every way. Every design decision is so thoughtful and it all "just works". Playing Breath of the Wild is more fun than any game I can remember. I feel like a kid with a new toy for the first time since I was an actual kid.
I wouldn't say every. The charging of the Joy Cons is a pain. Having to remove the straps, put them in the base of the system, then do the reverse. If you have 3 sets of Joy Cons it's just straight up absurd unless you buy additional accessories, and then you still have the strap song and dance.
The pro controllers are just wayyyyy more convenient
I wonder how much of Android they are using at the low levels? Android has recently gotten much, much better at applying system updates, adopting ideas from Chrome OS. Building on Android would be a really low friction way for them to get started on the system software, since they're using a Tegra chip, and it could also explain the improvement in general system software quality in Switch over Wii/Wii U.
my switch acts about the same.
Of course, some of us remember that Apple used to have very whimsical behaviors and interactions throughout their software too, but that has been bludgeoned out of the OS experiences over the last several years.
Due to my busy schedule I'm still playing through Breath of The Wild, but I did restart halfway through when the 1st expansion was released so I could play in Hero Mode. Even though this is the 18th game in the series, it is clearly evident that it was developed with the utmost care and craft, and not yet-another-installment, unlike other big franchises.
I have a brand new copy of Mario Odyssey waiting for me to open up as soon as I have time for it. I'm really happy Nintendo has been able to continue making excellent games in this free to play era.
The Wii-U's mistake was more of a marketing one. People didn't even realise the existence of the product. The gamepad looked like a new 3DS or something, and games didn't take advantage of the touchscreen - like games did for the 3DS.
The other thing that has propelled the Switch were other console companies intended restrictive DRM practices. The kind of market that loved the NES, SNES & Wii were families who just wanted to have a laugh playing games together, and don't take it too seriously.
And of course a 480p resistive touch screen didn’t look very good.
The end result was the system was too expensive to be competitive because the graphics were too poor, even if people actually understood what it was.
You’re right that much like some of the stuff on the feeder it ended up being a pointless costs in case people didn’t even really use it to its capability. It was so different from the other consoles that no one was going to put the time into it since the box never sold enough in the first place.
That said? It was a great system, and you’re right that all those games were fantastic. I LOVED super Mario 3-D world, it was one of the best games I’ve played in years.
It's not like they've done what Lego has done, in terms of being a company that was on the brink of failure to becoming the #1 toy company in the world and creating new brands that actually outsell their Star Wars license.
That said, Nintendo was founded in the 19th century and is still kicking. Don't want to write their obituary just yet :)
However those titles are extremely good - they're not just churning out sequels for the sake of it, they're genuinely producing great games. They're just not making too many :-/
I strongly suspect we'll see many of these titles migrate to the Switch over the next several years, which could end up making it a very compelling package.
The Switch has seen some pretty decent third party support on the Switch (Doom, Rocket League w/Crossplay, FIFA, NBA, Elder Scrolls) that haven't really been around in prior generations. It seems like indie games are flooding to the Switch. We'll see if large third party support sticks around but I think as long as the games sell, people will port/develop for the Switch.
I love Nintendo's approach this generation. I've really enjoyed diving into their games after barely playing the Wii and completely skipping the Wii U. This definitely feels like a resurgence - but obviously we'll see in 6-12 months. But they're definitely back on everyone's radar.
Admittedly I don't have that much time for games and I'm trying to 100% BotW.
Breath of the Wild just won Game of the Year not because it's 'mining nostalgia' but because it's a fantastic creation by any measure.
Where is this $0.99 app of better quality?
> Have there been any major 3rd party games developed for their platforms over the last ten years?
It's not about console exclusives, it's a different market.
LOL no.
Also, Lego wasn't exactly on the brink of failure when Knudstorp stepped in, and actually what they did to improve their profitability was precisely go back to the origins and hire people with knowledge and understanding of Lego culture.
Breath of the Wild isn't actually very similar to previous Zelda games in anything but name and premise.
> Have there been any major 3rd party games developed for their platforms over the last ten years?
Yes. Ten years includes most of the Wii's lifecycle. Even the WiiU had a surprising amount of 3rd party content for a failed console.
> Is there a game developer that would prioritize Nintendo over either XBOX/Playstation, or iOS/Android?
A number of indie developers have been doing so recently.
Nintendo claims 47 third party developers have planned to develop on the switch.
Meaning, do not license their franchises on hardware that is not Nintendo, with very specific exceptions (e.g: Mario Run).
They'd rather build something that fits in the pricing segment they've always been in, and maybe try to innovate on how people interact with the console.
Their strategy makes Nintendo somewhat unattractive to AAA third party developers but they're profitable on every system sold, and they sell plenty of copies of their major franchises.
> “During Thanksgiving break, when I go home to see my family, I can play Legend of Zelda while I’m up there instead of being like, ‘Man, I can’t wait to go home so I can go play my console.’”
Videogames are great, and I have a great time playing them. But man, time with family is so limited. You only get one trip around the block in this life, and at the end of the day, I'd rather have spent more time with loved ones than with a videogame.
I'd rather do, literally, almost anything rather than spend time with my family of origin. They are very, very toxic and abusive people.
I believe this is also the point of 1-2 switch, but I haven’t played that.
We did the same with MK, Smash Bros, New Super Mario on the Wii. And the early years of my marriage involved a lot of time together playing Mario Kart (again!) on the N64. There might have been tequila too... we've eased up on that these days.
We have seen this story from Nintendo before so the cynic in me is hesitant to say that this is a resurgence that has any lasting power. The dual mobile/console functionality of the Switch seems to be almost as gimmicky as the motion controls of the Wii. The success of the Switch sales are largely built off two amazing games in Zelda and Mario while the Wii was built of the excellent of Wii Sports. It is also worth noting that those Switch games are single player compared with the multiplayer Wii Sports. It is therefore unlikely to have the same type of viral growth that the old console had when someone would have fun playing the game on a friend's system and immediately want to purchase one of their own. Meanwhile both Sony and Microsoft have released revamps of their consoles to increase their lead in performance compared with the Switch. That difference will only get worse as games start to target the newer hardware of those updated systems. I would want to give it another 6-12 months before declaring that Nintendo is truly back.
The thing about "performance" is that, in the end, nobody gives a crap about that. Really. What the customer cares about are what games are available, and how much fun they can get out of it. The console market is one where walled gardens fight with the IP they have, not with the performance of the consoles (though that does help strengthen the IP). Now Nintendo is in a super strong position there : They've got Mario and Zelda, basically the icons of video-games. They also don't exactly target the same age-range. Nintendo is all about family games, targeting a very wide age-range. From what I've seen of the "lead" games of Sony and Microsoft, they've all but abandoned that segment.
I don't think Nintendo ever really declined. They screwed up with the WiiU, but that's basically the only screwup in recent history.
Regarding your other points, everything you said there has been true about previous Nintendo consoles. However the Wii U sold worse than the Gamecube which sold worse than the N64 which sold worse than the SNES which sold worse than the NES all while the industry grew as a whole. If you are looking at the success of Nintendo's home consoles, the Wii is a huge outlier. I don't think the focus on "fun" and "family" has yet been proven to be successful in comparison to Sony's and Microsoft's strategies.
Why go off of anecdotes? In a recent investor Q&A Nintendo revealed their own figures that show 30% of people primarily use it in portable or tabletop mode [1].
Personally, I primarily used it in portable mode until a few weeks ago - and now I use it docked to a TV much more due to Mario Odyssey benefitting from using separate joycons.
> If you are looking at the success of Nintendo's home consoles, the Wii is a huge outlier.
Only if you don't consider portable consoles like the 3DS, where Nintendo has been dominant for a long time. Even against the technologically superior PSP/PS Vita.
[1] https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2017/171031_2e.pdf
Edit: it's also important not to confuse sales volume with profitability. If modern, 4K console games are as expensive to make as EA and Activision claim the underpowered nature of the Switch is a benefit to Nintendo as it keeps their development costs down.
Graph here: https://i.redd.it/j0ogxk7b6lly.png
Discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/5zju6a/rnin...
As someone that was extremely skeptical of the Switch but ended up grabbing one anyway: it's not as gimmicky as it seems. The truth is that while the Switch is being advertised as a hybrid, the real strength of this console, to me, is that it's super agile to use, while still being a console in the traditional sense. Like a smartphone or a modern laptop, you can wake it with the press of a button, play for a while, then put it to sleep with the press of a button again, then resume playing instantly later. That's less about the gimmick and more about what a modern videogame console ought to be today, but it's not immediately evident to the naked eye until you start playing with it regularly.
I personally find that I play more often with my Switch than with previous videogames consoles I've owned, simply because of that agility, because I can fit it in my life without making time for hours long sessions.
This means that today the fact that Nintendo has a slower console is purely a pricing and strategic decision, not some lack of ability to execute. Nintendo knows that when they release a console they might get some AAA games released on it in the first couple of years, but after that devs of AAA will leave it behind for more powerful consoles.
They're fine with that, if you want AAA games you buy an Xbox or a PlayStation. Nintendo's comfortable in their market segment. They're willing to ignore the AAA market to bring their costs down.
There's a name for the 3rd console that tried to compete on performance with the big boys, the Dreamcast.
I mean, the Switch does not seem to have an issue with its library. There are several multiplayer games right now: Arms, 1-2-Switch, Mario Kart, Splatoon 2. They have huge first party franchises (Mario, Zelda, Super Smash Bros, Pokemon, Metroid) and less huge franchises (Kirby, Donkey Kong, Fire Emblem, etc, etc) to draw on. Plus, the Switch has already seen great third party dev support with Skyrim, Rocket League, Mario/Rabbids, and others receiving Switch ports.
It's just up to Nintendo to not botch it's first party releases. But given how incredibly polished both Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey were, I don't see that being an issue.
> It is also worth noting that those Switch games are single player compared with the multiplayer Wii Sports. It is therefore unlikely to have the same type of viral growth that the old console had when someone would have fun playing the game on a friend's system and immediately want to purchase one of their own.
Really? As mentioned above, there are plenty of multiplayer games for switch. Plus, the Switch is portable. You can take it on vacation, kids can bring it to a friends house, and so forth. I don't think either exposure or lack of multiplayer is an issue it currently has. I personally played a co-worker's Switch at lunch during work (3 people playing Mario Kart at a lunch table) and plan on picking one up for myself for Christmas.
So DooM isn't a big blockbuster ...
- 30+ classic games - Full screen mode - Save/load game - USB Gamepad support - Mobile support - No Flash, all JavaScript
Ruby is too - anything else of note?
Zelda and Super Smash Brothers are clearly the state of the art and there has never been anything more interesting
Steam has a ton of games equal to or better than the 2 big Switch games on basically whichever metrics you like, and many of those will run on the GPD Win. From a price per hours of mobile fun metric, there's no comparison. Still, good Nintendo games have a charm that resists straightforward comparison on metrics, but that's why they've remained relevant. After however many years it has been since Galaxy 2, we finally have a proper Mario game again, yay.