Windows The Death of Nintendo?

First of all, I must say this about the Dreamcast.

The Dreamcast, upto this point in time, is still considered by MANY people to be the best game console ever. The biggest reason why the Dreamcast failed , after the everlasting flop of the Sega Saturn, was due to very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very *breathe* very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very poor advertising *sigh, relax, drink, gets back up onto the podium* Probably moreso in some countries than others (like Australia for one, where Ozisoft (Formally Gamenation, now Atari Australia, I believe, not sure...) had the rights to distribute the Dreamcast in Australia. After maybe, 1 ad campaign, there was no advertising for it. I, personally, never remember seeing an advertising for it. I saw maybe 1 or 2 ads from Japan and from the States (all which were available for download... somewhere), but that was about it. The only real way to have known that Sega had a new console, and a bitching one at that, was to go down to your local electronics store and look at the box. I say box, because many stores never had demo displays of the Sega Dreamcast.

Then there's people who didn't trust Sega after the release of the Saturn, a tremendously huge flop, probably even bigger than the 32x addon, and possibly the Virtual Boy (Nintendo, I know).

In a way, you could say that it was because of the PS2, and the N64, and the XBox (to a lesser extent as I believe the downfall was just before the Xbox was released, but I'm not too sure), but the biggest factor (from what I believe, because I've never taken a survey) was the lack of advertisement. Sega, at one point, did start reproducing Dreamcast consoles I believe, but only in Japan. They may still make the odd one or 2, that I'm not sure of either. Some Japanese companies still make games for the Dreamcast (Officially, the last game released for the Dreamcast was Ikagura, which was a fantastic game), and it did get a lot of people to buy up what was left in stores (I do believe the game did make it to the Australian shores, but in very few quantities. I'm not sure about this, but this may have been the game that was never released in North America. I know there was one that was made and released in Japan and the PAL territories, but not for North America).

*phew* You can tell I'm a Dreamcast nut huh? And the Dreamcast still lives on for even bigger nuts. Dreamcast emulation sites (not emulation programs, but games to be emulated on the Dreamcast), homebrew games, hardware hacking (someone got a Harddrive to work on the Dreamcast I believe. There was suppose to be a ZIP/Harddrive addon, but it fell through).








Anywho, back to modern times. I believe that Nintendo's biggest decision was to sell half of Rare. Rare was their biggest asset from the beginning, with nothing but quality games ever being released from their studios. Now, they own less than half the company (49% I believe), and are facing tremendous competition. The Playstation 1/2/3 (God knows how these consoles were popular because every game I played on it sucked (non-troll)), and the Xbox (360), the pressure is on them. But I think they will last through the next challenge. With the announcement of Nintendo-Net, being able to DOWNLOAD AND PLAY ALL CONSOLE GAMES FROM BEFORE THE GAMECUBE FREE (confirmed?), this will bring HEAVY pressure on the other consoles, because Sony can't do that, as of yet, and the Xbox is only Microsoft's first console. From what I see, Nintendo will pass this round with flying colours. Nintendo-Net will be a sucess, with new and old gamers downloading their favourates (I, personally, would love to play Blast Corps on the Revolution, my favourite N64 game). And making it backwards compatable with the Gamecube games, means that you no longer need to have every single console plugged into the TV to play what you want (which, the old consoles will be placed into nice little collectors item boxes and be on public display, won't they?)

Personally, I don't care if the new Sony console and the new Microsoft console is based off an ATI Graphics card technology and a Power PC at a gazillion jigawatts, games these days have been getting worse and worse. They shouldn't be focusing on better graphics, they should be aiming for longevity. People want to play the games for ages, not buy a game and clock it 10hrs later (I'm pretty sure there are a tonne of games between the PSX release and now that are like that, I know Jak and Daxter (sp?) was finishable in 12hrs collecting 100% gems. My friend then took the game back the next day). The fact that Nintendo are now allowing people to play all the old classics and all the new games, even at a slightly elevated power than the Gamecube, I'm pretty sure it'll be a big hit with more than Sony and Microsoft's fans put together.

Personally, I hope that Sega and Nintendo make a deal where all the old Sega games are downloadable too (pre Saturn or pre Dreamcast, either way, it'd be sweet), but one can only wish...




***Note, the post above may not be 100% accurate. Any attemps to flame, troll or be non-constructive will be looked at in a negative form. If you do find something that contradicts the above, please post and correct me ***

 

maybe they are classed as 2nd.. but IMO they are 3rd... i dont see many people these days buying GC games... its all PS2, X-box and PC games.. nintendo may slowly die out in the UK in a later years.. no one knows... buy they will stay strong over in the east...

 

That's because the next GC game i want is Zelda, in November, and the last GC game i bought was RE4 back in January. That's 11 months between game purchases not including my Jap Naruto game i bought for my birthday in Feb.

 

lol, last time i checked gameboy counted as a console

i realise that nintendo are huge in japan, but they are now facing much larger competition than before. Shall i repeat my point about the rareness of games? nintendo do have some great characters for their games, but they seem to rely completely on those and in terms of value for money i think most people would much rather get a ps3 of xbox360, due to the much larger library of games for these consoles.

 

i havent brought a game for my GC for over a year... i think the last game i brought was tony hawks underground.. there just isnt any games out that interest me to buy it on the GC..

there actually releasing another gameboy advance... this time there calling it the gameboy micro... meant to be smaller than the SP..

 

A gameboy isnt a console and with the onset of the PSP they will have their market eaten there too. And without meaning to sound rude - what the **** do i care if they survive to only ever release stuff in Japan? Still screws us over in the west.

 

There are images on the CVG website, supposed to be around the same size as an old NES controller.

I haven't played a game on my GC for a while either, I'm currently too engrossed in trying to complete Star Ocean 3 on the PS2 and Guild Wars on the PC. There are still games I want on the GC, it's just I've only got so much time I can spare to play on them at the moment (most of it seems to be spent babysitting my niece and nephew).

I don't think Nintendo will go the way of the dodo just yet though...

 

I can't see how people complain about the GC's selection of games.

I have nearly 40 and although they aren't all great, there are some real gems:
Resident Evil 4, Metroid 1+2, Paper Mario, Eternal Darkness, Rogue Squadron 2+3, Wario Ware and MGS Twin Snakes to name a few.

There's plenty of games I'm looking forward to as well, Zelda, Geist, Killer 7, Pokemon, Battalion Wars, Odama, Kirby, Fire Emblem, Donkey Konga 2. I probably won't get all of them as I don't have time to play them all.

 

They complain simply because of the number of games available for other systems, and a lot of developers are forsaking the GC due to the smaller userbase.

which is a shame as I really think the GC is a great system, if only the casual gamer would look past it's 'kiddy' appearance and see some of the quality titles available.

 

I say this to so many people all the time and it really pisses me off that they can't see past the style of graphics to see what a great system it is and the array of games available. It goes the same for anime as well (well for all the people i know), i can tell them a storyline and they will be interested but as soon as i mention its anime they dont wanna know, they just can't see past the fact that its drawn and not real people even though its good.

Death

 

That's what they said about Sega

The Dreamcast is such a tragic story, it should've done so much better than it did, and aside from the truly rubbish advertising it was also beaten into the ground by the inspired ad campaign of Sony. And by Goldeneye.

 

if you take a look at nintendo's share price compaired to sonys in japan then sony get there ass kicked. If nintendo went software only they'd still make a killing in profits as they are well known for there quality games. Although i do agree with alot of perivious points. if nintendo didn't make so many games for there systems then i think they'd be in big trouble. They need to help third party developers more and I think they've noticed this and are trying to fix things with the new console.
I just wish they'd pic good games for conversion from the n64 to ds, world driver championship was 10x better than crappy ridge racer for the n64.

 

A Gameboy isn't a console? ...right.

Although it is competition, the DS is actually outselling the PSP in all current regions. It is the first competitor 'proper' to Nintendo's dominance of the handheld sector since the Neo Geo Pocket and will definitely be a long standing competitor. But, it will not be 'the death of the company'. Really.

That's not rude, I agree entirely. It's just me being pedantic really. Perhaps people should be considering the fall of Nintendo purely in the West and not just entirely, because it sure as hell won't happen in Japan for a long, long time. I can see where people might consider Nintendo pulling out of Western markets in terms of hardware and such from a local point of view, but without looking at the bigger picture, you're missing the quite blatant point that...they won't. It's frustrating

 

Just face it. Nintendo are here to stay. Sure their market share may go down, but at the moment they make a greater profit than Sony or Microsoft. Infact in the last year they more than doubled there net profits, going from 33 billion Yen to 87 billion.

Hell if I was doing that well I wouldn't be thinking about stopping, would you?

 

Even if Nintendo isn't big in the NA/Euro market, they'll always be big in Japan <--<< OMGPOSTFTW!

 

http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000433044722/

 

Depends on your definiation of a console. I dont consider handhelds, consoles. I consider things that sit under the TV, consoles. Yea, they both do the same thing but in different markets but traditionally the main gaming system has always been under the TV etc. This is imo.
Also, currently the DS is outselling the PSP cause you can get a DS for £100 and the PSP isnt officially released in the EU til sept. and dont they have supply problems with the PSP? Give it a few years and will the PSP take more market? Until Nintendo bring out their next hand-held. I dont see Nintendo evet having a problem in the handheld market until they become so technically advanced and have to sell them at a loss when Sony can afford to do so.

It may not be the total death of the company, like liquidation, but it isnt making it any easier for them and it's not like the competition of the past where Sony and Nintendo were financially similar compared to MS/Sony and Nintendo.

Yea it wont ever ever happen in Japan, which makes me happy for them but i really couldnt care less about the Japs if i cant get my gaming fix here in the EU. To me and other EU citizens the company might as well be dead, unless you fancy importing from places like lik-sang which is a ****ing pain in the arse with tax n ****.

Dont get me wrong - i dont ever want to see Nintendo hit the ****, ill probably buy a revolution first but i just enjoy talking about the fate of the company and taking a certain POV against everyone else

 

Nintendo will always live on, Japan's market demands it.