JackTheRipper

Yay! Someone remembers me.

:rollin: :rollin: :rollin: :rollin:

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Sweet Tooth

I remember you too Liquid too, but that's not what this thread's about

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\"Take some Big and some Pac mix em up in a pot sprinkle a little Big L on top, what the f**k do you got? You got the illest and realest killas tied up in a knot, the juggernauts of this rap shit, like it or not\" - Eminem

www.insidegameronline.com Site Administrator, Editor-in-Chief
<img src=\"http://sweettooth.250free.com/anthony.jpg\">

Ploid 1.0

I even remember a liquid snake at this forum. I guess it was a shot at solid snake or something.

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.... and the foul!

farfus

Another thing clearly in my recollections, is that Nintendo's downfall really started with the failure of the Virtual Boy. That system's being a failed experiment somewhat threw Nintendo off base, and they simply werent ready to go with the N64. The person who invented the VB was the original creator of the GameBoy-Gumpy Something i recall... They somewhat attribute his untimely death to his disillusionment after the failed experiment... Im sure they planned on working on the N64(at the time named something else), hopefully succesfully, and then saying to the public, hey here is our latest and greatest, and its 64 bit, not 32. Unfortunately, with the failure of the VB they were forced into making their undeveloped system into something sooner than planned and without the support im sure they had hoped to garner along the way as they had with former success stories. Then the PS came along and literally took over the gaming market, and havent relinquished it since...

GameGuyPete

The Virtual Boy was certainly a disappointment-- and led to Nintendo's hardware genius Gumpei Yokoi's departure-- but I don't think that the system's failure really started Nintendo's downfall. Sure enough, the VB was Nintendo's first unsuccessful hardware venture, but the Nintendo 64 really keyed Nintendo's downturn in the industry.

For starters, Nintendo let Sega and Sony have a full year's head start. While Nintendo was delivering Donkey Kong Country 3 and promising a new 64-bit console called Project Reality-- errr... Ultra 64, Sony was blasting out of the gates with a wider marketing scheme, a lower price point than its competition, key third-party alliances, and some fantastic 3D visuals.

As time went on and Ultra 64 gradually became Nintendo 64, a few other ominous signs began to emerge. For starters, Nintendo's decision to stay with a cartridge-based format instead of converting to CD disappointed third-party publishers and led to the dissolution of one of Nintendo's greatest alliances: their relationship with Squaresoft. Other notable third-party companies, like EA, chose to initially stay away from the N64.

By the time the Nintendo 64 hit the streets, Sony had gained a massive advantage over Sega in the 32-bit console battle and was gaining considerable popularity. A general lack of launch titles certainly didn't help Nintendo out of the gate, either. When asked about the lack of games early on in the N64's life cycle, Nintendo responded with the credo, "Quality over quantity." What Nintendo didn't realize was that quantity did matter to a fair majority of gaming consumers-- the casual gamer.

Sony's marketing strategy for the start to designed to include a wider audience for the PlayStation. Sony pitched the system to adults, too-- namely the 18-35 year old male demographic. The marketing helped, as did the increasingly wide selection of PSX games available. Sports games were coming into their own on the PSX, with Sony's own first-party football and hockey titles in 1995 and 1996 surprising even sports game juggeraut EA. This new marketing scheme and the wide selection of games available helped to create the "casual gamer".

As the years have gone on, Nintendo has continued to repeat a few mistakes which continue to haunt them. Their relationships with third-party publishers continue to be touch-and-go. They still have a serious imbalance between firsrt-party and third-party releases. They still think that the gaming universe revolves solely around them, despite being crushed in overall sales for two straight generations. There's still a disparity in the number of games available for the GC versus its competition.

The bottom line here is that Nintendo is only a shadow of its former self and will continue to be until they realize-- and attempt to confront-- some of these mistakes and the fact that their image in the eyes of the casual gamer needs some adjustment. Nintendo will never have the level of market share and success that they enjoyed in the NES era, but they're never going to improve unless they change.

__________________
Peter J. Skerritt, Jr.
Senior Editor, PSX Extreme.com

This Week\'s <B>Pete\'s Perspective</B> column: <A href=\"http://www.psxextreme.com/scripts/misc/misc.asp?MiscID=87\"target=blank>Silence Is Deafening</A>

farfus

Very well put, Peter, its good to have someone with clear information, unlike me at 2:00am on a Sunday morning! Seems that Nintendo is no doubt taking a back seat again, but lets face it, they can always go back to manufacturing playing cards or something like that if they get too far down, the overhead for that is small, i think!!

UmbrellaInc.

I actually find the virtual boy rather entertaining. Mario Tennis is a lot of fun on it. The only thing I don't like about the system is since its all red and dark when you take your eyes out of the system you see all weird.

Sweet Tooth

I agree 100% with Pete. That's what I was basically trying to say in some of my earlier replies. Pete went even deeper and added the basic thought I had. Nintendo is conviced that their name'll carry them and that as Pete put it,

They think that just because they did what they were doing in the early 90s worked. Obviously Nintendo hasn't wisened up and noticed that its been almost a decade since they were THE company. Plus they weren't even THE system then because Sega was all over them too. Some even thought and still think that the Genesis was better. Sony came along and blew them out of the water with the Playstation. What Sony did was amazing when you really think about it. They came in as a newcomer and quickly defeated a slumping Sega because of their harware miscues and then drew TONS of developers including the best RPG developer in Squaresoft and later Enix and crushed the HIGHLY anticipated N64. Nintendo was the big dog from the last generation and just got whooped by a newbie. Sony was smart in both marketing and the overall technology of the Playstation. Nintendo is definately going to fall if they don't change.

__________________
\"Take some Big and some Pac mix em up in a pot sprinkle a little Big L on top, what the f**k do you got? You got the illest and realest killas tied up in a knot, the juggernauts of this rap shit, like it or not\" - Eminem

www.insidegameronline.com Site Administrator, Editor-in-Chief
<img src=\"http://sweettooth.250free.com/anthony.jpg\">

duke-nukem

B4 i used to think nintendo was everythin, now Nintendo is finished , its over, there old franchise cant interest the new aged environment, which we used to be interested in, 4 or 5 years ago, pokemon and mario used to own kids, right now, kids from the old school have grown and i don't think there interested anymore, but there is still the existance of the same aged group at this time, unfortenately kids at this time are different than four or five years ago, because there is the existance of other companies who saw nintendo owning kids, from seein that, it pushed those companies to be such a poser like Digimon , Yu gi OH and so, My point is , even though it have nuthin to do with hardware, but it still have the similarities, because if pokemon shows, pokemon cards and so on arent played anymore, then who da hell is gonna buy gamecube for that reason, mario is the same thing, because a new sequel or what ever comes out every year this will effect younger gamers for gettin bored of these franchises, those predicaments will effect the console, I dont wanna wait for 3 or 4 games to be launched on GC every year and the rest are ported to other consoles.
Nintendo is losin third party slowly, the first five months of the system launch, it topped the xbox in the market, but right now, the xbox is slowly gaining on GC , with the online benefits , third party support, and most of all nintendo's losin rare, if there gonna face against ps3 and XBOX2 in 2005 , there gonna lose for sure, because by the time comes, ps2 and xbox will already have a huge fanbase , while nintendo is losin , this way even if the next gc out powered the ps3 or xbox2 it will still not win, because of the big lose on the gamecube.

GameGuyPete

Thanks for the positive responses, everyone.

Nintendo's decision-making has been questionable for years now. I don't buy the line of thinking that Nintendo was trying to avoid piracy with cartridges for the N64. That's a load of bull-- Nintendo liked carts because only Nintendo was able to manufacture them, even for third-party publishers. This, along with licensing fees, guaranteed that Nintendo would make a sizable profit on every game released, despite the game's quality or despite what the publisher and/or developer made.

Nintendo's got a stranglehold on the handheld market, so why not fleece your consumer base by announcing an updated model of the GBA mere weeks after the close of the holiday season? The timing was perfect-- it came late enough so that all of those parents who bought GBAs for their kids couldn't return them. That's not too suspect, is it?

How is it that Nintendo can charge $30 for their Greatest Hits-- err... Players' Choice titles when their direct competitors (both of which are faring far better than the Big "N" in North America)are charging $10 less for comparable products? What makes matters worse is that diehard Nintendo supporters actually try to JUSIFY this gouging when the argument arises, saying that the games are "worth it" and that Nintendo doesn't practice "exclusionary tactics like Sony does" as far as determining Greatest Hits titles. Now, while I'm certainly not a supporter of keeping FFX and GTA3 from the Greatest Hits line well after a year of release, it's not like Sony's GH line doesn't have solid titles.

As long as Nintendo keeps their iron grip on the handheld market, they aren't going anywhere-- either up in popularity or out of the console business. Nintendo seems sold on the idea that their first-party games alone can carry GC sales and doesn't seem to recall the lack of success by other companies (*cough* SEGA *cough*) who tried to practice the same line of thinking. Even in last place in the current generation of console wars, it's not like Nintendo's not making money.

However, remember this: Nintendo is taking serious hits to its image. There's more negative sentiment towards Nintendo than ever in the gaming community-- media included. Third-party developers are cancelling projects and even pulling GC support altogether, and more people are noticing this. Nintendo business decisions are being questioned on a regular basis. All of this will come into play when gamers make their buying decisions in the next generation, which isn't all that far off. It's clear that Sony continues to hold their own and that Microsoft is gaining credibility and momentum. Nintendo's position is far less positive.

__________________
Peter J. Skerritt, Jr.
Senior Editor, PSX Extreme.com

This Week\'s <B>Pete\'s Perspective</B> column: <A href=\"http://www.psxextreme.com/scripts/misc/misc.asp?MiscID=87\"target=blank>Silence Is Deafening</A>