If we turn back time to 11 or 12 years ago, Sega was profitable and had a larger marketshare than did Nintendo and had a more recognizable mascot (Sonic) than Walt Disney World (Mickey Mouse). If Nintendo continues on their present course, they are doomed to be relegated to a software developer down the road. With every release of a new console, their marketshare drops and that's not a good thing even if the GC was profitable.
Personally im not too bothered if people think its on its last legs, its all rather subjective to which region your buying your games from. If your buying from the uk then its been dead for pretty much its entire life as fuck all comes out over here. Personally you deserve all you get if you buy stuff in the uk, theres no way in hell id support NOE. The us is much better but theres still quite a bit from japan that hasnt made it to over there. Now i have been buying my way through the japanese catalogue & im up to 90 odd games & theres still a hell of a lot still to get as i go through the back catalogue picking up all the gems i missed out on. Im welcoming the break before they release the revolution as it will give me time to enjoy the stuff still to play on my gamecube & ds.
dch- That is why they are changing their strategy to gain a larger new market share. edit- As for the Japanese scene, it is a lot better than enywhere else. However it did sadden me when I was in Japan a couple of months ago and every GC game was heavily discounted, buyers paradise, but it seemed rather sad that new releases had to be very heavily discounted to shift. I'm looking forward to cleaning up my GC collection when the prices drop before the revo launch. Might even pick up lots of different colour GC's as well.
I think it's also important to say the market has expanded, so less marketshare might not necessairy mean less people playing.
Right, but you can couple that with the cost of game(s) production increasing astronomically over the same timespan and you HAVE to sell more games to recoup development costs. Only time will tell.
Well dch, given that pre-lim dev for revo is using gamecube dev kits (apparently), factor in economic growth, market expansion and the potential growth of the market I think the risk for nintendo is not dramatically increased. Certainly not increased enough to make sweeping statements about a console we know relatively little about. Ah well, nintendo are a clever company, they didn't blow it with the GC so I hope they stay in the race for this generation, but yeah, only time will tell...
To me, Nintendo has done many things which could ultimately jeopardize their future. First, the GameCube was not CD/DVD compatible. Second maybe (I feel a debate frenzy approaching :icon_bigg) was the sudden change from their first planned Zelda release. Months back I made comments about how I disliked the Zelda Wind Waker game. If you play the game without worrying about the cell shading, you're in no problem. It made sales, but c'mon, who prefers a Link who looks like this: over this? Nintendo would have probably made more money, but when I think more about, how much of an improvement would Twilight Princess be? Third, the Nintendo DS is not compatible with original GameBoy games. Fourth, a GameBoy Micro? I'm not necessarily saying the console sucks, but we don't need another GameBoy! I see a GameBoy micro being able to play older GameBoy games, but couldn't this have been done on the DS. Let's hope Nintendo doesn't really "F" up this time, suppose they will sell Zelda to Sony? J/K :lol:
I liked the cel-shaded look. I also like the Zelda 64 look as well. Why do you guys constantly complain about this issue? Getting all mad just because the Zelda 64 "look" didnt cross over into Wind Waker's, in my opinion, is fanboyish. I'm glad they tried new things instead of using the same style over and over as they portrayed in Wind Waker. I also think its a little hypocritical to say that "Nintendo is the most innovative, but curse them for experimenting with Wind Waker's look, instead of using the old one!"
The GameCube's still alive? Since when? heh. Even though there are still some GC and GBA games coming out, both systems are already pretty much dead. Very few new games are under development for either, especially in North America... and especially excluding "two packs".
I agree. I've always had a soft spot for Nintendo since they provided me with my first, and best video gaming experiences. I don't like the idea of Nintendo being a 3rd party dev. I love this line. You win the thread, my friend :thumbsup:
Honestly to me, this gen is pretty much dead atm, mostly the handhelds to me seem alive. Havign a ds ive never wanted handheld games so much. But its true nintendo did make some mistakes, one was meidocore releasese of some of their first party titles, but honeslty i feel the cubes bout dead but xbox as well, ps2 seems to just kinda be there for the time being. But who knows, everone cites how zelda cel shaded was a mistake, but i liked the game a bit, and it sold extremely well durrign a time when game sales are extremely slow. Me if i get another job probably goign to import some cube games, they had a suprsiing amount released in japan, and the support for it was extremly good by bandai and hudson. I mean really i feel nintendo has a good chance at pulling this next gen off, theyre extremely serious about improving their marketshare, they are offering dvd option in the revo, and btw i think it was genius for them to have their little built in emu for the revo as this is a big selling point for people, not to mention that they are sorta doing itunes but for games. I know it sounds crazy, but look at ds, most people didnt expect it to do well at first, they thought psp was going to fully slaughter it, and look at it now, its doing extremely well in us and japan and there is a very good libary going for it with more great games to come.
I would go crazy if that would ever happen. It would prolly precede Armageddon! Nintendo has come a very, very long way now! Hehe...
Nintendo needs more online games. I think a Legend of Zelda MMORPG would be cool. At least their would probably be a better ratio of hardcore to casual gamers on it. With a lotta fanboys, too, sadly...
Nintendo has stated several times that if they exit the hardware industry, they're out of gaming completely - that quirky Japanese pride thing in action. But with the DS on the rise, and people growing genuinely interested in the philosophy of the Revolution, I think that will be quite a while yet. This is just the lull as the company shifts gears. Though with the DS online network opening up next week, I think Nintendo fans will be just fine in the duration. And what do we mean by "Gamecube nearing the end of its life?" If we're talking in terms of product support, well of course - once the Revolution hits, GC releases will slow to a trickle and stop all together. But if we're talking about the system's power and it's viability as a console - hell, Resident Evil 4 alone shows what the Gamecube is capable of, and if we had a few more years for developers to put out quality like that - wow! I hate this damned console arms race, with everyone struggling for bigger and faster just a few years after the new latest is out. If the manufacturers weren't so hasty to outdo each other technologically and instead concentrated on the software - their REAL source of income - we'd see some amazing things. Not that I'm not eager for the Revolution. I'd just like to see my beloved Cube last a little longer. Hell yes! That would make an awesome last hurrah on the system. Let's just hope Nintendo is up for one more Animal Crossing-esque leap of faith. I've a feeling audiences would eat it up if they ever had the balls to publish it.
well didn't some big Nintendo rep even state a few months back that the region that saw the biggest drop in gamecube sales was america? I remember it was some managing director or something quoted in an article about slumping gamecube sales. It just seems that it's already dead and is only hanging on because of Zelda being hyped.
actually i think europe is in a bit of worse shape, but man xbox, i never expected for microsoft to drop support so fast for it, adn the fact that new ones will still retail for the same price. But if you think about all these systems are getting most of their support from third parties atm, 1st party is about dead on all current ones. Ah well 2007 will be an intresitng year.
Another thing to consider is third party development support. In the UK, CameCube development has not been seen as viable for a long time. No-one I know is producing GC software or are planning to produce Revo games. (Handheld markets have always been seen as something of a sideline so I'm not taking that in to account atm) Okay, Nintendo do a good job with the games they make, but they can't beat the other systems for breadth of content. For the average Joe Public, quantity of titles is going to me more of a draw than quality. Faced with a display of three consoles, two with huge racks of games and one with 10-12 titles, I'm afraid Nintendo won't stand a chance. As to Nintendo's BC of games, they won't appear on the shelves to be a part of the equation. I do hope Nintendo can produce the goods, but from where I'm standing (in the UK) I can see it becoming (at best) a Japanese niche market.
I'm sure most people know, but old hideo kojima has officially announced he is working on the Revo. No longer rumour. I hope this is a start of the wave, however like oldprogie said I don't see western developers getting in on the action. All the excitement around the revo dev wise, seems to be from Japan. I would relish a console without modern EA crap etc. As for breadth being enticing I'm not so sure. All my casual gamer freinds all own the same games. Halo, GTA, timesplitters, Fifa etc. If anything I find breadth being exciting, I like the fact that ps2 has everything covered.
