Official E3 2012 thread

[Kelthaz]

Going with a Kinect-style system would be a horrible idea. Kinect may work okay for some party games, but other than that it's a complete disaster when it comes to real games. I can't even imagine how awkward it would be to play Mario without a controller; the waggle to spin was annoying enough in Galaxy.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I was just thinking it seemed more like an evolution of the anyone can play/motion gaming that made the Wii a hit. "Asynchronous gameplay" just doesn't seem very Nintendo-y.

 

[Kelthaz]

I'm just surprised that Nintendo even saw a need to replace the Wii. Sure, sales for the Wii had dropped, but that's because everyone in the world already owns one. They could easily have released Nintendo Land and New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the Wii and get a guaranteed 5-10 million in sales. They could even package that crappy controller in with Nintendo Land.

Instead Nintendo needs to convince those 100 million non-gamers to buy another $300 system. Good luck with that Nintendo.

 

[TheGodBen]

I don't know that it would have been possible to release a Wii U gamepad device for the Wii, the Wii is built on technology from a decade ago so asking it to render two screens at once while transmitting that data wirelessly may have been two much for that system. Nintento have already admitted that the framerate of the Wii U will be halved when using two gamepads at the same time.

Nintendo, unlike MS and Sony, makes most of their money from hardware sales, they don't make much money from software because casual gamers don't purchase games for the Wii, they're happy with Wii Sports, Wii Play, Wii Fit, and so on. But the Wii pretty much reached market saturation as everyone and their grandparents already owned one, so Nintendo's revenue crashed. They've been in the red for 2 years now (I think) because of the drop-off in Wii and DS sales, they needed to get another console out the door to try and return to the boom days of 07/08. Sadly for them, the 3DS's launch wasn't as successful as they hoped, and the Wii U looks to be facing similar apathy from the general public, so they're going to be in a bad place if this launch doesn't go well for them.

 

[Kemaiku]

Nintendo's losses overall end of last year/beginning of this year were close to half a billion dollars, the 3DS sales were way below what they estimated, and had to slash the prices of all further 3DS sales, Wii dropping in popularity and overall sales.

They need something at this point to recoup losses and start regaining lost ground in the gaming market. They better hope that the Wii U is a huge hit, or the combined losses of the 3DS and it...well can they go for the full billion dropped?

 

[Kelthaz]

Even if the launch does go well for them, how much longer can they keep this up? Relying on catching lightning on command just to survive is not a good business strategy. Of course, they really don't have much of a choice at the moment.

1.) Desperately try to get the casual market and risk everything to achieve this. Unfortunately, this requires competing with the new iOS market now.
2.) Play it safe and go for your core Nintendo audience. End up with Gamecube level sales. Of course, the Gamecube did turn a profit, so this may not be a terrible idea.
3.) Abandon the console industry and focus exclusively on the handheld industry. An industry that is rapidly losing ground to Smartphones and may not even exist in 10 years.

 

[Kemaiku]

As you said, they don't really bother with software so they cannot go down the Sega route, and even if the handheld market did survive another decade, the Gameboy/DSlite success can't last forever. The 3DS is a shambles and is only clawing it's way up to profit now. And a lot of gamers have replaced the stock battery (2-4 hours) with a third party one (6 hours) just to make it last long enough to play.

The Wii U needs to compete not only with the Xbox and PS3, but their successors around 2-3 years from now assuming this one is around for say the next 5-7 years. And I mean compete on emulation power, game libraries, online support and content and sales. I don't know about you but I don't see it happening.

The PS4 is probably going to be something horribly oversized and overpriced but it'll have the entire PS3 infrastructure behind it. The XBOX3 in 2014/15 could well outdo both of them.

I don't see much of a future for Nintendo.

 

[Kelthaz]

Unfortunately, keeping up with Microsoft and Sony, even if Nintendo could manage it, is just a good way to lose money. The 360 and PS3 may be successful, but they have both cost their companies billions of dollars. Nintendo is desperately trying to cling to their casual audience while Microsoft and Sony are hemorrhaging money out of every orifice.

I was joking about another video game crash coming, but I do think they'll be some big changes for the big three in the near future. An industry where you either lose billions of dollars to stay relevant or pray for a successful gimmick to get you sales for a few years is not a healthy industry.

 

[Jax]

An industry that is rapidly losing ground to Smartphones and may not even exist in 10 years.

Consoles won't die out, smartphone games are limited and the hardware in the phones are limited even more. The gaming market is bigger than ever so it can hold Consoles, Handhelds and phones without any being in danger of dissapering.

 

[Kelthaz]

I was saying that the handheld industry may not be around in 10 years. I never said that consoles were dying out.

All you have to do is slap a d-pad and 2-4 face buttons on a smartphone and every advantage that the DS has is now gone. It'll be hard to convince people to buy a separate handheld device just to play games when everyone will already own a smartphone.

 

[Kemaiku]

I bought Sonic 4 Episode 2 for my iphone back when it was released, the only problem is the usual onscreen d-pad stuff being awkward, other than that it's an amazing HD game that out performs nearly everything in my DS library.

I see the smartphones in about 5 years time being able to take on anything the 3DS and PSV can do now.

 

[Jax]

I was saying that the handheld industry may not be around in 10 years. I never said that consoles were dying out.

My bad...

I can agree on that point but I've found handheld devices kinda pointless for many years. Smartphones are pointless to me though too, I want a phone to ring people so all the extra crap is just that CRAP. Handheld devices cost as much as consoles but are less powerful so why the hell would I want to spend so much on em. Not too mention after 20 minutes I always get a pain in my thumb on the 3DS and I don't know why .

 

[Kelthaz]

I buy handhelds because there's games on them that I want to play. The portable aspect is a nice bonus, but one I don't use very often.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Smartphones are pointless to me though too, I want a phone to ring people so all the extra crap is just that CRAP.

I have to smile as I read and post this from my phone.

 

[Jax]

^

Am old fashioned I guess with my PC

 

[Kelthaz]

I think Smartphones are great, but not worth their price. In Canada, I can't find a decent plan for under $75 a month (with tax) and that requires a 3 year contract. Not worth it.

 

[Kemaiku]

As with anything else, the prices will start coming down. It might take a while and I doubt Apple will follow the others in doing so (says the iphone user) but they will.

At that point portable game consoles will seriously be struggling. Well, Nintendo will, the PSV has the PSN supporting it.

Did the E3 at least determine if the 3DS will be able to act as a limited Wii U controller as they've been hinting?

 

[AlphaMan]

Meh, looks pretty boring to me. Just another scripted cinematic game where you move forward on an extremely linear path going from set piece to set piece shooting bad guys when they pop up behind boxes with almost no input from the player required.

If the game gives you freedom on how you solve each situation then it has the potential to be a GOTY, but I'm sceptical.

Oddly, I've been watching this title since it was announced at the VGAs and it sounds exactly like the opposite of what you describe. The Ellie character is a sophisticated piece of AI that reacts to the environment around you. That's why the audience cheered when she hit that guy with a brick. There may have been a ton if ammo around that set, but if you never found it, then you are in bad shape, right? Unless you took a more stealthy approach to it or went a different way entirely. I am really looking forward to The Last of Us!

 

[AlphaMan]

Unfortunately, keeping up with Microsoft and Sony, even if Nintendo could manage it, is just a good way to lose money. The 360 and PS3 may be successful, but they have both cost their companies billions of dollars. Nintendo is desperately trying to cling to their casual audience while Microsoft and Sony are hemorrhaging money out of every orifice.

ummmm. No. Microsoft is doing great. Nintendo and Sony are hemorrhaging money... That's mostly due to unfavorable exchange rates between the dollar and yen since their based in Japan but mostly due to slow sales with regards to Nintendo and again, poor performance on the HDTV side of Sony. The new Sony CEO cited Playstation as one of Sony's key brands and it will be pivotal for the company's comeback.

It is true that Nintendo does not sell hardware at a loss. Microsoft and Sony do because they build their consoles for 7-10 year cycles. This means that Nintendo is constantly a generation behind them. They did great with the Wii, but most people have them stored in a closet right now while Xbox and PS3's are selling games left and right. When the PS4 and Xbox 720 (Durango) comes to market next year, I expect the Wii U to have a tough time at it. I'm still hoping for Nintendo to surprise me.

 

[Kelthaz]

ummmm. No. Microsoft is doing great. Nintendo and Sony are hemorrhaging money...

Right now, as in today, yes. However, overall the PS3 and 360 have resulted in billions of dollars in losses for Microsoft and Sony while Nintendo has earned billions. The relatively small profits that Microsoft is pulling in now does not offset the billions lost in the first few years of the 360's life. They will never break even or come close to breaking even, nor did Microsoft expect to break even.

It's not a healthy industry.