"Nintendo to focus on making games"

[DeathsHand]

http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/news/0,10870,2869633,00.html

Now some might say "Well that makes sense, the gamecube has only been out a short while, why would they be making a new console?"

But that's not the point of it :p

"Nintendo plans to expand its share of the video game market by focusing on making better games rather than on building increasingly powerful consoles, its new president said Thursday."

Which means that they are like... the difference in power between each generation is becoming less noticable... and they don't believe on tacking on extras like DVD and stuff to improve consoles... so like... "Why make a new console every 5 years?" or whatever... It sounds like they will try to make gamecube last longer than normal and just keep making new games for it...

At least I think that's what they're saying... and if that is the case, while that may sound like a sorta neat thing y'know... gamecube will get lots more games over time and they won't just let it die out... But what about third parties? When PS3 and Xbox2 or whatever come out, don't you think gamecube sales would drop a good bit? I think unless all companies go along that way, Nintendo doesn't stand much of a chance if they take that route (alone)... But I dunno...

So what do you make of the whole thing? Did I not understand what this guy's trying to say or something? :confused:

[D-Man]

Yeah, I also just read that, and it was kinda weird since the interview didn't say nothing in itself. I think what Iwata meant was that Nintendo won't focus on the consoles in the future. They'll just do the same as whatever the competition does to keep up with them, and they'll focus on making good games for it.

[DeathsHand]

Originally posted by D-Man
Yeah, I also just read that, and it was kinda weird since the interview didn't say nothing in itself. I think what Iwata meant was that Nintendo won't focus on the consoles in the future. They'll just do the same as whatever the competition does to keep up with them, and they'll focus on making good games for it.

"During an analyst meeting, newly appointed Nintendo president Satoru Iwata explained the company's new direction."

What you just said doesn't really sound like a "new direction" :p

But I dunno... Videogames.com's little news headline was like "Is Gamecube Nintendo's last console?" or something... so I dunnnozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz maybe people are just misunderstanding something somewhere :unsure:

[Bond]

It's mainly marketing bull ****. Nothing to read into...

[gekko]

Ok, after reading this post I was thinking Rare. After reading the article, it's not even close to saying they won't make any more consoles.

"We have a sense of crisis, that price cuts in software could destroy the game industry," he said. "The effort to produce machines with better technology has reached its limit," Iwata said. "If things continue, they may lead to the decline of the entire game industry."

Wow, great minds think alike :D

[Yoda9864]

I definately think you read too much into the article.

[Jin]

Originally posted by Yoda9864
I definately think you read too much into the article.

I totally agree. All Nintendo probably did was fire a few people from research/development of hardware, and hired a few more people to develop games. Because Nintendo would have to be insane if they were to believe that they didn't need to launch any consoles in the future to stay competitive in the video game industry.

[DeathsHand]

I dunno.... Just what videogames.com said, then some of the things the article said... *shrugs*

Thems Nintendo people need to start saying things for obviously for us simple minded folk... :D

But I guess youz guys is right... but that's kinda what I thought.. the reason I was pointing out stuff about me not understanding it or something is because I thought the idea sounded pretty stupid... like I pointed out when I mentioned the thing about Nintendo falling way behind when the time comes to release a new console :p

But seriously, why the hell would they say that in the first place? Once the console is out, you don't really think much when it comes to hardware (unless you're like Sony or MS... and not a game only company)... at least not for awhile... Err I guess...

Maybe this is just their way of saying "We not going to release the SD card adapter you puny mortals. Har har har buy our cheap small memory cards until you run out of money and are forced to become our slaves"

.... J/K :D

:sneaky:

[quiet mike]

I think they will try to keep the GameCube's life longer than the normal 5 year cycle. And that's a very good thing, since more games will come on the system, more time to take full use of it's compatibilaty with GBA and less money spent on new hardware development in a span of 10 years.
Maybe looking at this Sony and Microsoft will delay as much as posible their future consoles, since Xbox will need more than 5 years to become trully profitable considering all MS lost on it in this first year, and Sony surely wants to exploit as much the profit it takes with a console that is slightly behind the competitors yet in the lead. so maybe they'll wait 7-8 years before puting out the next systems.


Gekko's coments are very good too, and if I might read more into it I think consoles should be made in a 10 year or more cycle. Right now consoles are very powerfull and the next diference will be sligthly better ans so on. But making a new console brings a downfall: It costs enormly to develop in a console of this generation, and in 5 years companies invest $5-30 million to make 3-4 games. If the console and games aren't supported they will be cutting it too close. Plus they will have to spend more time to learn a new hardware configuration, and as technology upgrades, programing cost increases as well.

Remember when NES, Genesis, SNES were having games coming out all the time? Technology is what stoped that, and if we race like this only a few power houses will be left standing making "the same" games or new ones but in a much less frequent pace "Nintendo"

[Angrist]

Really makes you wonder what the next generation of consoles will bring. Probably not just even more powerful machines, since that won't really improve gaming quality. VR? :unsure:

[DeathsHand]

Originally posted by Angrist
Really makes you wonder what the next generation of consoles will bring. Probably not just even more powerful machines, since that won't really improve gaming quality. VR? :unsure:

Well, it may not improve graphics quite as much as it has in the past, but it could still improve AI and such... Graphics of course don't really improve game quality that much (especially when games already look as good as they do), but AI does... And such...

Sony's been talking crazy stuff about PS3.... like 10 or 15 times as powerful as PS2 or something, and using some sort of crazy non-disc media and all this weird stuff that I don't think's gonna happen next gen... Unless maybe each company does keep their systems around 10 years instead of 5 :p

VR? Err I doubt it :D

I dunno... I think that game quality can still be improved by more power... Like y'know that geo-mod thing on Red Faction games... imagine them being able to impliment that into like almost any kind of game or something... it would raise the level of interactivity... right? And imagine them being able to program better AI for the civilians and police in GTA games... so police would chase after other people (like someone shoots at you, the cops go after them... instead of someone shoots at you, you shoot back, and then the cops only go after you while a bunch of other guys continue to shoot at you :D )... So some people around the city might have a schedule... driving to a certain place and parking in a spot instead of just driving around the town aimlessly until they move off the screen and dissapear...

I dunno... I think games could still be improved (when it comes to quality, not just graphics) by increasing system's power...

I think it would be much better if a system's life lasted longer than 5 years though...

[Idiot]

I think that Nintendo didn't fire any hardware R&D people. It seems unlikley, as Nintendo hasn't fired employes for anyhting like that instance before, so I think it's a rumour.

[Idiot]

Another thing, I think that when Nintendo releases a new console, it will still strive to get the best possible performance, and that President Iwata meant that, at it's current level, technology can't expand very far now. However, in 10 years or so, perhaps there will be as great a gaming revoloution as 2D and 3D gaming were to their respective generations.