[Perfect Stu]

posted my Matt Cassamassina of IGNCUBE:

Is Nintendo out of Touch?

Answer: As I see it, yes. I don't come to this conclusion quickly. Rather, it's something I feel after observing the company's puzzling decisions and choices for years and years.

I've come to believe that the folks at Nintendo Japan are, for lack of a better word, old. They're old. They're stubborn. And they're clinging to the days when the brand 'Nintendo' meant everything. How else could you explain some of the choices the publisher has made?

We're not going to enter into the Internet gaming scene lightly, says Nintendo, because it's not profitable. And in the same breath the company releases niche titles like Pikmin into the market. A contradiction of business philosophy, no? Nevermind the fact that both Sony and Microsoft are doing brilliantly with their explorations into the online market.

It's this unwillingness to adapt, this intentional ignorance of what the market wants, that is the very proof that Nintendo is out of touch.

Need another example? Look no further than The Legend of Zelda. Nintendo showed the most incredible recreation of its Zelda franchise at Space World 2000, and to a delighted, cheering crowd. So what does the company do? Come back with a totally transformed version of the game that features a cartoon-styled, child Link and an all-too-cute Zelda universe -- the exact opposite of the direction the marketplace seems headed. For perhaps the first time in a Miyamoto presentation ever, the cheers were quieted. And yet, development on the title continued.

Of course, Wind Waker has turned out to be a fun game. But that doesn't change the fact: it's not the Zelda that Nintendo fans wanted. When "you get used to it," is the highest praise some gamers can say of the new look, there is something very wrong going on. Indeed, you might even say that Wind Waker is symbolic of Nintendo's ignorance of its own audience.

Matt