Watch out, you're about to be squashed! (long "megaton" post)

[Dyne]

Yep, it's almost time for the Megaton! I can't believe it's almost here. We've come by many rumours, and we've come by little details, announcements (Gameboy Player), and the like. I'm still baffled as to what Nintendo has to offer, and I'm sure everyone else is too. The only thing's we've looked at are what Nintendo is missing, which is obviously a solid online plan or the purchase of something rather large (sega? namco? capcom? square/enix? panasonic anyone? SONY AND MS?). All we know is that it's going to sell cubes at a distinguished rate above others.

Now what the hell would/could/should it be? Everything we've ever dreamed of? Pokemon/Earthbound/SSB online? What we really should be doing is looking at what we have right now, and not look for missing pieces, but look for the small part that puts a connection between two large bodies of jiggies on the puzzlesheet. First we need to identify what the body is comprised of, and what part they could add on to make it all work together.


Theory One: A good solid Partnership

Now we all know Nintendo likes partnerships. Triforce (Sega/Namco), Panasonic (Qube, super memory card, dvd technology), IBM/ATI (hardware), Square (FF:CC GCN/GBA comp.), Capcom (the Capcom Five, RE), Hudson Soft (Mario Party's b*tch), Camelot (Golden Sun, Mario Golf/Tennis upcoming), and more, are great examples of Nintendo's fetish with it. In their sense, it's wise to keep a lot of partnerships... now, buying anything might break a strand or two... who knows? Nintendo IS wise to keep this, and maybe strengthen what they have with companies. What's a White House (Nintendo and dev houses) without an army (partnerships)? They'd be in trouble and surely let another country (Microsoft, Sony!) invade and kill at will. They'll have to make a stronger web somehow, but the current one is an already excellent one. It seems only that GCN is missing out on sales, so there is something missing, and it can't just be about online plans. What I'm thinking here is if they were to shake hands with Matsu****a(Panasonic, the largest company of it's kind) and insure a strong tie, both their thirst for revenge on Sony would create a driving force so strong that it will be a force to beckon with. I know Panasonic fell flat on it's face last time (3D0... what the hell??) but maybe the fact that GCN can't play DVDs is what didn't sell it. Or funky extras like that. Would anyone agree to that? Most people were complaining at launch about how we didn't have anything extra like say, the Xbox with the hard drive or DVD playback on-hand like PS2. It doesn't look like it on the Physical Cube, but maybe Nintendo has been whoring Panasonic in bed at nights and we don't know it for a killer update that will sell cubes-- a lot. What could it be? Well, it's too late to add anything like DVD playback, but when thinking about this subject I can't help but think a huge Panasonic partnership is in store, but not "ownage".

We also know that Nintendo loves to devour Small Companies. Retro Studios, Silicon Knights, and earlier examples come to mind (*COUGHHACKHACK rare HACK...*). No small companies come to mind when I think of what Nintendo could also devour (maybe Factor 5, but they're hardly small nowadays), but, they're small--So, yeah, it's hard to tell if any small company exists. What I'm thinking in this case would be that the beast is full right now... Buying some small company is hardly going to rile up non-believers to getting a cube. And, buying a big company is not Nintendo's style... I don't even think they could afford it, after the losses in Europe (ouch...) and the mediocre amount for Rareware (Ok, it was good, but the Europe loss killed all expectations of what to do with it). On a side note, I think they only sold Rare because they were a lazy dog when it came to dev-ing, and that they foresaw the Europian Fine. When Nintendo thinks money, I don't think the first thing that comes to mind is getting their jaw around large companies. This rumour of big companies only really came after they sold Rare, right? Selling Rare heated up a lot of conversationalists and fanboys alike, and I hardly believe Nintendo will buy anything big or small. Also, think about what one expensive company could do for a system... only one. Not much, huh? It would be hard to gain back what they payed. The only real example of this really working was when Sony ordered a partnership with Square and sold all those FFVII's, and that wasn't even a buyout. Buying one company wouldn't even satisfy the system's fans' genre needs--not everyone would be thrilled. If they bought Capcom, what would the sports fans think of it? It would not sell a bunch of cubes buying one company, I assure you. Then the interesting theory comes up if they are going to buy multiple companies--Huh? Nintendo would never be able to afford that. What needs to be said here is only meant to be pushing Theory One in any way possible.

Theory Two: Teh UNPOSSIBLE

Nintendo goes teh THIRD PARTY!


....

.......

Now how the f*** would that sell more cubes? Lower prices on old dead GCN's? Come on people. Might I note this is impossible on Nintendo's part what with they have going on for them with the handheld market in their hand and an increasingly popular console. Anybody who thinks this is the Megaton obviously despises the Gamecube in all ways possible and praises the hell out of their own Xbox or PS2. Don't listen to anybody who doesn't f***ing have any experience with the gcn, let alone own the thing at all, or else your gums should be ripped out. And I'm positive on that, folks.

Theory Three: Online anyone?

This is what people seem to be latching onto tightly and rumouring the heck out of. Online Pokemon anyone? Gameboy Player? What I want to point out here is the fact that this is only missing, nothing more--nobody ever thought of the PS2's Network Adapter as a selling point. Nintendo will have to obviously make an immense effort to get something going that will heat up enough people and satisfy both adults and kids to buy cubes. Do you think Pokemon will be it? Maybe, but if people still have this "kiddy" thing on Nintendo, it won't work as well as planned. Well, there's a slight chance, but it's not dominant--and I'd bet on it. What I thought of was an online Earthbound... what with the severe lack of anything from Ape, Inc. for the past several years (cancelled N64 Mother game, and that's it..) really gets you thinking. What also seems to be a factor is that Nintendo has "patented" an MMORPG, and it was officially reported, too. Uh... hey? What about Nintendo's hush-hush styles? They could definitely pull it off. Now, if we take that rumour to the test.... would it sell the Cube? Nope, not just one game would do it. All people need to be satisfyed, don't they? Well, Japanese like the RPG... oh yes they do. But, North Americans don't as much. What sells the PS2? A wide variety of good games. Not great, just good--but it's great because it all adds up and sells it in the end. What comes upon us is the ideas of many games comprised to make an online plan. Is online the future? Is an online Pokemon, Earthbound, Mario Kart/Tennis/Golf, Zelda, (uh... the possiblities go on) really going to sell it? Who knows? Is it really strong to have only online plans and good partnerships?


Now, to conclude, what I was thinking of the whole time I was writing this was that it is only ONE announcement, not many announcements. An online plan would be announcing many games... right? One announcement, in my opinion, would be one thing. It might be many things, but they have so much planned that it's just going to be too overwhelming to announce so many things in one spot. But, it's Megaton, right? Ow... my brain hurts. Doesn't yours? Well, that's all the possibilities that I can think of. Now what else could there be that they'd announce? I've basically poured out all my knowledge and opinions, and it seems to be Nintendo's only ways. What else would they announce that would be Megatonish? Well, it was reported that it was GOING to be partnerships, online games, and the like. Well paint me red....... maybe it's true, maybe not. Who knows? Nintendo does, and they're being smart.

Now, please, don't be afraid to reply.... go ahead and drop any two cents on my thoughts or come up with anything completely different. I would love to hear your opinions on this dense subject as we await the time to draw nearer and nearer.

[Angrist]

When is it going to be announced anyway??? Look what piccy C-E have:

Dunno where they got the original pic from...
Could this mean Sonic and Megaman exclusive to the Cube? All 3 in a new game?

Anyway, I'm hoping for a huge online announcement, this is the time.
With Mother 3 MMORPG plus some more new games and of course Pokemon.

You can never be too sure though...

[Jonbo298]

Maybe Nintendo will make a new Mario RPG and include "other" characters besides ones from Mario's world (like the image above). But I don't think that would sell tons, unless Square helps in making another one again. But I don't have much to say to Dyne's post except that it is pretty good. Almost seems like something D-real would make.

[GameKinG]

It supposedly going to be announced at V-jump, if its really true.

[BlueFire]

They keep holding us off...

I just wish they blew us all away


which may or may not happen..

I'm leaning towards may not, but then again, who am i?

[gekko]

The pic came from a guy at Gaming-Age, who has been right with rumors before. The big rumor is Nintendo, Sega, and Capcom either parner up, or Nintendo buys them, and they become exclusive.

CSK (I think), who owned 22% of Sega recently sold all of their stock. Some anonymous company bought it. Guesses are Microsoft, or Nintendo. Care to use logic? Don't. Niether of them seem practical. But if they did, it wouldn't be a surprise.

There's also a rumor of an alliance of 7 developers. Who? Not sure. Would be a clever way of hinting at a Sega buyout (since Sega has multiple 2nd parties, or would they be 4th now?), but Sega has like 11 or so.

And adding to the online thing. PSO, the modem, and the BBA have all been discontinued. They are shipping again starting late December. If there was a huge online announcement, they might have stopped shipments because there will be a huge demand that they need to meet at that time. And PSO would be discontinued because selling it without the modem and BBA would cause a lot of problems, and annoyed customer service reps.

[Dyne]

Ok.. first up... Yep, having Mario and Sonic exclusive (so far) is working well. I don't know about having Megaman, because isn't MMXVII still scheduled for the PS2? Who knows..... It'd be great to get all three.

2nd... thanks Jonbo.

3rd.. I think I heard somewhere that one day Nintendo is going to announce a big dev-fair on the near-last minute. That would be massive to get everyone in, put on a live broadcast, and megaton everyone. That would be really sweet. But, to have Sony or MS reps attending as well would be really funny to catch on tape, so it's a good possibility.

4th... It looks like Nintendo has been leading up to this strategically. Very strategically. Announcing the Game Boy player sure got me going.. PSO online got me going, learning about the Capcom Five got me going... Rare's selling got me going, and even the CSK selling Sega was weird... now all Nintendo needs to do is to start the fireworks! (Or maybe they'll announce something other that is big, too... heh heh) Maybe they'll even do something in conjunction with the Zelda release.... btw, when is that?

Finally.... Gekko, you make some good points and bring up some interesting nodes. I did start thinking megaton when I heard of CSK's weakened grip, and the anon company who saved the day. But it wasn't paraded around on show, so I'm suspicious of it. This 7-developers is also weird.... let's see... Nintendo, Namco, Sega, Capcom, Square enix (enix square?), Konami, Hudson Soft, Camelot... or maybe others, but those are the close ones I can think of. Maybe Matsu****a (edit: it's supposed to be matsus hita) bought everything. Or maybe they've got a killer partnership like I've said before.... whatever does turn out, I know it will be for the best.

EDIT: More Panasonic stuffs.... check this out, on Allied Partners, and their own category:

http://www.panasonic-center.com/en/link.html

Panasonic likes Nintendo. And I'm sure they'd love to be on par with Sony, because Sony has PS stuff right on their front page... but Panasonic doesn't.

[Mr.Nobody]

I've been thinking about this for a while.

Capcom(Out of all of the major videogame companies)has been making the least amount of money. Their profits have been lacking and they have been considering a buyout for a while.

Also,they are only making 1 non Gamecube game(Megaman XV11 for PS2). Their biggest franchise(Resident Evil) is exclusive to the gamecube and they have also made 3 Megaman(Capcom's second biggest franchise.) games on the GBA(Megaman Battle Network 1,2 and Megaman Zero) and are making a Megaman Game For the Gamecube(Megaman EXE:Transmission),another Megaman Game for the GBA(Megaman Battle Network 3),and five new games for Gamecube(I forget the names of these games).


After Megaman XV11 Capcom is only making Gameucbe games. So ,wouldn't it make sense for them to be Gamecube exclusive.

I sure think they are leaning that way. A Capcom buyout would make total sense.

[DeathsHand]

Originally posted by Mr.Nobody
Also,they are only making 1 non Gamecube game(Megaman XV11 for PS2)

Uhh... what?

Devil May Cry 2, Resident Evil Online, Breath of Fire 5... those are only ones I can think of off the top of my head... There are prolly a couple more...

Oh and PSM says Capcom is making another 3D fighter for PS2... Well they're making an arcade game, and have apparently announced a PS2 version... "Capcom Fighting All Stars"... Chin Li, Ryu, Hiryu (Strider, I think ), Ingrid, and Haggar (Final Fight) are a few returning character peeps...

So yeah I dunno if you've been living under a rock lately or something or you just don't pay much attention to PS2 stuff

Edit: Found some more... Auto Modellista, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure... Yep...

[Mr.Nobody]

Devil May Cry 2 is almost finished and just about ready to be realeased.

Resident Evil Online is currently a rumor considering that Nintendo has RE exclusive.


Breath Of Fire 5 is the only one I don't know about. But, I haven't heard much about it.

Capcom Allstars will probably not be PS2 exclusive. SNK vs. Capcom was almost exclusive but then went to X-box and Gamecube. I would excpect the same to happen to this game.

So everything is still pretty much clear for a Nintendo buyout. It's still a big possibility.

[DeathsHand]

Originally posted by Mr.Nobody
Resident Evil Online is currently a rumor considering that Nintendo has RE exclusive.

Guess you HAVE been living under a rock... There are screenshots and info and all on Resident Evil Online... You play it online (duh) with up to 3 other people and have to cooperate to survive... I would think it'd be something kind of like Resident Evil 0 where Billy and Rebecca cooperate, only there are 4 different people and you only control one of them... But that's just a guess, I'm not sure...

And since I only edited them into my last post, I'll post them here too... Auto Modellista (Cel-shaded racing game) and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (Cel Chaded fighting game)... Although I don't think the first Jojo Bizzare adventure game on DC was supposed to be very good, but meh...

[Mr.Nobody]

Crap!

Oh,well it probably wont be a Capcom buyout(Or any other company ).

I just hope it's not online games. I can't handle that on 56K. So it wouldn't be much of an announcment for me.

[Dyne]

Well well... I'm liking PlanetGC's thoughts.

http://www.planetgamecube.com/specia...profile&id=393

It's funny everyone decided to do a large megaton article the day right after I posted this... hrm... I guess I have good timing.

But really... Nintendo could literally kill the playstation. Man, I wish I could go back in time to the time when the PS was still an announced add-on for the SNES... Nintendo would have been the evil one right now. But I would be evil right along with it! Microsoft should be the least of their worries... I mean, 1st place in the market is much better than 2nd place (but nothing to do with GBA... the sales don't compare to Sony at all I don't think). If Nintendo did discover something nasty about Sony, I would have to certainly say that it would be megaton to crash them down. Or, at least, get a mundo head-start next generation, and announce a lot of projects right now, but that's is NOT MEGATON. MEGATON is abso-f***ing huge, and officials like Famitsu keep telling us that. It was DUBBED Megaton because it was GOING to change the face of the video game market as we know it. They'd need an absolutely immense amount of MMORPG's, get the title of "RPG" king and kill Sony if it was to be dubbed Megaton. Or, just buy SCEA---but not Sony.

In fact I'm really liking this Sony deal. It sounds like a dream, and the Playstation would not be what it is today without Nintendo--at all.

Either way, Nintendo wants to put Sony in the trash bin; whether they like it or not.

[Crono]

I'd laugh if there was no megaton announcement...
*everybody is at their PCs*
*announcement is supposed to come*
*nothing happens*
...lol.

Anyway, I doubt this announcement is big enough for Nintendo to take a lead on Sony. PS2 won't die unless Konami, Capcom, Sega, Square/Enix, and Namco all become Nintendo exclusive...which probably won't happen. Once DQ8 gets released in Japan, PS2 will be too far for Nintendo to catch up. (DQ7 was the highest selling PSX game of all time, it sold well over 5 million copies...so DQ8 is probably gonna sell quite a few PS2s..)

but that's just my opinion. I want the Megaton announcement to be something that will make me really happy for buying a GCN.

[DarkMaster]

Originally posted by Dyne
Or, just buy SCEA---but not Sony.

yeah right, PS2 is by far the best selling console right now and has been for a long time. do you think Sony would let themselves be bought out by Nintendo if they are leading the market?