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Nintendo Reborn: Blessing or Doomsday?
Posted on Monday, November 17 2008 @ 18:32:03 Eastern

Nintendo, without a doubt, was the leader of games during the 1990s. Ask any Nintendo fan who was around in that era and you're bound to find a few responses with the phrase "The Golden Age of Gaming" in it. Of course, Nintendo was not without its flaws. Ever since its fallout with Sony, it has come to bite them back in the ass for many years to come.


Nintendo has made many stupid decisions over the years, such as sticking to the expensive cartridge format for games instead of going with CDs which held more space. Being a dictator over how many games 3rd parties could make did not help either and it caused 3rd parties to jump from Nintendo's ship and into the arms of Sega and Sony. The Gamecube did not fare any better; while it did go to DVD discs, they were mini sized, thus they held way less data compared to the Playstation 2. This of course turned off 3rd parties again since less space meant less things to put in for their games, just like the N64 did. Now combine this with overpriced accessories Nintendo makes for their games which only a handful of them use, and you'll wonder how they still managed to stay in the business.


At this point, everyone believed Nintendo would go the way of Sega and become a 3rd party. Once the Wii rolled around, Nintendo became the phoenix and and was reborn. Fans, however, are not so sure on that and if you go on many forums, you're sure to find someone complaining about the Wii.


The major complaint about the Wii are its games. People will call the games the following:

-Shovelware
-Mini game collection
-Casual


(And you'll also hear "lack of hardcore")


Nintendo fans go on and on about how Nintendo has "abandoned" them, "sold out", etc. but most do so only because they either think they are more deserving than the new fanbase Nintendo has paid attention to, or they fear that Nintendo will "kill off gaming as they know it". I am a Nintendo fan myself and I too do not like some of the things Nintendo is doing. However, I can see where Nintendo is coming from with their new marketing decision.

As stated in the opening paragraphs, Nintendo got beaten badly by Sony and even more when Microsoft introduced its Xbox console. You have to think and wonder where did all the Sony and Microsoft fanboys come from? They surely did not come from thin air, but I believe most of them were ex-Nintendo fans. Nintendo's stupid decisions, lack of 3rd party support, and a more appealing collection of games from the other guys surely have coaxed many disgruntled Nintendo fans to join the other side and the sales show it. The Gamecube only sold 20 something million units more or less compared to the Playstation 2's 100+ million units sold. That is a huge beating.


Nintendo pretty much knew they had to do something in order to stay in the game otherwise being beaten for the 3rd time in a row would cause serious trouble. Microsoft and Sony as of now are fighting each other over the hardcore fanbase and Nintendo would get destroyed if they also tried to fight for the small pie by going through the usual better graphics route. Not to mention that most 3rd parties already banked with Sony and Microsoft before their PS3 and Xbox360 were officially out, meaning 3rd parties lost faith in Nintendo. What's Nintendo to do?


The Wii.


Rather than trying to fight for the same hardcore audience, Nintendo aims for a new pie; the casual crowd. This gamble paid back highly and it even caught Nintendo and 3rd parties off guard. As time went on, the long time Nintendo fans start the complaints, whining about lack of games or tacked on waggle controls or how Nintendo ditched them.


If you think about it, the fans ditched Nintendo first! While it is true Nintendo did a ton of stupid stuff in the past, I'm sure most of its fans jumped ship to play games by Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo at this point has a small fanbase to please and trying to please a small base won't make much profit. It does suck for the long time Nintendo fans getting the shaft, but in a world where one decision can make or break a company and tons of jobs are at risk, money comes first and it is a sad but true fact. Nintendo is trying to survive and it did so in a way where they will be well off for a while. Of course, Nintendo is weakly trying to keep its old fans with the usual Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc. titles, but those games now are changed in a way where the causal base can enjoy them.



Nintendo is raking in the dough and it no longer needs the fans that were with them. I guarentee you that if Nintendo did as well as Sony had done back then, we wouldn't have a Wii, but something different and probably different games.