Having a platform for your ideas is a great thing. Leaving those as an idea is stupidity as ideas serve nobody. Turning those ideas into actual products is the way to go, always. Nintendo seems to have a wish to make more platforms to work with.
This fetches a question why would Nintendo want this? Every time Nintendo pushes out a new platform the previous one is shaded and loses its first party support. The Wii lost Nintendo’s support when they started developing the 3DS, and the 3DS lost support when the WiiU was pushed forward. If Nintendo is to create a new platform or two, then WiiU will suffer from lack of support. Nintendo barely can divide its resources between its own projects and always aims for what satisfies their own interests. Even when games are outsourced they are kept as pet projects rather than proper projects to develop the best possible game. Metroid Other M is a good example of this.
“What we are saying is that we would like to integrate software development methods, operating systems, and built-in software and software assets for each platform so that we can use them across different machines,” Iwata explained to Q&A attendees. “This means that if we manage to integrate our platforms successfully, we may in fact be able to make more platforms.”
He elaborated: “At the moment, we only have our current handheld devices and home consoles because if we tried to make more platforms, our development resources would be spread too thinly. The more we can share software across different platforms, the more development resources will be left for something else.”
In essence, Nintendo really would like to make a bunch of consoles that would share the exact same software. Sounds like they would love to create some sort of analogy of desktop PCs and laptops. This is alarming, seeing that if Nintendo would allocate their resources on creating the boxes on which the games run on, then these are off from the resources from making the games. Rather than putting money on research about new tech for new consoles, they should focus the money on which makes the money; on the games.
This is pretty bad. Nintendo doesn’t think about the customers at all with this. It’s all about what they want to do, what is the easiest route for them, what serves their interests most. If they really want to develop machines this much, then they should remove themselves from making video games and just start working on technology for various businesses and other home utility use. It’s apparent that they have a sort of fetish towards new technology that they themselves have developed and do very little with it outside playing around on them and realize their own dreams, ideas and pet projects. You don’t make money with that kind of business model, and Nintendo’s starting to see the results of their misdeeds in this regard.
I want somebody at Nintendo to remove Iwata from his throne, either by force of with his willing. I really hope that Nintendo’s sales will keep plummeting, as it would mean that Iwata would have to keep his promise. Him stepping down would be the first action for a healthier corporation. The second would be to have someone like Yamauchi to take his place and understand what the hell is business and what a game console does, and would understand what customers expect from these boxes.
The only reason why I want Nintendo to go into the worst situation the company has ever been is because I care. If the threat of becoming bankrupt or developing games for other companies won’t change their mind, then good riddance. Customers do not pay for pet projects. We are not here to pay money for something that we do not want, but something that we seek for.
What WiiU and 3DS are is boxes that have nothing in them. They have potential, but inly only stupid people buy because something could have something. Wii’s potential was thrown in the trash because Nintendo didn’t deliver all the way in. It’s one of the best examples of ignoring customers, when everybody thought the best ways to create sword combat with the Wiimote and other functions that became widespread in the Internet and elsewhere, and everybody was talking how awesome different control methods are. Swords weren’t the only one, but FPS controls, strategy game controls etc. were all gone through and people expected these games eagerly.
We got nothing.
Nintendo didn’t care about what we wanted, but did whatever they wanted. Sure worked for Wii Music.
If Nintendo will produce these new boxes to play with, it won’t change their work. It doesn’t matter if they have more universal environment for the games, because all the (possible) money they could save from unifying the environment will only go to realizing stuff like Skyward Sword, Other M and technology like 3DS’s 3D screen.
I want old Nintendo back. Back then they knew how to make good business.
Aaltomies 