How Nintendo Can Get Back On Its Feet

SR

After disappointing sales for the Wii U, Nintendo is under a lot of pressure for its next console. Find out how Nintendo can turn itself around.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

#1 Powerful hardware.
Which at this point is basically a given, since they can't go less than at least the XBone in power or they'll lose any shot they have at the NX selling.

#2 Much better advertisement.
This extends, but is not limited, to things such as; the name of the system, how it's explained, the way the games are represented in ads across both internet and TV, how often they put themselves and their products into mainstream advertisement channels, how often they support outside developers with potent advertisements, and many other factors.

#3 A VERY SOLID amount of high-quality first party games during the first year, that will drive the install base and help set up high enough numbers to make people confident in its popularity.
The Wii U's first year was almost entirely reliant on last-gen ports from third parties, with only a scant few worthwhile first party games releasing.
That can't happen again with the NX.
To give themselves a chance at selling well, not to mention giving a chance to third parties, they NEED to bring a lot of first party games that will drive an increase in install base first and foremost.

#4 Exclusives, followed by multiplats.
It pains me dearly to admit it, but at this point, Nintendo can't expect third parties to treat them the same way third parties treat Sony and Microsoft.
Sony and Microsoft don't need to grease the palms of third parties to get them to do anything relevant, but Nintendo just might need to, no matter how unfair that is.

And if they have to do it, they should start with paying for exclusives.
An exclusive will be built from the ground up for the system, showing off its capabilities in ways that a game built for multiple systems cannot.
Once those exclusives start selling, it will form a base upon which NX owners will come to trust third party games again.
And with that trust, comes a userbase that will support the multiplats, which Nintendo will, again, probably have to grease their palms in order to get them done right.

#5 Relevant system features.
This includes, but is not limited to; an account system that will store your purchases off-console so that you can recover anything if it's ever lost, a full-featured chat app for communicating with friends regardless of the game you're all playing, keeping folders around, a high internal memory capacity, up-to-date USB ports, and other things like that.

Also, as to the article...
I can't help but take issue with a few of these points.
Getting third parties back on board, taking "more risks" with their IP's, using more of their IP's at once, having every single game up on the VC at launch, etc.
All of these things sound great on paper, but what this article seems to fail to understand is that all of these things COSTS TONS OF CASH.
Not to mention MANPOWER, which in turn requires MORE CASH to pay the expansion of the manpower.
Nintendo's rich, but they'd be bankrupting themselves if they tried to do all of this at once.
They need to take things a step at a time; even just converting code for VC games to get them up on the shop takes time and money to do. It's not a job that's just slap-chop-to-complete, and it's definitely not a cheap endeavor in any case.

Pacing is more important than anything; they need to figure out which of these ideas are the most feasible in the short term that they can handle without breaking the bank, pull them off, then use the profits that result from them to move on to more ideas down the list.

[LOL_WUT]

"#4 Exclusives, followed by multiplats.
It pains me dearly to admit it, but at this point, Nintendo can't expect third parties to treat them the same way third parties treat Sony and Microsoft.
Sony and Microsoft don't need to grease the palms of third parties to get them to do anything relevant, but Nintendo just might need to, no matter how unfair that is."

See now that's what I like to hear. If Sony can do it, why can't Nintendo? ;)

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

The thing is, none of the console makers should have to.

That speaks poorly of the business ethics of EA and other third parties; none of the console makers should have to money-hat them just to get them to include standard content across all versions of multiplats.

Third parties lost my trust because of those selfish mistakes when they did it to last-gen multiplats on the Wii U.
I refuse to be fooled a second time.
They've become a bunch of entitled, selfish, greedy pricks that blame console makers [and get their apologists to do the same] for their mistakes when developing their own games.

They aren't entitled to being money-hatted for their games, and console makers shouldn't indulge their greed just because it makes them a quick buck.
Because that makes third parties even more arrogant.
And even more willing to pull that same BS on all consoles, including the ones that house their most loyal fans.

Case in point: Tying the remaster of Modern Warfare to the $80 package of Infinite Warfare, instead of selling it separately so that fans can have a choice in the matter.
Tip of the iceberg, and it's been getting worse and worse for the past two gens.

@ Zane

"So it's their fault that Nintendo made an inferior console that people didn't want to buy, so they should work harder to make a version specific to that console (which would require extra work) and lose money in the process? "

Wow, way to put word's in people's mouths.
Never once did I say that.
All I expected of third parties, on the Wii U, is that they SHOW DEVELOPMENT PARITY.
That "inferior console", the Wii U, was powerful enough to handle last gen ports EASILY.
But third parties STILL couldn't do the SMART THING by releasing those last-gen ports with content parity and proper optimization.
Those are things that the power of the Wii U was NOT holding them back on. We've got INDIES doing optimization better than the third party whack-jobs did.
They failed as a result, and only an asinine apologist would excuse their work on last-gen Wii U ports.
It doesn't require extra work, let alone loss of money, to do their damned jobs the right way.
If anything, they cut corners to save cash that they SHOULD have spent on making the games live up to the same standard as the OTHER VERSIONS of those same games.

[DarkZane]

@wonderfulmonkeyman

"They've become a bunch of entitled, selfish, greedy pricks that blame console makers [and get their apologists to do the same] for their mistakes when developing their own games."

So it's their fault that Nintendo made an inferior console that people didn't want to buy, so they should work harder to make a version specific to that console (which would require extra work) and lose money in the process?

[_-EDMIX-_]

@wonder
"That speaks poorly of the business ethics of EA and other third parties; none of the console makers should have to money-hat them just to get them to include standard content across all versions of multiplats"

That's not money hating that's actually just simple business you seriously need to learn the concept as it's starting to sound like you just assume that third-party just makes games for anyone for free with nothing in return....

They are a business if your Carvel or your Ben & Jerry's you need to have a freezer in order for your product to be marketed and it's true quality retail stores are the ones that must provide this if a retail store goes and tells you to bring your own freezer you simply go to another store especially when Walmart and Target and Publix have freezers.

The easiest way to go against any retail store even demanding those companies to use the freezer is simply to say well our store will provide you with those freezers at no extra cost to Market your product is there anything else we could help you with?

You have to understand that this is business this is about what they want and in business any time you help somebody get what they want you'll ultimately get what you want.

these companies are not at Liberty to throw and gamble money at a retail store that can't get their crap together especially when the opposition has everything together in his offering everything they need in order to sell their product to the highest quality.

I have no clue why you even think that's a bad thing as such changes actually help first-party developers once again do you really think naughty dog is cursing the third-party developer that suggested 8 gigs of RAM instead of 4? Do you think Microsoft's first-party developers are angry at Epic because they suggested half a gig of RAM instead of 256?

Do you really think the online structure that Sony created 10 years ago because third parties were demanding it was bad for first party? I mean buddy give me a break what these developers are asking for or what most of the entire Community is asking for they want e of development they want a format they go to work with they want structure and online what they're asking is not something that isn't possible if you fact they're both Sony and Microsoft have been consistently doing this every generation to keep the community supported.

I still don't get why you think it's the entire Gaming Community vs. Nintendo why is Nintendo fighting game developers? I get it's Nintendo's console but if Nintendo wants support they actually have to listen to the input of the people who are going to be giving it.

if I tell you I'm making a game that requires 50 gigs and you go out and you make a cartridge well you lost my support.

if I tell you I'm making a game that's going to be an MMO and you have zero online structure will you lost my support.

if I tell you I'm making a game that's open world that needs to have lots of RAM and you go out and you just do whatever you want will you lost my support.

Don't you understand that no one has to support this company's platform?

[DarkZane]

#1 Powerful hardware.
Which at this point is basically a given, since they can't go less than at least the XBone in power or they'll lose any shot they have at the NX selling.

Not a given, sorry, but if anything it's the opposite, it's a given it will be underpowered. Gimmick controller costing like 150-200$ by itself, cartbridge instead of disc (which cost more money) and the fact said it will be profitable means it's gonna be less powerful, which means it will flop. It would need to be 500-600$ to be profitable and it would flop because people don't care about Nintendo anymore. They'd be too late to the party. Developers can either keep making games on PS4, which would actually be profitable, or they can start making a game for the PS5 and new Xbox ahead of time and skip the NX (because it's definitely certain Sony and Microsoft's next gen consoles will be far more powerful than the NX).

It doesn't matter anyway, since they do their own thing and I am pretty sure the industry only consider Sony and Microsoft as relevant.

If Nintendo wants to do something, they should release a successor to the 3DS. The 3DS is really dated now and we need a new system, plus portables is all Nintendo has left.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

No, it IS a given.
The majority of Nintendo's consoles have always done a significant step up in capability from their last ones, just like Sony and Microsoft's have been, even if they weren't the most powerful of every console per gen.
There's no guarantee that it will be underpowered, that it will use a gimmicky controller, that it will use cartridges, or that it will flop.

Development costs are rising more and more, to the point where two systems just isn't enough to give third parties satisfactory sales.
Making themselves profitable on the NX would be a good thing; only Nintendo haters don't want to see that happen.

Put the crystal ball away.

[rjason12]

@darkzane, I like how you can just tell the future, so who's gonna win the Super Bowl next year I wanna put some money down!

[Zeldafan64]

The fact that you want people to believe the gamepad cost $150-200 to make is absurd. Also, while it may be slightly more expensive (for the developers/publishers, not you) cartridges offer HUGE benefits to the CONSUMER (i.e. YOU)!! Being against cartridges is going against YOUR own self interest which is also absurd. You make no sense going against yourself like that.

[_-EDMIX-_]

@wonder- Why would it pain you say that multiplatform games are needed on a console? Most developers are not first party developers so I have no clue how on Earth you could even not Factor such a thing in...

Mind you if you look at the raw numbers most people are statistically not purchasing a console to play first party games. The numbers simply do not support the claim.

"The thing is, none of the console makers should have to"

That's like saying Walmart shouldn't have to have outside vendors I mean you do understand that Walmart needs to have those vendors to keep their lights on right? Using such an analogy you do understand that Sony and Microsoft need third-party have their platforms succeed or right?

Dreamcast a lacked third-party support and it basically cost Sega their console development, we you locked third-party support and it's their worst selling platform in the company's history so why aren't you able to actually put together that such a thing is needed? Do you really think nobody is buying Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto, Elder Scrolls , Mass Effect , Battlefield Call of Duty , Assassin's Creed etc?

Body you don't need to personally like those titles but I'm sure you could do basic math to understand it's actually not feasible to have a platform even compete with a platform with the most third party games you're basically saying the millions upon millions of people that play those games won't be welcome on your platform are you slow enough to honestly turn away this install base?

That's basically like me starting a retail store in saying I don't need Johnson & Johnson, Frito-Lay, the Coca-Cola company and a bunch of other huge vendors, you've got to be kidding me bud lol.

That's not even to say you can't have a store without those vendors because it's very much feasible but if you want to take on Walmart or Target you must do what Walmart and Target are doing and have those same vendors because you're never going to beat the store that has those companies in the same respect Nintendo would never come close to Sony or Microsoft if they don't have that support.

The millions upon millions of Gamers that are buying PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are doing so to play the titles that are moving such numbers like your Grand Theft Autos and your Call of Duty's.

I'm not even sure why it's taken you so long to do simple math to figure out it's not really feasible for this company to ignore third party if they ever wish to come close to Sony or Microsoft. Would you buy a subscription to a streaming service that basically had none of the top Studios?

So how could they compete if they're not actually getting the content that the majority of gamers are seeking? If the majority of Gamers wanted Nintendo's games the Wii U would not have failed.

[_-EDMIX-_]

"Sony and Microsoft don't need to grease the palms of third parties to get them to do anything relevant"

They do if they want to stay in this business Sony and Microsoft are smart enough to work with third-party to understand what these companies need to get their games to work to have them support their platform also Sony or Microsoft don't need to control or tell any developer what they can or can't create that is irrelevant to each company if somebody wants to make a game that is just a regular basic run-of-the-mill shooter I'm pretty positive they are free to do just that that's kind of none of these companies business in the first place.

"Nintendo's rich, but they'd be bankrupting themselves if they tried to do all of this at once."

Oh you mean the thing that Sony and Microsoft do every generation while staying more consistent and relevant the Nintendo?

How so?

A large portion of your list are things that have been done by Sony and Microsoft for the last two generations...

The standard features you're talking about especially with online have been established for literally 10 years plus now.

I think they could do fine with marketing as I actually don't believe it's that much of an issue I also think they could even Fargo power and they would still be okay but they think they must get correct is the architecture must be easy to use it cannot be this convoluted garbage proprietary crap that they've been peddling for two generations in a row now if they go another generation with this proprietary crap I can assure you they're going to lose very easily.

Consider the PlayStation Vita is selling even worse but for god sakes even PlayStation Vita is getting some games that the Wii U actually isn't PS Vita is getting world of Final Fantasy it's also getting Resident Evil Revelations 2 it's very simple to see that the ease of development is allowing for those ports to be very simple for teens if Nintendo wants third-party support they need to create a platform that is very simple to create on versus trying to create something proprietary just to give developers a hard time Microsoft and Sony creating a platform the third party could work on also lends helping themselves consider their own first-party developers are still working on the platform so I still don't get this notion that Sony or Microsoft are bending over backwards for third party at the end of the day with third-party ones is extremely important because it conveys would even their own teams would desire I once again do not believe that Microsoft's Developers the last generation didn't want half a gig of RAM and I don't believe that naughty dog is angry that some third-party developer asked for 8 gigs of ram in the PlayStation 4 instead of 4.

Many of the things Microsoft and Sony did to make their platforms easier to work with and more appealing to third-party also lends to helping their first parties as well at the end of the day that input is assisting the entire community.

So for the love of God stop fighting against third-party developers because the majority of the community is those Developers!!! You are basically saying screw the development Community that's going to create content on that platform.

At the end of the day many of those developers can still go on to make lots of money from other companies that are smart enough to get what they need to get their games running while Nintendo could sit there smiling holding a failed Wii U praying for support, that very much could be an NX if they very much create the same garbage.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

@ Ed
"That speaks poorly of the business ethics of EA and other third parties; none of the console makers should have to money-hat them just to get them to include standard content across all versions of multiplats"

That's not money hating that's actually just simple business you seriously need to learn the concept as it's starting to sound like you just assume that third-party just makes games for anyone for free with nothing in return.... "

I stopped right there.
There's no need to continue on after reading that BS; you honestly expect me, or anyone else here, to believe that including content parity, in last-gen ports where it SHOULD be standard, and NOT something that Nintendo has to money hat them for, is some sort of extraneous cost that Nintendo SHOULD be shelling out extra cash for?!

ROFL, GTFO of here with that horse crap!

It's simply GOOD BUSINESS to achieve that standard whenever possible. [which, given the fact that they were PS360 games, and the Wii U was more than powerful enough to host all of their content, it WAS possible, and they just didn't freaking try], and this conversation isn't going to go anywhere meaningful until you can come to terms with that.
Did you see Sony or Microsoft paying an extra charge to get the full version of Sniper Elite V2, complete with all of its patches, for example?
NO!
What about CoD? Did you ever see Sony or Microsoft having to pay a secondary extra charge just to get Activision to include their full range of already-planned optional DLC maps down the line?
NO!
They included that stuff across both the PS and Micro versions of those games, because it's good business to feature content parity between versions, outside of exclusive maps made specifically for one platform or another.
Not because Sony or Microsoft paid them a ton of extra cash to make sure the standards STAYED standard.

So why would you ever expect NINTENDO to have to pay EXTRA just to get that STANDARD CONTENT that is available without money-hatting in every other version?
Sniper Elite V2 was a train wreck, and CoD on Wii U, BOTH OF THEM, never got more than a SINGLE free map; they weren't even given the OPTION of buying the DLC maps, and THAT OPTION SHOULD HAVE BEEN PRESENT.

Nintendo should NOT have to pay extra just to get all the same standard content and options as other consoles do, in last gen ports.

Until you are capable of seeing that content parity in a multiplat isn't something that a console maker should have to pay extra just to get a third party to do, there's nothing left to say.
I'm not even going to dignify that lunacy with a longer response than this, after what you've just posted.
Come back when you can start taking third parties to task for their mistakes with their last-gen ports on the Wii U, and STOP expecting Nintendo to pay unreasonable costs, that no other console maker gives to third parties when getting old ports of games, for the sake of content parity in said old ports.

[Sylth01]

I don't understand how some of the posters here can look at the ports the Wii U received and think that they did not deserve to have parity with the other releases because Nintendo did not pay/pay enough.

I'd bet sony fans would put up an incredible stink if their PS4 got 80% of a multiplat game compared to 100% of the game on the xboxOne. Or if microsoft fans if an xboxOne multiplat was inexplicably delayed because they pulled the team to work on the PS4 version.

[Stealth20k]

They were never off their feet.

[superchiller]

Maybe on your Fantasy Island world, but in the gaming industry and community, Nintendo has been irrelevant for a long time.

[Zeldafan64]

Not in the eyes of anyone who values quality games.

[MrBrofist]

All these people who clam "What Nintendo needs to do" should be asking what 3rd parties need to do if they plan on supporting future consoles

1. Release multi-platform games on time.
2, Have them reasonably priced (Nobody should be paying $60 for a port of a game majority of gamers have played and is cheaper else where)

3, Advertise your own games. Stop letting Sony and Micro pay for your ads because the average consumer will not think to buy games like Assasin's Creed on Wii U or any other platform if they see the Playstation/XBOX logo at the end of the commercial

4. Should your game fail to generate sells, don't blame the user base. Too many people have not taken responsibility and blamed it on Nintendo fans for not buying that version when in reality the port they made were either not on par with the others,cost more, or as I said before, late.
Don't treat your costumers poorly just because your sales are low. Try harder or just move on. Don't go toe-to-toe with fans because it makes your company look petty and childish
Take responsibility

5. Make that version stand out. Excluisve content almost always persuades user towards that version.
Best example :Soul Caliber 2.

Each version had an exclusive fighter added to the roster. XBOX fans got Todd Mcfarlend's Spawn,Playstaion fans got Heihachi Mishima from Tekken and Nintendo fans got Link from the Legend of Zelda.

Do these things and you will gain my trust fully

[jcnba28]

Agreed, especially part 4.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

Thank you.
All your points are very concise, and I appreciate the fact that you pointed out the lack of content parity as a big issue with their past efforts on Nintendo systems.

A point that SOME APOLOGISTS can't seem to wrap their Deku Nut sized brains around.

If third parties want to sell on NX, they need to be willing to change the way they do things just as much as they're expecting Nintendo to.
Content parity in all multiplats that hit the system, should be the first and foremost thing that they concentrate on, if the system turns out to be powerful enough to get them.

[superchiller]

No, it wasn't 3rd party developers fault that Nintendo produced a console that was low-spec, feature-lacking, and gimped by a gimmick, making it unable to compete with the current generation consoles. Stop trying to blame 3rd party developers for Nintendo's own bungled product.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

We're not trying to blame third parties for the fact that the Wii U's specs couldn't compete with the PS4 and XBone.
We're blaming third parties for doing a terrible job on games that were MORE than small enough to fit PERFECTLY on Wii U.
IE, last-gen PS360 games.

Quit being such a dumb-ass apologistic suck-up for third party mistakes.

[superchiller]

Great article. Their Number 1 recommendation is the point I have been making for YEARS:

"Stop innovating solely to innovate"

This is Nintendo's core problem, and the biggest reason that the Wii U failed. The gamepad is a gimmick, one that degraded the gaming experience rather than improving it. Forcing the use of the gamepad into games, like Star Fox Zero (which is specifically mentioned in that section of the article), just ruins those games. And the high cost of the gamepad gimmick directly contributed to the weak console specs and missing features, which ultimately made the Wii U unable to compete this generation.

[Zeldafan64]

Don't act like you speak for everyone. How many times do I have to say this to people? The Gamepad is great for new gameplay mechanics, if you would actually give it a real chance.

[MrBrofist]

Honestly after playing Wind Waker HD, I never want the game pad to leave. So much easier navigating the Great Sea and dungeons without pulling up a menu. I'm spoiled now and want future games to have this as a feature

[link2Dpast]

A system, strong launch games, backwards compatibility, third party support

[RosweeSon]

Because it's been made homeless and getting by on charitable contributions? No.