For good and for bad, the video games industry is obsessed with novelty. New consoles, new technologies and, of course, new games are what drive headlines. So it’s easy to overlook one of gaming’s oldest companies and underestimate the sheer scale of its success.
Nintendo is an entertainment company, of course, but it is also a tech company – and surely one of the most successful tech companies around, both in its longevity and cultural impact, if not its absolute market value. Yet it has never behaved much like a tech company. The tech industry likes continuous disruption and unstoppable growth, whereas Nintendo likes experimenting with relatively modest hardware to get the most possible fun out of it.
Two married costume designers share stories from a decade of traveling the globe with Nintendo.
In a YouTube video showing Nintendo Switch owners how to create a Nintendo Account, Nintendo of America revealed that Bowser is canonically 34 years old.
TG: “Most of us also grew up with Nintendo, likely forming a nostalgic connection with games that have long been crowned as our personal favourites. The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker was an experience that shaped my view on open world fantasy, and Super Mario 64 changed my life like it did for millions of others. These titles have earned their place in history, and remain loved to this day for so many worthwhile reasons. We replay them and beg for remasters all while delving into their worlds time and time again because they mean that much to us. It’s a shame then that the company behind them often kicks its own sweet darlings to the curb.”
I never got the love for Nintendo games personally. The annoying vocalizations and ugly character designs do nothing for me.
Don't forget the constant hand holding with tutorials. Learn this new ability by pressing Y, now prove that you can press Y 8 times before you can move on....
Another very weird article.
Nintendo is a great company by almost all possible normal measures. The biggest one being: their own staff is happy, and they seem to be very happy, well compensated and retain rate is solid. They are also financially very stable, profitable, and cash rich, so shareholders love them.
Overall it is an extremely creative group of people, and their mission statement is fantastic as well "to put smiles on the faces of everyone we touch. We do so by creating new surprises for people across the world to enjoy together." The social impact is also massive, not to speak culturally. Additionally, they have a really strong core business, high customer retention rate and loyalty. Nintendo's reputation is extremely good, I think in the US alone they are 9th most reputable company, their customer service is better than the average company. Plus, the press gives them a pass, because they are Nintendo. But there's a reason why they do that, it's not "because they are Nintendo", there are more layers to the argument.
Then, then there's the random negative gamers online...and their "reputation" which is inside their heads. And their western ideas of how a Japanese company should behave or what they should do. But they have no right to ask a company to do anything for them, because they can vote with their wallets.
There's a small vocal community online who dislikes Nintendo for what they are, but then again, there's always a small vocal community that dislikes something.
Nintendo also disagrees with the Western world about IP, but most people call Westerners "hidoi!" when they emulate Tears of the Kingdom and do not experience it the way Nintendo wanted them (even if it is not the best visual way), because it is a matter of principle to them (Japanese are very much against anything close to plagiarism, and there are laws that are tight about creative works copying etc.)
The Western Braveheart "freedoom!" shouters need to understand that it is not an American company, nor they need to behave like one. They can have their own fights based on their principles (against emulation). And they very well may lose the battle with that and change, or find a new audience.
In the end, it is so very simple. Don't buy the products if you don't like a company, but there's no need to paint a picture that is unrealistic about Nintendo either.
I hate virtually everything about their business practices, actually. Suing everybody for virtually anything, shooting down fan projects, games they never let devalue, their online infrastructure and how they handle BC.
They're lucky they make great games, because that's the only thing I feel they do right.
my issue with them, is the complete refusal to have decent tech for us.
and their odd censorship and lawsuits for modders.
I do generally like Nintendo, but sometimes it almost feels as if I do in spite of their "innovation", rather than because of it.
Wii had motion controls, which infested so many games with poorly thought out implementations where a button would do better what a waggle was now doing. For core gamers, we had a lot to dig through & kind of wait for the tidal wave of shovelware to subside to get our solid experiences. And even then, Nintendo didn't do much with motion control after Wii Sports. Many of its best games had minimal motion controls, or allowed you to bypass it with a more standard control scheme.
Wii U had the interesting Pad, but did nothing with it - it was its primary gimmick, and even when Miamoto was tasked with making it provide value, failed to do so. Mario Maker was the closest they got. Later they even removed basic, but useful, low-frills features like map & inventory management from BotW on Wii U to make it match the Switch. Again, its best games were able to be played entirely with standard controls.
The Switch has been the more solid console, but it has definitely not gone 6 years unscathed while attached to mobile hardware. The IR cam has gone completely unused, and I feel HD rumble never really lived up to its potential. They made a few truly excellent games to start the generation, and then went back to making tons of regular ol' Nintendo games. For my tastes, this is the least appealing generation of games they've made overall. THOUGH it stands in stark contrast to Odyssey & BotW, two of the games I've enjoyed the most from them in a long time. Both full of a good mix of innovation & fun iteration. But most of the other games they've made this generation have felt more formulaic, and lacking in innovation. Lots of full priced Wii U ports and 2D side scrollers haven't helped (again, for my tastes & as a Wii U owner where ports had no value).
Now, many games are "guilty" of iteration over innovation, so to speak, so I'm not singling them out. But it does feel weird, from my experience, to hear something about how they've been the most innovative. I won't discount that's true for others, but it doesn't really match up with my experience at least. I mean no disrespect to those that love what Big N has been doing, and I'm certain many will disagree, it's just what I've felt.
This has to be written by a fan boy.
I like the bit where they innovate and have simple basic voice chat like systems from multiple generations ago.
oh wait.
Don't worry though, we got an entire generation of wacky motion controls and shovelware and also one where our controller was a tablet for absolutely no reason to. Super innovative for the gameplay experiance.