410°

Iwata: Nintendo ignoring traditional 4-year console cycle

In a recent conference to detail Nintendo's Q3 financial results, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata mused on the subject of the firm's hardware development and industry expectations on when, perhaps, the Nintendo DS will step aside for a new portable. Iwata, however, claimed that Nintendo has thrown the traditional four-year cycle for new hardware out of the window in favour of a more inflexible approach. The DS, he inferred, was still offering up innovation, so it's place in the forefront of Nintendo's mind is still secured.

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nintendic.com
Filanime036037d ago

I am glad nintendo will not follow xbox 4 year cycle. I really don't wannr to keep buying new system every 4 years.

Jack Bauer6037d ago

why bother trying to improve and evolve gaming when you can release a game system as powerful as the generation before it that prints money?

why im glad we have the competition PS and xbox cause without it, there would be no need to improve, which is bad.

socomnick6037d ago

Im glad the Xbox 360 and the ps3 are so close the quality of games that are going to be launched by both systems is good for us the consumer. Its
so close this generation even the power of both systems is almost equal.

IntelligentAj6037d ago (Edited 6037d ago )

I hope this doesn't backfire on them with the Wii.

Edit:@Close second
Didn't know about any contract dispute but that would explain a lot. I also agree with the fact that a PS2 with a wiimote would be unbeatable.

@I don't take sides
I agree that the I don't think the Wii will last 3 years because software innovation can only compete but so much with hardware as time passes on. The dev's can be as innovative as they want but eventually people will want more, and that's when the Wii will run into it's trouble.

Close_Second6037d ago

...Commodore did the same thing in the early 90's with the Amiga 500. The Amiga 1200 should have been released 2 years before it actually was.

Also, to all the Xbox haters - one of the reasons the original Xbox was dropped so quickly was because of a contract dispute between NVidia and Microsoft. Basically, when the contract period ended NVidia decided not to renew forcing MS to release the 360 sooner rather than later. I do however feel that the new MS console will be upon us by 2011 - which is probably about right given the speed at which hardware changes.

Come 2011 you'll have 1GB (or probably higher) video cards as standard in addition to 2-3GB system memory. Even though the PS3 is somewhat future proofed both it and the 360 are going to look positively antiquated compared to what PC gaming will offer in 4-5 years time. I personally believe that consoles should work to a 5 year shelf life and phased out over 2 years upon the new model being released.

However, if consumers want consoles to hang around longer then so be it. You don't need the latest and greatest for it to still be fun...just look at how the PS2 is still selling. Heck, put the Wii controller on the PS2 and I'd rather have a PS2 any day of the week over a Wii.

IdontTakeSides6037d ago

I personally don't feel that the Wii can keep the momentum going for.the next 3 years...Nintendo is relying heavly on the Wiimote as it's selling point but as we can see..Nintendo is the only one trying to do innovative thing with it...?

But as Close_Second stated..i'll rather have a PS2 with a Wii mote than buying a Wii.....

BrotherNick6037d ago

Haha, I myself am slightly worried...most of Nintendo's big guns have launched many of their franchise titles. You got Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Fire Emblem, and Smash Bros within the the first one and a fourth years. All these games sell big, and all of them at once makes me curious to what they have in their sleeve to sell next.

UltramanJ6037d ago

Since when was four years the traditional life cycle for a console? The Playstations have all far exceeded four years, while the Gamecube and N64..oh wait a second. Nintendo's putting on a spin with this new "attitude" because the DS is doing well in the market. If it were another Gamecube or Virtualboy the attitude would be different.

Rooftrellen6037d ago

Success or fail, Nintendo has had 5 year lifecycles.

the NES and SNES lived no longer than the N64 or GC.

UltramanJ6037d ago

If you think the NES and SNES lasted no longer than the N64 and GC, then you weren't gaming back then, or were too young to know anything that was going on.
The Famicom (NES)released in July of 1983. The US NES released on October 18, 1985 and wasn't discontinued until 1995.
The Super Famicom (SNES) launched in Japan on November 21, 1990. The US SNES released in August 1991 and production didn't cease until 1999. The last first party game released was Kirby's Dreamland 3 in 1997.
Four year life cycles? Far from it.

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60°

How EA & Xbox Are Defining Gaming's Bleak Future

Xbox and EA have recently made baffling moves that define how bleak the future of the gaming industry is with major companies at the helm. Ryan Bates from "Last Word on Gaming" posits in this op-ed that maybe it's not ineptitude, but intention.

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lastwordongaming.com
Profchaos50m ago(Edited 47m ago)

Name someone that isn't trying to look us these days maybe cdpr.

Take two, ubi and yes even PlayStation are pushing us to own nothing and be happy with our live service ad injected games on a sub so they can raise prices at will and take access away when they see fit.

If it keeps up I'll be a full time retro gamer and this industry will be crashing hard

As rediculas as it sounds we need government reforms to defend consumer rights

60°

XCOM's Jake Solomon Q&A - Building a Narrative-Driven Life Sim Game at Midsummer Studios

XCOM and Marvel's Midnight Suns director Jake Solomon has founded a new studio to make a life sim game. Here's a new interview with him.

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wccftech.com
360°

Microsoft's quest for short-term $$$ is doing long-term damage to Windows, Surface, Xbox, and beyond

Microsoft is pushing for no "red line" for what games could come to PlayStation, and it all revolves around Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood's plans to increase every department's margins.

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windowscentral.com
Brazz20h ago

"The plan to move Xbox games to other platforms is codenamed "Latitude" internally, and I know there's debate and unease at Microsoft about whether or not this is a good idea. More upcoming Microsoft-owned games slated for PlayStation are already being developed. At least for now, they're potentially obvious games you'd most likely expect. And yes, while it's true Microsoft is a prolific publisher on PlayStation already, it has typically revolved around specific franchises like Minecraft. From what I've heard, Microsoft is pushing for no "red line" for what games could come to PlayStation, and it all revolves around Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood's mandate to increase every department's margins. "

Yeah, they are going to kill Xbox hardware.

Xeofate18h ago

"Yeah, they are going to kill Xbox hardware."

It's for the best.

Quit stringing along xbox fans and screwing over PlayStation owners.

crazyCoconuts13h ago

Take good care of those Xboxes if you have 'em ...

outsider162413h ago

An Xbox game on a Playstation. Never in my years of gaming did i ever thought this was gonna happen.

jznrpg9h ago

It is dying anyway so doesn’t make much of a difference

VersusDMC8h ago

No way can they get rid of the hardware as probably 90% of game pass subscribers are hardware users.

Highly doubtful those users will move to PC or Cloud to subscribe there and the competition (Sony and Nin) will never have gamepass on their system.

If they want to keep the current subscribers, they need to keep releasing new hardware.

PSPSA18m ago

I'm not convinced, why then announce that they're actually working on the next-generation Xbox with “the largest technical leap”, and also looking into handhelds now?

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 18m ago
gold_drake19h ago

i think it will kill off the xbox brand. windows will be fine.

but there is and would be a chance that xbox might be killed off in the future. if they fail to make the money they put in. imo.

S2Killinit17h ago

They wont kill it, but they will go fully PC while keeping xbox as a brand, and go multiplatform for the most part. They will also work tirelessly to diminish console gaming’s importance.

PRIMORDUS14h ago

It would be best if Xbox goes the way of Sega, just make and publish games. I know I myself will not support them at all with buying games from them, you all can. 🙃

ChasterMies12h ago

The Xbox brand will live for the games. I don’t expect Microsoft to entirely drop out of gaming hardware. They make Surface tablets and laptops. They’ll make Xbox branded hardware for those that want it.

shadowT19h ago

"Microsoft is pushing for no "red line" for what games could come to PlayStation"

Forza and Starfield next?

Skuletor17h ago

Starfield would be no surprise and there's the rumor that it will come to Playstation after the Shattered Space DLC, Forza (along with Halo and Gears of War) I find less likely but I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually end up on PlayStation too, especially if Xbox give up on hardware and go the Sega route.

shinoff218317h ago

Not to worried about forza. I'd rather see others like what inxile and obsidian are working on. Starfield sounds like it needs more time in the oven so let it cook first imo. If starfield and it's a small if does release on ps it'll be in the fall around the time for dlc or right at the dlc and come packaged with it.

-Foxtrot18h ago

In the words of Phil Spencer when he was talking about Nintendo last year

“It's just taking a long time for Microsoft to see that their future exists off of their own hardware"

S2Killinit17h ago

Yup. MS are a cancer to console gaming.

Aloymetal16h ago

100%!!
I wonder what happened to that dude that was always here posting those court articles with cartoons about MS spending all those billions in studios. He suddenly disappeared, I guess he doesn't like bad news when the green brand is in trouble. No new articles from him as of late...

PRIMORDUS14h ago

Yup, and it's only going to keep spreading.

Outside_ofthe_Box14h ago

Phil Spencer's words always comes back to bite him lol

18h agoReplies(7)
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