Is the Nintendo's core audience sizable enough to support games like The Conduit? A bunch of fairly "core" titles have been released recently, but the debate still rages on.
Is it any surprise? Up until now, the core games that were supposed to save the Nintendo faithful haven't performed so well. Almost everything from Mad World to GTA: Chinatown Wars has turned out abysmal sales figures. Hope after hope is being dashed against each month's NPD results.
Some argue that High Voltage's long-awaited endeavor will reach a wider range of customers and that we shouldn't give up on the core just yet.
My prediction? The Conduit will only be remembered as another disappointment in a long line of disappointments.
Don't get me wrong - I'd enjoy a good FPS on the Wii as much as anyone. But I have every intention of passing on this title when it comes out in a few days. It's not that I can complain about the graphics, audio, or control scheme. High Voltage has produced one of the most polished and professional games you could hope to get on this console.
Unfortunately, The Conduit just doesn't have its own identity. The gameplay might be phenomenal, the story might be well-written and executed. But it just won't be able to break through the stigma of "generic FPS" that's going to haunt it for its entire short-lived existence. Nothing about this game stands out as a "must-have" product except for the fact that it's the only FPS on the Wii with high production values.
And as many, many games can tell you - across all gaming platforms - high production values don't sell a game.
That's my prediction. The next couple months will either confirm or disprove it.
| Comments (0) |
Good old Reggie Fils-Aime. He has a lot of stuff to say, but he's so often misunderstood. Over the past week, the gaming press has been jumping all over the following quote from a CNET interview, which addresses Nintendo's feelings about an audience that hasn't yet made it over to the Wii:
We think we win over the Halo audience with something like The Conduit, a multi-player, online, shooting experience, or Dead Space Extraction. And you know what? Once those people buy into Wii, they'll go buy Mario Kart or Wii Fit Plus.
Of course, this statement was taken to mean that Nintendo wants to trick the mature, grown-up FPS players into playing "kiddie" games. Setting aside for a moment that Mario Kart and Wii Fit appeal to a wide range of gamers, casual and hardcore alike, let's get one thing straight: Reggie wasn't talking about blind, nerd-raging fanboys when he used the words "Halo audience." He was talking about gamers in general who enjoy the FPS experience.
Remember that Halo is a casual game. Almost everyone who owns an Xbox, and many who don't, have played a Halo game at some point in time. People who don't care about the intricacies of the game industry or the console wars still love to play Halo, and they get many hours of enjoyment from it. Those players are no different from people who love Mario Kart - they're only playing a different kind of game.
If you read Reggie's interview and laughed at the absurdity of it, then you are probably one of the nerd-raging fanboys who doesn't understand how the broader gaming population differs from the narrow focus of a hardcore gamer.
| Source | Comments (0) |
Oh, boy. You'd think from reading the press that Nintendo declared its own death sentence yesterday. "The games are pretty boring," they say. "The company was blown out of the water by its next gen rivals," they say. Sony and Microsoft are synonymous with roof-raising blockbusters while Nintendo is left whimpering in a corner.
But of course, as usual, the gaming press is simply out for blood. For whatever reason, they'll never forgive Nintendo for endorsing a game that might be enjoyed by a 9-year-old girl.
It doesn't matter that the third party support is finally bringing its game face (Silent Hill, Dead Space, Cursed Mountain, Red Steel 2).
It doesn't matter that the DS remains the out-and-out king of RPGs (Golden Sun, Kingdom Hearts, Bowser's Inside Story).
It doesn't matter that Mario's treating us to a sequel to what's widely considered the "game of the generation," and to yet another experience that's completely unprecedented in the Mario universe.
It doesn't even matter that Metroid is making a shocking, triumphant comeback under the Team Ninja banner.
Nintendo has ruined gaming.
The impressions from the E3 floor are overwhelmingly positive, but of course what does it matter that the games are fun, if Microsoft Natal will only come along to destroy the Wii a year from now? Who cares that the games are fun if Nintendo doesn't have access to Sony's great exclusives like Uncharted 2 or (scoff) Mod Nation Racers?
How many times does Nintendo have to shrug off the supposed threat of their competitors before everyone finally wakes up and realizes that the game has changed? That the "hardcore" gaming market is unsustainable? That bringing new gamers into the fold is the only way to keep gaming alive?
The only thing that matters is this:
Yes, a handful of "casual" games plus a giant load of core games equals a big lose for the Big N.
And what do you call Sony's laughable, half-hearted attempt at widening its appeal with a token Hannah Montana pack-in on the PSP? Hmm, haven't really seen that one brought up by anyone who's anyone.
Anyway, that's enough ranting.
The reality is that Nintendo gave more than generous attention to its core gaming population. As a daily user of Wii Fit, I'm incredibly excited for the Plus expansion. At the same time, Professor Layton 2, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and Metroid: Other M interest me just as much. All in all, I saw a good dozen Wii and DS games that I'd love to get my hands on ASAP.
Let's not begrudge the scant moments that Cammie Dunaway spent on some Women's Mystery game or a fashion show simulator. Those were tiny snippets of an overall conference which began and ended with the kind of power that only Nintendo brings to the table.
As the owner of a site called Nintendo Fanboy, it's not terribly surprising that I'm flagging Nintendo as the clear winner in E3 2009. But let's face it - no matter who you think "won" the conference (whatever that means), the abysmal treatment of Nintendo's 90 minutes of fame is nothing short of ridiculous.
| Comments (0) |
If High Voltage is trying too hard, Microsoft is trying even harder. After seeing the far-reaching plans on display during yesterday's presentation, it's become clear to me that Nintendo will go another year without competition from the Xbox 360. (Sony will continue to be irrelevant to Nintendo no matter what happens at their conference.)
The Mario Kart clone looked like a desperate attempt to reach out to the casual market, and of course it must be free to have any hope of catching on. This ploy has been in Microsoft's playbook for a long time, perhaps the most famous example being Internet Explorer in Netscape's heyday.
But things turned downright ridiculous when Project Natal was trotted out in front of an incredulous audience. The technology's obviously early, but that doesn't excuse the ambitious video mockups we saw. Here's a recap in case you missed it:
This trailer was fully intended to wow the press and get the critical buzz going (PC World certainly took the bait), but the fine print says it all: "Product vision: actual features and functionality may vary." In other words, we saw nothing more than smoke and mirrors; a number of the features "shown" are likely not even in development at all.
Stephen Totilo at Kotaku gave us another demonstration of how Natal has generated unrealistic expectations. Totilo's describes his experience with Peter Molyneux's "Milo" in a positive light, but two statements simply can't escape unnoticed:
[Molyneux] repeatedly cautioned that some of what I would experience with the game were "tricks."
The Milo demo was partially being manipulated by a developer who was sitting nearby, and I couldn't tell if he was merely calibrating the game or how much he was pulling its strings.
All in all, Microsoft certainly managed to put on a show. But I'll be surprised if Natal sees the light of day even a year from now. Even if it does, it will end up going the way of Sony's EyeToy: big on the promises, underwhelming on the delivery.
Nintendo's conference starts in less than an hour!
| Comments (0) |
High Voltage Software is trying too hard. Seriously. The first Wii-related news everyone will read today is the announcement of Gladiator A.D., another achievement under the belt of "Mature" gaming on the little white console.
Now, people might be right when they say that Mature-rated games have an audience on the Wii that's been largely untapped, except in limited form with titles such as No More Heroes and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. But as evidenced by sales figures from other major releases which were supposed to rescue Nintendo from the casuals (Mad World, anyone?), it's clear that actually tapping this market is not easy at all.
That's why everyone needs to take a deep breath and stop screaming, "it's Mature! Everyone who's been asking for Mature games on the Wii needs to buy this!" about games which we haven't even seen, much less experienced. For the most part, these cries stem from a desire for more "mature games" on the Wii - where "mature" means extra blood and swearing. For some reason, people expect a Mature rating to turn a game into a wonderful work of art that will sell gangbusters and rid the Wii of the horrible casual stigma it's acquired over the past three years.
My prediction: it won't happen. Certainly not with Gladiator A.D., and likely not with any other title, either past or future.
To make the Wii attractive to gamers who prefer blood and guts, there must be a sizable library of quality, Mature-rated games on the console. The problem is, no matter what High Voltage Software or Sega do, they can't single-handedly create the required volume of games. And for most other development studios, the target for Mature games has already been decided: Xbox 360 and PS3 owners.
That doesn't mean Wii developers shouldn't create Mature games for Wii owners, of course. It just means they need to stop approaching Mature game development from the same angle they would use for the Xbox and Playstation. Electronic Arts is trying a different tactic with the upcoming Dead Space Extraction. I don't know whether it will work, but it has to have a greater chance of success than Gladiator A.D..
I certainly commend High Voltage for taking the initiative, pretty much before anyone else (The Conduit), to deliver content that operates as an alternative to the casual flood of minigames. But before they go too much further, it's probably time for them to take a closer look at what's succeeded on the Wii and what has failed, and see how they can adapt their Mature visions appropriately.
| Comments (0) |
January is typically a slow month for hardware sales, and 2009 is no exception - comparatively speaking. Even so, the Wii and DS still managed to knock the socks off of the competition. Here are the official numbers:
Hardware
Wii: 679,200
DS: 510,800
Xbox 360: 309,000
Playstation 3: 203,200
PSP: 172,300
Playstation 2: 101,200
In addition, Wii titles took 4 of the top 10 spots in software sales (with 3 of those spots placing first, second, and third). The DS manages 2 titles for the honor, giving Nintendo a respectable 60% ownership of January's best-selling games.
Software
WII FIT (WII): 777,000
WII PLAY W/ REMOTE (WII): 415,000
MARIO KART W/WHEEL (WII): 292,000
LEFT 4 DEAD (360): 243,000
CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR (360): 235,000
SKATE 2 (360): 199,000
GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR (WII): 155,000
NEW SUPER MARIO BROS (DS): 135,000
MARIO KART DS (DS): 132,000
LORD OF THE RINGS: CONQUEST (360): 113,000
Someone had better tell Reggie that there's a recession going on - it just might pass him by before he notices!
| Source | Comments (0) |
Wouldn't you know that the same day we post a list of Atlus' upcoming DS games, there'd also be an announcement that pushes a few of them back - thanks to a failure in the great chain of technology. On the brighter side, the company manages to keep its usual light tone in the face of adverse circumstances:
Unfortunately, a few Atlus titles will have to be slightly rescheduled as to their date of release, but the changes will be minimal. Also, every working day for us passes in constant fear, terror, and paranoia with the knowledge that our primary computer is now plotting to destroy us," commented an Atlus engineer on the subject of release date changes and the now-sentient supercomputer with a hunger for manflesh.
In any case, here's the updated schedule, with changes highlighted.
February 3rd: My World, My Way
February 24th: Legacy of Ys
March 17th: Trackmania
March 31st: Tokyo Beat Down
April 7th: Class of Heroes
April 7th: Hammerin' Hero
April 14th: Dark Spire
April 21st: Steal Princess
| Comments (0) |
Greg Joswiak is a man. Men are fallible. So it's hard to blame the guy for towing his company's somewhat exaggerated line - especially when he's the head of marketing for their wildly popular iPhone and iPod devices.
In an interview with casualgaming.biz, Joswiak discusses the presence of casual games on the iPhone, calling portable games a "tremendous opportunity" for Apple's business. We won't argue that point at all, but we had to laugh when he was asked to elaborate on his previous comparisons between the iPhone and the Nintendo DS. Here's what he said (emphasis added):
Well, it’s not just the screen quality – it’s the graphics capability, the compute power, the App distribution model. I had an analyst tell me in September – and he was so right – that the DS is the past of gaming devices, and that the iPod Touch is the future of gaming devices. It certainly has our competitors scrambling in what they’re going to do in reaction to this. I think it’s a tremendous start that we’re having at entering this gaming market, and there’s no doubt that that’s happening – it just is.
All right, Greg - sure, the iPhone actually does work pretty well for certain kinds of games. Perhaps even those hard-to-define "casual games" that seem to be flooding the market these days. But regardless of graphical capability and processing power, the iPhone just doesn't have the flexibility to match every gaming experience you can have on a DS. The touch screen can only approximate so much, and it's a lousy replacement for the d-pad and buttons that work so well with many types of games.
Is the iPhone a gaming platform? Maybe so. But make no mistake, you're not going to overtake the so-called "past of gaming devices" with a touch screen and an accelerometer.
| Comments (0) |
It seems most game companies are in the process of slashing jobs or shutting their doors altogether these days. But one workplace that comes across as more vibrant than ever would have to be the offices of Atlus USA. Atlus has found a pretty great market for its games among DS users, and it only takes a look at their release schedule to verify it:
February 3rd (today): My World, My Way
February 24th: Legacy of Ys
March 3rd: Hammerin' Hero
March 10th: Tokyo Beat Down
March 10th: Dark Spire
March 17th: Trackmania
March 24th: Steal Princess
April 7th: Class of Heroes
That doesn't even count upcoming titles that haven't yet made it to the official game list, such as Dokapon Journey, Crimson Gem Saga, Knights in the Nightmare, and more.
Coupled with today's (non-DS) announcement of the new Atlus Online division, it's pretty safe to say that Atlus is really going places right now. Given what we've seen from them so far, we'd have to say this success is well-deserved.
| Comments (0) |
Addressing company investors, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata continues to be optimistic about the Wii's ability to keep on selling to consumers. While admitting that sales were weaker in the previous hardware generation (both for GameCube and for Game Boy Advance), he reminds us that this was before the company "embarked on its challenge to expand the gaming population." Since that time, the face of the market has changed such that further expansion should not be a problem.
"It is not impossible for Wii’s total sales to exceed the final install base of PS2," claims Iwata. "With what kind of software is Nintendo going to achieve this goal? Well, it will be shown at E3 to be held in the U.S. this June."
With E3 being several months out, there's sure to be much speculation about what Nintendo will be showing there. Will we see games that have yet to be announced, or is it more likely that Iwata simply refers to upcoming 2009 titles like Punch-Out!! or Sin and Punishment 2?
Read the entire investors' financial briefing at Nintendo's web site.
| Comments (0) |
Nintendo's third-quarter financial report has rolled in, and it's a doozy - as anyone would expect, of course. Sales have grown 17% over the previous year, a staggering figure when you consider how many sales they were making even before that.
We've got one quarter left in the fiscal year, so the company is taking this opportunity to revise its predictions - specifically, the Big N expects global DS sales of 31.5 million (up 3% from previous expectations), and global Wii sales of 26.5 million (down 3%).
In any case, that's an awful lot of hardware. As of December 31, 2008, the LTD tally is:
- Shipments of Nintendo DS hardware were 96.22 million worldwide, along with more than 533 million games.
- Wii shipments reached nearly 45 million worldwide, along with over 312 million games.
- Shipment of Wii Fit reached 14 million, and Mario Kart Wii reached 13.67 million.
| Comments (0) |
I suppose when you've got a leader as all-out nutzoid as Kaz Hirai, you can hardly blame his followers for preaching some pretty far-out stuff. That's why it doesn't surprise me to see some of the more dedicated PS3 adherents pointing to the upcoming Killzone 2 as proof of Sony's impending market turnaround.
2008's exclusives (in particular, LittleBigPlanet and Metal Gear Solid 4) were supposed to solidify last year as the "year of the PS3," a time in which console sales would be propelled by sales of such blockbuster titles and finally narrow the gap between the Playstation and the Xbox. It didn't quite happen that way. Most of us who were paying attention to the market weren't terribly surprised, but others spent hours analyzing the results of these failures in order to figure out where Sony went wrong.
Sony went wrong the moment they allowed the Playstation fanboys take control. This happened long before the PS3 was released - you can tell because the hardware was clearly designed based on the fanboyish belief that people would get a second job in order to buy a PS3, or that they would buy it even if it had a zero-game library.
It might seem ironic to use the term "fanboy" this way on a site called Nintendo Fanboy. But there's a good type of fanboyism and a bad type of fanboyism.
Good fanboys might be loyal to their hardware, but not to the point of blindly defending all of its shortcomings and failures. They'll also acknowledge the successful aspects of rival consoles when applicable. (I'll be the first to admit that the PS3 is a technical marvel and will continue to push out more and more amazing games as this console generation continues.)
Bad fanboys will try to sugar-coat every piece of bad news and attack anyone who dares criticize their beloved console. They'll also consistently claim that vindication is just around the corner (for now, it's Killzone 2). Kaz is one of those bad fanboys; there's a difference between being positive about your hardware (that's his job, after all) and making insane statements such as "I’d like to think that we continue official leadership in this industry."
Well, Kaz, there're plenty of things that I'd like to think as well, but I have a preference for the plane of existence known as reality. And the reality is, the rest of the world judges "official leadership" by market dominance - something Sony lacks in both the blue ocean market and among the old guard.
Every company makes mistakes. Nintendo missed some enormous potential in the N64 and GCN days due to their failure to predict what the gaming market would prefer. Now it's Sony's turn to admit, "hey, we screwed up, and now we want to make it right." Get your fanboyism out of the way and eat your humble pie.
| Comments (0) |
IGN has posted an interview with Wii and DS developer n-Space, in which the gaming company reveals a Wii-exclusive survival horror title they'd begun work on two years ago. The game, called simply Winter, was the result of n-Space's desire to create a quality mature-themed piece for Nintendo's console. Apparently, Winter failed to find a publisher willing to back such an effort on what's widely known as kid/family hardware. Despite the performance of Resident Evil 4 on the Wii, a new IP was just too much for publishers' risk tolerance.
The game got a lot of good feedback at GDC '07, though, so it sounds like n-Space had a winner on its hands. Read the entire interview at IGN for more about the game's core concepts, as well as a handful of screenshots and a demo video.
Via IGN
| Comments (0) |
I haven't posted the last few news bits about Michael Pachter, but I'm sure many of you caught his recent predictions that that Playstation 3 would be seeing a price cut in April, just a few short months from now. That prediction did not escape the attention of the ever-vigilant people of NeoGAF, who managed to sway Pachter to a slightly more conservative viewpoint with some well-argued points. (Pachter had posted in the thread himself, saying that he'd claim his price-drop assertion was an April Fool's joke if he turned out to be wrong.)
Sure enough, Michael Pachter revised his statements in an interview with EndSights, in which he said: "They probably won’t really cut in April (that was my early April Fool’s joke [...] My guess is that they’ll be able to afford a cut by October."
Sounds like the usual Pachter attempt to save face - when confronted with the fact that his predictions are rather far-fetched, he simply restates the same claim with a modified deadline.
Yes, I'm sure the PS3 will price-drop at some point - maybe even in October. But heck, if I made as many guesses as Pachter does, I suppose I'd eventually get it right too.
| Comments (0) |
Nintendo has issued a response to the latest sales figures released by the NPD Group, and you could say the tone of the press release is... well, victorious. The pie chart above was generated by a NeoGAF member to illustrate the following quote from Nintendo (emphasis added):
"Industry annual revenues jumped 19% in 2008 over 2007, and Nintendo products were responsible for 99% of those additional retail dollars."
Who needs PR spin when you have numbers like this?
Image source: NeoGAF
| Comments (0) |
| Older posts >> |
