gaming Is Nintendo irrelevant?

[GuillermoGage 246]

Now, I am a huge Nintendo fan (as you can see by my profile picture), but Nintendo seems to irrelevant today in a lot of people's eyes.

 

I feel like every gamer on the planet these days hate Nintendo with a burning passion, especially the ones that started gaming last gen.

 

Everyone on youtube hates Nintendo, the comments on Nintendo related video's are always so hateful.

 

Most of Nintendo's Fans have left them, the sales of the Wii U show that they have very little fans left, everyone wants playstation and Xbox these days.

 

Also, Nintendo keep doing stupid things, The "New" 3ds, the just alienated 40 million "Old" 3ds owners, their online is terrible, the Wii U is very underpowered and lacks RAM and GPU power.

 

A lot of Kids these days don't play Nintendo, they want to play PlayStation and Xbox to feel more mature.

 

Third Parties hate Nintendo, Teens hate Nintendo, Kids hate Nintendo, everyone these days seem to hate Nintendo.

 

I'm sorry, but Nintendo hade their golden age, but that time is over, they can't compete any more, they might as well give up.

 

Mario, Zelda etc...., Can't save them any more, Nobody cares about those franchises anymore.

 

looks like society thinks Nintendo is irrelevant these days, oh well, all good things come to an end

Meh. Smash Bros sure doesn't look or play underpowered.

Feel more mature. exactly. Not a valid reason for gaming tastes. That shouldn't indicate true gaming enjoyment. Adolescents are stupid and not the primary purchasers of video game systems, not even their parents are primary purchasers of consoles. The primary purchasers are grown adults buying those things for themselves.

"Nobody cares about those franchises anymore."

wut.

Maybe in Internet Land. But not in the real world.

 

EDIT: a few minutes later. Also, The Last of Us is an interactive movie that can be experienced fully enough by watching other people play it on YouTube. or so I suspect. So far the Metal Gear Solid series is like 90% cutscenes. 

Edited January 11, 2015 by GuillermoGage

[Ryzu 984]

Never once cared for franchises, just for the games they make. Rareware had a great run but died when microsoft took over it and ruined it. All those people complaining that the wii u can't run games well or whatever doesn't really matter whatsoever. Can they not realize it's about the games on the console and not the console itself? I mean hardware wise ps4 wins but then game wise Nintendo does. I can recall tons more amazing games by nintendo than by other consoles.

[A Black Circle 1,585]

The original wii... sucked, and this is very much good imporvment.

 

The PissStation 4 and X-bone are just... there. They only really have HD remasters right now.

[Mutemutt 772]

EDIT: a few minutes later. Also, The Last of Us is an interactive movie that can be experienced fully enough by watching other people play it on YouTube. or so I suspect. So far the Metal Gear Solid series is like 90% cutscenes. 

 

Not really sure you why put that part in, but it's really not the same experience.I suspect the only time it would be enough is if you wanted to play the game but couldn't really afford it in the budget, so you settle on just watching it. Though I'll admit, I've watched plenty of let's plays on youtube, many Nintendo games included. Missing out on quite a lot tho, even when the game is like 98% cutscenes like The Walking Dead.

 

 

Never once cared for franchises, just for the games they make. Rareware had a great run but died when microsoft took over it and ruined it. All those people complaining that the wii u can't run games well or whatever doesn't really matter whatsoever. Can they not realize it's about the games on the console and not the console itself? I mean hardware wise ps4 wins but then game wise Nintendo does. I can recall tons more amazing games by nintendo than by other consoles.

 

I agree that games is the biggest reason for getting anyone of the consoles, though the hardware gap does present an issue for multiplatform games and ports. Still, some people aren't really a fan of Nintendo games. Nintendo was my main console until the Wii came around, which I did try, then I started playing my ps3 way more. Kind of a funny coincidence, but most of my Wii games happen to be remakes of PS2 games.

 

Honestly, I think the Wii U has enough power to work with, they're just not making very many interesting games. Not interesting to me at least.

Edited January 11, 2015 by Mutemutt

[TheJLeeTeam 914]

Also I want to point out that First person shooters have been popular for like 20 years and Nintendo is still here. And one of the most popular shooters, Goldeneye was exclusive to their N64. And they also have Metroid Prime series and Kid Icarus: Uprising which are not military shooters but they're still shooters with unique themes. Shooters aren't the best games ever and not the only ones either. Besides I don't hear much talk about Call of Duty anymore. It would be depressing if all games were mature because some people like games with bright colorful graphics and cartoon like characters.

 

As for the New 3DS, they did that kind of thing before with the Gameboy Color which could play games the Original couldn't. And they did it with the DSi where it had apps you can't play on the normal DS. And tons of tech companies release a new model every year. There's a new iPhone and iPad every year and I don't see anyone complain about that. But you don't need to buy their newest models if you don't need to. If your 3DS is fine and you don't care for the games exclusive to the new model then, don't get it.

 

Also Nintendo isn't the only one that gets hate. Ubisoft gets hate, Activision gets hate, EA gets hate, Capcom gets hate, and even Sony and Microsoft. The PS3 got some hate in the first year or so and Xbox One got a huge backlash as well.

 

And as for the Wii, and Wii U being underpowered, they done that before. The original Gameboy lacked color but still had better 3rd party support, the Snes had a slow CPU and still got great 3rd party support, and the DS was underpowered compared to the PS Vita and got a lot of third party support. Third party games can run on the Wii U if you just downgrade the graphics. But many developers don't want to spend time making Wii U ports because they might not sell well. The Wii U being underpowered isn't the real reason why developers don't want to release their games on it. Sure they lost Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, and other Mature games but they still have Skylanders which is popular among kids and I heard the Wii U version outsells some of the other versions.

 

Also Nintendo may rehash games but any game company can do this. Nintendo isn't the only one who rehashes games. There are third party franchises guilty of this as well. A prime example is Madden. But anyway Nintendo makes new IP's as well but they somehow get overshadowed by some of their older and popular ones. Nintendo doesn't have just Mario and Zelda. They also have Pokémon Animal Crossing, Tomodachi Life, Xenoblade, Kid Icarus, Mysterious Murasame Castle (ever heard of that one?), Fossil Fighters, Freakyforms, Art Academy, Fire Emblem, Star Fox, Splatoon, Puzzle League (My favorite puzzle game), Golden Sun, etc. However I wish they should release most of their best japanese exclusives overseas like Captain Rainbow, Mother 3, Devil World, etc. But other japanese developers are guilty of this as well by not releasing some of their gems overseas.

 

I like how Nintendo is very unique from the competition. To me Playstation and Xbox are too similar to each other. However I do wish they would drop the Wii brand. Nintendo isn't perfect but neither are Sony or Microsoft or any tech company in general. Each one has advantages and disadvantages.

Edited January 11, 2015 by TheJLeeTeam

[Panne 1,342]

"Nintendo is too kiddy! They should make more gritty games."

[TheJLeeTeam 914]

I said this before and I'll say it again: They're just games. Don't argue about them, just chill out play them have fun and play whatever games you like. So keep playing Mario if that's what you like.

 

 

Edited February 12, 2015 by TheJLeeTeam

[Side Bird 565]

Sometimes, Nintendo will strike gold. Othertimes.. Not so much.

Sometimes they will make a new leap that is a gold mine, or will end in them crashing, but they do it smart, they usually release something new just in case it fails oh so badly.

Let's also take note most of their systems get in the top selling consoles, (WiiUprobsnotsomuch)

 

 

Million-selling game consoles by firm Manufacturer Home
 Handheld
console sales Total sales

Nintendo console sales 279.32 million: Handheld console sales 404.62 million: Total Sales 683.94 million

Sony console sales >355.99 million: Handheld console sales >86 million Total Sales >441.99 million

Microsoft console sales 118 million – Total Sales  118 million

Sega console sales 73.1–74.9 million: Handheld console sales >14.4 million Total Sales  >87.5 million

Atari console sales >34.77 million: Handheld console sales  >1 million Total Sales  >35.77 million

 

 

Also look at that list I nabbed ^^^

 

 

Kids still buy Nintendo games, there is a lovely community surrounding such games like Zelda, Mario, kids in my High School still talk about Zelda. True, lots of kids flock to Xbox and Playstation to 360 no scope for CoD, but Nintendo isn't dying, and I don't think it's going to die anytime soon.

 

Edited February 12, 2015 by Marshmallow Pone

[Twilight Dirac 720]

Also Nintendo may rehash games but any game company can do this. Nintendo isn't the only one who rehashes games. There are third party franchises guilty of this as well. A prime example is Madden.

 

You do realize the Madden series is held in contempt by a lot of gamers for precisely this reason.

Edited February 12, 2015 by Twilight Dirac

[Poetic Stone 1,040]

I don't know if its irrelevant, but is has went the way of the child-like toy, and yes they should make more adult games.

[~Sylveon~ 188]

I don't think Nintendo will become irrelevant anytime soon (or ever). Pokémon, Legend of Zelda, Mario....How could they? Everyone loves some good ol' pokemon now and again (well not everyone but still), and most of us (most people posting on this thread anyway) have a favourite Zelda title we love to sometimes just sit back and replay. And lots of people love Mario! even  my non-gamer friends like to play some mariokart with me. Nintendo might be going through a slightly rough patch right now, but I think it'll be around for a while yet.

[Mutemutt 772]

Nintendo is certainly not dropping out of the gaming business anytime soon. You can be sure of that. And let's not even talk about their handheld console, 90% of the population forgot Sony even has a new handheld now. 

 

But, for certain demographics, I suppose you could say they are irrelevant. They don't have a ton of 3rd party support going on and they've always maintained a very family friendly image. It's not surprising that people start to get the feel that all you can expect from Nintendo is colorful, cartoony, "kiddy" games when that's most of Nintendo's big name titles. All of the consoles now tend to draw their own crowd largely based on the type of games you can expect to release on it. An expectation born of advertisement either by the company itself or players just talking about the games they're most looking forward to on that console. I'm going to do a bit of exaggeration here but when you see someone say "Nintendo is amazing. They got Mario, Mario Kart, Mario Party, Mario and Golden Goomba. Oh and Bayonetta" it starts to paint a picture.

 

Nintendo's not getting very much help from 3rd party developers, so they'd mostly have to depend on their own 1st games to adjust their image, if they even want to. To be honest, I can't remember the last new IP from Nintendo that had a noticeably different tone then the usual games they pump out. Monolith Soft's upcoming title is the only game I can see coming from Nintendo that breaks that mold. If anything else is coming, I see no talk of it, not even a passing mention.

 

Now, the Playstation and Xbox also get their own reputations for the games they get too. I know that a lot of my friends that played Xbox usually talked Halo and upcoming FPS games in general. My Playstation friends would often talk about JRPGs and the more anime-esque games.

 

Nintendo has really separated itself from the other competitors. The Wii U opens up the door for much more unique experiences than you can find on the Xbox One or the PS4. The Xbox One and PS4 having so many 3rd party games also means they share a lot of games, so the Wii U has a plenty of potential being the only one of its kind. The issue is that they're not really drawing in those people; they're not interested enough in what's coming out for the Wii U: the usual Nintendo games. 

 

You see, Nintendo is nowhere close to being in danger of falling out of the race, but they're certainly not doing as well as they could, and I think that's largely due to their image. An image that I doubt they can change with their own 1st party games. Playstation and Xbox are fighting over the same people. Nintendo is in a category of their own, along with their very own audience, it's just not nearly as big as they would like it to be. 

[Geek0zoid 1,467]

This is coming from a longtime Nintendo fan, so take this for what you will;

I feel that Nintendo isn't going to be irrelevant for a long time in the gaming industry. Their systems may not sell as much, but their IP's are some of the most recognizable out there. Most of them have been around since the 80's, and no, it's not just Mario.

We have:
Donkey Kong

The Legend of Zelda

Metroid

Kirby

Fire Emblem

Starfox

Pokemon

Kid Icarus

Xenoblade Chronicles

and many more. Nintendo is known for their franchises, and no matter what a Sony, Microsoft, or PC fanboy will tell you, they'll probably always have one of them in the back of their minds.

Edited February 12, 2015 by Geek0zoid

[Panne 1,342]

I don't know if its irrelevant, but is has went the way of the child-like toy, and yes they should make more adult games.

That's like saying mlp is a child show and that it should be made more adult... The charm comes from the childishness! Can you honestly say you want a mlp that's nothing but Cupcakes and clopfics? So why should we want that for Nintendo

 

Also they already have/do make m rated games:

Edited February 12, 2015 by Panne

[AmberDust 1,116]

My reaction when people hate on Nintendo:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ7NrApups8

 

I think it happens mainly because the aging generation of gamers fail to realize that they aren't the target audience anymore, and are getting annoyed that Nintendo continues to make and remake games for kids.

Unfortunately, lots of parents don't seem to care if their kids play adult games, so that's all the kids want to play. Forbidden garden and whatnot.

 

ALSO, people are forgetting that games are made for having fun, not competing. Nintendo just lacks the mindless competitive online shooters that other systems have, so people think they're...less hardcore? I dunno. Either way, there's nothing actually wrong about Nintendo. People (adults) are just changing what they look for in a game, whether or not its for them. Its no longer about entertainment or fun, it seems.

 

I think that's pretty dumb. And the only reason I haven't bought a Wii U yet is because they haven't released enough games for it to be worth it yet.

 

 

Also $$$

 

 

I agree, however, regarding this:

"Also, Nintendo keep doing stupid things, The "New" 3ds, the just alienated 40 million "Old" 3ds owners"

 

Oh, and also it looks like people's values are becoming more and more like this:

Graphics>entertainment>story.

 

 

 

 

Oh, and ALSO, Nintendo may not have fancy graphics and great online gaming, but they have loyal fans. I know I'LL never get tired of Pokémon, Legend of Zelda, or even Mario. Hell, I'll buy Super Smash Brother 18 if it ever comes out. I feel like there's something refreshing about Nintendo. They stick to their guns, and they value creativity and wit more than other companies do.

Can't wait to play that paintball game btw.

Also Nintendo may rehash games but any game company can do this. Nintendo isn't the only one who rehashes games. There are third party franchises guilty of this as well. A prime example is Madden. But anyway Nintendo makes new IP's as well but they somehow get overshadowed by some of their older and popular ones. Nintendo doesn't have just Mario and Zelda. They also have Pokémon Animal Crossing, Tomodachi Life, Xenoblade, Kid Icarus, Mysterious Murasame Castle (ever heard of that one?), Fossil Fighters, Freakyforms, Art Academy, Fire Emblem, Star Fox, Splatoon, Puzzle League (My favorite puzzle game), Golden Sun, etc. However I wish they should release most of their best japanese exclusives overseas like Captain Rainbow, Mother 3, Devil World, etc. But other japanese developers are guilty of this as well by not releasing some of their gems overseas.

 

I like how Nintendo is very unique from the competition. To me Playstation and Xbox are too similar to each other. However I do wish they would drop the Wii brand. Nintendo isn't perfect but neither are Sony or Microsoft or any tech company in general. Each one has advantages and disadvantages.

 

Virtual hug for mentionning Pokémon Puzzle League. I love that game. My sister rocks at it, too. It's something my whole family played (minus my mom, who never touched the N64).

I went downstairs and turned on Puzzle League the other day because I was feeling a little stressed, and to be honest, losing against Gary on Super-hard more was really refreshing and made me feel better. XD

Also I just bought this online a few days ago, and I plan on buying this when it comes out, too, even though I have the original already. Heh heh. 

 

Nintendo has me hooked. I think its the same for a lot of people.

Edited February 12, 2015 by AmberDust

[Mutemutt 772]

 

 

ALSO, people are forgetting that games are made for having fun, not competing. Nintendo just lacks the mindless competitive online shooters that other systems have, so people think they're...less hardcore? I dunno. Either way, there's nothing actually wrong about Nintendo. People (adults) are just changing what they look for in a game, whether or not its for them. Its no longer about entertainment or fun, it seems.

 

 

Oh they're having fun, they just moved to a different system to do it. You're right that they are changing what they look for in a game, but what's changing about it is what they find entertaining in games. Just like a kid growing up can lose interest in the dolls and action figures they used to play with, gamers can lose interest in the games or genres they used to love. Consider the thought that even though someone may like Nintendo games they may enjoy games not found on Nintendo consoles even more.

[AmberDust 1,116]

 

 

 Consider the thought that even though someone may like Nintendo games they may enjoy games not found on Nintendo consoles even more.

 

Yeah, of course! I'm not exclusively a Nintendo user, either. I also play XBox games and whatever else I can get my hands on. These are just patterns that I've noticed.

But what i said was more so regarding people who HATE Nintendo, not people who've moved on from it. Those be two different ball games.

[Mutemutt 772]

Yeah, of course! I'm not exclusively a Nintendo user, either. I also play XBox games and whatever else I can get my hands on. These are just patterns that I've noticed.

But what i said was more so regarding people who HATE Nintendo, not people who've moved on from it. Those be two different ball games.

 

You know, I think the people that hate Nintendo are mostly just people on the bandwagon. Likely they've never had any interest in Nintendo much less played any of their games. It probably sprung up from the console wars; whenever they'd (Sony and Xbox fanboys) get tired of fighting each other, they would just pick on Nintendo which they thought of as "not even in their league". Poor Nintendo, getting picked on by the big (and ironically much younger   ) kids on the block. Which kind of leads back to my previous point of just the way people perceive Nintendo.

Edited February 12, 2015 by Mutemutt

[AmberDust 1,116]

Amen to that. u_u Console wars are stupid.

I bet if all those corporations colaborated, they could make the one game to rule them all! Just imagine...

The graphics of XBox

The heart of Nintendo

The...something of Playstation.

By our powers combined we make...!

 

Something cool.

[Littlepip3000 111]

As far as serious, real consoles go; yes, they're dead and irrelevant. They're totally dominating the portable market, but their console stuff is dead. They're really starting to degrade on the rehashes. Rehash after rehash after rehash. Pokemon, the same darn thing every year that people still buy because it appeals to their nostalgia. Metroid is dead. Star Fox is dead. Mario is still running around somewhere. They completely the abandoned the hardcore gamers and their sales pretty much ride on nostalgia men, children, and housewives wanting to do exercise at home. They're gonna go the way of Sega quite soon, I imagine.

[TailsIsNotAlone 3,694]

My perspective on gaming is a little different; I don't play online games, so Nintendo's lack of an online experience would not be an issue for me. Some might complain that they're too old-fashioned; my issue is that they're not old-fashioned enough. Since the Wii generation they've left behind their traditional fans and pure gaming roots and tried to be kind of a half-assed alternative between the old and the new, holding themselves back in some areas while jumping ahead with unappealing gimmicks in others (like the controllers and unnecessary 3D handhelds).

 

Nintendo still sells like crazy, especially in Japan, but they're not leaving a lasting impact on gaming with anything they do now. None of it really seems important. They can always fall back on the strength of their first-party franchises like Mario and Zelda, but I don't care about franchises, I care about individual gaming experiences. A game has to have that special something that hooks me. That's why I've played the hell out of Donkey Kong Country 2, but I rarely play DKC 1 and I sold my copy of DKC 3.

 

I played all Nintendo systems as a kid right up to the 64 and I pull out my GameCube once in a while, too. But once they got to the Wii series and the 3DS, it was plain to see I wasn't their target audience anymore. I'm part of a slightly older, traditional gaming crowd that's kind of been hung out to dry in the last ten years or so, and I don't see that changing in the near future.   -_-

[AmberDust 1,116]

Words.

What are "serious" consoles? what qualifies one?

I don't quite understand the concept of a "hardcore gamer" either, but I have a feeling they aren't Nintendo's main/target audience.

[Mutemutt 772]

What are "serious" consoles? what qualifies one?

I don't quite understand the concept of a "hardcore gamer" either, but I have a feeling they aren't Nintendo's main/target audience.

 

Ha! "Hardcore gamer" and "casual" need an entire topic of their own. That's just another big old can of worms. 

 

But yeah, I get the feel hardcore gamers aren't Nintendo's target audience as well.

[Twilight Dirac 720]

Nintendo is really hard to figure out.  Two decades ago they seemed to be in the perfect position with the SNES, with both excellent 1st party games and excellent 3rd party support.  You could play classics like both Link to the Past and Final Fantasy 6 on the SNES along with a whole range of other generally solid games and the system essentially dominated the market.  For reasons I still can't understand, they largely abandoned third party support and started fussing with a bunch of hardware peripherals nobody asked for.  The third party support is now so horrible that if you are not highly invested in the next Zelda, Mario, Metriod of Pokemon there is little to no reason to obtain their consoles.  And giving how heavily recycled their current IP is, it is hard to maintain any such investment.  They still seem to do well financially, which is amazing because their long term strategy seems down right suicidal.

Edited February 13, 2015 by Twilight Dirac

[TubeSock2018 325]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztVMib1T4T4

 

Of course it's not irrelevant. As long as it's still around, it's relevant. 

Once Nintendo ends up like Sega or Atari, then it's irrelevant. 

No matter how awful someone may think Nintendo is or how behind the times they are, they obviously have a audience that keeps them coming back for more. They're just not a loud majority. 

Like the Wii. 

Not HD. Terrible Online. Awful graphics compared to games released also on 360 and PS3. Weird controls that a lot of "hard core gamers" did not like.

So how did it become one of the best selling consoles of all time. Partly due to the Nintendo brand (which is another important thing that keeps them alive), but moms loved the Wii. 

I'm not ashamed in saying that the Wii is basically a toy.

It's fun. I enjoyed it. I liked the motion controls in Skyward Sword.

But if you only looked to the internet for opinions, it would seem as if the majority hated the Wii compared to the other consoles. 

 

As for the Wii U's future, who knows. We can't truly tell if it's sink or swim for Nintendo until they've either sank or swam. 

When the Dreamcast came out, it was well received, but Sega just stopped. That's when we knew Sega was done. Only after it was officially announced that they were done.

 

So no. Nintendo is irrelevant. Not yet. Who knows when.