Nintendo sticks the fork in one of their competitors

[Trauma-san]

Why do you think that, when Gameboy sales are greater than ever, they own 98% of the handheld market, Gamecube sales are increasing while X Box and PS2 sales are decreasing, and they have the most affordably priced system on the market?  How are things getting worse?  

[Don Breezio]

Nokia is a piece of shit...they make one of the worst products as far as cell phones go (along with kyocera & audiovox), i sell cell phones...i have never sold a nokia for one reason...nokia's were so popular the last 2 years or so because they were free with a contract that so many people got them and realized they were pieces of shit...we even have a brand new color screen nokia phone for 49.99 and people wont buy it...

[OpTiCaL]

Actually i like Nokia's...ive had all sorts eriksson...sony...siemens....nokia etc etc and my fav is nokia first with siemans second (close)



i loved my 8310..now ive got a 6100...colour, good games, converter n all that business stuff...

...the only phone that's really caught my eye recently is the sony p300 which is like a phone n pda combo...stylish..functional but too chunky for my taste

[HHH]

i think i will just stick to playing games on my gba and making phone calls on my motorola  

[caTASHtrophe]

Why do you think that, when Gameboy sales are greater than ever, they own 98% of the handheld market, Gamecube sales are increasing while X Box and PS2 sales are decreasing, and they have the most affordably priced system on the market?  How are things getting worse?  

The gamecube is a flop. Nintendo is an established games company who have been around for 20+ years in console gaming yet they are fighting for 2nd place with MS who have been in the console business 2 years.

Sales of GC in the UK and US have now slowed down to there usual low levels and u can go to www.IGN.com or gamespot.com and look under there news sections (2 or so weeks back) to see prove.

The Xbox is back in 2nd place in the UK/US and only losing in Japan.

Nintendo have lost more 3rd party support than i have downloaded MP3s this years and there 1st and 2nd party games have been regarded as a disappointment compared to there prequels (not all but some of there 1st party games).

Only thing keeping Nintendo alive is the GB, and also nintendo posted there first ever loss since going into the console Market (again check the 2 sites i mentioned.)

Nintendo should have been in first place not 3rd and fighting for 2nd. They have lost a few 3rd party companies and other companies don't even bring there multi-platform games to the GC coz of nintendo's target audience.

I love nintendo and have owned all there consoles including the GC but there phucking themselves up. Also you can quote me on this if u like but sony WILL make a massive dent to nintendo in the handheld market. They may not take the market away from them but they will phuk nintendo up good and proper.


 

[caTASHtrophe]

Something for u to read Trauma

 

http://www.nintendojo.com/editorials/view_item.php?1065098911


“What? How is it possible that this GameCube game is only worth $15 (CDN) as a trade in value?”
This is the question that I fired at a local retailer last week as I traded in Windwaker and Knockout Kings 2003 for a shiny new copy of the double disc Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 (go buy this game right now).

To which the shop owner replied;


“Eric, do you know that I wouldn’t even carry this GameCube sh*t if it weren’t for the few people around here like you who are stuck with the console? This thing [GameCube] is doing worse than the Dreamcast did during its dying days and Nintendo isn’t doing anything to help me soften the blow. When they drop their prices they don't subisdize the price cuts and I eat the difference. I lose money on any GameCube stuff. Not to mention that it doesn’t sell. Just go check your local Blockbuster and see how many GameCube games they carry compared to PS2 or Xbox.”
While Nintendo may be running around saying that they are globally number two, what they aren’t saying is that they are getting their assess handed to them in the North American market. That is, until George Harrison of NOA came out (more than likely out of the contempt for all of the ill press and bad numbers coming at him) and recently admitted as much in an IGN interview.

Instead of the usual bullshit reply from the Japanese end of the company that sports games don’t matter to Nintendo’s market segment because they make games for all ages of people; Harrison acknowledged that sports titles are an important part of his market; a market in which Nintendo has made some fundamental errors.


“We would love to have sports games sell better on GameCube. I think serious sports players sort of make their choice for their primary system and that was made over the last two or three years. So starting with the current installed base, it's a little discouraging that we can't sell more sports games. By comparison, though, sales of Madden on GameCube this year are up dramatically over the prior year so there is some progress, although it may not be as dramatic as we'd hoped. We recognize that sports is a category where we have to come out of the starting gates strong with the next console so we're going to be making every effort to make sure we've got the best sports games lined up at the launch of the next system.”
First and foremost, Harrison is acknowledging (with some much needed honesty) that Nintendo’s GameCube is being fed to the dogs when it comes to a genre that attracts casual gamers and their hard earned dollars to platforms. Secondly Harrison directly points to Madden as an indication of success, which tells you just how significant sports games are to the business. It appears Harrison is saying that since Madden is one of the top selling video game franchises ever, and Madden isn’t climbing on the GameCube, they are giving up on the system in order to focus on the next generation.

That's right, folks, the plans Nintendo has are ala Saturn to Dreamcast... dump the loser and jump too quickly into the next generation of consoles.

I think this slash and burn strategy is the result of several key mistakes by Nintendo (including their exclusion of the sports market) and, more specifically, Shigeru Miyamoto himself.

Conversely; Microsoft, a supposed first timer and underdog in this generation of consoles kicked Nintendo in their pompous ass in North America because they floated a full, viable sports line up of their own to initially get the sports push on the system. Even if the games aren't comparable to better product, Microsoft showed the third party developers that they are seriously committed to sports and online sports. Then they went out and did their best to bribe most sports publishers like EA, Sega and Konami to jump aboard as well.

The result, the casual fans superfluous income (the reason that the videogame industry has boomed over the last few years- it’s now mass consumption) picked Xbox over the regurgitated line up of GameCube which features one weak in house first party sports title, Kobe Courtside, with 1080 Avalanche in perpetual development.

Further indication that Nintendo is giving up on the GameCube lies in their pathetic line up of rehashed crap coming in the near future (which isn't fooling anyone, especially the consumer). I’ve already covered this topic in another editorial but it bears repeating. Look at the next three major releases: Mario Kart 64 II : Double Dash, Metal Gear 1+2 with no replay value via VR missions, and Rogue Squadron Sequel #28 in which Luke blows up the imperial walkers on foot this time.

Now, I've been thinking this through a bit further. The REAL REASON why these games feel like cheap rehashes is because they don't have online play! The generation before brought a fresh look to gaming because things went to 3D. This generations' 3D innovation is online play; and like sports line-ups, Nintendo has essentially ignored this important innovation. Consquently, the system is dying a quick death.

What's more, Nintendo’s slash and burn policy on the way out of this generation is turning everyone off. Nintendo isn’t subsidizing retailers for their price drops. They aren’t offering to work with retailers to sell the stale shit that’s been cluttering up their walls. All of this poor management on the business end, no serious sports support, and a lack of fresh software via online play is also burning bridges for the next console.

Do you think that any casual player who bought a GameCube will make that mistake twice? As things stand, I know I won’t. To the delight of most of you blinded, ignorant-assed fan boy shitheads out there I will gladly be retiring from Nintendo coverage once the next console comes out and if things keep going this way, that day can’t come soon enough.

But I’m curious, what is the root of the problem? Well the most obvious answer is that Nintendo is completely out of touch. By Nintendo I mean the producer who’s had his non-violent / family first hands all over every Nintendo game in this generation: Shigeru Miyamoto.

Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo are one in the same in this generation and if he can take the praise for recreating Mario 1500 times across several consoles he can certainly take the blame for having the most out of touch attitude in business since auto insurance companies began raping the public. While he may be a genius, I don't think that Miyamoto's thoughts are anywhere near what the public wants. And as much as Nintendo thinks otherwise, companies are supposed to give consumers what they want; not what they think they should have, e.g. online play, a full sports line up, new/hot games and not rehashes of three year old games etc.

A while ago I wrote an editorial called Ken Lobbed: Guess Who’s Next? In it I hypothesized that Miyamoto would be the next to go. Oh how I wish that were the case. In the same way that Miyamoto’s brilliance supported Nintendo for years and lead it in the 3D era with incredible games like Ocarina of Time and Mario 64, it is damning the company now. His abstract thinking just can’t relate to the kicking of ass that Nintendo is taking by companies like (Sony and their inexpensive online strategy-DVD playback and mature games). The competition is adapting to what consumers want rather than forcing the consumer to take what they give them (Nintendo). Miyamoto should stop counselling the company on business matters he doesn't understand and locked in a dark room to do what he does best - create sappy videogames with boring plots and incredible gameplay.

Want proof? The first example of Miyamoto’s lack of business foresight was his brain fart on the N64. He pushed for the infamous cartridge format so that Mario 64 wouldn’t have any load times. This was the beginning of what has become a slippery slope for Nintendo. Nintendo went with Miyamoto’s thinking knowing that they’d have a production model that would be cost prohibitive for outside parties. But they figured that it would much more difficult to pirate cartridges (profit only) so the consumer/developer would take what Nintendo gave them and that would be that. I can hear the board meeting now… “Hey we’re Nintendo-san. We’re number 1. You take--shit--we give you and like it, dishonourable North Americans.”

Once again, with the GameCube, Miyamoto and Co. make the same fumble with their piracy proof small format. They contest that it won’t affect gameplay. Explain why Tiger Woods 2004 is on two discs? Explain how the rampant dissemination of piracy on the PS1 didn’t repeat itself this time around? Don’t believe me that Nintendo/Miyamoto, like a high school cheerleader, is all about 'me first and you later—without any foresight'? How about hearing it from George Harrison of NOA, once again discussing why Nintendo sucks at sport:


“Well, some of it can be as simple as functionality. When we launched GameCube we didn't have a memory card at the time that was big enough to hold, say, a full season. People really fanatical about sports demand to have that memory whether it's in a hard-drive or a memory card capacity. So we kind of missed a beat there. Sports games were very important to the US market but maybe not quite as important to the Japanese one and as a result [memory card capacity] was overlooked at launch.”
So Nintendo opts for their horse racing simulator market and neglects the millions of dollars to be had in the U.S. and Canada by making a memory system so pathetic that a single sports game can’t fit on one memory stick. Other systems have hard drives for Christ sakes!

I think there’s more to the memory card situation too. My good friend Noah Ward put it to me that Nintendo may have purposely sold those original crappy memory cards so that consumers would buy them by the bag load, only to sell the larger ones later, resulting in yet another upgrade. What the hell kind of move was the memory card in the first place? Don't forget, they also promised the Panasonic version and never delivered. Harrison is right, how can you play a sports game with no memory. Not to mention that in this world of convenience you can’t expect players to go searching through all kinds of memory cards for one game they want.

Okay, what about Miyamoto’s/Nintendo’s decision to go with Game Boy Advance linking rather than online play? Boy that really worked out, seeing all of PS2 and Xbox developing a core following of online gamers for their next generation consoles this generation while simultaneously leaving Nintendo far in the dust on the next. That really looks good on Nintendo. All the while Nintendo gamers get to enjoy, “cool unlockables when they link up with their GBA.”

Speaking of which, the GBA has been remade three different times in order to whore out it’s 15 year old technology to Nintendo fanatics before Nintendo is stomped by a real portable in Sony’s upcoming effort. Once again, Sony gives the people what they want… Stereo, headphone jack, backlit, the works. Well hey, what does George Harrison think of Nintendo’s incredible GBA-GCN link up?


“Since we've launched the GameCube we've seen a really big opportunity for enhanced gameplay with the Game Boy Advance. We haven't seen the killer application for it yet which is why I think it's hard for consumers to fully get it, but there are some more things coming this fall. Clearly we've not shown the full potential of connectivity. We either have to deliver on that or we have to stop talking about it.”
And what does Miyamoto do in response to the consumer telling Nintendo that the GBA link is not a suitable replacement for online play? Apparently Miyamoto is hard at work on a killer PacMan application for the link up system that will allow GBA gamers to be the ghosts… whoah.

Can anyone be more arrogant or perhaps out of touch than Miyamoto and the company that follows his lead? When he asked at that recent famed press conference “Why aren’t they cheering?” Maybe it’s because you’ve created the same plot and games with a few gameplay twists a million times, maybe nobody gives a shit about the ants in your garden, maybe you should stop influencing every game in the Nintendo line up, maybe you don’t know shit about hardware and the business dynamics involved and should stick to drawing Italian plumbers and fantasizing! And lastly, open your ears and Nintendo's eyes, you arrogant, insular ass. While the massive gaming public is telling you to do something like online play with Mario Kart Double Dash, you’re trying to fit a square peg into a round hole with GBA connectivity. It's our dollars that move the industry, not your "innovative-profit-only-motivated" ideas.

Even though you wanted to sell more GB’s by linking it to the GameCube, and even though you wanted to rape people of money by refurbishing six year old games, and even though you wanted to rip people off with a poor memory card strategy, you need to realize that nobody is buying your “save the princess crap” or your outdated impracticality anymore. Why? Because the kids that grew up with Mario have grown right up and they aren’t stupid. They have jobs and are spending their OWN money, not mommy’s money anymore. What is more, they are spending it on a system that gives them what they want.

Nintendo, you want to get hip, let Miyamoto work on his projects ONLY and allow fresh thinking people to work on other games. More importantly, hire someone from Sony to work on your next console because your bloated arrogance and disregard for the public’s demands are sinking you fast.

[Don Breezio]

Actually i like Nokia's...ive had all sorts eriksson...sony...siemens....nokia etc etc and my fav is nokia first with siemans second (close)



i loved my 8310..now ive got a 6100...colour, good games, converter n all that business stuff...

...the only phone that's really caught my eye recently is the sony p300 which is like a phone n pda combo...stylish..functional but too chunky for my taste

those all suck too (except sony's...there not too bad..) the best phone out on the market right now (quality wise) is the samsung A-310, as far as quality & bells & whistles go the best phone (not counting PDA phones and whatnot) is the Sanyo 8100, i have the LG VX6000, other than the fact its an all digital phone its a damn good one...i wish it was tri-mode but hey...cant have everything i guess.

[T-Dogg]

Nobody's got a chance to go against Nintendo on the hand-held gaming market. Just for the simple reason that the name "Gameboy" has been established as the moniker of quality hand-held gaming since when ever they first brought out the first Gameboy... Which was like 1756.

Besides that I really don't care about Nintendo or their products (never owned any of their products, including a Gameboy). I always rooted for Sega for some reason. Too bad they went out of the console business.

But in the end of the day - fuck all the consoles. I got a PC, it's plenty for me.

[Trauma-san]

I don't care about any issues you addressed, Cash, because I don't play sports games.  LOL.  

[Trauma-san]

P.S., I sell video games, and sports games don't sell worth a shit.  They do new, but I sell them used, and they have no replay value.  I also work for an arcade operator, and we make little money off our sports games, with the exception of Golden Tee.  

[H2O proof MC]

yo Trauma what do you guys charge right now for the new golden tees?  My friend bought one this summer and that game will never get old.  Oh and buy the way long live Nintendo, I will be buying one tomorrow just so I can play mario kart