Nintendo has a reputation for being stubborn, a reputation that is pretty much well deserved. From the beginning they have implemented quality control on their games, but also from the beginning they have overlooked obvious pathways to even greater success. Considering the company posted its first ever losses since entering into the gaming industry this past year, it would be hoped, and should be assumed that they would wish to turn things around and get on the path to being successful, profitable and satisfy their consumer base.
Talks of this happening is taking place, but it should have been worked on 2 gaming generations ago. Online gaming is what drove their 2 main competitor’s sales. Live and the PSN have millions of users each globally, but Nintendo have still refused to use a centralized network. They instead opt to make people annoyingly collect codes from every player for every single game and then play on a severely lagged network. There is no real form of voice communication, no score board and no stats of any kind. It can barely be called online gaming by today’s standards. The Dreamcast had a better setup…
Signs of moving away from all silent characters was demonstrated in the previous Metroid installment. Critics oftentimes lambasted them for having their lead character sound different than how they expected her to be, but to be honest- they all will and they all should – get over it. In a generation of hi-def graphics, increased memory and story lines taking up a large portion of developer’s efforts, there is no excuse for their characters to not talk in the full on adventure games. Legend of Zelda especially.
Pokemon have become a franchise that is unmatched. A game is released and its an automatic hit, along with its large marketing effort of toys and other accessories. People really do gotta catch em all. Despite this, the company ignores basic requests from gamers. There have been a Pokemon Stadium where the battles can be seen in 3d to a very limited extent, but there has been 0 effort to bring gamers a full 3d adventure despite the obvious need and ability to do so.
Even their successful franchises have lost some appeal in recent years. Each generation sees the staple series getting new entries, but when the entries get drastically easier and easier, dumbing it down for children of very young ages that probably should not be playing yet, then there is an issue. People do not pay $50-$60 for a game to be beaten in 10 hours due to not the lack of depth, but the lack of challenge.
Finally… The company should stop making a handheld or other console, come out with a brand new redesign within a year, come out with another redesign, to then announce a new one, then sell an add on attachment to make up for their previous design flaws, and then sell a new model. It wastes people’s money, makes them feel shorted on their “investment” and puts instability in their market.
Following those 5 simple steps can get the company on track and keep it on track for another generation.
