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+--- Thread: New franchises from Nintendo (/showthread.php?tid=3546)
New franchises from Nintendo - Paco - 21st February 2006
Quote:Nintendo aims for Revolution
Brand new super franchise to be revealed in May
[21/02/2006 14:13]
Nintendo will announce a new franchise for Revolution at the annual E3 games show this May, with the goal of creating another big success story like gaming behemoths Zelda, Mario and Nintendogs.
"This year's E3 will be Revolution's coming out party", according to Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo's executive vice president of sales and marketing. In an online interview Reggie confirmed that new franchises and "a lot of information" will be uncovered at this year's event.
Reggie also revealed further nuggets of info, confirming that the name Revolution is still a code name, that Nintendo has shared over a thousand Revolution development kits with developers across the world, and that a third version of DS wasn't "an unreasonable assumption".
When questioned about Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Reggie was positive that Nintendo would launch the game for GameCube in 2006, later adding that "GameCube games will only be compatible with GameCube accessories" and that Revolution titles are the only ones that will use the new controller.
With Sony and Microsoft still fighting over who's got the best technology and multimedia support, it looks like Nintendo has been busy with what gaming is all about - the games. May 2006 can't come soon enough.<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
http://www.gamesradar.com/news/default.asp?pagetypeid=2&articleid=43386&subsectionid=2504
Exciting.
New franchises from Nintendo - Great Rumbler - 21st February 2006
I can't wait for November...
New franchises from Nintendo - lazyfatbum - 21st February 2006
Nintendo has said for almost a year now that Revolution will see several brand new franchises.
That Reggie quote about "Gamecube games will use Gamecube accesories" is a really interesting quote. So NES, SNES and N64 games will get to use the shell or revcon, but GC games will not? or is he hinting that Zelda will remain a GC game while there will be a seperate Revolution Zelda launch (same game, rev compatability, graphics, etc)?
We already know that Nintendo wants to update older games for the virtual console 'in more ways than graphics', and Miyamoto and others even teased about playing older games with the Revcon, even showing MP2 with Revcon support. Or could this mean that all the older titles will use the GC controller? So NES, SNES, N64 and GC will use the GC controller, while Revolution games use the revcon... this goes against everything Nintendo has said up to this point though it is the most logical. Reggie commented that 'The Shell will allow for every type of gameplay experience and will be configurable for each virtual console while also allowing developers to create more traditional content for Revolution" So... what the hey?
New franchises from Nintendo - lazyfatbum - 21st February 2006
A more in-depth article on the interview from Spong:
Speaking to hot gizmo site Engadget yesterday, Reggie Fils-Aime made some pretty bold and interesting comments regarding his lack of interest in the competition, the likelihood of a third version of the DS handheld next year, and the possible unveiling of a major new Nintendo franchise alongside further Revolution news at this year’s E3.
Speaking of a possible third iteration of the DS in 2007, Reggie said: “I wouldn’t say that that’s an unreasonable assumption. Look at how many times we’ve improved on the Game Boy Advance in terms of the look, the feel, screen changes, and everything else. We believe that type of constant innovation is critical to driving this industry, and certainly if you look at the world wide sales of Game Boy Advance, I don’t think anyone would disagree.”
Speaking of the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection, Reggie made it clear that, what with Metroid Prime: Hunters and Tetris DS both launching in the US in March, the objective “...is to get every single consumer to try Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection at least once.”
When asked about the lack of persistent friends on the Nintendo Wi-Fi service, Reggie answered: “in terms of having to have new friend codes for every game, quite frankly, what that does is put control in the hands of the gamer. So there are some people that I want to let into my house with Animal Crossing and others that I don’t, and that friend code set up allows me to manage that title by title. We think that’s the appropriate way to go.”
In light of recent media scare stories surrounding the dangers of online gaming SPOnG is glad to hear Reggie making this point and we can but hope that Nintendo manage to communicate this vital point to any concerned parents who might be put off allowing their children to play DS games with their friends online by mis-informed media scaremongering.
Not one to mix his words, Reggie waded into Sony and Microsoft, having a cheeky little pop at the ‘exclusionary’ nature of Nintendo’s competitor’s overall marketing strategies. Reggie claims that both Sony and Microsoft are making content development problematically expensive for developers, whilst at the same time providing “...a level of horsepower technology that not many consumers want.”
Speaking of developer reaction to the 1,000 Revolution dev kits that have already gone out, Reggie was more than happy that the development community in question were, “...embracing our vision of creating games that are as sophisticated as the core gamer wants it to be but [can also be] as straightforward and as accessible as brand new gamers want. And that vision, that strategy is what Nintendo is all about. We want to create a system with Revolution that appeals to all types of gamers versus going down a path that, frankly, is a bit exclusionary.”
He also dismissed claims that not having HDTV support would negatively impact upon sales of the new console, still ‘codenamed’ Revolution. Clearly warming to his theme, Reggie made the common-sense observation that, “HD games don't look as good on the majority of regular tv's…. the question is which one will have amazing new kinds of games with innovative experience. The answer is Revolution.”
The new Zelda: Twilight Princess will definitely be released for GameCube in 2006, as we reported yesterday and in Reggie’s somewhat biased opinion “...will be the biggest and best title ever for GameCube.”
Well, you know Reg, we kind of hope so!
When asked what he thought about the 360, Reggie answered: “Honestly, I was underwhelmed…while certainly some games look fantastic, I found the game play for many of the titles lacking. And so for me it was not something that held my interest for very long.”
There is a respectful nod to Xbox Live which he admits is "...very intriguing… we certainly are looking at what they’re doing" but Reggie claims that if he had spent what would be close to $700 on a 360 premium pack and a couple of games and accessories, “I’d be disappointed right now.”
Reggie closes the interview with a trademark flourish. When asked about Nintendo’s response to Sony and Microsoft’s strategies of positioning their new consoles as multimedia digital entertainment devices in addition to gaming devices, he has the following salient points to make.
“Our philosophy is that consumers want great gaming experiences and our passion is delivering great gaming experiences. In the home console space, we believe that the best way to do that is with a dedicated machine. In the handheld space, as you’ve said, the DS does have other capabilities in the multimedia area, but we believe it’s important to first establish its credentials as a superb game playing device.
To be perfectly clear, the Microsoft and Sony strategies are based on overall corporate objectives versus what’s right for the consumer. That’s a reality. Microsoft is essentially trying to get you to put a PC in your living room because they are fundamentally a PC software company. Sony is trying to get you to put an entertainment hub that has Blu-ray technology because that’s important to their movie business and the rest of their entire electronics business.
We are a gaming company. We are gamers at heart. We love creating great, innovative content and superbly designed hardware, that’s what we do. And with that passion comes a laser-like focus to do things that are right for the consumer and right for the business. That’s the fundamental difference in our strategy versus our competition.”
As ever, it’s a joy to hear what Reggie has to say. SPOnG salutes you, sir.
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wow, totally slammed MS and Sony. i guess he still does his fair amount of the the 'ass' and 'kicking' thing with a dubious effort towards the 'name taking' as well.
New franchises from Nintendo - Paco - 21st February 2006
Quote:Not one to mix his words, Reggie waded into Sony and Microsoft, having a cheeky little pop at the ‘exclusionary’ nature of Nintendo’s competitor’s overall marketing strategies. Reggie claims that both Sony and Microsoft are making content development problematically expensive for developers, whilst at the same time providing “...a level of horsepower technology that not many consumers want.”
Pfft. Game development gets more expensive EVERY generation. This is nothing new.
Quote:To be perfectly clear, the Microsoft and Sony strategies are based on overall corporate objectives versus what’s right for the consumer. That’s a reality. Microsoft is essentially trying to get you to put a PC in your living room because they are fundamentally a PC software company. Sony is trying to get you to put an entertainment hub that has Blu-ray technology because that’s important to their movie business and the rest of their entire electronics business.
The thing about the 360 is you can get as much out of it as you want. At its most basic it can only play games. If you choose to go all out (paying for it all along the way) then it does turn into a media center hub. Microsoft's practice of consumer customization was with the consumer in the mind.
I don't have an excuse for Sony. Blu-Ray is unnecessary at this point, and cell is better suited for general computing than gaming. Billions of dollars are invested in both, and it's likely that the consumer will end up paying extra for it as they are both going to be built into the console.
In any case, who gives a fuck when you get great gaming on either one of those consoles?
New franchises from Nintendo - A Black Falcon - 21st February 2006
Nintendo's biggest mistake (and Reggie's): his repeated defences of Nintendo's moronic internet strategy. He actually pretends that it's a GOOD thing that Nintendo Online only lets you either play random games with people you cannot contact, talk to, or have any interaction with in any way or to play game-specific (that is, with no unified "who's online" list) multiplayer with people you know outside of the context of the game only! He defends it in interviews, and based on that makes it REALLY sound like that's how the Revolution will work to... it's so horrible, and so broken, that... well, this is like Nintendo saying "connectivity is our online" or "online gaming is a fad" or "we can do just as well without a CD drive this generation" with the N64, etc... incredibly, incredibly stupid and horribly restrictive. It doesn't exactly make me overly eager to play Nintendo's games online... despite the fact that it would be fun, how fun is it with no way to interact the other players? Yeah, really not different from single player. Sad. Microsoft is doing great things with online consoles, and Sony looks like it's going to follow them and do something like that, and again Nintendo doesn't get the message... hmm, I wonder why they've dropped users every generation...
I mean, I love their games, but they really do seem to like to make things hard on themselves!
Oh yeah, and the Zelda delay risks minimizing its impact (like Majora's Mask's) relative to what it could have done... this cannot be helped, but consoles are not PCs where you can simply spec up -- it's based on a specific platform, and each one has a timespan. The GC's is clearly mostly done... does this mean that Zelda will have Revolution hooks? It means it's likely...
Of course, the game will be great. Clearly. That's not the question, its impact and sales are... will it do as well as a late 2006 Gamecube game? Would some small Revolution hook really help? I don't know... I know that they should delay it if it's not done, but that's the problem with working on a console late in its life... even good games get relatively ignored (like most of the late 2000 and all the 2001 GC games).
Oh, as for HDTV, that won't matter for a few years. It might hurt Nintendo in 2008 or something, but not this year...
New franchises from Nintendo - Great Rumbler - 22nd February 2006
Have you seen Nintendo's wifi numbers? It was something like 800,000 unique users in one month or so and 3 million connections. I'm not saying that there aren't some aspects of it that can be improved, but it's insanely successful.
New franchises from Nintendo - A Black Falcon - 22nd February 2006
That's not the point, the abysmal design, execution, and verbal defence of a horrible system are the problem... do console gamers really notice? No, because they aren't used to playing online games, sadly... though they will much more very soon with the X360, and also PS3 if the rumors are even half to be believed... with that, versus something like WiFi Connection? Yeah, any sane person would see how pitiful and horribly broken Nintendo's system is.
I know, they're trying to not scare people with the compexity of online, they're trying to protect children, etc... it does not defend their actions.
New franchises from Nintendo - Great Rumbler - 22nd February 2006
But it does make tons of money.
New franchises from Nintendo - Dark Jaguar - 22nd February 2006
How so? I didn't pay any fees to get online.
I'm also fairly sure a lot of people would have bought the online games if they were offline. Not I, but the point remains there is currently no "control group" to conduct a proper scientific test of whether it was truly the online feature that sold the game. The numbers don't lie, but they are also only saying one thing. The thing they are saying is simply that a lot of people are using the online feature of the game :D.
If it can be well established that YES, people are buying the game mainly for online play (and Nintendo is attempting to verify this via survey), THEN we have one last thing. Will better online service result in more sales? I think so.
New franchises from Nintendo - lazyfatbum - 22nd February 2006
ABF/ http://www.nintendorevolution.ca/02222006/13/abc_news_in_trouble_over_nintendo_ds_story
New franchises from Nintendo - A Black Falcon - 22nd February 2006
That's not even online, but that could happen with any online system, such as instant messaging...
And anyway, I've said before that some kind of multitiered thing with options to disable chat, etc. for children might be a good idea (as an option) if Nintendo is concerned about that kind of thing... but crippling everybody almost beyond the point where the online is worth it just to protect a few is absurd.
New franchises from Nintendo - lazyfatbum - 22nd February 2006
Well i should have elaborated a little, the reason that happened is not because of the little girl, the predator, the fact it was over the local network, nnone of that matters. What matters is that it has the Nintendo name, nintendo = kids. With DS and soon with Rev, Nintendo will be putting kids online and that makes parents scared. if it was the 360, no one would care, PS3, again no one would care, PC, you bet, no one would care. Say that a predator was on the DS stalking kids and you have yourself national media coverage almost instantly.
New franchises from Nintendo - Dark Jaguar - 22nd February 2006
By the way, the online system the DS games have been using isn't really all that aweful. It has matchmaking with random players and a skill based matchmaking system. Those are modern expectations out of multiplayer and it does that well enough. It does the job, in those cases. The failing comes in the form of the total inability to add people you randomly encounter to your friends list. All they need to do is simply require the need for the other person to "accept" any friend request and then automatically add the two players involved to each other's lists.
I believe a better ability to add friends to one's friend list is about the only real addition they need to add, but they NEED to add it.
New franchises from Nintendo - Dark Jaguar - 22nd February 2006
That is an interesting point. Nintendo in fact said that was the EXACT reason they have done such limiting as this. Here's the deal though. I'm pretty sure that the news does not share the same kiddy ideals about Nintendo that the gaming community does. If any game, any VIDEO GAME, is suddenly targetted as the source of stalking, you have a major story fed everywhere. It has already happened with MMOs it seems.
If someone stalks and kills someone using the voice chat feature of the XBox, you can BET it'll be a major news story for at least an entire week. And they are more likely to say "are your KIDS safe?" not "are YOU safe?".
So then, the problem as I see it is likely Nintendo just doesn't want to be first in line when the media targets some sicko.
I think the matter is simple though. Nintendo merely need point out that logically it is the responsiblility of the parents to teach their kids to NEVER reveal personal information to strangers online, and that logically the blame has to lie with the stalker alone for the actions the stalker took. You can't blame Scotch if their tape is used for some dark purpose. The DS isn't a tool used to hurt people, it is a device to instigate FRIENDSHIP and LITERALLY GENERATE MAGICAL RAINBOWS.
New franchises from Nintendo - A Black Falcon - 22nd February 2006
Actually, it wasn't just to protect children, though that might be what they said here, it is also because they think that Japanese gamers don't play online games and thought that the best way to get them to play would be to remove all "potential problems" -- like being able to talk (and thus possibly annoy/harrass/whatever) to the other players when online.
And maybe that's fine for people who have never played online games, but as I've said repeatedly, for people who HAVE... I played online games before that had no interaction -- Microsoft's automatchmaking Hearts/Go/etc games that came with WinME. You can just send default messages from a specific short list, not make your own. It dissasociates you from the game and really makes it only feel slightly different from offline... and the DS, where the only "interaction" is your user icon in Mario Kart? Yeah. Major problem. How much fun is online gaming without being able to talk to the other players? Not much!
Quote:If someone stalks and kills someone using the voice chat feature of the XBox, you can BET it'll be a major news story for at least an entire week. And they are more likely to say "are your KIDS safe?" not "are YOU safe?".
There was a story about "children at risk from Xbox live" at least once since the X360's launch...
Quote:I think the matter is simple though. Nintendo merely need point out that logically it is the responsiblility of the parents to teach their kids to NEVER reveal personal information to strangers online, and that logically the blame has to lie with the stalker alone for the actions the stalker took. You can't blame Scotch if their tape is used for some dark purpose. The DS isn't a tool used to hurt people, it is a device to instigate FRIENDSHIP and LITERALLY GENERATE MAGICAL RAINBOWS.
Have you heard Reggie defending this stuff with ridiculous comments like how it's good that there is no unified online service because there might be people you might want as a friend in one game and not in another, how Nintendo's focus is on "quick play and playing with friends" essentially... which means "just like the DS -- dissasociating, pointless random matchmaking with no communication or with people you already know"... and completely misses the whole point of online gaming. If you want to just play with people you already know... well, that's like PC multiplayer gaming before 1996 -- via IP/modem. Just type in your friends IP address to connect!
... There's a reason that online modes replaced direct IP/modem. It stunk and was barely usable. Same here, except with a random matchmaking thing too that kind of disguises how terrible this system is, until you realize how badly lacking the options are... seriously, I play Guild Wars and Warcraft III online. I wouldn't much, I'm sure, if I couldn't talk with the other people (friends list? they're almost never on, so that's not a factor.).