9th December 2003, 9:38 PM
(This post was last modified: 9th December 2003, 9:51 PM by A Black Falcon.)
Not surprising, this is what Nintendo has been repeating many times... but yes, I agree, it is the perfect way to grind your company away and lose your grip as a console developer. Sure, they are right that innovation is struggling... but as you say, they are one of the worst offenders! I desperately hope that they can see that and that in the future they do all this innovation they keep talking about, but the NGC has about as much innovation in its games as a toaster...
And I'd LOVE to hear how good stories, deep and complex controls, better looking graphics, and massive play-value increasers like online play (THAT one Nintendo should understand well, given how they spent the entire N64 generation talking about how great multiplayer was on their system!) are bad things. Oh, sure, in some games they aren't really needed, but in your entire library like how Nintendo does things? I don't see any of them that way... now, sure, not all games should be that way -- plenty of them work better without those things, or without them in the conventional way. However... that just isn't true in anywhere near all cases like Nintendo seems to think...
That complaint list there sounds far more like 'we hate the direction modern gaming is going and will fight it tooth and nail' than 'we think that the industry is lacking in innovation and we need to create some'. Far, far more. And it's sad that they can't see that...
If they can't see that modern gamers want those things in a lot of their games in increasing amounts as time passes, they will become increasingly irrelevant as a mainstream company and will be unable to maintain consoles. You cannot support a console on just things that small groups (or shrinking groups, like Nintendo's once-reliable fanbase) like... well, not unless you're SNK and your games cost $400 each. :D
However... what do you want, a Mario game with lots of FMV and a deep story? I don't. Nintendo may be wrong to hate those things, but (not for online, but for those other things) they have shaped their company so that in many cases those things just wouldn't work with Nintendo's games as they now make them. What do you want, Nintendo to slow down its devlopment cycles even more by moving into their areas with those teams? I'd rather not... and it would hurt the teams making the games they do best... add more teams? Nintendo's already pretty big...
Graphics they could improve, to a certain extent, and controls, and story... but you know, I don't want them turning into every other developer and going all the way down those routes. They need to stay unique and make a new path... the problem is that right now they are just repeating what has succeeded in the past, and that isn't good enough anymore. If they want to stand against story, complex controls, and good graphics they'll need real good reasons that (in future years, especially) those things aren't important... now, sure, in ten or twenty years graphics well might not be nearly as important since we'll be at a high level and they won't be as distinguishable. However, we aren't there yet. Nintendo needs to keep its unique look... but they also need to wake up and see that it's 2003 and not 1996. It's a tough problem for them, I'd say... they have pidgeonholed themselves against all those things and now they would have a hard time getting out if they tried.
They seem to have over time tried to avoid these problems by not changing Nintendo but by buying third parties that could do that, like Rare and now Silicon Knights. The problem is, they lost Rare, which was a BIG hit to their game diversity from internal studios... and SK is small and can only make a few games. They really need more variety from the internal Nintendo teams. I don't want them to compromise their quality, so saying 'make games faster' isn't a good idea.
And one thing else to consider -- they need to commit significant resources to the GBA too, more I bet than Sony will to the PSP or MS does to PC-only titles... that limits even further what they can do with internal teams.
What do you suggest they do, then? Make new internal studios that would try to begin to modernize Nintendo's approach? I don't know if that would work... might be worth a try, though. As you say Nintendo can't last forever as a relic.
And I'd LOVE to hear how good stories, deep and complex controls, better looking graphics, and massive play-value increasers like online play (THAT one Nintendo should understand well, given how they spent the entire N64 generation talking about how great multiplayer was on their system!) are bad things. Oh, sure, in some games they aren't really needed, but in your entire library like how Nintendo does things? I don't see any of them that way... now, sure, not all games should be that way -- plenty of them work better without those things, or without them in the conventional way. However... that just isn't true in anywhere near all cases like Nintendo seems to think...
That complaint list there sounds far more like 'we hate the direction modern gaming is going and will fight it tooth and nail' than 'we think that the industry is lacking in innovation and we need to create some'. Far, far more. And it's sad that they can't see that...
If they can't see that modern gamers want those things in a lot of their games in increasing amounts as time passes, they will become increasingly irrelevant as a mainstream company and will be unable to maintain consoles. You cannot support a console on just things that small groups (or shrinking groups, like Nintendo's once-reliable fanbase) like... well, not unless you're SNK and your games cost $400 each. :D
However... what do you want, a Mario game with lots of FMV and a deep story? I don't. Nintendo may be wrong to hate those things, but (not for online, but for those other things) they have shaped their company so that in many cases those things just wouldn't work with Nintendo's games as they now make them. What do you want, Nintendo to slow down its devlopment cycles even more by moving into their areas with those teams? I'd rather not... and it would hurt the teams making the games they do best... add more teams? Nintendo's already pretty big...
Graphics they could improve, to a certain extent, and controls, and story... but you know, I don't want them turning into every other developer and going all the way down those routes. They need to stay unique and make a new path... the problem is that right now they are just repeating what has succeeded in the past, and that isn't good enough anymore. If they want to stand against story, complex controls, and good graphics they'll need real good reasons that (in future years, especially) those things aren't important... now, sure, in ten or twenty years graphics well might not be nearly as important since we'll be at a high level and they won't be as distinguishable. However, we aren't there yet. Nintendo needs to keep its unique look... but they also need to wake up and see that it's 2003 and not 1996. It's a tough problem for them, I'd say... they have pidgeonholed themselves against all those things and now they would have a hard time getting out if they tried.
They seem to have over time tried to avoid these problems by not changing Nintendo but by buying third parties that could do that, like Rare and now Silicon Knights. The problem is, they lost Rare, which was a BIG hit to their game diversity from internal studios... and SK is small and can only make a few games. They really need more variety from the internal Nintendo teams. I don't want them to compromise their quality, so saying 'make games faster' isn't a good idea.
And one thing else to consider -- they need to commit significant resources to the GBA too, more I bet than Sony will to the PSP or MS does to PC-only titles... that limits even further what they can do with internal teams.
What do you suggest they do, then? Make new internal studios that would try to begin to modernize Nintendo's approach? I don't know if that would work... might be worth a try, though. As you say Nintendo can't last forever as a relic.
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