15th June 2016, 10:33 PM
So, Nintendo, Nintendo... well, beyond their awful sexism in Zelda, I have more to say about their E3 showing this year.
Now, this E3 is, by all accounts, smaller than any previous full-scale E3. One hall is very empty, the other has very wide aisles, there seem to be fewer people around in general, and such -- it's just a much smaller thing. Nintendo at least still has a booth, unlike some publishers, but like many they scaled back their presence -- they have no press conference, no other event like the tournaments of the past two years, and only one game playable on the show floor, Zelda. So, Nintendo scaling things back is part of a trend, not just something they are doing on their own. I understand that E3 is expensive to be at, and in these days of the internet, things like store buyers going to conventions like this to see what to purchase for their chain aren't as prevalent as they used to be. That makes sense.
However, the press conference and announcements side of E3 is not only for that audience, it's also for gamers. And by showing so little this E3, having no press conference or E3 Direct, and having no stage event at all, it makes E3 feel kind of empty in a way it wasn't before. I really miss Nintendo having E3 conferences, events like the last two years, and such. Either Nintendo is being too quiet at a time when they probably should be announcing something, or they maybe don't know what they should be doing. It could just be that like Sony, they want to follow the Apple model and only announce their new product right before it announces, instead of long before as everyone used to do. That's frustrating, though, particularly for a thing as nebulous as the NX. What is it, exactly? We still don't know! For something that's supposed to release next spring, I feel like we SHOULD know by now what it is. So yes, I strongly prefer Microsoft's approach, announcing a system now that won't release until late 2017, over Sony and Nintendo not saying much about systems supposed to release well before that.
And on the note of the Playstation 4 Neo and the Xbox One "Project Scorpio", Nintendo announced the NX before either of those. At the time, the idea seems to have been to have a system on par with or maybe a bit more powerful than the PS4. However, now that both competitors are abandoning the old console generation model in favor of shorter cycles between platforms and upgraded systems instead of full new platforms. Sony and MS are currently both promising that games for the new system will also work on their current one, as if all Game Boy Color games were black (dual-mode) carts instead of clear (GBC-only) ones. I expect this to change eventually, as the install bases for the new models get larger and developers want to push them more, but that's a good thing to say right now.
So the problem is, what does Nintendo do in response to this? They're almost certainly releasing an all-new platform, instead of a fourth upgrade of the Gamecube hardware, but will they upgrade the NX's hardware versus the original supposed plans in response to Sony and MS, if we presume that it wasn't originally planned as being anywhere near Scorpio's level of power? And there have been rumors about Nintendo thinking about VR, so how much power would be needed to do that? There are a lot of tough questions here, of price versus performance, of how much power you need to attract at least SOME third parties if that is even possible for Nintendo anymore, if you can come up with some magic Wii-like hook to sell a hundred million systems again (an unlikely but not impossible dream), and such. Ever since the Gamecube failed to sell, Nintendo has stuck with systems that are about a generation behind in hardware power. That worked great the first time, but quite badly the second. Now that we know Sony and MS are upgrading early, what does Nintendo do? Nintendo's silence here is frustrating and raises questions. Have they decided, and don't want to talk about it yet for some reason -- because they think the hardcore won't like their answer, because they think Sony or MS will get more attention here at E3, or what have you -- or, worse, have they not decided yet? Because by being so silent about the NX, again, I can't help but wonder about if Nintendo really knows what to do. The incredibly limited amount of NX information they have released leaves all these questions out there, and I'm not the only one asking them. What is Nintendo's plan? Can they come up with something that will reverse their declining sales and sell well again? Personally, I do think that they need to at least get closer to the power of the other upcoming consoles; as successful as the Wii was, I've always been a bit disappointed by how far behind the other consoles of its generation it is. Thanks to motion controls that didn't hurt the Wii, but I do think it hurt the Wii U, and it'd hurt the NX too unless they have some amazing new hook... but do you want to put everything on that hook and not enough into competitive hardware, again, as they did with the Wii U? Will they learn from their mistakes?
On that note, after Paper Mario: Sticker Star for the 3DS was very harshly criticized for all regular attacks being limited-use stickers, bad boss fights, way too many Toads, no partners, and no levels, the new Paper Mario game, Paper Mario: Color Splash for the Wii U... does all of those things again, it seems. Nintendo, stubborn to a fault as always, strikes again. Sometimes this is great, when they stick to great gameplay ideas, continue making retail 2d and 2.5d platformers, and more, but other times it's not great. Which way will it be this time?
Now, this E3 is, by all accounts, smaller than any previous full-scale E3. One hall is very empty, the other has very wide aisles, there seem to be fewer people around in general, and such -- it's just a much smaller thing. Nintendo at least still has a booth, unlike some publishers, but like many they scaled back their presence -- they have no press conference, no other event like the tournaments of the past two years, and only one game playable on the show floor, Zelda. So, Nintendo scaling things back is part of a trend, not just something they are doing on their own. I understand that E3 is expensive to be at, and in these days of the internet, things like store buyers going to conventions like this to see what to purchase for their chain aren't as prevalent as they used to be. That makes sense.
However, the press conference and announcements side of E3 is not only for that audience, it's also for gamers. And by showing so little this E3, having no press conference or E3 Direct, and having no stage event at all, it makes E3 feel kind of empty in a way it wasn't before. I really miss Nintendo having E3 conferences, events like the last two years, and such. Either Nintendo is being too quiet at a time when they probably should be announcing something, or they maybe don't know what they should be doing. It could just be that like Sony, they want to follow the Apple model and only announce their new product right before it announces, instead of long before as everyone used to do. That's frustrating, though, particularly for a thing as nebulous as the NX. What is it, exactly? We still don't know! For something that's supposed to release next spring, I feel like we SHOULD know by now what it is. So yes, I strongly prefer Microsoft's approach, announcing a system now that won't release until late 2017, over Sony and Nintendo not saying much about systems supposed to release well before that.
And on the note of the Playstation 4 Neo and the Xbox One "Project Scorpio", Nintendo announced the NX before either of those. At the time, the idea seems to have been to have a system on par with or maybe a bit more powerful than the PS4. However, now that both competitors are abandoning the old console generation model in favor of shorter cycles between platforms and upgraded systems instead of full new platforms. Sony and MS are currently both promising that games for the new system will also work on their current one, as if all Game Boy Color games were black (dual-mode) carts instead of clear (GBC-only) ones. I expect this to change eventually, as the install bases for the new models get larger and developers want to push them more, but that's a good thing to say right now.
So the problem is, what does Nintendo do in response to this? They're almost certainly releasing an all-new platform, instead of a fourth upgrade of the Gamecube hardware, but will they upgrade the NX's hardware versus the original supposed plans in response to Sony and MS, if we presume that it wasn't originally planned as being anywhere near Scorpio's level of power? And there have been rumors about Nintendo thinking about VR, so how much power would be needed to do that? There are a lot of tough questions here, of price versus performance, of how much power you need to attract at least SOME third parties if that is even possible for Nintendo anymore, if you can come up with some magic Wii-like hook to sell a hundred million systems again (an unlikely but not impossible dream), and such. Ever since the Gamecube failed to sell, Nintendo has stuck with systems that are about a generation behind in hardware power. That worked great the first time, but quite badly the second. Now that we know Sony and MS are upgrading early, what does Nintendo do? Nintendo's silence here is frustrating and raises questions. Have they decided, and don't want to talk about it yet for some reason -- because they think the hardcore won't like their answer, because they think Sony or MS will get more attention here at E3, or what have you -- or, worse, have they not decided yet? Because by being so silent about the NX, again, I can't help but wonder about if Nintendo really knows what to do. The incredibly limited amount of NX information they have released leaves all these questions out there, and I'm not the only one asking them. What is Nintendo's plan? Can they come up with something that will reverse their declining sales and sell well again? Personally, I do think that they need to at least get closer to the power of the other upcoming consoles; as successful as the Wii was, I've always been a bit disappointed by how far behind the other consoles of its generation it is. Thanks to motion controls that didn't hurt the Wii, but I do think it hurt the Wii U, and it'd hurt the NX too unless they have some amazing new hook... but do you want to put everything on that hook and not enough into competitive hardware, again, as they did with the Wii U? Will they learn from their mistakes?
On that note, after Paper Mario: Sticker Star for the 3DS was very harshly criticized for all regular attacks being limited-use stickers, bad boss fights, way too many Toads, no partners, and no levels, the new Paper Mario game, Paper Mario: Color Splash for the Wii U... does all of those things again, it seems. Nintendo, stubborn to a fault as always, strikes again. Sometimes this is great, when they stick to great gameplay ideas, continue making retail 2d and 2.5d platformers, and more, but other times it's not great. Which way will it be this time?