{"id":3195,"date":"2014-05-07T11:18:20","date_gmt":"2014-05-07T16:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/?p=3195"},"modified":"2019-01-11T20:55:42","modified_gmt":"2019-01-12T02:55:42","slug":"no-youre-wrong-nintendo-should-not-exit-the-hardware-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/no-youre-wrong-nintendo-should-not-exit-the-hardware-business\/","title":{"rendered":"No, you’re wrong; Nintendo should NOT exit the hardware business"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Nintendo reporting a loss of $456 million dollars last year<\/a>, armchair-CEOs have once again begun clamoring for Nintendo to “get out of the hardware business” and start making games for iOS, Android, and PCs. I’ve said it before,\u00c2\u00a0but it bears repeating:<\/p>\n

This is the wrong solution.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nintendo is not Sega, the last great console-maker to exit the business and focus solely on software (something which has led to rather pronounced decline in the quality of games from their studios, though correlation or causation depends on the data, which remains scant). But, they do need to either create hardware capable of playing the games that “core” gamers want (such as Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, Elder Scrolls, etc.) with all the bells and whistles and fancy lighting and super-pixels or whatever, or else aim for mass-market appeal with devices that cost less monies, increasing the likelihood of families being\u00c2\u00a0interested in purchasing them for the home.<\/p>\n

The Wii was a smash hit because it was cheaper than the competition and<\/em> it provided a gameplay experience that was easy-to-learn and encouraged community (not in the online way that Xbox Live does, but in the actual face-to-face way). The Wii U is a step backward from that, thanks to its higher price tag and poorer selection of games. The Wii may not have had all the shooters and hardcore action games that the last-gen systems had, but it got pretty much everything else and massive numbers of other great games that embraced the physical nature of its control system (Boom Blox is a prime example of this).<\/p>\n

Nintendo makes amazing games, it’s true, but what allows them to do so is the fact that they control the entire experience, just like Apple does with OS X and the Mac or iOS and the iPhone\/iPad. But people don’t buy game systems the same way they buy computers and smartphones, and most casual gamers aren’t compelled to upgrade to the new system when the old one still works fine for everything they used it for (Wii Sports, Netflix, Virtual Console).<\/p>\n

But putting their greatest assets (in this case: Mario, Link, Samus, and Kirby) onto other people’s platforms will reduce them to a shell of what they are now. You won’t see amazing games like Super Mario Galaxy on those systems, because Nintendo won’t have the advantage of developing the hardware and software in tandem to create new and unique gaming experiences.<\/p>\n

What we want<\/strong><\/em>\u00c2\u00a0Nintendo to do and what Nintendo needs<\/strong><\/em>\u00c2\u00a0to do are not the same thing. I’d love to play Zelda on my iPhone, but not at the cost of the most influential gaming house the world has ever known. Instead, I want Nintendo to focus on creating affordable systems and valuable software. Let us buy Virtual Console games on the Wii U and play them on the 3DS (and vice-versa). Provide us the opportunity to purchase games once for all the systems we own (instead of requiring us to buy three copies of one game so that we can play it with our kids). Bring us new, big Mario and Zelda games every few years, but also give us more games like NES Remix that provide incredible gameplay at prices that scream “Value!”<\/p>\n

If Nintendo can stop trying to retake the number one spot and instead focus on providing the best games at a price people are willing to pay, they’ll do well for themselves. But to throw all their control away to make a quick buck on iOS and Android is a fool’s errand.<\/p>\n

In your future (“you” being the iOS\/Android cage-rattlers), customers will clamor over every release of a classic title they loved to play until Nintendo runs out of classic titles. And they will<\/em> run out of classic titles eventually,\u00c2\u00a0because they won’t be making\u00c2\u00a0another new title worthy of becoming a classic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Nintendo reporting a loss of $456 million dollars last year, armchair-CEOs have once again begun clamoring for Nintendo to “get out of the hardware business” and start making games for iOS, Android, and PCs. I’ve said it before,\u00c2\u00a0but it bears repeating: This is the wrong solution. Nintendo is not Sega, the last great console-maker […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,136],"tags":[76],"class_list":["post-3195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iphone-ipad","category-video-games","tag-nintendo","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1667,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/on-why-nintendo-need-not-yet-be-afraid-of-apple\/","url_meta":{"origin":3195,"position":0},"title":"On why Nintendo need not (yet) be afraid of Apple","author":"Jared Cash","date":"April 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been seeing a lot of Apple fans rabidly proclaiming the iPhone the ultimate mobile gaming machine and the death-knell for Nintendo's and Sony's portable platforms. However, as lifelong gamer and the owner of 3 generations of Nintendo's portable hardware and 4 separate devices in that family, I can say\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Apple"","block_context":{"text":"Apple","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/category\/apple\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2732,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/wii-u-first-impressions-spoiler-alert-its-a-pain-in-the-ass-but-fun-to-play\/","url_meta":{"origin":3195,"position":1},"title":"Wii U: First Impressions (SPOILER ALERT: It’s a pain in the ass, but fun to play)","author":"Jared Cash","date":"December 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The majority of this post was written as part of a survey for Nintendo about my first impressions of the system (some parts were edited or added later). Since writing it, I've finally been able to play the device and it's quite fun. But, I'm still furious about the transition\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A Day in the Life"","block_context":{"text":"A Day in the Life","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3166,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/return-to-hyrule-an-ardent-journey-to-a-familiarly-unfamiliar-place\/","url_meta":{"origin":3195,"position":2},"title":"Return to Hyrule: An ardent journey to a familiarly unfamiliar place","author":"Jared Cash","date":"January 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the winter solstice holiday, I received a Nintendo 3DS XL bundled with The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (thanks to my incredible wife), the latest offering in the Zelda franchise. While I have wanted a 3DS for some time, A Link Between Worlds became available at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Video Games"","block_context":{"text":"Video Games","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/category\/games\/video-games\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Zelda-ALBW.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Zelda-ALBW.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Zelda-ALBW.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Zelda-ALBW.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Zelda-ALBW.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2291,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/ugh-my-ewallet-is-empty-again-guess-i-wont-buy-that\/","url_meta":{"origin":3195,"position":3},"title":"“Ugh\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00c2\u00a0my eWallet is empty again. 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While the question was (it seemed to me) supposed to be about bad games that they got, it got me thinking. I don't remember getting any games that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Classic Gaming Sporadically"","block_context":{"text":"Classic Gaming Sporadically","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/category\/games\/video-games\/classicgamingsporadically\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":922,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/classic-games-that-need-to-be-on-virtual-console\/","url_meta":{"origin":3195,"position":5},"title":"Classic games that NEED to be on Virtual Console","author":"Jared Cash","date":"February 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Inspired by a recent list on episode 73 of\u00c2\u00a0Retroforce GO!, I decided to make a quick list of games that I'm waiting for on Virtual Console. Some are games that most everyone has heard of, but some are relatively unknown to a great many people, and that is a shame.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Games"","block_context":{"text":"Games","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/category\/games\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3195"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3201,"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3195\/revisions\/3201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}