Nintendo slowly digging it's own grave?

[Entermaid]

As a consumer, it's fair game to voice concerns regarding a company and how their actions will affect future purchases.

I think Nintendo is out of touch in a variety of ways, like dissing VR or using less advanced processing systems. When a company doesn't lead change, competitors and the premier developers go with the other consoles. With that said, I prefer nintendo's console exclusives in comparison to most other exclusives that Microsoft and Sony have developed. Nintendo lead the charge with the handheld console and has ALWAYS innovated and wowed customers (2ds being the exception, lmao). Although the gamecube as a system was unimpressive, the games were excellent. The Super Nintendo, N64, and Wii consoles were evolutionary though! The Wii U's gimmick doesn't set the pace as the other systems have. Further, the restrictions on 3rd party developers and lack of online chat, has hurt the robustness of nintendo. Sure, I don't care for most first person shooters or Madden games, but Nintendo needs to maintain a robust

A list of nearly 300 games on PC, XBOX ONE, and PS4....and not Wii U!
https://www.ign.com/wikis/wii-u/Games_for_Everything_but_Wii_U

I will say, Nintendo will always have me as a fan and consumer as long as they continue to produce exclusive games of my favorite characters, but I wish they were smart enough to expand their market in order to support their resources in hopes that they are able to sufficiently develop polished games.

Saying that Nintendo has been in business so long doesn't mean they are making smart choices recently! With that said, I think Nintendo had a HUGE wake up call after the Wii U's unsuccessful launch, and you can see the rebound despite their lack of pizzazz at this year's E3. Afterall, many of the games coming out this year or next were revealed at last year's E3. They obviously knew that it was critical to reveal more than usual last year, at the expense of showing as much new content this year.

 

[GiovanniViridian]

I think Nintendo is out of touch in a variety of ways, like dissing VR

Although I agree with the rest of your post, from what I read Nintendo didn't really diss VR, it's just Reggie telling his opinions based on VR so far since right now VR is just a demo. Here's the actual whole quote from Reggie:

"I haven't walked the floor, so I can't say in terms of what's on the floor today, but at least based on what I've seen to date, it's not fun, and it's not social. It's just tech."
​

 

[JustDutch101]

It's kinda funny to see some random internet people telling a 130-year-old company how to run a business despite having little to experience to it at all, and I find it odd that most of the complainers are from Europe, which is Nintendo's weakest market.

There's a reason why most of the complainers are from Europe. We're used to America getting a better treatment in games like way earlier release dates almost all of the time and way more fanservice. I do get it. But with Nintendo it's Japan - America - Europe. But it shouldn't. If your an international company you should atleast pretend to treat all of your customers the same , no matter where they are from. So thats explains alot why it's their weakest market. And I'm not telling them what they should do or how they should run a company , but I do disagree with alot they have been doing and I know I'm not the only one. I talked to alot of gamers (online and face to face in my own country). All of these things are pointed out why alot of the people I speak actually switched over. Unless you're a big fan of mario (I believe there isn't even a Pokemon game on Wii U..) or Zelda then theres just no reason to choose for the Wii U. The Wii was even ahead of the others when it was released , the gamecube could compete because it had alot to offer with games. The Wii U is far behind in a time where Microsoft and Sony are going crazy and those who choose to play on PC just don't fall back to consoles. Nintendo has to win back alot of gamers while they are far behind from other companies. Are they even going to wow us and put VR and Hololens back into the corner? There's really more presure than ever on their next console. I don't know anything about how to run a company , but I do know times have changed and Microsoft and Sony got closer and closer. The way I feel (I could be false) is that they're just living on their fanbase for now , that's dangerous.

 

[Her]

nintendo is the world's largest video game company by revenue + it's getting it's own theme park of sorts so.....

i think nintendo is doing just fine for the meanwhile, kiddies

 

[JustDutch101]

That's not necessarily true. If you looked at the Club Nintendo loyalty program before it was shut down, I'd say NoE had much better prizes. While we did get downloadable games, most of them weren't very interesting, or were games that almost everyone had anyway. Meanwhile, Europe had freaking MARIO KART TROPHIES and 3DS XL charging docks (We never got those by the way, ever). Plus, the reason Japan has games first, followed by NA, then Europe, is mostly the localisation processes taking much longer. North America has only two or three languages to translate to, being English, French, and Spanish. Europe, meanwhile, has 5 or 6, not to mention wording changes too (Which account for censorship policies and region changes, look at TCRF.net for many examples of this). It's not necessarily just NoE that's getting **** treatment, I'd say it's all their markets outside of Japan in general get the terrible treatment.

Yes I agree all of the markets outside of Japan are getting worse treatment but translating doesn't take up months right? Maybe a week or so. Ofcourse America doesn't always get the better treatment but in many cases they do. But I completely understand it , and if I can play the game within a few days of the release date of America or Japan it doesn't matter. The problem is Nintendo is actually the only company with these big release date differences. Elder Scrolls Online came out in Europe the day after the USA (due to time difference I think) and thats amazing. No differences between locations is the perfect idea , but waiting a few days isn't horrible and I could deal with that. But actual weeks or even months? Thats just shwoing off where their priorities are. If you have enough money to last years without income , take the money and make sure all of your fans , no matter the location , get equal treatments. It's just bad fanservice. Nintendo should change this because , and I think they underestimate this , it irritates alot of people.

 

[machomuu]

Yes I agree all of the markets outside of Japan are getting worse treatment but translating doesn't take up months right? Maybe a week or so.

Not necessarily. Generally, it takes a good while, certainly longer than a week or so, and the idea of a translation taking up to a month or more is far from unheard of.

Because there's a lot that goes into translating and localizing a game. There's a lot of planning to be done, choices to be made, writing to be done (because straight copy-and-paste translations aren't really attractive to the consumer), and constant communication between the original company and the translators/localizers to approve of and suggest various localization choices that may be required for the game. At least. All things considered, it's rarely a short process.

 

[donavannj]

Not necessarily. Generally, it takes a good while, certainly longer than a week or so, and the idea of a translation taking up to a month or more is far from unheard of.

Because there's a lot that goes into translating and localizing a game. There's a lot of planning to be done, choices to be made, writing to be done (because straight copy-and-paste translations aren't really attractive to the consumer), and constant communication between the original company and the translators/localizers to approve of and suggest various localization choices that may be required for the game. At least. All things considered, it's rarely a short process.

On top of all that, there's also QAing the text of the new translation to make sure it doesn't cause bugs that don't exist in the original game.

 

[JustDutch101]

Then how is Nintendo one of the few companies with these huge release dates differences?

 

[Nah]

Then how is Nintendo one of the few companies with these huge release dates differences?

They're not. Like I said before, it's actually rather common for games to have different release dates for each region:

Phantasy Star Online
Dark Souls
Halo 3
Super Mario Galaxy
Jak 3
Disgaea D2
Call of Duty: Ghosts
Assassin's Creed IV
TES: Skyrim
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies

^All examples of games that came out on different dates in different regions, with several different companies and systems represented. I could even list list more games.....

 

[Spinosaurus]

Then how is Nintendo one of the few companies with these huge release dates differences?

Man I wish they were.
But considering localization costs and how time consuming they are, really, is it a surprise the release date gaps are that big between regions for the majority of games?

 

[JustDutch101]

They're not. Like I said before, it's actually rather common for games to have different release dates for each region:

Phantasy Star Online
Dark Souls
Halo 3
Super Mario Galaxy
Jak 3
Disgaea D2
Call of Duty: Ghosts
Assassin's Creed IV
TES: Skyrim
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies

^All examples of games that came out on different dates in different regions, with several different companies and systems represented. I could even list list more games.....

It's not about having different release dates in like days or maybe even a week or 2. But 3-4 months is a bit much , especially if ORAS was avaible within a week.

 

[donavannj]

It's not about having different release dates in like days or maybe even a week or 2. But 3-4 months is a bit much , especially if ORAS was avaible within a week.

Well, ORAS is the exception rather than the rule... GameFreak and The Pokemon Company International were the parties planning the global release. Prior to global releases, which only started with XY, Japan often had the games for nearly half a year before the rest of the world. It takes a substantial amount of cooperation among a company's international branches to prepare a coordinated worldwide release like that, and the payoff is really only worth it with titles that will immediately sell like hotcakes worldwide like the main series Pokemon games.

 

[Sir Codin]

Aren't release dates generally determined by a market's bids for distribution?

 

[Zoroark Cutie]

It's not about having different release dates in like days or maybe even a week or 2. But 3-4 months is a bit much , especially if ORAS was avaible within a week.

Well if you want examples of that, here are some. Borderlands, released in October of 2009, Japan didn't get it until December of 2009 on PC and February of 2010 for consoles, not a Nintendo game. Yakuza, released in Japan in December of 2005, didn't get released in North America and Europe didn't get it until September of 2006, again, not a Nintendo game. Persona 4: Golden, released in June of 2012 in Japan, didn't get released in North America until November of that year and February of 2013 in Australia and Europe, again, this is not a Nintendo game. Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMix, March 2013 for April, and the rest of the world in September, and again, not a Nintendo game. Sniper Elite V2, April 2012 for North America on Steam, May 2012 for North America on consoles and everywhere else, Japan didn't get it until August. World of Warcraft, November of 2004 in Australia and North America, Europe didn't get it until February next year and Brazil didn't get it until December of 2011. Call of Juarez, released in Europe in September of 2006, Australia in October, and North America didn't get it until June of 2007. Max Payne, released on PC in July 2001, then on the PS2 and Xbox in North America in early December, then Europe in early January of 2002 for PS2 and mid March for Xbox, and Japan wouldn't get it until May of 2003 on PS2. Final Fantasy XIII, Japan got in December of 2009 and only PS3, the rest of the world didn't get it until March of 2010. Resonance of Fate, released in Japan in January of 2010, North America and Europe didn't get it until March. Gears of War, released everywhere in November of 2006 and Japan didn't get it until January. Tenchu Z, Japan got in October of 2006 and every place else got in June of 2007. Ico, released in September of 2001 in North America, December of the same year in Japan, and Europe would never get it until March of 2003. The Ratchet and Clank HD Collection, June of 2012 in Europe and Australia, North America would later get it in August followed by Japan in in September. Sly Cooper, released in North America in September 2002, Europe got it January 2003, and Japan would later get it in March. The original Halo, released in November 2001 in North America, Europe got it in March 2002, and Japan in April. Fahrenheit, released in September of 2005 in Europe and a week later in North America as Indigo Prophecy, Japan didn't get it until January of 2006 and on the PC until April when everyplace else got in 2005. Zero ~Akai Chō~ was released in Japan in November of 2003, then in North America as Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly in December of 2003, and lastly in Europe as Project Zero II: Crimson Butterfly in April of 2004. And the list goes on, and on, and on.

As everyone else has mentioned, it is not just Nintendo, it happens to a lot of Publishers as well and as mentioned time and time before its because localization takes a while and is more complicated as it sounds, you also have to add in that you might have to censor the game, remove content (Or in the terms of Ico, add.), translating, get it rated by the rating system of where you are localizing it, and so much more. As mentioned before by Team Fail, when a game has a release date that is close or the same day world wide, it is because it was planned ahead of time. All these games took a while to get released mostly due to localization.

 

[Cerberus87]

Splatoon just reached 1 million units in sales. Yeah, Nintendo is definitely going bankrupt.