I love Shigeru Miyamoto and think of him as the father of modern video gaming, but I do agree, I think it's time for him to retire if he's out of ideas, out of creativity and letting his obsession with motion controls rule the day with his games. He's unrivalled as conceptual artist or "idea factory" for unique and original games, but Nintendo needs to break out of its hyperconservative shell and explore some world-building if they want to succeed... but no more innovation/gimmickry just for the sake of being different... the three big franchises they have that encourage this world-building, story-telling and exploration (The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and our beloved star Fox) are often given the "back-burner" treatment. I know few people will play Nintendo's games for their stories but that has to change.
I never did understand why Nintendo insists on chasing after the uninterested casual gamers. The Wii was a total flash in the pan, and lightning will NOT be striking twice. However, their new CEO (Kimishima, formerly of The Pokemon Company) has stated there will be a change of course in how things are done... so, the Nintendo that walks to the beat of its own drum is probably no more for the forseeable future, and may very well play "catch-up" and follow-the-leader like Sony and Microsoft in an attempt to regain marketshare.
Nintendo going the way of SEGA? AHAHAHAHAHA! Thanks for the laugh.... but no. They'll be fine. Thanks to the Wii and DS, Nintendo's built up a hefty warchest of something like $40 BILLION dollars. SEGA's fortunes went into an absolute nosedive: from a modest profit of $55 million USD in 1997 to a loss of $358 million in 1998, worsening to $429 million in both 1999 and 2000, and bottoming-out in 2001 at a whopping $521 million USD. They were still hemorhagging even after killing the Dreamcast in 2001, with 2002's losses of $180 million, and only posted a meager $30 million profit in 2003. Nintendo, in comparison, could stand to have a straight 20 years of WiiU-type performance before starting to sweat bullets. Hell, in 2012, they even considered BUYING SEGA from Sammy Holdings. That would've cost them basically all of their $40 billion dollar stash (despite being a total failure in video games, SEGA does still make awesome pachinko machines, and that's where 90% of their profits come from), so they declined to buy their Tokyo competitor. However, the NX very well could be their make-or-break console. If they screw IT up, then they may have to give up on consoles like SEGA did, but at least they can fall back on their handhelds like the 3DS (or, if the NX is a hybrid console, it may very well be immune to that). Even if they went handheld-only, they'd be alright since their handheld offerings are still surprisingly robust (in comparison to their consoles). Nintendo has stated that if they bow out of hardware entirely, they'll bow out of software too.. but that's only maybe in the extremely-long-term, like... 50 years from now. They've been around since 1889 and they'll probably be around long after we're all dead and gone :P
TL;DR version: Nintendo has more money than god and will be just fine. :D
I love Shigeru Miyamoto and think of him as the father of modern video gaming, but I do agree, I think it's time for him to retire if he's out of ideas, out of creativity and letting his obsession with motion controls rule the day with his games. He's unrivalled as conceptual artist or "idea factory" for unique and original games, but Nintendo needs to break out of its hyperconservative shell and explore some world-building if they want to succeed... but no more innovation/gimmickry just for the sake of being different... the three big franchises they have that encourage this world-building, story-telling and exploration (The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and our beloved star Fox) are often given the "back-burner" treatment. I know few people will play Nintendo's games for their stories but that has to change.
I never did understand why Nintendo insists on chasing after the uninterested casual gamers. The Wii was a total flash in the pan, and lightning will NOT be striking twice. However, their new CEO (Kimishima, formerly of The Pokemon Company) has stated there will be a change of course in how things are done... so, the Nintendo that walks to the beat of its own drum is probably no more for the forseeable future, and may very well play "catch-up" and follow-the-leader like Sony and Microsoft in an attempt to regain marketshare.
Nintendo going the way of SEGA? AHAHAHAHAHA! Thanks for the laugh.... but no. They'll be fine. Thanks to the Wii and DS, Nintendo's built up a hefty warchest of something like $40 BILLION dollars. SEGA's fortunes went into an absolute nosedive: from a modest profit of $55 million USD in 1997 to a loss of $358 million in 1998, worsening to $429 million in both 1999 and 2000, and bottoming-out in 2001 at a whopping $521 million USD. They were still hemorhagging even after killing the Dreamcast in 2001, with 2002's losses of $180 million, and only posted a meager $30 million profit in 2003. Nintendo, in comparison, could stand to have a straight 20 years of WiiU-type performance before starting to sweat bullets. Hell, in 2012, they even considered BUYING SEGA from Sammy Holdings. That would've cost them basically all of their $40 billion dollar stash (despite being a total failure in video games, SEGA does still make awesome pachinko machines, and that's where 90% of their profits come from), so they declined to buy their Tokyo competitor. However, the NX very well could be their make-or-break console. If they screw IT up, then they may have to give up on consoles like SEGA did, but at least they can fall back on their handhelds like the 3DS (or, if the NX is a hybrid console, it may very well be immune to that). Even if they went handheld-only, they'd be alright since their handheld offerings are still surprisingly robust (in comparison to their consoles). Nintendo has stated that if they bow out of hardware entirely, they'll bow out of software too.. but that's only maybe in the extremely-long-term, like... 50 years from now. They've been around since 1889 and they'll probably be around long after we're all dead and gone :P
TL;DR version: Nintendo has more money than god and will be just fine. :D
~ The Legendary RingtailedFox