Nintendo is bigger than ever. They make loads of money. Their invites to non-gamers have raised all boats. And yet, their stock with die-hard gamers has become virtually penniless over the last couple of years’a passionate group which verbally feels the company no longer appeals to them, unless of course you count the occasional Mario or Zelda release.
Obviously aware of this, company representatives today sent out emails to the enthusiast press for their thoughts on Nintendo. “We are working on some upcoming plans and are interested to hear from you, the expert, on how you think Nintendo is doing and what you think the company should do in the coming year,” read the email, obtained by Infendo. “We’ll be sharing your answers with Nintendo but we will keep them anonymous. If you’re willing, please answer the below questions and be as honest as possible.”
The questions were as follows:
- What is your overall impression of Nintendo today?
- What does the Nintendo brand mean to you?
- If you were the chairman of Nintendo, what would be the first three things you would do in the U.S. in the year ahead?
- What are the top two-three items on your Nintendo wish list’either products or communications?
You play a lot of games. You’re an expert. How would you answer?
This is bad form. The enthusiast press and the online denizens will demand the impossible and request something like a "more mature Mario" where he kungfu fights gangbangers while praying to Cthulu or something and when Nintendo obviously discards such ideas they get tagged as "ignoring the hardcore" again just because Wii Sports even exists.
What is your overall impression of Nintendo today?
-It's the videogame company that innovates more in gameplay and has driving many changes in the VG industry.
What does the Nintendo brand mean to you?
-It means fun and innovative games, with some major flaws usually.
If you were the chairman of Nintendo, what would be the first three things you would do in the U.S. in the year ahead?
-Third party Apps for Wii, some of them free. Like a media player, presentation tools, youtube channel, etc.
-Get rid of friend codes, or make a tool that can help you with them, extracting the codes from the games you have played, sharing them and add the friend codes of your friends to Wii and games you have played.
-Wii swap, maybe swap some of the guts of the Wii to get better video card, HDMI, wireless n, etc. Call it an ecological movement because you don't have to get rid of the console and Nintendo can recycle the consoles or the parts of the console.
What are the top two-three items on your Nintendo wish list—either products or communications?
-The New Zelda Wii
-New online functionality
-Revisited Wii controller, make the new Wii controllers, lighter, more-ecofriendly (production materiales & energy consumed) and with Wii motion plus functionality.
"Wii swap, maybe swap some of the guts of the Wii to get better video card, HDMI, wireless n, etc. Call it an ecological movement because you don't have to get rid of the console and Nintendo can recycle the consoles or the parts of the console."
See this is why this is "ask the experts" thing is bad idea, because this suggestion is a bad idea. These aren't computers. "Upgradeability" is exactly why the PC market failed because nobody has the exact same setup, so developers had to make games for a zillion systems configurations and graphics cards, and to make games for the lower end meant sacrificing sales to the snooty higher end.
Even with the DS and it's various version, they still have the same raw computational specs, and thus have the same game expectations.
1. What is your overall impression of Nintendo today?
"Nintendo remains my favorite videogame entertainment company even if I don't approve of every recent company move."
2. What does the Nintendo brand mean to you?
"Fun before anything else. Fun is what matters the most and that's what Nintendo means."
3. If you were the chairman of Nintendo, what would be the first three things you would do in the U.S. in the year ahead?
"I would like to see Nintendo give their games the quality marketing that they used to in the past. I want to see great commercials again. I want to see advertisements targeted directly to a games main user group instead of the casual mass."
"I would like to see a couple of new IPs every year. I trust that Nintendo has enough magic to come up with some great new titles and flagship characters."
"Continue to bring us more of what we love; Mario, Metroid, Zelda, and so on"
4. What are the top two-three items on your Nintendo wish list—either products or communications?
"I have to say that I still would have prefered an HD console from day one. I understand the profitibility of the Wii but we're going to end of paying for an HD Nintendo console anyway. I don't see it being too much different than the Wii, nor does it need to be. A backwards compatible (including Gamecube titles) HD console is my top request."
"Work on improving the motion sensor technology even more and give us a controller with Motion Plus built in, better speaker, stronger rumble, better weight, feel etc."
"Settle on a powerful long term solution for your next touchscreen portable. Don't make a new revision of it every two years. Get it right the first time. Make it light, with a genourous widescreen, tons of features, large memory, support multiple audio and video formats. Allow it to play DS games and make a GBA download store for it."
Yeah I guess you are right, But PC market hasn't failed by any means.
I'm not an expert but I'm sure Infendo's expert staff will filter the stuff they like.
I'm talking about the stuff fans call Wii HD, which Nintendo keeps saying it's not going to happen. That's the model I thought about for not filling the landfills with Wiis. You take it to an authorized service center and they swap the mainboard with a new one with an hypervisor a cheap by today standards nvidia or ATI card and wireless-n.
I think the Wii could be so much more with slightly better graphics. I haven't thought this trough, but if someone has a good idea to make this ecological please write it in the comments.
What is your overall impression of Nintendo today?
They're a legend, a ghost. I don't mean that in a completely positive or negative way. Their systems are here, but their games are not. We've received some great content, but not nearly as diverse as I would like it to be. Metroid Prime Trilogy is great and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but there's not enough fresh content coming from Nintendo. Nintendo used to be more balanced with their releases and image. Nintendo is new and I don't completely like them because they're not as consistent as they used to be.
What does the Nintendo brand mean to you?
Very high and diverse quality. With Reggie mucking things up with the way he berates Disaster: Day of Crisis and Fatal frame IV, the brand can seem like a pretentious jerk. Apple-like levels of jerkitude.
If you were the chairman of Nintendo, what would be the first three things you would do in the U.S. in the year ahead?
1. Integrate Club Nintendo accounts more deeply into the systems by allowing them tie both the hand helds and consoles together.
2. Commission Sega to make a new F-Zero and Mach Rider.
3. bundle one third party game and a second controller with the Wii.
What are the top two-three items on your Nintendo wish list—either products or communications?
F-Zero Wii, New Fire Emblem for the DS, DS/DSi useable as a classic controller on the Wii.
Let's not personally insult Nintendo staffers. Remember we are assuming that they are "actually" going to read this.
Sorry about that. Didn't mean to single anyone out even though I did. I was in a rush and chose the first example to pop into my head.
What is your overall impression of Nintendo today?
– Great video game innovator who could be doing much better than they are, and has become complacent regarding some aspects of software production and graphics quality.
What does the Nintendo brand mean to you?
– Innovation and quality IPs. Also a company that seems to be very Japanese in the way they design games and market them.
If you were the chairman of Nintendo, what would be the first three things you would do in the U.S. in the year ahead?
– 3G supported handheld with excellent software support on a digital store
– Complete online multi player capability similar to the X-Box 360 & PS3. Integrate Miis, Club Nintendo membership, and achievements (you could call the "Stars" if you really wanna). Get rid of those dang friend codes already.
– A brand new IP and mascot to rival Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Pokemon, and the like
What are the top two-three items on your Nintendo wish list—either products or communications?
– Stellar showing to the hardcore gaming crowd at E3
– Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver
– Metroid Other M
I want a standard wireless controller, like the ps3/360 has, that can be used for 3rd person adventure games and such so developers don't have to try to slap tacky motion controls onto an otherwise good game. Developers could choose to make a game for the wiimote or the standard controller or even give the gamer the option if they want.
One a small note, I would love to see more Wii light gun promo titles like Link's Crossbow training. How about Samus' Power Beam Challenge for example? We could have a shooting game for each of Nintendo's major mascots.
@Brian – or Yoshi's Tongue Taster .. aim the wiimote and shoot Yoshi's tongue at various fruit. Watch out for poisoned apples!