Nintendo: Leading the Way Since 1985
I started the Mario Galaxy 2 Review with a controversial statement.
“…Mario has been the most successful [persistent franchise] in terms of sales and I believe this is because of Nintendo’s ability to evolve and take their work in bold new directions.”
It’s a bit of a controversial statement to suggest that Nintendo are a progressive developer. There’s a lot of negativity surrounding the Wii, from hardcore gamers. People say that the Wii is a far inferior and outdated console to the point that it’s not even “current generation”. Gamers joke that everybody has a Wii but nobody plays it. So how can I possibly defend Nintendo as a progressive and successful developer? Richard “Rax” Burley and I, Joe “Joefeesh” Finn, had a chat about the subject and this is how we see it.
No Fear
Nintendo weren’t the first to do motion control, dual screen gaming or 3D. But they remain the only big developer to fully commits themselves to such new horizons.
Releasing a new console is a massive risk. A bad console cycle can be the beginning of the end. Look at Sega. Their consoles ended with the Dreamcast but things were looking bad since the Sega CD. Even though the Dreamcast was a much loved console, Sega had done irreparable damage in the time of the Sega CD and 32x; following too closely with the Saturn. In so doing, Sega confused the consumer, and turned the mainstream gaming audience away. Sega went from the super successful Mega Drive to dropping from the console race altogether in 10 years.
Sega's swan song in the console market
Considering that the current console generation is forecast to span 10 years, it’s clear that these days, a single failed console could be the end of the line for another console manufacturer.
Boldly Exploring New Frontiers
A list will more clearly demonstrate. Nintendo may not have “created” most of these, but they either popularised or perfected them:
- Left-handed movement control (NES) – There’s no way I could control a character’s movement with my right hand, now. It’s wrong.
- The D-Pad (NES) – Thumb blisters all round!
- Pause button with menu therein (NES) – I hate games that don’t have pause menus.
- Handheld gaming (Gameboy) – The Gameboy took handheld gaming from the mini-map to the world map.
- Shoulder buttons (SNES) – Not side buttons, under buttons or top buttons.
- 3D control (N64) – 3D on the N64?! The ability to move an in-game character in 3 directional planes; X, Y and Z. Mario 64.
- 4 controller ports in console (N64) – Goldeneye. Paintball. ‘Nuff said.
- Rumble (N64) – “It feels like you’re actually being shot!” Awesome.
- Controller memory (N64) – It’s not dead, the Wii Remote carries your Miis
- Thumb analogue stick (N64) – Definitely not the first, but the first to successfully integrate it into their console’s gaming.
- Touch screen gaming (DS Lite) – The DS Fat never happened. It’s a myth.
- Motion controls (Wii) – Far from the first, but finally it worked. Kind of.
- 3D games (3DS) – It’s finally the right time. Nintendo know this.
Other companies pussyfoot around and gently introduce concepts over years of testing the water, baby steps and half arsed innovations. Nintendo kick down your door and slap you across the face with new technology and ways to play. They make falling in line with their way a necessity, not an option, hence the current impending flood of motion control devices from Sony and Microsoft.
Kicking Ass and Chewing Bubblegum (and they’re all out of gum)
Let’s look at the numbers for 2010, for it’s numbers that hold the key to facts. What are the two best selling gaming platforms in the world this year? The XBox and the Wii? The XBox and the PS3? Wrong and wrong again. The two best selling games platforms this year are (drum-roll, please) the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii.
Note: This is a chart of the total worldwide sales, not yearly.
How about the best selling games so far this year? Who is responsible for every one of the top seven in worldwide games sold this year? You’ve got it, Nintendo again (number 7 is technically Ubisoft’s but Just Dance is on the Wii, so we counted that too). Notice a pattern yet?
Maybe that’s not enough to call a pattern. Why don’t we look at game publisher’s data – who’s the leader there? Surely it can’t be… why yes, yes it is, it’s Nintendo, with nearly twice as many games sold as the nearest competing publisher, EA! I’d say that’s starting to show a pattern now.
Regardless of what we might think of them, Nintendo knows exactly what they are doing. Gamers are like football fans screaming at the TV. Nintendo are the seasoned professionals on the TV. They know we’re shouting at them, but they don’t need our advice because, believe it or not, they do know better than us. Nintendo dominates the games industry in hardware and software sales.
When Nintendo’s sales do drop, as they have begun to do recently, people jump around screaming “Ha, I told you so!” But Nintendo already knew it would happen and have been quietly preparing for their next big hardware release; ready to turn the world upside down all over again. Enter, the Nintendo 3DS.
This Christmas. This Christmas. This Christmas. This Christmas. This Christmas.
There is No Spoon (Expanding the Games Market)
At The Newb Review our motto is “because we’re not all hardcore” and Nintendo have the only current generation consoles that could have this motto inscribed across their sleek, shiny casing.
It’s a common perception that there are two games markets; the “Hardcore” and “Everyone Else”. The Hardcore covers what the media refers to as “gamers”. “Everyone Else” covers, well, everyone else, often referred to as the “Casual” market.
Which is the most Hardcore?
Let’s look at the top 10 games sales, and consider these demographics, for this year so far.
1. Wii Sports (Wii – Nintedo – 6.4m)
2. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii – Nintedo – 5.5m)
3. Pokémon Heart Gold / Soul Silver (DS – Nintedo – 5.0m)
4. Wii Fit Plus (Wii – Nintedo – 4.7m)
5. Wii Sports Resort (Wii – Nintedo – 4.3m)
6. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii – Nintedo – 3.4m)
7. Just Dance (Wii – Ubisoft – 3.1m)
8. Red Dead Redemption (XBox 360 – Rockstar – 3.0m)
9. God of War III (PS3 – Sony – 2.8m)
10. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360 – Activision – 2.5m)
So, lumping the top 10 selling games of 2010, so far, in to these (admittedly arguable) categories, Hardcore sales (8, 9 and 10) are at 8.3m and Casual sales (1-7) are at 32.5m. Ouch. This is not the full picture of games sales, but we intend to use this sample and risk making a grossly inaccurate conclusion, just because we can; the Casual games console market is worth about four times as much as the Hardcore market. I just felt a great disturbance in the Hardcore, as if millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced (somebody please get the quote).
Nintendo rules the games industry because it rules the Casual market. Ask yourself this: How many people do you know; at work, socially, relatives, who you think would enjoy (or even be able to play) Red Dead Redemption on the first try? For the same group of people, ask the same question but about Wii Sports. Anecdotal evidence turns to credible statistics when enough people agree.
Nintendo is leading the way. Why? The answer is at the top of this page:
Because… We’re Not All Hardcore.
- Joe Finn and Richard Burley
I would say that Nintendo don’t really innovate in technology but rather use older, now cheap technology to keep their consoles at profit.
They’re also incredibly smart at making money by understanding the market that they’re after and never running a business based on loss, but it would be a lie to say they’re always making right moves.
The cartridge-based N64, while having some good games, underestimated the uptake of CD-ROM as a gaming platform and the tech did not reflect what the market or developers wanted. The Gamecube was a failure at the side of the PS2 that not only beat it on sales but also gambled, successfully, on the uptake of DVDs. They were also terrible at fostering relationships with third party developers until the waining days of the Gamecube and the uptake of the DS. They led the way for a while, but had to learn from some very harsh mistakes.
What kept them afloat through these issues was the quality of the in-house games (and brand recognition), the no-loss hardware policy and the complete monopoly on handheld gaming. Nintendo may be a market leader in many ways, but it has stumbled more than a few times on the way to that position.