borgie

miss: Virtual Boy

May it rest in peace.

dowingba

CyberSkull

History has shown that it's a lot easier to pull off a win by charting the unknown, but it's also a lot more likely to lead to a financial disaster. Sounds contradictory on the surface, but what it really comes down to is that there's not a lot of middle ground for truly revolutionary games. Either they sell like hotcakes, or they sell like mudpies. Sequels of proven properties tend to do a steady business, though they don't bring in as high of a profit margin as the oddball stuff is capable of. Nintendo can get away with it because they've got both proven properties (Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc.) that they know will sell gangbusters every time, and they tend to stay on the fringes of the pack and develop new concepts like crazy. Their old properties are probably less expensive to develop for (I mean, c'mon, the graphics on the average Mario game are nowhere near as complex as the average XBox/PS2 release, much less the average 360/PS3 release), but still sell really well, which increases their profit margin on those titles. And they have the right mentality to go after oddball concepts, which has enabled them to come up with a fairly steady series of wins. They also have the advantage of having both a reputation for oddball titles and a high concentration of them on most of their recent platforms, so the sort of gamers who are attracted to them can just buy the current Nintendo systems and never worry about running out of weird game concepts. Clover developed a handful of really high-buzz oddball titles that didn't sell well. Why? On a guess, I'd say it's because they were developing for a more traditional platform with the PS2. You'd have to buy a second console just to be able to pick up the occassional Clover title, and there weren't many other studios that were releasing even a single oddball title here and there, much less a regular string of them. Other than the Clover titles, the only other real oddball PS2 titles that I can think of are the two Katamaris and Psychonauts, and all of the Viewtiful Joe titles have been released on Nintendo platforms.

But it still all boils down to the fact that it's less costly to develop new concepts than it is to constantly try to eke out a tiny bit more performance from concepts that have already been around the block a few times. That's where Nintendo's high profit margin comes from. And in the end, profit margin is what business is all about. When I was in high school, I worked for a boat builder. He loved boats, he loved sailing in boats, and he loved building boats. But every time people asked him if he did it for a living because he loved doing it, he'd always tell them that the only reason he was doing it at all was because he could make a decent profit. Enjoying his work was just a bonus.

Purple Dave

John Lucas

johnlucas

Also, Electroplankton was an online only release, so it really can't be expected to sell in huge numbers. It did get limited release in some brick and mortar stores later, but that was not the original plan, and I believe that those were the stores that were selling online.

kingofallcosmos

Since their most recent innovations have been huge mega hits, there's no reason for them hesitate in going even further out there and trying more things with higher probabilities of failure. They've got the know-how to make some seriously entertaining products, and now they've got the cash to make it happen.

They could even start a whole new line of software called "Nintendo Oddities" and make the weirdness a part of their marketability.

Bring on the weird, Nintendo! I, for one, am ready to embrace it.

Froggore

chimchim

Anyone out there think Kohler's plan holds water?

Yes.

Nintendo published some weird shit most other publishers would not have touched. Sometimes the games didn't do too well (Electroplankton or Elite Beat Agents, for example). Other times, they pretty much defined new genres (Brain Training, Nintendogs).

It's a sound strategy, and I hope Nintendo will do more of that.

And yes, the DS fad in Japan will soon be over, just like the PS2 fad is starting to, uhm, fade away.

L_K_M

Anyone out there think Kohler's plan holds water?

Nintendo published some weird shit most other publishers would not have touched. Sometimes the games didn't do too well (Electroplankton or Elite Beat Agents, for example). Other times, they pretty much defined new genres (Brain Training, Nintendogs).

It's a sound strategy, and I hope Nintendo will do more of that.

And yes, the DS fad in Japan will soon be over, just like the PS2 fad is starting to, uhm, fade away.

L_K_M

dowingba

But

There are tons, or at least dozens of great games that have been released in Japan that would do at least moderately well here, possible extremely well. I'm talking games like:

Egg Monster Heroes
Wizardry Asterix
Daisenryaku/Modern Military Tactics (a turn-based strategy a la Advanced Wars with much deeper possible strategy and a more realistic look)
The Simple DS Series(countless decent games here of a budget title nature)
Jump Superstars
Various Naruto Titles
Bleach DS

And this is just what I can think of off the top of my head as titles that either I would like to play, or titles I know import shops/sites already sell a bunch of and have been great sellers in Japan.

Promethean

Striderhayasa - Phillyyakk on PSN and Live.

Merusdraconis

comon Nintendo

You Win

PTTSeven

Me to Nintendo:
You seem to have a lot more experience successfully making video games than Wired does. So keep doing what you think is right and ignore "idea guys" ...
====================

My thoughts exactly ^

Isn't Nintendo already doing what the guy is asking anyway? That's kind of the game innovation process, isn't it?

"Hey, let's make a game where you * !" "Will it sell, ya think?" "I dunno, it might!" "Okay!"

Insert things like 'be a defense attorney,' 'take care of puppies,' 'learn to cook things,' etc, for *

With all the mess-ups Sony's gotten itself into, Nintendo should just keep doing whatever they're doing, and shouldn't change for ANYBODY.

PTTSeven

Or sequels to any of the above would be cool as well, provided the only change gameplay marginally.

I don't want anything new, I just want slightly polished classics.

whitey9

BIGmog

That dude looks like he could use several injections of testosterone.

Tetelestia

For all the minor disappointments that have come out of Nintendo, they still have those spaced-out blockbusters that keep everything going. It may not be the most endearing strategy, but it produces favorable results so I wouldn't expect it to change any time soon.

mexicantvdinner

Minister of Fun

br549

There can be less risk in going into uncharted waters as technically your competition in that genre is absolutely nil.

NickSoapdish

While the DS is doing well in the States, it isn't at the same level of insanity it is here in Japan. People are still lining up for it. Stores are still reimporting it from America.

And I wasn't using the word "fad" as a pejorative term.

Brian Ashcraft

Brian Ashcraft

It would be nice to get something other than games on the DS if they really want to get people other than kids and gamers to buy them. Americans still have the "games are for kids" stereotype to work through. Nintendo is the only one in a position to break it.

Zadaz

Virtual Boy says hi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Virtual_Boy

CloudV

Yeah, it's a fad. It will overtake the PS2 in months, so the PS2 must have been a fad too.

And the DS isn't popular in the US at all. I haven't seen one in shops for months, so the shops musn't be stocking them.

D.Lo

At least, if the Wii guys read Kohler and Wired. HEY REGGIE!! LISTEN! HEY! READ GAMEBLOGS! :D

VictorStillwater

Avinash_Tyagi