How to fix Nintendo

The bad news keeps stacking up for Nintendo.

The Wii U console was greeted with yawns when it was released in November 2012. Sales numbers for the console look increasingly dire, and support from third-party software publishers seems to be wavering (EA's next-gen Frostbite graphics engine apparently doesn't even work on the Wii U). And now comes word that Nintendo won't have a formal press conference at this year's E3 show.

Is Nintendo's low profile at E3 a retreat, or a change in strategy? Whatever the answer, it seems perfectly indicative of Nintendo's current status: an enigma in the landscape of 2013 video gaming.

[Knight_Crawler]

Nintendo could have solved this 3rd party dilemma by simply buying out all of THQ's assets when it went on sale.

Can you imagine games like Saints Row, Dark Siders, Home Front and many more being Wii U exclusives.

[BullyMangler]

how to fix nintendo? how to fix nintendo a snack or what ?

[Kurt Russell]

Wait, w-what?

[AngelicIceDiamond]

Gamers won't help Nintendo until they help themselves.

The gamers/fans can only do so much for them.

[yugovega]

more opinions about how to fix something that isn't broken. it's like burger king telling mcdonalds how to run a burger business. best selling console, handheld, software company out there and they need to be fixed. wow fanboys run websites.

[Hicken]

I think it's more about their decisions regarding the Wii U. And those decisions have been considerably shitty. The online still needs work- why the hell would you tie digital to the hardware and not the account you buy the software with? The hardware is underpowered- this MUST be compared to its competition, and there is simply NO arguing otherwise here. Already there seems to be a dearth of games coming out- it's getting towards summer, which is usually dry, but this has been going on for longer, and indicates poor planning ahead of the system's launch. There's an identity crisis with the thing, as it's currently not appealing to much of anybody, following its launch, and the general public still has the impression that it's a Wii Upgrade.

As for the 3DS, there was the attempt to sell it for WAY more than it was worth at launch, which didn't sit well, and led to the Ambassador program, which not everyone was happy with. The lack of a second stick, or circle pad, on the original model was just them being stubborn; they then continued that trend when they released the 3DSXL without it. Yeah, it's selling wonderfully, but it could be doing even better.

There's also the decision to not have an E3 presser, which just... I'm sorry, but given the aforementioned issues with the Wii U in particular, it was NOT a smart move. They need all the exposure they can get for it, and there's NO bigger place to get said exposure.

Oh, and while the Wii IS currently the best selling console of this generation, compare its current sales rate to the victors of previous generations at the transitional period. It's already not impressive right now, but that comparison makes the difference embarrassingly obvious.

... yeah, I'd say there are some things Nintendo could stand to fix.

[brewin]

Yeah, cuz a dying companies franchises are going to save the legendary Nintendo... What the hell are you smokin there? This is funny to me. A bunch of series that sell so-so are exactly what Nintendo needs? Cuz Darksiders 2 did so good on the U already right?! You are out of touch...

[Jadedz]

3DS? -_-

[CouldHaveYelledUiiW]

What!
What are you talking about!
Jadedz, the 3DS can't play games!
-It's too busy printing money. ;)

Yeah, it's clear to me that many people don't understand the meaning of "mobile devices"

And another thing
Have you ever noticed that so many people who say that Nintendo games or "Mario" sucks,
ALWAYS want Nintendo to go Third Party?

"Intelligent" (bubble) to you Sir!

[MasterCornholio]

Nintendo isnt broken it just has a couple of bad eggs that need to get terminated.

[GreenRanger]

Super Glue?

[Klonopin]

Become a software company like Sega. Just kidding!

[Lone_Man]

jst take a hammer and u know the rest..

[MuhammadJA]

Nintendo should fix their online UI and add accounts. Nintendo is so old fashioned.

[Shok]

It does have accounts.

[Nodoze]

Yes BUT all of your digital purchases are tied to the hardware and NOT the account.

So if your WiiU bricks you are SOL on digital purchases.

Sony and MS(IIRC) both tie electronic purchases to the account.

Stupid move on Nintendo's part. Plus charging 5.99 or old NES titles is RIDICULOUS!

[ChickeyCantor]

@Nodoze,

They are actually looking in to that. They damn well know people aren't taking it lightly.

[Shnazzyone]

@Nodoze They are getting the infrastructure together. Right now you do have a record that can be used, the club nintendo account. They used that to make sure people who bought titles on wii get it at a super discount price in the wii U. Seems they are not far off from getting that to work.

[klecser]

Yep, that can (and likely will) change. It happened with Apple within the last few years and Ninty is just slow to adopt.

Gamers are so "worst case scenario". They'll avoid fun altogether if that fun isn't optimized. Its sad.

[Zhipp]

@Nodoze
Actually, the digital titles are tied to the account, which is tied to the console.

[Starbucks_Fan]

Announce some damn games already

[oof46]

How to fix Nintendo:
1. Swallow your pride and join Sony and Microsoft in embracing online gaming.

2. Fans want to play your best games day and date with Japan. It can't be too hard to hire translators to make sure the game is available everywhere?

3. Speaking of fans, it wouldn't hurt your bottom line to release popular titles in Japan that people in the rest of the world make online petitions for, would it?

4. Create a system that is on par with Sony's and Microsoft's so 3rd parties are not wary of making games for your system.

5. Bring back Howard and Nester in an online comic strip.

[NobodyImportant]

Wii U will be fine.

Wii Fit U by itself would rescue Nintendo.
Plug in the balance board, use the gamepad for your diet plan and your stats. Done.

Release another casual rubber-banding Mario Kart too, with extra blue shells = 18 million sales.

Nintendo saved! Yeah!

Some Lego games, some dance games. Good old wholesome family fun.

I'll take the PS4 and XBox thanks.

[Becks77]

I love Nintendo, NES was one of my first consoles.
But I can't see how they can pull it of now even by launching games like mario kart and zelda around the end of the year. With the Xbox and PS4 both launching at the time it's to little to late.
Things would be even worse if the price of the two above is around the same as the Wii U I know unlikely but if that did happen just another nail in the coffin I fear.

[brewin]

If you think either the ps4 or xbox whatever-the-fuck is going to be less than $400-$500, youre insane and wishfully thinking. Next gen will not catch on like people think becasue the associated costs. How many families are REALLY going to be shelling out 4 plus bills for a new system, plus games, plus extra controllers on top of the rest of their holiday shopping???? NOT MANY.

I know you message board dwellers think you are the only ones that buy games, but the reality is that 90 percent of people who actually purchase games never spend any time on a message board, AT ALL. We are a very small portion of the broad gaming community. Most people get what is promoted in the store and Nintendo is communicating with retailers more than anyone right now.

The U will be priced appropriately to compete and will be a viable option for many when more games come out. Watch and see. You can downvote me or disagree all you want, but Nintendo will be in good shape this time next year.

[tigertron]

1. Invest in new IPs/first party studios.
2. Improve the online infrastructure. We want something like the PSN/XBL.
3. Work hard to attract third party developers.
4. Ditch the gimmicks.
5. Make sure the next console is as powerful as the competition and boasts the same/similar features+extras.
6. Pokémon MMO.

[M-M]

If they did the Pokemon MMO, the Wii U would sell like hot cakes.

[brewin]

Ditch the gimmicks? Dude, every gaming company has gimmicks. Kinect and Move are gimmicks. The gamepad actually adds something to gaming. What did kinect and move add? oh yeah, that same gimmick that nintendo brought into play, motion controls. And they should definitlely not follow in Sony/MS footsteps. Those companies are making gaming too expensive and exploiting customers as much as possible.

You are dead on with Pokemon though. Why the hell has nintendo not leveraged this franchise more is way beyond me. Any Pokemon game on the Wii U would move units like crazy, especially a full pokemon experience.

[Moncole]

Nintendo has been around for more than 100 years and been making consoles longer than anyone. I dont think they need to take advice from a journalist who doesn't run a huge company.

[generalthadeape]

Good advice is good advice-- regardless from who it comes from.

Video gamers everywhere can see that Nintendo is in trouble and is out of touch with them and journalists of video game magazine journalists / bloggers are simply reporting this.

Both groups of people have a vested interest in this because they want their hobby & livelyhood to remain alive and well.

It would be foolish for Nintendo to simply dismiss their ideas because those guys have been in the business so long.

This kind of attitude is what leaves gamers everywhere thinking that Nintendo's business model is "outdated", "out of touch", and "underwhelming" in every manner.

[CEOSteveBallmer]

Its just simple really. They need to be on "par again" with competing consoles. like SNES has same graphics as genesis, N64 slightly better than PSone but still they are on the same graphics category, then gamecube with xbox and PS2 same graphics dept and not only that, gamecube received third party games that is also found on xbox and PS2. actually gamecube is not a fail or loss to nintendo. its just not that much successful but it still sold pretty well. When Wii hit up stores, smartphones and tablets are not yet mainstream at the time so "casual" gamers loved the wii. But now times changed and casuals are already satisfied with mobile gaming, candy crush, temple run 2. Nintendo thinks they could do it again, But I doubt they can count on the same casual gamers this time around. Only nintendo loyalist and console collectors are the ones buying Wii-U. I say they should have released a hardware that is cheaper at the same time can compete with PS4 and 720 specs. Then third party developers would be happy.

[wantonGamer]

Stop trying to be original with stupid controllers and just make a damn console that has great content.

[Venemox]

Fire and replace Iwata.

[LOL_WUT]

That be a good start ;)

[PopRocks359]

No it would not be. Not even close. He doesn't make all of the business decisions and he doesn't have full control. There are board members and shareholders to consider.

Furthermore, Iwata has been involved with Nintendo's software development since the NES era. All of those "classics" everyone sings praises for? Games like Kirby, Pokemon and Metroid? They've all had development input from Iwata. So no, firing him would NOT be a good start at all.

[Shnazzyone]

I'm willing to bet in 2 years there will be nothing broken about nintendo and both 3ds and wii u will be doing quite well. However, there will still be articles like this.

[lizard81288]

Atleast for right now, The Wiiu needs 3rd party support. It is quite bad when Multiplat games, say like Bioshock Infinte and Tomb Raider are skipping the Wiiu (Nintendo in general), but are out for everything else.

[jacksheen0000]

First, Nintendo need to drop the price of the Wii U; with 50 bucks off it would defiantly help them in a big way.

Second, Nintendo need to find a way to tap in to the Wii U'S internal flash memory space; and shave off at least 2 gigs and then add to the Wii U's main system Ram. 3 gigs of Ram is better than 1 gig of Ram.

Third, Nintendo need to purchase at least one/two game studios, platinum games is a great choice because they have the experience to make FPS and actions games.

Forth, Nintendo need to start a new advertising campaign for the Wii U because so many people are confused about what the Wii U is, and still do. Perhaps putting both system side by side on one commercial could make people see that the Wii U isn't an add on to the Wii as many have thought in the past.

Fifth, Nintendo need to rely on indies game ports right now considering that the Wii U's install base are small.

From there, 3party will gain some interest in the Wii U again.

that's all.

[kenshiro100]

The WiiU needs games.

[kirbyu]

"Or, transform the Wii U into Nintendo's next great portable system."

That's the most ridicules idea I've ever heard.

Also, no Nintendo on mobile devices.

[Monkeysmarts]

Nintendo isn't broken, they just exist within their own bubble and seem content to do so. They have great success without appealing to the same audience that Sony and Microsoft do. Sony and Microsoft are even trying to bite off on Nintendo's piece of the pie... that's just real. But in terms of "fixing" Nintendo for the core gamer? That would require Nintendo to move away from gimmicks and move the focus off casual gamers... which I don't see happening, because they are making plenty of money doing it.

They've proven they don't NEED a Call of Duty or Battlefield or Grand Theft Auto to be viable. I'm sure plenty of Wii U owners want those type of games to have a strong presence on the system, but the reality is that Nintendo has not adapted to the current 3rd party gaming environment. They still do things the Nintendo way and everyone else has to bend around it or just leave it alone. Many are just leaving it alone.

Wii was profitable for very few companies other than Nintendo. I don't see enough of their mindset changing for that to be much different with Wii U.

[meday354]

Its all a dream the wii U never happened.

[skydragoonity]

You can all keep deceiving ur selves or accept the simple truth: Nintendo is dying

[JuleyJules]

Keep dreaming... You'll see later this year when 1st party games are released.