Listen Up, Nintendo: The Best Ideas Come From Fan Feedback, Not ‘Doing Things Differently’

GenGAME writes: "Nintendo’s developers often pride themselves on their ability to create new hits for the industry. The official rhetoric is that doing things differently than what people expect is what gives them their winning potential. Is that really true, though?

"Looking back at some of Nintendo’s most successful ventures of the last couple generations, it seems like it was giving in to fans’ wishes that produced many of the biggest hits, not ignoring them and doing something new instead."

[BullyMangler]

is funny, nintendo just the other day mentions that they have been listening to fans comments all these years regarding wishes and hopes. coiinKadink now there's an articLe on the same mention.

yes, nintendo read this article, you mite learn a thing or 2? ha!

[miyamoto]

In the hey days of the original Capcom Japan they produced hit games after hit games because they KNOW what we gamers WANT before we knew we want them.
Megaman, Street Fighter II, Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, Devil May Cry, VS series, Power Stone, etc. New ideas after new ideas

[adorie]

Miyamoto,I don't know if I agree with you, regarding your opinion being relative to Nintendo, but I do agree with you about the whole Capcom thing. I miss Megaman and Keiji Inafune as well as all the old greats who MADE *pounds fist on the floor* THEM who they are today.. a money grubbing company who is using nostalgia to bait people into buying their crap.

RE6 was just short of poo.

[admiralvic]

Honestly speaking, companies really shouldn't listen to what fans want. I think Ford put it best with his famous “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” quote. People don't know what they really want and a lot of fans have terrible ideas, which in some cases have made games worse. Obviously they should take some consideration in what people want, like maybe bringing back a popular series (like Pikmin or giving Luigi another shot), but beyond that they should come up with awesome new ideas.

[rainslacker]

A more apt quote by me would be, "Ask 1000 people what they want, and you'll get 1000 different answers."

Fan feedback is good for some things. It can help guide the development team to make a game that will be appealing to the fans. But game design should be left to the professionals for the most part, and while Nintendo does have a tendency to keep their family friendly appeal, they are pretty good at making quality games.

Just reading on here, most of what you see is people saying they don't want any change, only want sequels, and find reasons to call foul over the simplest of things. The fans, from what I've seen haven't shown they are a strong force for the idea of innovation and creativity.

[RedHawkX]

i agree the voices of 10's of millions of people can up with a lot better things then the 10 people in nintendos locked down secluded think tank/idea facility.

[legendoflex]

It's almost scary, the degree to which there's a 1:1 correlation between "games that address fans' desires/problems with appeal" and "best-sellers of the generation."

[PopRocks359]

I disagree with that somewhat. Last time I checked, hordes of fans were not exactly clamoring for mechs and jetpacks before they were used in Halo.

That said Nintendo really needs to stop ignoring their fanbase at this point. I appreciate that they have unconventional ideas and act upon them, but for goodness' sake... throw your fans a damn bone!

[admiralvic]

As I've mentioned above, Ford really put the whole thing best “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”. A great example of this would be Demon Souls, since I doubt people would have every thought / suggested they include a way to invade other peoples games and would have instead asked for a simple PVP space or something to that effect. Yet FS did their own thing and it went on to be an amazingly popular and infamous feature of the series.

I don't really think it's fair to say Nintendo is ignoring their fanbase or go so far as to say they need to throw fans a bone. Thus far we've seen Nintendo revive Pikmin (only took a generation for that to happen), bring Mother 2 / Earthbound to Virtual Console (been demanded for ages upon ages), gave Luigi's Mansion another go, brought back the classic Zelda look / feel in Link to the Past II, Revived the Donkey Kong Country series, ported the extremely popular LoZ OoT game to the 3DS, revived the commercially unpopular Bayonetta (in turn also offering more mature and "hardcore" games to the Wii U) and these are just the things off the top of my head. I mean, how many things does Nintendo need to do for their fan base, for you to consider it "a bone"?!

[Concertoine]

i feel like the wii u's desperation will at least not spur more ignorance. nintendo said they were hiring more studios to get the series' fans have been asking for (like star fox or f zero or metroid, or a new IP), im looking forward to the coming years for nintendo's systems.

[Kevlar009]

I have to disagree with the author. While some features are best when they come from the fans, Nintendo has thrived when they allow their amazing devs to fulfill their vision. Miyamoto has always made games based on his experiences and not on fan desires yet they've almost always been highly reverred.

If in the early stages of development of TLOU I'm sure plenty of people wouldn't have thought of making Ellie an important character, yet Naughty Dog knew they wanted to have her as a vital character, to even giving her the most real estate on the front of the box.

The thing is most people don't know what they want. They think they know what they want, but what they say they want is often different then what they enjoy in games. Just because fans like CoD for the guns, explosions, and gameplay, clones like MoH:Warfighter failed because it wasn't what other people really want.

History will show you original creativity drives success. Nintendo needs to not be completely isolated, but let their successful formula shine through where it works best

[Jagsrock]

While it's true to a degree that fan feedback can be good. when it comes to designing a game it's up to Nintendo to create something the fans don't even know they want. Some of the best things in any industry have come from companies creating the need. Look at tablets, nobody asked for them and many turned up their noises at them yet here we are today living in a world where tablets are taking over. While fans might think they know what they want it's up to companies like Nintendo, sony and ms to create an experience that we may have never thought of. Just using user feedback isn't enough to create a great product.

[Cyb3r]

We need more realistic-ish looking games like the Zelda tech demo from E3 2011. Not Windwaker and Skyward Sword and how about a non linear 3D Mario

[MASTER_RAIDEN]

couldnt have said it better myself. title itself is spot on.

[kevnb]

no not really. The best games are the ones the fans didnt know they wanted.

[linkenski]

With most games i know where devs have listened a lot to fans' feedback their said franchise lost substance, it lost originality, and just charm to be honest. I don't think Nintendo should make more games of the same franchise based on what sales numbers say, like they are doing now, but i don't think making content based on what the fan demand says is the key either. It's not gonna last if it isn't something Nintendo is intuitively creating from their own hearts and minds, but again, this is all very depending on which franchise we're talking about and it's a really organic process.

[_QQ_]

No, Just no.

[TruthbeTold]

Companies should have a well researched plan to execute based on what they think Consumers want and what will pleasantly surprise them, which is what Nintendo tries to do. However, when they fail at this, they tend to double down on the weak or failed ideas, and remain stubborn until they are far behind and have alienated many fans. They need to find a better balance.

[truechainz]

Actually a balance of both is what makes the best games. It doesn't bode well for a company to ignore fans I agree, but you can't just listen to them because we would lose all of the essence of games we currently have. I personally don't want Mario carrying a gun and following a bunch of command scenarios. I think rather Nintendo suffers from a lack of resources. They made a few bad decisions with the Wii U I think but really they could provide both or more fan favorites and more new ideas if they had more manpower at the helm. It sounds like they are doing just that, but just saying we would see more great things with a balance of their creativity with fan suggestions (the good ones) for their games. I mean I know this is probably more on GameForeak than Nintendo but why haven't we seen that open world, online, 3d console pokemon? That is practically a money printer!

[RedHawkX]

yeah i think you are right. nintendo likes to do more with less and this time it bit them in the but because you actually need more people to develop Hd games at a good rate.

its like playing warcraft or starcraft fire emblem or some tactics game when you dont send enough units to kill an enemy and you get whiped out even though you had more then enough resources to send more units but you were trying to be slick and cool and thought you could do it with less.