This article goes in depth about how Nintendo has been trying to impliment online in all its home consoles dating back to the original Famicom (NES). Nintendo actually tried its best years ago to start its own online network but hit many barricades along the way. So today's gamers see Nintendo as being behind the times when it comes to online, but in reality they were way ahead of everyone!
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Great minds work (have worked) at Nintendo.
Nintendo cares about Nintendo and will continue to support their products as THEY see fit, NOT what the actual consumers want. Nintendo will also not invest like Microsoft, Valve and even Sony have.
Motion control is a norm now because of Nintendo. Nintendo always gives us what we think is cool, even if we don't really know we want it.
I wouldn't call it a norm, more like a short term trend. The casual market usually goes with what's popular today, and that causes a shift in the trend. They've discovered that their iPads can play simple games costing a mere fraction of what Nintendo's Wii was offering - the end result is they can take the fun with them wherever they go, and get more anytime, anywhere.
@LevelHead
I agree. People buy Nintendo products to pretty much play Nintendo games. In my opinion, Nintendo relies a bit too much on their 1st party games. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing, but it means that there could be a limited variety of content, which would explain why 3rd party support tends to be lacking. Simply put, Nintendo games sell best on Nintendo products.
That is only valid because of quirks Nintendo had.
Back with the NES/SNES the library was flooded with tons of games and everyone loved it.
With n64 there was only a handful of great games. Developers flooded to the PSx
GameCube fell in the mindset of being "kiddy".
Wii was "underpowered" and couldn't support most multiplat games.
It's not that people don't want to buy other games on a Nintendo console other than Nintendo games. It's the fact that people always have something to complain about.
The biggest problem is Third party support.
For the sake of the argument, if Nintendo did have the exact same features as the PS3 and 360. Why would I not buy other games beside the Nintendo franchises?
The need for a different console beside the wii was simply because some games weren't offered on it. In a different case I wouldn't see why I would buy a 360 or PS3...other than for the exclusives.
So with that in mind...I only got a PS3/360 for the exclusives. How is that different than one getting a Nintendo for the exclusives?
Motion-controls are not "a norm" if that was the case, Wii-U would come with an upgraded wii-mote or something like that instead of releasing with a new tablet-controller
O-T
Whatever, need to see it first...
Besides the wii, all their consoles were very powerful.
Nes, snes, n64 and gamecube were all pretty powerful.
I know people will point their fingers at the Ds, 3ds but those are handhelds and Nintendo thinks that handhelds are their own experience and doesn't need to compete with consoles in term of graphics.
But they sure need to upgrade their online network tho.
The NES was 8-bit architecture coming out during a time when 16 bit and above was the norm. Nintendo's execs (not sure if it was Gunpei Yokoi or maybe Miyamoto) SPECIFICALLY said that they wanted to use off-the-shelf, older hardware in the NES so that it could be inexpensive to buy.
The SNES was one of the LAST 16 bit systems to come out, and while the technology was great, it was already overshadowed by PCs and some consoles. Heck, the SEGA CD (let's set aside the failure of the hardware itself) came out only 1 year after the SNES launched.
N64 was definitely more powerful in many respects, specifically 3D. But it couldn't render 2D as well (partially why Saturn and NeoGeo had all the arcade games) and it had one major flaw: cartridges! The memory for those things was tiny compared to what was available on the CDs for the Saturn and Playstation.
Gamecube? Uhhhh, no. The dang thing couldn't even run a CD. Yes, the graphics were more advanced than the PS2, but it was hardly a "high tech" system.
Arguably, the ONLY "high tech" console Nintendo is doing is the WiiU. Nintendo has pretty much NEVER been on top of the dog pile when it comes to graphics/physics/technology.
Nintendo is still behind with online. I don't care what innovative ideas they tried in the past. It just didn't work because technology and peoples lifestyles just wasn't there in the past.
I wouldn't be calling it great if it didn't work out at that time. It's like me saying I would release a machine as powerful as what they have for flight simulators and it will cost a lot. Would that make me innovative or just stupid in the business world?
Yaay, rats gave us diseases /s
online gaming really wasn't popular until after gcn came out and at that point it was too late to add it.
Do you know any games that had online support for it?
Has anybody even taken the time to read the article? XD
Not that I hate miyamoto or something I just hate there visions and hardware and the fat plumber that's all
And I own a PS3 and a vita ( Japan imported ) so have your say
Hate is such a harsh word.
Why hate a company that has done so much for gaming. If you wanna "hate" something, hate the way sega has treated their hedgehog the last decade
At least nintendo keeps mario fresh without completely changing it too mch
In your eyes: Nintendo will always be behind the times.
Your mind is already set on disliking the company as a whole (Nintendo), so it's best for everyone (including yourself) that you refrain from posting on Nintendo related articles.
I think you were going for "ahead of the curve".
Than why do they suck at it?
Nintendo did fall behind in the online department in this generation, that was obvious, specially comparing it to what XBLA and PSN offers. Hopefully they will revamp the online on the Wii U.
As of today, I have never been able to play a single Super Smash Bros. Brawl online fight, and that was one of the reasons I bought the wii and the game.
If you want decent online Wii games, try Mario Kart Wii, Mario Strikers Charged and Monster Hunter 3.
That's not a solution, not even a workaround, it's just ignoring the problem. I also have a 3DS and so far, I have notice a BIG improvement over the Wii. It now resembles something closer to what XBLA and PSN offer and that is good, but I hope that it keeps growing and that the Wii U will have something on-par with those 2 services.
If Nintendo Network is any indication, the Wii U will be better. Whether it matches/passes its competition remains to be seen, but we know for sure that it will be better than what Nintendo has on the Wii.
And goddamn it, give me my New Super Mario Bros. and Kirby co-op game with online play.
What many fail to realize is that Nintendo has in fact given online gaming a chance during just about every console generation since the original Nintendo Entertainment System."
So they're not behind because they've given it a CHANCE every console generation? It doesn't matter if they gave it a chance or thought about it, they are behind because their online is far behind Live or PSN.
Obviously they're trying to change that. Final Fantasy Theathryhm will be the first game on the Nintendo network with DLC IIRC and of course a lot of the third party games are coming on the Wii-U so they are moving forwards but they are still behind.
They are behind. Even (as I listed) The 3DS is behind, and I would assume Vita will have a stronger online component, until we can see what Nintendo Network does. The 3DS has a pseudo messaging system (swapnote) and the E-shop is a complete mess. Nintendo's push, is rather weak. Instead of getting games for the E-shop, this week we got A GAME, just 1. Out of all of Nintendo's game history, we just got 1 game. Club Nintendo's games aren't any better. Plus you can't just jump in a join an online game either with your friends. What the 3DS has, doesn't work with all games.
With all of the innovating Nintendo does, I'd rather them look into what the others are doing for online and copy them, like PSN, LIVE and Steam. I'm sure they would make it their own, but for now, Nintendo's online is just poor for this time and age.
-You can only watch Videos with Nintendo Video, but they only give you 4 videos to watch and most of them suck. I'd rather have a Youtube app or have Flash for the browser.
-Spotpass is pretty cool.Street Pass has improved since it was on the DS, and yes, the DS did have street pass.
Swapnote is an ok substitute, but I would like the option to IM friends and stuff, like steam does. Swapnote is more or less and e-mail system.
The E-shop is pretty bad the way it is set up. It makes it really hard to find things. Plus everything is rather expensive.
The browser is ok, but it is a mobile browser. This site doesn't work on the 3DS' browser. <:(
GIFs don't load most of the time either, plus there is no flash support either, so you can't watch videos.
while we are at it, lets also bow down to that sony online music store which came out ages before itunes....
See the relation here? being the first or doing one thing for the longest time doesnt mean youre better at it
In fact, if you have a tech for so long and a newer comes out and its better than yours, means you suck at it.
Main reason not one makes alot of online games for Wii, Nintendo is going to most likely try to stick with family base games.
Unlike Sony that offers games for everyone, Nintendo stays family (Not a bad thing) but they won't see alot of people as Sony does.
couldn't they have gone and made it Nintendo Red? it looks similar to the RSS feed icon...
Give everyone their own gamertags/user names. Online gaming is becoming very popular and it makes up social gaming. Nintendo need to understand that and create a better online infrastrucure. It doesn't matter if they came up with online gaming for the SNES, what matters is how well the system works. Until Nintendo get rid of the friendcodes, the PSN/SEN and XBL will be superior.
Then later on they came out and said they couldn't afford to do a online network like Microsoft. I personally wouldn't mind if they offered a service a bit like XBL, even if you have to pay a fee for it. Anything would be better then what they've had the last couple generations.