The state of Nintendo, and why some old ways need to change.

Nintendo is sitting on top of the gaming world, but the cracks are starting to show and the Nintendo Wii is starting to slowly slip and slid from grace. Is it time for Nintendo of Japan to change it's old ways and try a new philosophy in order to stay on top?

[FishCake9T4]

Whaa?
Theres a reason why Nintendos sales are slowing
Thats cause almost everyone on the planet owns a Wii.

[Trevorthenerd]

Nothing to see here move along...

[asdr3wsfas]

The wii and DS attracted lapsed gamers because they went back to their roots. Like they'd piss away millions of customers because their lead is only strong and not crushing.

I found this yesterday and think it's relevant. From wikipedia, it's a list of the top 20 selling non-bundled games. I starred the ones published by nintendo. Let's look:

The 20 best-selling console/handheld games, not originally bundled.
***1. Wii Play (Wii – 24.43 million)[68]
***2. Wii Fit (Wii – 22.5 million)[68]
***3. Nintendogs (DS – 22.27 million, all five versions combined)[69]
***4. Pokémon Red, Blue, and Green (Game Boy – 20.08 million approximately: 10.23 million in Japan,[45] 9.85 million in US)[19]
***5. New Super Mario Bros. (DS – 19.94 million)[68]
***6. Mario Kart Wii (Wii – 18.36 million)[68]
***7. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES – 18 million)[108]
***8. Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! (DS – 17.41 million)[69]
9. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2 - 17.33 million)[114]
***10. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (DS – 16.81 million)[70]
***11. Mario Kart DS (DS – 16.09 million)[68]
12. Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (PS2 – 14.89 million shipped)[105]
***13. Pokémon Gold and Silver (Game Boy Color – 14.51 million approximately: 7.6 million in US,[19] 6.91 million in Japan)[45]
***14. Super Mario Land (Game Boy – 14 million)[108]
***15. Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day! (DS – 13.71 million)[69]
***16. Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire (GBA – 13 million)[80]
***17. Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen (GBA – 11.82 million)[70]
***18. Super Mario 64 (N64 – 11 million)[108]
19. Gran Turismo (PS1 – 10.85 million shipped)[105][106]
***20. Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS – 10.79 million),[70]

How about bundled games selling at least 10 million copies?

* Wii Sports (Wii – 50.54 million,[68] packaged with system in all regions except Japan)
* Super Mario Bros. (NES – 40.23 million)[40]
* Tetris (Game Boy – 35 million)[76]
* Super Mario World (SNES – 20 million)[53]

Oh, those are all nintendo.

[mastiffchild]

Very misleading a lot of that. For instance most of the top five ARE bundled aren't they? Wii Play was NEVER for sale on it's own in the UK and I believe anywhere else and was only available as an extra when buying a controller-bundled. Wii fit-same but with the balance board-byndled with hardware. Nintendogs-bungled with both DS and DS Lite. It goes on as well with MKWii being available in a bundle as with mloost of the older Pokemon games too-though certainly not to the extent of WiiFit or Wii Play.Not just the Ninty ones either as I bought two PS1s that were bundled with GT AND a PS2 bundled with GT4! Also bought a DSi bungled with, IDK why, AC WildWorld.

Certainly, it shows Ninty make a lot from their first party games but a lot of the list aren't great games, are they? Most of the Marios on there I'll give you and a couple of the Pokemon(til it just became rinse and repeat the whole rpglite formula)but much of it(though the PS few are good games too)is casual tat no? Sure, it makes them the cash but it's hardly encouraging reading and a great deal of those were bundled too.

The aricle's a little aimless anyway and I feel that Nintendo need to strive to compete a little more with MS and Sony for the "core" market"(which IS as large as the casual market but is more split among the platforms-unlike the newer gamer on Wii there's no one console/platform that houses them all in one place-but they're still a MASSIVE overall market too)now that they both started aiming for the newer gamer with MC systems in 2010. Sure, they need to keep doing, from a business standpoint, what they did to get where they are now but also they need to cater for the moreserious gamer that often hoes to MS/Sony these days-it would help them twice over by helping them educate and keep newer gamers as their tastes get more demanding(weren't we all "casual" once?)as well as tempting more of us to keep/buy a Wii for more mature/serious games. That's all though as pretty much everyone I know with a DS is happy enough with it overall(tend to love their JRPGs) even if GTA:CW died a death! SAme with people with a PSP-both handhelds seem to cater pretty well to their market. It's on the Wii where a better attitude to helping gamers and third [parties is needed along with just a few more serious titles.Demos for Wiiware is a start but a lot of the mature games that failed to sell that well would have been lots better with a demo available and it's something devs and Ninty should trry to sort out.

Otherwise, though, you can't really knock their business right now as they're raking it in! I still love my Wii and am looking forward to Crysral Bearers and S&P2 with a side order of NMH2 and RS2 early next year to tide me over til SMG2 and, hopefully, Other M and the new Zelda later in the year. While the games I like are less common on the Wii they still get made and I dunno why people never see them when they do. Sure I might play my PS3 a lot more than my Wii but a gamer should enjoy good games wherever they come froma nd however they control,shouldn't they? Besides, if you don't like ANY of the Wii games there's always other platforms doing very well for you to hame on-I just don't get why we have to hate the Wii, why?

I know there's just less games that have personally excited me on the Wii but there's still a lot that have anyway(From TP to MP3to Zack and Wiki to Boomblox to SMG to SSBB through Okami to De Blob to Conduit through to NSMVWii to today-missing out several as well-jeez Muramasa!)and they shouldn't be ignored because of where they are.

Anyway, I'm sure Ninty are still pretty happy atm.

[asdr3wsfas]

Partially true, but keep in mind some things. The wii play bundle costs 10 dollars more than the controller. You pay for the game. The balance board is sold for wii fit - that's like saying DDR is bundled with the dance pad. They sell these games with bundles too but that doesn't mean they weren't paid for. MW2 is bundled with xbox - the game is still paid for as part of the cost of the system. MKWii may be part of a bundle but it's no more bundled than MW2. The stock DS lacks these games and you pay more for them. I just got one on amazon - there's nothing with it.

IDK if the games are casual. The point is that they sell extremely well. The editor is a moron if the thinks nintendo would change for that. And honestly I don't think most of these games really are casual. Mario Kart? Mario 3 and Mario 64? Brain age sure, but the point remains that as a business (which nintendo is) they should ignore this dude.

Pokemon and animal crossing aren't my thing at all but they aren't casual. They're huge collecting time sinks. People think they're casual cause they're kid friendly (personally I don't care for them but they're really not very different from LBP or other collecting based games).