Nintendo’s E3 Press Conference, A Tribute To Repeating the Same Mistake and Expecting Different Results
The Battle.net forums (a.k.a. my only friends) were curious as to why I soured on Nintendo’s E3 showing. Yes, the ridiculous peripheral that checks your heart rate would’ve been cool about three Trauma Centers ago, but that’s not what annoyed me. Their E3 press conference was headlined by two Mario games, a new Metroid game, and an additional installment of Golden Sun. I have come to the conclusion that Nintendo marketing has two gears: Franchise necromancy, and “more than a gaming console, it’s a lifestyle”. The latter is fairly new and hasn’t been tested by history. However, the former has. History already told us this approach nearly took Nintendo the grave.
I’ll keep typing this story until carpal tunnel forces me to scream it, at which point I’ll scream it until I lose my voice: In the late 90’s, Nintendo spawned competition from the ashes of a CD-Rom fiascofuck. When Squaresoft defected, Sony vs. Nintendo turned into Zerg vs. Protoss: An army of few fighting the endless onslaught. And you know what? Give Nintendo credit. They executed their side of the bargain flawlessly. Ocarina of Time may be the best console game ever, Mario 64 set a high bar for 3-D gaming, Goldeneye was the prelude to America’s infatuation with the console shooter, and Mario Kart 64 became the party game…
…and Sony fucking destroyed them.
An incredible A-list offering couldn’t do it then, and it won’t do it now.
It wasn’t even close. With a game library that was deep at almost every position, the Playstation would outsell the Nintendo 64 by a three-to-one margin. For reasons unknown to observers, Nintendo persisted. The GameCube was a true successor to the Nintendo 64. But this round, Nintendo botched their first-party offering. Metroid Prime and Super Smash Brothers: Melee were undoubtedly classics, but even Mario had a rough outing. Their committed fans, half a decade older, made the decision that Nintendo wasn’t growing up with them. They jumped to the more “mature” experience offered by the Playstation 2, doing their best to find comfort in the most successful gaming console ever.
In 2005, because of these events and decisions taken by Nintendo, the company was gaming’s equivalent of the Democratic Party. They were dead, they weren’t coming back, and nobody was giving them a chance. Then, Nintendo’s opponents slipped. Microsoft unveiled the X-Box Hindenburg, and Sony thought people would pay six-hundred dollars for a product that wasn’t capable of cold fusion. Then Nintendo found its Barry O. On the heels of a curious controller and a tech demo, Nintendo brought themselves fiscal hope, and change for the consumer. By 2008, Nintendo’s strategy reclaimed them the throne. To-date, the three best-selling (Edit: “Best” isn’t the right term for it) games on the Nintendo Wii have accounted for a jaw-dropping eighty-eight million copies sold. Those three games are Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Wii Fit.
Nintendo transcended their game system into a chic device for the casual consumer. They did this because waving Mario and Zelda in front of you stopped working about fifteen years ago. So now, why am I supposed to believe a press conference headlined by the Mario equivalent of LittleBigPlanet is a sign of good things to come? Nintendo hasn’t proven to me that they’ve been capable of this approach in nearly a dozen years, and nothing indicates they can pull it off now.
June 4th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Oh believe me, I’ve noticed. I LOVED the N64 games they put out, but after Gamecube I was done with them forever.
It’s fine that they created a totally new product (the wii) and Microsoft entered the market with a POS and Sony’s pricing team thought that people could shit diamonds–it worked–they had a genuinely good product and their competition was nil. Sony and Microsoft have learned, though: Microsoft is hard at work at their next-gen console, Sony will NEVER make the same assumption about diamond-shitting people again, and…Nintendo is riding on the Wii and Mario, because there’s nothing better for them to do.
Nintendo has the market clinched, and they got complacent. They figure releasing some old titles will bring the nostalgia back and potentially make their newest console even more popular. But they forgot to keep their RD department busy, and it’ll hurt 2 years from now.
June 4th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
You give Mario Kart 64 too much credit, as expected (THE party game? ^_-) and not a single mention to Super Smash Bros 64, which sold about the same and created a “big” competitive scene.
But as before, I don’t agree about the Wii going to fail this gen. Maybe the next, but not now. Nintendo has too much fans, created by the DS and reinforced by the Wii.
June 4th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
I personally hate the praise that Mario Kart 64 gets. It’s my opinion that the Super Nintendo version blows it away, and that the Nintendo 64 had way too many gameplay flaws (item imbalances, lackluster track design, rubber band AI) to keep it from being great. That said, there’s no doubt that along with Goldeneye, that game had massive party appeal.
The Nintendo Wii probably won’t fail this generation, but if its current “lifestyle console” approach fizzles out, going back to their “bread and butter” is going to bomb tremendously.
June 5th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Oh right, I missed there, I thought you liked MK64 and didn’t like MK GC.
About the party thing, I don’t know at which ages are you referring to, but when I think “N64″ I think of teenagers playing with their friends, and the most played multiplayer games between my friends were SSB and Pokemon Stadium (mostly minigames). Goldenye and MK64 both “failed” between us because they cut in pieces the already low resolution.