Nintendo, Playing it safe?

[Baseley09]

Thing is, I prefer the ideas and sensibilities of Ninetndo thn I do the actual product.

I like the fact that they have stayed true to their videogame roots, but I'm not interested in buying any of their games or machines, my experience with the Gamecube was testament to that.

[darkangel]

True story:

I go into Game yesterday and afer the interview, the Deputy manager shows me around.

I notice something worrying:

All the Gamcube games have no Shelf space.... not even the console it self.

I ask the guy why and he says that no one is buying it.... He sells perhaps one Gamcube a month compared to around 20 or so PS2S and around 10 or so Xboxes a week.

At the end of the day guys we can debate over this matter all we went, but the genrel public decide.

The Manager told me people want choice, they see the PS2 and theres choice... and lots of it, maybe a little less choice on XBOX but it isnt as bad as the state of the GC.

The GC may be a really good console with some really decent games, but sadly at the end of the day, the public just dosent care about that.

[Mayhem]

It's a potential vicious circle though: less shelf space pervading an image of not being as important as PS2/Xbox, hence people don't buy it as much, causing shelf space to decrease etc.

The only way to truly find out would be to give the Cube as much room in a shop as the PS2 for a period of time and see what happens. But I doubt that'll happen now.

For the record, people do care about the Cube. Just not in the UK. I was speaking to some people from Holland/Germany over the weekend at Eurocon; most of them have a Cube and PS2, and only a few have an Xbox. And many just use that for emulation. Now that's a small sample but it is indicative of the general trend for those countries. Cube only seems to really trail Xbox in the US and UK for whatever reasons...

[darkangel]

Out of intrest, how is the Cube doing amongst the PS2 in the East?

We all know the Xbox is dead over there

[Kotatsu Neko]

Out of intrest, how is the Cube doing amongst the PS2 in the East?

We all know the Xbox is dead over there

Latest sales figures from IGN Japan. (this week)

GBA SP - 35,280
PS2 - 22,470
GC - 4,368
GBA - 633
Xbox - 173
PS1 - 60
Wonderswan - 38

[rjpageuk]

Cube only seems to really trail Xbox in the US and UK for whatever reasons...

Its nothing like the UK in the US, in the UK many shops dont even stock Cube stuff - the GC has done fine in the US.

In Australia its even worse than the UK. I think most people there are resigned to buying their games from online retailers.

Its pretty obvious the way Nintendo treats PAL gamers has been a factor here, although its strange the same trend isnt so evident in the non english speaking sections of the PAL market.

[Team Andromeda]

Not really, only geek who hang out on internet forums and annoying 13 year olds.

I'll try and remember that when playing HALO II .

[recipher]

as Apple have hung on in the PC market

It's tangential - but Apple have only hung around because of two things - Office and the iPod. Without Office, even fewer people would have bought a Mac and without the iPod, Apple would be making a big loss.

Nintendo certainly aren't doomed but they need to change their attitude towards Europe at some point.

[Shotski]

The way sony are playing the console market is the way atari played it in the 80's if sony aren't careful and stop realising so many really really ****e games they will crash the market. Nintendo have to change their view get more games and stop relying overwhelmingly on substance as good as it is and get more games out there make some new franchises embrace online gaming to an extent as not to make a huge loss on it like microsoft are doing with live and do what they've been signaling and make it free.

end of rant

[phresh]

It's worth noting that console sales (among hardcore gamers) are fairly even, its only when you start moving into the moderate and mass-market arenas that the Gamecube, and X-box, start losing out to Sony.

It is also the Hardcore market that spend the most money, far far in excess of what the moderate and mass-market gamers do. How many of these people only buy a few games over the lifecycle of the machine? Quite a lot I suspect. It is also all these people who buy there crap from Game etc. I very much doubt there are many Hardcore gamers who are willing to pay the high prices these shops charge.

I think Nintendo are right holding back on online play until they have the infrastructure available that lets them do it properly. For online play to be successfull it is going to be much more of a case than just making it available, your actually going to have to change peoples attitudes towards it. Lets remember that Japan doesn't really care for online games amd the UK (and a good part of Europe) just doesn't have the rollout to acheive massive penetration (these are why GT4 won't be online).

For a considerable part of the future, online gaming will most likely be the preserve of hardcore gamers.

I think it is also becoming increasingly evident that Nintendo are commited to online gaming, or at least making it possible. Bandai have got the DS connected to PC's and some companies have reported they are going to be able to get 32 people connected to each other by next summer. The Nintendo iQue has just gone online in China using a very simple USB interface that I fully expect will be utilized in newer hardware to avoid the complications of networking.

The networking is another reason why people aren't going online, as soon as you have to connect the console to a PC your going to lose 80%+ of the possible market. can you honestly imagine your local chavs discussing network problem? Un-bloody-likely.

[EvilBoris]

It is also the Hardcore market that spend the most money, far far in excess of what the moderate and mass-market gamers do.

but if "hardcore" gamer spends ?300 in a year

and 200 "casual" gamers spend ?200, why other catering to the hardcore, who only make a tiny percentage overall revenue

[Valken]

I'll try and remember that when playing HALO II .

TBH TA, I don't see you go on Live *that* much? What so different about Halo 2 other than it's gonna be the next big thing?

I don't think even 15% of Xbox owners use Live.

[Kotatsu Neko]

It's tangential - but Apple have only hung around because of two things - Office and the iPod. Without Office, even fewer people would have bought a Mac and without the iPod, Apple would be making a big loss.

Nintendo certainly aren't doomed but they need to change their attitude towards Europe at some point.

Oh I don't know, I think is something of a parallel in Apple's reliance on the iPod to prop up it's desktops, and Nintendo being reliant on Gameboy to support it's full sized console.

Sadly Nintendo don't have anything like Apple's design style or image, but I believe the quality argument holds true.

Just imagine if Apple had designed Nintendo DS. Like a miniature iBook. Would have been beautiful.