Console Wars!!!

[ZargonX]

What is the date for Metroid Prime 3 and Super Smash Brothers?

The current best guess (with no official announcement) is Smash sometime over the summer, with Prime around the holidays. There is going to be a re-launch of the Smash website in just under 2 days, so people are expecting an announcement of launch date then.

I tend to agree with Verto..........if the games don't come it may well be that Nintendo will find their market saturating rather than growing at current speeds.

The main problem that Nintendo had was their past two generations of not doing well. Thus, when they announced a system that was non-standard and admittedly risky, few were willing to develop for it right off the bat. Now that the system is doing very well, people are buying it, but outside of a few quality titles, most companies are trying to make up for lost time with their crappy ports.

However, now that the systems are out there and continue to sell, more companies are starting to put actual effort into designing "blockbusters" for the system, but we won't be seeing them for probably another 4-6 months. Asher seems quite quick to forget that the same thing happened with the 360 for its first year of existence. Now the 360 has a larger, more solid library, and thus has some good footing. I'd say that by around Christmas time and into next winter, the Wii "drought" will be forgotten.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Asher
The profits made on consoles and games are piddly compared to the revenues Sony and MS are battling over in control over the living room.

Nintendo can never hope, and doesn't wish, to control the living room. They're quite happy with MS and Sony pouring tons of money into that venture. One of them may win, or they may each bleed billions trying.

Originally posted by Asher
Nintendo's happy making their tidy profits on Pokemon and Mario, but Sony and MS dream bigger.

That's true.

Nintendo doesn't care about third-parties, either. 76% of their software volume comes from first- and second-party studios. Third-parties didn't care about Nintendo very much, either, but are now falling over themselves to develop for the Wii (EA tripled its Wii development team this year). Instead of encouraging this, Nintendo decided to bump up their licensing fees - they now charge close to $20 per disc manufactured.

[ZargonX]

I wouldn't want any of those three companies in complete control of what comes into my living room. Competition is the best for the consumer, and that's why this current situation should only get better for us on the receiving end

[Asher]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Do you have figures to back this up or is it a standard Asherism?

Look at the money they're making?

[Asher]

Originally posted by asleepathewheel
AT least there is some variety and attempts at new gameplay, not just rehashed, graphics updated fps and racers. Those are seriously fun for you? How many times can you play the same basic game before being bored to death. How is that Halo 3 beta, btw?

I didn't sign up for the Halo 3 beta, I'm waiting for the final version.

As for how it's going, reviews are excellent -- looks like it'll sell about 200x better than Cooking Mama.

pointing at sales figures is a more objective measure than anecdotal evidence. What are the top two console games for the month, btw?

Given that it was a dead month for software, the only real sellers were ones that accompanied new consoles (eg, Wii Play for the remote).

[Asher]

Originally posted by LordShiva
Nintendo can never hope, and doesn't wish, to control the living room. They're quite happy with MS and Sony pouring tons of money into that venture. One of them may win, or they may each bleed billions trying.


That's true.

Nintendo doesn't care about third-parties, either. 76% of their software volume comes from first- and second-party studios. Third-parties didn't care about Nintendo very much, either, but are now falling over themselves to develop for the Wii (EA tripled its Wii development team this year). Instead of encouraging this, Nintendo decided to bump up their licensing fees - they now charge close to $20 per disc manufactured.

EA's Wii games are classics, in how terrible an rushed they are.

Nintendo also withholds SDK tools from its third parties to give them a leg up in game development. This is always their history -- it's also why third parties historically don't care for Nintendo. Nintendo is making those same mistakes again.

Microsoft's main advantage in entering the field is they put developers first. Sony's playing catch up there with the PS3, but Nintendo's taking a step backwards.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Asher

Look at the money they're making?

Sure! This proves your statements about the 50% plus profit margin Nintendo has.

Looks to me like the standard Asher tactic of making up/manipulating numbers to make them say what you want them to.

[DrSpike]

Also, if they are making a lot of money in relative terms, then maybe they are giving some customers what they want.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Asher

Waving a stick around in the air thinking you're playing "tennis" when all you're doing is triggering one of two pre-recorded swings is "fun" for a very short period of time. Then it gets old. Like the Wii...

And I reply to the entire post ...

What is fun for the target demographic of the Wii is not what is fun for you. I know quite a few people who still play Wii tennis or Wii bowling - people who I work with come to work and say "I had a ton of fun last night playing Wii bowling at my friend's house" and similar. That's a direct quote, by the way.

The sooner you accept that what is fun for you is not necessarily the one and only definition of fun, the sooner this argument is over

[Asher]

It's not just me, the vast majority of people let their Wiis collect dust after the initial honeymoon. Mine collected dust mostly since I bought it, save for Zelda.

The fact that you've got a couple friends that apparently say lame, cliched things is a bit suspicious, but doesn't mean much.

[Asher]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Sure! This proves your statements about the 50% plus profit margin Nintendo has.

Looks to me like the standard Asher tactic of making up/manipulating numbers to make them say what you want them to.

There's no need to be obtuse. There's of course no number out there in public that has that requirement.

What we can do is check out Nintendo's profit margins for the past 10 years from their financial statements...

[ZargonX]

The fact that you've got a couple friends that apparently say lame, cliched things is a bit suspicious, but doesn't mean much.

Don't you ever get tired of being an ass, Asher?

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Asher

What we can do is check out Nintendo's profit margins for the past 10 years from their financial statements...

Presumably you've already done this and it tallies with your 50% assertion?

[Asher]

You're a smart guy, DrSpike.

Nintendo consoles always sell well off the bat. The Gamecube outsold the Xbox 360 in its first year on the shelves, too. The Wii is just going to start even faster due to the novelty.

[DrSpike]

Would you care to post a link?