Iwata: Nintendo's Online Services Are A Bad Patchwork

This is an old article, from 2012, but it does point out Nintendo's backwards thinking and shows that Bill Trinen is nothing more of a "Yes Man" for NoJ working at NoA.

Yup, that's what I said a few days earlier on another thread.

It's Inevitable. I can see it.

@MirkoS77:

The Wii U had a pretty active effort to court third parties, Koei Tecmo had Hyrule Warriors, Platinum Games had Bayonetta, Bayonetta 2 and Wonderful 101, WB had LEGO City, Ubisoft had ZombiU and ports of pretty much all their games during the first year or so with Gamepad function, Square Enix had an enhance Deus Ex port, SEGA had Sonic Lost World, Sonic Boom and Mario and Sonic, they published Ninja Gaiden for Team Ninja, etc.

Not to mention all the third party gmes on Wii, DS and 3DS, the problem wasn't that Nintendo were neglecting third parties with the Wii U, it was that if you had a Wii U the chances were you had a 360, PS3 or PC. So a Wii U port wasn't going to sell many more copies, it was just going to cannibalise the other system's sales.

Now that the Xbone and PS4 have left the Wii U in the dust, you could say that the Wii U should have been a far more powerful system, but because the launch had to be so early to combat the dead Wii, Sony and Microsoft had all the time in the world to see what Nintendo were doing and beat them at it, so the Wii U would have become the Dreamcast to the PS2. In foresight AND hindsight, there wasn't any guaranteed success so it stands to reason that they would try to pull another Wii rather than go down a route that saw SEGA drop out of the console business.

It's far too easy to say he failed at this and he failed at that, but what would have worked? Seems like the only alternative route would be to leave the Wii for dead and hope the 3DS could carry the company until they could launch a system alongside the Xbone and PS4 and even that creates problems with splitting one market three ways and still doesn't guarantee third parties would still carry the perception that only first part sells on Nintendo, not to mention the unhappy investors.

If there's a problem with Amiibo shortages it's producing numbers, gauging interest in characters and retailers perhaps not wanting to stock many of the more niche characters.

Kid Icarus is still one of the best games on the 3DS.

F-Zero sales have been on a downward spiral since the first iteration, which was a launch title in a bare launch line-up, can't blame them for not bringing it back for the Wii U's install base and handhelds don't seem to count in your book. 1080 I can't see lighting the world on fire and I'm pretty certain Metroid will be back at some point, it's been a while, but Super Metroid didn't get a follow up for 8 years.

Region locking and not having unified accounts are horrible mistakes that there's no excuse for but I'm willing to wait for the NX before throwing Iwata under a bus and risk somebody worse taking his place and taking the down the Konami route.

At least my credit card information wasn't breached lol unlike some company who now makes you pay for its multiplayer

I'll say, WiiU doesn't even have a simplified Messaging System let alone Notification Icon and it has a Freaking TABLET!!!

It has a messaging system AND notifications...?

I am not reading that. I can say as a Wii and former WiiU owner coupled with a current 3DS owner this company and its "we do our own thing!!!" strategy suck dick.

Yep it does indeed but not a Simplified messaging system (ie. one that you don't have to go to miiverse to check and send - This is tedious) and Notification Icon (ie. a simple icon that lets you know that you have a message, not a single flash of the home screen).

@RR360DD: PSN is a much more direct competition to XBL than Nintendo network is to the PSN.

XD

I like that :P

TL;DR

He failed to understand the western market, also you need to read this

Yeah, and Iwata didn't shower first either...

I want to like them dude. We have spoken about this. But they make it difficult.

Now wait a second!!! This is a travesty guy!!!!

first step on any journey toward healing begins with admitting you have a problem

nintendo has internet?

The Konami route....you mean mobile games? I have some news for you.

Nintendo's systems always arrive with the promise of abundant third party support, only to be quickly abandoned. Some blame third parties, but when the entirety of the industry wants basically nothing to do with Nintendo, you have to wonder where the problem resides. Articles like this and this give insight and evidence as to where. You can point to specifics all you want, but the fact remains that third party relations under Iwata have further deteriorated to almost non-existence, the worst it's ever been.

You ask what would have worked, which we could throw hypotheticals around all night, but view the bigger picture. Iwata has failed to progress Nintendo as a company at a time during its greatest period of profit ever seen. Any company would kill for such success and would jump on the potential for growth. Nintendo had it, yet where are we at today? A company that can't even provide online standards the norm 5 years ago, to be generous. One that can't even get its developmental pipeline in order so we aren't dealing with notable releases every 4+ months, usually of IPs that are growing long past stale. One that doesn't cater to any audiences outside of Japan and that can't fix third party relations. One that sits on a golden legacy. And one that shovels out excuse after excuse after excuse, year after year. How anyone can look at Nintendo's current state coming off the heights of years past and not see that as a failure of leadership blows my mind. It's a breathtaking degree of squandered opportunity. Nintendo could've exploded in every area of their business and now been a dominating force in the industry, or at least in much better shape, had it been run under someone with real vision.

Games fail to sell well on Nintendo's systems because they are introduced into an ecosystem that is dead with no momentum combined with the utter stupidity of decisions made in their design. The amount of people I've seen say they were hyped for Splatoon but now aren't buying it due to no VC, lobbies, and the manner of its release have been many. Nintendo is (usually) great at making games, but are terrible at running the underlying business to support them.....not at all surprising when you put a game designer in a businessman's suit.

I have trouble giving Nintendo credit for bringing back old IPs when they are exclusively relegated to much lesser hardware, a 5 inch screen, tinny speakers and an uncomfortable platform for long gaming sessions, yes. It's a problem. I want a full fledged AAA (or at least a moderate budget) attempt on consoles, as do most. These games deserve it, handhelds cannot do them justice of their potential. But we will never see this under Iwata's conservative Nintendo, because he doesn't want to play with the big boys, and this frustrates me to all hell and back as they have the potential and talent to wipe the floor with Sony and MS if they just got a hard ass in charge who really had something to prove instead of a passive nice guy who just seems very complacent with the way things are and is seemingly petrified of doing anything remotely aggressive or competitive.

I want a BUSINESSMAN. A fighter. Someone with a fire under his ass. Ugh....ok I'm done.

@FireEmblem_Man: yea, as Mr. Obvious readily admitted in one of his brilliant revelations. And what does he do? Appoint himself CEO of NoA. *sigh*

@charizard1605: my post disappeared or was deleted?

@MirkoS77:

• Konami have been abandoning everything that made them who they are and driving away all their talent
• The DS and Wii had the most third party support Nintendo has ever seen under Iwata
• The last two generations have seen Nintendo publish and bring to the west more third party games than ever before, including the likes of Monster Hunter, Bayonetta 2, Youkai Watch, Professor Layton, Bravely Default, Hyrule Warriors and the list goes on
• Nintendo games sell excellently on Nintendo systems, the problem is most third parties have trouble getting their foot in the door
• "AAA" is a complete buzzword and has zero bearing on the quality of a game

But enough of pointing out your inaccuracies. The fact of the matter is I've posted pretty much an entire essay on the circumstances and the roadblocks that face Nintendo since the blunder of the N64 and if you can't provide viable solutions to everything that was working against them with the Wii U, with all the hindsight we have now, then your criticisms of a man who had no luxury of hindsight and nothing but uncertain paths in front of him are hard to take seriously.

@megane: are you just ignoring my posts, or failing to read them completely? You continually neglect to address many of the points I bring up, yet then ask me to supply evidence of which I've already spoken, and provided links in support of my argument, for which you have not. Why should I bother? I'm not going to waste any more of my time with you. If you can't see Iwata's failures, not only in the consequences it's held on Nintendo's business and of which he is blatantly admitting himself (and has been for some time now), it's a lost cause.

And "no luxury of hindsight" and "uncertain paths in front of him"? Yeah, I got my good laugh for the night from those, thanks. You don't need hindsight, nor can you use it as an excuse, when your competitors have been doing 10 YEARS AGO what Iwata is finally deciding to do now along with the confession he held no vision for something long past established. He didn't even need to invent it, he just needed to implement it, and he couldn't even do that. He had every opportunity to see his options in an industry that had long ago surpassed his company's ancient standards, yet sat there for the longest time doing nothing.

Don't try to pass him off as some innocent victim that couldn't foresee what was happening or what his options were when it was happening all around him, every day, for years on end.

Poor old Iwata, right.

lol even his compliments are insults. I wouldn't let it get to you. I have to imagine he has constant stomach pains from being a grouch.

When this new network launches we'll see what Nintendo and DeNA have done. I'll gladly join it and see what it can do. It can't be nearly as fragmented as what they did with the DDP and Club Nintendo. They need to improve messaging and notifications, maybe include party chat and maybe voice messages. If they do this and integrate functions between N3DS and Wii U then they should be set. It doesn't have to be over the top, but it can't be as all over the place as it is now.

@MirkoS77:

You post a million different things that went wrong without looking at WHY they went wrong, but instead you stick your fingers in your ears and yell 'DURR CUZ HEZ STOOPID LOL'.

There is no quick fix to the problems they face. The Wii U was a step in the right direction and I have no doubt the NX will be too.

@bunchanumbers:

Don't worry, it hasn't gotten to me, I know some people are just stubborn.

My main concern about the new network is them charging for it. I don't play online enough to pay for it but I do play enough to notice if I don't have it.

Pretty much, their handling of a lot of shit can be summed up with "Durr, we don't know what we're doing"

That's what I have been expecting and the Great Sean Malstrom as well. Since the announcement of the partnership with DeNA, and with a former Windows OS dev on board, Nintendo is finally making a more unified ecosystem that will be a lot similar to the new Windows 10 ecosystem, but for gaming. It also seems that Nintendo has been hiring western engineers all of a sudden.

I've articulated perfectly well why they went wrong. Third parties? Doesn't surprise me you didn't even click the articles I linked. They go into explicit detail, from two developers, as to why third parties struggle working with Nintendo. Why don't you provide me evidence counter, as I find it laughable you'd accuse me of predicating my argument on such juvenile premise and foundation while doing nothing yourself to substantiate your own position. What other proof is needed when Iwata comes out himself and says, "In other words, we did not have an overall vision as to what the final and comprehensive format should be like and, as a result, we cannot say each of these services was connected to one another in an ideal way".

Sorry bub, that's not me saying "Hur dur stupidity is the reasonz!1!", it's him outright admitting it on something so basic as online functionality, among many other times he's come out with apologies, understandings, and more empty promises on other things unrectified. I don't need to provide proof of the why when it has come directly from the horse's mouth. Nintendo lags in numerous areas of their business because of Iwata and his management's philosophies. Which, in this day and age, are outdated and absurd. Much of the imprudence of the why chosen by Iwata has been demonstrated in brutal contrast to the demand of the market and its trends that have been subsequently, continually ignored by this clown and his posse of bozos throughout the years.

You're right, there's no quick fix, which is why these remedies Iwata is implementing now should've begun years ago when the iron was hot. It's not very hard to understand the why of why things went (and are still going) wrong. Iwata is the CEO. He makes decisions based on his beliefs, and those beliefs have affected every aspect of their business you claim I'm not looking at the cause for: online, accounts, third parties, virtual console, etc. His choices, just like Yamauchi who you so vigorously derided earlier for putting Nintendo in the position they supposedly are in today, are the why as to action taken and consequence seen. Which, as far as I'm aware, has cost Nintendo tremendously over the past few years. Specifics which you so ardently cling to, don't negate the cause, which is relatively simple in nature.

Finally, if you really believe the Wii U is a step in the right direction...Christ brother/sister, I have to wonder what you'd consider a wrong one. You better pray, for Nintendo's sake, that they don't make that "right" step again come the NX. They cannot afford it.

@MirkoS77:

Wii U third party collaborations

• Super Smash Bros
• Ninja Gaiden Razor's Edge
• Bayonetta
• Bayonetta 2
• Wonderful 101
• Zombi U
• LEGO City
• Monster Hunter
• Hyrule Warriors
• Sonic Lost World
• Sonic Boom
• Mario & Sonic
• Affordable space Adventures
• Devil's Third
• Fatal Frame
• SMT X Fire Emblem

3DS third party collaborations

• Bravely Defualy
• Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
• Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
• Youkai Watch
• Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask
• Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy
• Professor Layton Vs Phoenix Wright
• Resident Evil Revelations
• Spirit Camera
• Fantasy Life
• NINE Inazuma 11 games
• Luigi's Mansion 2
• LEGO City
• Super Smash Bros

Third party arcade games using Nintendo licenses

• Pokken
• Luigi's Mansion
• Mario Kart

Not even an exhaustive list or going into how many more games the DS and Wii had than their competitors, but they must be TERRIBLE with third parties because Bethesda and an anonymous developer weren't getting details during hardware complications. Not to mention all the 3DS exclusives that came voluntarily. I read the links but I'd already pointed out how many third party collaborations they'd had and assumed you'd be aware of them.

Let's do what I said before, let's look at WHY online wasn't in their vision, perhaps it was because all the way back 10 years ago Microsoft were the only one with decent online after coming off a trouncing by Sony. In 2005 Sony barely had it together with online and they were going head to head with the 360, while the Wii and DS went on to print money with the bare bones online functionality, then to further things, the 3DS went on to trounce the Vita with still bare bones online functionality. So making a complex online infrastructure clearly wasn't going to be a priority. Even though they've been taking steps to improve it with Miiverse bridging the 3DS and Wii U somewhat, eShop account balances being shared between systems linked by Club Nintendo (which by the way was launched in 2002) and the phasing out of friend codes.

Maybe they should have begun doing this years ago, but people seem to quickly forget how well everything was going up until the 3DS launch (which was remedied by games and pricing, not online functions), it wasn't until after the Wii U launched that a redirection was needed. For all we knew, combining a tablet and a controller and creating a social network was going to be a hit.

How isn't the Wii U a step in the right direction? They brought back all the functionality of standard controllers, sourced mature games and third party exclusives like Bayonetta and Devil's Third, did away with friend codes, added messaging and video chat and kept support for most Wii controllers.

@MirkoS77: Maybe Mario will finally come to PS4 (via bankruptcy sales).

You Sir have a future in stand up comedy if life throws you a few curve balls.

I'd love to have an optimistic outlook but the track record of Nintendo prevents me from doing so.