So What's up with Nintendo's screw ups and why is the media always wrong?

[TheMagicalKuja]

I think a thread of thought that started up in the Unpopular Smash 4 opinions thread is worth exploring in its own topic. To take quotes from what people said, myself included.

Well, the entire videogame community, SPECIALLY gaming 'journalists' are to blame for Nintendo's problems, but that's for another thread.

Because their terrible marketing and refusal to release specs to 3rd party developers have absolutely nothing to do with how badly the Wii U is doing, right?

Oh, and don't forget their Japanese-centric design philosophies, which don't go over well in the other markets (e.g. Friend Codes, systems small and underpowered to fit better in Japanese homes, tablet was there to catch JP's increasing handheld reliance, not because tablets are popular worldwide).

He does have a point about journalists talking crap about Nintendo, but that's them being dumb and misreading flaws, not active malice (Hanlon's Razor, kids). Most malice is a result of machismo-laden advertising from Microsoft and the like. Journalists are just being opportunists.

Which leads me to something on topic--Little Mac alone isn't going to score on Western sensibilities. For Glory seems more like the answer to Japanese tourneys than how we roll here, and is part of the problem I described above.

To sum that up, I think Nintendo's main contention is their Japanese centric practices, and the fact that this isn't very popular in other markets. But gaming journalists never point this out, they just want to troll rabid fanboys by claiming their franchises are played out (which plays right into the "'mature' games for 'mature' gamers" market), or they do attack the flaws but never quite reach the source (Nintendo is about "being different", which is vague and missing the forest from the trees).

What do you think of this?

 

[D-idara]

I think Nintendo's supposed 'stubbornness' actually is what's kept them making good, clean games for so long, although they could be a little more competitive, what people love so much about Nintendo is that the warped, corrupted industry hasn't managed to shape them into something horrible like most companies.

They keep pumping out stellar,
sublime games and that should be enough to keep them afloat, let's hope.

Also, there comes a time when you realize what being 'mature' really means.

 

[mimgrim]

Just to point out, I don't think For Glory was made because of the Japanese competitive scene ,since, from what I've heard, they no longer play on FD only (in Brawl they play on FD/BF/SV from what I've heard) and instead has to with online statistics where FD is played the most commonly on.

 

[finalark]

I don't know why people act like the Wii U's problems are some new development, Nintendo had the same exact problem back in the N64 and GCN days. It was only because the Wii was such as ****ing phenomenon that people seem to forget this. Either that, or they're blinded by N64/GCN nostalgia/just weren't old enough at the time to understand Nintendo's problems.

I don't think Nintenod's problem is that it's trying to exclusively serve a Japanese market, because I'm pretty sure the table controller was made in response the world-wide fixation on complete rip-offs tablets. And I think Nintendo's train of thought with make the Wii U under powered was that they could replicate the success of the Wii. I also think that maybe people see Nintendo exclusively as a Japanese company (hell, I've even seen people forget that Sony is Japanese). Every since the dawn of the 10s there's been quite the backlash towards Japanese media, probably in response to the over-saturation of it during the Anime Boom of the 2000s. But let's be honest, these days american kids are fixated on Brittish stuff so really they've just traded one foreign culture fetish for another, but I digress.

 

[TheMagicalKuja]

Another thing Nintendo's failed to do is any good marketing lately. We'll see if that changes come the release of Mario Kart.

 

[Twewy]

The only marketing Nintendo's done is commercials on Cartoon Network, as far as I know.