Analysis: Nintendo Is Out of Touch (by Carl B.)

October 27, 2011, by Carl B. - Don't shoot the messenger, but Nintendo has posted a $924 million loss in its second quarter financial records. They certainly aren't doomed. They're just incredibly out of touch with the majority of the gaming public, especially in North America, and they've come to believe that their brand will sell itself.

During a recent investor meeting in Japan, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata claims the publisher has learned its lesson regarding the Nintendo 3DS launch. In what would seem painstakingly obvious, Nintendo has apparently realized that launching a system with little to no first party support is a bad move.

Everyone comes to the system's defense in this aspect, but the 3DS' launch was terrible compared to other Nintendo systems. There were many more games than what Nintendo launches are accustomed to, yet the only quality title was a port of Street Fighter IV. The Super NES released with Super Mario World. Nintendo 64 released with Super Mario 64. Wii released with The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.


Available to Wii owners on day one.
"We are also planning to launch the Wii U, which is the successor to the Wii, during the next fiscal year. We would like to show the final format of the Wii U at the E3 show next year," Iwata said. "As we learned a bitter lesson with the launch of the Nintendo 3DS, we are trying to take every possible measure so that the Wii U will have a successful launch."

At least Nintendo is correcting their wrong with the 3DS. The system has a plethora of upcoming content beyond 2011, with such games as Luigi's Mansion 2, Kid Icarus: Uprising, and Fire Emblem. The only problem is that there isn't much to play on the 3DS at this very moment, nearly eight months after its release. As I noted in an editorial casting away the "Nintendo is doomed" talk, the original DS, which had an amazing lineup, didn't get its killer apps until a year or so after release.

But coupled with the fact that Nintendo has neglected the Wii, it makes matters on the 3DS even worse. If not for importing The Last Story and Xenoblade – two amazing games – I would have only played three new games on Wii so far this year: Mario Sports Mix, Conduit 2, and Kirby's Return to Dream Land. On the flip side, my PlayStation 3 has been getting most of the love this year.

Nintendo is such a large publisher with so many franchises that it would be insane to think that only one quality first party title has come out in North America so far. They're out of touch to the point that they'll release The Last Story and Xenoblade in Europe and even Australia, but when it comes to North America, it's suddenly out of the question for some seemingly random and irrational reason.

Too good for North America.

The publisher is finally gaining some much needed momentum, however. Nintendo 3DS has sold over six million units thus far, which outpaces the original DS by a large margin. Nintendo has also announced several new features that probably should have been with the system from the start, including text and voice chat, DLC for retail titles, and 3D video recording.

"Strong momentum is very important for game platform businesses and a strong software lineup to vitalize a platform is necessary to maintain this momentum," Iwata said. "In the first half of this year, however, we could not make the continuing sales of the first-party software released last year as we had planned, nor, in the course of preparation of the next platform, could we release new key titles for the existing platform in a timely fashion due to completion delays until the latter half of this year."

I worry that Nintendo hasn't really learned anything and that they're doomed to repeat history. With the Wii U expected to release late next year, it's essentially for Nintendo to provide compelling software and online features from day one. PS3 and Xbox 360 ports won't cut it – Wii U needs some big guns right from the get-go. It would be a shame if Retro Studios doesn't have a Wii U project in the works that can be ready for launch day.

Just imagine what Retro Studios would be able to do on Wii U.

This isn't an article saying how doomed Nintendo is, because I don't really think they are. They've lost a ton of money this past year, but the company still rakes in a tremendous sum. They just can't afford another poor launch, and they really need to come through on promises such as getting rid of software droughts. They have the resources to do it.