Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Yesterday, along with companies including Sega, Square Enix, Capcom, and Game Freak, Nintendo earned awards at the CESA Development Conference in game design (for the Super Mario series) and sound (for the the Zelda series). Shigeru Miyamoto was awarded his own CEDEC Special Prize. Miyamoto was in attendance to give a keynote anyway, and so he happened to be on hand to give an impromptu acceptance speech.

"Well... Tomorrow I'm going to talk for about an hour," Miyamoto said, "so today I didn't think I'd have a speech." In his brief speech, Miyamoto described his hope for the game industry to continue to grow so that "the number of the children who want to enter the industry multiplies." Presumably children with well-trained brains.

[Story and translation via Kotaku]

1UP's James Mielke is, in general, not pleased about the prospect of a Koei-Tecmo merger. He imagines the company's Team Ninja franchises milked incessantly in the manner of Koei's Dynasty Warriors games, with an annual release supported by endless Xtreme Legends and Empires versions and mega-multiplatform ports. Of course, that's taking it to the Xtreme. In the course of complaining about the two companies' venality, he drops an interesting bit of behind-the-scenes info about the development of Rygar: The Battle of Argus.

Apparently, the port was conceived as a cheap-to-develop game (surprise!), but ended up "so disastrous and unportable that Tecmo had to go back to the drawing board with it." That would certainly explain all the delays. Next time you complain about PS2-to-Wii ports, remember this! Companies are working very hard to bring you all those games from 2002.

With Itagaki and most of Team Ninja gone, the president out, and a scandal over unpaid bonuses, Tecmo is easy prey for a bigger, acquisition-minded company -- like, say, Square Enix. SE announced that they've submitted a proposal to Tecmo's board of directors for acquisition of the company's common stock.

According to the vaguely legalese press release, SE "cannot be optimistic about the future of this significant resource, given the current circumstances surrounding TECMO" -- and thus they wish to save Tecmo by purchasing them. Tecmo would retain its existing brand and company organization, like Taito.

Tecmo's board of directors has until September 4 to respond to this offer. Should they fail to make a decision ... Square Enix won't buy them. That sounds anticlimactic, but without some fresh Dragon Quest money Tecmo's probably toast.

That Howard Stringer is a rascal, isn't he? The Sony CEO recently spoke to German publication Die Welt about the various pies Sony currently has its fingers in, and clearly wanted to shatter a few myths regarding videogames and the current console race.

First of all, the Wii isn't more fun than the PS3, no -- it's just different. PlayStation 3 titles are "designed for those who play a lot." And anyway, it could have been oh-so-different for Sony, as Stringer reckons his company was first to discover the new gamers who have flocked to the Wii. "For a while, we held the same target group with the SingStar karaoke game," opined our man in the know. "But perhaps we neglected to pursue that avenue."

Stringer then confesses that Nintendo may have hit upon a superior business model by selling more consoles and making more money on hardware, before weakly claiming, "the Wii is not succeeding at our expense -- it is not hurting us." For a console that's not hurting Sony, Howard sure likes to talk about the Wii a lot. But it's definitely not hurting them.

[Via Edge Online]

Pow! Blam! Thwack! That's the sound of the Wii's biggest software performers in 2008 so far. The likes of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Wii Fit, and Mario Kart Wii have taken some of the the top places in a new Top Global Markets Report, as calculated by chart specialists Enterbrain (Japan), NPD (the U.S.) and Gfk Chart-Track (the UK).

Although top spot goes to Grand Theft Auto IV (6.29 million copies sold in 2008 so far), the next four places feature Wii games, three of which are exclusives. Brawl (5.4 million) was runner-up, while Mario Kart Wii (4.6 million) and Wii Fit (3.6 million) reached third and fourth respectively. Guitar Hero III (just under 3.4 million) was fifth; obviously, the Wii also had a hand in that.

What does this prove? Well, little that we didn't already know: that Nintendo's console and games are obscenely popular -- even when said games cost way more than regular titles. With four months of the year still to go, we wouldn't rule out one or more of those Nintendo exclusives overhauling that insolent Russian Niko. Commence yaaaaying.

It's NPD week, and that can mean only one thing, folks: it's Pachter time. Everybody's favorite silver-haired analyst makes a habit of estimating console sales in the U.S. on a monthly basis -- it's his job or something -- and this month is no different. For July, Pachter is predicting a sell-through of 650,000 Wii consoles, with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 coughing up dust on 275,000 and 250,000 respectively.

So what's new, right? But wait, because it gets better: the Wedbush Morgan dreamboat also reckons that Wii sales could rise dramatically during the second half of 2008, to the point where the thing is selling a million a month -- and all thanks to a stronger U.S. dollar.

Whereas previously Nintendo would ship a "significant portion" of its Wii supply to Europe to take advantage of the stronger Euro (hence making sales more profitable), the dollar recently appreciated against the yen, meaning the company has a good reason to start shipping a greater number of Wiis to U.S stores. "...We expect monthly sell-through to increase by as many as 300,000 units per month, beginning in August," reckons Pachter.

If you can hear quaking, that'll be the competition.

Watch out, E3! According to Wedbush Morgan analyst and man Michael Pachter, you could soon be heading the way of the Dodo, the Quagga, and decent Sonic games. In a note to investors titled "Entertainment Software: E3 2008 Review: The Bad, The Great, and the BORING!," the famously quotable analyst concluded that the latest E3 was a crushing disappointment, and described the event as "ill-timed," "boring," and "headed for extinction." Oh, Pachty, you sure know how to make a major industry event down on its luck feel special!

The show, which has been criticized by other industry figures of late, isn't beyond saving itself, but Pachter thinks it should be pulled back to no later than early June, and that "the spectacle should be restored by increasing the size of the show space."

To give this piece of news a Nintendo slant, we'll add that Pachter deemed Nintendo's presentation to be "just right", but did note the grumblings from core gamers that not enough announcements were made for them.

Shigeru Miyamoto has weighed in on the grand debate that has raged over Nintendo's E3 press conference, addressing fan complaints that not enough "core" titles were shown. According to Shiggy, the shortage of more traditional games could be attributed to one thing: E3.

Whereas once E3 was perceived as an event for those who treated gaming as serious business, Miyamoto argues that the industry's red-letter day is now better suited to showing off "new concepts and new types of play that we intend to bring to the broader audience, particularly because of the media that gathers at E3 now."

Nevertheless, Miyamoto did reassure diehard fans that classic franchises were being worked on, with the Zelda, Mario, and Pikmin teams all concentrating on new games. "... We're still working on many of those titles," Miyamoto told MSNBC, "But [E3 is] just not the type of event where we'll be showcasing that anymore."

It's interesting to note the different perspectives on this issue taken by Miyamoto and Reggie Fils-Aime. Whereas Reggie refuted the suggestion that Nintendo could have offered more "core" games, Miyamoto seems to admit that yes, there was a lack of such titles at E3, but that E3 itself was the reason behind this.

[Via GamesIndustry.biz]

Looks like we'll be waiting a little while longer for any price cut on the Wii. As in, until 2009. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has revealed to analysts that no price cut is planned for either the Wii or DS this year, and while both consoles are selling out pretty much everywhere, we can't say we're bowled over by that decision.

As yesterday's financial report demonstrated, Nintendo's practically bathing in money, and it expects to make plenty more over the coming twelve months -- $5.14 billion of it, to be precise. If you are still searching for a Wii, looks like you won't even have the consolation of paying a non-launch price!

[Via Joystiq]

Just in case you didn't hear him the first time he said it, Kaufman Bros. analyst Todd Mitchell has reiterated his belief that the Wii only truly benefits Nintendo, and that third-party developers have only seen "isolated successes" on the console.

Mitchell's argument may have been aired before, but it's also tricky to dismiss, especially as only two third-party titles have so far broken the one million sales barrier (launch twosome Red Steel and Rayman Raving Rabbids). Then again, when it comes to top-drawer, original Wii software, Nintendo has delivered on a fairly regular basis. With the odd exception or two, can the same really be said of other publishers?

[Via Go Nintendo]

Here we go again, again. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has been running his own sophisticated computerative thinkonometrics regarding the effect of Nintendo's massive success on third parties, and he disagrees with Todd Mitchell's negative assessment.

Basically, Mitchell said that because Nintendo titles dominate Nintendo consoles, that a market with a Nintendo console in the lead would lead to smaller market percentages for third parties. Pachter called the prediction "naive," noting that part of third parties' relative failure on previous Nintendo platform was the fact that they didn't do much publishing. He cited EA and Ubisoft specifically, both of whom are showing more activity on the Wii and DS. If publishers release more games-- and non-games-- they'll sell more!

We've heard it before -- Nintendo's success is bad for the gaming industry as a whole, because they muscle other companies out of the way. This time it's Todd Mitchell of the Kaufman Bros complaining the incredible success of the DS and Wii might be bad for everyone else. After all, Nintendo's first party titles tend to be extremely successful, which leaves less room (theoretically) for third party publishers. But is it really Nintendo's fault?

Certainly, Nintendo has had problems with third party publishers before. Every longtime Nintendo gamer is familiar with the history of shaky relationships between the House of Mario and the rest of the industry. But if there is a current lack of third party games available for the Wii, who's to blame: Nintendo, or everyone else? While it's easy to point the finger at Nintendo (history supports that position), this time around, that doesn't seem to be the case. Reggie Fils-Aime has talked himself hoarse talking about Nintendo's efforts to bring more third party games under the Wii's umbrella, and it seems to be working. In fact, when one looks at the upcoming offerings for both the DS and the Wii, when compared to releases for the GameCube and N64, it almost looks like a different company altogether.

So who's at fault here -- Nintendo, for releasing games that are dependably awesome? Or could the fault perhaps lie in third party titles that just don't measure up? Nintendo gamers don't seem to shrink from good games, regardless of who makes them. We'll admit that we're hard to please, but if it's good, not only will we buy it, but we'll even buy it a few times for good measure.

We don't often speak of real competition around here -- that is, competition with Microsoft and Sony. There are a lot of reasons for this; after all, Nintendo themselves claim (quite rightly) that when it comes to this market, they're not competing with the other guys. They're looking to do something new.

But the fact remains that for a while, Nintendo has been in third place when it comes to the console wars. Is that really so bad? According to the New Yorker, when you're Nintendo and the other guys are bleeding money, it's just fine to come in last. We know, it seems strange on the face, but once examined, it makes sense. Without the pressure of out-processing and out-performing the other guys when it comes to power, graphics, and sound, Nintendo is free to do whatever they want -- and that shows in the Wii. We don't mean just in the innovative turn the system design took, either. It means Nintendo is free to wield their money where it counts, and in return, they reap the reward of profiting on every system that sells.

We've heard most of this before, but rarely in a context that compares the video game industry to other businesses. The New Yorker draws a comparison to car companies by posing the question of who one would rather be in that market: GM or Honda? The choice is easy. Staying near the top is a benefit when it comes to making and selling cars. But the business of games doesn't seem to follow all the same rules -- and it's interesting to look at what's going on in the industry from that perspective.

So what does that mean will happen if Nintendo continues the roll they're on with the Wii and the DS and catapults back into the spotlight as the biggest and baddest of all? Will their profitability slip? Or is Nintendo just the best business model gaming has to offer, regardless of the standings between the big three?

What is it with people who write about games blowing things out of proportion? It seems to be a trend lately, and it's one that we desperately wish would just go away. This time, the culprit is Keith Stuart of the Guardian Unlimited, who warns that anything could happen this winter, and he's whipped out the old saw about Wii potentially destroying the gaming industry. Where have we heard that one before?

Also, apparently many of you are threatened by any sort of female presence in gaming. Did you get that memo?

The fact that the Wii isn't the most graphically powerful system is, according to Stuart, a veritable crime against humanity. How dare Nintendo step away from pushing the graphical envelope to innovate a new style of gaming! Don't they know that all we care about are pretty pictures?

The only thing we can find to agree with Stuart on is the fact that the Wii will probably change the industry. Of course, we tend to think it'll steer us away from knock-offs, clones, and ports for a while ... or at least, we hope that's the case. And if the Wii follows in the path of the DS, it's more likely than the gaming equivalent of nuclear winter.

As we all know, Nintendo once ruled the video gaming skies. Titles were published for their systems or fell into the abyss. Soon, however, there came a time when the almighty Nintendo looked around in confusion as its once-loyal companions deserted them for greener pastures. The Nintendo 64 and Gamecube, though still playing host to some of the finest games of all time, fell by the wayside due to lack of third-party support. It is a problem that has plagued Nintendo to this day, and something they are desperately trying to correct with the Wii.

There were, of course, numerous reasons for the desertion. The N64's stubborn refusal to switch from a cartridge-based format, lack of online support, and high licensing fees all took their toll on the gaming giant. But fundamentally, when a true competitor came along, third parties sought to leave the most frightful prospect of publishing for a Nintendo system: Nintendo themselves.