What happened to Nintendo?

Marc_LFD · May 23, 2022

Think we can all agree the Switch is a great Nintendo console (an improved Wii U), but in the process it seems that friendliness, originality, and creativity was lost.

Now, we don't have fun Nintendo Directs like we used to when Iwata did them (RIP), and Reggie isn't part of Nintendo anymore.

What's next, Miyamoto leaves Nintendo, too?

I loved Iwata's Nintendo Directs so much I watched them all. Now? None.

And everyone knew how cool Reggie was:

Makes me wonder what Iwata would think of Nintendo now who just port games from the Wii U to the Switch and charge to play online.

End of an era, I guess.

Dr_Faustus · May 23, 2022

TL;DR

Or If you don't want to watch the video, Nintendo was a company that made things to profit as a company for over a century, once they got into Video games they kept up on that while holding a tight control over quality and demand for their way of things. Eventually competition rose up which were far better than they were in the market and while the market moved forward they resisted to get with the program and fell behind the competition.

Once the old guard was replaced with Iwata, a computer programmer and not a typical business guy that worries about profits among all else. That is where a lot of the good things Nintendo started to do became the standard. This was more or less smooth sailing for the company until Iwata passed away, which they have replaced him with another business type guy, not a guy who knows about games and quality, but a guy which cares most about profits being gained as a company. The recent problems that have risen out of this is more or less the result of this. Iwata was important because he was a programmer who became CEO, he cared about the games first and not about squeezing the most profit from the most half assed attempt.

AngryCinnabon · May 24, 2022

I really miss Iwata and Reggie, It really was an end of an Era as you said...Those two feel actually human compared to most corporation heads, not gonna say they haven't made some questionable or bad choices but at least there was more to them in the public eye than just business choices...I know that isn't really an answer to what happened to nintendo but i can't really say any more than Dr_Faustus has already said anyways.

stephaniesmith44 · Jun 1, 2022

idk, I never liked it

console · Jun 1, 2022

I heard about it. That's sad how Nintendo quality had gone down. I own Nintendo NES to Wii and GameBoy Color to New Nintendo 3DS XL are my last bought. I skipped Wii U and move into PlayStation 4 because have very stronger sales on PS games than Nintendo weak sales on Nintendo games. I going to buy PlayStation 5 system and PS5 games (disc only) in near future and maybe not look back to Nintendo anymore in near future.

I never own Nintendo Wii U and Switch.

But I heard new next generation of Nintendo Switch 2 in year 2024. I don't know about this and we will find out and see how going on about quality maybe can be lousy or better. I don't know what go on with Nintendo in near future.

M7L7NK7 · Jun 1, 2022

They're just a business

mightymuffy · Jun 1, 2022

Milenko said:
They're just a business

This. I mean under Iwata (RIP) and Reggie those were fun times for the presentations without a doubt, and while it'd be nice to see someone with as much character as those two return (Shiggsy's still there I know, but he's getting on a bit now) for the return of the 'fun' Directs, really it's all about the games, and from Nintendo themselves the quality hasn't dropped in that regard. And they're still making a fortune with the Switch - agreed with everyone on the trainwreck that is the eshop and all the shite they allow on it, but we're not forced to buy anything, and since it's not killing the company off: 'if it aint broke..'

Also kudos to the guy that did the video further up: pre Iwata Nintendo were basically similar to what they are now, in that I feel if there was the ability to stream a presentation online to the world, from the Nintendo of 1990, we'd have got a very similar kind of show to the ones we get now...

prof72 · Jun 2, 2022

This isn't about who stays and who leaves
doesn't matter who started it and who continues it (if the founder leave)
we all have different perspective and i respect that

but in my perspective
i salut those who dont let this company end
and not just simply continue
continuing to be enjoyable new style new trend

because it help people like me to enjoy even im not a gamer
also keeping all companies employee with a job

for a company its just business for earning
for a employee its just a job for salary
for a player its just a game

Project68K · Jun 18, 2022

What happened was that Nintendo released shit ass consoles like the Nintendo Shit.

ChiefReginod · Jul 2, 2022

it's very simple...

Hiroshi Yamauchi had several core business philosophies that came to define Nintendo. Using old/cheap hardware in creative ways was one of them. Keep deep pockets to survive downturns in business. Maintain strict control over their IPs and keep them tied to the hardware they're currently selling.

Satoru Iwata said that he was committed to sticking to the principles laid down by Yamauchi.

Once Iwata was out of the picture, the new leadership decided to scrap all of that and just make as much money as possible in the short term.

Dr_Faustus · Jul 5, 2022

ChiefReginod said:
it's very simple...

Hiroshi Yamauchi had several core business philosophies that came to define Nintendo. Using old/cheap hardware in creative ways was one of them. Keep deep pockets to survive downturns in business. Maintain strict control over their IPs and keep them tied to the hardware they're currently selling.

Satoru Iwata said that he was committed to sticking to the principles laid down by Yamauchi.

Once Iwata was out of the picture, the new leadership decided to scrap all of that and just make as much money as possible in the short term.

Eh, that first line is not functionally true on a conceptual level when you realize that the amount of R&D that Nintendo put into between the SNES to Gamecube would very much go against this mentality. Don't forget that Nintendo basically created their very own nemesis with Sony after a failed partnership to develop a CD based system for the SNES and the money that was funneled into that alone is by no means any small thing. Even when they did partner up with Philips instead the end result was they decided to not do anything with it and as a remnant of the contract Philips were allowed to make some Nintendo games for the CDI.

To further drive this argument home the N64 had literal boatloads of money thrown into R&D partnering up with Silicon Graphics which was the biggest company at the time pushing the envelope on CGI/3D graphic based technologies and were tasked to build the custom chipsets for the console itself as well as the dev units for developers. That was not a cheap expense by any means and did not work out well for them in the end when Sony would whip their arse in this generation.

Similar was the case with Gamecube as well, perhaps not as much money being funneled into its development but the outcome was that it was the weakest performer in selling itself even with newcomer Xbox outselling it. Yamauchi retired shortly after this because it was clear as day that this downward spiral of interest was hurting the company more than it was helping. When Iwata came in it was him who saw about how to reinvent the concept of gaming on a console, and that rather than trying to be the best in the entire gaming market and competting against others instead create a different way of playing which would make them stand on their own as a separate product all together. The goal was not to have people think "Nintendo vs. Sony vs. Microsoft". It was for "Nintendo, Sony vs. Microsoft". Nintendo wanted to be a product to sell itself seperately from the gaming market, it wanted to be a product that people would have be alongside their Playstation or Xbox rather than instead of. Making their products cheap and vastly appealing to the main market enough allowed this to exist and is why the DS and Wii were some of the best selling hardware of all time. That was the whole "Blue Ocean" strategy that was talked about in the video I posted above. Offer something so different to the competition that you no longer exist as a competitor to them, but instead a product entirely different than the competition.

Segger · Jul 5, 2022

The Switch UI is by no means bad, especially compared to the PS5 and latest Xbox, or even the last gen offerings from those two, but compared to Nintendo's prior consoles boy is it stale.

I think to me the worst part is that the Switch is devoid of any music, they managed to stuff some absolute bangers into the 3DS. Here are a few to reminisce on in case you were there, or to discover if you never had a 3DS.

What happened to Nintendo?

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