automaton-media.com
I knew then and there that it was either going to be a complete flop or a roaring success. It ended up being the latter, though maybe not in terms of core 3rd-party titles. But that wasn't part of the "blue ocean" strategy then.
Literally the first sentence in the article my man.
but why is it a news story now?
Maybe the writer had to fill his quota.
Idk, maybe we should ask the columnist from Gamesindustry Japan.
Nintendo's handheld line carried them during the rough home console cycles, so in particular during GameCube, it didn't do as well as expected, but GBA was on absolute fire and sold 80 million in like 4 years. Which he oversaw as well. Clearly their home console line nearly died out during Wii U, and required something completely different to be done, in order to survive.
Well, WiiU's reception wasn't the "divided response" he's referring to in the quote. It was near unanimous derision, which doesn't work out so well.
Iwata had little/ nothing to do with Star Fox Zero, and also he died nearly a year before it came out. SFZero was Miyamoto's baby. To prove they could make something truly great with the Wii U (it didn't happen).
Goes for any of the platform-holders, really.
The hardcore all really wished they had stuck with Revolution, but ultimately coming up with something unique won out.
I was more speaking to Nintendo's penchant since the DS/Wii of going for something out of left field and hoping it catches on. Motion controls, tablet controller, dual screen handheld with microphone and touchscreen, etc. Unique inputs and proprietary software to pair with them that appeals to people outside of the existing audience of console gamers. When it works, it really, really works. Aaaaaand then there's Wii U.
Gamecube was Yamauchi’s doing, though. You can tell bc it’s powerful
In the context of Nintendo's history and more so in the scope of the video game industry in the last 40 years, this actually makes sense and has some wisdom to it. Initial praise about something that was just announced is no guarantee whatsoever of it actually being commercially successful.
Yeah the home console side essentially got consolidated into their handheld line with the Switch.
I thought Iwata was CEO back then. Guess I was misremembering.
Iwata was in charge of corporate planning during the 2 years before becoming CEO in 2002, so he actually was heavily involved in GameCube's design and software for launch. (He's the reason we got Smash as a near-launch title in NA). If you watch old interviews from early 2000s, Iwata talks a lot about GameCube and how it was a really well-designed machine engineering-wise (it was), but lamented how it didn't do as well as they hoped despite a lot of great games coming out for it.
Thanks, interesting context I didn’t know about.
Well, for starters it's a fairly obscure quote to begin with. But in the context of Nintendo's history and more so in the scope of the video game industry in the last 40 years, this actually makes sense and has some wisdom to it. Initial praise about something that was just announced is no guarantee whatsoever of it actually being commercially successful. Was his point. He's of course not saying that nothing that is praised early on won't be successful. He means it's not a guarantee of success.
Once the DS Lite redesign happened in 2006, and the Brain Age and Nintendogs launched, is when it caught fire. It had a slow start in 2004.Many forget that Nintendo DS was also controversial at launch due to its titular feature, but ended up a success.
The DSi is still one of the sexiest handhelds I've ever held in my hands.Many forget that Nintendo DS was also controversial at launch due to its titular feature, but ended up a success.
Who said anything about initial praise? I just took the quote at face value. I must have missed the part about initial praise. Being controversial or not being praised is also not a guarantee that something will sell either.
Oh yeah, the OG DS was fugly for sure
My DSi XL is pure perfection.
