23 replies to this topic

[WingedYoshi]

So, I was thinking a bit about the future today, and I thought about Nintendo. I thought to myself: "Where will Nintendo be in 5 or even 10 years?" I thought long and hard, but I couldn't really see. It could go so many different ways; It could go the way of Wii Fit, seeing as it was such a success, or they could possibly branch off of video games and become a bigger brand of entertainment.

There are so many different things that can happen now, and I'm just wondering where you think they'll be in a few years!

My thoughts as to why they'll outsource and become a bigger company is because it's profitable. Video Games are their roots, but they also generate a lot of income. However, lower-production costs in games means more profit, especially when they're appealing to a larger croud, hence, Wii Fit. Wii Fit has been a tremendous success, with millions of copies being sold. Most of those sales are actually with the Wii Board, and the profit margin was huge. To date, Nintendo's Revenue shot from 800 Billion to 1.3 Trillion dollars US. That's a lot.

So, where do you think they'll be in the future? Do you have an idea for 100 years in the future perhaps? What about a week from now? Please, share your insight and your thoughts with the rest of us; others, feel free to just comment and discuss others, or feel free to post your own ideas!

[Nathan]

My dream:

They'll became a large gaming company with great quality games and systems. System's will have better graphics, better features, the whole nine-yards. Friend codes will be optional, where if a parent wants a child to play online, he/she can enable friend codes so that way they can play online safely.

What I fear:

They will become a little kiddie company where controllers will eventually get smaller and smaller and we'll get more games like "Carnival Games" and "Petz Shop". They won't really won't add new features to their system, and graphics will not be payed attention to. Friend codes will be mandatory as well.

So honestly, I'm not quite sure. But I hope its the very top...

[WingedYoshi]

My dream:

They'll became a large gaming company with great quality games and systems. System's will have better graphics, better features, the whole nine-yards. Friend codes will be optional, where if a parent wants a child to play online, he/she can enable friend codes so that way they can play online safely.

What I fear:

They will become a little kiddie company where controllers will eventually get smaller and smaller and we'll get more games like "Carnival Games" and "Petz Shop". They won't really won't add new features to their system, and graphics will not be payed attention to. Friend codes will be mandatory as well.

So honestly, I'm not quite sure. But I hope its the very top...

I highly doubt it will go back to how it was in the Gamecube era, where half the games were 3rd party and were all like Babysitting or this, or that, etc. It just wasn't profitable. You need to think of Nintendo as they think of themselves; a corporation. They're there for the money, not the video games. Sure, there are people there who do it for the video games, but Nintendo as a whole is a corporation. It means profits first, quality second. Usually, Quality means smaller profits, but more reliable clientel, and cheap, high-profit items means more disposable income, newer products faster from more well-budgeted R&D.

Nintendo will never go that way again. Instead, they'll just have a sector devoted to that. And no, they won't be making a new console for kiddy games, unless it proved to be profitable. Leap Frog is an example of this being profitable. For now, we'll still have those kiddy games, and hard core gamers will still complain, but just because a kiddy game is on a game console doesn't make say, Metroid a kiddy game. N64 had a bad rap for that until Ocarina of Time was released, and even after, still. "Hardcore" gamers, in my opinion like to be labeled as different, unique, their own class, so to speak. Sure, back in the 80s and 90s, that was so, but no longer is it that way.

Hell, I played WoW with 40 year olds who had raided for 6 years, and I played with 18 year olds who played maybe an hour a week. Gaming is different these days.

Not to shoot down your opinion; not at all. I just think you're missing the big picture.

You're probably right for both accounts though; I bet they'll realize that there are people who take Gaming as a full-time hobby, and they'll put more resources into that down the road. I also see them taking a team out to develop something like that for the kids. It's logical.

[Nathan]

I was kind of using hyperbole. To be honest, I don't know where they'll be in the future. I just stated where I'd like them to be, and where I wouldn't like them to be. I agree with what you said about them being about profits. I just don't know what's being profitable to them right now.

[WingedYoshi]

I was kind of using hyperbole. To be honest, I don't know where they'll be in the future. I just stated where I'd like them to be, and where I wouldn't like them to be. I agree with what you said about them being about profits. I just don't know what's being profitable to them right now.

Ahhhhh. I understand; I apologize then.

Yeah, I do agree with you about that though. Highly.

[Nathan]

Ahhhhh. I understand; I apologize then.

Yeah, I do agree with you about that though. Highly.

No need to apologize. ;D Anyways, I just hope some more quality games come out. :O

[MageLeif]

I'm planning on working for Nintendo, and if they ever start to get out of line, I'll just bop them on the head (and then risk being fired). :p

In either case, Nintendo will probably advance in "innovation" and technology the fastest. I expect no less of Nintendo to design some form of holographic gaming thing within the next hundred years.

[WingedYoshi]

I'm planning on working for Nintendo, and if they ever start to get out of line, I'll just bop them on the head (and then risk being fired). :p

In either case, Nintendo will probably advance in "innovation" and technology the fastest. I expect no less of Nintendo to design some form of holographic gaming thing within the next hundred years.

Holographic Technology exists. Using it in a residential environment right now is just impractical. However, arcades could be plausible in a few years. However, the technology, the time to develop and manufacture systems and games for holographic imagery is expensive, and wouldnt be possible really to use in a commercial environment either.

Soon, my good friend.

[Nathan]

Holograms are being worked on right now. Actually, Disneyland using a type of hologram for some of their rides. It was creepy! Because it was seriously just light.

Technology excites me.

[Shulk]

Video games aren't their roots. They had playing cards long before video games among other things. I don't think Nintendo will ever leave the focus of video games because it might be profitable in the long run, but starting out it's quite the cost. Sony and MS have other avenues because that's where they started and each division of the company operates separate from each other. To venture out would mean to come up with entirely new LLC corporations under the main heading of the corporate name.

Anyways, what I would like to see for them is the end of FCs and better online gaming. Not to mention better mii system and custom menus.

[WingedYoshi]

Video games aren't their roots. They had playing cards long before video games among other things. I don't think Nintendo will ever leave the focus of video games because it might be profitable in the long run, but starting out it's quite the cost. Sony and MS have other avenues because that's where they started and each division of the company operates separate from each other. To venture out would mean to come up with entirely new LLC corporations under the main heading of the corporate name.

Anyways, what I would like to see for them is the end of FCs and better online gaming. Not to mention better mii system and custom menus.

Well spoken.

I'd like to see FC's as well as free-based online gaming. I'd like to see hubs, as well as the parental controls as optional too. It means parents are still happy, and we are still happy. Also, the limited speech thing in games is irksome. I'd like to see that as a parental option.

Leave the truly "hardcore" gaming for PC nerds. :) Like meh. WTB Starcrafts.

[Decho]

I want them to go back to making love hotels.

I really can't tell where they plan to go from here at all. I'm pretty sure they'll likely stick with gaming, and I'm expecting the next console to build on what the Wii's done, yet not be too large a step in terms of innovation (Seriously developers, get better at something as basic as arm moving before you move onto full body movement). I honestly haven't the faintest idea if they'll stick with more practical, Wii Fit-esque games, if they'll stick with their more traditional-style of games, or if they'll keep on their current track of doing both, though.

[Sanji07]

Video games aren't their roots. They had playing cards long before video games among other things. I don't think Nintendo will ever leave the focus of video games because it might be profitable in the long run, but starting out it's quite the cost. Sony and MS have other avenues because that's where they started and each division of the company operates separate from each other. To venture out would mean to come up with entirely new LLC corporations under the main heading of the corporate name.

Anyways, what I would like to see for them is the end of FCs and better online gaming. Not to mention better mii system and custom menus.

I too would love to see all this in the near future. I'm not sure if the future is bright or bleak for Nintendo, but it could go either way.

[Slasher]

I'm sure Nintendo will do fine further in the future. They've been doing great for many years now. Besides, they've left themselves plenty of room for improvement.

Most of the posts in this thread were too long, so I didn't bother to read what anybody else said. I'm so lazy.

[Kezay]

I do think that the Nintendo under Iwata is going to be a different one from the one under Yamauchi and that's not a bad thing. For one Yamauchi, while he helped build the Nintendo empire we as gamers know, he also stifled Nintendo as time went on because of his strict business orientation and low tolerance for losing any kind of grip on the platforms his company produced. After all, the man even said in his resignation speech when control went to Iwata that the Nintendo of today in today's market requires a different person with a different kind of thinking and Iwata embraces that to a "T." For one, Iwata started within Nintendo's ranks as a programmer and a major entity within HAL Laboratories. When he made that keynote at GDC years ago entitled 'Heart of a Gamer" that was genuine for unlike Yamauchi he both played and created games and had a history within Nintendo as an overseer of their products at a "personal level."

Now, with that said, while people will disagree with Nintendo's methods today what Iwata has brought to the table embraces Nintendo's vision as a company from the very beginning the most. Opening up gaming to as many people as possible and creating products and features that progress what is possible in gaming are the fruits of that labor, the reason why the GCN era had so many experimental peripherals and why both the DS/Wii sported such radical deviations from the norm as the gaming world saw it. It's probably because of that as a reason why despite Wii not being as powerful Iwata has been more open to things Yamauchi was generally more strict about, such as online play, multimedia implementation and open outsourcing of projects. The Iwata Asks series of articles is a great testament to that difference, how often did Yamauchi even give normal interviews? Yet look at Iwata, who frequently travels outside of his home country, gives interviews far more consistently and openly brings members of a development team together to divulge information about the game's development.

The Nintendo of today is a new kind of thinking behind it and the man in charge is probably a better fit for today's Nintendo than the former "guard" so to speak.

Now, with that understood, where do I see Nintendo in the future? For one, I still see them being a big part of the industry, not sure if I could say that after seeing their fortunes with the GCN taper off as they did. Oh they were still profitable, but it was obvious that the company was hitting rough times with a userbase that was nearly halving itself each generation. Beyond that though, I do think they will be a bit less risk averse as we saw in former generations. I do think that online will become a bigger deal as many big players in Nintendo see what benefits it can add despite holding reservations in certain instances. (see NSMBWii for instance) I also think they will grow to accept other kinds of media as a part of the experience or contracting other studios to help in that regard. I also think they will continue exploring ideas like the Wii/DS and how to both improve and capitalize on what they brought to the table while introducing new ways to interact with those devices. This being that much more important now that Sony and MS are tossing their hat into the ring.

Sorry for such a long post, I tend to be a long winded guy, but I like providing a supporting base for my thoughts. Simply saying that today's Nintendo is a different kind of Nintendo I don't think would have done the best job since people like to make extreme distinctions between "casual" Nintendo and "hardcore" Nintendo. It's a bs argument, but I digress.

[Fluttershy]

Japan.

I'm a dick.

[Shulk]

I kind of thought of something else that would be neat. They could include into the Mii section a live town square where you can go and use your mii to chat with other people. Of course this would have a parental control on it so parents could block the channel from their kids.

[Razor Bern]

I kind of thought of something else that would be neat. They could include into the Mii section a live town square where you can go and use your mii to chat with other people. Of course this would have a parental control on it so parents could block the channel from their kids.

Kind of like HOME on he PS3? That would be pretty neat as long as there were parental control.

[Slasher]

I like how after I said I haven't read long posts, Kezay posts some super long post in which I also did not read. lol

I vote MonkeyFlinger's post to be the best post logically and in such shortness.

[Nathan]

I wish I had patience and the mind to write like that. :(