Bushnell reckons Nintendo faces 'path to irrelevance'

[NE146]

What we need to do is simply resurrect the various "nintendo is doomed" threads from the past decade here.

[ventrra]

What we need to do is simply resurrect the various "nintendo is doomed" threads from the past decade here.

Or even bring back the discussions people were having about how they were doomed on the BBSs when I was ...err... younger when Nintendo was introducing the NES.

[Seob]

A company starts failing when they only listen to the shareholders instead of listening to the people who buy their products.

[fiddlepaddle]

Products can fail, or not succeed as well as competitors, yet have virtually zero impact on the success of the company. Companies fail for many reasons, and as far as I can tell, Nintendo innovates more than most, and executes VERY well, and tech-hungry fanboy opinions don't seem to affect their business decisions. I expect them to be around for a long, long time.

[mkiker2089]

The Wii U is a very nice platform. I think it just came out a year too soon and didn't have clear marketing. If they help it back to catch the PS4 hype they could have gotten people on board while they wait. Instead the Wii U is now "that other console" and it's going to make Nintendo seem a generation behind.

 

That said it's not doom and gloom. They can and probably will correct the publics opinion.

 

As for Bushnell, he lost his right to critique many years ago. Mobile is a good venture but if you cling to tight to one fad, even as it's on the upswing, you will lose out as peoples interest change. Bushnell learned that one the hard way many times. He's a strange man who can catch new ventures but can't adapt within one. Hence to succeed he has to fail.

[+HatNJ]

WOW When Nolan was on this forum responding to comments from Atariage users it was all peaches and cream now it's he should just be quiet and have no opinion

[jaybird3rd]

When Nolan was on this forum responding to comments from Atariage users it was all peaches and cream

Not really. Remember this?

[Osgeld]

WOW When Nolan was on this forum responding to comments from Atariage users it was all peaches and cream now it's he should just be quiet and have no opinion

you wont ever see me creaming my peaches over Nolan, it seems very rare that his commentary on a biz he has been disassociated with for many decades carries any merit or worth.

[mkiker2089]

Yeah, Nolan was pretty much ran off with pitchforks and torches. Many of us see him as someone who killed the North American game market and it still hasn't recovered to pre-crash levels. Sure he didn't do it alone but at the very least he lost his right to visionary status.

[fiddlepaddle]

Yeah, Nolan was pretty much ran off with pitchforks and torches. Many of us see him as someone who killed the North American game market and it still hasn't recovered to pre-crash levels. Sure he didn't do it alone but at the very least he lost his right to visionary status.

 

Other than initially setting the mold for the culture at Atari, I don't think Nolan really had much to do with the crash...he was focused on other things by then.

[Osgeld]

yea I think that is a bit of a reach, I have nothing personal for or against him, I blame him for nothing as that little sh storm was coming down the pike as in any industry.

 

I just dont listen to what he says cause it seems like every story I read mentioning his opinion is a goblin fart about something he really has no more insight on than anyone else ... it just gets blown up cause "this dude did something important a long time ago"

 

Woz gets that as well, but he is typically less goblin fart, and more jolly

[moycon]

Many of us see him as someone who killed the North American game market and it still hasn't recovered to pre-crash levels.

Hu? Wasn't it announced years ago videogames are now more popular than music and movie for entertainment?

I thought I read Atari sold around 40 million units worldwide. The PS2 sold 41 million in North America alone (155 worldwide), not to mention the Xbox and Gamecube sold millions at the same time.

 

Just wondering what you are basing the market never recovering by.

 

Bushnell's still OK in my book. Whenever I try to get mad at him, I just check out that picture of him in a hot tub smoking a pipe and the anger floats away.

[AtariLeaf]

Wasn't Nintendo around decades ago when playing cards were all the rage? I think they'll be just fine.

[Mord]

Hu? Wasn't it announced years ago videogames are now more popular than music and movie for entertainment?

I thought I read Atari sold around 40 million units worldwide. The PS2 sold 41 million in North America alone (155 worldwide), not to mention the Xbox and Gamecube sold millions at the same time.

 

Just wondering what you are basing the market never recovering by.

 

Bushnell's still OK in my book. Whenever I try to get mad at him, I just check out that picture of him in a hot tub smoking a pipe and the anger floats away.

 

Eh, I don't know about games being more popular than music or movies yet. Certainly it seems to move as much or more cash at times, but if you're going to use number of consoles sold as a meaningful statistic, compare it to the number of ipods/mp3players/etc sold over the same period of time. 155 million consoles worldwide means 155 million households, worldwide, at -maximum- are playing the PS2. I'm sure there are a lot more than 155 million households worldwide. And you can't just add up the total number of all different consoles sold either since there's a lot of multi-console households out there.

 

You also aren't likely to get as many condenscending stares/comments about liking video games as you are about liking movies or music. (You will definitely get those in reference to any particular band/movie/genre thereof, but that's the same as me laughing at COD players.) It's not nearly as bad as it use to be, but it still exists. For video games as a whole.

 

Mind you, this is not to say video games are anywhere near as niche as they use to be. I think it's progressed far past the pre-crash levels long ago. In popularity at least. They can't fart out multi-million dollar hits anymore at the cost of a single programmer making 20k/year (and making several games a year on that salary.)

[mkiker2089]

Hu? Wasn't it announced years ago videogames are now more popular than music and movie for entertainment?

I thought I read Atari sold around 40 million units worldwide. The PS2 sold 41 million in North America alone (155 worldwide), not to mention the Xbox and Gamecube sold millions at the same time.

 

Just wondering what you are basing the market never recovering by.

 

Bushnell's still OK in my book. Whenever I try to get mad at him, I just check out that picture of him in a hot tub smoking a pipe and the anger floats away.

 

You missed where I said North America. We play games sure, from Japan on Japanese consoles. The PS2 stats you quoted made my point for me. If Nolan hadn't allowed the destruction of the North American market it would have been 41 million Jaguars sold. North America is now just a footnote on the gaming world with a few franchises tossed to us by the global bosses to keep us busy.

[Bakasama]

Wasn't Nintendo around decades ago when playing cards were all the rage? I think they'll be just fine.

I think Nintendo got their start in the late 19th century making hanafuda cards.

 

Other trivia, SEGA was founded by an American in the 50's as SElective GAming making jukeboxes and pinballs and NAMCO got their start making coin operated rides.

[Osgeld]

I always heard SErvice GAmes .. but its usually followed up by "of America" and SEGA is obiously Japaneese oriented ... if someone wants to clear that up

 

if not maybe SEGA was making its stuff and started importing to the USA during the post war recovery along with many other companies?

Edited September 14, 2013 by Osgeld

[Starscream]

Yeah, Nolan was pretty much ran off with pitchforks and torches. Many of us see him as someone who killed the North American game market and it still hasn't recovered to pre-crash levels. Sure he didn't do it alone but at the very least he lost his right to visionary status.

Last I saw, US was the leader in the games industry, Japan second, and Canada third. US is also the biggest market for sales.

[moycon]

You missed where I said North America.

But I didn't.

[mkiker2089]

Last I saw, US was the leader in the games industry, Japan second, and Canada third. US is also the biggest market for sales.

 

I'd like to see those stats. Again however I'm not talking sales, I'm talking production. Even when we have companies here like Nintendo of America it's just a shell for the real Nintendo.

[mkiker2089]

But I didn't.

 

Then you misquoted yourself talking about the PS2. That's a Japanese console.

[Starscream]

 

I'd like to see those stats. Again however I'm not talking sales, I'm talking production. Even when we have companies here like Nintendo of America it's just a shell for the real Nintendo.

Me too. Here's one quick one. Too lazy to get the others.

 

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2012/0316/Top-video-game-markets-in-the-world/United-States

 

This is why for the last decade we haven't been stuck with cartoony transgender lead characters with big eyes, swords 2 stories tall, spiked hair, girls barely clothed with tits so big they wouldn't be able to stand in real life, and stupid story lines.

Edited September 15, 2013 by Starscream

[Mord]

This is why for the last decade we haven't been stuck with cartoony transgender lead characters with big eyes, swords 2 stories tall, spiked hair, girls barely clothed with tits so big they wouldn't be able to stand in real life, and stupid story lines.

 

Yeah, instead we've just spent the last decade with an arsenal of weapons shoved in front of our point of view.

[Osgeld]

its settled then, what we need is a gritty realistic FPS warfest featuring jailbait transgenders!

[Starscream]

 

Yeah, instead we've just spent the last decade with an arsenal of weapons shoved in front of our point of view.

i know. it's nice that we aren't flooded with jap crap anymore