Is nintendo the only true video game company?
- Thread starter Demon_Skeith
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jodyccombs
Well-Known Member
Nintendo have, or had, one area of great strength: they made consoles that were fun to play with more than one person, in the same room, together. The enormous success of the DS and Wii came about because of games that were wildly fun to play socially, with friends or family who were actually physically present. Nintendo have often been criticised for not “getting” multiplayer, because their online multiplayer support has never been as slick or effective as that from Microsoft in particular. But for millions of players, Nintendo have long had the best multiplayer support of all.
Nintendo was the reason Sony started creating consoles. (Because Sega released the Sega CD and Nintendo wanted a Super Nintendo CD... So they called in Sony. But after Sony developed most of the system, Nintendo finally read the contract... They dropped Sony and hired Phillips to made the CD-I. Sony decided to repurpose their SNES CD attachment into a full console of their own. And the PS1 was born.)
After that though, Sony has done a fair bit to drive consoles forward. They started the disc media (CD) while Nintendo was content to use cartridges. The use of CDs allowed for more space and/or more expansive games. Thus making games more cinematic with higher quality sound and visuals.
During the PS2 era, Sony developed the Eye Toy (development started in 1999 and the device was released in 2003)... The camera that tracked your movements and was the precursor to the current PS Eye/Move. (Microsoft did when they created the Kinect. )
Sony didn't copy from Nintendo for the PS Move, they had already developed the groundwork for the Move in 1999-2003 while Nintendo was working on their 7th Gen console. (They re-opened their work in 2008 and went through several changes, including the addition of the sub-controller after a meeting with Capcom where they used RE5 to show off the Move, before releasing in 2010. ) It is true that they added this motion control to catch some of the emerging market that Nintendo created with their motion setup. (But they didn't copy Nintendo, they already had their design before Nintendo even released their 7th gen system. )
Sony did borrow the idea for a network from Microsoft's Xbox Live (who borrowed the idea of a network from Sega's Dreamcast), but they decided to keep things free (later with a premium membership that gave freebies, discounts and early access to content rather than holding back content like online modes.)
And they did copy off Microsoft's achievements idea with the trophy system.
Nintendo also borrowed the idea of an online network... But again they kept it free and at first used friend code system. (Removing the lobby style that the PS3/360 had for their 7th gen console. I have no idea what they've done for the 8th gen for exact online connectivity, I presume they use a lobby system now but I could be wrong. So someone will have to let me know here.)
As for the topic question...
I would say no, Nintendo isn't the only true game company anymore because they're also dabblng in other content now too. TVii anyone? Hulu plus on your U? The Nintendo Network and their miiverse.
This isn't a bad thing though. It just means that game consoles are now expected to be able to do more than just play games. People got used to PS3/360 being able to watch videos, browse the internet and connect to social networks. So Nintendo had to adapt or risk being left out and possibly ignored.
I mean consider it this way...
You only have enough to buy 1 console. You can buy a PS3, a 360 or the U. They all have pretty large libraries of games if you allow the U to count backwards compatibility... which I do. So it's going to come down to which has the most games you want to play and what other features it offers. If you're tied for number of games then extra features is a cincher. Plus from a developer standpoint we're at a point where the hardware is powerful enough to do all these extra media features without really sacrificing anything, so there really isn't a reason not to include them now. (Other than just being stubborn and clinging to old ideals.)
After that though, Sony has done a fair bit to drive consoles forward. They started the disc media (CD) while Nintendo was content to use cartridges. The use of CDs allowed for more space and/or more expansive games. Thus making games more cinematic with higher quality sound and visuals.
During the PS2 era, Sony developed the Eye Toy (development started in 1999 and the device was released in 2003)... The camera that tracked your movements and was the precursor to the current PS Eye/Move. (Microsoft did when they created the Kinect. )
Sony didn't copy from Nintendo for the PS Move, they had already developed the groundwork for the Move in 1999-2003 while Nintendo was working on their 7th Gen console. (They re-opened their work in 2008 and went through several changes, including the addition of the sub-controller after a meeting with Capcom where they used RE5 to show off the Move, before releasing in 2010. ) It is true that they added this motion control to catch some of the emerging market that Nintendo created with their motion setup. (But they didn't copy Nintendo, they already had their design before Nintendo even released their 7th gen system. )
Sony did borrow the idea for a network from Microsoft's Xbox Live (who borrowed the idea of a network from Sega's Dreamcast), but they decided to keep things free (later with a premium membership that gave freebies, discounts and early access to content rather than holding back content like online modes.)
And they did copy off Microsoft's achievements idea with the trophy system.
Nintendo also borrowed the idea of an online network... But again they kept it free and at first used friend code system. (Removing the lobby style that the PS3/360 had for their 7th gen console. I have no idea what they've done for the 8th gen for exact online connectivity, I presume they use a lobby system now but I could be wrong. So someone will have to let me know here.)
As for the topic question...
I would say no, Nintendo isn't the only true game company anymore because they're also dabblng in other content now too. TVii anyone? Hulu plus on your U? The Nintendo Network and their miiverse.
This isn't a bad thing though. It just means that game consoles are now expected to be able to do more than just play games. People got used to PS3/360 being able to watch videos, browse the internet and connect to social networks. So Nintendo had to adapt or risk being left out and possibly ignored.
I mean consider it this way...
You only have enough to buy 1 console. You can buy a PS3, a 360 or the U. They all have pretty large libraries of games if you allow the U to count backwards compatibility... which I do. So it's going to come down to which has the most games you want to play and what other features it offers. If you're tied for number of games then extra features is a cincher. Plus from a developer standpoint we're at a point where the hardware is powerful enough to do all these extra media features without really sacrificing anything, so there really isn't a reason not to include them now. (Other than just being stubborn and clinging to old ideals.)
Even though Nintendo is dabbling in those other areas to bring support to their system, they still put games at priority. Their systems are still made for games unlike Sony and MS who are releasing "entertainment systems."
GracefulAssassin
Mori Hater
Priority? If it was their priority, my Wii U would not be collecting dust. I'll be getting Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, but everything else is basically a re-release of PS3/360 games. At least they have games. >_>
It's not their fault the game makers can't get good enough titles out fast enough.
Seems game makers have no outline these days and Sony also falls victim to this.
Seems game makers have no outline these days and Sony also falls victim to this.
GracefulAssassin
Mori Hater
The Wii relied on first party, and now no firsty party? That's what makes a Nintendo console sell, and that's definitely true for their launches. They have a handful of first party.
Nintendo hasn't been truly games only since the 6th gen.
They had netflix, a web browser, weather/news app, photo viewer on their 7th gen console. The only thing they lacked was a DVD player in there too.
They've just been a bit slower to adapt and evolve than other companies. (Evident also by how they handled online in 7th gen.)
Now for their new console, yes releases right now look to be slim pickings. But that's true with just about every new console for the first year. New consoles take a lot of time to learn how to use properly to get the most out of them. Plus a lot of developers take time to get into developing games (especially if they have to build the engines they're going to use themselves...) so it might take an extra year before they can really start to work on a game. And even porting existing games isn't all that easy... Games designed for PS3/360 aren't so easy to just plug into another system and have running. They have to remove optimizations for those systems and recode to make them work on the new platform. (And counter any new problems that their new hardware might bring up.)
And it's not like modern games are exactly easy to make. They take teams of people (like 40-60 people) 1-3 years to make (depending on what all they have to do exactly). They have millions of lines of code, extremely indepth graphics/video (making graphics look good in 1080 isn't as simple as taking 480 and upscaling... you have to add more detail to make it look good otherwise things get blurry, distorted or pixellated.)
They had netflix, a web browser, weather/news app, photo viewer on their 7th gen console. The only thing they lacked was a DVD player in there too.
They've just been a bit slower to adapt and evolve than other companies. (Evident also by how they handled online in 7th gen.)
Now for their new console, yes releases right now look to be slim pickings. But that's true with just about every new console for the first year. New consoles take a lot of time to learn how to use properly to get the most out of them. Plus a lot of developers take time to get into developing games (especially if they have to build the engines they're going to use themselves...) so it might take an extra year before they can really start to work on a game. And even porting existing games isn't all that easy... Games designed for PS3/360 aren't so easy to just plug into another system and have running. They have to remove optimizations for those systems and recode to make them work on the new platform. (And counter any new problems that their new hardware might bring up.)
And it's not like modern games are exactly easy to make. They take teams of people (like 40-60 people) 1-3 years to make (depending on what all they have to do exactly). They have millions of lines of code, extremely indepth graphics/video (making graphics look good in 1080 isn't as simple as taking 480 and upscaling... you have to add more detail to make it look good otherwise things get blurry, distorted or pixellated.)
GracefulAssassin
Mori Hater
While it's true that consoles take a bit to pick up, the Wii U is taking awhile to. I looked at the upcoming releases, and most are new third party titles, or old PS3/360 titles. There are very few first party titles, and Nintendo knows that they sell most of their console units because people buy them for Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, etc.
GracefulAssassin
Mori Hater
And thus the PS4 will lead the new generation.
GracefulAssassin
Mori Hater
It's not online only. It's been confirmed you can play locally.
GracefulAssassin
Mori Hater
Strictly business wise.
Nintendo is also an Anime company since they own the rights to the Pokemon Anime. There is also a Kirby Anime on 4Kids.
Pokemon the cards game is also owned by Nintendo.
There was also a Super Mario show on TV, and movies in the 90s.
Pokemon the cards game is also owned by Nintendo.
There was also a Super Mario show on TV, and movies in the 90s.
GracefulAssassin, can you post the source where they confirmed that Xbox 720 would be allowed to play offline?
As for Nintendo, I maintain my position... They haven't been strictly games only on their consoles for a long time. But in terms of other properties... Unless they actually produced the movies/anime themselves (which they didn't) what they did was simply license the rights for their property to another company to produce it. (Which is a common practice for companies. Marvel licensed Spiderman to Sony Pictures and Fantastic Four to 20th Century Fox. Neither Fox nor Sony own those characters, they just have the exclusive rights to make movies with those characters for now.) So in that regard yes, they are the only company that really focuses on making games.
As for Nintendo, I maintain my position... They haven't been strictly games only on their consoles for a long time. But in terms of other properties... Unless they actually produced the movies/anime themselves (which they didn't) what they did was simply license the rights for their property to another company to produce it. (Which is a common practice for companies. Marvel licensed Spiderman to Sony Pictures and Fantastic Four to 20th Century Fox. Neither Fox nor Sony own those characters, they just have the exclusive rights to make movies with those characters for now.) So in that regard yes, they are the only company that really focuses on making games.
GracefulAssassin
Mori Hater
Not where I originally read it, but this is what it was.
http://www.justpushstart.com/2013/04/backwards-compatibility-possible-with-xbox-720-and-offline/
http://www.justpushstart.com/2013/04/backwards-compatibility-possible-with-xbox-720-and-offline/