Nintendo being stubborn again...online game playing
#1
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Nintendo being stubborn again...online game playing
Reading this just cracks me up! Does Nintendos sales/marketing team must go into meetings/conferences wearing clown shoes!
EGM August 2004--
"Nintendo is as stubborn as ever about embracing online gaming. ' We just don't believe that doing it online through a pay-to-play mechanism is the way that consumers want it' "
What are they talking about!!?!?!? The way consumers want it!??!!?!!??! Ok riiiight ! Online gaming via PC has always been red hot! Plus xbox live is nearly at 1 million subscribers...FYI it took HBO and AOL five years to reach that number, while xbox live did it in half the time. Right Nintendo, the consumers don't want online gaming.
Nintendo has so many great games that would be amazing online...Geez
EGM August 2004--
"Nintendo is as stubborn as ever about embracing online gaming. ' We just don't believe that doing it online through a pay-to-play mechanism is the way that consumers want it' "
What are they talking about!!?!?!? The way consumers want it!??!!?!!??! Ok riiiight ! Online gaming via PC has always been red hot! Plus xbox live is nearly at 1 million subscribers...FYI it took HBO and AOL five years to reach that number, while xbox live did it in half the time. Right Nintendo, the consumers don't want online gaming.
Nintendo has so many great games that would be amazing online...Geez
#2
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Re: Nintendo being stubborn again...online game playing
Originally posted by Get Me Coffee
Reading this just cracks me up! Does Nintendos sales/marketing team must go into meetings/conferences wearing clown shoes!
EGM August 2004--
"Nintendo is as stubborn as ever about embracing online gaming. ' We just don't believe that doing it online through a pay-to-play mechanism is the way that consumers want it' "
What are they talking about!!?!?!? The way consumers want it!??!!?!!??! Ok riiiight ! Online gaming via PC has always been red hot! Plus xbox live is nearly at 1 million subscribers...FYI it took HBO and AOL five years to reach that number, while xbox live did it in half the time. Right Nintendo, the consumers don't want online gaming.
Nintendo has so many great games that would be amazing online...Geez
Reading this just cracks me up! Does Nintendos sales/marketing team must go into meetings/conferences wearing clown shoes!
EGM August 2004--
"Nintendo is as stubborn as ever about embracing online gaming. ' We just don't believe that doing it online through a pay-to-play mechanism is the way that consumers want it' "
What are they talking about!!?!?!? The way consumers want it!??!!?!!??! Ok riiiight ! Online gaming via PC has always been red hot! Plus xbox live is nearly at 1 million subscribers...FYI it took HBO and AOL five years to reach that number, while xbox live did it in half the time. Right Nintendo, the consumers don't want online gaming.
Nintendo has so many great games that would be amazing online...Geez
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It's amazing how Nintendo can systematically ignore consumer demands and remain profitable. I suspect that will change drastically over the next few years as their portable monopoly erodes and their console marketshare continues to decline.
#4
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You're misreading the statement from Nintendo. They're saying that customers prefer to play online for free (PS2 model) versus paying for it (Xbox model). They aren't saying that they don't want online gaming at all.
#5
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You pay with the PS2 - you have to buy the modem or network addon. Xbox Live is 50 bucks for a year. Pay to play is more like Everquest or Sims Online or City of Heroes. Anyway - Xbox Live hit a million subscribers recently (no longer 'nearly'). It's a viable market and a growing one. Roughly 1 out of 10 Xbox owners subscribe to Live. I'd say that's a market Nintendo is making a mistake in ignoring. The percentage of PS2 owners with the online adapter is much lower, but it's still a signifigant market. Last year according to the NPD, online enabled console games reached 1 billion dollars in sales... that's money that Nintendo is ignoring.
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They'll do it eventually and it will be a big deal after all this resistance. I think Nintendo is trying to maintain a ceirtain amount of control over the game expererience. Half the time some idiot is ruining the game for everyone else online. Like the host dropping out of the game after you've waited ten minutes for it to be started and heavy breathing and coughing into the headset.
I'm not even sure I want to play Mario Kart the same way a game like Crimson Skies is played on xbox live, even though I enjoyed CS a great deal. Then there will always be players that are so good at the game that it's like swimming in a shark tank, new players are just food to boost statistics. Whats the point of statistics when you're a new player and ranked 150,000th? Maybe if I spend 8 hours a day on the game I might climb up to 70,000th. Big deal.
There's definetely areas where online gaming can be more fun and casual, I hope Nintendo is going to bring it.
I'm not even sure I want to play Mario Kart the same way a game like Crimson Skies is played on xbox live, even though I enjoyed CS a great deal. Then there will always be players that are so good at the game that it's like swimming in a shark tank, new players are just food to boost statistics. Whats the point of statistics when you're a new player and ranked 150,000th? Maybe if I spend 8 hours a day on the game I might climb up to 70,000th. Big deal.
There's definetely areas where online gaming can be more fun and casual, I hope Nintendo is going to bring it.
#7
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Originally posted by Trigger
You pay with the PS2 - you have to buy the modem or network addon.
You pay with the PS2 - you have to buy the modem or network addon.
#8
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Originally posted by Groucho
Paying for hardware is not the same as "pay to play." Also, the Gamecube has those same add-ons.
Paying for hardware is not the same as "pay to play." Also, the Gamecube has those same add-ons.
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Originally posted by Trigger
Roughly 1 out of 10 Xbox owners subscribe to Live. I'd say that's a market Nintendo is making a mistake in ignoring. The percentage of PS2 owners with the online adapter is much lower, but it's still a signifigant market. Last year according to the NPD, online enabled console games reached 1 billion dollars in sales... that's money that Nintendo is ignoring.
Roughly 1 out of 10 Xbox owners subscribe to Live. I'd say that's a market Nintendo is making a mistake in ignoring. The percentage of PS2 owners with the online adapter is much lower, but it's still a signifigant market. Last year according to the NPD, online enabled console games reached 1 billion dollars in sales... that's money that Nintendo is ignoring.
And "online enabled" game sales mean squat. I have several "online enabled" games, such as Madden, NCAA Football, KOTR, Crimson Skies, Halo, and Mechassault. How many have I played online? Zero.
I think those of us already online and discussing it on a message board have a skewed opinion of how important online play is. If I'm representative at all, I don't play online because I don't have the time to invest to become good enough at a game that I'd actually be competitive against others who have played a lot. That makes it not much fun to play.
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Originally posted by Duran
I think you're misinterpreting your own information. 10% of Xbox owners subscribe to Live. While a significant number of people, it certainly isn't arguing that online play is a "must have".
And "online enabled" game sales mean squat. I have several "online enabled" games, such as Madden, NCAA Football, KOTR, Crimson Skies, Halo, and Mechassault. How many have I played online? Zero.
I think you're misinterpreting your own information. 10% of Xbox owners subscribe to Live. While a significant number of people, it certainly isn't arguing that online play is a "must have".
And "online enabled" game sales mean squat. I have several "online enabled" games, such as Madden, NCAA Football, KOTR, Crimson Skies, Halo, and Mechassault. How many have I played online? Zero.
Errrrr Halo isn't on LIVE, and KOTR really isn't a LIVE type of game.
#12
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A couple of things here:
1: I've heard this "One Meeelion" subscribers number thrown around a lot. I wonder if (and assume that) this includes all the folks who tried the free two month cards that came in all those games as well as the Xbox console late last year. If so, that's really a deceptive figure since a lot of those people signed up more than once and since many (most?) are no longer subscrbers to the service.
2 : It continues to amaze me that Nintendo continues to shun online play. OK, I understand that it would be cost-prohibitive to set up a Live-type network. But they could have easily encouraged a jr-version of Sony's model. For a company that claims to be all about the games, don't they realize online gaming's potential. Even people who HATE online gaming have to concede that they would probably have sold more copies of FF:Crystal Chronicals and of The Four Swords if a game could be played online rather than requiring the player to have three of his friends, all with their own GBAs and link cables to all come over to his house.
3: I hope Sony keeps their current free online plan intact. There's some E3 quote in the latest EGM that sounded a lot like they were eyeing a Live-like plan. As few games as I play online on the PS2, that wouldn't go over well for me. I darned well better be able to play Ratchet & Clank 3 online for free....
R&C online deathmatches?
1: I've heard this "One Meeelion" subscribers number thrown around a lot. I wonder if (and assume that) this includes all the folks who tried the free two month cards that came in all those games as well as the Xbox console late last year. If so, that's really a deceptive figure since a lot of those people signed up more than once and since many (most?) are no longer subscrbers to the service.
2 : It continues to amaze me that Nintendo continues to shun online play. OK, I understand that it would be cost-prohibitive to set up a Live-type network. But they could have easily encouraged a jr-version of Sony's model. For a company that claims to be all about the games, don't they realize online gaming's potential. Even people who HATE online gaming have to concede that they would probably have sold more copies of FF:Crystal Chronicals and of The Four Swords if a game could be played online rather than requiring the player to have three of his friends, all with their own GBAs and link cables to all come over to his house.
3: I hope Sony keeps their current free online plan intact. There's some E3 quote in the latest EGM that sounded a lot like they were eyeing a Live-like plan. As few games as I play online on the PS2, that wouldn't go over well for me. I darned well better be able to play Ratchet & Clank 3 online for free....
R&C online deathmatches?
#13
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Originally posted by Get Me Coffee
Errrrr Halo isn't on LIVE, and KOTR really isn't a LIVE type of game.
Errrrr Halo isn't on LIVE, and KOTR really isn't a LIVE type of game.
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Everything I've read and the interviews I've watched say that Nintendo doesn't believe it's a financially viable avenue for them currently. Don't miss the fact that Microsoft has invested over a billion dollars in XBox live, and don't think for a second that billion dollars was from profits of the XBox and related accessories and software. Nintendo simply isn't willing to invest the money in online gaming as they don't believe they will get an immediate return on their investment. I, for one, believe they are correct. Just because Nintendo isn't willing to lose money with online gaming doesn't mean they don't believe it will be viable in the future. Watching an interview on G4 (I believe it was Miyamoto) they said they had 16 Cubes networked on the floor at the show. As he readily pointed out, the fact that they can network 16 Cubes on an Intranet means they could easily do the same on the Internet....if they were so inclined.
Microsoft has lots of money to invest in online gaming and is clearly in a better position to support such a system since networking and computing is what they do best. Nintendo will be online at some point but not until the demand will support their investment.
Microsoft has lots of money to invest in online gaming and is clearly in a better position to support such a system since networking and computing is what they do best. Nintendo will be online at some point but not until the demand will support their investment.
#15
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Originally posted by Decker
Yup, of his list, only Mehcassault and Crimson Skies have online play for the Xbox (as of now). Both are insanely fun online as well.
Yup, of his list, only Mehcassault and Crimson Skies have online play for the Xbox (as of now). Both are insanely fun online as well.
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1 million*est. Xbox owners are on XBL, out of close to what, 15 million Xbox consoles owners now (that's an estimate, should be close). That's less than 10%. There are some questions to be asked about that XBL number though, like how many of those subscriptions are actually just 2-month ones that will not be renewed when it runs out. Quite frankly, I'm even suspicious of that many being online, since MS skews the numbers for the number of games being online.
"Screen Digest forecasts that the total online PC games market will top $1.1bn in the West in 2004 and reach $2.2bn by 2007."
Console numbers are much lower than that. You can't compare PC numbers to the console market.
Online has not been/is not important this generation, next generation is a totally different story though. Nintendo isn't Microsoft, they have had a long time to build userbases. There is no doubt in my mind, that when Nintendo, hopefully/better damn it, goes online next gen, that they will get 1 million or more online players within a year, depending on the games.
PS2 Network adapter argument: $39.99 one time fee over the normal 5-year console cycle, for network adapter if it didn't come packed. $49.99 x 5-years for XBL over the course of the console life cycle. One gamertag,friends lists are conveniences, not a nescessity.
"Screen Digest forecasts that the total online PC games market will top $1.1bn in the West in 2004 and reach $2.2bn by 2007."
Console numbers are much lower than that. You can't compare PC numbers to the console market.
Online has not been/is not important this generation, next generation is a totally different story though. Nintendo isn't Microsoft, they have had a long time to build userbases. There is no doubt in my mind, that when Nintendo, hopefully/better damn it, goes online next gen, that they will get 1 million or more online players within a year, depending on the games.
PS2 Network adapter argument: $39.99 one time fee over the normal 5-year console cycle, for network adapter if it didn't come packed. $49.99 x 5-years for XBL over the course of the console life cycle. One gamertag,friends lists are conveniences, not a nescessity.
#18
What's pathetic is Nintendo's inability to show any committment for going online. Or maybe their milking the GBA for all its worth at the expense of gamers while they lazily rehash every SNES & NES game ever made.
For the next-gen it's a deal breaker for Nintendo to have online play.
For the next-gen it's a deal breaker for Nintendo to have online play.
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I'll be breif, and I'll begin with: I wish nintendo would have embrace online gaming, as I do enjoy it.
That said: Right now a minority of gamers play online. In addition only 1 or 2 games have ever been largly profitible from online gaming, whos gives #$%^ if last year online gaming had 1 billion in sales, thats not profit.
Look at MS and the xbox, every quarter MS losses around $250 million dollars in their home entertainment division. Xbox has been a huge $ loss for MS and LIVE is a big part of those losses.
So why do it? Well, I'll tell you this clearly. LIVE exists to build customer loyalty and to attract customers. It's a business strategy for MS at this point, they believe they can turn these loses into gain later down the road. Will it happen? Only time will tell.
So, deal with it. Online gaming does not make large direct profit, thus Nintendo does not care to be involved right now. They are business, they are trying to make money, they don't want to sink tons of cash into something that has yet to develop a solid business model.
Nintendo was one of the first game companies to try online gaming with the famicom back in the day. Perhaps they are pulling from their experiences there to this day. If online gaming starts to turn some real profits Nintendo will be there, they arn't (that) ignorant.
That said: Right now a minority of gamers play online. In addition only 1 or 2 games have ever been largly profitible from online gaming, whos gives #$%^ if last year online gaming had 1 billion in sales, thats not profit.
Look at MS and the xbox, every quarter MS losses around $250 million dollars in their home entertainment division. Xbox has been a huge $ loss for MS and LIVE is a big part of those losses.
So why do it? Well, I'll tell you this clearly. LIVE exists to build customer loyalty and to attract customers. It's a business strategy for MS at this point, they believe they can turn these loses into gain later down the road. Will it happen? Only time will tell.
So, deal with it. Online gaming does not make large direct profit, thus Nintendo does not care to be involved right now. They are business, they are trying to make money, they don't want to sink tons of cash into something that has yet to develop a solid business model.
Nintendo was one of the first game companies to try online gaming with the famicom back in the day. Perhaps they are pulling from their experiences there to this day. If online gaming starts to turn some real profits Nintendo will be there, they arn't (that) ignorant.
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Originally posted by Gallant Pig
What's pathetic is Nintendo's inability to show any committment for going online. Or maybe their milking the GBA for all its worth at the expense of gamers while they lazily rehash every SNES & NES game ever made.
What's pathetic is Nintendo's inability to show any committment for going online. Or maybe their milking the GBA for all its worth at the expense of gamers while they lazily rehash every SNES & NES game ever made.
Are you saying that if you were in charge of Nintendo you would choose to leave a solid profit plan for a shaky unproven online gaming plan for profits?
It's not as if Nintendo doesn't push the market with their technologies and software, they do more then just SNES and NES rehashes.
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Originally posted by Gallant Pig
I don't see how Super Smash Brothers Online couldn't be anything but a hit and pay for itself.
I don't see how Super Smash Brothers Online couldn't be anything but a hit and pay for itself.
Originally posted by Trigger
You pay with the PS2 - you have to buy the modem or network addon.
You pay with the PS2 - you have to buy the modem or network addon.
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Originally posted by Galanthas
Online has not been/is not important this generation, next generation is a totally different story though. Nintendo isn't Microsoft, they have had a long time to build userbases. There is no doubt in my mind, that when Nintendo, hopefully/better damn it, goes online next gen, that they will get 1 million or more online players within a year, depending on the games.
Online has not been/is not important this generation, next generation is a totally different story though. Nintendo isn't Microsoft, they have had a long time to build userbases. There is no doubt in my mind, that when Nintendo, hopefully/better damn it, goes online next gen, that they will get 1 million or more online players within a year, depending on the games.
I doubt you'll see online play on the next gen from Nintendo. In their mario minds, online play isn't what the consumers want.
#24
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Originally posted by CreatureX
Even though there is a built in modem in Xbox, the price of that modem is reflected in the overall price of the Xbox. So Xbox owners are still paying for a modem. The downside of a built in modem is that Xbox customers have to pay for a new modem with each new console they buy. The PS2 modem will no doubt work with the PS3 so Sony owners only have to pay for one modem, while Xbox/Xbox 2 owners are forced to pay for each built-in modem with every console they buy.
Even though there is a built in modem in Xbox, the price of that modem is reflected in the overall price of the Xbox. So Xbox owners are still paying for a modem. The downside of a built in modem is that Xbox customers have to pay for a new modem with each new console they buy. The PS2 modem will no doubt work with the PS3 so Sony owners only have to pay for one modem, while Xbox/Xbox 2 owners are forced to pay for each built-in modem with every console they buy.
I understand that the free play on the PS2 is cheaper in the longrun versus Live at 50$ a year but i think there is something to be said for Microsoft setting a standard that i should then expect for every Live game i get. I know it will support voice. I know that i can scan my buddy list and see if they are playing something else and either invite them to my game or join them. When i played online with my Dreamcast it was rough finding the couple friends i had to get a game together and if i could have had a large buddy list of people i played with in other games i would have been stoked.
They both have their benefits and drawbacks. I personally would rather pay the cash upfront and know what to expect. Especially with Star Wars Battlefields coming
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Originally posted by Get Me Coffee
Errrrr Halo isn't on LIVE, and KOTR really isn't a LIVE type of game.
Errrrr Halo isn't on LIVE, and KOTR really isn't a LIVE type of game.