On Nintendo's Losses (Also Rant)

Recently today it was announced that much of Nintendo's top guys would be taking a salary cut. This is due to the lack of profit emanating from the Wii U and Wii U software. The damage has been reported that Satoru Iwata (CEO of Nintendo) would take a 50 percent cut, Miyamoto (creator of Donkey Kong) would be taking a 30 percent cut and other board of directors would be taking a 20 percent cut. Nintendo had released their fiscal report amounting to only ~6 million Wii U units sold. This is put into perspective when compared to both Sony and Microsoft's quarterly exceeding 3 million units respectively.

Now, obviously this is bad news for Nintendo. However, I find this whole debacle to be blown largely out of proportion. Yes, Nintendo's on the back swing for this past fiscal year due to the meager amount of titles being released. However upon closer inspection...

Net sales were 635.4 billion yen (US$6,759 million) of which overseas sales were 426.4 billion yen (US$4,537 million) or 67.1% of 
the total sales. Owing to the fact that the Wii U hardware sales have a negative impact on Nintendo’s profits, the operating loss 
was 36.4 billion yen (US$387 million). As a result of exchange gains totaling 39.5 billion yen (US$420 million) due to the 
depreciation of the yen, ordinary income was 10.4 billion yen (US$111 million) and net income was 7 billion yen (US$75 million).

Source

So, yes Nintendo has taken a hit today. However, these precautions that Nintendo have taken are just that. They realize that they have messed up with marketing the Wii U and are now facing the consequences. More to the point though, Nintendo has enough money in the bank to be able to take hits like these for the next 20-30 years. Does this mean they should? No, of course not. Mad respect to Iwata for taking the biggest hit, but he still has yet to prove his position as CEO and very few are impressed with his work. He's got a lot of work to do this coming year, same goes for the entirety of Nintendo. I am eager to see how well, Nintendo is able to pick things back up again with games like DK Tropical Freeze, Smash Bros. 4, Bayonetta, X, and Zelda Wii U. I think Nintendo can make this thing work, but don't expect me to be betting on those odds. They need to lock down some third party publishers which they have as seen with both Atlus and SEGA, as well as attracting the gaze of Platinum games, in order to make it through this. I doubt Nintendo will end up getting 1st place this gen like the last one, hell even 2nd seems too out of reach. All they can hope for is to minimize damages and try to keep Wii U support alive as much as possible.

On the less business minded side of things. I mean, you gotta respect a company that will take the hit's face first and won't cower away under their desks until it all blows over. I mean, you all know I love Nintendo. But this move has certainly garnered the respects of several people such as IGN, RoosterTeeth, and even Inside Gaming. Does this sell consoles? No, not at all. A lot of people are still stuck in a sort of purgatory like state that A) Nintendo is "purely" a kiddy company. B) Thinks their games lack any sort of innovation. C) Anything they do do differently is automatically considered a gimmick. I'll touch on that here briefly.

And D) That every Mario game, every Zelda game, and every Nintendo franchise is completely identical to the last respective iteration. Despite these very same people wishing for remastered versions of Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Mario Party 2, Kirby Super Star, Castlevania SOTN, Star Fox 64, etc. You people want these old games to be remade over and over again, just to feed your ever-sickening need for nostalgia. "For a time when things were better". Listen, take off the rose-tinted glasses and get a reality-check, things were not better when you were a kid. Things were better because we were kids. We had less shit to worry about and we were much more interested in these fond memories to even notice any of the bullshit. Most of the reason that Nintendo is stuck in the past is because these people are stuck in the past. I'm serious. Where was that interview from Link to the Past way back when? *digs*..Well, couldn't find the actual interview in Nintendo Power, but I did remember Oni's video on TGS. 


You can skip to the 7:20 mark to find the quote from Miyamoto. Or just take mine and Oni's word for it... 

  "We've actually tried to make it as easy as possible. The way the game is structured you can't take alternative routes to finish the game [A Link to the Past]...if mainstream games players could cope with less linear adventures, though, we might have made it a lot harder."

I did, however find this.

"Also, there are walls that can be destroyed with bombs. In actuality, walls can be broken even if they don’t have cracks. When you hit the walls with your sword, they normally make a “ting ting” sound, but walls that can be broken make a hollow sound. From the perspective of the player, when they go around hitting all the walls and find one that makes a different sound, they’ll be very pleased with themselves. But, of course, there’s also the problem of how much longer that will result in people playing. Concerned, I balanced the joy players would get from hunting around and at long last discovering a breakable wall and the thought of how long that would realistically take, and, in the end, opted for putting in visible cracks on the walls that can be destroyed."

Source

So it is obvious that Nintendo has taken what they call "mainstream game players" own inexperience(?) to heart when developing much more casual or "kiddy" games. You see? Sure the whole New Super Mario Bros. series debacle was Nintendo's fault mainly, but everyone who wishes to have their nostalgia fulfilled are only hurting Nintendo even more than they realize. It's an easy fix and they have proven that they can still make the games that people ACTUALLY want. Especially with A Link Between Worlds upscale of nonlinear dungeon design and Super Mario 3D World's fantastic level of creativity and impressive level design leading the charge Nintendo could be heading towards a brighter better future and unless the NostalgiaTards change their ways, they might get left in the dust.

Okaaay, back to C) (Anything they do do differently is automatically considered a gimmick.) Now what is the definition of a gimmick? One search into the ol' Google machine states that "a trick or device intended to attract attention, publicity, or business." So, in those terms. Yes what Nintendo did with the Wii Remote and Wii U Tablet are indeed gimmicks. But as was, Yoshi in Super Mario World, the concept of Hell in Doom, blood in the first Mortal Kombat, Metal Gear Rising's Slashing mechanic, Devil May Cry's Spectacle based gameplay, Microsoft's Kinect, Playstations' Move, etc, etc, etc.Every single game has a gimmick that sells it that sets itself apart from any other game. It's practically the unspoken law of video games.

Gimmicks are often put in very negative light. When the reality is, it shouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. Think for yourselves people, it leads to less headaches! Trust me.