Is Nintendo the only console maker that still likes money?

[UnclePhil]

I'm looking at the present and future. What I'm seeing is utterly baffling.

SONY - Aside from their discussed-at-length censorship/woke policy, they want to release the PS5 sometime in the near-future, when they are bleeding profusely with every PS4 unit sold. They aren't just losing money with their console either, but just about every other electronics division and gadget they manufacture. As they lay dying, they insist on maintaining anti-consumer practices that treat their customers like utter pigshit.

MICROSOFT - Rumored to be releasing their planned Xbox without a disc drive, forcing their users to not only purchase from The Cloud, but hope that their library exists come the next sunrise. One only has to look at Microsoft's colorful history with The Cloud—Games For Windows Live, Zune, and the eBook shop—to understand that when Microsoft gets bored with a digital platform, your purchases are marked for incineration.

GOOGLE - About to release an expensive woke/spy machine the Internet is already ripping apart. Not a good sign.

ATARI - Supposedly releasing an Atari VCS Classic/streaming app box/maybe-a-new-console(?), employing the proven market strategy of not telling anyone what in God's name it's supposed to be. There's also the question of who exactly it appeals to. '70s kids now in their 50s? The Millennial generation? People who want a Roku stick with a theme? Truly, this is the first console meant for no one.

Then you have Nintendo. The Switch is the most underpowered option on the market, relying mainly on older ports, first-party releases and indie games for its software support. It's not going to run something like RE2Make without some major workarounds, not to mention the higher costs of teeny microSD cartridges being passed onto the consumer. The online service has been written off as a joke. But damned if the portability isn't a major selling point; yeah, we've all played through REMake and Skyrim a hundred times over the last decade, but to have old stuff so easy to carry around gives it a nice coat of polish. Nintendo also insists on FUN, more importantly, FUN over politics. There's promising software coming down the pipeline. Their growing eShop is lit up like a midway. Oh, and you're allowed to show cleavage.

No fanboy spergout intended here, but Nintendo seems like the only competitor that knows what the hell they are doing this generation. They are certainly not without their problems, but it's like everyone else is readying their swords for mass seppuku.

 

[UE 558]

While Sony is losing money on console sales, they also make bank off of both their exclusives like GOW, Spidey, etc as well as the cut they presumably get from third parties like Rockstar, Capcom, CDPR, etc and managed to sell 90M PS4 units total, so it’s more gen 9 that they should be scared of, especially with many of the third parties who helped the PS4 grow to begin with like RGG Studios and From Software beginning to shift over to PC.

Though, like many have already pointed out before the 90M PS4s was probably less due to Sony’s brilliance and more due to the incompetence displayed by MS between 2013 and 2016

MS has confirmed that there’s gonna be “slim” model of Scarlett without a disc drive and a “pro” model with one. With them it really will come down to whether or not they don’t repeat the same mistakes the made with the likes of Scalebound and actually allow their devs to have creative control.

As for shit like VCS, Madbox, Amico, Stadia etc...yeah not gonna lie, they all sound like modern Ouyas.

Finally, I think a big part of why Switch is doing so well is because it’s basically unopposed in the portable console market. Sony basically pulled the plug on Vita, 3DS is slowly going out the door, and mobile game manufacturers seem way more interested in F2P shovelware than making decent products

 

[Marissa Moira]

Sony makes a shitload on software sales, digital downloads, and Online Memberships. They design hardware the best out of the three main console companies and intend to sell it for a loss so they retain their market dominance. The PS5 is going to retail for 400 bucks which is within the same price range as the Switch and Xbox One. A Full Fledged Next Gen system for only a few bucks more than a portable tablet sounds like a good deal to many. Sony also really buffed their first party games in terms of prominence. God of War went from a mid range series that people liked, to a top shelf big name that MANY MANY people really liked. Spiderman appealed to a ton of people, and Horizon did very well for a whole new franchise based on nothing preexisting.

Also Nintendo really didn't know what do this generation because the Wii-U and Switch are part of the same generation. Wii-U bombed pretty hard and it was dead for more of it's lifespan. Switch is too underpowered to take ports from nextgen hardware and is really really limited. Nintendo can't be the main driving core of the console industry because of how underpowered and awkward the switch is comapred to everything else. It's still going to be a side console for it's lifespan and not the main event like a Playstation console. Nintendo needs to cater to westerners more like they did prior to the gamecube, but it doesn't look like it's happening. Nintendo has needed a successor to Rare for Eons now since first party support really isn't enough to push systems. Having a western dev routinely making exclusive games nearly every year for a nintendo system is what drove the NES, SNES, and N64, once that stopped Nintendo consoles fell off a cliff in the sales charts.

Also there's no bans on cleavage in Sony's policy, the whole point was to ban girls who had none in the first place.

 

[Yellow Yam Scam]

You can't be so retarded as to think that anti-consumer policies aren't profitable.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Those Atari google bullshit things are going to be collectors items like the 3D0, Virtual Boy, and Atari jaguar. People are buying into those things not to play games but to have a conversation piece like a Funko Pop or a Homemade Sonic The Hedgehog Totem. They're expecting them to be awful, but they want them for their pure 100% awfulness. Because something that purely awful is special.

 

[Clop]

Nintendo's games are different from most other markets, they're colorful and full of fun and joy and devoid of the West's modern outrage culture, and they put single player and family fun first.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Nintendo's games are different from most other markets, they're colorful and full of fun and joy and devoid of the West's modern outrage culture, and they put single player and family fun first.

You just described both Spyro and Crash as well and those are owned by Activision. In fact both series are getting new games soon. Spyro is supposed to be 2020 and CTR/CNK Remaster is coming in a few months with a new Crash game to follow.

 

[Clop]

You just described both Spyro and Crash as well and those are owned by Activision. In fact both series are getting new games soon. Spyro is supposed to be 2020 and CTR/CNK Remaster is coming in a few months with a new Crash game to follow.

That's a resurgence, more than happy to welcome it. Now to just hope they don't fuck it up. There's always room for fucking up.

 

[Marissa Moira]

That's a resurgence, more than happy to welcome it. Now to just hope they don't fuck it up. There's always room for fucking up.

Activision at this point has put out more competent 3d platformers than Sega. Mania has been the only good Sonic game this generation.

Although I'm liking the direction Shenmue 3 is taking and the Return of Sakura Wars and every single Atlus property has done very well. They're also porting over redone versions of Panzer Dragoon 1 and 2 with the eventual return of Panzer Dragoon Saga being remade from the ground up in a modern engine.

 

[UE 558]

Activision at this point has put out more competent 3d platformers than Sega. Mania has been the only good Sonic game this generation.

Although I'm liking the direction Shenmue 3 is taking and the Return of Sakura Wars and every single Atlus property has done very well. They're also porting over redone versions of Panzer Dragoon 1 and 2 with the eventual return of Panzer Dragoon Saga being remade from the ground up in a modern engine.

That’s because they’re remakes. I’m a giant Crash fan, owning 4 copies of Crash 3 (including the HD port), but I’d still be a bit more skeptical of what an original game from VV would be life

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

Game consoles always lose money on sales because these companies want an install base to make software sales relevant, so Sony's issues aren't anything unusual, though if Sony's other divisions don't implode in on themselves is another story. Nintendo is relevant purely because the Switch is a unique console, compared to everything else, with the portable/home console hybrid feel. Even if as a home console it isn't really worth talking about the portable mode is pretty consistently good (or at least tolerable) on most titles that I've played at least and the fact it has a home console or portable mode at all is a unique aspect that actually matters to some people unlike motion gimmicks or massive tablet controls.

I honestly want Nintendo to keep the Switch and expand upon it for at least another console generation, but knowing Nintendo that won't happen and we'll get some janky VR thing with a pair of Wii motes or something.

 

[Marissa Moira]

That’s because they’re remakes. I’m a giant Crash fan, owning 4 copies of Crash 3 (including the HD port), but I’d still be a bit more skeptical of what an original game from VV would be life

Future tense was supposed to be a type of demo showing off what they would do with an original crash game.

As long as they don't make the time trials a pain in the ass I'm fine with it.

Crash 1 was fucking hard in the remake, one of the hardest platformers I ever 100%ed.

 

[Mewtwo_Rain]

You just described both Spyro and Crash as well and those are owned by Activision. In fact both series are getting new games soon. Spyro is supposed to be 2020 and CTR/CNK Remaster is coming in a few months with a new Crash game to follow.

To be fair what you're describing is more the exception than the rule. Which I think is kind of the point. Too many Western developers are are bending the knee, and although there are a few exceptions here and there, Nintendo seems to have a constant and repeating process of releasing vibrant and "joyful" worlds.

Now if only they would stop making dumb decisions such as making their consoles less powerful when we know they could make them far more powerful and gimping their online components they'd be golden and possibly force most of their competition to stop playing ideology painter and go back to classical game design on mass due to sheer competition. (In theory)

 

[Recoil]

If sony took a bunch of First Person titles from PS3 and retooled them to work on PSVR, they'd have a shit load of my money in their pockets.

 

[Marissa Moira]

If sony took a bunch of First Person titles from PS3 and retooled them to work on PSVR, they'd have a shit load of my money in their pockets.

Technecally that's Skyrim VR.

However I think it's Tetris Effect that's the best selling VR title as of current.

VR is still too limited and held back by it's own physical shortcomings to be viable, it really has not changed much in usability since Dactyl Nightmare.

The one thing I want to see be brought forward is Oblivion. Remaster that shit and give it new lighting and fix the leveling system. I don't even think the PS3 version has trophy support because that's how long ago it was released.

To be fair what you're describing is more the exception than the rule. Which I think is kind of the point. Too many Western developers are are bending the knee, and although there are a few exceptions here and there, Nintendo seems to have a constant and repeating process of releasing vibrant and "joyful" worlds.

Now if only they would stop making dumb decisions such as making their consoles less powerful when we know they could make them far more powerful and gimping their online components they'd be golden and possibly force most of their competition to stop playing ideology painter and go back to classical game design on mass due to sheer competition. (In theory)

I dunno many of Nintendo's worlds tend to veer on the side of cheap crap for a good many of their titles. Look at any of the Yoshi games they almost have the quality of a cheap knockoff and tend to play like shit. Mario 3D World and the NSMB series look like an algorithm shat out their levels and no real care was put into designing them compared to the NES and SNES games. Then you have Kirby who's only real popularity happened because he was in smash brothers and takes no effort to draw fanart of him.

Let's not forget that Bandai Namco also put out a ton of colorful games, the entire Tales of Series for Instance. Or Atlus and having every modern version of the persona series be represented by a color which permeates throughout the game.

 

[UngaWunga]

Does Soulja Boy count? He seems like he'd really like some money.

 

[Mewtwo_Rain]

I dunno many of Nintendo's worlds tend to veer on the side of cheap crap for a good many of their titles. Look at any of the Yoshi games they almost have the quality of a cheap knockoff and tend to play like shit. Mario 3D World and the NSMB series look like an algorithm shat out their levels and no real care was put into designing them compared to the NES and SNES games. Then you have Kirby who's only real popularity happened because he was in smash brothers and takes no effort to draw fanart of him.

Let's not forget that Bandai Namco also put out a ton of colorful games, the entire Tales of Series for Instance. Or Atlus and having every modern version of the persona series be represented by a color which permeates throughout the game.

I won't deny there are exceptions within Nintendo, though with Yoshi most people care about Yoshi due to Mario games and not Yoshi's solo games. In regards to Kirby I'd have to disagree, most everyone in my area knew about Kirby from childhood, and most will easily bring up Kirby Super Star when referencing the best moments from the series. (Let alone the music) Whether you like Yoshi games or not, Yoshi's Island is considered a major classic in its own right for good reason. Replace Kirby with Captain Falcon or Ness and I might agree with your statement. (Not about the fanart thing but Smash being the reason its popular, Kirby was always decently popular in my area)

I'm not saying there aren't other series from other companies, but when it comes to game developers themselves, look at Sony, had Legend of Dragoon which was an obvious seller, they gave up on. Let alone some of their other IPs they could have continued. Although others game developers do have vibrant worlds, not at the same amount or consistency, and in regards to fun well that's a subjective basis.

 

[Marissa Moira]

I won't deny there are exceptions within Nintendo, though with Yoshi most people care about Yoshi due to Mario games and not Yoshi's solo games. In regards to Kirby I'd have to disagree, most everyone in my area knew about Kirby from childhood, and most will easily bring up Kirby Super Star when referencing the best moments from the series. (Let alone the music) Whether you like Yoshi games or not, Yoshi's Island is considered a major classic in its own right for good reason. Replace Kirby with Captain Falcon or Ness and I might agree with your statement. (Not about the fanart thing but Smash being the reason its popular, Kirby was always decently popular in my area)

I'm not saying there aren't other series from other companies, but when it comes to game developers themselves, look at Sony, had Legend of Dragoon which was an obvious seller, they gave up on. Let alone some of their other IPs they could have continued. Although others game developers do have vibrant worlds, not at the same amount or consistency, and in regards to fun well that's a subjective basis.

I dunno this gen Sony most definitely made their worlds look vibrant. God of War wasn't bland looking in the least. PS4 is probably the most effort they've put into their 1st party titles since the original playstation.

As far as constancy goes you have Capcom, Square Enix, Atlus, Sega, NIS/NISA, Falcom, and Bamco who all routinely make lush colorful worlds.

The bland brown stuff tends to come from Ubisoft, Naughty Dog and Bethesda. EA doesn't even do brown games they make sports games, the dominant color is green.

You had Western Devs like Blizzard who made stylized colorful worlds for all their games. Warcraft/World of Warcraft, Starcraft, and Overwatch are all brightly colored. Diablo is the only one with muted colors.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

Let's not forget that Bandai Namco also put out a ton of colorful games, the entire Tales of Series for Instance.

Tales of as a series (out of the 6 games I've played) has never felt particularly interesting on anything except combat mechanics or the character interactions, because the plots, worlds, etc always felt sort of forgettable except maybe Tales of Symphonia just because it was my first Tales game so I have nostalgia over it or Vesperia because Yuri Lowell is a fun MC. Not that they're bad worlds and lack color in any capacity, but I think if I forget what your game looks like almost immediately after I'm done with it then was your world really that good? If you want to know I've played ToS 1/2, ToA, ToG (the ps3 version), ToV (the 360 version), and ToX1 in case I got unlucky 6 times in a row and got all the forgettable worlds, imo, each time.

If we count Xenoblade as a series for Nintendo as that series is basically owned by Nintendo, I remember most of those worlds fairly well to this day even Xenoblade X which is the most open world sandbox of these 3 games, X's environments aren't all winners but at least I remember something about them especially Noctilium with that huge elite mech just chilling in the sea for no reason that ganked me within my first 3 hours. I binged on Xenoblade 2's main story over the course of a week and I remember those titans fairly well even though I played most the game in portable mode. Xenoblade 1 looked like an old ps2 game at best and I still remember that world, especially the context behind them ya know being on top of a giant mech.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Xillia had shit like Nhera Khera, all the major cities, Temples, and harbors be pretty vibrant. You had a wide variety of places to explore in both Xillia 1 and 2.

Berseria and Zestiria also had many vibrant places