Where does Nintendo go next?

Yes, another Nintendo discussion. But this one shouldn't be as explosive. Hopefully.

Whatever you think of the DS & Wii, it's fair to say both have been a monumental success. But where do Nintendo take things from here? Do they 'do battle' when the next gen arrives in say, what, 2011? Do they pull further away from the generational cycle & not bother at all, sticking with the current Wii & DS? Nintendo are pretty much in uncharted territory. Who do you focus your attention on? How do you improve on a concept & then sell it to a market that doesn't do 'console cycles'? How do you begin positioning it? Your Wii audience sure as hell aren't going to line up outside Electronic Boutique like a load of sad sacks on a cold winters morning (how am I doing setting the scene, any good?) for the latest Zelda. But then, if you don't try & attract that core Nintendo fan base, are you then running the very real risk of your console failing at launch?

Perhaps you don't do a Wii 2. You don't do a DS 2. Perhaps you don't do motion control. You try something else. But what?

Suggestions, hopes - let it all hang out people.

They will follow the Apple model of small hardware refinements if they have any desire to maintain their success.

suzzopher wrote:They will follow the Apple model of small hardware refinements if they have any desire to maintain their success.

I'm quite certain a Wii 720p model is bound to be on the way either this year or next. As will a smaller Xbox 360.

i would expect evolution rather than a 'revolution'! certainly i'd expect it to be fully backwards compatible, but with enhanced media and download capabilities, generally an expansion of the hardware rather than a "ok chumps ditch the last wii and now buy this new one" like most new consoles are. hopefully they'll increase the horsepower, though it may just go the way of the ds iterations and just add extras - in this case a hard-drive and maybe blu-ray playback (therefore HDMI too!).

suzzopher wrote:They will follow the Apple model of small hardware refinements if they have any desire to maintain their success.

I really hope they don't go down this path. I'm hoping for a longer lifespan for this generation which will make the power difference more obvious. If the Wii2 does come out in 2011 or 2012 (my choice) it will need to be at least as powerful as the 360 in my opinion as anything else will look even more dated than the Wii does now. I think by then a machine of that power level will be dirt cheap to produce thus being profitable at launch and still be good enough to make more veteran gamers happy.

One thing I really hope for is some way that some games can be somehow made for the Wii but with an ability to be improved on Wii2.

Straight down the toilet[/Rik]

Actually, I think we can get a pretty good idea of where they'll go from the DSi. If it continues the same success as the previous models, we can probably look fotwards to small refinements. If it doesn't take off, then we'll probably see another reinvention.

I expect a console with controls not unlike the Wii (and completely backward compatible with the Wii) that has hardware capacities comparable to XBox360 / PS3.

A sort of Wii Advance.

The Wii's going to stick around until Nintendo can bleed it dry, much like how the original Gameboy far outlasted more technologically advanced rivals due to Ninty's non-need to do anything because of continuing sales.

I do expect an HD iteration somewhere down the line, although how this'll affect future games and compatibility, I have no idea.

I too, would expect an evolution of the current product. Refining the controls, online component (download service & multiplayer) and the user-interface along with a boost in power (although not to the level of the PS4/720). Full backwards compatibility is a must or else Nintendo would run the risk of alienating large portions of the current userbase.

Eighthours wrote:The Wii's going to stick around until Nintendo can bleed it dry, much like how the original Gameboy far outlasted more technologically advanced rivals due to Ninty's non-need to do anything because of continuing sales.

I do expect an HD iteration somewhere down the line, although how this'll affect future games and compatibility, I have no idea.

Not nessicarily. The casual marker is likely to update it's hardware much more slowly than the hardcore gamers. The real question is whether Nintendo cares enough to try and recapture that market too by launching a second console. They really don't need that much power to make Touch Generations games - the Wii Hardware could potentially stay in the home for decades.

Jam-Master Jay wrote:I too, would expect an evolution of the current product. Refining the controls, online component (download service & multiplayer) and the user-interface along with a boost in power (although not to the level of the PS4/720). Full backwards compatibility is a must or else Nintendo would run the risk of alienating large portions of the current userbase.

Fortunately, it's also likely to be a doddle, since the actual cost of the wii components are likely to be a pittance by the time they launch a new machine. The only question is whether those components will stay in production - if not, they may have to resort to a certain degree of software emulation.

They may be able to do the same thing Sony did with early PS3s and have a Wii on a single chip in the Wii2 as as you say TheTurnipKing the chip is going to cost almost nothing.

KKLEIN wrote:Yes, another Nintendo discussion. But this one shouldn't be as explosive. Hopefully.

Whatever you think of the DS & Wii, it's fair to say both have been a monumental success. But where do Nintendo take things from here? Do they 'do battle' when the next gen arrives in say, what, 2011? Do they pull further away from the generational cycle & not bother at all, sticking with the current Wii & DS? Nintendo are pretty much in uncharted territory. Who do you focus your attention on? How do you improve on a concept & then sell it to a market that doesn't do 'console cycles'? How do you begin positioning it? Your Wii audience sure as hell aren't going to line up outside Electronic Boutique like a load of sad sacks on a cold winters morning (how am I doing setting the scene, any good?) for the latest Zelda. But then, if you don't try & attract that core Nintendo fan base, are you then running the very real risk of your console failing at launch?

Perhaps you don't do a Wii 2. You don't do a DS 2. Perhaps you don't do motion control. You try something else. But what?

Suggestions, hopes - let it all hang out people.

Well, they already have a load of software functionallity that people want and will buy. Sticking it all in the one box is a pretty solid start. You include Wii Sports. You Include Wii Sports Resort. You Include Wii Fit, and you bundle the Balance Board and Motionplus. If the hardware is backwards compatible, you'd be onto a pretty solid machine right there. The trick is, you don't include the software on disk. Instead, you install some of it, and force them to use Wii-Ware to get the rest*, teaching them HOW TO use digital distribution at the same time.

Then, you have to market new software that people actually want. You do it over Wii-Ware, and you deliver enhanced versions of the software that use the Wii 2 extended hardware if it's available.

*"Internet Connection Required" sticker on the box, of course.

KKLEIN wrote:Yes, another Nintendo discussion. But this one shouldn't be as explosive. Hopefully.

Whatever you think of the DS & Wii, it's fair to say both have been a monumental success. But where do Nintendo take things from here? Do they 'do battle' when the next gen arrives in say, what, 2011? Do they pull further away from the generational cycle & not bother at all, sticking with the current Wii & DS? Nintendo are pretty much in uncharted territory. Who do you focus your attention on? How do you improve on a concept & then sell it to a market that doesn't do 'console cycles'? How do you begin positioning it? Your Wii audience sure as hell aren't going to line up outside Electronic Boutique like a load of sad sacks on a cold winters morning (how am I doing setting the scene, any good?) for the latest Zelda. But then, if you don't try & attract that core Nintendo fan base, are you then running the very real risk of your console failing at launch?

Perhaps you don't do a Wii 2. You don't do a DS 2. Perhaps you don't do motion control. You try something else. But what?

Suggestions, hopes - let it all hang out people.

Ha ! - This is more like it so I'll give you credit for trying ! My thoughts later when I'm home though. Still your onto something with the lining up of sad sacks outside EB, (EB ?!), on a cold winters morning.

Since the Wii's market is now pretty much seperated from the normal console market, it has come into a comparable situation to Nintendo's handhelds. With no real competition the strategy is simply to keep the current hardware alive for as long as possible and delay any future update so long as it remains profitable (remember, they actually delayed the release of the DS because the GBA was still doing so well at the time).

I don't exspect Nintendo to release a new console when Sony and MS do; it could be long after that.

It may want to retain its old fanbase though, and what better way to do that than to do for the Wii what the GB Colour or GBA did for the GameBoy? Market it as a purely core gamer machine with much more limited appeal while maintaining the Wii.

My take on this.

To some extent I think Nintendo have boxed themselves into a corner with regards to their next home console - they can't be that disruptive twice - can they ?!

Therefore I'm fairly sure that Iwata will adopt a softly, softly approach of gradual upgrades as he has done with the ds. (Do you realise that if he copies the ds to dsi model he'll end up with the wiii.) To some extent the wii2 or at least wii1.5 is about to come out soon anyway in the form of motion-plus. I'd like to see this finally deliver the console Nintendo cheerily conned us into believing we were getting with all those images of people waving their remotes around like no tomorrow before the thing even game out. IF it does that, it could well sustain a second phase similar to the transition from phat ds to ds lite. IMO the only game to truly make anything of waggle to date is wii sports, (well the tennis and bowling bits), which I still think is a great piece of software. (Motion-plus will hopefully give us a decent golf game - like it might actually be possible to putt !) (The only other wii game which truly makes excellent us of waggle is No More Heroes which took a very clever lateral approach to it.)

I'd want to see them keep the nunchuck + remote combination - I really don't think I can go back to two handed joypads - they just seem so clumsy by comparison now. The pointer mechanic also works just fine for me. (One thing I wonder, if the increased physicality that motion-plus should bring will mean having to introduce a wireless nunchcuk - unless we all want to garotte ourselves.)

The next minor improvement would have to be the launch of remotes which incorporate motion-plus within them - perhaps in a fine array of fancy colours. (It can only be a matter of time before nintendo resort to this -at least a black model.)

Beyond that, I'm a little bit stuck. I'm not sure even Nintendo know which market to truly go after - casual or gamer - at the moment they are trying to have their cake and eat it - whether they can continue to do this will be interesting to watch. I do think however, that after a pretty dire last 9 months or so some better 'hardcore' software is finally on the way - the one I'm really waiting for is Fatal Frame 4 - I'm looking forward to be scared shitless all over again.

One final point, I don't think Nintendo have any desire whatsoever to compete with Sony or Microsoft - they'll continue to plough their own idiosyncratic furrow as always - as long as they are making money they won't be particularly bothered what others are up to I'm sure.

Be interesting to see what others come up with...

closer wrote:Do you realise that if he copies the ds to dsi model he'll end up with the wiii.

Not exactly - the DSI represents a number of interesting refinements on the Wii model - just as the Wii represented a number of interesting refinements of the original DS.

The most immediately significant is the use of SD cards as storage medium. While the Wii has this, it is largely at present still impractical for anything other than storage. The DSi appears to use it in a far more substantial way. And then of course, you have the addition of the cameras.

TheTurnipKing wrote:

closer wrote:Do you realise that if he copies the ds to dsi model he'll end up with the wiii.

Not exactly - the DSI represents a number of interesting refinements on the Wii model - just as the Wii represented a number of interesting refinements of the original DS.

The most immediately significant is the use of SD cards as storage medium. While the Wii has this, it is largely at present still impractical for anything other than storage. The DSi appears to use it in a far more substantial way. And then of course, you have the addition of the cameras.

Its simpler than that ! ds plus i = dsi; wii plus i = wiii - that's all I meant !

I think that Nintendo are in a powerful enough position in the market to bring out a new machine at a time we'd expect (2011ish), but the software will be backwards(forwards?) compatible with both the Wii and Wii2, they'll avoid alienating their old audience but will be able to offer new experiences to people that want them, gradually their audience will move across to the new hardware (like with GameBoy and GameBoy Color).

closer wrote:

TheTurnipKing wrote:

closer wrote:Do you realise that if he copies the ds to dsi model he'll end up with the wiii.

Not exactly - the DSI represents a number of interesting refinements on the Wii model - just as the Wii represented a number of interesting refinements of the original DS.

The most immediately significant is the use of SD cards as storage medium. While the Wii has this, it is largely at present still impractical for anything other than storage. The DSi appears to use it in a far more substantial way. And then of course, you have the addition of the cameras.

Its simpler than that ! ds plus i = dsi; wii plus i = wiii - that's all I meant !

Yeah... as I've just demonstrated, they'd probably better not go that route - it'll just get confusing for all concerned, it's one of those blind spots, where you only look at the beginning and end of a word without noticing just how many (i)s it has.