Like Michael Pachter!
/s
Looking at different single points means nothing. Just more fantasy thinking. What is now the standard controller design that the PlayStation and Xbox use was not pioneered by Nintendo as a whole product. You can spin all you want it doesn’t change the facts.
Motion controls are a gimmick which is why Xbox has never had them and Sony dumped it on the never used duelshock 3. As others have said Nintendo does shit for the sake of doing it. The Wii mote. The pseudo tablet whatever Wii U…thing. And now the Switch stuff. The market has clearly shown it just doesn’t care but Nintendo just grinds on oblivious to reality.
The more I think about it the more I think the massive success of the Wii fad has really hurt Nintendo in some ways. The Switch definitely seems Nintendo is trying to get Waggle 2.0 to be a hit and things like 1 2 Switch look like they are being designed in hopes of making it on Ellen again.
I totally get that Nintendo wants another Wii, but pushing to be another fad seems like a real Hail Mary play to me. Fads don’t generally repeat like that.
Sorry, but you can’t just ignore every single individual component and then say “Oh but Sony put them all together so they get credit for innnvating as a whole product.”
The original PS controller was just a SNES controller with two extra shoulder buttons and two grips. Then Nintendo comes out with an analog stick, and Sony adds two analog sticks to their controller. Then Nintendo comes out with a rumble pak, so Sony adds rumble to their controller. All Sony did was take every new control innovation that Nintendo came up with, and put them in one product.
But I will give you the second analog stick, and the L2 and R2 shoulder buttons. That was all Sony. And the grips…although Sony was working with (surprise!) Nintendo on their game console, so it’s unclear who came up with what innovation. But Sony definitely had the first controller with grips.
I’m pretty sure that Nintendo’s goal is to make a game system that gets people to have fun playing together. If that system ends up being so popular that it shows up on Ellen, that’s a secondary result, but it’s not the goal.
Even if what you say is true Andy_Bates, how does that affect Nintendo’s recent past? Their control gimmicks are just not catching on, mostly because they just haven’t been good ideas. That they’ve had past successes does not change this.
Wiimote + Nunchuck is a fantastic idea, and my favorite control scheme in the games that properly utilize them. Their main problem had more to do with shitty utilization than any fault of the control scheme itself. Developers just didn’t know what the fuck they were doing, and tried to force too much waggle just for the sake of it.
It took many years and several console generations for standard joysticks and control pads to evolve to where they are today, and for game devs to best utilize them, while I feel like the Wiimote’s motion controls (especially with motion+) were largely a thorn in the side of developers more interested in developing for other platforms, but stuck pooping out some random Wii game on spec.
And while I’ve never tried PS Move or Six Axis, the Wiimote + nunchuck certainly kick the shit out of Kinect.
I’ve hoped for years they would make a comeback, but be properly utilized by people who know the difference shitty, forced-waggle, and elegant employment for specific tasks.
It’s similar to how janky many early games for a new platform look and play compared to those coming out at the end of a life cycle. Sometimes it takes a lot of work to gain the experience to know good from bad, or even how to properly use the hardware.
I chalk a lot of the Wiimotes problems up to growing pains for the associated development community.
I appreciate the risks Nintendo has taken with their controllers. Sometimes they work, so of course their competitors incorporate them. Sometimes they’re miscalculations and you end up with a Wii U.
I realize that risk of ending up with a gimmick that does more harm than good is somewhat necessary to come up with the winners, but there’s something to be said for knowing when to play it safe, knowing when the risks are worth it. I worry Nintendo doesn’t realize that.
If they can churn out interesting financial failures for years, more power to them, but I’ll miss them if they can’t, and I’ll be frustrated if it happens because they made unforced errors in their development.
Video games are swell.
I think there are a number of people mixing up stupid gimmicky third party titles with the idea of a gimmicky controller. The Nun-chuck and Wii mote combo worked really, really well with Harvest Moon, Mario Party/Kart and Rune Factory games. It felt natural.
Yeah. I hated Waggle, but I certainly respect it as a novel idea. I also think Nintendo was rewarded handsomely for the that novel idea with the fad it generated.
Nintendo isn’t hoping for another Wii and Ellen, they are hoping for another 3DS that gets embraced by third parties that develop games specifically with 1 system in mind as opposed to shoehorning a shitty call of duty port onto a half assed control scheme.
Despite what Nintendo says, their real hopes for this thing is that it does in fact unify handheld and home console so that developers embrace it like they do Nintendo handhelds AND make home console margins. Of course they can’t outright say that because they don’t want to kill the 3ds. Just like the DS was a “third pillar” and was in no way replacing the game boy Advanced/SP/Micro.
I’m assuming they have to have at least two pillars, but maybe that’s not a fair assumption. If the Switch does end up getting heavy developer support, maybe they’ll have some sort of “Switch Micro” down the road that runs at 480p, has longer battery life, and comes in a clamshell case, where developers can target lower-powered versions of games using the same development environment. But at this point, it’s just wishful thinking on my part.
That’s what I thought too, until I saw the press conference. Now I’m not sure that’s what this thing is all about. I really hope that’s the plan though, since that’s what I’d like to see.
Must say that’s a disappointment as I’m setting up my TV viewing distance to make 4K noticeable.
I would say it certainly speaks to the power of the machine that it can’t even reach 1080p at 30 fps.
This is just one of those things that confuses me about the system. It has the power of a mobile device but no battery life.
Yeah. I do like the concept of a portable/home console for all your Nintendo needs, but I keep coming back with “did it wrong” every time I see anything about this thing.
Yeah, I find that surprising. I would have thought that would be a major design target. Have it run 1080p when docked and something less when mobile, if needed.
And you say it has the power of a mobile device, but the screen on an iPad is significantly higher than 1080p with better battery life in a slimmer form factor. It also costs more too, to be fair.
But couldn’t they have targeted 1080i at 30 frames for goodness sakes?
Not if they want to keep the price low. I mean a quality tablet is going to push the price they’ve got set for the Switch, and that’s without controllers and without the extra pieces.
I think Nintendo is trying to turn a profit with these machines, and that’s a mistake. It’s a weak console and a weak mobile option which makes their only real selling pitch the first party titles… again. They could ride that wave a bit with Wii, but it did not work with Wii U. I just don’t know what they’re to do with this, but it doesn’t seem hopeful.