Howdy, I'm MG Siegler. I’m a general partner at Google Ventures and a columnist for TechCrunch. This is where I collect things.
Some selected works. Some haikus. Some investments. Ask away.
Showing 36 posts tagged nintendo
“Golly, I’ll go with Bruce Seldon. I didn’t even hit him; I think the wind knocked him out.”
Mike Tyson, when asked who he views as a real-life version of the Glass Joe character from the 1987 NES game Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! — number three on ESPN’s best sports video games of all time.
I used to play it with the Power Glove.
Do you think consoles in general are doomed, then? Serious question. I don't play games much so I don't really have a horse in this race. I think asking Nintendo to make games for iOS – a platform that doesn't have any traditional game controls to speak of – is too farfetched right now. If Apple suddenly started selling an Apple TV with a game controller in the box, well then ...
Asked by brad-t
Not necessarily. But I think the market for gaming-only consoles has peaked. That’s why it’s smart for Xbox and Playstation to focus more on all forms of entertainment in the living room.
Console gaming will long have its die-hards. But casual gamers already far outnumber them. I think focusing on a dedicated gaming controller is the wrong way to think about it. Apple already has controllers in the shape of iPhones and iPads. Maybe a slightly re-worked iPod touch does come with a television device one day. But all they really need to do is open up an SDK for the Apple TV and the flood of games will follow.
Nintendo is a hardware company. Saying they should put their games on iOS reminds me of everyone saying Apple should license OS X. It doesn't work that way.
Asked by brad-t
I, of course, realize this. But I don’t view the situations as all that similar. Apple fell because it was mismanaged over several years. Nintendo has fallen because the world has simply changed around them very rapidly. (Remember how insanely popular the Wii was just a few years ago?) And it’s not going back.
They need to become the Pixar of the gaming world — another company which focused on hardware once upon a time.
The Japan Times:
Nintendo Co. is trying to modify its game consoles so customers can use smartphone applications on them as it searches for a way to return to profitability, company sources said.
Yeah, that won’t work. But you know what will? Doing the opposite: putting the excellent Nintendo games on smartphones.
High-res
Sam Byford:
Nintendo made an operating loss in 2012 for the second consecutive year as its new Wii U console failed to spark excitement among consumers. The company lost 36.4 billion yen ($366 million) over the 2012 fiscal year; last quarter, the company unexpectedly predicted that it would lose $220 million in 2012 after previously saying it would turn the same amount in profit. The Wii U has sold 3.45 million units worldwide to date, missing Nintendo’s goal of 4 million units for the financial year — itself a lowered expectation after the company initially predicted it would sell 5.5 million systems. Three months ago, Nintendo announced worldwide Wii U sales of 3.06 million.
Say it with me: i - O - S.
Did You Know Gaming? - Goldeneye 007
I’ve never heard most of this stuff, but I am probably the most surprised to hear multiplayer was snuck in within the last month and a half of work. That was the game.
The un-plugging and re-plugging in the Rumble Pack to reload is genius. Wish that made it in.
Super Mario Spacetime Organ, a Super Mario Bros glitch instrument by Chris Novello that manipulates the game’s RAM state to awesome effect.
Trippy.
Frank Cifaldi for Gamasutra:
We’re told by someone with access to the NPD’s data that sales for January were “well under” 100,000 units. By our estimates, sales were somewhere between 45,000 and 59,000 units for the month, which is lower than any of the three previous-generation home consoles sold in their worst months, with the possible exception of a recent performance by the original Wii.
Ouch. And that’s with an extra “leap” week in January to bolster sales. This is continuing to look like a total disaster for Nintendo.
digg:
Nintendo training video from 1991
1991?! This looks like it was shot in 1971.
There are very few things cooler than a really cool flask.
I wish the Game Boy one was playable…
Some good follow-up thoughts by Marco Arment on my thoughts about Nintendo.
Arment is of course right that Nintendo wants to remain in the hardware business because when things are going well, it’s a much better business to be in. But things aren’t going well. And I’m not sure they ever will again for Nintendo, sadly. As Arment notes, the Wii turned out to be a fad.
The Wii U is just a very strange product. Nintendo’s can’t compete with Microsoft and Sony on high-end gaming hardware. And they can’t compete with Apple on touchscreen-based gaming. So they seemingly did a half-assed job on both.
While the Wii was a fad, it worked very well for a time because it was different. It forced the competitors to come to them. Nintendo no longer had to chase down the big guys in battles they couldn’t win (see: above). That’s the only way Nintendo stays alive. They need to truly innovate in videogame hardware.
Like Arment, I’m worried that instead they’ll go down the Sega road and just pump out cheap versions of their great old franchises to anyone who will take them. That’s why I’d love to see Apple step in and buy Nintendo, and let them operate as the independent iOS gaming wing of the company. If Apple wants to move hardware, it’s hard to imagine a better way than having exclusives on all of the Nintendo titles going forward (as well as the back catalog).
It should be like Pixar within Disney. Remember, Pixar started out trying to make hardware as well.
8-Bit Tarantino and Rodriguez
Prints by Wonder Bros
I’d play each one.
(via micahbaldwin)
