Did Nintendo Just Declare War On Apple? (Hint: Sort Of)

[Ariel]

Alright everyone, drop to a knee and listen closely.

If you watched the entire keynote speech delivered by none other than the president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, you may have picked up on certain "discrepancies" that Nintendo has with the current gaming environment. In the speech, Iwata discusses what he believes is an upcoming problem with video-gaming; mainly, that he believes the market is approaching saturation at its current rate and the value of games is rapidly deflating.

What does this mean?

Well my fourth wall breaking friend, it means that video-gaming, as a medium, is experiencing an overflow of content (mainly bad, cheap, excuses for video games) that will undervalue the overall market and undermine video game development. If you are old enough or learned in the ways of Wikipedia, you may recall that this happened in the early 80's as a result of a really big amount of $hitty games being released such as the infamously horrible E.T game. This "shovelware" made up just about 99% of the market, completely ruined the business and left a vacuum of quality video gaming in its wake. This however led to the uprise of Nintendo which, needless to say, was a very good thing for the medium.

Here are some numbers for you. These represent the amount of games available for each platform:

PS3 - About 600

XBOX360 - About 800

Wii - About 1100

DS - About 1400

Downloadable App Games - More than 10000. D: <---- Indeed.

To be slightly more patronizing, here's a primitive graph. Each "1" represents 500 titles.

1 - PS3

1.5 - XBOX360

11 - Wii

111 - DS

11111111111111111111 - Apps

:shake: I know, right?

So, there is, suffice to say, almost no quality control with downloadable gaming, and this could potentially dilute the market so that no one game gets a decent amount of attention whilst all get close to no attention. When you have so many options, it's too damn hard to pick the quality game. This makes it harder for developers to take risks, and makes it harder for them to make money off a good game, when they do.

Nintendo is aware of this, and I believe, is taking up an initiative to stop this. :clap:

But what could they possibly do?
Honestly, I don't know. Other than continually cranking out quality games which actually cost money, rather than small apps which crank out games with no substance, don't cost money, and make revenue through ads, I can't think of anything else.

My best bet though, would be for Nintendo to open up its platforms, which I believe it is doing currently with the 3DS and allow decent, actual video game developers a trusted medium to deliver their art to consumers. This and some quality control will allow the medium to thrive amidst the current influx of shovelware and allow the medium to progress rightfully as it should. Keep updated on industry trends and we'll see where this goes.:silent:

 

[Djinn]

It does look like competition for the iPod/iphone was exactly what they had in mind when they made the 3DS announcements yesterday. And for the most part I believe it might be an improvement over that standard touch.

However I believe it is true that the quick and cheap app games do seem to be a reappearance of the cheap and instantly boring games of the early 80's. Only repackaged with greater graphics and touchscreen controls. They are fun at first but boring after only a few minutes. And with a price of $1-2 each people do not think much about downloading one and only playing it a few times before moving on to another. This is leading to many many low quality games being produced for a quick dollar.

One thing we can definitely count on are better downloadble games from Nintendo. Angry birds is fun, but there are too many other Nintendo games that I like more. However the app store did give me this.

Which is just a small part of what I would expect from Nintendo. The announcement that Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and Turbo Graphix 16 games does sound interesting at first. But I really wonder just how much replay value overwhelming majority of these games still have today. However I would completely exploit the SNES and NES games present. Well, depending on the price as apps do add up over time. Right now the only app store games I routinely play are ports from previous consoles like this.

 

[zeypherlink]

First of all: there is no console war. Competition is only better for the industry, and if you only own one gaming platform you're really missing out.

Second, and most importantly, the iDevices lack a d-pad and buttons. They aren't dedicated gaming platforms.

 

[Ariel]

First of all: there is no console war. Competition is only better for the industry, and if you only own one gaming platform you're really missing out.

Second, and most importantly, the iDevices lack a d-pad and buttons. They aren't dedicated gaming platforms.

On the first bit, you are definitely right. Competition drives innovation and is healthy for the market and great for the consumer. BUT. The iDevices don't compete with video gaming in their primary function, and that's where their money lies. But as an afterthought, they do compete with the handheld space and they sap that market of quality. When Joe Consumer (to use a horribly uncreative name) wants to play a game, he often has his iDevice on him, picks a sub-standard game, gets bored of it, and puts it down again.

This is due to a huge amount of those games being of really poor quality, however, their cheapness and convenience takes away from the more dedicated games from consoles. Don't get me wrong though, there are very good games on these device. But realistically, that makes up like 5%, which is a dangerous quality ratio in any consumer product. I'll agree that their is no console war, but there is somewhat of an uneasy disposition in the industry.

And as for the iDevices lacking a d-pad and buttons. They don't need one. A machine that sophisticated can handle fairly complex games decently. The problem with that is simply that they accommodate really bad games. If Apple got into developing video games, it would definitely be in a war. But right now they're opening a flood gate, of bad water.

I might make an addendum to this: MEGA-BLOCKBUSTERS like Call Of Duty are also horrible for the industry because they suck up all the money and the time.

A good result of both these though is that it brings gaming even more into the mainstream, but the mainstream may get a skewed view of gaming which could tarnish the traditional gaming. Maybe I'm getting old and am afraid of change. But mostly it's because I love Zelda and stuff.

 

[Mr.Verto]

I wouldnt call it a console war, but a quality war...

If Nintendo is producing games to download for a buck or two, it would definitly be a success. Why? App games are fun, (some), but they get boring, (Im not saying any Nintendo downloaded wont ever) and they are not elaborated games, and Apple is not in the gaming industry so you can asume their games are not awesome. As for Nintendo that has more "experience" in game producing can make an amazing game, with few money and sell it for 1 to 3 $ and still be a success

Example: Fluidity

Fluidity was a very fun game, it cost me 800 Wii Points that is around...5 bucks roughly. It was fun I enjoyed it was simple, it was cheap...In fact nintendo spent more money in publicity than the game itself...and it made its couple 10000s imagine an army of Fluidity (a.k.a games)
Also the 3DS is in 3D how messed up can that be Im already planning on buying it, and Im sure I would download....

But if apple, got seriously in the gaming industry the PS3, XboX, PSP are in serious trouble. Nintendo would be affected but they made a huge advance that will kepp them alive if this happened, 3D.

 

[jugglaj91]

What you guys fail to realize so far, is that Apple has no say in these games for their devices. Developers make them, and Apple just gives the ok for their market. Just like we have third party developers, but we know which ones make good games. With the i-whatever its just anyone who can make a game, and has, will try to put it out for his chance at a fortune. It is a lot easier to breakthrough on their devices than trying to wrangle billions for a console game for Microsoft, Sony, or even Nintendo.

So the way I see it, there is no war with Apple. Apple has its own competition like the Xoom to worry about trying to get in on the gaming industry directly. Besides, with the way Apple prices things, do you think they would allow such a device for only 3-400 dollars. I don't think so. Everything they make is more than a comparable device.

 

[zeypherlink]

@Ariel - There are a few games that work well with the touch only controls (like Infinity Blade) but most of them control like crap with that virtual d-pad. Have you played some of the RPGs on there like Zenonia and Ascalon: Swords and Shadows HD? They're halfway decent games but the controls are so frustrating.

But on the quality side you're totally right. The App Store (for games) is a place where third party and indie publishers can make quick games and turn a profit. None of those games, with the exception of maybe Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (a port of a DS game) and Galaxy on Fire II, are fully fleshed out handheld gaming experiences. Can you honestly say that Angry Birds, the most successful App Store game as of late, is a suitable replacement for some of the games that hit the DS and PSP? Hell, even Infinity Blade isn't a full game experience - you just go through fighting the same enemies over and over again until you're strong enough to beat the God King.

 

[Caeda]

Completely correct. Though I do love this iPod game called Lil' Pirates.

By the way, if there WAS a console war, Nintendo would deffinally be winning.

 

[Mags9]

I Hurt My Head Reading That. I Think I Have A Migraine. I Gotta Go Lay Down.. 3:

 

[(◕‿◕✿)]

Firstly,

Nintendo is aware of this, and I believe, is taking up an initiative to stop this.

Why do you think they're taking an initiative to stop it?

I don't see how this could in any way be interpreted as a "war against Apple". For one, the applications you mentioned are made by third parties, so it's not as if Apple is the one making the games deemed to be of poor quality. Also, just because one company decides to make better games in a popular medium doesn't mean they're waging war against anyone, it only means they're trying to capitalise on a certain market.

 

[Ariel]

Firstly,



Why do you think they're taking an initiative to stop it?

I don't see how this could in any way be interpreted as a "war against Apple". For one, the applications you mentioned are made by third parties, so it's not as if Apple is the one making the games deemed to be of poor quality. Also, just because one company decides to make better games in a popular medium doesn't mean they're waging war against anyone, it only means they're trying to capitalise on a certain market.

If you saw it, you could see that there were some very obvious undertones in which he didn't mention Apple, but he was so referring to it. He stated quick, low price games. And he was speaking to developers, trying to persuade them not to jump into the Apple pool. I agree, they'll get no attention because it's SATURATED!

What you guys fail to realize so far, is that Apple has no say in these games for their devices. Developers make them, and Apple just gives the ok for their market. Just like we have third party developers, but we know which ones make good games. With the i-whatever its just anyone who can make a game, and has, will try to put it out for his chance at a fortune. It is a lot easier to breakthrough on their devices than trying to wrangle billions for a console game for Microsoft, Sony, or even Nintendo.

No, we completely understand that Apple has no say in these games. That's my point, there is no quality control, they've opened the floodgates for developers to make poor quality, very derivative games for a quick buck. The handheld space becomes saturated in poor and mediocre games where everything becomes a dreary grey blob of unappealing content and video game quality and development suffers as a result.

If the market was a bit more closed, the better games would make it through the quality cracks and stop the bad ones which either suck, or are cheap rip-offs of other games. But there definitely needs to be a place for the indie developers with less money, and that would realistically be Apple, the PC and occasionally the XBOX360, PS3, WII & DS. But to make it a complete free for all where games cost nothing and deliver NOTHING then that just squashes innovation and like I've stated over and over again, dilutes quality, saturates the market, and undermines the industry.

Oh, and I haven't classified it a console war. I think I might coin the term "content war" and take credit for its invention according to popularity and success.