I think the question should be "What the hell isn't wrong with Nintendo"... They squander their influence and don't respect developers enough. Their leaders have some of the most inflated heads in the industry. Nintendo was a powerhouse in the day, especially two decades ago. From NES, SNES and N64, everybody was trying to get on their bandwagon. But the N64, despite how great it was, I would say it was the beginning of their downfall. It limited developers insanely. Disk-based systems were on the market already, with the Sega CD, Sega Saturn, PSOne and at the end of the decade, the Dreamcast. An incredible amount of possible titles never saw any sort of release, or moved onto new consoles. Final Fantasy VII required a stronger system, so Squaresoft moved to developing for Sony. Earthbound's sequel went into an insane development hell for years, thanks to NIntendo's attempt to reboot the N64 with the N64DD. Shigesato Itoi scrapped the original completely and released it on GBA a decade later, and it ultimately lead to his retirement. While the SNES was the platform for RPGs, the N64's memory and graphic limitations forced RPG developers, just as Square did, to move onto the PSOne.
I love the N64, but it really limited Nintendo at the time. And while the Gamecube and Wii were successful enough financially, Nintendo began losing a lot of its fans, or at least a lot of those who they hadn't lost already. The WiiU is another limited system. Developers who want to focus on graphics can't really, which has always been a problem with Nintendo. They've always been a step behind in graphics. Graphics don't make a game, but developers want to evolve, not remain stagnant.
Not to mention, Nintendo of America is a whole separate story. Rarely are mature games found for 3DS and Wii. When one weasels its way past Reggie (who put the kibosh on a lot of mature titles, like the fourth sequel in the Fatal Frame franchise, a Wii exclusive), it gets little attention. Games Nintendo...
I think the question should be "What the hell isn't wrong with Nintendo"... They squander their influence and don't respect developers enough. Their leaders have some of the most inflated heads in the industry. Nintendo was a powerhouse in the day, especially two decades ago. From NES, SNES and N64, everybody was trying to get on their bandwagon. But the N64, despite how great it was, I would say it was the beginning of their downfall. It limited developers insanely. Disk-based systems were on the market already, with the Sega CD, Sega Saturn, PSOne and at the end of the decade, the Dreamcast. An incredible amount of possible titles never saw any sort of release, or moved onto new consoles. Final Fantasy VII required a stronger system, so Squaresoft moved to developing for Sony. Earthbound's sequel went into an insane development hell for years, thanks to NIntendo's attempt to reboot the N64 with the N64DD. Shigesato Itoi scrapped the original completely and released it on GBA a decade later, and it ultimately lead to his retirement. While the SNES was the platform for RPGs, the N64's memory and graphic limitations forced RPG developers, just as Square did, to move onto the PSOne.
I love the N64, but it really limited Nintendo at the time. And while the Gamecube and Wii were successful enough financially, Nintendo began losing a lot of its fans, or at least a lot of those who they hadn't lost already. The WiiU is another limited system. Developers who want to focus on graphics can't really, which has always been a problem with Nintendo. They've always been a step behind in graphics. Graphics don't make a game, but developers want to evolve, not remain stagnant.
Not to mention, Nintendo of America is a whole separate story. Rarely are mature games found for 3DS and Wii. When one weasels its way past Reggie (who put the kibosh on a lot of mature titles, like the fourth sequel in the Fatal Frame franchise, a Wii exclusive), it gets little attention. Games Nintendo circlejerks amongst themselves about are given huge publicity, but series like Shin Megami Tensei, and games targeting adults in general, don't get much attention besides what fans and the developers try to push out. On the Miiverse (the shitty new "social network/game network" hybrid system on WiiU and 3DS), you won't find anything about mature titles. You won't find anything about teen-targeted titles even. Everything is marketed towards family-friendly ideals. It's as if Nintendo only wants the money from families buying games for their young children. Not saying E-rated games are bad at all. A lot of them are great. But it's definitely a limitation for Nintendo to act like games for maturer audiences don't exist.
I think the question should be "What the hell isn't wrong with Nintendo"... They squander their influence and don't respect developers enough. Their leaders have some of the most inflated heads in the industry. Nintendo was a powerhouse in the day, especially two decades ago. From NES, SNES and N64, everybody was trying to get on their bandwagon. But the N64, despite how great it was, I would say it was the beginning of their downfall. It limited developers insanely. Disk-based systems were on the market already, with the Sega CD, Sega Saturn, PSOne and at the end of the decade, the Dreamcast. An incredible amount of possible titles never saw any sort of release, or moved onto new consoles. Final Fantasy VII required a stronger system, so Squaresoft moved to developing for Sony. Earthbound's sequel went into an insane development hell for years, thanks to NIntendo's attempt to reboot the N64 with the N64DD. Shigesato Itoi scrapped the original completely and released it on GBA a decade later, and it ultimately lead to his retirement. While the SNES was the platform for RPGs, the N64's memory and graphic limitations forced RPG developers, just as Square did, to move onto the PSOne.
I love the N64, but it really limited Nintendo at the time. And while the Gamecube and Wii were successful enough financially, Nintendo began losing a lot of its fans, or at least a lot of those who they hadn't lost already. The WiiU is another limited system. Developers who want to focus on graphics can't really, which has always been a problem with Nintendo. They've always been a step behind in graphics. Graphics don't make a game, but developers want to evolve, not remain stagnant.
Not to mention, Nintendo of America is a whole separate story. Rarely are mature games found for 3DS and Wii. When one weasels its way past Reggie (who put the kibosh on a lot of mature titles, like the fourth sequel in the Fatal Frame franchise, a Wii exclusive), it gets little attention. Games Nintendo...
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