I’ve been thinking, with the Wii U and 3DS’s kind of disappointing sales, along with strong competition from smartphones and PCs, Nintendo might need to do a bit more than “innovating” the home and portable console as they have with Wii U and 3DS. Don’t get me wrong they’re good. But it’s not enough anymore. So, what if Nintendo recognizes the excitement about devices like the Oculus Rift (Especially Playstation VR, a product made by Nintendo’s competitor), and decides to make their own VR? I doubt they’d make it reminiscent of the VB in any way. I can imagine playing Nintendo games on a VR headset with a controller similar to the Wii remote and Nunchuk. Really it sounds kind of fun! What do you guys think?

The future of gaming is in smartphones. Iwata was agaisnt that way, but now he’s gone and Nintendo has started to approach this markey (first app sheduled for march 2016, partnership in Japan with a smartphone developper)

Such devices are now cheaper than handheld consoles.

[thunderstruck]

in3D wrote:
… with the Wii U and 3DS’s kind of disappointing sales…

Actually, the 3DS sales numbers are far away from disappointing. By now (summing up all variations) it sold ~54 million units with sales numbers constantly increasing. It has a strong library of first- and third party games. For comparison, the SNES sold 49 million units, the N64 32 million. The 3DS of course is still going. It might not end up as successful as the GameBoy (118 million) but it is doing quite well.

Personally, I don’t like mobile gaming, mostly because of the bad controls and low quality games. Most of the games are repetitive time-killer that aren’t worth their low asking price. I hope Nintendo will never hit the “Free to play” market and rather deliver fun games at a fair asking price (like they always used to do).

While the Wii U is without any doubt not selling as well as the 3DS (10 million units) it is still outselling the XBOX One. It also has a very strong lineup of games, mostly first-party though.

As for the chances of a Nintendo-VR Console… I hope they won’t do it. Nintendo always tried to differentiate themselves using harware innovations that would make the experience more fun. Personally, I think VR will fail the same way the Kinect failed.

• This reply was modified 9 years ago by thunderstruck.

Nintendo does seem to have a history of not trying to conform to what everybody else is doing until they see the financial success of what everybody else is doing. Thus, I do think that there would first have to be a VR unit made by somebody else that proves to be successful, before Nintendo would then do it more awesomely.

Arvester wrote:
The future of gaming is in smartphones.

Oh god please no.

You’re right thunderstruck, I was just basing that on how things were going back in the time of the price drop but I guess Nintendo caught back up. Is Kinect really a failure?

speedyink wrote:

Arvester wrote:
The future of gaming is in smartphones.

Oh god please no.

I have the same opinion. Unfortunately, japanese market shows the future of gaming: absolutely *everything* is done via smartphones. Developers don’t have to bother with complex development platforms, as smartphones are very generic and a player account can easily be moved from a device to another when the player buys a new phone. Plus, you won’t sell a lot of handhelds when another device do the same thing + internet access + calling fonctions for the same quality and price. For now, the lack of physical buttons is the only drawback of smartphones when you are a gamer, but the gameplay is made to comply with tactile screen and casual players. 3DS sells because of dual screen and 3D function (and it’s Nintendo).

The games are short and casual, so they don’t cost much to develop. See Angry Birds, Candy Crush… little games, big income. Konami has already started to quit, their gym centers and mobile gaming are a lot more profitable than any Kojima production.

in3D wrote:
Is Kinect really a failure?

If you look at the sales numbers of the original Kincet it was quite successful. It sold sold 8 million units in its first 60 days and has received the Guinness World Record of being the “fastest selling consumer electronics device”. I think it sold something like 24 million units. The new Kincet (that came with the XBox One) didn’t sell that well. It is hard to say if that is the Kincets fault or because it was bundled with the XBox One (which didn’t sell that great). However, the XBox One sales doubled after removal of Kinect from the bundle.

The big problem with the Kinect (as a gaming device) is the low number of quality games. There have been some fun ones but it just couldn’t make it’s way into AAA titles. The reason for that is that big game developers would shy away from Kinect games because it would split their market. 24 millions seems allot but the xbox 360 sold 84 million units. So you can always sell more copies if you make the Kinect optional.

From that point of view making the Kinect mandatory for the XBox One was a good move. However, Microsoft couldn’t pull it off. By now they even removed the Kinect support from the controller. There are also barely any games supporting it.

So while the Kinect was commercially successful it still failed to deliver. My guess is that VR will fail the same way. People (including me) will buy it because it is an cool idea but after a while it will fade away.

thunderstruck wrote:
If you look at the sales numbers of the original Kincet it was quite successful. It sold sold 8 million units in its first 60 days and has received the Guinness World Record of being the “fastest selling consumer electronics device”. I think it sold something like 24 million units. The new Kincet (that came with the XBox One) didn’t sell that well. It is hard to say if that is the Kincets fault or because it was bundled with the XBox One (which didn’t sell that great). However, the XBox One sales doubled after removal of Kinect from the bundle.

To be fair, there was also huge interest in the scientific and hobbyist community, because it was the first time that such a high-resolution depth sensor came attached with such a low price tag. I know my department at university alone bought 20+ Kinects right when they came out.

cYa,

Tauwasser

P.S.: Nice to see you sober up between the first and second paragraphs *Kincet :P*

I have the same opinion. Unfortunately, japanese market shows the future of gaming: absolutely *everything* is done via smartphones. Developers don’t have to bother with complex development platforms, as smartphones are very generic and a player account can easily be moved from a device to another when the player buys a new phone. Plus, you won’t sell a lot of handhelds when another device do the same thing + internet access + calling fonctions for the same quality and price. For now, the lack of physical buttons is the only drawback of smartphones when you are a gamer, but the gameplay is made to comply with tactile screen and casual players. 3DS sells because of dual screen and 3D function (and it’s Nintendo).

The games are short and casual, so they don’t cost much to develop. See Angry Birds, Candy Crush… little games, big income. Konami has already started to quit, their gym centers and mobile gaming are a lot more profitable than any Kojima production.

Augh, I hate touch games. Even games I thought were good for touch screens, like Raiden Legacy, are vastly superior when I use a Bluetooth controller. You just can’t beat physical controls.

As for VR, the Virtual Boy is good enough for me. I can’t see myself buying into the actual VR headsets.

i found this interesting: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/12/10/is-this-the-nintendo-nx-controller.aspx?utm_content=bufferfb8b5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

I think VR is a bigger deal than Kinect. Imagine playing Mario Kart, but actually being in the game! Want to see if there’s a red shell coming? Just turn your head! 😀 To me this seems more similar to Wii than Kinect. Wii was Nintendo’s best selling home console. To me at least, the “gimmick” never wore off. I still think playing with a Wii remote and Nunchuk is really innovative and fun. And like Arvester said, the reason 3DS sells is because of buttons, dual screens and 3D. Soon it’ll take more of an edge to compete with phones. VR seems like the solution to me.

That controller patent looks kinda cool. I wonder what Nintendo’s planning..

In tracks record terms, the whole thing is a fad. I don’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings – but 3D and VR have come and gone numerous times and every time people get excited and the pickup is never sustained, it’s a novelty by nature.

Like I said not to hurt anyone’s feelings, I really liek 3D and VR type applications and I think as long as they’re practical, we should believe in them. Just remember the odds aren’t good 🙂

Also on Kinect – it was billed as this amazing thing and again, it got great pickup and MS did a really good job in converting people to that, but it was never sustainable past that initial wow phase, so understandably when people are forced to buy Kinect 2 for extra, that transientce is still fresh enough in their memory for it to sting just a little bit.

the difference is that the push for VR headsets and games specifically designed for VR hasn’t been as popular as it is right now. if it is going to happen, this seems like this would be the gaming generation to make it possible.

Everything old is now “cool” so maybe virtual reality will make a comeback, but in actuality it probably won’t.

Lester Knight wrote:
the difference is that the push for VR headsets and games specifically designed for VR hasn’t been as popular as it is right now. if it is going to happen, this seems like this would be the gaming generation to make it possible.

Not to contradict you, Lester, but I think the popularity is finally there because the technology is finally there to make it commercially viable. We are now at a point where the tech is able to pull VR off in a comfortable, affordable, and approachable way. That’s why I think it will actually take off this time. It still might end up being somewhat of a niche market for a while, but so were mobile phones for quite a long time, so…

To drift even further off-topic… I can’t wait until someone writes a “Virtuality” emulator for whatever Rift-clone I end up getting 😉 I never got to try it back in the day, and then they all but disappeared. Now that there are a few in private hands, my dream of experiencing Atari Jaguar-level graphics in VR form is still alive! 😛

RunnerPack wrote:
To drift even further off-topic… I can’t wait until someone writes a “Virtuality” emulator for whatever Rift-clone I end up getting 😉 I never got to try it back in the day, and then they all but disappeared. Now that there are a few in private hands, my dream of experiencing Atari Jaguar-level graphics in VR form is still alive! 😛

I’m totally with you. Never had a chance to test, I’ve only seen two units when I was young…

speedyink wrote:

I have the same opinion. Unfortunately, japanese market shows the future of gaming: absolutely *everything* is done via smartphones. Developers don’t have to bother with complex development platforms, as smartphones are very generic and a player account can easily be moved from a device to another when the player buys a new phone. Plus, you won’t sell a lot of handhelds when another device do the same thing + internet access + calling fonctions for the same quality and price. For now, the lack of physical buttons is the only drawback of smartphones when you are a gamer, but the gameplay is made to comply with tactile screen and casual players. 3DS sells because of dual screen and 3D function (and it’s Nintendo).

The games are short and casual, so they don’t cost much to develop. See Angry Birds, Candy Crush… little games, big income. Konami has already started to quit, their gym centers and mobile gaming are a lot more profitable than any Kojima production.

Augh, I hate touch games. Even games I thought were good for touch screens, like Raiden Legacy, are vastly superior when I use a Bluetooth controller. You just can’t beat physical controls.

Agreed… aside from the games being very shallow cash grabs, that is the biggest factor that makes me stay from mobile games like the plague.

Sadly it does look like “free” to play mobile games are here to stay for now. The day game companies like Nintendo stop making traditional gaming systems in favor of developing for mobile platforms is the day I just stop gaming entirely.

Tauwasser wrote:

P.S.: Nice to see you sober up between the first and second paragraphs *Kincet :P*

Haha, that gave me a pretty good laugh for some reason :p

I also think mobile games are here to stay, but that may not be a bad thing. Personally I’ve never been into cell phone games since I had my old LG EnV flip and played hearts all the time at work. Whenever possible, I enter cheat codes and use Game Genies on console games but I still think mobile platforms are just too easy. They do tend to be simple time-wasters based on what I see people playing at my job, on the subway, etc…

However, even if software giants focus on these lucrative markets, I’m sure independent developers will step in to fill the void. I used to only watch bigger-budget movies because the sci-fi/horror I like often sucked when indy studios cut corners on special effects. Now there are a ton of great indy movies with awesome special effects while still retaining the more creative storylines separating them from a lot of Hollywood formulaic crap.

To answer the ORIGINAL question haha…I’m sure Nintendo will get in the game. My Xbox-loving friends accuse Nintendo of riding its own coattails by churning out the same old franchises repeatedly with each new system. Again, is that a bad thing? If VR becomes refined enough that games are totally immersive and FUN, I’m sure they wouldn’t be against at least experimenting with a few Mario, Zelda, Metroid games.

Then we’ll just need somebody here to port the VB library to the best VR system :). Maybe we could even work in a full color palette…

[Vallie]

If they ever did decide to do a Virtual Boy 2, they’d have their input the Power Glove 2.

The tech not might have been ready back then, but truly I think their both ready for a comeback.

Though it’s just wishful thinking on my part but hell i’d like to see it!

• This reply was modified 8 years, 11 months ago by Vallie.