When Nintendo unveiled the Wii U to the world at E3 last month, the company tapped Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime to make the announcement. It was probably a wise choice, as the imposing front man might be the only member of Nintendo’s inner circle who could keep a straight face as he read the teleprompter in that moment of truth.
“It’s a system that we will all enjoy together, but also one that’s tailor made for you,” Fils-Aime said. He was speaking to the largest congregation of game writers and nerds this side of the Pacific, so we know who he means by “you” – the hardcore gamer.
It’s far too early to call that media-friendly quip a bold-faced lie, as the Wii U and its unique touch-screen controller won’t be available for at least another year. But even with the benefit of the doubt, I’m impressed that Nintendo and Fils-Aime so confidently touted a fan base that, frankly, they’ve shunned for a good chunk of the last decade and completely neglected in the past year.
Before you think I’m about to go on a tirade for fans’ rights – the Internet has enough faceless forum trolls to do that already – let me establish a bit of realism here. I understand that Nintendo isn’t just a rainbow-powered fun factory: it’s a business. Its goal is to make a profit, and fostering fan loyalty is a means to that end. I’ve loved Nintendo since before I could read, but I’m well aware that the Big N owes me nothing for my devotion (or at least nothing that it doesn’t think would put more of my cash in its coffers).
In that jaded, 20-something paradigm, my problems with Nintendo’s Wii U announcement aren’t personal. It’s just bad business: Nintendo isn’t in touch with its core fan base, and it shouldn’t explicitly link its new console to a group of gamers that it increasingly ostracizes. Fils-Aime’s promise was a simple one, but it makes a false assumption that only increases my belief that today’s Nintendo is operating in a fantasy world where its loyal fans will love whatever it does because, well, it’s Nintendo.
Nintendo took a significant turn in 2004 when it embarked on a “blue ocean” strategy and expanded its market share to casual gamers with the DS and Wii. That move gave the company two of the best-selling consoles of all time and generated a legion of imitators, but it also shifted its business model from impressive innovations to gimmicky iterations. We haven’t seen a single new intellectual property from Nintendo since Pikmin in 2001 (unless you count the sterile and repetitive Wii Play and Wii Sports games that clutter retirement homes and bachelors’ apartments), and apart from a handful of first-party titles, the Mario-maker is failing to provide its customers with the fresh sort of content that once distinguished it from its competitors.
Consider Nintendo’s blunt dismissal of Operation Rainfall, a grassroots movement started on IGN’s forums to bring a trio of Japanese RPGs to Wii owners in North America. The goofy alias might tempt you to make light of the effort – I know I did at first – but the group actually managed to make one of the targeted titles, “Xenoblade Chronicles,” into Amazon’s No. 1 pre-ordered game. “Xenoblade” and another of the Rainfall trio of games had already been localized into English for European release, and it seemed like a small and sensible step for Nintendo to press a few thousand discs and send them stateside. Not so: Nintendo issued a brief, by-the-numbers statement on its Facebook page that thanked fans for their interest but succinctly dashed any hopes of bringing the games in question over to America.
I’m sure Nintendo’s analysts had sound financial incentives to withhold the titles, but the decision still reflects a change in Nintendo’s relationship with its fans. Not so long ago, Nintendo consoles hauled in droves of core titles from third-party studios, and the company was willing to put down major money for big-budget exclusives like “Resident Evil 4” and “Dragon Quest IX.” Apparently Nintendo no longer considers its core customers as prolific, wealthy or important enough to ship over completed titles in a summer that’s seen just a handful of Wii releases at all, even as fans clamor for the company to toss over a bone. That doesn’t look so good just weeks after Fils-Aime’s insistence that Nintendo is returning its focus to the core.
Apart from the Internet drama of Operation Rainfall, Nintendo’s gimmick-driven business model continues to quietly strain relationships with third-party partners. The 3DS was released earlier this year with a cool feature set and a hefty price tag, but the once-astonishing list of development partnerships has grown embarrassingly short with cancellations and delays – “Assassin’s Creed: Lost Legacy,” “My Garden,” “Bomberman” and a gaggle of other promising titles are canned or MIA, and just this week Capcom axed the long-awaited threequel in the “Mega Man Legends” series. I can’t claim to know exactly why developers are gun shy to put games on the handheld, but it’s likely a combination of a small install base, unusual hardware and, most damningly, a lack of publishing zeal from Nintendo itself. Take a look on the 3DS Metacritic page, and you’ll see just one title with a score over 80. It’s been four months, and there’s only one game to ascend above mediocrity. And even then, the system’s saving grace barely even counts: it’s nothing but a remake of one of history’s best games, “Zelda: Ocarina of Time.”
Looking to Nintendo’s future, things continue to have that “business first, fans second” kind of flavor. The Wii is all but dead, with nothing significant coming but a new Kirby game and the long-delayed “Zelda: Skyward Sword,” which maybe be ported ahead to Wii U the same way that “Twilight Princess” was in 2006 (with an install base of almost 90 million, it’s pretty telling that Nintendo still struggles to sell software – I’d guess because the people who bought Wiis are more soccer moms than actual gamers). We may see “Dragon Quest X” make a last hurrah for the little white box, but even Square Enix looks like it may jump ship and port the title ahead to Wii U. On 3DS, the 2011 release calendar looks pretty dismal, and the most interesting titles are nothing but more remakes. There’s promise in the 3DS’s future with new Mario games and inevitable Zelda or Metroid titles, but even then we’re looking at nothing but first-party games that are coming too late. Some systems are late bloomers, but the 3DS is practically stillborn.
If Nintendo wants to make good on Fils-Aime’s line and show that it still cares about gamers’ biggest needs (the games, of course), it has a lot of promises to keep. It needs to be transparent and responsive to its fan base, create original content that takes advantage of its hardware, make a serious overhaul of its online presence and, most importantly, attract game-makers from around the world with good hardware, fair publishing agreements and simple development kits. It sounds like a tall order, but it’s the honest details of what Fils-Aime mentioned.
Nintendo fans will stick around for Zelda, Mario and Metroid until the end of time, but the downtime between those releases could be a whole lot prettier. It’d be nice to see Nintendo take advantage of its market penetration and actually attract new intellectual properties for people to fall in love with, and I suppose making a promise is the first step in that direction. Nintendo has surprised me more than I can count, but here’s hoping that this time it puts its money exactly where its mouth is.