I don't understand Nintendo

[Mikjul]

Just been playing through Resident Evil 4 HD on PS3, and remembering the Gamecube version and how the HD version uses the GCN assets...

Back then i had a PS2 and knew jack shit about tech and enjoyed games for what they were.

What i don't get is why they chose to build underpowered consoles after GCN.

RE4 on that console stood out pretty damn clearly as the best version even vs the PC due to it having PS2 assets... The GCN was massively powerful for it's time and only slightly overshadowed by the almighty OG XBOX.

Why Nintendo? N64 was amazing though technically bottlenecked by carts.

Bring back the fu and actually give Sony and MS a good kick in... Back then REmake and Zero made me literally cream my pants and dream of owning a Gamecube.

Wii and WiiU.... WTF?

[Gale]

They tried going for power, it failed. They tried going for gimmick, they captured the casual market.

[werto165]

Wii was a success tbh, it was just a mistake to list the wii U as such because everyone thought it was just an add on not a separate entity(non tech saavy crowd) . 

[German_John]

That's not what Nintendo is about. Instead of bringing out yet another system that plays the AAA games, they focus on their own stuff, and when you have IPs people drool about, you don't need all that power. 

Personally, I'm happy with Nintendo. I prefer their games, because I also have a PC to game on, and their handhelds are reasonably priced with a pretty good library.

[Mikjul]

That's not what Nintendo is about. Instead of bringing out yet another system that plays the AAA games, they focus on their own stuff, and when you have IPs people drool about, you don't need all that power.

Personally, I'm happy with Nintendo. I prefer their games, because I also have a PC to game on, and their handhelds are reasonably priced with a pretty good library.

Umm well since Ninty fucked off from being up there hardware wise we ended up with RE5 & 6... Michael Bay at his finest...

Gamecube.... Mastered what was already a masterpeice with REmake, RE4 was originally an exclusive to Ninty.

[Creiger]

Nintendo doesn't understand Nintendo either.

 

What i don't get is why they chose to build underpowered consoles after GCN.

 

And they keep the specs lower because it keeps the cost of the final unit down. MS & Sony consoles usually sell at a loss for a very long time before the part prices come down (if ever) and they go for a heavy software selling model to make up for it. Nintendo does the opposite and either breaks even per console, or actually profits on it. Between that and their usual stable of games, it works as a very effective business model (usually). The issues are they still have abysmal online capabilities when they do decide to implement them, and if they do get fancy AAA 3rd party support on whatever title, the developer basically has to make a downgraded version to run specifically on their hardware. Once again not always the case, but it sure seems that's what it's devolved to this gen in particular.

[spartaman64]

nintendo's first party games dont take much hard ware to run and people buying nintendo are probably doing it for their games so why not keep the cost down 

[Mikjul]

Nintendo doesn't understand Nintendo either.

 

 

And they keep the specs lower because it keeps the cost of the final unit down. MS & Sony consoles usually sell at a loss for a very long time before the part prices come down (if ever) and they go for a heavy software selling model to make up for it. Nintendo does the opposite and either breaks even per console, or actually profits on it. Between that and their usual stable of games, it works as a very effective business model (usually). The issues are they still have abysmal online capabilities when they do decide to implement them, and if they do get fancy AAA 3rd party support on whatever title, the developer basically has to make a downgraded version to run specifically on their hardware. Once again not always the case, but it sure seems that's what it's devolved to this gen in particular.

Gamecube was incredibly efficient spec wise using an IBM CPU and some custom job from ATi with some supremely fast memory.

Ninty could do that again and be majorly successful if they would pull their fingers from their anuses.

Gamecube was also fheaper than PS2 & XBOX and with Dreamcast fully dead hardware wise, the GCN literally matched it's price point whislt offering some bloody amazing hardware.

[Creiger]

Gamecube was incredibly efficient spec wise using an IBM CPU and some custom job from ATi with some supremely fast memory.

Ninty could do that again and be majorly successful if they would pull their fingers from their anuses.

Gamecube was also fheaper than PS2 & XBOX and with Dreamcast fully dead hardware wise, the GCN literally matched it's price point whislt offering some bloody amazing hardware.

 

The GCN's issue was those damn minidiscs that only held 1.4 gigs compared to a DVD's 4.7. Even if the GCN could use double-layer minidiscs (and I don't think it could; can't remember for sure), that would have only bumped it up to 2.66.

[skywake]

Nintendo's hardware has always been cheaper. Even when they were competitive on spec they were cheaper because they cut costs somewhere else. Like the N64 and the decision not to include an optical drive in the mid-90s. It's especially true for their portables, the Gameboy for example. A monochrome screen all the way up into the late 90s? That thing wasn't winning people over because of it's impressive specs. And to some extent the same was true of the Gamecube which people remember as being "spec competitive" but in some ways it wasn't. The disks were smaller and compared to the XBox it was pretty average on every measure.

 

The more recent systems? Well the Wii and DS you can't really complain much about given how well they sold. With the 3DS it hasn't been as much of a hit but it's again hard to fault them given the state of its competition. It got first place by a country mile in a shrinking category. So that leaves us with the Wii U which I would argue is the Gamecube of this generation. And it's probably blasphemy on these forums to say this but.... I don't think it needs more horsepower. As someone who owns both a decent PC and a Wii U I don't find myself playing games on the Wii U thinking "I wish this was on my PC". Infact it's usually the opposite, I play games on my PC and find myself wishing that I could play it on the GamePad.

 

.... for example, Assassin's Creed 4. I got it on the Wii U because it was given to me as a gift. The only graphically intensive game I have on my Wii U that is actually available on PC. The shadows in particular were garbage but it didn't actually bother me much. Because it was a hot Australian summer, the aircon was blasting and I could play it while the cricket was on because of off-TV play. So it was a trade-off. And in the end I had just as much fun with it as I would have on PC.

[German_John]

Umm well since Ninty fucked off from being up there hardware wise we ended up with RE5 & 6... Michael Bay at his finest...

Gamecube.... Mastered what was already a masterpeice with REmake, RE4 was originally an exclusive to Ninty.

What? Why is Nintendo making lower end hardware the reason for RE5 and 6 to stink? Wouldn't that be Capcom making shit games rather than Nintendo supplying bad hardware? It's not like they couldn't develop for other platforms and make it great.

Besides, hardware is only a small part of a good game. Look at stuff like A Hat In Time, Shovel Knight or handheld Zelda stuff. 

[GigaSnow]

Because (hypothetically), they don't need it.

 

Historically, Nintendo's consoles have always been under-powered, even the NES. 

 

They focus on making games that run on less powerful hardware, but are more fun than most other offerings that run on the latest and greatest.

 

Personally, I'd rather play a game that's fun, than the one with the best graphics. I know I'm in the minority on this one, but oh well.