Well, the writing is certainly on
the wall isn’t it? Most fellow Nintendo
gamers would surely ask me to hold off this gloom and doom report until next
year, but I think the possibilities of reverse this trend are increasingly
inescapable.
This post is a reaction to Emily
Rogers excellently written article
on the business relationships of Nintendo and Ubisoft, together with other
North American and European gaming companies.
She certainly proves the point categorically that there is a
problem. I might criticise only that
somehow her model of building an elaborate, nuanced gaming library excludes how
things used to be done in the classical age of gaming, but holding out that
point of resistance seems to miss the obvious point.
Ubisoft cannot profit on the WiiU
as things stand right now. Their profits
from the Wii are diminishing, and they are not getting any better off. One of Nintendo’s last, strongest holdouts of
support for its consoles is no doubt feeling the pain, and failing a large
turnaround, will surely pull up stakes early in the new year. As it stands, many of its Mature rated games
are already not being designed for multiplatform including the WiiU, and as
such will come (if ever) as lackluster, delayed ports. The writing is on the wall, folks. So, who’s up for a rousing game of “Whose
fault is it anyway?”
I can’t shake the sense of blame
centered on me. I love Nintendo and
cannot see value in a purchase that takes me further away from Nintendo’s brilliant
game designers. I enjoy Ubisoft games,
and I will define myself in that list of interested, eager gamers who would of
put money toward Splinter Cell: Blacklist, if only it didn’t come with a hefty
$300 buy-in price. I should be exactly
the sort of gamer both companies need to make their little partnership
work. So why can’t they motivate me?
In a word, sustenance. The archtypical first world problem, the
first and most terrifying, is to be surrounded by choices and have to weigh
each against my long term well being.
Sucks to be unemployed, then, I guess, but I wasn’t any better off last
year when working full time. Then I had
a minimum wage income, from which I derived skillful savings on which I survive
now. But then, I had no free time! I have lots now, but every expenditure that
can’t be defined as “essential” feels like food from my mouth! Then I could spare an expenditure here or
there, but however shall I benefit from this when I have to hurry up and go to
work and never return?
Well, I obviously returned once I
was unemployed…
As much as I would like to make
Nintendo and Ubisoft’s problem my own, I really cannot afford it! I can’t shake the feeling that there are lots
of people just like me, too. Nintendo
falls who want to help, Ubisoft fans eager to make the purchase, but
circumstances are just not working out for us.
For whatever reason, the other platforms are not held back by these
challenges, and Sony and Microsoft are able to find non-deadbeat players to
sustain their army of video game partners.
Well, I’m just not going to make
this my problem, Nintendo, Ubisoft. You’ll
just have to do what it takes to balance your own houses.
Things do look bad for the
WiiU. It now competes directly with both
the PS4 and Xbox One, and indirectly with a great number of other worthy
competitors, like the Steam machines, like the Mobile market, like the 3DS
family. Initial rumors of the 2DS
proclaim the standout hit of the year, far outstripping even the lofty hardware
numbers of the HD twin consoles by a country mile. Nobody wants to say it, well, I’ll say
it. I gotta say it:
The 3DS is all the console that I
really need.
GameCube levels of power? Check!
Stand up library of classics?
Check! Backwards compatibility
with the DS library, and all of its great hits?
Check! It is by far the better
deal than anything else on the market right now. Unless you want HD, which I still can’t see
the value of. Or how about shooter
arenas? There aren’t too many shooters
on the 3DS! Yeah, I’ve sworn off
shooters – angries up the blood, you know.
Maybe you want BIGGER experiences?
Ha, trollololololol. Like there
is even one experience on PS4 or Xbox One that answers Fire Emblem Awakening
for sheer volume. Big experiences are
efficient with their resources; wasteful experiences with lots of flash and no
substance do not faze me. This point of
view works all the better for my artistic appreciation of sprite art, which
seems to be a dying art form among the Triple A game makers these days.
Child of Light by Ubisoft looks
fantastic, and I would love to support it.
*Sigh* Looks at favored copy of Beyond Good and Evil on the GameCube. Just the
way things go I guess. There are winds
of change, and I can’t really blame Ubisoft for taking the actions that they
need to in order to survive.
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