Should Nintendo Be Purchased?

Back in the 80s, Nintendo emerged from the ashes of the Great Gaming Crash and became the biggest gaming company in the world. And it was this way for a great period of time. They had the superior technology, superior memory, and the more expensive hardware. The Super Nintendo was more expensive than the Genesis every step of the way because the hardware associated was the most advanced in the gaming market—1994’s Donkey Kong Country being the ultimate example. Competitors came and went, but Nintendo was the biggest and baddest in the business.

Today, Sony’s Playstation 3 was programmed and crafted to have a lifespan of 10 years because of its Blu-Ray technology. The Xbox 360, which has been around for 7 years this November can still crank out some of the best-looking games you’ll ever see. As for Nintendo? Well, their Nintendo Wii was loosely more advanced than hardware from the previous gaming generation while the upcoming system looks like (there is still room for pure surprise because of lack of details) it’s going to just loosely be more advanced than the PS3. In a span of 15 years, Nintendo went from being the company with the most powerful hardware into the company with by far the most dated material out there.

What’s the difference? The competition and its money pockets were far, far deeper. Want to look into the numbers? You have no choice; after all you are reading this.

Net Worth as of 2012:
Microsoft: $230 Billion
Sony: $83 Billion

Nintendo: $18.6 Billion



Nintendo is now the small market, the indie company going up against the big boys. And with this type of disadvantage, essentially Microsoft and Sony can use their expertise with computers and technology to create the advancements in the gaming medium. With heavier budgets, more help, more connections, and far more hardware experience, Sony and Microsoft don’t have to wait on anyone else when manufacturing the future. They can afford failures (Xbox, PS Move, PS Vita) and brush themselves off to try again.



Nintendo never had this luxury, and now more than ever can’t afford any type of failure. This is why the company drops products immediately when there is any sign of flailing or fledging lack of success—Virtual Boy, ECard Reader, Game Boy Color, N64 DD anyone? Nintendo relies on pure smoke and mirrors with clever marketing, different approaches to gaming, and a ridiculously successful AAA first-party lineup to remain relevant.

Gamers are a fickle bunch, on a general consensus overreacting and painfully moaning when things don’t head in our direction. Nintendo has been in the crosshairs in recent years because after generations of astounding technology being matched by outstanding quality the find themselves being matched in their own game under far superior technology. I shall admit I was one of them for a while, but the deeper you look, the more you realize:

Nintendo is small. Very small. Just imagine the films of the Florida Film Festival having to go up against the summer blockbusters. They financially don’t stand a chance, no matter how good the movies can be. So now the question is how can Nintendo possibly bring themselves back into the mix and try to create software that can match the likes of the competitors? Where and how can Nintendo financially be able to match the heavy budgets of Microsoft and Sony? Look at the last time a smaller company attempted to push the envelope and lead the way in the gaming culture:




Sega Dreamcast anyone? Look where that took Sega. Straight into Yesterday’s news.



The solution is simple (in concept, not execution), although it definitely won’t happen. But if it did, the entire world of gaming could change forever. But like I said before, don’t expect it to be done.





Somebody has to buy Nintendo.





Yes, buy.



Like what the infamous Chris Rock sketch mentioned, there’s rich and wealthy. Nintendo is rich (not as much recently), while companies like Microsoft is wealthy. What needs to happen for Nintendo to truly rise up and go back to SNES ranking, they need a major player to put forth the effort to swallow the company whole, and provide them with the money and resources needed to push forward. Let’s be honest: the 3DS was not progressive, and the WIiU while incredibly unique isn’t much of a progression either. Crippling funds does that to you—forces you to be creative with what you have.

So what if Nintendo was purchased by Apple? Don't laugh at the Apple comment, because it was rumored for a little, and the idea has sprouted many times before. What about Disney, still raking cash after buying Marvel? Or NBC/Universal? Or, to an even lesser extent, Microsoft, its second-place rival? What if the funding for a Nintendo project increased to the ridiculous proportions of Sony? Then now we have SNES-like potential which puts Nintendo technologically in the front and in charge of their destiny. The days of having to find alternate means to go up against ever-changing and ever-improving technology would diminish. We would see the franchises of Mario, Zelda, and others look just as good as the likes of Uncharted, Heavy Rain, etc.

We can see what Nintendo can pull off with minimal budget; with Mario Galaxy 2 despite being leagues underneath the norm in terms of graphical and memory capabilities emerging as one of the best games in the past 7 years. So what would happen if someone pulled a Pixar on them, and gave them an unlimited budget on their projects? I adore Pixar, but they are lucky to have a company like Disney support them-----their last three movies have a total budget of nearly $600 MILLION (Although the payoff has always been fantastic, with over 7 billion at the box office since 1995).


What would be the canvas of Nintendo when the amount of paint is limitless? And as I am saying many times, this would require one hell of a merger, and a hell of a lot of agreements from both parties for a purchase or a merger to be a pure success. Have mergers involving a $14 BILLION company occurred? Why of course it has, but they are definitely rare. And like the other mergers, this one would be a game-changer, and (unlike the other mergers) would potentially benefit every single party involved—from Nintendo to the purchaser. Wouldn’t you like to fess up the billions to purchase a company like Nintendo? Wouldn’t you like to own the rights to the creative staff in Japan and all their original IPs?

I am not saying the company is on sale, and I am definitely not saying that Nintendo would even consider selling themselves to a bigger market in hopes of expansion. What I am indeed saying is that in order for Nintendo nowadays to EVER have the ability to play catch up with the future installments of Xbox, Playstation, and whatever else might occur down the road, they need backing. But until a company has the guts, the cajones, to truly rip open their bank account and attempt this mammoth sale, Nintendo will remain the indie company that hides their limited resources behind good marketing, a great confident staff, and a reputation that they will fight to the death to maintain.


Nintendo is not for sale. But it would be an extremely incredible investment if it were. And not to mention, the gaming industry would definitely be smiling from ear to ear.




Would you buy this brand if you could pony up the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$? I sure as hell would.

The Missing IPs of Microsoft

So Resident Evil 6 and Fifa 13 are scoring higher sales on the Playstation 3. The PS3 has owned 44% of the 2012 market compared to the Xbox 360’s 34%. The marginal lead of the Xbox 360 has been reduced to a mere 1.7 million. Microsoft in Japan is being outsold 8 to 1 against Sony. So with all these negative news, you know the momentum is pure Sony when these two get to complete a couple years from now with the next-generation systems. The Playstation 3 is almost fully recovered from the God-awful launch seemingly ions ago, while the Xbox 360 is sputtering thanks to its extremely weak non-American sales.

The question is, why? And how can Microsoft win back the crowd when the next gen hits?

Lack of IPs is the problem, IPs will become the solution.
They need new IPs. Now.



The reason why the Xbox 360 had survived at first was because they were able to pull off some of the exclusives in the Sony side when the PS3 was sputtering for an audience. Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear Solid are examples of franchises that separated their exclusive ways and became multi-platform. So Xbox was beginning to look like an improved and inexpensive form of the Playstation.


And then the new exclusives happened.




God of War. Uncharted. Little Big Planet. Resistance. Killzone. And (this bears repeating) Uncharted happened. All of these started conquering the gaming airwaves, winning awards, earning good sales, and helping Sony establish a new audience of fans they didn’t have before. And then we have old-school exclusives making their return like Sly Cooper, Ratchet and Clank, and Gran Taurismo. So the shift happened---now we have PS3 looking like an improved version of the 360 with its more diverse lineup. While both horrifically pale in compassion to Nintendo in terms of the first-party offerings, Sony is closing in quite nicely in the way Fox Sports is sneaking in to ESPN’s sports viewership market.

Fun fact: On the Wii, the 13 best-selling games in its history are first-party. For the PS3, 8 of the 10 best-selling games are first-party. Microsoft? Only 5 of 10.

Where are Microsoft’s exclusives?



Surely they got Halo, but there are dozens of shooters to counter it, with Call of Duty finally becoming that fabled Halo-killer and becoming the biggest franchise in the seventh generation outside that infamous plumber we all know. Even Bioshock, arguably the best game ever to grace an Xbox system, wound up becoming a PS3 game as well. So, the question remains: where are your exclusive IPs Microsoft?


Time to make some, or bring some from the dead.

Bayonetta became a potential AAA success that got swooped up by Nintendo, but there are a few others ready for the taking. We can start with the Rareware brand, which is still under the Green Machine umbrella, even if the company is leagues behind what they used to be in its heyday. Like I had mentioned before, Perfect Dark, Conker, Banjo, Killer Instinct, Blast Corps, and Jet Force Gemini are all exclusives not even being mentioned to be having a future. Even Battletoads hasn’t seen the light of day since 1994. How can Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have at least 5 re-imaginings yet Battletoads get none?

In order to compete, first-party games are a necessity. Nintendo is going HD and if they play their cards right, will continue to run their model of first-party-rules-all strategy of competing against the big boys. This is why the N64 survived with NO third-party support, why the Gamecube even sold anything, why the Nintendo Wii was able to fly far away from the competitors between 2007-2009, and why the WiiU will have a successful launch even if most of the launch titles are multi-platform. Remember Halo was the only reason the original Xbox was even relevant, but nowadays it takes much more than just one or two exclusives to truly aim for the crown.


The NextBox needs more variety, shooters will help you plenty in America, but in Europe and especially in Japan it won’t help at all. Microsoft needs more exclusive role-playing games to even have a shot at Japan, while they need more action games to enhance the Europe/South America sales.



Lastly, they need more mainstream-accessible games that can be picked up by anybody. Nintendo’s Wii victory can be traced to the simple games (that don’t have the Kinect price tag) that sold phenomenal: Mario Kart Wii with 32 million, Wii Sports Resort with 30 million, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii with 26 million. Argue all you want, but shooters will NEVER hit those numbers.

Microsoft, your lead is dwindling simply because you have no new cards to offer, playing the same hand year after year. If you can’t fix this soon, then expect the Xbox 720 to look like the original Xbox:

Clunky, and barely surviving.



All Information Obtained From: VGCharts

Seven Franchises that need the Skyrim Scope

Elder Scrolls: Skyrim since its release has captivated gamers with its ridiculously long quest and endless amount of sidequests and random things to do that usually don’t even contribute to the main adventure. You can literally spend over 100 hours on the game and still not be done finding everything. Yes this game has its small bugs and issues, but the general scope of the game is arguably the biggest we have in all of gaming.

No franchise has honestly attempted to reach the scope of Elder Scrolls nowadays, with the possible exception of the Grand Theft Auto games. And of course, seeing what we can now do video games thanks to American game companies ever-expanding their horizons with the evolving admiration of sandbox/non-linear gaming that used to be held exclusively to RPG, we can only ponder: what other franchises should aim for the Skyrim heights? What gaming franchises would benefit from creating a game as big as Elder Scrolls IV?

Here is my list of the franchises that would most benefit from gaining the “Skyrim Scope.”



#7: Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy used to be one of the bigger games out there, with the SNES version guaranteeing over 20 hours of gameplay and Final Fantasy VII bringing the genre to a new level. But with the recent games, the franchise has gone so far backwards I have no idea how much worse it can possibly get. What they need to do is get back to the basics: provide a decent story, decent characters, and strip any shred of evidence of linear gameplay. The JRPGs are dying because with the exception of Pokemon, they fall into the category of being to focused, too linear, and far too restrictive. With a Skyrim environment, Square can give the next Final Fantasy more breathing room to set off on your quest at your own pace. That's all we want really.



#6: James Bond 007

Goldeneye remains the best James Bond game in all of history because of the amount exploring you got to do in the midst of completing your missions. Running on the Super Mario 64 engine, Goldeneye on the N64 had a lot of spots that actually didn't even contribute to the overall mission, they were just extra rooms to explore. Imagine taking the Bond license, creating a new storyline (or just take a few existing storylines), and then trying to expand the real world settings as much as possible. Imagine being Bond and fully exploring Las Vegas or Times Square, or London, or less-traveled roads in search of enemies or new clues. That would definitely take Bond in a new direction.




#5: Endless Ocean

These ocean exploration games despite being a little slow-paced, are soothing and delightful games that have enticed the imaginations of the younger gamers. Not much happens, but the opportunity to dive and interact with creatures of the deep have made these games mild surprise hits. Now if you were to maximize the scope and include more bodies of water, more depth, and much more, well, ocean, that would jack up not only the realism of the game, but the exploration aspects of it. Endless Ocean can truly be endless, if you give it the proper scope.



#4: Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing is a game that focuses heavily on interaction, an open world, and sheer size and variety. The Wii version didn't really improve upon anything the previous installments had, but with the WiiU, size should not be an issue. Imagine a Skyrim world for Animal Crossing, which allows for you to visit dozens of different places by traveling on foot or by boat or maybe even plane. With games like Animal Crossing, the main appeal is just finding all the fun little secrets scattered around. If you have a massive environment, the replayability, and eventually the quality of the game can improve.


#3: Pokemon

Pokemon is the biggest franchise in terms of sales, quality, and quantity in the handheld market. As a matter of fact its arguably the ONLY handheld franchise from the 90s to remain surviving in the world of today. Pokemon Black/White 2 has sold nearly 3 million copies---only in Japan---on an older system. One problem: too much potential has not been used. Yes, I have covered this before.

Imagine the Pokemon universe the size of Skyrim. Imagine combining all six major regions into one massive game. Now, similar to some of the entries here I have discussed the potential of Pokemon if they were to increase the scope and give it some extra time for development. Of all the best-selling franchises in history, the Pokemon remains the only one that has yet to tap into its full potential. Skyrim scoping it can definitely help.




#2: Kingdom Hearts

Part of this is because Square Enix is holding us hostage over Kingdom Hearts 3. Did you know that it has been 6 years since Kingdom Hearts II? Are you kidding me??! Now, Disney has purchased Marvel, has over 50 animated movies to work with, several live-action incarnations to mess around with as well. Come on now, that is dozens of environments to expand upon, dozens of places to truly dwell a little further into. Don’t give us samples of Disney movies, give us main courses! How awesome would it be if Disney truly went out and expanded places like Toontown, Africa (Lion King version), Halloweentown, the universe of TRON, and other Disney gems? It would be Disney fanfare to the ultimate degree. Remember, Square back in the 90s delivered some huge games. A nice way to come back to the prime is by exploding the Disney universe in the oft-delayed franchise.



#1: The Legend of Zelda

This is a no-brainer. I have discussed this time and time again: Zelda used to be the biggest and the baddest out there and Nintendo needs to attempt to reclaim this throne. In the 80s, Legend of Zelda was the biggest game out there with duel quests. In the 90s, Link to the Past held the throne for several years before the Nintendo 64 came out. Ocarina of Time---another Zelda game, became the biggest game on the face of the earth when 1998 rolled around. Lastly, Wind Waker was a game that suffered quality-wise because it was so large that gamers were quite frankly lost WITH a map AND a compass.

Fast-forward to today. Thanks to the weaker Wii system, the two Zelda games were nowhere near as immense as the norm. With the WiiU, Nintendo has the perfect opportunity to step up to the plate and truly create something special, something unique, and most importantly---something big. The Zelda brand has been soiled in recent times because of the weaker games within the past 7 years. The next Legend of Zelda game is arguably the most important in its long history---it will finally be in HD, in a decently-powerful system, and has the chance to scope like Skyrim. While it may hold the title only until the PS4 and Xbox 720 releases, it is a necessity to be on top at least for a little and clean up the name of the franchise.