I wrote Nintendo a letter about their current situation.
Dear Shigeru Miyamoto, Satoru Iwata and Reggie Fils-Aime,
I can see that you are in trouble and thought I would help you, if you will listen? I have only owned Nintendo consoles since the SNES and feel I have an excellent insight into where your troubles lie.
You're hardware is always excellent, although I WAS expecting an updated Wii U Remote and wireless Nunchuck with Wii U, which I hope you intend to bring to Wii U eventually. Hardware is not the problem.
Hardware is only ever going to be loved if it has a wealth and breadth of software available for it. This is the reason the NES and SNES were so loved, they had ALL the best games from every developer, not just Nintendo, made for it and felt like a DVD player in that respect. Just like a DVD player you had the freedom to play what ever type of content you wanted on it, it was all available to you. This has not been the case for any of your home consoles since the N64.
The reason why Nintendo has struggled since that time is because they have failed to produce consoles that have garnered that level of support. It is that level of support that enriches a platform with value. The less support, across the board, in all genres, the lover the appeal and the lover the perceived value of that console.
This is the problem that Wii U is having, no one is buying it because they simply do not trust Nintendo anymore to garner the highest amount of third party support and no third parties are making games for it because they think no one will buy them. It is Nintendo's full responsibility to change this!
Where Nintendo managed to just barely survive this situation in the past was when they, themselves, supplemented this lack of third party support. Goldeneye on the N64 is a good example of this. "Goldeneye" created the illusion that the N64 had a breadth of game genres when in fact it did not. "Rogue Squadron" was another example of this and so was "ExciteTruck". These "realistic" western style games fill gaping holes in the consoles library and prevent the console from being a complete failure.
Another reason I feel Nintendo had more success with the NES and SNES was that they embraced the west with those consoles more. Nintendo of America had more power in those days because Nintendo of Japan was not as arrogant. I feel that Nintendo of Japan is very insular today and does not understand the gaming needs of the west as much as they think they do. This is why they continually get caught by surprise. Nintendo of America needs to be given more power and responsibility for ensuring all the main western franchises such as "GTA 5" take pride of place on Nintendo consoles and for developing first party games in the same vein as those. I feel that Nintendo is very aggressively controlled from Japan and it needs to expand into the west to a point where at least 50% of it's first party software is made in the west, by western development houses like Retro Studios, Monster Game and the late Factor 5. Further more, do not squander the efforts of these wester development houses on more Japanese centric games like "Donkey Kong" and "Pilot Wings", have them always work on mature western style games to plug the gaps in your consoles game libraries.
I trust that this email will find it's way to Shigeru Miyamoto, Satoru Iwata and Reggie Fils-Aime where it may be able to do some good. Sometimes I feel that Nintendo's stubbornness, while often it's greatest strength, can also be it's undoing.
Faithfully Yours,
John
REPLY:
Hello,
Thank you for taking the time to write to us with your feedback regarding the Nintendo company, and for the many years you have spent gaming with us. I can certainly understand your thoughts on this matter and want you to know how much we appreciate you sending them in. I also want to assure you that your comments will be added to our records for consumer feedback and made available for other departments at the company to use as they see fit.
Sincerely,
Shanna Zak
Nintendo of America, Inc.
