Hello





First I want to thank you for replying to my last e-mail (Super Mario Bros. 5 is great; question about region coding)



For a long time third parties have complained about their games not selling on Wii. Instead of evaluating the games they make, they take the easy way and say that people only buy Nintendo games. Now Sega wants Nintendo to produce more mature content to help third parties sell their games.



http://www.n4g.com/industrynews/News-455083.aspx



To me this does not make any sense. First they complain that people only buy Nintendo games and now they want Nintendo to produce the same games as the third parties. Sounds like it would be harder for the third parties. Also Nintendo wants to maintain an image where gaming is for the whole family. I suspect that if nintendo starts making games like Madworld, this image could be damaged. The way I see it is that Nintendo already has opened a path of endless possibilities. Mario 5 clearly proves that there is a market for 2D games and if Sega actually listened to its fans they would already be developing a new 2D Sonic game for the wii. I imagine there is a lot of oldschool Sega/Sonic fans that owns a Wii and a 2D Sonic game could get insane sales.



Many would argue that Mario 5 sells because of its name. I don’t agree with that. I believe those sales are a result og Mario 5 being a great game and very accessible. Just think if Sega could make a Sonic game matching Mario’s level design and accessibleness. I think such a game would do great but it seems that Sega only takes the mature content seriously.



I dont understand Sega. They have a lot of classic games in their library that fans would like to see again but Sega just wont do it. A 2D Sonic game would be a day 1 purchase for me. I would also like another oldschool Phantasy star and Skies of Arcadia though they are probably more niche games.



Sonic was once the main competitor of Mario. Now is Sega’s chance to make it happen again.



Again thank you for your time.

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I don’t believe you. I think you DO know why Sega doesn’t make a true 2d Sonic game. You just don’t want to believe it.

Sega’s developers just do not want to make a 2d Sonic. It is that simple.

Miyamoto did not want to make another classic Super Mario Brothers. How do I know this? Oh, say the 18 year wait since Super Mario World? They are trying to say that they had to wait until the hardware was good enough to do multiplayer simultaneously. But there were multiplayer simultaneous plaformer side-scrollers on the NES (like Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers). The SNES could certainly handle that type of game as well as the N64 and Gamecube.

We learned from Iwata Asks interviews that Miyamoto was not heavily involved with NSMB DS. I find that surprising since it is a major Mario game. It is a sign he wasn’t interested if he wasn’t that involved in NSMB DS.

When asked by a journalist in a special interview at E3 2007 or 2008 whether there would be another game like NSMB and saying how “Everyone wants another one!”, Miyamoto responded that the sales guys at Nintendo were wanting another one. I find that interesting. Miyamoto did not say that Miyamoto wanted another one. He did not say the Nintendo developers wanted another one. It was the sales guys who were demanding one.

I thought Nintendo’s mission statement was about bringing gaming to the masses. I thought Iwata said in his “Heart of a Gamer” speech that developers should not make games for themselves. Yet, when I look at Nintendo’s games on their Core Market side, they all seem games that the developers want to do that are not what the market necessarily wants. Does the Wii need yet another Metroid game especially one that is saturated with cutscenes with a Manga storyline? Does Super Mario Galaxy, which did not sell hardware, need a sequel? Hell, does Wii Music need a sequel?

Zelda is a microcosm of what is going on at Nintendo. When I see Spirit Tracks of Zelda with the train, I think, “Nintendo’s developers are out of control.” This is why I interpret the 2010 release date for Zelda Wii, as well as Iwata telling the triumvirate of developers who made Mario 5 that they WERE going to keep making this type of game, that Iwata is reasserting control and cracking that president whip.

I do know there is a new 3d Mario game that has been worked on for the DS. Why is it being made? It is because that is what Nintendo developers want to do.

The big problem facing Nintendo, aside from that catastrophic User Generated Content debacle that destroyed Wii’s momentum, is their Core Market games. The Expanded Market games are great and are working fine. Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit, and so on are all doing their jobs fantastically. Aside from the exception of ‘bridge’ game Mario Kart Wii, the core games are not doing their job. The latest Zelda games are not making Zelda more popular and are not bringing the game to the masses. Mario Galaxy did not do the job Miyamoto expressed it to do to sell like 2d Mario especially in Japan. Smash Brothers doesn’t seem more popular after Brawl. Rather, it appears like the opposite has occurred. Animal Crossing has gone downhill. I cannot imagine Other M or Galaxy 2 breaking this trend.

Mario 5 did hit the spot and performed as Nintendo’s core games used to perform. Much is being written as to why Mario 5 is doing the job while 3d Marios did not, but let us use a larger picture. Why did Mario 5 do the job where all of Nintendo’s Core Games did not?

I believe Nintendo’s Core Games have collapsed. What we are getting instead of Core Games are Fanboy Games. I have wondered why I wanted to like Smash Brothers yet the game kept repelling me. The game reeks ‘fanboyism’ as if the game was made for fans and not for anyone else.

Nintendo’s Core Games have gotten a nasty stigma which they did not always have. I used to think this stigma was the product of other console companies’ marketing departments. But now I sense that the stigma is that Nintendo’s Core Games are being held hostage by fans. I have received hate mail from all three of the pillars that make up Nintendo’s core games: Metroid, Mario, and Zelda. And my complaints was never what these games should do, but how they were going away from what originally made them popular in the first place (which will cause only further decline). Like with Metroid: Other M, I said that we don’t play Metroid to watch cutscenes or to explore the character of Samus Aran. In fact, most people didn’t even know Samus Aran’s gender or remotely care about her “character”. With Mario, I expressed how I didn’t see why Nintendo kept wanting to make more and more 3d Mario when it shows, time and time again, that it doesn’t sell the hardware (I was referring to sequels to 3d Mario such as Galaxy 2 and the upcoming new 3d Mario on the DS) yet I have to wait twenty years for 2d Mario. Ever since Mario 5 exploded in the market, I stopped getting those emails. And now with Zelda, when I say that Zelda should return to its style of action and arcade roots, I am not saying Zelda should become not Zelda. It is clearly what Zelda used to be. And it is what made the series popular in the first place. But ever since Spirit Tracks came out, I stopped getting those emails too.

I think Nintendo developers who work on these games are ‘fanboys’ of the series as well. Nintendo is very good at enforcing “customer experience” for their games and not “fun for the developers”. So I imagine Nintendo developers thinking it is torture to make games like Wii Sports or Wii Fit so they “let themselves go” and “do what they want” when it comes to the Core side of the games. Alas for them, they are not going to do what they want on the Core Side as well. But a game developer is a JOB. In what JOBS are there where the employee does what he wants to do? Bus drivers don’t choose which bus route they want to take. Pilots don’t get to decide which airports they wish to land. Cooks don’t get to decide to make only the foods they want to eat. So why is this any different for the game developer?

So if you have read this far, you should sense that Nintendo developers may have been ‘out of control’ on the Core Side. And Nintendo, a Japanese company, is very strict and is good at whipping their employees that the ‘customer experience’ is what matters. If Nintendo had these problems, just imagine how bad it is in other companies like Sega.

Let me give you another example. The creator of Mega Man (forgot his name) is making Mega Man 10. Why? Capcom revealed that Mega Man 10 was being made due to creative interest within the company, not from any interest of its sales as Mega Man 9 didn’t perform too well (it performed well at first but then dropped off). Is there any reason for Mega Man 10 not to use a color palette that is as sophisticated as a 16-bit console at least?

The only possible answer is that the developers are making the game for themselves. I believe the Mega Man creator, who believes gaming is finished in Japan and has said so, is just re-living his glory days for one last time. It is about HIM. It is not about Mega Man. It is not about the Mega Man fan. It is not about new consumers. It is all about HIM. Mega Man fans love Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3. He doesn’t like Mega Man 3 (probably because he wasn’t a part of it). Since his glory days was with Mega Man 1 and 2, Mega Man 9 and 10 must be games where he can make-believe he is back in his glory days. Mega Man 9 and 10 are stuck, in a bizarre time warp, between Mega Man 1 and 2 .

And Mega Man 9 was nothing, at all, like Mega Man 2 or even 1. Mega Man games are not Ghosts and Goblins type experiences where the player frustratingly has “instant deaths” again and again. But this game is getting made because the Mega Man creator is a senior top dog at the company.

In the story about Sega you linked, Sega says Nintendo should make ‘mature’ games. Here is what is really being said:

Sega doesn’t want to make Expanded Audience games. Sega developers only wish to make the games they want to make, to publish the games they want to play, and these are all ‘mature games’. This ‘audience’ is not perceived to be on the Wii. So Sega is telling Nintendo to make these ‘mature games’ to create an audience so Sega can make the games they want.

Imagine if all I wanted to do was make games about kangaroos. There is no kangeroo game audience on the Wii. So I demand Nintendo make a game about kangaroos so that audience will be there. Then, I will be able to make the games I want to make.

I think game developers are, in general, completely out of control. Sure, there is much blame to be put on publishers and all. But look at the independent developers. Why are the games they are making so freakishly quirky and un-mass market as possible?

In other entertainment mediums, most people never succeed at their dream because they think it is about entertaining themselves. Writers have to write things people want to buy, not things the author wants to read. Musicians have to play things people want to pay to listen to, not things the musicians themselves want to listen.

The true lesson of PONG is that Nolan Bushnell did not want to make it. He wanted to sell Space War because that is what he enjoyed playing when he was in college. Somehow, Bushnell was either smart enough (or desperate enough) to go with what resonated with customers instead of what resonated with Bushnell. It is that moment, of PONG selling while Space War did not, is when the video game market truly began. Before that time, all video games were made for the inventor’s amusement.

We are seeing a reverse which is declining the “Game Industry” as a whole. Instead of making PONG, they want to make Space War. Instead of making Wii Sports Tennis, they want to make Space Marine games.

Here is another insight as to why companies like Sega do not make what is clearly obvious: another 2d Sonic. Games, in my life, are a release and enjoyment. I don’t play games as much which is why I can write on this website frequently. But I also tinker on the development side of games too. Programming is very relaxing to me. It is fun to make the computer do things you want it to do.

I have noticed that developers tend to fall in love with their own creations. It is more than just “All our babies are beautiful” syndrome. The problem is this:

In the above picture, it is about the story of a man carving a statue of a woman and falling in love with it. The gods turned the statue, Galatea, into flesh and blood. Poets enjoy this story and allude to it all the time as the story can be used as a metaphor for many Human scenarios.

The purpose of a game is to perform the job a game is supposed to do. But I get the creepy sense that many developers get romanticized by their own game. They literally become entranced by it. They want to touch it. They want to explore it. They want to enter it. They want to walk around in it.

And this is what it is about. Ever since gaming switched to 3d in terms of how games are programmed and made, developers do not like looking at their ‘baby’ from one angle. Just as parents annoyingly take pictures of their kid from all sorts of angles, the developer insists the game become “3d”. Then the developer can walk around his creation and say, “How beautiful!”.They want to admire their creation from every angle. The thought of the game just being ‘2d’ makes them cringe.

Add on the fact that publishers think 2d games “aren’t impressive” and “won’t sell anyway” and first class 2d games become dead. All we get stuck with are experimental games like LittleBigPlanet or downloadable games that are poor at best.

Even Miyamoto had to be dragged over to make a new 2d Mario game. If it wasn’t for his quest to make a full multiplayer Mario game, Miyamoto likely would have had zero passion for the project.

Do developers of our fabled “Game Industry” want to make games for the Expanded Audience (of which I am a member)? No. They scream and pout like children when making a game that is not “hardcore”. In fact, they give those type of games to the second tier or third tier teams. They don’t want to make those games.

And it is the same way with 2d type games. They do not want to make them. Note all the anger at Mario5 coming from all parts of the “Industry”. Why are they so angry at this game? And how in the world did Mario 5 become a “casual game”? Mario 5 is closer to that Platonic ideal of a game than anything else.

I believe much of the ‘developer rage’ at the Wii and its success is entirely related to dawning reality that game developers are not going to forever make games for themselves and that the games game developers want to play are not the same that the masses want to play.

When Star Wars came out in the 70s, the movie makers said that it ruined the movies. In the 70s, movie makers were making movies for themselves which resulted in many people not going to the movies anymore. But movies like Star Wars and Jaws made the movies fun again.

The book industry is currently not healthy because of the problem that publishers and writers want to make the books they want to make. They do not want to make what people want to read.

The reason why Sega won’t make a 2d Sonic is the same reason why game companies stopped making games for the masses. They believe they are “creative geniuses” and they see making a game like Wii Sports or even Mario 5 as a ‘waste’ of their incredible “creative genius”.