[News] New Nintendo console "Project Cafe" due 2012

I'm not convinced there's enough of a market for 24 different HD Mario games to make money on an expensive Nintendo console.

Traditionally, console manufacturers lose money on selling consoles then make the money on software licences. Every report I've read shows that for each Wii sold, they've sold only a handfull of games. A ton of people bought the console but everyone plays Wii Sports for a week or so then never uses the thing again.

Also, whatever you hardcore Wii gamers say, the Wii is marketed as a kids' console or certainly a family console. Once you start asking a couple of hundred quid for something it stops being something parents buy for their kids and starts being something older folk like us buy for themselves. I'm not sure Nintendo know anything about selling stuff to 20-30 somethings and they've got a real uphill struggle to break Sony and Microsoft's deathgrip on that market.

I'm not going to write it off from the start but if it launches with a Mario game, three other games that feature Mario characters and some kids stuff and has anything like the retarded friend code crap for online interaction then I won't be buying one.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by sprouticus

25 years of astronomically high sales, universal acclaim, and endless imitators aren't enough to convince you?

Not really, no. Like Skills said, the Wii's biggest issue is software support. The Wii has a few great games but only a few and I don't think anyone would argue against that. It's one thing asking people £100 for a console with a quirky control system and a couple of really good games on it, it's something quite different to ask them for £300 and then only offer a couple of really good games on it, especially for me personally who doesn't enjoy Mario games or relate to the characters in any way. Mario games are hugely popular and sell hugely well but having only one franchise people are interested in isn't enough to support a console.

Skills, when I say traditionaly, I mean that pretty much since consoles were first launched with third party software support they've made little money at best on hardware sales and made up the money of software licensing. If Nintendo launch a niche console that costs a lot, they're never going to match the Wii's sales figures. Given that same negative feedback loop you mentioned yourself and given the pitiful amount of software per console sold on the Wii, developers are going to be reticent to develop for the new console and without people lining up to make games for it, they ain't going to make any money licensing software for it.

All I'm saying is that it's a bold move for Nintendo. On the face of what Omagnus posted, it look like Nintendo are looking to take on the 360 and PS3 directly, if not surplant them. They've not been the console of choice for "serious" gamers since the Playstation murdered the N64 and I wonder if they're capable of properly exploiting what for them is something of an alien market for them, that of older gamers, the Playstation generation if you will.

The Playstation was a massive success because Sony realised that selling stuff to 20 year olds was a better idea than selling it to parents buying stuff for their kids. The Wii was a huge success by selling stuff to parents buying stuff for their kids and didn't impact much on the lives of 20-somethings, other than everyone buying one to play Wii Sports when they were drunk. I will honestly be surprised if Nintendo manage to make something that appeals to the type of people who are going to spend £300 on a games console, given what they've been churning out since the late 90's.

This time next year, how many people will be looking spend money on a brand new console that plays a Mario game and how many will wanting to spend money on Gears of War 4, Call of Duty 25 and a Halo Prequel?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I'll admit I didn't read any of the background stuff, I was going entirely off what Omagnus posted, i.e. the implication this was going to be a rival for the Triple and Circlebox, rather than a straight Wii replacement.

That said, I think it'll have to have something else pretty groundbreaking about it to match the success of the Wii and I suspect they probably have something pretty groundbreaking that they're keeping close to their chests for the time being. It'll be interesting to see what that is.

Sprout, I'm never going to suggest that all those Nintendo franchises are anything other than hugely popular and successful but certainly locally and in my experience, nobody plays any of them. Maybe it's a UK thing, maybe it's a Brighton thing or maybe it's a just my mates thing but literally everyone I know owns a Wii and either a PS3 or a 360. I know one guy who has one Zelda, Mario and Metroid game and everyone else owns Wii Sports and maybe Just Dance or Raving Rabbids. Kirby games never get released over here and I've never heard of anyone who bought Donkey Kong on the Wii. On the flip side, everyone owns a string of games on the other consoles including near universal ownership of a CoD game, a Halo game, Gran Turismo, PGR or Forza, Oblivion, Fallout and a Guitar Hero game then multiple other titles.

Like I say, it might just be my circle of friends and across the rest of the UK, Wii games are flying off the shelves but that every game shop I go into has half the shop PS3, half 360 and a tiny Wii section crammed in the corner would suggest otherwise.

I'm interested to see what this new console will bring to the table but if it's just the same five games over again with a new gimic, I won't be spending any money on one, that's all I'm saying.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.