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Six Months of Blockbusters

by Rick Powers - May 28, 2002, 12:20 pm EDT

After a year of waiting, Nintendo fans are finally getting everything they ever wanted. Rick explores why this may not necessarily be a good thing …

2002 looks to be a gamer’s dream. Two Mario games, two Zelda games, two Metroid games. Phantasy Star Online, Star Fox Adventures, Wave Bird, Eternal Darkness … finally the game drought is over. In fact, Nintendo made perfectly clear that their purpose behind this E3 was to emphasize all the great titles coming out this year. No matter what a fan might want from Nintendo, they’re going to get it this year. But what about the die-hard fans, the fans that love everything Nintendo? The fans that love Metroid, and Zelda, and Mario … as well as games like Animal Crossing, Eternal Darkness. The ones that want multi-player fun like Mario Party 4 and PSO? All these great games aren’t free, you know …

It used to be that Nintendo fans could count on 4-6 great titles in a year, enough to keep us busy, but enough to amortize the cost over an entire year’s worth of gaming (plus the odd Christmas present or two). Those of us with extra cash could pick up a couple of stellar third-party titles. This year alone, there looks to be more than DOUBLE that amount coming in a mere six months, not including third-party exclusives. For a company that has always lauded “Quality over Quantity”, and has been known to delay games purely so they don’t launch against other marquee titles, everyone can see this as a fundamental change in the way Nintendo does business.

Folks on the show floor accused Nintendo of carpet bombing this year with releases, wondering what Nintendo could be holding onto for 2003. Sure, we can expect Mario Kart and some of the other Mario Sports series games, and rumors of several games abound, but in reality, even Nintendo won’t discuss next year. Why?

It’s simple. Nintendo is up against two strong competitors this year. It’s the lower-cost console, and with that lower cost can come the perception that it’s the inferior machine. Nintendo is getting as many jaw-droppers on shelves as possible in order to ensure that Nintendo is seen as the “price leader” and not the bargain basement game company. Perhaps this shift in philosophy is coming from Iwata-san, Nintendo’s new president. Changes in top brass don’t happen overnight, and sometimes take up to a year. In fact, it seems like all these changes within Nintendo started about a year ago. Square coming back. Nintendo aggressively pricing its console. This slew of marquee titles.

Another thing Nintendo seems to have changed is its stance that gamers don’t necessarily KNOW what’s best for them. Gamers always clamor for more, more, more … without stopping to think of how they’re going to afford them all. Nintendo was always careful to not position marquee titles against each other for just this reason. But this year, they’re releasing nothing BUT highly anticipated games! It isn’t just a cost issue … we have to find time to PLAY all of these outstanding works. So what is going through Nintendo’s mind?

It’s actually fairly simple. Nintendo realizes that with the $100 price cuts on the PS2 and Xbox consoles, and the compelling software already released, it’s more tempting than ever to own multiple machines. Nintendo wants people to spend that money with them, and is trying to show that for $250 you can have five of Nintendo’s headliners, as opposed to a competing console and ONE game. Or perhaps Nintendo is trying to show PS2 owners that rather than spending $250 on an Xbox, they can get a GameCube and a couple of games. It’s a sound theory, but one that assumes that more households are considering going multi-platform. Perhaps Nintendo has been doing some research into it? Several folks went into E3 expecting to get an Xbox after the show, and are now wondering how they’ll have time to play with it with all the great software coming from Nintendo.

Regardless, of Nintendo’s reasoning, it’s going to be an expensive second half of the year, so start saving up now. And if you want to get a second or third console … God have mercy on your wallet.

*Based on the assumption that Zelda comes by Christmas as previously planned.

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