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The Prince Phillip of gaming has been running his mouth off again. God bless him.
So. According to Nintendo's grand wizard Hiroshi Yamauchi, the videogame industry is in something of a slump at the moment. Sounds fair enough. Why is this, pray tell? They didn't listen to his sage words on why people buy and play games. He told them that people don't want flashy graphics and shoddy gameplay, they want games that are fun. Developers have got so caught up in expensive show-boating that their games are no longer entertaining, and the public is beginning to realise this. If only they'd listened...
Sour grapes, anyone?
To borrow momentarily from The Jam, "the public wants what the public gets". Basic lesson in capitalist theory, there. In the movie industry, Hollywood trumpets form over content with prodigious success, and so it is with gaming these days. Quality used to be enough to ensure eventual success, but with the proliferation of games on offer, effective marketing strategies are essential if your developers' hard work is ever to be seen and appreciated.
But enough of that. In his latest batch of acerbic and mostly accurate observations, Yamauchi also tentatively predicts the end of the videogame industry as we know it. Unthinkable? Well, not really. Any entertainment industry is subject to swings in public opinion, and the videogames industry will only have itself to blame if gaming disappears as a recognised pastime. How does he see this happening? As a by-product of a trend that many people are getting quite excited about at the moment: cross-platform titles. If all systems have the same games, the irritable raisin argues, there will be nothing to distinguish one system from another, much like TVs. However, Yamauchi sees TVs as an essential (and when did that happen?), whereas games machines are a luxury. Consequently, if the games aren't much fun, people will lose interest in the whole thing and play cribbage instead. Actually, that sounds alright...
Maybe the old man's losing the plot. He talks about leaving the company in the next few years, then apparently he plans to die soon after that. This from the man who doesn't look any different now than he did when Hitler was attempting to romp across Europe. What's slightly more worrying is this quote from an earlier series of statements: "Companies that are supported only in Japan and keep on releasing sevens and eights and nines won't make it." So, if you're constantly re-hashing your franchises and neglecting certain regions of the world (let's say Europe, just for fun) then you're on the way out, eh, Mr Yamauchi? Kids, the operative word here is "hypocrisy". He later claims that these franchises won't be re-hashed, but it's what the public wants to see. Why the warm, sticky welcome for Metroid, Mario, Zelda, Pokemon and Star Wars in the Gamecube technical demos, eh?
Still, despite such senile aberrations he's still one of the only industry higher-ups who understands what makes his (and other people's) games fun. And that is a very encouraging thought for the future.
So. According to Nintendo's grand wizard Hiroshi Yamauchi, the videogame industry is in something of a slump at the moment. Sounds fair enough. Why is this, pray tell? They didn't listen to his sage words on why people buy and play games. He told them that people don't want flashy graphics and shoddy gameplay, they want games that are fun. Developers have got so caught up in expensive show-boating that their games are no longer entertaining, and the public is beginning to realise this. If only they'd listened...
Sour grapes, anyone?
To borrow momentarily from The Jam, "the public wants what the public gets". Basic lesson in capitalist theory, there. In the movie industry, Hollywood trumpets form over content with prodigious success, and so it is with gaming these days. Quality used to be enough to ensure eventual success, but with the proliferation of games on offer, effective marketing strategies are essential if your developers' hard work is ever to be seen and appreciated.
But enough of that. In his latest batch of acerbic and mostly accurate observations, Yamauchi also tentatively predicts the end of the videogame industry as we know it. Unthinkable? Well, not really. Any entertainment industry is subject to swings in public opinion, and the videogames industry will only have itself to blame if gaming disappears as a recognised pastime. How does he see this happening? As a by-product of a trend that many people are getting quite excited about at the moment: cross-platform titles. If all systems have the same games, the irritable raisin argues, there will be nothing to distinguish one system from another, much like TVs. However, Yamauchi sees TVs as an essential (and when did that happen?), whereas games machines are a luxury. Consequently, if the games aren't much fun, people will lose interest in the whole thing and play cribbage instead. Actually, that sounds alright...
Maybe the old man's losing the plot. He talks about leaving the company in the next few years, then apparently he plans to die soon after that. This from the man who doesn't look any different now than he did when Hitler was attempting to romp across Europe. What's slightly more worrying is this quote from an earlier series of statements: "Companies that are supported only in Japan and keep on releasing sevens and eights and nines won't make it." So, if you're constantly re-hashing your franchises and neglecting certain regions of the world (let's say Europe, just for fun) then you're on the way out, eh, Mr Yamauchi? Kids, the operative word here is "hypocrisy". He later claims that these franchises won't be re-hashed, but it's what the public wants to see. Why the warm, sticky welcome for Metroid, Mario, Zelda, Pokemon and Star Wars in the Gamecube technical demos, eh?
Still, despite such senile aberrations he's still one of the only industry higher-ups who understands what makes his (and other people's) games fun. And that is a very encouraging thought for the future.
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The Prince Phillip of gaming has been running his mouth off again. God bless him.
So. According to Nintendo's grand wizard Hiroshi Yamauchi, the videogame industry is in something of a slump at the moment. Sounds fair enough. Why is this, pray tell? They didn't listen to his sage words on why people buy and play games. He told them that people don't want flashy graphics and shoddy gameplay, they want games that are fun. Developers have got so caught up in expensive show-boating that their games are no longer entertaining, and the public is beginning to realise this. If only they'd listened...
Sour grapes, anyone?
To borrow momentarily from The Jam, "the public wants what the public gets". Basic lesson in capitalist theory, there. In the movie industry, Hollywood trumpets form over content with prodigious success, and so it is with gaming these days. Quality used to be enough to ensure eventual success, but with the proliferation of games on offer, effective marketing strategies are essential if your developers' hard work is ever to be seen and appreciated.
But enough of that. In his latest batch of acerbic and mostly accurate observations, Yamauchi also tentatively predicts the end of the videogame industry as we know it. Unthinkable? Well, not really. Any entertainment industry is subject to swings in public opinion, and the videogames industry will only have itself to blame if gaming disappears as a recognised pastime. How does he see this happening? As a by-product of a trend that many people are getting quite excited about at the moment: cross-platform titles. If all systems have the same games, the irritable raisin argues, there will be nothing to distinguish one system from another, much like TVs. However, Yamauchi sees TVs as an essential (and when did that happen?), whereas games machines are a luxury. Consequently, if the games aren't much fun, people will lose interest in the whole thing and play cribbage instead. Actually, that sounds alright...
Maybe the old man's losing the plot. He talks about leaving the company in the next few years, then apparently he plans to die soon after that. This from the man who doesn't look any different now than he did when Hitler was attempting to romp across Europe. What's slightly more worrying is this quote from an earlier series of statements: "Companies that are supported only in Japan and keep on releasing sevens and eights and nines won't make it." So, if you're constantly re-hashing your franchises and neglecting certain regions of the world (let's say Europe, just for fun) then you're on the way out, eh, Mr Yamauchi? Kids, the operative word here is "hypocrisy". He later claims that these franchises won't be re-hashed, but it's what the public wants to see. Why the warm, sticky welcome for Metroid, Mario, Zelda, Pokemon and Star Wars in the Gamecube technical demos, eh?
Still, despite such senile aberrations he's still one of the only industry higher-ups who understands what makes his (and other people's) games fun. And that is a very encouraging thought for the future.
So. According to Nintendo's grand wizard Hiroshi Yamauchi, the videogame industry is in something of a slump at the moment. Sounds fair enough. Why is this, pray tell? They didn't listen to his sage words on why people buy and play games. He told them that people don't want flashy graphics and shoddy gameplay, they want games that are fun. Developers have got so caught up in expensive show-boating that their games are no longer entertaining, and the public is beginning to realise this. If only they'd listened...
Sour grapes, anyone?
To borrow momentarily from The Jam, "the public wants what the public gets". Basic lesson in capitalist theory, there. In the movie industry, Hollywood trumpets form over content with prodigious success, and so it is with gaming these days. Quality used to be enough to ensure eventual success, but with the proliferation of games on offer, effective marketing strategies are essential if your developers' hard work is ever to be seen and appreciated.
But enough of that. In his latest batch of acerbic and mostly accurate observations, Yamauchi also tentatively predicts the end of the videogame industry as we know it. Unthinkable? Well, not really. Any entertainment industry is subject to swings in public opinion, and the videogames industry will only have itself to blame if gaming disappears as a recognised pastime. How does he see this happening? As a by-product of a trend that many people are getting quite excited about at the moment: cross-platform titles. If all systems have the same games, the irritable raisin argues, there will be nothing to distinguish one system from another, much like TVs. However, Yamauchi sees TVs as an essential (and when did that happen?), whereas games machines are a luxury. Consequently, if the games aren't much fun, people will lose interest in the whole thing and play cribbage instead. Actually, that sounds alright...
Maybe the old man's losing the plot. He talks about leaving the company in the next few years, then apparently he plans to die soon after that. This from the man who doesn't look any different now than he did when Hitler was attempting to romp across Europe. What's slightly more worrying is this quote from an earlier series of statements: "Companies that are supported only in Japan and keep on releasing sevens and eights and nines won't make it." So, if you're constantly re-hashing your franchises and neglecting certain regions of the world (let's say Europe, just for fun) then you're on the way out, eh, Mr Yamauchi? Kids, the operative word here is "hypocrisy". He later claims that these franchises won't be re-hashed, but it's what the public wants to see. Why the warm, sticky welcome for Metroid, Mario, Zelda, Pokemon and Star Wars in the Gamecube technical demos, eh?
Still, despite such senile aberrations he's still one of the only industry higher-ups who understands what makes his (and other people's) games fun. And that is a very encouraging thought for the future.