Existing Visibly Invisible
Remember when you used to be able to play a game simply by inserting your Super Mario Bros. game cartridge into your NES console and turning on the television?
Today we have to warm up our magical surround-sound systems, connect ourselves to the internet, and once the game is on, we press start and have to sit through a 10-minute movie.
Video games are evolving rapidly. Games are continually being made bigger and arguably better.
If a developer sets out to make a game with two paddles that hit a ball monotonously back and forth, Pong is about as perfect as it gets.
If a developer were to make a sequel to Pong, they would generally enhance its graphics and sound, and add more gameplay features such as multiplayer or other various modes.
The point is, sometimes the only way to grow is to make things more complicated.
Just look at humans. We begin as a single cell. Once fertilized, the cell splits and creates more and more cells. Pretty soon we have arms, and eyes, and nipples. Ah yes, nipples.
Why stay a single cell, invisible to the eyes of the world, when you can be so much more?
Is Nintendo making a mistake by choosing to be a single cell in the video game industry when it could easily be so much more?
Growing Old
What is it about growing old that makes you become cynical? Is it that you're able to reflect on a larger number of experiences - both positive and negative?
The more and more games we play, the higher our expectations are raised.
If the original 2D Super Mario Bros. was released brand new today, people would roll their eyes. Being able to compare it to the likes of Grand Theft Auto and Metroid Prime, a two-dimensional Super Mario Bros. would receive recognition for being nothing more than the most simple and low budget game released in 2004.
Video games have grown up.
Building blocks may have suited your tastes perfectly well when you were a toddler. Today, the stimulus you require is likely more sophisticated.
We require subjects and gameplay that push an ever bloated envelope.
"We can't be optimistic about the game market. No matter what great product you come up with, people get bored. I feel like a chef cooking for a king who's full."
- Satoru Iwata
president of Nintendo Co. Ltd., June 7, 2002
I see these commercials on television every 20 minutes for RockStar's Manhunt and Midway's The Suffering. Video games have practically reached Hollywood status, where cheap thrills or some element of controversy are required in a product to be successful.
Fantastic explosions and exposed breasts will give you headlines - meanwhile an artistic simplicity is destined to be appreciated by only a few. People are content to decide a purchase based on a movie license or pretty graphics.
Games are becoming more and more mainstream. In just the past couple years, we've seen Hollywood actors and musicians lending their voice and faces to appear in video games. From David Duchovny to Snoop Dogg to Christopher Walken, the list will only continue to grow.
It's scary to look at the things the mainstream finds appealing - from Britney Spears to American Idol. As this mainstreamization continues to infect the gaming-industry, there are those of us who fear for the future of the games that we once knew.
Sex & Violence
Everyone worries about the effects of all this on the children. Hello? They're the ones who can adapt best. It's us gray-haired folk who will and are having trouble adjusting.
We are the visual generation - internet and television.
Once upon a time, many of us gamers had to have an imagination to envision breasts. Now we type in "booby" into Google and receive 371,000 pages of boobyliciousness.
Where the hell did the fun of imagination go? When did we begin to depend on others to expand our minds?
And what happens to a company such as Nintendo, whose values are the direct opposite of those being supported by the mainstream? Using games artistically, whether through 2D games on the GBA, connectivity between its consoles or even the dual-screened Nintendo DS. Nowadays, sex and violence sells and Nintendo has chosen to support neither.
Nintendo has forgone the money train of sex, violence and flash for something far more niche.
An Evolving Audience
"People are tired of games that are complicated and full of graphics but offer little else. We're proposing an antithesis."
- Satoru Iwata
Nintendo's supposed antithesis is to create software and hardware that appeals to an as yet uncatered audience.
Shigeru Miyamoto says it's not all about competition. He says the industry should be looking at who is offering a unique experience and who can create a new userbase for the video game market.
"We all need to encourage people who are currently non-gamers to start playing. If all we do is talk about a battle between the three consoles, and which one is doing better, that will do nothing for the games industry as a whole."
- Shigeru Miyamoto
And within this idea, graphics don't mean a thing. Nintendo points to the Game Boy Advance as proof of this. In usual Nintendo fare, Nintendo says "the games are where it's at."
"We're reaching the limits of how far we can appeal to consumers by boosting the machine's performance or providing more compelling graphics and sound. For the past few years we've been looking for new ways to surprise people, new ways for them to have fun."
- Satoru Iwata
investor meeting, June 10, 2002
Nintendo Calls it "Quits"
Nintendo removed itself from the "console war" before it even started. Unfortunately, by pursuing such a plan, some say Nintendo limits itself to a small audience and also alienates fans who grew up with a company that had aspirations of being the video game industry.
"It's not truly a competition. I know that the media looks at the numbers and how things are selling and the competition aspect of the industry. But to me creativity isn't really a competition -- it's more about a competition with yourself to see what kind of creative things you can come up with. And you may end up producing things that seem like they're in competition with other products, but really you're just trying to challenge yourself and I think that's what this is all about.
- Shigeru Miyamoto
March 1, 2002
Many feel Nintendo has become too complacent.
Hiroshi Yamauchi, Minoru Arakawa, Peter Main and others at the company used to have such a grand vision for Nintendo's future - to be the center of the living room.
"We learned our lesson from Atari. We are able to understand very clearly why Atari failed. No toy company ever became a truly big and great company by remaining a toy company. We have much more ambition than that. As the lines that limited video-game companies in the past disappear, Nintendo will play a larger role in the world."
- Hiroshi Yamauchi
former president, Nintendo Co., Ltd.
But now, the industry is splitting into two paths - one that embraces the past of traditional "video games" and another that hopes to meld Hollywood and interactive entertainment into one.
It's becoming clear the second path is becoming more prosperous and perhaps soulless. Unfortunately, at the moment, the future of Nintendo's path remains unknown.
"It's really our job to essentially bring surprise and excitement to the player and to do that we have to try and show them things that they have never seen before. So people have always asked us, aren't you worried that Microsoft is coming to the game industry? But the fact of the matter is that because we are competing on such a different level we have never once been concerned about it at all."
- Satoru Iwata
president, Nintendo Co., Ltd.
Where does this leave Nintendo in the year 2004? Although it is visibly invisible to so many, there is room in this industry for the rumble paks, WaveBirds, dual-screens, and even the connectivity. In fact, whether it's yet realized or not, this industry's future depends upon it.
Whether it's with the upcoming portable Evolution or the console Revolution, Nintendo will continue to thrive and continue to exist. And at the very least, you can expect some asses will be kicked and some names taken along the road ahead.