Five Things That Need To Be Done in 2008

[CantGetAWii]

To be fair, Nintendo had a pretty easy 2007. It rode the crest of an unstoppable wave, pushed on by the momentum of a mammoth marketing campaign that brought gaming to our mums and dads. 2008, however, could be a different story...

From the online modes to the battery life right through to the much-hated Friend Codes, Nintendo has a long way to go before making Wii as intuitive and accessible as its marketing campaigns suggest. For a start our parents wouldn't have a clue, but maybe that's just ours.

Because we love Wii, we'd thought we'd give Nintendo a little push in the right direction and suggest five things that need to be done in 2008.

Friend's Codes

The debate is over, Nintendo. The Friend's Codes need to go, or at least be revamped. Giving someone a twelve digit number is laborious. Giving them an email address isn't.

Nintendo's reasoning all along has been the safety of children and that's admirable. But aside from making it almost impossible to share your Friend's Code with anyone, we fail to see how it protects children more than say, assigning an email address to each console.

In addition, the restrictions on adding friends need to be lifted. It shouldn't take two people, each with each others Friend's Code, to link two Wii's together. If my friend inputs my Friend's Code, I should be able to accept or decline his friendship over WFC. I shouldn't need to add his Friend's Code in to get it all to work.

Rechargeable Wii Remotes

An official rechargeable battery for Wii Remotes needs to be in the offering in 2008. Last year, Nintendo forced us to increase our carbon footprints by adding to landfills and swipe AA batteries from friends when they weren't looking. Third-parties released alternative solutions that, unfortunately, had a tendency to heat up, forcing owners to either tempt fate with dodgy unofficial peripherals or hand over a fiver every time they entered a newsagent.

Buying disposable batteries feels a bit dirty, in the same way that still smoking after the ban does. You can almost feel the cashier eyeing you with contempt, as if you plan to infect his precious planet with your environmentally unfriendly gaming.

No wonder Greenpeace isn't happy with Nintendo. As much as we hate to veer towards territory even further left than The Guardian, it's time for Nintendo to go green, and save our wallets in the process.

DS Connectivity

Remember 2003's E3? When Sony was talking about the PSP and Microsoft was talking Halo 2 and the future was all about digital entertainment solutions? Remember Nintendo talking about connecting a GameBoy Advance to a GameCube via a cable?

Nintendo must have spent millions experimenting with connectivity, and the obsession with the subject baffled us a little. But with the coming of wireless broadband, Nintendo's intuition about its importance seemed right on the money.

But this makes it doubly frustrating that Nintendo appears to be shying away from the idea. Sure, Iwata recently talked about moving beyond gaming with the DS and experiments have taken place with Baseball matches in Seattle, but it all seems like the whimsical experimenting of the R&D department, rather than real progress.

DS connectivity and the mass-market penetration of the Wii provide Nintendo with the unique opportunity to change the way portable devices work. A Nintendo DS game card can only store up to 256MB, which is nothing in terms of a broadband download.

Using WFC, the option to buy full DS games needs to be implemented this year. With a digital distribution method, prices for DS games could come down to something that approaches reasonable. £30 for a portable game is ridiculous in this day and age, especially when some Wii titles are going on sale at £20.

More people would be able to purchase titles on the spur of the moment, so an impromptu train journey would never need to be as boring again.

Of course, downloadable games require storage space, and the Wii has very little at the moment. Speaking of which...

Wii External Hard Drive

Nintendo has some very ambitious plans for 2008. Between beefing up the Virtual Console, introducing the Wii Ware channel and delivering DS Demos wirelessly, a wealth of content will soon be pumped down your broadband pipe straight into your Wii.

Where it will go once it arrives is a matter of contention, though. The Wii currently offers less than 300MB of practical onboard storage - the equivalent of a few Xbox Live Arcade titles.

Throughout history, Nintendo has made a serious of tactical blunders when it comes to incorporating new technology into its systems. It stuck to cartridges when Sony moved on to CDs. It dispensed with DVD playback when everyone else included it as a given.

Nintendo has blazed its own path through this generation, but even a trend setter needs to acknowledge there are certain universal truths to be followed when making a console. It needs a controller to play games. It should somehow connect to the internet. It requires a power button to switch it on.

Storage is fundamental before you offer a downloadable service of any kind. If we are to believe Nintendo when it says there are no plans to release an external hard drive, these plans need to be reversed.

Third-Party Support

Support for third party developers has always brought with is different issues but for Nintendo it's been a curse.

Being both the hardware manufacture and the biggest publisher of games on its systems, Nintendo has had to fight the notion that publishing third party games on a Nintendo system is bad business sense.


Currently, Nintendo is in a unique position. It's the primary videogame console manufacturer, but developers are hesitant to develop for it. Instead, they prefer to work on the known quantities of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Third parties need more than technical support and development advice from Nintendo. In order to feel confident about releasing titles on Wii, Nintendo has to provide marketing and advertising help, working with developers to promote titles other than the big three - Mario, Zelda, Samus - on the Wii.

Gotta say I agree with the things, especially the Hard Drive.
Thats a must if Nintendo wants us playing and buying their games.

Source:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=179085

 

[Xaegoth]

Agree with all points, except the rechargeable batteries. I am perfectly happy with my Nyko ones.

Especially agree with the increased storage. They really just need to make it so you can play VC content off SD cards and that would satisfy me though.

 

[Marty]

I agree completely although I don't like the idea of downloading full DS games for some reasons, but it would be nice to be able to download demos and updates for games. But the external hard drive is needed for sure.. I've only got a couple of VC games and I'm running out of space

 

[SSJJason]

actully theres six:
More shooting games!
I mean the wii lacks when it comes to shooting games
Ok theres seven:
More assicores

 

[The L.S]

I pretty much agree, though I don't see why I need to Download DS games... Its really not that hard to pick up a game, as most 'gamers' don't have serious impromptu trips.

And I use the rechargeable batteries you can for for 10$, so I don't care about that either. Because of the cheapness of the said batteries, there isn't a point to buy a 30$ system.

 

[wezeles]

Hmm friends codes probably here to stay i would bet...
and it doesnt bother me having a 12 digit code,but having a different code or name for every online game though... thats just stupid... the code should be universal.. i shouldnt have to keep adding the same people for every game...

It would be cool to See a rechargeable battery from nintendo... but its not going to make or break it... or barely effect it even with all the 3rd party support for them already

The downloadable DS games i doubt aswell... is there enough spare memory in a DS to hold a game?... and if not will nintendo give out blank memory "game" cards to download these games on? we know you will be able to download temp games to the DS but a permanent downloads?...
I'm not sure that will happen this generation... they might dabble with it later on in the life maybe just before a new portibal comes out or just before a new gen console comes out...
Next gen i expect alot of downloadable stuff because of the recent advancements... maybe even the majority of games being purchased online and downloaded instead...

Hard drive for sure would be awsome and needed for the big fans with alot of content to store, not to mention 3rd party game support where online downloads are part of the fun...

And for sure they need to change the way they work with and Treat the 3rd partys... nintendo will always stay alive with there titles but if they want to stay ontop... they need 3rd partys

 

[RedProdigy]

1)Wishful thinking. Nintendo is never going to abandon FCs so get over it. It doesn't NEED to do it because I know you guys will just go online even while cursing under your breaths.

2)Just go buy some rechargeable batteries if you're so concerned about your "carbon footprint".

3)Nintendo's already released a channel in Japan where you can download videos and demos for DS games. However, downloading DS games is wishful thinking simply because the DS isn't capable of holding games. The only way I can see that work is if Nintendo releases memory packs for DS games that you insert in DS/GBA slot but it's pretty much just like going out and buying a DS game.

4)Agreed

5)Don't agree. Nintendo shouldn't have to babysit 3rd parties to get their games. Publishers should be responsible for themselves and themselves only. If a 3rd party doesn't advertise, then it's their own damn fault. I mean, might as well just make Nintendo publish all of the Wii games if it "needs" to help others do their damn job.

 

[261311]

Agree with all points, except the rechargeable batteries. I am perfectly happy with my Nyko ones.

Especially agree with the increased storage. They really just need to make it so you can play VC content off SD cards and that would satisfy me though.

And I'll agree with your post :yesnod:
Another thing I'd like to see in 08' is more VC points cards (optional increments, such as 500, 800, 1000, etc.) and possibly more for a cheaper price as well.

And of course more VC games. N64 is seriously lagging behind there.

 

[WiitnessID]

Agree with out even reading it.... O0ps Sorry the third party thing is silly... Sony and MS don't do it even though production cost more on those platforms! Now if they approach nintendo with a cool game then I'm sure they would help. Also too once the new demo or what ever channel comes out you won't need tv ads since every one will see the ads and demos...

Yet these would all be cool extras ya know... My 2gig sd card is doing just fine.

now a wireless sd card would be sweet since you could just get stuff off your PC then!

 

[T3kNi9e]

The Irony of this topic

 

[Byuakuya]

I completely agree, especially with the change to the Friend Code System. It was ok to start with, but now it is just getting tedious.

 

[sarasota]

Good post, I agree with pretty much all of your points.
I really hate to jump on the anti-friend codes bandwagon, but this is a major point........as much of a Ninty fanboy I am, this is rediculous, and has got to stop. Hard drive is pretty much a "has to happen" thing, and I'm sure that it will, I think we're all gonna be happy with '08 once the year ends. We've got some good games coming up, and I'm still happy with all the games I already have , so

 

[lenitao3]

i agree with the 1st post....rechargable wii remotes are already available and cheap as well...

wii needs a hard drive as well.......if not a hard drive.....then a media streaming channel, which requires no hard drive or space......but i think many new features will be announced for wii in 2008....Nintendo can do everything with their "ideas".....

 

[Icandy]

As far as the remote and battery consumption goes...I think they are talking about rechargeable remotes that charge through the system itself; like the PS3 has. I would dearly love that! I would also like a way to turn the remote off, even if the system is still on, so I'm not wearing down my batteries, or charge, while I go and answer the phone. Right now if I push the power button on the remote, it shuts the system down and not just the remote.

The hard drive thing is a given. They've got to do something and soon.

The friend's code thing never made much sense to me. It's tedious and I don't see how it protects anyone; if that was the idea. I think that needs to go.

 

[samXcor3]

[sarcasm]Ummm, somebody tell this guy it's FRIEND codes, not FRIEND'S codes. I refuse to read until this insulting correction is made! [/sarcasm]