Switch Headphone Jack

[Shane]

Well the original argument was grahamf said that Nintendo devices were left field and were immediate hits when they got into people's hands. And you'd REALLY have to stretch the imagination to say the Wii U was an immediate hit. The fact is, half of Nintendo's unconventional consoles failed, the other half didn't.

I debated because I got the feeling he was going to use these theories of his to yet again say that people shouldn't disagree with Nintendo because "Nintendo knows better than them". At least, that's where I assumed things were going.

 

[grahamf]

Well let's see. Armchair advisor with no investment in or inside knowledge of the company actual vs an entire company with hands on experience in the industry, connections with parts suppliers, a full marketing team, fully certified engineers and designers, accounting teams/requirements, plus at least a couple people whose full time jobs are to think up new and awesome ideas for the company? I'm going to go with the latter.

You are one person. Nintendo is an entire company, and one notorious for playing it's cards close to it's chest. While it is somewhat possible anticipate it's intentions and limits based on it's prior actions, you make it sound like you honestly think Nintendo is a lemming company that is incapable of learning from what doesn't work. Just because your vision of the future is based on what's available now doesn't mean that's what Nintendo sees.

Let me ask you this: What will the next Xbox or Playstation console be after the Scorpio or the Neo, and why should I buy it? If the Scorpio does fancy smanchy 4k gaming as it's logical evolution, then what's the logical evolution after that? 16k gaming? Who the fuck cares about that, or is even going to notice? Is it going to focus on VR instead, with it's own problems and concerns?

We can't precisely know what a company is going to do next. A solution we as an outsider deem logical the company may find serious issues that are not worthwhile to resolve - and they have little need to scurry over to our message board and explain those problems. We can anticipate what things the company is considering based on their history and current market conditions, but we cannot convince ourselves that we somehow coordinate the company and that the company will comply with our predictions.


I have said that Nintendo repeatedly makes devices that were hits. My intention was not to say that every single Nintendo console ever has been a bestseller - but instead that quite often people (including tech journalists) will outright say such and such is DOA when they only have partial information, but once they actually have a chance to play with it they find that they end up having a much more positive view of the game or console.

 

[Shane]

Right, well here is my problem. Your statements are an Outlook that are an opinion. Rather, in order to defeat this argument, I don't have to prove that Nintendo is or isn't so and so. I just have to defeat your one, simple outlook.

We have to be really careful with outlooks because, although they may have information behind them, they can oftentimes be wrong. For example, Creationism has a whole Bible that pretty much supports it, and evolution has scientific facts and scientists backing it up. One of these outlooks, though they both contain great information, is wrong.

And if something as big as that can screw experts and armchair people up, why can't the same be said of current market trends?

So should we keep an open mind and find the truth or post our opinions, or should we rely on what grahamf, an armchair philosopher, thinks?

 

[grahamf]

Wat

 

[Segata]

Right, well here is my problem. Your statements are an Outlook that are an opinion. Rather, in order to defeat this argument, I don't have to prove that Nintendo is or isn't so and so. I just have to defeat your one, simple outlook.

We have to be really careful with outlooks because, although they may have information behind them, they can oftentimes be wrong. For example, Creationism has a whole Bible that pretty much supports it, and evolution has scientific facts and scientists backing it up. One of these outlooks, though they both contain great information, is wrong.

And if something as big as that can screw experts and armchair people up, why can't the same be said of current market trends?

So should we keep an open mind and find the truth or post our opinions, or should we rely on what grahamf, an armchair philosopher, thinks?

 

[Shane]

I said that "no conclusion is guaranteed to be true", and accused grahamf of Hyperbole.

 

[GunGunW]

Analog sticks were new at the time, same with 3D rendering, motion controls, analog triggers, dual screens, etc. Pretty much all the systems have brought something new to the table.

And if anything, Nintendo is following a form of meh/awesome tick-tock schedule, and the Switch is due to be an awesome tock.

N64: Awesome
Gamecube: meh
Wii: Awesome
Wii U: meh
Switch: Awesome

What exactly did The GameCube do that was "innovative" or even something new to the table? Analog triggers? The Xbox launched around the same time and had them. The Dreamcast had them too. Not to mention what do you mean by "awesome" exactly? Quality? I thought the GameCube was awesome not meh. Sales? The Nintendo 64 wasn't exactly a top tier seller either. Sure, the Wii sold like hot cakes but outside of Nintendo's first party line up how many games really sold on the console? Third party games were vastly more popular on Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/PC.

 

[Segata]

^ Saturn had analog. GCN was the only system that did nothing new. They thought the satilite layout would become the new standard of controllers for the next decade...yeah..

 

[-Ty_]

What exactly did The GameCube do that was "innovative" or even something new to the table?

• Dual screen gaming with GameBoy Advance (4 players supported or 8 with LAN)
• Super fast load times (especially for discs)
• stereoscopic 3D capabilities
• Wireless controllers (WaveBird)
• Memory card size variety (GCN was the first to let you buy different size memory cards)
• The analog triggers have a "digital click", which is different to other controllers and allows the two triggers to function as four buttons.

GameCube was also designed to be easily integrated in environments such as planes and hotel rooms.

Another interesting one was the GameCube's "system clock" which allowed games to refer to the date and time, the biggest use case was probably Animal Crossing. That basic idea lead to the Wii's "Weather Channel" which had the ability to tell games local weather information, so it could rain in-game if it was raining at your house (though I don't think any games used the feature).