Why is Nintendo so far behind in the hardware race? They were at the top of the food chain a few gens ago...

Why is Nintendo so far behind in the hardware race? They were at the top of the food chain a few gens ago. Their games would be so much fucking better for it, too.

Other urls found in this thread:

youtu.be/07D_MhRsb5w
iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wii/wii_console/0/0
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

Artstyle > Graphics

Art style is limited by graphics. If you haven't noticed, BotW's world looks pretty damn empty and muddy / pastel.

They prioritize exclusives. They know your bitch ass will cave and just buy the hardware.

hiding inferior hardware isn't a style

Nah, well, kinda. It depends. There are plenty of old games that hold up today because of their strong art direction, like Kingdom Hearts. Even the original Wind Waker still holds up just fine, the main deciding factor is resolution honestly. I really don't understand what the picture in the OP is trying to prove, the top looks good.

I'd rather breath of the Wild have its own unique art style that'll last than something like Twilight Princess that's trying to be realistic and edgy and has muddy textures.

>Kingdom Hearts
>strong art direction
nigga what

???

Who cares? The games are fun.

This. They could release a literal turd and people would still buy it, if it somehow managed to play nintendo games.

your answer is in here
youtu.be/07D_MhRsb5w

They did that with Federation Force and no one bought it.

Because they like to sell consoles at a profit.

I see the Switch as a new portable console that can be connected to a TV. When you're waiting at the dentist for 8 hours, you really appreciate the device.

They decided to focus on gimmicks rather than actual graphics

Most of their games stopped being fun around the same time they stopped competing at the hardware level, actually. BotW was a rare case.

Well that's just like your opinion man.

>They were at the top of the food chain a few gens ago
the n64 was the inferior hardware, the gamecube had inferior hardware, the wii had way more inferior hardware and was their only successful console other than the NES. They were never the top of the food chain man.

Gamecube had superior hardware, but they made tiny discs and no one wanted to make games for it.

>This may sound paradoxical, but if we had followed the existing Roadmaps we would have aimed to make it "faster and flashier." In other words, we would have tried to improve the speed at which it displays stunning graphics. But we could not help but ask ourselves, "How big an impact would that direction really have on our customers?" During development, we came to realize the sheer inefficiency of this path when we compared the hardships and costs of development against any new experiences that might be had by our customers.

Source: iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wii/wii_console/0/0

>They were at the top of the food chain a few gens ago
fucking what
if by a few gens ago you mean 20 fucking years then OK
gamecube was a muddy fucking mess

It wasn't quite as bad as it is now, you could see it in the games then, like F-Zero GX

>the n64 was the inferior hardware, the gamecube had inferior hardware
Tell me more of how young you are

They're not interested in sick graphixxxxxx mate. Their target audience is Japanese kids and families. As long as they keep re-releasing new versions of Mario Kart and Mario Party with cutesy low-ish graphics they'll always have customers. Remember, to Nintendo the foreign market is a side-bonus.

>They're not interested in sick graphixxxxxx mate.
i.e. they aren't interested in making good games anymore. A damn shame.

Because it's not a race?

>graphics make games good
Oh man, it's been a while since I saw that argument, feels like I'm 15 again.

fpbp

>Their target audience is Japanese kids and families

Precisely why their hardware and software sell much more outside of Japan

Tell me a single game that benefit from better graphic, I'm talking about pure graphic, not framerate or other bullshit, I fucking wait

Pretty sure Nintendo developed games outsell Sony and Xbox developed games 5 to 1

Walking Simulator

Prison Girls.

why is being brought up

the original question was
>Why is Nintendo so far behind in the hardware race?
not
>Why are games so much better with up to date graphics?

BotW's art style is boring and shitty, and repetitive. But keep having that nintendertantrum, faggot.

>comparing "Generic shoot em up game #421" with a Zelda game.
Are you being retarded on purpose?

Time stamp of you playing it

Go

How do the people that obsess over graphics ever get anything done?

Nintendo's hardware is focused more on different gimmicks than sheer power. The gimmicks could be in two schools:
>Periphery/Accessory: Wii Motion Plus, Wii Fit, Wii Motes in general, Wii U controller debatably, 3DS 3D
>Quality of Life: Nintendo Switch is probably the ultimate QoL console, 2 screens, folding gameboy, SNES button set up

Because the original question was already answered with a quote from Genyo Takeda so there's no point in discussing that anymore.

How do the people who never progress ever get any better?

Look at any screenshot. The art style is boring.

Both those games looked like shit when I played them.

they're not going for the same market as sony and microsoft. their target audience doesn't care as much about graphics, so they keep their consoles cheap by using last gen hardware. which is a shame, as their games are running on gimped hardware and don't look as good as they could.

No game ever will look or run as good as it could.

>max hearts
what, you didn't get max stamina first nigger?

They don't compete in that department. They prefer to stick to gimmicks and putting out the same four games over and over.

Zelda is emulating physics and item interactivity. Wildlands has weak world interactivity, barely existent physics, and driving mechanics out of a PS2 game.

It allows them to make a healthy profit on the hardware itself, Sony, MS, Sega and old Nintendo used to make next to nothing on hardware sales and in some case they would even make a loss.
It sucks but Nintendo fans are happy to put up with it even if screws them over.

>keep their consoles cheap
no one should call the wii, wii u or switch cheap considering what you get for your money

That's the kind of thing someone who never played Dwarf Fortress would say.

Thought so

>GPU is the only thing that should influence the cost of a console.

BOTW has an interesting arstyle, but all the technical shortcoming were not a fuckin artistic decision. It would look way better with way better LOD, draw distance, 60fps etc.

All consoles are gimped PCs

Two reasons

A) They make a profit on every console they sell, hence why Nintendo has so much cash and is financially stable

B) Nintendo has really shitty devs that struggle with HD and weak consoles help conceal that.

They're trying to make good games.
The keywords being they're and trying.

>putting out the same four games over and over
Funny you should mention that

First post best post.

That's a list of almost nothing but multiplats though.

>Their games would be so much fucking better for it, too.
nah, high budget AAA games are cancer

>implying Sony devs have good IPs

You can still fuck up artstyle and make it look bad. BOTW would benefit from better hardware even with it's artstyle

if you love grafix so much, there's those AAA games for you
meanwhile my favorite games recent years have meh grafix

Which is true but it doesn't change the fact that Nintendo rehashes shit endlessly.

But they had to slightly gimp RE4 for the PS2 port... that always stands out to me as like the defining example of power between the two.

...

They go hand in hand. Don't even try and bullshit it otherwise.

...

Switch is pretty good value considering you get 2 controllers out of the box that have some pretty neat features in them like gyro, HD rumble, IR pointer in right joycon, NFC and the batteries on said controllers last about 20 hours more or less.

That's on top of being able to take the Switch itself on the go for some portable mode solo play or table top mode local multiplayer.

Seems like good value to me for a $300 hardware with local multiplayer support out of the box

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE STOP DISAGREEING WITH ME REEEEEEEEEEE

why cant you do anything to those good looking plants?


zelda on the snes had cuteable glass

>be in gaming for 23 years
>have no notable intellectual property

What did they mean by this?

rly md me thnk

Japs can't handle HD graphics.
They don't have the skills for it.

They have a knack for simple characterization so it's playing to their strengths to work within a limited area

#rekt

Or you know, they haven't kept the same intellectual property for 40 years or whatever.

>implying IPs fail left and right by choice of Sony

No please, keep telling me lack of IP is as bad as slightly inferior graphics

pop-in scenery and frame issues aside, BoTW looks fantastic. Graphics are finally "good enough" imo, give us some innovation in world size, NPC schedules, AI, fucking ANYTHING other than muh textures and foliage

>All the shittiest games focus on graphics over gameplay
Looks like they made the right choice.

OP BTFO

Nintendo doesn't need all that power because they dont know how to make anything visually impressive

>implying the shooters don't get iterations too
Not him but you didn't help your case.

you get one controller that can be split into two gimped controllers, a bunch of bullshit that developers will never use after the first year and the equivalent of one $1 AA rechargeable battery

you then get a 18 month old, $20 mobile SoC and a screen that was cutting edge in 2011

oh and a little plastic kickstand that doesn't actually work

By Grabthar's Hammer, what a savings.

...

But third party devs for Sony are guilty of the most rehashes and it really isn't even close. This argument is basically "Sony rehashes less than Nintendo because Sony doesn't have the ability to rehash"

nintendo has never been ahead in terms of technology, except here and there in handhelds.

Your comparing artstyle to graphics first of all

Second, Nintendo has made photorealistic games that look good on garbage hardware before

After Gaycube and Wii they understood that graphics are fuck all if you have good games and new ways to play games. Wii U forced it in an akward and shit way, switch is much better but still has lots of downsides like downclocking so shit won't burn and short battery life. I am expecting switch2/pro edition like with psp4 pro, with maybe better specs and a bigger body to accommodate for it.

Aslo all nintendo games are heavily stylized, hence they don't need as much.

>SNES
>N64
>Gamecube

Your using Breath of the Wild as a bad example when even cartoony graphics can look good

Artstyle can have good graphics, nobody does this besides Nintendo so it's technically the best graphics in this area

They sell consoles at a profit and much cheaper than Sony or Microsoft. I wouldn't mind paying $400-500 for a proper console by them though.

>Why is Nintendo so far behind in the hardware race?
because they want their business model to be as low effort as possible. they just want to sell plastic junk with the nintendo logo on it and old nostalgia bait to their fans to make a cheap and quick buck.

The irony behind this post.

>Most powerful handheld console
>low effort

Real answer:

Nintendo is only a game company. Sony and Microsoft are huge international corporations doing business in many fields, which can afford to make massive investments such as selling their newest, graphically powerful consoles at a loss in hopes of recouping the losses in the long term. Something like that would be far too risky for Nintendo, whose entire existence relies on their consoles and games making money.