Nintendo in difficoltà, quali prospettive? [UPDATE accordo con DeNA]

[stobbArt]

come ci gioco alla demo di un gioco che richiede i tasti su un device senza tasti? a occhio e croce direi abbastanza male da non invogliarmi ad acquistare il titolo definitivo 

[Turrican3]

Non hai tutti i torti... e ci sarebbe pure la questione del doppio schermo (metterli in verticale sugli smartphone con display piccolo potrebbe essere complicato) nonché del resistivo vs capacitivo.

Boh, vedremo tra 48 ore circa cosa bolle in pentola.

[Bluforce]

Potrebbe darsi che quel "demo" sia più una riproposizione di App apposite (scusate il giochetto), come fa Sony ultimamente:

Knack:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.playstation.knack

Ratchet:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.playstation.ratchetnexus

[stobbArt]

effettivamente hai ragione, anche se non penso che i brand nintendo abbiano bisogno di companion app per essere conosciuti. Per me hanno bisogno di essere giocati direttamente, in modo da carpirne la profondità al di là dell'aspetto spesso fanciullesco con cui si presentano

[Bluforce]

Nintendo ad Engadget:

"However during such past announcements Mr. Iwata has also stated that Nintendo's intention is not to make Nintendo software available on smart devices and as such, we can confirm that there are no plans to offer mini-games on smartphone devices".

http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/28/nintendo-denies-smartphone-games/

[Turrican3]

Intanto il consiglio di amministrazione tutto, in seguito al forecast rivisto al ribasso, si autoriduce lo stipendio fino a giugno:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=98816192&postcount=53

Consentitemi di aggiungere che sono straconvinto che in qualsiasi altro colosso del videogioco sarebbero partiti licenziamenti a raffica.

NB: manco a dirlo, anche in questo la filosofia di Iwata mi pare estremamente condivisibile ma del resto si era già espresso abbastanza chiaramente a tal riguardo sugli effetti negativi dei licenziamenti:

Regarding why we have not reduced the number of the personnel, it is true that our business has its ups and downs every few years, and of course, our ideal situation is to make a profit even in the low periods, return these profits to investors and maintain a high share price. I believe we should continue working toward this ideal. If we reduce the number of employees for better short-term financial results, however, employee morale will decrease, and I sincerely doubt employees who fear that they may be laid off will be able to develop software titles that could impress people around the world.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/stock/meeting/130627qa/03.html

[...] I believe that there are upward and downward swings in the video game business, that Nintendo has the potential to be a larger-scale business, and that in order to achieve that potential, good developers, localization capability and the ability to sell overseas are necessary. We need a company with a lot of muscle, but a company that also has no excess fat – one that makes smart spending decisions. Restructuring the workforce is not the first option we consider even when cost cutting is required. I would like you to understand that this is because we do not see a dark future for Nintendo.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/131031qa/03.html

[Bluforce]

Dai, su, tutti a comprare un Wii U (sì, pure se lo avete già).

Sul serio, grandi decisioni, imho.

[Turrican3]

[OT]
Diciamo che con quello che si sente pressochè giornalmente (anche nel nostro paesello, e non solo) in tema di lavoro, prese di posizione del genere fanno riflettere, secondo me.

[Bluforce]

Ufficializzate le mosse Nintendo per vedere di risollevarsi da questa difficoltosa situazione:

http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/29/nintendo-wii-u-ds-on-demand-gaming/

Fra le altre cose c'è pure la DS virtual console per Wii U.

[Turrican3]

We therefore believe that dedicated video game platforms which integrate hardware and software will remain our core business. Naturally, we are moving ahead with research and development efforts for future hardware as we have done before and we are not planning to give up our own hardware systems and shift our axis toward other platforms.
[...]
On the other hand, the popularization of the Internet and smart devices shows that people’s lifestyles are changing dramatically. Just as video games once needed a TV screen and then later handheld devices with built-in screens emerged with the shift in people’s lifestyles, we must once again change our definition of video games to keep up with the times.
[...]
One more thing, we will continue to value the motto which we inherited from the company’s former president, Mr. Yamauchi: The True Value of Entertainment lies in Individuality. [...] From a medium- to long-term standpoint, however, we don’t believe that following trends will lead to a positive outcome for Nintendo as an entertainment company. Instead, we should continue to make our best efforts to seek a blue ocean with no rivals and create a new market with innovative offerings as a medium- to long-term goal.

As a platform in its second year, Wii U is currently in a very difficult position. I would like to begin with what we are going to do with Wii U.

Obviously, under the current situation where the company has to report an operating loss, simply executing a price reduction as a way to defuse the situation is not an option. In the short-term, Nintendo will focus on thoroughly enriching the value of the most significant feature of Wii U, the Wii U GamePad.

[...] we have not been able to fully communicate the value of the GamePad. We also realize that we have not been successful in answering consumers’ questions such as, “What is the difference between Wii U and the previous platform, Wii, and what is the benefit of upgrading it?” By looking at the current sales situation, I am aware that this is due to our lack of effort.
[...]
It is more challenging to convey the appeal of the GamePad to consumers who do not engage with video games that often since they do not actively gather information about video games. Therefore, we intend to take on this challenge, and I would like to have this solved before the year-end sales season.

Our top priority task this year is to offer software titles that are made possible because of the GamePad.
[...] we have not been able to offer a decisive software title that enriches the user’s gameplay experience when playing alone with the GamePad. This will be one of the top priorities of Mr. Miyamoto’s software development department this year.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/140130/index.html

In addition, the GamePad is the only video game platform with an NFC (near-field communication) reader/writer function. [...]
This year, we will make full use of this function by preparing multiple proposals [...] We will showcase our detailed propositions for utilizing the NFC functionality at E3 in Los Angeles in June.

[...] a quick start menu for the GamePad will become a reality after a future system update planned for early summer. The quick start menu enables you to load one of the software titles you have recently played without being routed to the console menu. [...] We think that this function will make you feel that the time to start up a Wii U software title is cut by more than 50 percent, and that it will also lead to more Wii U users understanding the appealing nature of the GamePad.

[...] after spending more than a year on the research and development theme of taking advantage of the GamePad’s features, we are now sure that we can solve the technical problem of displaying Virtual Console software from Nintendo DS on the GamePad [...] and so we plan to add the Virtual Console titles from Nintendo DS software to the future Virtual Console lineup for Wii U.

As I explained, we will focus on enriching the value of the GamePad to give momentum to Wii U this year.
We will announce the specific release dates of each software title and the release of new titles in other opportunities such as Nintendo Direct, but today we would like to announce that a key title for Wii U this year, “Mario Kart 8,” is scheduled to be released globally in May [...]. To create huge momentum, we would like to ensure that the release of titles such as “Mario Kart 8” is not a one-off event.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/140130/02.html

On Wii U, we launched Nintendo Network IDs, which are abbreviated as NNIDs. This is the first step of our efforts to transform customer relationship management from device-based to account-based, namely, consumer-based, through which we aim to establish long-term relationships with individual consumers, unaffected by the lifespans of our systems. Our future platform will connect with our consumers based on accounts, not devices. [...] we will manage our relationships with our consumers through NNIDs in a uniform manner, and connecting with our consumers through NNIDs will precisely be our new definition of a Nintendo platform. In other words, our platform will not be bound to physical hardware and, instead, will be virtualized.

[...] we would like to, instead of directly expanding our business on smart devices, focus on achieving greater ties with our consumers on smart devices and expanding our platform business. However, creating stronger ties with consumers would require them to engage with our offers frequently. As we know that this is not an easy task to achieve, we will use a small, select team of developers to achieve it. [...] however, in the current environment surrounding smart devices, we feel that we will not be able to gain the support of many consumers unless we are able to provide something truly valuable that is unique to Nintendo. Accordingly, I have not given any restrictions to the development team, even not ruling out the possibility of making games or using our game characters. However, if you report that we will release Mario on smart devices, it would be a completely misleading statement. [...]
With respect to services previously released on dedicated video game systems that are, however, capable of improving usability and consumer experience when they are implemented on smart devices, we will try to actively shift their focus to smart devices. This is to say that we will no longer spend an equal amount of resources toward providing the same service both on and off device, but will instead concentrate on the one that has greater purpose as well as room for improvement. The environment in which our users can download paid software is one example of where we should aim to make more off-device improvements than on-device ones.

Based on our account system, if we can offer flexible price points to consumers who meet certain conditions, we can create a situation where these consumers can enjoy our software at cheaper price points when they purchase more. Here, we do not need to limit the condition to the number of software titles they purchase. Inviting friends to start playing a particular software title is also an example of a possible condition. [...] We aim to establish a new sales mechanism that will be beneficial to both consumers and software creators by encouraging our consumers to play more titles and increasing a platform’s active use ratio without largely increasing our consumers’ expenditures. Nintendo aims to work on this brand-new sales mechanism in the medium term, but we would like to start experimenting with Wii U at an early stage.

[...] we will actively expand our character licensing business, including proactively finding appropriate partners. [...]
Also, we will be flexible about forming licensing relationships in areas we did not license in the past, such as digital fields, provided we are not in direct competition and we can form win-win relationships. By moving forward with such activities globally, we aim to increase consumer exposure to Nintendo characters by making them appear in places other than on video game platforms.

In addition, we will change our approach to new markets in which we have not sufficiently expanded due to various issues such as infrastructure, consumers’ income and the legal system. [...] To leverage Nintendo’s strength as an integrated hardware-software business, we will not rule out the idea of offering our own hardware for new markets, but for dramatic expansion of the consumer base there, we require a product family of hardware and software with an entirely different price structure from that of the developed markets. As you might know from today’s topics of redefining the concept of a video game platform and taking advantage of smart devices, we aim to connect with consumers who do not own Nintendo’s video game systems yet, which will play an important role in cultivating new markets. Once we can establish such a connection with consumers in these nations, we will be able to use smart devices to share our information as well as important content distribution infrastructure. We plan to take significant steps toward such a new market approach in the year 2015.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/140130/03.html

I would like to tell you about something different from our traditional business.
We will definitely maintain dedicated video game platforms as our core business, but we will also take on the challenge of expanding into a new business area.
We will attempt to establish a new platform business with which we can leverage our strengths, but which is independent from our video game platform business.
What Nintendo will try to achieve in the next 10 years is a platform business that improves people’s QOL (Quality Of Life, ndTurry) in enjoyable ways.

This definition includes, of course, dedicated video game platforms. While we will continue to devote our energy to dedicated video game platforms, what I see as our first step into a new business area in our endeavor to improve QOL is the theme of “health.” Of course, defining a new entertainment business that seeks to improve QOL creates various possibilities for the future such as “learning” and “lifestyle,” but it is our intention to take “health” as our first step.

Please note, however, that rather than simply setting health as our theme, Nintendo will also try to expand it in a new blue ocean.
[...]
Following others into the exceedingly crowded market of mobile applications or the market of wearable technology that is expected to become increasingly competitive and fighting with brute force is not our way of doing business. Yet again, it is our intention to go into a new blue ocean.
With that said, we wish to achieve an integrated hardware-software platform business that, instead of providing mobile or wearable features, will be characterized by a new area of what we like to call “non-wearable” technology. When we use “health” as the keyword, some may inevitably think about “Wii Fit.” However, we are considering themes that we have not incorporated to games for our existing platforms. Including the hardware that will enable such an idea, we will aim to establish a blue ocean. [...] while we feel that this is going to take two to three years after its launch, we expect the QOL-improving platform to provide us with new themes which we can then turn into games that operate on our future video game platforms, too. Once we have established such a cycle, we will see continuous positive interactions between the two platforms that enable us to make unique propositions.

Today I would like to limit my presentation to the general direction of our new business, but I plan to announce more details within 2014. I then plan to talk about its specific features and a clearer vision of what we really mean by the term “non-wearable.”
This new business will be launched during the fiscal year ending March 2016, which begins in April 2015. As this is a completely new field of business, our plan is to make it contribute to our overall business and position it for growth from following fiscal year.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/140130/04.html
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/140130/05.html

Il briefing di ieri è stato abbastanza importante quindi cerco di riassumere le dichiarazioni di Iwata.

- Nintendo ribadisce il proprio "credo": piattaforme integrate hardware/software come attività principale dell'azienda. Non si intende abbandonare l'hardware proprietario spostando il fulcro del supporto su altre piattaforme, proseguono ricerca & sviluppo su hardware futuri;

- situazione difficile per Wii U, l'utenza non riesce a comprendere le differenze rispetto a Wii ed i vantaggi nel passare alla nuova macchina, di questo Nintendo si assume la responsabilità; taglio ulteriore di prezzo fuori discussione, si proverà ad investire sul Gamepad, in particolare con il rilascio di titoli che ne sfruttino le peculiarità nel gioco in singolo: questa è una delle priorità assegnate a Miyamoto per quest'anno;

- sempre su Wii U, all'E3 verranno svelati i dettagli per lo sfruttamento della funzionalità di reader/writer NFC del Gamepad; per l'inizio dell'estate arriverà un nuovo aggiornamento del firmware che abiliterà l'avvio rapido dei giochi a console spenta; prevista l'introduzione dei giochi per DS nella Virtual Console Wii U; date di lancio e nuovi titoli verrano svelati successivamente anche attraverso Nintendo Direct; Mario Kart 8 annunciato per maggio, si cercherà di fare in modo che non si tratti di un evento isolato in modo da fornire una spinta massiccia alla console.


Ed ora probabilmente la parte più importante degli annunci di ieri: le prospettive a medio/lungo termine.

- il "cordone ombelicale" tra l'azienda e gli utenti sarà il Nintendo Network ID, in breve NNID, e questa connessione sarà la nuova definizione di "piattaforma Nintendo", che non sarà più quindi legata al singolo hardware;

- per rafforzare i legami con l'utenza Nintendo che utilizza dispositivi smart è stato messo in piedi un piccolo team che avrà il compito di realizzare qualcosa di particolare, con quella "unicità" tipica dell'azienda. Questo team ha fondamentalmente carta bianca, ivi inclusa la possibilità di fare dei giochi o utilizzare i personaggi Nintendo... ma Iwata si affretta a precisare che, testuale, "sarebbe un'affermazione del tutto fuorviante scrivere che verrà rilasciato Mario per dispositivi smart";

- alcuni servizi precedentemente disponibili solo su macchine dedicate Nintendo verranno sviluppati maggiormente su dispositivi smart; uno di questi servizi dovrebbe essere eShop (per quanto non sia esplicitamente citato col nome);

- fidelizzazione / sconti: grazie al sistema di account, Nintendo intende modificare la propria politica prezzi in modo da "premiare" gli utenti che, ad esempio, acquistano più giochi offrendo loro degli sconti. In tal modo si punta ad aumentare il quantitativo di giochi venduti e l'attività dell'utenza, senza però intaccare eccessivamente la loro spesa. Sperimentazione con Wii U in futuro;

- nuova, meno restrittiva politica per le licenze, in modo da incrementare l'esposizione dei consumatori ai personaggi Nintendo in contesti non legati al videogioco;

- espansione delle attività nei mercati emergenti, anche grazie alle attività sul fronte dispositivi smart;

- last but definitely not least, l'annuncio "misterioso": Nintendo intende lanciare il primo prodotto di un nuovo business, indipendente (ma invero sinergico) da quello del videogioco, che rimarrà comunque prioritario. Questo nuovo business fornirà all'utenza una piattaforma integrata hardware/software, basata su una non meglio precisata tecnologia "non indossabile" (non-wearable in inglese), ed il primo campo di applicazione sarà... la salute. Dettagli ulteriori nel 2014, lancio nel corso dell'anno fiscale che ha inizio ad aprile 2015.

[Pandabit]

Intervista ad Iwata http://it.ign.com/news/11750/mercati-emergenti-e-nuove-acquisizioni-per-nintendo

[Pandabit]

Sembra che la famiglia Yamauchi voglia vendere le proprie share http://www.vg247.com/2014/02/03/nintendo-founding-yamauchi-family-looking-to-sell-company-shares-report/

[Turrican3]

A quanto pare non è una vendita qualsiasi, ma sarà Nintendo stessa ad acquisire parte delle azioni dagli eredi di Yamauchi:

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2014/140203e.pdf

Scrivo "parte" in quanto l'ex presidente aveva circa 14 milioni di azioni, ma Nintendo ha già fissato a 9.5 milioni il quantitativo massimo che intende comprare. Ma a parte questo, da quel che ho capito si tratta di una notifica di acquisto "open", nel senso che qualsiasi azionista, se lo desidera, potrà rivendere a Nintendo le azioni in suo possesso (immagino che quelle della famiglia Yamauchi saranno in qualche modo prioritarie in questa operazione, ma è una mia supposizione).

C'è qualche spiegazione più tecnica qui, mi limito a segnalarvela perchè di 'ste cose ci capisco poco e nulla:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=762449

[Bluforce]

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=762596

Ho l'influenza e non leggo approfonditamente. Certo vedere citati iOS ed Android come paragoni un po' mi si stringe il cuore.

Che accade?

[Turrican3]

Ho l'influenza e non leggo approfonditamente. Certo vedere citati iOS ed Android come paragoni un po' mi si stringe il cuore.

Che accade?

Innanzitutto rimettiti presto!

Secondariamente, riporto tutto così provo a spiegare qualcosa che a dire il vero credo sia già relativamente chiara dalle parole di Iwata:

Question: You have explained your concern about users being divided by hardware. Currently, you have both a handheld device business and a home console business. I would like to know whether the organizational changes that took place last year are going to lead to, for example, the integration of handheld devices and home consoles into one system over the medium term, or a focus on cost saving and the improvement of resource efficiency in the medium run. Please also explain if you still have room to reduce research and development expenses.

Iwata: Last year Nintendo reorganized its R&D divisions and integrated the handheld device and home console development teams into one division under Mr. Takeda. Previously, our handheld video game devices and home video game consoles had to be developed separately as the technological requirements of each system, whether it was battery-powered or connected to a power supply, differed greatly, leading to completely different architectures and, hence, divergent methods of software development. However, because of vast technological advances, it became possible to achieve a fair degree of architectural integration. We discussed this point, and we ultimately concluded that it was the right time to integrate the two teams.

For example, currently it requires a huge amount of effort to port Wii software to Nintendo 3DS because not only their resolutions but also the methods of software development are entirely different. The same thing happens when we try to port Nintendo 3DS software to Wii U. If the transition of software from platform to platform can be made simpler, this will help solve the problem of game shortages in the launch periods of new platforms. Also, as technological advances took place at such a dramatic rate, and we were forced to choose the best technologies for video games under cost restrictions, each time we developed a new platform, we always ended up developing a system that was completely different from its predecessor. The only exception was when we went from Nintendo GameCube to Wii. Though the controller changed completely, the actual computer and graphics chips were developed very smoothly as they were very similar to those of Nintendo GameCube, but all the other systems required ground-up effort. However, I think that we no longer need this kind of effort under the current circumstances. In this perspective, while we are only going to be able to start this with the next system, it will become important for us to accurately take advantage of what we have done with the Wii U architecture. It of course does not mean that we are going to use exactly the same architecture as Wii U, but we are going to create a system that can absorb the Wii U architecture adequately. When this happens, home consoles and handheld devices will no longer be completely different, and they will become like brothers in a family of systems.

Still, I am not sure if the form factor (the size and configuration of the hardware) will be integrated. In contrast, the number of form factors might increase. Currently, we can only provide two form factors because if we had three or four different architectures, we would face serious shortages of software on every platform. To cite a specific case, Apple is able to release smart devices with various form factors one after another because there is one way of programming adopted by all platforms. Apple has a common platform called iOS. Another example is Android. Though there are various models, Android does not face software shortages because there is one common way of programming on the Android platform that works with various models. The point is, Nintendo platforms should be like those two examples. Whether we will ultimately need just one device will be determined by what consumers demand in the future, and that is not something we know at the moment. However, we are hoping to change and correct the situation in which we develop games for different platforms individually and sometimes disappoint consumers with game shortages as we attempt to move from one platform to another, and we believe that we will be able to deliver tangible results in the future.

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/events/140130qa/02.html

Allora, questa cosa sostanzialmente è "figlia" di quanto annunciato circa un anno addietro, e che ho riportato qui --> http://www.gamers4um.it/public/smf/index.php?topic=8448.0

In soldoni Iwata è sceso un attimino più nei dettagli, e tra le righe (ma nemmeno tanto tra le righe forse!) direi che si rafforza ulteriormente il concetto che non vogliono assolutamente uscire dal mercato HW... anzi, viene esplicitamente citata la possibilità - ad oggi ipotetica, naturalmente - che l'offerta Nintendo potrebbe essere rappresentata non più da due sole piattaforme, ma tre o persino quattro (o anche una soltanto, qualora il mercato richiedesse questo, ma è impossibile dirlo adesso).

Il punto è che comunque tutte queste piattaforme dovrebbero avere una base comune (software!) che permetta di agevolare lo sviluppo senza vincolarlo troppo ad una particolare architettura/piattaforme hardware. Questo avrebbe come finalità l'evitare i "buchi" nel rilascio dei giochi cui ahimè Nintendo ha abituato (e fatto incavolare) la propria utenza.

PS: il riferimento ad iOS/Android è semplicemente quello della pluralità di hardware sui quali fondamentalmente può girare lo stesso software grazie al fatto che i dispositivi condividono un unico set di strumenti di sviluppo.