web analytics

Nintendo Claims they Often Listen to fans

Nintendo-logo

Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive VP of sales, has claimed that Nintendo listens to their fans, and looks at industry trends.

“We like to be different, unique and tend to march to the beat of our own drum. I would never say we’re blind to the outside world, but we listen to our game fans a lot. We’re always curious to [see] their reaction to new games like Splatoon. We don’t use them as our sole inspiration but we certainly like to hear what they are saying, enjoying and appreciating about a game, in addition to what they would like in future iterations of that game. We take a broad look and always pay attention to what is going on beyond our walls with trends, but it starts with listening really carefully to our gamers.”

Via: Nintendo Everything , Source: Examiner 

My Take “PAST THE LINK”. 

I don’t know about this one. We’ve asked for RPGs and we’ve got none this generation released worldwide. We have asked for a better messaging system, on-screen notifications and overall better online features….. Nintendo hasn’t delivered on any of it. And which fans said it would be a good idea for friend codes on the 3DS?

I guess Nintendo listens to fans, but there is a lot of stuff they ignore as well. The true test if Nintendo listens to its fans will be the NX.

Via: Nintendo Everything 

Author: Francis@PE (19476 Posts)


  • Guymelef

    while it’s easy to ask for something, we all know it’s not something Nintendo can easily provide with just a snap of a finger. we’ve seen how they do quality and safety testing for amiibo; now if we translate that to the games, we can clearly see that Nintendo just can’t give what everybody wants coz it involves a whole lot of process. we’re all asking for RPG’s; we have to remember Nintendo can only do so much — we’re getting Fire Emblem Fates and Xenoblade for Wii U — as for the rest, it will fall on 3rd parties to provide games also (which of course we all know they’re not into the Wii U now). For the 3DS I don’t think there’s a shortage of RPG’s, but for Wii U indeed there is. But again, Nintendo can only do so much on their own.

    Miiverse has greatly improved compared to how it was before, and this was mainly because of the feedback from the users.

  • abINC4l

    What people seem to not understand is that “listening =/= doing”. You can listen all you want but it doesn’t mean you’re going to do what the person/people saying you should do.

  • Sk Massive

    I think nintendo listen to their fans for the most part. They just slow to react because they making and publishing games for 2 platforms by their self and they are always trying new things to try and please people that only have 1 mindset and that’s where people get piss as usual.

  • Ryuken13

    This is what VPs of sales do: spin and damage control.. In this case it is simple info spin to make Nintendo look good.

    In fact, the better you are at taking a long time to say nothing of substance and still be talking the higher you can move up in a company.. In other words, a bullshit artist.

    http://www.intersectionofonlineandoffline.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/300.jpg

  • FalconLawnch

    Give us proper third party support at least from Japan, more western studios that can put out high-end content aimed at an older crowd and competent online features, and then we’ll talk.

    • Jon Turner

      Yes, I agree. Wholeheartedly. Luckily DQXI seems like a promising start.

    • abINC4l

      I highly doubt Western 3rd parties will return to Nintendo, and if so, it’s going to be most weak multiplatform titles, Nintendo really needs to focus more on Japanese and Indie developers.

      • Jon Turner

        Western thirds WILL be very difficult to court for sure. But nonetheless, Japanese and indie only aren’t enough; Nintendo will have to try to get some of those Western thirds onboard too.

        More importantly, the NX will have to be a hit in the same way that Wii was; be popular enough to the point that it will be impossible for thirds to turn their noses up. I like that Nintendo has gotten DQXI for NX, but they’ll need more than that.

        • awang0718

          I don’t think NX needs to rake in Wii sales to succeed. Pulling in Xbox One sales would be fine. What the NX has to do is to be able to attract the casual end of the PS/Xbox market and convince them to buy an NX over a PS/Xbox (Catering to non-gamers, like what the Wii was able to do, won’t really satisfy any third party publisher). That is the hard part, and it would require Nintendo to have a better public image.

          Making competitive hardware, creating a better online infrastructure, adding in modern gaming + non-gaming features, directly catering to all third party publishers, and making more T (and M) rated first party games are pretty much all necessary in order to create a better brand name for Nintendo and thus allow them to have another legitimately successful Nintendo home console. The Wii U pretty much failed at all of these aspects. The Wii didn’t have any of those characteristics as well, but it did have simplicity, groundbreaking innovation, and a cheap price point. For a while, that mattered more than any of the things I just listed.

          • Jon Turner

            That’s what I really meant to say. I don’t mean go casual all over again like Wii, because that WAS an audience dividing decision on Nintendo’s part, but do better at it.

            The biggest question is HOW to cater to thirds. I don’t think Nintendo should necessarily resort to bribing techniques like Microsoft and Sony, that’s a financially dangerous move. But doing nothing is just as bad. Surely there can be a middle ground between the two extremes. Once upon a time a certain user whose name will not be mentioned once told me that there is no “middle ground” and that there never will be, but I never believed that. The question is, “how to do it right?”

          • awang0718

            “Casual end of the PS/XBox market? You mean like the people who just snatch them up because of sheep following the leader?”
            Yes that is sort of what I mean. The people who will buy Call of Duty, Madden (in America), FIFA (in Europe), GTA, Assassin’s Creed, Battlefield etc., but won’t touch games like Dark Souls, Wolfenstein, Witcher etc. Yes, all of the games I have listed are successful, but the latter half is not nearly as popular as the former.

        • abINC4l

          Like I said, Western 3rd parties can come back, but it’ll never be on the same level that Sony/Microsoft gets, which is why it’s better for Nintendo (and even Indies and Japanese) to go where there’s less attention and highlight their games.

          Considering the way most major 3rd parties have treated Nintendo and their consumers for about a decade, I can only see like a couple of major Western 3rd parties supporting Nintendo (and again, at the minimum).

      • FalconLawnch

        I mean western studios that are either owned by or often collaborate with Nintendo. In the N64 and early Gamecube days, Nintendo owned Rare and had partnerships with several western third party studios, which resulted in a lot of high quality, mainstream games aimed at an older audience like Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Excitebike 64, etc…

        This brought a good amount of variety to Nintendo’s exclusive lineup, which is something they’ve been severely lacking over the last 5 years or so.

  • CapableTie

    What really matters is if you actually do what the fans want, I hope they do that with the NX hardware and with every Wii U game that gets another addition to the franchise on NX.
    For instance they didn’t add online or make it an option to not use the car in Mario Party 10. I would have been way more excited for that game if they did that. They should fix that with the next Mario Party.
    One thing I personally would want them to do is make home console main series Fire Emblem and Pokemon games. Those would have been a great fit for the GamePad but alas it’s probably too late for Wii U games. At least NX will have better graphics.

  • awang0718

    Oh I am sure Nintendo listens to their fans. Whether they do anything about it is a complete hit or miss. Here is what I can list:

    Hits:
    Fans ask for Majora’s Mask 3D -> We get Majora’s Mask 3D

    Misses:
    Fans ask for Metroid Prime Wii U -> We get “Metroid Prime” Federation Force on 3DS
    Fans ask for Animal Crossing Wii U -> We get a F2P Animal Crossing amiibo Party

    • Hardin Twentyfive

      Mario Kart and Smash don’t have voice chat?

      • CapableTie

        It’s partial voice chat right? And if you want him to add that then he should add Splatoon for no voice chat, and a bunch of games that lack online.

        • Hardin Twentyfive

          He can go right ahead and do just that

          • CapableTie

            It was partial voice chat though right? I wouldn’t give them any points for it being partial, one thing I would definitely put as a + is the fantastic value they gave with the DLC for Mario Kart 8, it also helped increase the game’s already lifetime and it was overall just a fantastic move for the fans!

      • awang0718

        Not in game voice chat.
        Games like Splatoon and Zelda: TriForce Heroes don’t have it at all. The latter really needs voice chat.

      • Me

        Not during the matches, ie the important part.

  • Hardin Twentyfive

    We have asked for features on other systems, and while I slightly disagree on the RPG side of things, but yea, we’re missing some genres. As someone who liked Action-Adventure games like Zelda, I’m missing those from Nintendo, but I got my platformers and other genres I love too.
    Are they listening? Yes. We know that, after all, E3 is a prime example. Are they acting on what we say? We don’t know. They have their secrets.

    • CapableTie

      Microsoft has been doing fantastic with their monthly updates and now backwards compatibility.
      And why do you say E3 is a prime example? Do you remember how Reggie said that Iwata wasn’t apologizing! I found that to be a pretty bad response to their bad E3. Iwata responded great though, I’m just talking about what Reggie said here.

  • Micah Ma-at Maragh

    Of course they listen to their fans, every business listens to potential and loyal consumers, but they can’t make their decisions solely based on that and neither can they just do what fans want just like that. Its a process, it takes time, not only is their the development side of things but also the business side. Its like Politics, politicians aren’t just going to make amendments to their decisions just cos people ask and neither will the changes happen overnight. Its the same in business, we will just have to wait and see where Nintendo decides to go, its not as if they have provided us with a bad gaming experience so far most of what they have done has either matched or exceeding our expectations and I don’t think they plan on stopping. That’s just my 2 cents. Its not easy to try and stand by your morals whilst trying to accommodate those who are loyal to you.

    • Joseph

      Do you think this has to do with ”consumer greed”?

  • getagrip

    IF ALLYOU CAN THINK UP IS I WANT MORE VOICE CHAT OR I WANT PEOPLES TAGS TO POP UP ON MY TELLY…

    AS THE BEST THING FOR NX I TRULLY PITTY YOU

    IN 2003 I SAID GAMING NEEDS A 3D INTERACTION INTERFACE AND A MOUSE AIMER FOR THE LIVING ROOM

    PRESTO NINTENDO DELIVERED I DIDNT THINK

    OH I WANT SOME DUDES NAME TO POP UP HOW BLOODY REVOLUTIONARY

    TALKING ONLINE IS NOT SOME HIGH TECH THING ITS A GENERIC DONE FOR OVER A DACADE THING NINTENDO SUPORTS THESE THINGS

    THE REASON SPLATOON ETC ISNT DOING IT IS NINTENDO KNOWS DARN WELL 99% OF THE USERS ON VOICE CHAT ARE MORONS AND IDIOTS

    IV HAD MY FREINDS ETC POP UP ON SCREEN IN COD WII AND WIIU IT DDNT CHANGE MY LIFE IT WAS GENERIC

    WHAT DID CHANGE MY GAMING LIFE WAS FPS-ING WIH THE WII REMOTE AND NOT A CLUNKY PLASTIC STICK

    CONTROLLIN PES WITH A WII REMOTE AND NOT RETADEDLY CONTROLLING IT ON A TWIN STICK LIKE A DUMB BRODUDE

    I WAT MORE REVOLUTION I WANT MORE IN DEPTH CONTROL I WANT QOALITY GAMES

    TALKING ONLINE OR HAVING NAMES PPBUP ON SCREEN IS HARDLY WORTH MENTIONING

    ITS JUST A GENERIC THING NINTENDO WILL ADD MORE OF THIS IN THERE WAY NON INTRUSIVE

    IF ALL YOU CAN THINK UP IS MAKING UP STORYS NINTENDO DOESNT SUPPORT THESE GENERIC THINGS AND NX NEEDS THEM BECASETHERE SOMEHOW AMAZING WHEN THERE NOT IS VERY VERY SAD

    HARDCORE GAMER DOESNT MEAN FOLLOW THE GROUD IT MEANS YOU THINK DEEPLY ABOUT YOUR PASHION AND EMBRACE THE THINGS THAT REVOLUTINIZE IT

    IN 2015 THE II REMOTE STSNDARD ISNT THE MAINSTAY OF THE INDUSTRYS FPS CREATION ETC

    SORRY THATS A CRIME A BIG SAD PATHETIC CRIME

    • Ryuken13

      Brevity over volume please in your posts, spell check, and please quit yelling with ALL CAPS..

      Your writing is immature as hell and painful to read. In fact, I recommend the Gamespot and IGN forums I think that you would fit in thos forums wonderfully.

    • Edith Reese!

      I’m the original dog. Stop stealing my ideas!

  • getagrip

    GOT TO LOL AT THE DEPTH OF THE COMPLAINTS AFTER THE FORCED CLICK BAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I COULDNT CARE LESS IF SOMEONES NAME APEARS ON MY TV SET SCREEN

    OH ZORG SO CORE GAMER

    I WANT GAMEPLAY-GAMING-MECHANICS-GREAT CONTROLS-MINIMUM BUGS GLITCHES AND LOADTIMES-FREE ONLINE

    IM NOT 12 I COULDNT CARE LESS ABOUT CHILDISH NONSENSE AS FOUND ON THE TEENBOY STATION AND THE ACNY-BOX

    talking online is the most over rated nonsense and HYPED BULL SHIT

    has nothing to do with gameplay

    theres nothing HARDCORE about talking or INSISTING THE CONTROLLER NEVER CHANGES AND ACTING LIKE A DUMB FUCK

    THIS IS NOT HARDCORE GAMING ITS BRODUDE GAMING

    I WANT TO PLAY FIFA LIKE I DID ON PS1 4 GENS AGO BUT INCLUDE MY FREINDS NAME POPPING UP ON THE TV

    OR I WANT TO PLAY FIFA IN AMAZING ADVANCED WAYS CONTROLLING THE WHILE TEAM IN THE MOST REVOLUTIONARY WAY POSSABLE (PES WII)

    WITCH IS MORE IMPORTANT TO YOU GAMING OR UPLOADING A VIDEO OF YOUR PLAY

    CONTROLLING FIFA IN AMAZING WAYS OR SCREAMING DOWN A MIC WHILST PLAYING IT THE SAME WAY YOU DID 20 YEARS AGO

    BEING ABLE TO LINK YOUR GAMING SESDION TO TWITTER OR WHATEVER THE FUCK IS MEANINGLESS

    GAMEPLAY ENOLVES WHEN THE GAMING CREATION EVOLVES AND THE INTERFACE YOU USE

    ADDING NAMES THAT POP UP ON TV IS HARDLY WORTH CRYING ABOUT

    XBONE AND PS4 ARE THE SAME EXACT THING AS PS1 OVER AND OVER AGAIN LIKE GROUND HOG DAY

    GIVE ME DEEP EXPERIENCES AND INTERACTION

    GIVE ME CHESS NOT CHECKER

  • Shadao

    You did not capitalize the “They” on the headlines, heads up.

    • Micah Ma-at Maragh

      Not even just that Nintendo knows that many complaints about certain things are from people who don’t even buy their products. If I talk about the sailing in Windwaker and say its long and slow chances are Nintendo knows I’ve played the game which may likely mean I have brought it or at least brought Zelda games after. So they know if they put out a hd remake after 10 years and fix the things I didn’t like about the game (notice I didn’t say complain) then that shows they have listened to what their fans have been saying. Now if I go around complaining about voice chat, how does that prove to Nintendo that I buy their products or have ever brought them. Look how many games have voice chat (all games on all platforms) that don’t sell well. Now if people said that it would be cool if so and so game had voice chat like pokemon, animal crossing wii, call of duty etc then maybe we might get a result. Do you see the difference in how we could bring across our concerns, one shows that we are just complaining with nothing to back it up, another proves that we have likely played certain games and possibly even brought them and we have seen features in these games that we would like to see in others. People have to understand how to speak the language of business, these people aren’t your friends they are trying to sell you stuff. You have to convince them to sell you a product that you know you will buy.

    • CapableTie

      The bigger issue in Mario Kart 8 was the battle mode, that mode would have been a blast online if they did it with special maps like before!

      • Shadao

        A special map Battle Mode would require something bigger than just an update. It would be DLC of it’s own kind. And that takes time. I wouldn’t be surprised if the reused maps were due to the fact they wanted keep Mario Kart 8 on schedule and have no time to make special maps.

        • GreysonSeijuro

          It would have been nice as free DLC, only listening to fans when it’s easy is pretty bad.

          • Shadao

            The easy parts are the first ones to be resolved, always. The more complex parts, such as designing entire new maps that is evenly well-balanced and stuff does not happen overnight and we can’t say if they are aware or not. For all you know, Nintendo could be designing the Battle Maps right now along with new and returning characters and are planning to announce it in the next Nintendo Direct.

          • GreysonSeijuro

            Hopefully.

  • Travis Touchdown

    You’re going to be really disappointed in the NX.

    • PRIMUS

      I am not hoping for anything wonderful with the NX or whatever console comes out next either. That way I stay happy lol.

      • *NormalGamer*

        This is pretty much my view, as well; 2016 is when we will see things more clearly when Nintendo will reveal what the NX is about.

    • awang0718

      If so, then Nintendo won’t get my money next gen.

      • Jon Turner

        I don’t understand why some people are betting on NX being disappointing so soon.

        • awang0718

          Because of the Wii U’s current state.

          I consider myself on optimistic person, but even I have my doubts on the NX. Nintendo has a lot of other things to focus on (Wii U software, 3DS software, Amiibo, DeNA’s Club Nintendo successor, Quality of Life, mobile software).

        • FalconLawnch

          Not betting, but I’ve yet to see Nintendo make the kind of moves that will turn their business around in a way that is relevant to me as a consumer.

        • Shadao

          Usually a response to the off-chance of someone overhyping and unreasonable expectations when we have so little information to go by.

    • person

      Well, the NX could be anything. Still, the most important thing is to vote without wallets. If we like a console/ video game (based on reviews/demo) we buy if we don’t like, we don’t buy it. That’s the only way to get ANY company to listen to their fans. If people buy a companies stuff regardless, then there’s no reason to change.
      What I know for certain, is that if Nintendo continue to pander towards casuals and nostalgic Nintendo fans, then their sales are never going to be more than the Wii U’s as both these demographics will shrink as they move onto tablets, PCs, Sony and Microsoft or just loose interest in gaming entirely.

  • GeneralBrown178

    Obviously Nintendo listen to the fans, whether they do something about it is a different story.

  • Shion

    They’re working with DeNA on a centralised digital platform, this can include every claim ever made by fans. I guess I’ll see when they announce it.

  • Jon Turner

    Sounds like dodging to me. I don’t know how many people will try to defend this as another case of “Nintendo can do no wrong”, but I can’t trust what he says.